Coming up on this special edition of Ask Mike, we're going to show you all those super secrets
to using the super slicer.
You'll learn how to make extra fancy waffle cuts and even see how easy it is to make fancy
garnish party trays.
Now, here's the host of our show, Mike Levy.
Hi, I'm Mike Levy, and this is Charlie McLeade.
You know him.
He brought us the super slicer.
Now, everyone's been asking, can we really make the same things in our own kitchens with
our super slicer as Charlie made in our show?
So I invited Charlie over to my house, we're here in my kitchen, along with our camera
crew and lighting crew, and look at these beautiful creations, and we can make this
ourselves, right?
Absolutely, Mike.
You see the way we did all these beautiful slices?
We did the oranges, the tomatoes, we did the cucumber, we did the yellow squash, shred the
red cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, peppers, wafer-thin slices of onion, and that's only
the beginning, Mike.
I like the onions.
No-tier onions.
This is great.
Onions without tears.
Look at the chopped onions.
Look.
Nice and finely.
Oh, look at that.
You see the way we did the celery?
Beautifully.
Perfectly chopped.
We chopped down the tomatoes for tacos and salads, and you see down here, this is peppers
for stir-fry.
This is my favorite part.
This is great for parties, little carrot sticks and zucchini sticks without having to spend
hours with a knife.
This is perfect.
And you see the way we did the kiwi fruits, and we chopped that fine red cabbage, we did
the peppers, and as I said, fine chopped onions without tears.
And they're pretty chopped.
Okay, we're ready for some super slicer secrets.
Let's do it.
Let's show you, Mike.
Now, remember, the first thing to remember is there are no slides to go in or out.
It's a self-contained unit.
It's a professional machine.
No attachments to lose, good.
See the dial on the side?
That's all you need to do.
You turn the dial.
When it's set at number one, you're going to get a paper-thin slice.
Number one's paper-thin.
Number two is wafer-thin.
Okay?
Number three and number four are medium slices.
Got it?
Number five and number six are thick slices.
Got it?
But look, Mike, turn to number seven.
You see the blades appear?
Oh, they're the large teeth.
Large blades.
The French fries and all the coarse chopping.
I've got to see the French fry maker.
That's great.
But look, turn once again.
And you see the small teeth?
They do the fine dicing and chopping work in your julienne strips.
That's going to be great.
I can't wait to see that.
The first thing I'm going to start by doing is we're going to turn the setting to number
one.
Okay, setting number one now.
Setting number one for a wafer-thin slice.
And do remember you're going to always use the safety holder.
The safety holder turns everybody into a professional.
You wouldn't buy a car without brakes or a knife without a handle.
You see the way we use the holder from the top of the machine to the bottom?
Right.
And one thing that we're guaranteed to get here, Mike, is a perfect professional result
down to the last little piece.
Look at that there.
Perfect.
There's the job done.
This would take you hours.
Look at how perfect this is.
It's really perfect.
Look at that.
And Mike, if you want to make potato chips, why buy the store-bought ones when you can
get them yourself?
Cut your potato in half.
Okay, cut it in half first.
This is a good hand here now.
Pop it on the safety holder.
Start at the top and go from the top to the bottom.
And now we can slice the potatoes down with potato chips.
And you're going to get that perfect result every time.
They're perfect.
And you left the skins on the outside, huh?
You know why I did that, Mike?
I read one time that all the vitamins and goodness are under the skins of the potato.
And if you peel the potatoes, you peel the vitamins away.
Now look, they look so natural, too.
I'll be your sous chef here.
I'll arrange things for you.
Pop those over there.
And Mike, what about this job here?
Oh, the onions.
Everybody hates doing these.
Smell your hands, stain fingers.
Right.
Well, instead of standing there with half an onion collapsing between your fingers,
we're going to pop it on the holder again.
But remember, when you peel your onions here, here's a little tip for you, Mike.
Peel the onions.
Leave that root end on.
That actually holds the onion together.
Oh, I see.
See, now I always cut that off, so leave it on because the safety holder grips in there
like that.
Absolutely.
And now just watch how we get those perfect slices of onion.
It could be liver and onions, it could be steak and onions, hamburgers and beef burgers.
You're going to get that perfect result every time that you do the job.
