Food carving Craft and Its Application in Cooking Abstract: food carving originated from the sacrificial activities in ancient China, developed through grand banquets in the courts of past dynasties, and spread among the people. As early as the Song Dynasty, there was a poem praising Yangzhou melon carving: "Chef Zhu Sheng said he was incompetent, Kundao was good at carving beautiful rings, Xianweng's game was unscathed, and beautiful men relied on He Pingting ..." It can be seen that the food carving technology at that time was quite exquisite. Nowadays, state banquets and urban and rural banquets all use food carvings to beautify the banquet. As early as Mary 1986, China participated in the World Cooking Competition for the first time and won the gold medal because of the peace of food carving. Food carving plays an important role in the innovation and development of cooking. Based on the literature and working experience, this paper mainly discusses food carving's various techniques and skills, and how to better apply them in cooking. Key words: food carving, Technology, Cooking, Application Thesis Title: 1. Types of food carving There are booths dedicated to appreciation in food carving, which are both ornamental and edible, but they are classified according to different carving materials and methods. 1. Classification of carving materials: it can be divided into fruit and vegetable carving, agar carving, chocolate carving, butter carving, dough sculpture, sugar sculpture, etc. 2. Classification of carving methods: food carving can be divided into two categories: round carving and relief carving, and round carving can be divided into whole carving and whole carving. Relief is divided into convex carving, concave carving and hollow carving. (a) the whole carving: the whole carving is carved from a whole piece of raw materials. Its shape is three-dimensional, and you can enjoy the carved images from all angles. Therefore, it is the most difficult and expressive, and it is often used to make and watch discs in the stands. (2) Complete sculpture: Complete sculpture is suitable for large exhibition stands. It is made of various raw materials with different colors and the same color, carved into various parts of the model, and then assembled and bonded into a complete sculpture, because the raw materials are unlimited and the colors are bright and spectacular. (3) Concave carving and convex carving: Concave carving and convex carving are also called female carving and male carving. Concave carving is the use of concave lines on the surface of raw materials to express patterns, which is close to drawing lines. This carving method is simple and easy to master, and it is suitable for carving some complex patterns. Embossing is to leave the lines of the pattern on the surface of the raw material and scrape or shovel off the blank to show the hierarchy, which is difficult. Suitable for simple and regular patterns, suitable for making east melon cups and melon lamps. (4) Empty carving: Empty carving is also called through carving. It is a leaking method to make raw materials feel spatial and layered from the inside out, which is more difficult than relief. Suitable for making hollow balls, melon lamps, rockeries, etc. 3. Classification of sculpture modeling: Sculpture modeling can be divided into: flowers, birds, fish, insects, animals, figures, landscapes, melons, cups and cups and comprehensive sculptures. According to different banquet themes, the application of sculpture modeling is also different. Second, the raw materials of food carving The raw materials of food carving are mainly fruits and vegetables with carving performance, as well as mashed raw materials and auxiliary raw materials for cooking. 1, vegetable raw materials Plant raw materials: such as pumpkin, wax gourd, watermelon, melon, cantaloupe, beetroot, sweet potato, kohlrabi, potato, white radish, green radish, carrot, mustard head, lettuce, cucumber, radish with solid texture, etc. 2. Mashed raw materials Mashed raw materials are edible, such as egg yolk cake, protein cake, ham, western-style ham, sauce beef, sauce liver, fish cake, tofu, bean jelly, agar, aspic and so on. These raw materials can show various three-dimensional and embossed artistic shapes and show cooking skills. 3. Auxiliary raw materials Auxiliary raw materials refer to raw materials that can play an auxiliary role in sculpture works, which can be divided into: ① coloring raw materials: sometimes the color of carving raw materials is single, and it is necessary to add color by coloring. Generally, there are: synthetic pigment, indigo, lemon yellow, carmine, pink and so on. ② Bonding materials: Bonding materials are used for splicing of combined carvings, generally including bamboo sticks, toothpicks and 502 glue. (3) Skeleton support material: it is mainly used to support large-scale balanced combination carving, and generally adopts special iron frame and wooden frame to support modeling. Decorative materials: decorative materials are used to decorate animal eyes or booth environment, generally including simulated eyes, pepper seeds, acacia beans, flowers, leaves, pine branches and so on. Third, the method of food carving and the use of knives To carve a good work, you must know how to use a carving knife, how to hold a knife with your hand, how to use a knife, and how to apply a knife. This is an important basic knowledge of carving technology. The following is an introduction. 