Decorations from vegetables and fruits. Vegetable table decorations - do-it-yourself vegetable flowers

Carving is the art of carving fruits and vegetables. decorated with beautiful flowers carved from vegetables using the art of carving. In many restaurants, at solemn banquets, bouquets of vegetables and fruits are in vases.

The art of curly cutting for vegetables is taught at special courses and catering establishments.

Flowers are made from cut vegetables and put on the festive table in a vase, as in the photo or dishes.

Special tools are used for cutting. In this article, you will get acquainted with the art of figured cutting for vegetables.

Carving tool set

Main knife

A regular knife may well be suitable for cutting vegetables. The knife should have a pointed end and a strong blade made of quality metal and not bent.

The handle of the knife should be ergonomic so as not to feel tired during work.

A sickle-shaped knife or, as it is also called, a Thai knife, can also be used as the main knife. It is convenient for them to make rounded cuts and cuts in hard-to-reach places, somewhere in the middle of the flower.

Carb knives

Karbovochny knives are special knives for curly cutting on vegetables and fruit.

They are sold in a set (over 100 items) and separately.

This article will use a triangular carb knife (acute or V-shaped) to make flowers from Beijing cabbage and

creating oblique cuts in the manufacture of some colors in the art of carving.

Knife notch

A notch knife is also called a noisette knife or a ball knife with a diameter of 10 mm, 15 mm, 18 mm. This is a very handy and useful tool.

With it, you can cut a small ball out of any vegetable to make a flower stamen (chamomile, primrose).

Scissors

Scissors are needed to give the petals of the finished flowers the desired shape: pointed, oval, wavy, as well as for cutting fringe along the edge of the petals when making a double flower.

Carving and the process of choosing the right vegetables

How to choose vegetables for carving?

Flowers can be cut from a variety of vegetables: radishes (black, white, daikon and radishes), beets, carrots, rutabaga, Beijing cabbage, turnips, bell peppers, zucchini, cucumber, kohlrabi, eggplant, onions and other vegetables.

Choose vegetables depending on the shape of the flower you want to get. For example, to cut large flowers, you will need large, hard round vegetables - beets, redbka, turnips. For cone-shaped flowers, such as lily, bluebells, it is better to use oblong-shaped vegetables - radish, daikon.

Lush chrysanthemums, asters and daisies can be cut from Beijing cabbage. From the leaves of leek and red bell pepper - amazing flowers and poppies.

When buying, make sure that the vegetables do not have rot and mechanical damage, as well as voids in the pulp. choose heavier ones and estimate the weight on your hand. If inside the “cotton wool” the vegetable weighs much less.

Do not try to get very fresh vegetables "fresh from the garden." Their flesh is very juicy and elastic, and when cutting a flower, small parts can break off.

How to color and save cut flowers?

Yellow flowers can be carved from pumpkins or turnips, green ones from green radish, red ones from beets and bell peppers, orange ones from carrots.

If you want to cut a flower of a different color: burgundy, pink, purple, lemon, blue, purple, use food coloring.

To do this, cut a flower from a white root crop and lower it into a container with a solution of food coloring of the desired concentration or into a vegetable broth. You can dip only the petals into the dye, then you get a beautiful color transition from dark to light.

Remember, flowers from vegetables are in contact with food on the table, so they must be safe for human health, therefore, dyes must be natural.

If your color is too saturated, run the flower under cold running water until you get the desired shade.

In order for the flower to “bloom”: and the petals bend beautifully - place the freshly cut, not yet painted flower for 10 - 15 minutes in a container of cold water, and then gently bend the petals with a knife at your discretion. To do this, carefully run a knife along the outer or back side of each petal, as if pulling it out, and bend the tip in the right direction. Decorate dishes with carved flowers.

To keep flowers until the day of the celebration, place them in a container of cold water and refrigerate. Change the water often, then the flowers will look fresh and elegant even after a few weeks. Decorate snacks as in the photo.

Flower carving on the theme - Orange Blossom

Orange blossom is the white flowers of the orange tree. They (live or artificial) decorate the wedding dress of the bride.

Vegetables for flowers: radish

Execution of work (carving):

1. Take a large rounded radish.

2. Form the first row of petals by making rounded cuts from top to bottom over the entire surface of the radish.

3. Parallel to the petals of the first row, cut another petal from each side. Try to leave a strip of skin at the end of each petal.