Look at that.
They're perfect.
Just watch this, Mike.
Just look at that.
Do you see all of those slices out of one onion?
It's like a restaurant.
It's economical, Mike.
It's really simple and straightforward.
Let's pop that over there.
I'll do it for you here.
I'm trying to help here.
He's doing a pretty good job here.
Now, cabbage for coleslaw.
Okay.
Cabbage for coleslaw.
Now, when you cut your cabbage, cut your cabbage through the root piece here.
Now, you can cut it into halves or quarters, depending on the size.
But always remember...
Now, you're preparing this for the safety holder, so...
Yes, always remember it's got to be able to fit inside the holder.
And you put it on the stem side of the cabbage.
That's right.
Always cut it down to size.
Okay.
Now, when you shred down your cabbage for your coleslaw, you'll find the cabbage comes
out of there nice and finely shred right the way through from top to bottom.
This job would take you hours with a knife, Mike.
But just look at that.
Wow.
Look at that.
It's perfect.
You get that perfect result every time.
Now, this was on setting number one, right, Charlie?
It could be setting one or it could be setting two.
Okay.
Now, you can be creative, Mike.
You know, whatever suits you.
That's pretty good.
You like it coarser.
You like it finer.
You do it as you like it.
Very versatile.
What I'm going to do now, Mike, is my job here.
Let's go around here and let's turn the dial right the way around.
We're going to get it to setting number three now.
Setting three now.
Setting three.
Now, I'm going to take a mushroom.
Now, mushrooms, you know, if you're doing sauces or pizza toppings, pop the mushrooms
on the guard.
See the teeth there?
Now, remember, this guard holds big things and tiny things.
This is great.
You can load the guard up, Mike, with whatever will fit in there.
You can put two, three, four radishes inside there.
I saw that.
You put three radishes on the inside.
Absolutely.
Cut them all at the same time.
And look at this, Mike, the perfectly sliced mushrooms from top to bottom for pizza toppings
and sauces.
Look at that.
They are.
They're perfect.
Look at those.
Absolutely perfect.
And, Mike, you know, when you're doing peppers, when you do your peppers for stir fry or for
pizza toppings, remember what we did here.
You went too fast on the show.
How do you get the seeds out of the pepper?
That's what I want to know.
Let me show you here.
Let's make sure that the peppers go on the guard this way.
So the stem side out.
Stem side out.
Absolutely.
Okay, got it.
Now, all we've got to do now, Mike, is just do the first couple of cuts.
When you've done the first couple of cuts, then can you see what we do here?
We actually remove those seeds from out of the center.
We throw those away.
Great.
My job.
I'll take care of it.
We don't need them.
I see.
So it kind of like automatically helps you to get the seeds out.
Absolutely.
And remember with the guard, the only secret is to start at the top of the machine to the
bottom.
When you get down to this last piece here, Mike, you don't waste that piece.
You push the button.
Just by pushing the button, you feed everything down to the end.
That's great.
You couldn't slice these.
Look at these.
Peppers down any quicker.
They're beautiful.
Look at how they're.
They're easier than that.
They're perfectly cut.
I like this.
Isn't that fabulous?
Save these for later because we'll use them for stir-fry.
I love it.
Save all the props here.
Oh, without a doubt.
And Mike.
Got a hungry crew.
I've got some kiwi fruits here, and I love kiwi fruits.
Oh, yes.
Now, this is hard to cut because it's a very soft fruit.
Absolutely.
If you're doing a fresh fruit salad, nothing looks nicer in a fresh fruit salad than a
kiwi fruit.
You know, if you're decorating or garnishing, let's pop this one on the top of the machine
here.
Okay.
And then just pop the guard on.
Oh, I see.
Okay.
Good.
If you're decorating or garnishing, Mike, if you're doing a cheesecake, what nicer way
to slice the kiwi fruits than that.
Isn't that fantastic?
These are very hard to cut.
Very hard to cut with a knife because they're such a soft, fresh fruit.
Absolutely, Mike.
Now, what about tomatoes?
Tomatoes.
They're a real difficult thing to slice.
What I'm going to do here is we're going to turn the setting now to number four.
Number four, okay.
Remember, though, you can choose whatever setting you like.
As my granny always said, the higher the price, the thinner the slice.
