Everything To Know About Tournée Cut

Tourné cut is used in continental Cuisine and stands for barrel shaped. The word “tournée” is French for turned. In fact, potatoes that have been cut this way are sometimes called turned potatoes. The name comes from the technique as we will be rotating the vegetable in our hand as we make the cuts. The goal is to cut a small piece of vegetable into tapered at each end.To master this skill, it’s best to have a tourné knife, also known as a bird’s beak knife. This small paring knife has a short, curved blade that resembles a beak. A normal paring knife can be used as well, but a tourné knife is a handy tool to keep around and it’s great for peeling shallots and onions, and digging the eyes out of potatoes.

For this we need to hold the potato (or other vegetable) segment in our non-dominant hand between thumb and fingers. Then with the knife in dominant hand,we have to  place thumb at the bottom of the vegetable and Carefully trim the edges toward ourself, tapering it near the ends. Repeat this process as we rotate the vegetable segment in our hand. Take time as you get used to the curving motion.

A traditional tournée cut has seven sides which will emerge with seven smooth cuts from top to bottom. But we may find that at first, it takes several extra cuts to get the shape right.

After we have finished the process, the remaining segment of vegetable should look like a barrel. it takes practice to master the tournée cut, so it will be difficult to get perfect in a first try. Similarly,One of the challenges of the tournée cut is minimizing waste. If we keep trimming and trimming,we will end up with a tiny nub of potato and a lot of scraps.