4. Finish the flower by removing the pulp from the middle: first cut the ribs, and then “split” the remaining pulp into stamens of different lengths.

5. Dip the flower in cold water for 5 - 10 minutes, then bend the petals of the first row outward, and the second row inward.

You can not stop there and cut out the petals until you use up all the pulp in the middle.

With carved radish flowers, you can decorate dishes with salads and, and if you are a completely passionate person with imagination, you can decorate the festive table itself and create a bouquet of vegetables and put it in a vase on the table. Enough to surprise the guests for the whole evening.

Cutting flowers from vegetables to decorate dishes on the theme - Forget-me-not

Vegetables for flowers: radish (black, white, daikon, radish), carrot

Execution of work (carving):

1. Cut out an even cylinder with a diameter of 2-3 cm from the root crop. At the same distance from each other, make 5 grooves on its side surface and round off their corners.

2. Lay the cylinder on a board and cut off thin flower plates from the base.

3. Dip the flowers in a container of blue or pink food coloring.

4. Cut a strip of carrots into small squares.

5. Using a toothpick, secure the squares in the center of each flower.

6. Dome a piece of any white hard vegetable and fasten the flowers on it as tightly as possible to each other.

Tip: You can cut the plates from a round cylinder, and then give them the desired shape using metal flower-shaped molds designed for cutting figures from chocolate, jelly.

Decorate culinary dishes with Forget-Me-Not flowers or create a bouquet to decorate a festive table.

Do-it-yourself carving on the topic - Buttercup

Vegetables for flowers: pumpkin, turnip

Execution of work (carving):

1. From a half of a medium-sized peeled turnip or a piece of cylindrical tyuva, cut a thin round plate with a diameter of 3-4 cm.

2. Using scissors, make 5 cuts from the edge of the plate to the center, at an equal distance from each other. Round the petals and give them a heart shape by making a bend in the middle.

3. Use a notch knife to cut a round ball out of the turnip. Prick it on a toothpick, dip it in gelatin diluted in cold water, and then in millet.

4. Using a toothpick, firmly fix the stamen ball in the center of the flower. Make another 10 - 12 flowers and assemble the composition.

As a middle, you can use a piece of yellow bell pepper with seeds.

Tip: If you cut a buttercup from daikon or radish, color it yellow with food coloring.

Tip: Before arranging the dish, shorten the toothpicks that hold the center of each flower to the desired length.

As you correctly understood, you can decorate dishes with flowers and create a bouquet.

Figures from vegetables on the topic - Chamomile

Vegetables for flowers: radish (black, white, daikon), carrots for the middle

Execution of work (carving):

1. Peel a large root crop and cut off a thin plate with a diameter of 5-7 cm from it.

2. Use scissors to make 4 cuts on the plate at an equal distance from each other.

3. Now make 3 cuts inside each sector. It turned out 12 petals.

4. With scissors, give the petals a pointed shape by cutting off the corners.

5. Use a notch knife to cut a ball out of the carrot. If desired, cut it with a "mesh".

6. Using a toothpick, secure the ball in the center of the chamomile.

You can decorate dishes with chamomiles and put them fixed on branches in a vase on the festive table.

Decoration of vegetable salads on the topic - Scarlet poppy - carving to help

Vegetables for flowers: red bell pepper, black radish for center

Execution of work (carving):

1. Choose a large pepper without scratches or flaws. Step back from the stem a few centimeters and cut off the top. We won't need it anymore.

2. Clean out the seeds from the pepper. Decorate the edge by making 4 - 5 arcuate slices-petals of the same size.

3. With a knife, carefully peel each petal. bend the outer petals outward and dip the flower for a few minutes in cold water.

4. Cut a large piece of unpeeled black radish into a “mesh”.

5. Use a toothpick to connect the center with the flower.

Tip: If you used a white radish to make the center, dry it, then dip the top in dissolved gelatin, and then in poppy seeds.

You can create a bouquet of scarlet poppies and it will be a real sensation for guests. And then the guests will understand - this is carving.

Good luck to all readers of the blog in the design of dishes and festive tables with curly flowers from vegetables, created with their own hands in the art of carving.

To decorate the festive table and give any dish an unusual look, the simplest products and elementary skills are enough. From our article you will learn how to make a charming flower from carrots and leaves for it, and a detailed master class with photos and videos will help you not to make a mistake.