Absolutely.
Now, just watch and see how we do the tomatoes here.
No, wait a second.
What side are you supposed to put the safety holder on, Mike?
Is it this side or this side?
It doesn't matter whether it's this side or this side, but don't put it on that way.
You always go from the top of the tomato to the bottom.
Or the bottom to the top, whichever way you want to do it, Mike.
But look at this.
You see the way we slice these to perfection right the way through from one end to the other?
You couldn't slice a tomato any better than that.
And look, the seeds, everything is...
They're right directly in the middle.
Look at how perfect that slice is.
They're in the center where they belong.
And each two, they're exactly the same thickness.
They're perfect.
Okay, you get a perfect result, Mike.
Now, you know that I did the cabbage for the coleslaw.
I've got some red cabbage here.
Now, red cabbage is great for salads.
You can do lettuce, of course, the same way for salads.
And, of course, in Britain, we love pickled red cabbage.
You can pickle the cabbage.
You can shred it this way in seconds as simply and as easily as that.
And coleslaw, too.
Well, for coleslaw, if you like your cabbage coarser or finer, it's entirely up to you.
I tasted your granny's recipe for coleslaw.
Oh, Mike, I'm going to show you my granny's recipe.
You're going to show us?
In a little while from now, Mike.
Now, let me tell you something.
You have to experience.
His coleslaw recipe, his granny's coleslaw recipe,
tastes just like the restaurant coleslaw.
I mean, it's fantastic.
No, Mike.
No, it doesn't.
It tastes better, Mike.
Okay.
It tastes better.
And let me give you a little tip here as well.
You know, if you do any stir-fry.
Right.
What you can do, we've got some yellow squash here.
But if you put the yellow squash or any fruit or vegetable onto the guard on an angle.
You see what we've done here?
Right.
Long ways.
Long ways.
Now, watch what happens.
You actually get those long cuts which are great for steaming or for stir-frying.
Oh, I see.
Oh, that's how they do that in the restaurants then.
I've seen this done before.
This is great.
Now, you can do it at home.
I like that.
Okay, I'll put this aside here.
Put that to one side here, Mike.
Beautiful.
And of course, fresh fruit salads.
Mm-hmm.
You want to slice down apples.
We did the kiwi fruits.
You can do strawberries.
You can do oranges.
We've cored this apple here, Mike.
You see that?
Oh, yeah.
You used the juicer for that, right?
I did, Mike.
And I'll show you how we cored the apples with the juicer in a moment.
Okay.
It might be apple fritters.
And I know you've got a food dehydrator.
You dehydrate food, Mike.
And it's great to dehydrate apples.
They turn out great.
You've got to take the cores out first.
The hardest part is taking the center out there.
Absolutely.
And it's a healthy way to eat as well.
Yes, yes.
So if you're doing apple fritters, you're dehydrating apples.
You want to slice them down with the cores out.
There's the job done.
Look at...
They're perfect.
Very good.
Isn't that simple?
Very good.
Isn't that easy?
So you core them first and then just put them through the super slicer.
Absolutely.
Very nice.
Now, Mike, what we're going to do now...
...is we're going to turn the dial once more.
Okay.
And when we turn the dial this time, what's going to happen is we're going to get to setting
number seven.
That's the large teeth, the upright blades...
Oh, I know what that's for.
...that make the French fries.
Now, I was surprised at this.
Remember on this show when Charlie sent me to the refrigerator to get a bag of frozen
French fries and said that by the time that I got back, he would have the French fries
all prepared with the super slicer?
I'll never forget that.
That was fantastic.
And you really did come through, too.
Absolutely, Mike.
And you know something?
I can't see any point in buying tasteless frozen French fries when you can make them
yourself.
Okay, now do it slow.
Everybody has got to see how to do this.
I want you all to see this, Mike.
Now, when you put your potato on the safety holder, if you put it on once again as we
did with the squash at an angle, you're going to get long French fries.
If you put your potato on straight down, you're going to get short French fries, but then
again you can do whatever suits you.
Okay.
It's your kitchen.
It's your potatoes.
They're your fries.
My super slicer.
You can do whatever you want, but it's so simple and so straightforward and easy.
Remember what I said here about using the full length of the machine from the top to
the bottom.