1, knife-holding method of food carving When carving works, the posture of the operator holding a knife is very important. Only by mastering the correct knife-holding method can we use it flexibly. Commonly used methods are: horizontal knife grip, vertical knife grip, pen grip, knife insertion and so on. (1) Cross-grip knife method: Cross-grip knife method means that when using a knife, the blade is up, the thumb is up and parallel to the blade, and the other four fingers hold the handle, and the thumb is attached to the side of the blade to cut the rotating raw material. (2) Vertical knife holding method: vertical knife holding method in hands. When using a knife, you can cut, pick, cut and dig raw materials left and right. (3) Pen-holding method: The pen-holding method holds the knife in the posture of holding the pen, which is suitable for the carving of fine parts and the carving operation of doing, scratching, engraving and picking on raw materials. (4) Knife insertion method: The knife insertion method is basically the same as the pen writing method, which is different from pressing the middle finger or ring finger on the raw material when carving, so as to prevent the raw material and hands from being injured due to knife sliding and excessive force. Carving operation of pushing and poking raw materials. 2. The knife method of food carving is a unique art. It has a unique knife method, and many knives need to be used in turn when carving. Here's how to use it. (1) Cutting: Cutting is mainly used for sculpting materials, smoothing the surface of raw materials and dividing raw materials. Cutting in carving is an auxiliary knife method, which is applied to dividing knife and cutting knife. (2) Cutting: There is no fixed method for cutting, and it can be up, down, left and right. There are two exploitation ways of cutting with a knife, push and pull. Push cutting is commonly used, and broaching should be used for raw materials with high toughness or brittleness. (3) Scribing: Scribing refers to carving patterns with a knife instead of strokes on the carving raw materials, and carving on the existing basic patterns, which is convenient for modification, blanking and positioning. The knives used are scoring knife, oblique knife and flat knife. (4) Carving: Carving is the main technique in carving, and the direction of knife transportation is flexible and changeable. At the same time, it is also the general name of the sculpting knife method of food carving. The knives used are mainly flat knives, oblique knives and various groove knives. (5) Poke: Poke knife method can be divided into straight poke and push poke. Straight poking refers to the straight stabbing of the blade, and pushing refers to the method of stabbing with a large knife inclination angle and then advancing. The cutters used are semi-circular and triangular groove cutters. (6) Shovel: Shovel is a kind of feeding method to remove the excess parts of raw materials by one in and one out or slowly advancing with a knife. The knives used are special flat knives, slotted knives and inclined knives. (7) Digging: Digging means that the blade moves in an arc to take the internal materials of raw materials, and the knife used has a ball planer and a collar. (8) Die carving: Die carving refers to putting a die knife with various images on the raw material for stamping and cutting. This carving method is suitable for flat carving. When using this knife method, the thickness of raw materials should not exceed the thickness of die-cutting knife. When using, you can pad your hands with wooden boards or metal sheets to avoid hurting your hands. 3, the knife of the food carving The knife of the food carving is not only a professionally made set of knives, but also a sculptor designed and made according to experience and production difficulty. However, it must be light, simple and practical. Here, the shapes and applications of the above-mentioned practical tools are introduced. (1) Cutters: Cutters are divided into rectangular, pointed and elbow shapes. Cutters are mainly used to cut large-shaped raw materials, regular geometric shapes or the base of flat carvings. (2) Flat knife: The flat knife, also called the hand knife or the main knife, is the most widely used tool for carving. There are three kinds of flat-edged knives: large, medium and small, which can be used to carve blocks, details and simple sculptures independently. (3) Bevel knife: Bevel knife, also known as sharp-edged knife, has a certain inclination angle and a sharp blade. Due to the different inclination of the blade, it is divided into large and small bevel knives, which are mainly used for carving patterns, lines and relief shoveling. (4) Semi-circular grooved knives: Semi-circular grooved knives are also called U-shaped grooved knives, and are divided into three types according to the size of the knife edge. Both ends of the knife have blades, one side is slightly larger and the other side is slightly smaller. According to the size of the knife, it can be used to carve lines, muscles, faces, clothes, bird feathers, fish scales, flowers and so on. It can reduce the scar formed by other knives and make the carving round and smooth. (5) Triangular groove knife: Triangular groove knife is also called V-groove knife. According to the size of the knife, it is divided into large, medium and small. There are blades at both ends, and one end is slightly larger than the other. There are several shapes such as external oblique edge, internal oblique edge and vertical edge. Triangular groove knife is mainly used for carving melon cups, bird feathers, eyebrows, flowers and so on. (6) Scribing knife: There are annular blades at both ends of the scribing knife, one end is like a prismatic annular knife with a nib, and the other end is an annular knife. It is mainly used to carve figures and patterns, carve finely carved parts, and can also carve parts that other tools can't carve, which is fast and practical. (7) Melon ring carving knife: Melon ring carving knife, also known as line carving hook knife, has a slightly smaller arc hook at each end of the knife, and the cutting edge is opened at the front end of the hook, which is mainly used for carving back lines, melon rings and depicting line patterns of melon lamps. (8) Die cutter: Die cutter is a hollow model made of steel with various images and abstract animals, plants, figures and geometric shapes. It is mainly used for stamping raw materials and belongs to flat carving. Four. Food carving Production Steps When making a sculpture or a group of sculptures in food carving, there is a process, and each process has some problems that need attention. 