Carving will help us turn a familiar vegetable into an unusual decor, which will turn any salad or aspic into an original, author's dish.

Products and tools

So, what do we need to create roses and carved openwork carrot leaves?

Carrot

We choose a root crop of large size and fairly wide in diameter. This is especially true for the manufacture of leaves - it will be much easier to work with this, especially for the first time.

Carrots should be fresh and juicy, with bright orange flesh on the cut, as any cavities or loose texture will greatly detract from the appearance of the flower.

Knife

In order to make a carrot flower, you will need a knife with a very sharp blade to create neat cuts or a special slicing machine.

When it comes to leaves, we will arm ourselves with a special carving knife with a short beveled blade. Due to its miniature size, it will allow you to make precise small cuts.

toothpicks

Useful for fixing rose petals.

saline solution

It should not be too concentrated, we make it at the rate of 1 tsp per glass of warm water. In the solution, we will soak the carrot slices so that they become more elastic, twist easily and do not break.

Now that we have armed ourselves with everything we need, we can start carving.

Carrot flower

Step 1

We wash and clean fresh carrots, and then cut them into thin circles no thicker than 1-1.5 mm.

They should get at least 18-20 pieces - this will make our rose lush and very similar to the real one.

Step 2

Put on a baking sheet or in a deep dish and fill with saline.

Keep them like this for 30 minutes, then drain, transfer to a dry dish and additionally blot with a towel or paper towel.

We lay out the circles of carrots on a table or other flat surface in a row, as in the photo. We make sure that the gap between them is no more than 1 cm and choose the circles in size so that they go from smaller to larger.

Now the most difficult part begins - we need to twist the strip into a roll.

Moving from large to small, we twist the slices as tightly as possible, and then, holding the roll with one hand, we fix it with several toothpicks.

We pierce all the petals, first horizontally, then vertically.

We straighten the petals so that the flower becomes indistinguishable from a real live rose.

In case you still have questions, we recommend watching a video that clearly demonstrates how to make a flower from carrots.

Flower (rose) from carrots (video)

Well, how to cut openwork leaves of bright orange color?

Carrot leaves

Step 1

We wash and clean large carrots - the wider it is, the better. We cut it in half lengthwise, and then cut off from one of the halves also along a wide, but thin (2-3 mm) slice, as in the photo.

Step 2

With a carving knife, cut off the excess along the edges, if any, forming a sheet from the cut.

Then, at an equal distance - 1-1.5 cm, we make short cuts along the edges. They must look straight up.

Putting the blade at a different angle so that it turns out to cut out small sectors, we cut through them and take them out. Now our leaf looks almost like a real one.

Step 3

Stepping back a little from the edge, cut out small rhombuses from the inside with a knife. Decorative cuts should be located exactly under the protruding parts of the sheet - this will make the composition more harmonious.

We process several carrot slices in this way, as shown in the photo.

How to cut an openwork leaf from carrots (video)

We decorate with the resulting decorative elements - roses and leaves, any salads, dishes with cold appetizers and cuts, aspics and even roasts.

Now you know how to make a flower from a carrot and leaves from it. Be surprised by the dexterity of your hands yourself and surprise your guests, friends!

Decorating dishes is a real art! If you want to give the table a festive look, the best option is to cut out decorative elements from vegetables and fruits.

This technique, originally from Japan, is called carving - artistic carving by vegetables. In ancient Japan, dishes were served in pottery covered with leaves for beauty.

The Japanese realized that fresh green leaves harmoniously combined with food make the dish much more attractive in appearance, and began to experiment with vegetables. Now little Japanese learn carving from the age of 11.

I can't believe that these exquisite flowers are made from various vegetables: such fine work. But even if you are doing it for the first time, there are many chances for success! It's really easy and looks amazing. Arm yourself with a sharp knife and get ready to create a masterpiece!

Flowers from vegetables

For a beautiful table decoration, you can use a variety of vegetables - a large radish, smooth-skinned cucumbers, pumpkin; From fruits, apples, oranges and lemons, watermelons and melons are best cut.

To carrot flower turned out beautiful, choose a vegetable without a pronounced core. The cabbage should hold well on the stalk, a tight head will look better. Bulgarian peppers, due to their rich color, will perfectly complement any vegetable flower.

Beauty is what makes a holiday unforgettable. Decorating yourself for the holiday: use our tips. If you like them, pass them on to your friends!