Always use the full length of the machine.
Good, firm, brisk strokes.
There's no strength or skill required, Mike.
All you need to do is use the full length of the machine and look at those.
I can't believe it.
And the best thing about it, look at there, each and every one of them are exactly the
same shape.
They look so professional.
I know.
BSS.
That's right, Mike.
BSS.
It's British standard size.
They all cook at the same time.
Now you can now, you can fry these if you want to in vegetable oil or you can put them
in the oven and sprinkle seasonings on them and cook them in the oven too, right?
Absolutely, Mike.
If you like oven fries, pan fries, entirely up to you.
Now when you're doing carrot sticks, remember...
They're perfect.
I'm sorry.
No problem, Mike.
Remember you like the dips.
Now can I give you a little tip here?
With the carrots for dips, you can take your carrot and cut them into little pieces so
that they fit on the guard this way here.
Oh, so you cut them to the maximum length of the carrot spears that you want to come
out.
That's right.
So now we can actually go down lengthways.
And you see what we do here, Mike?
It's real simple, real straightforward.
Look at that.
And real easy.
Just like...
All these just come apart here, Mike.
Real simple and straightforward.
Now can you imagine anyone out there that's ever made these for a party, you've got to
start like the night before and then if you do start the night before, they're terrible
the next day, but now they're perfect.
You mean you made it like two seconds.
Two seconds, Mike.
And of course you can do your zucchini the same way.
See what we've done again with this angle on the guard just so that we get the length
there.
Uh-huh.
And look at that.
There they are.
They're perfect.
They're perfect each and every time.
Look at that.
Zucchini for zucchini strips.
They're perfect.
Great for dips.
This is great.
I like this.
It's fabulous, Mike.
And I want to show you something we didn't show you on the show.
Okay, good.
This is how you dice your vegetables.
Oh, make the little cubes of...
That's right.
Potatoes.
This is like you're at a restaurant.
Dice potato.
Now what we're going to do first of all is we're going to cut the potato in half.
This just makes the job a little easier.
We pop it inside the guard with the flat side going that way.
That's right.
Now watch carefully here.
We just make a series of even cuts.
Can you see how we're doing this here, Mike?
Right the way across the potato.
Right.
It's that simple and it's that easy.
Well, how's it going to turn out to be little cubes, though?
Well, watch, Mike, because now we're going to cut against the cuts that we've just made.
Okay.
Do you follow me here, Mike?
So you have the big teeth up like the same ones you use for the French fries.
That's right.
But now as we go down, can you see what happens here?
Look at that.
Just check those out, Mike.
They're little cubes.
I can't believe it.
Look at that.
Isn't that fabulous?
And they're all the same size.
I like that.
People are going to think you bought this at a store.
Absolutely, Mike.
This is perfect.
Look at that.
And Mike, you know if you do like tacos and you want to shred down the lettuce, you can
the same way as we did the red cabbage or the white cabbage, or you can chop the lettuce.
Once again, remember, you cut your lettuce in half through the core.
Always use the safety holder.
And now we can go down and look at this in no time at all.
How's that, Mike, for chopped lettuce?
This is exactly what it looks like at a restaurant when you order a chopped salad.
It's perfect, isn't it?
It's perfect.
Now we've chopped the lettuce, Mike, but what about chopped onions?
Oh, great.
Yeah, those make you cry.
I've tried that before.
We tried to make tacos.
Tears are coming down.
You kind of lose your appetite.
Hey, Mike, you just got a little...
There we go, Mike.
Oh, thank you very much.
No problem.
Now this is the way you chop down an onion, and do you see how quickly and easily this
is done?
And this is a coarse chop.
If you want a fine chop, I'll show you how to do a fine chop in a moment.
This is great for stews.
Great for...
Stir-fry it's great for, Mike, as well.
For stews?
Yeah, and soups.
Absolutely.
Now why doesn't it make your eyes tear, like if you do it but with a knife?
Well, you know, the nice thing is, of course, the best way to chop an onion without tears
is as fast as you possibly can, as we all know.
That's true.
But remember, when you use this guard, it's those irises and juices and acids that would
normally go in your eyes, they get caught inside the guard, so you can chop the onion
straight inside.
So this has a lot of...
