julienne perfection...

is no easy feat. they could probably create another one of those survival competitions on tv and call it So You Think You Can Julienne? for all of you who don't know, julienne defined is, "to cut vegetable or other foods into stick-shaped pieces ; 1-2mm x 1-2mm x 2.5-5cm." ok, so i thought, no problem. how hard could it possibly be to cut vegetables into thin little pieces? VERY hard, apparently. see, when they say 1-2mm, that's fine. but what you're not aware of is that the final product can't be 1mm x 2mm or 1.4mm x 1.6mm or even 1.8mm x 2mm! a perfect julienne requires both height and width to be IDENTICAL. so when you look at the ends of a julienne, it should look square, not rectangular. if your height is 1.7mm, then your width better be 1.7mm too! we started with carrots and after about 50 cuts, i started to realize that this was no easy task. for some reason, i just couldn't get a feel for it. some were good, lots were not. did i get frustrated? not overly. i am learning so as with everything, practice makes perfect, right? so i hoped. like our chef instructed, "it's not about quantity. it's about quality." he was right. after taking a break and coming back to it on celery, things started picking up. i just got into the zone. slowed it down a bit and really focused. i could almost hear Mr. Miyagi whispering, "focus herman-san." so after another hundred or so cuts, i finally crane-kicked julienne's arse. winner!