Figured cutting and carving of vegetables and fruits "Delicious flower fantasy".

Simple cutting of vegetables and fruits step by step with a photo

Gest Ksenia Aleksandrovna, teacher of physical education, School No. 53, Oktyabrsky settlement, Lyuberetsky district, Moscow region.
Goal and tasks:
- development of creative abilities, imagination;
- to form an aesthetic taste;
- to cultivate accuracy in the performance of work, caution;
- learn to cut vegetables using the "carving" technique
Purpose:
This master class is intended for high school students, teachers, parents and creative people. This design of dishes is suitable for any holiday, banquet and, simply, to improve the perception of food and good mood.

For decoration we need:
Tomato, cucumber, lemon, orange, pear, apple, kiwi, onion, cutting board, 2 knives (large and small with teeth), 2 flat plates, towel.

Progress.

Carving(from English carving - "cutting out") - the art of artistic cutting on vegetables and fruits, as well as on wood, ice and stones.
Tips for a beginner "carvinger" Not every fruit, vegetable is suitable for carving. So, for example, a radish should be large and bright, a carrot should be even and smooth, an orange should be very fresh. It is better to take apples with a smooth skin, cucumbers - even and with dark skin, pumpkins with a rough skin have a denser and easier-to-handle pulp. Decorations should be combined with the dish in color, as well as in taste. It is better to decorate meat dishes with cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, seafood - with lemons. Fruits will serve as an excellent decoration for a dessert, as well as an independent delicacy. When choosing food combinations, give preference to contrasting colors - the compositions will be more enchanting. Red, green, yellow are favorites. Fruits and vegetables for carving must be clean and dry. There must be a golden mean in everything. You should not over-decorate dishes - the measure is important in everything.

1) The first vegetable to start with is a tomato. Cut it in half and cut off the unnecessary part.

2) Then, with a sharp knife, thinly cut one of the halves of the tomato.

If it is small, then you can combine the two chopped halves into one. As in the photo.

3) After that, we “stretch” the tomato as thin as possible and begin to twist it into flowers.

4) To carefully transfer the finished flower to the dish, you need to clasp it with both hands, pressing it from all sides.

Ready! You can put a lettuce leaf on the bottom of the plate.

5) Our flower is missing something. You can add parsley or make cucumber bells. To do this, put the cucumber in the palm of your hand. With a sharp small knife, pointing it at ourselves, we cut the cucumber in the shape of a petal, plunging the knife blade to the middle. Then turning it, cut two more petals.

6) You should get a bell with three petals. To separate the flower from the cucumber, you need to turn it slightly and it will fall off by itself.

Then you can continue in the same order until the cucumber runs out.

In the middle of the bells, you can add strips of pepper or olives.

7) You can also cut thin strips of cucumber and, folding in half without breaking, complement our dish.

8) Gradually we move on to the bow. What can be done with onions? We can make a water lily out of it. To do this, the onion needs to be peeled, soaked in cold water so that we do not cry. Then you need to cut it evenly with cloves, plunging the knife only to the middle. Upon completion, it will easily break into two halves.

All parts of the onion must be removed and collected already forming a flower.

9) Our decoration for the dish is ready and you can add chopped vegetables or cold cuts.

If you want to treat guests with sandwiches, you can use the middle for a tomato flower.

10) Vegetable decoration is ready. Now you can start decorating the fruit plate. To do this, we need to cut half an orange as described above.

11) Do the same with the lemon.

By the way, a lemon flower goes very well with fish products.

12) Next, cut the kiwi, as in the photo. You can decorate a plate or arrange it in this form on fruits.

13) Now my favorite. Wings from apples and pears. We need fruit halves.

Visually divide the apple in half. I cut out a strip for you, for clarity. On one of the halves we find the middle and immerse the knife slightly deepening. To make it easier to imagine, we kind of cut off the peel. You need to get half a petal.

Then on the other side we do the same, but we cut exactly to the made corners. Care must be taken not to cut off the excess. Got a leaf.

Stepping back from the cut out 2-3mm, cut out the next leaf.

We cut until we reach our “border” of the apple.

Now we connect all the details and push them apart so that we get a wing.

14) Such wings look like petals, so they can be used in cooking when decorating any dishes. And so that the apple does not darken, it must be sprinkled with lemon or dipped in acidified water.