This is pretty important, the safety hold.
That's a pretty good idea.
This is good.
Don't forget the loops, Mike.
Remember, we showed you before how you can clip the machine over your saucepan or basin
and chop the onion straight inside.
Right, go directly to it.
That's right.
Well, what about a tomato here?
Tomato, it's a matter of, you know, I've been here for a few weeks here now, Mike, it's
a tomato.
Now, listen carefully.
You want to chop these...
We like your accent.
Don't lose it, Charlie.
We're going to chop these tomatoes down here, Mike, and when we chop them down, it could
be for tacos, it could be for salads.
Just look at how easily that's done.
You know that food processor you had, Mike?
Yeah, I tried that one.
And what would you have got?
Whoa, it's perfect.
I tried this in the food processor and I got tomato juice.
I don't know.
Doesn't work.
Tomato puree.
It's great.
It looks pretty good to me.
What do you think?
Now, there's only one last thing we've got to do now, and that's the cleanup.
Oh, yeah.
How do you clean this thing up?
It's so simple and straightforward.
All you've got to do is turn the machine over, open the little gate here, and you can rinse
it under the faucet.
Okay.
And, Mike, don't forget it's also dishwasher safe, top shelf of the dishwasher, I was advised,
top shelf.
Great.
And give it a rinse and the cleaning's done.
It's that quick, it's that simple, and it's that easy.
And remember, I've only scratched the surface here.
I haven't begun to show you all the things you can do, but I think we've set your imagination
alive here, Mike.
But now, show us the coleslaw recipe.
Look, Mike, I'm going to show you the coleslaw recipe in a moment, but before I do that,
look, let's turn this dial just once more.
You see those small teeth?
Okay.
The big teeth make the big fries.
Now, if big teeth make big fries, what do small teeth make?
Small fries?
It's pretty easy, isn't it, Mike?
There's no prizes for guessing.
You're definitely with the program, you've got the idea.
Okay.
You know, when you go to a restaurant, let's do a carrot here.
Remember that angle so we get the length?
Yes, right.
Yeah.
When you go to a restaurant and you see the carrots done this way, you don't think that
the chef sat there doing that with a knife.
Well, that's the julienne.
That's right.
It'd be there for four weeks on one carrot to get them all perfect.
It's perfect.
It is perfect.
In the same way as we did the carrots, of course, you can do your zucchini for your
zucchini sticks, you can do cucumbers and beetroots for salads, and get that perfect
result.
They are perfect.
Potatoes for shoestrings.
Look at that.
Very professional.
And remember what I was saying about tuna fish and celery?
Oh, right.
You know the way you like to chop the celery down really fine for tuna fish and celery?
Tuna fish sandwiches, you've got to have chopped celery.
It's great like that.
Now, you see the way we did this with the celery, Mike?
When you use your celery, always take a whole bunch of celery and you place the guard at
the end here.
On the stem.
On the stem.
Got it.
And now all we've got to do is remember, as I said before, the top of the machine to the
bottom, up and down.
You want to chop down the celery for your tuna fish and celery.
You've chopped it down nice and finely, right down to the last little piece.
The job's done in seconds.
Look at that.
It's done in no time at all.
Now that would have taken a long time to do.
Look at how perfect that is.
That is tremendous, isn't it, Mike?
Beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful.
Perfect for tuna sandwiches.
This is pretty good.
Pretty good, eh, Mike?
And you know something?
You know my granny's famous coleslaw recipe.
Oh, time for the coleslaw recipe, Mike?
We're on our way.
Good, OK.
What we do here, I'm going to use a bowl because we're going to shred some cabbage into the
bowl.
When I say shred cabbage, Mike, you can shred it this way, you can shred it coarse or fine,
you can do it as we did with the lettuce, but then you can chop the cabbage down using
the small teeth in the same way as we did the celery, and that's the way I like cabbage
for coleslaw.
Now be sure and point this out.
We have on the side of the super slicer there's little grooves, so if it's right over the
bowl, no mess, and easy clean up because it goes right inside the bowl.
I like that.
Now to prepare the food straight inside.
All you do is just go from the top to the bottom, from the top to the bottom.
It's that quick, it's that simple, and it's that easily, and you see how we chop the cabbage
nice and finely that way.