1, the proposition proposition is to carve the selected content theme. Determine the direct statement and significance of the sculpture works, which should be consistent with the atmosphere of the banquet. When decorating sculptures, we should pay attention to the customs and hobbies of the guests, so as to give full play to the innovative theme. 2. Conception is to brew the overall layout according to the proposition. For example, the distribution ratio of theme carving and foil parts, the use and collocation of raw materials colors should be well known, and some should draw sketches and make perfect sculptures through diagrams. 3. Material selection: After conception, first select the carving materials suitable for the theme, and then select materials according to the size, color and color to prevent waste in the carving process. When eating food carving, we should pay attention to whether the raw materials are edible and easy to process. 4. Carve according to various raw materials, determine the modeling content, trim the carved outline with carving tools, and then finely carve it until the work is completed. V sanitation and storage in food carving 1. Hygiene: food carving's works are processed from food raw materials. Non-food raw materials shall not be used in dish decoration, and attention shall be paid to the separation of raw and cooked food. As containers, they should be heated, sterilized or cooked before use. 2. Storage: food carving's cooked raw materials can be stored in the refrigerator. Plant carving is easy to lose moisture, so it is preserved by cold water immersion, alum water immersion, low temperature preservation, wrapping, glue brushing and other methods. Six, how to correctly apply food carving in cooking can improve the impression of dishes, beautify the atmosphere of banquet style, not only innovate dishes, but also improve the grade. Here's how food carving is used in cooking. 1, the application of food carving works to the main ingredients of dishes, using carvings to show the image of the main ingredients of dishes, and then decorating the dishes, so that you can not only appreciate the carvings, but also know the main ingredients used in dishes. For example, if it is an aquatic dish, the sculpture can be designed as shrimp or fish, and the dish can be "salted shrimp", "garlic shrimp" or "steamed squid" or "West Lake vinegar fish". 2. The application of the origin or growth environment of raw materials for food carving's works. Food carving's works can best express the regional atmosphere. The ingredients of the dishes come from Yunnan. Sculpture can be designed by using figures, animals or folklore of Yunnan ethnic minorities, which can not only beautify dishes, but also show local culture and history. 3. The application of food carving works in dish modeling can be designed as a one-stop process: "Golden Dragon Playing with Beads". Carved peony-shaped dishes can be designed as phoenix: "Phoenix hits peony". If the raw materials are processed into ears of wheat or corn cob with a flower knife, the carving can be designed into dishes in the shape of grain hoard, mill and millstone, which can be used as "Harvest of Five Grains", "Harvest of Squid" and "Man Cang of Five Grains". 4, the application of food carving containers to dishes if the dishes are granular, diced, filamentous, etc. Food carving containers can be selected for packaging and decoration. For example, carved frog pots have dishes such as "spicy fried frog diced" and "fragrant bullfrog". For example, carving boats, dishes with "colorful diced fish" and so on. Such as carving crab cups, dishes can be "one-product crab" and so on. There are both innovations and implications. 5. The application of food sculpture kiosks in banquets. Sculpture mainly uses moral and auspicious themes. Design applications according to different banquet needs and themes. For example, the sculptures such as "The Eagle Spreads its Wings" and "It can be accomplished overnight" in "to beno. 1" can be applied to opening ceremonies, business meetings and celebration banquets, such as "The Birthday Star Holding a Peach", "Songhe Yannian" and "Ma Gu's Birthday Offering Ceremony", and can be applied to birthday banquets. As long as we understand the meaning of the banquet that customers want to express and choose the carving theme correctly, we can not only bring business opportunities, but also display dishes, which can kill two birds with one stone. Through the above argument, the key points of each process of food carving technology are introduced in detail, which proves the role of food carving in cooking and fully shows that food carving and cooking are complementary. Because cooking itself is an art, it should be delicious and beautiful, so we should deepen our understanding and study of food carving craft while constantly improving our cooking skills. Let the big family of cooking flourish.