Perfect, OK.
But remember, Mike, the coarse chopped onion?
Yes, right.
Well, we want to chop an onion fine, and when I say fine, I do mean really, really fine.
And don't forget, leave the root on the end here.
Right.
OK, so the safety holder goes inside the end with the stem on it, OK?
Absolutely.
Got it.
Once again, you can chop the onion straight into a basin or a saucepan or a stew pan.
It might be meatloaf.
We've got to chop an onion nice and finely.
OK.
You know, it could be liver and onions, it could be ground meat.
From the top of the machine to the bottom, and when you get to that last piece, you don't
waste it, you press the button.
It's real simple and straightforward, and there's the onion chop, Mike.
That's finely chopped.
Can you see this?
Look at this.
Now, that would take a long time with a knife.
You'd be so tired, you'd go out to dinner, like I've done before.
It's perfect.
And Mike, don't forget, you can plant that little piece in the garden, a little rain
or a lot of luck.
You'll have another onion next year.
Oh, come on, Charlie.
Oh, and Mike, onion, my granny's favorite coleslaw recipe.
We've got some cabbage here.
Are we going to do it now?
We're going to put some onion in there, Mike, and I'm going to show you how to do that in
a moment.
We've got to grate some carrot, and you're going to see the chef's super slicer, grater.
OK.
And that's one of the best graters in the world, Mike.
OK, I'm ready.
You're ready?
We're going to do that for you next.
Well, let's just do it.
Can't we just do the coleslaw recipe now?
Now, if you've ever been to a party where someone has sent out for an expensive deli
platter or one of those fruit and vegetable arrangements that have been professionally
cut up, look at how beautiful this is.
The difference here is that Charlie made all this in about 10 minutes with the super slicer
and all the attachments.
I mean, look at the radishes.
Look at how perfect that is.
Little Van Dyke cuts, and look over here, the mushrooms.
And Charlie, what I want to know is how did you make these waffle cuts?
This is a bead here that you've made little waffle cuts that has holes in it you can actually
see through.
How did you do that?
Mike, I'm going to show you this.
This is our decorating and garnishing fancy waffle cutter.
Good.
And you get started.
I'm going to save this for later.
No problem here, Mike.
The crew's going to love this.
Mike, any good cook or chef will tell you it's not just what you serve in the kitchen,
it's how you serve it.
If you make your food look good, it tastes better.
Preparation and presentation.
I'm going to use a potato here.
It could be potatoes, it could be carrots, cucumbers and beets.
To make those holes, all you do is use the safety guard, start at the top of the machine
and go to the bottom.
When you come back to the top, give the guard a half a turn and go down.
I see.
You've got this.
So each time, half a turn, that's right, Mike, and down.
Got it.
You've got it.
That's how simple and easy it is.
That's the way, can you see, you're going to get those fancy waffle cuts.
There they are.
Look at that.
They're perfect.
Look at all the little holes.
Perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
You can see right through it.
So you turn it so the cuts kind of crisscross then.
Absolutely.
Now, you can do carrots and cucumbers and beets the same way.
Now when you do your carrots or your beetroots, let me suggest, Mike, that what you do first
is just half boil the carrots.
And you can see how you get that perfect result.
There they are.
Each and every time you do your job.
But they look like a bottom from a caterer.
They look so perfect.
Look at that.
They really do look tremendous, don't they?
And remember, as I said before, Mike, it's not just what you serve, it's the way you
serve it.
You're going to get those perfect results every time.
Beautiful.
If you want to make bread and butter pickles, don't turn it, Mike.
Just go straight up and down this way and you'll do your pickles for your bread and
butter pickles.
That's how simple and easy it is.
Look at that.
You marinate them, pickle them.
They look just like the bottom of the store.
They look professional.
That's pretty good.
I like that.
It's marvellous, Mike.
And if you drop those potatoes, remember, in the deep fryer, they come out crispy and
golden brown.
The children love them.
If they won't eat their vegetables, do them that way.
You got a point there, Mike.
It'll look good.
The vegetables, Mike, not the children.
Come on, Charlie.
They play with them for two or three days before they throw them away.
Now what about this super grater?
Let me show you the grater, Mike.
It's the greatest grater in Great Britain, this one.
Come on.
How does it work?
I see you've still got one of these old metal graters in the kitchen here.
Yes, yes, yes.
Well, you know the problem here, Mike, fingernails and knuckles.
Yes, I know.
Yeah, I told you, I'm sure they're made by the people that make, you know, the band-aids,
the bandages.
They call it creating your own market, Mike.
The nice thing about the Chef's Secret Super Grater is it's got a coarse side, it's got
a fine side, it won't rust, it won't tarnish, and you don't need to worry about grating
your knuckles because you can use the grater and the safety holder together.
Ah, okay, so the safety holder you use with other parts of the kit as well.
Absolutely.
Now you can grate down your cheeses and your chocolate, your nutmeg and horseradish, the
zest of oranges and lemons for baking, and you're going to go down to the last little
piece.
Your hands are safe.
You want to do carrot cake.
It's fabulous.
Do you see the way the job's done there, Mike?
Look at, now this looks just the right consistency for your secret coleslaw recipe.
Are we ready yet?
Everybody here wants to know how to make restaurant coleslaw, come on now.
My granny's secret coleslaw recipe, and I don't give this to everybody, I don't let
everybody know, but in a moment from now I'm going to share it with you.
But first of all, Mike, zucchini for zucchini bread.
Do your zucchini for your zucchini bread that way, and remember the hard cheeses like Parmesan
and Romana?
Yep.
You can grate those just as simply and just as easily.
It's perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
It really is fabulous.
Now don't forget, that's the coarse grater, Mike.
Let's turn it over now, and you see on this side here, we've got the fine grater.
Little holes with kind of little teeth all around it.
That's right, Mike.
Now what I'm going to do is I'm just going to give this a little rinse here, Mike, and
there we go.
That's the way we do it.
And you see here, the fine grater, this is the one that you use when you want to zest
oranges or lemons for your baking.
You'll do nutmeg in the same way.
And you know what happens with the metal grater?
Everything gets clogged inside, you've got to poke and prod the pieces out.
I'm going to give this one here, it's just with a tap, and can you see there?
That smells so good.
I wish you could smell it.
Mmm, this smells so good.
That's the zest for baking.
It's perfect.
This is great.
Remember, Mike, when it comes to food preparation, if it pleases the eyesight, it stimulates
the appetite.
It's not what you serve, it's the way you serve it.
Got a point there.
I like this.
Now this would be impossible to do with a regular knife.
This is great, Charlie.
How do you do this?
Mike, Mike, you're going to learn now how to get spring vegetables all the year round.
Let me show you how.
It's real simple and easy.
It's called the spiral cutter, Mike, it's the chef's secret decorating and garnishing
tool.
Okay, good.
Spiral cutter.
The spiral cutter.
What you must do is this.
If you're doing a potato, take the tip off, you're going to get a flat working surface.
Now you're going to peel and trim your vegetables first.
Now I'm using the chef's secret super peeler here and believe you me, this is the best
peeler that money can buy.
Used by folk that have arthritis and rheumatism and find it difficult to grip and use a regular
peeler.
That's clever.
You'll peel your vegetables in seconds.
It looks so different.
It's fabulous.
And when you've peeled your vegetables, Mike, take the spiral cutter and push it down into
the center.
Okay.
Now you wind it round in a clockwise direction.
Has sort of a screw thing in the top there.
That's right.
And once this screw thread has a grip, then off you go.
You'll find that the more times you turn, the more spiral shapes you're going to get.
You're going to do potatoes and carrots and cucumbers and beets.
And don't forget, Mike, I told you, you'll eat spring vegetables all the year round at
no extra cost.
But seriously, what do you do with a potato like this when you've got it?
I was going to ask you the same thing.
I'll give you a few ideas, Mike, and I'm sure you'll have some ideas of your own.
That's true.
Take a large potato.
Do it this way.
Stretch it out, wrap it around the roast, pop it in the oven, baste it with the juices
from the meat.
Now, I wonder what you're supposed to do with this after you make the spiral.
But on the show, Charlie showed me an example of how he deep fried one of these springs
made out of a vegetable.
And it looked great.
It was a great decoration.
And you even put a tomato in the middle, didn't you?
That's right, Mike.
It's the one I call the potato rosette.
How do you do that?
Let me show you what happens here.
Take the potato, and all you need to do is pin the two ends together with a wooden cocktail
stick.
With a toothpick?
That's right, a toothpick.
That's right.
And then drop it into the deep fry.
Ah, okay.
Now, when it comes out, it's crispy and golden brown.
It's set in this position.
Now, you might well put that fancy tomato in the center.
I see.
Okay.
You get the idea here, Mike?
Uh-huh.
So it's a bit more firm, of course.
That's a firmer one.
That's right.
That's what we're going to do here, just to give you the idea.
Cucumbers and beets in exactly the same way.
And if you can imagine that that potato is now crispy and golden brown, straight from
the deep fry, you can interleave your cucumbers or beets around the edge.
This is going to make a fabulous centerpiece.
And when the guests arrive and they see these, one of the first questions they ask you is,
yeah, how on earth did you do it?
They will think you've just returned from gourmet school.
Look at how perfect this looks.
You can tell them, Mike.
So just tell them it's a professional secret, and you'd rather not say it.
Absolutely.
It's a chef's secret, right?
It's a chef's secret.
Do carrot the same way, and beetroot.
Oh, that's nice.
Now, a little tip for you, you know when you do your carrots or your beetroots, those real
hard vegetables, it's a nice idea just to parboil those first.
That's beautiful.
But I think you'll agree, Mike, it makes a fabulous centerpiece.
This took like a couple of seconds to do.
This is beautiful.
And do you know what I get asked an awful lot is about these shapes down here.
Now, I tried to make this once with a knife, tried to cut these little V-forms up and down,
up and down with a knife.
It's impossible.
You pull it apart, and it's a mess.
Show us how to do that.
Well, that's right, Mike.
You know, with a knife, the two ends never meet.
You can't get them the right shape or size.
That's why we manufactured the Chef Secret's food decorator.
It does the job for you.
Just watch.
I'm going to do a tomato here, a tomato.
It could be radish.
I'll get it right in the end here.
It could be radishes.
It could be glacé cherries or grapes.
You could be decorating cakes or trifles or puddings or doing a fresh fruit salad.
And one thing that you're guaranteed to get, can you see this, is that perfect result each
and every time you do the job.
The little V's automatically meet each other.
Absolutely.
That's really good.
See the way we did the tomato there, Mike.
Say you're doing grapefruit for breakfast.
Oh, that's nice.
What about the peaches?
And do you like the way we did the strawberries for cakes and flans and puddings?
This looks like a fine restaurant with syrup.
This is beautiful.
And the kiwi.
Look at this.
Beautiful kiwi.
Now, can I show you something here, Mike?
So that you actually have the kiwi stand up straight, what you're going to do is this.
You're just going to cut the end from your kiwi this way and the end this way.
And you do that before you use the V cutter.
Before you use the little V cutter.
That's right.
Remember, they call this one the chef's secret food decorator.
And I love kiwi fruits.
I think they taste beautiful and they certainly look delicious.
Just watch as we pull the two ends apart here.
Doesn't that look fantastic?
That's beautiful.
And look, look at this.
When you set it down here, it doesn't wobble.
It sits right down there.
What a beautiful display.
But, you know, I've been waiting for you to show me how to use the world's smallest
juice extractor.
Remember that little juice extractor?
That's right, Mike.
Show us how and slow down because I've got to see how you do this.
This looks too good to be true.
Well, Mike, I mean, I know you sold a lot of big, expensive fruit juice extractors.
Well, yeah, I mean, we have a lot.
Well, this is a small juice extractor and it's inexpensive and it's certainly the world's
best juice extractor.
See, what happens here, you see these teeth here at the end.
What they do is they cut into the tough skin of an orange, a lemon, a lime or a grapefruit.
As you screw the juice extractor down into the fruit, you're severing every segment inside.
And it has little screw threads.
Look at that.
That's right.
You see what happens now?
Oh, pops the juice.
Now, you can drink the juice.
That's fresh.
Straight from the fruit.
It couldn't get fresher than that.
The children love these, Mike.
They take them to school.
Why would they drink juice out of cartons when they can drink it straight out of the fruit?
You squeeze again, you get more juice.
So a good idea would be to pack an orange plus the little juice extractor in a child's
lunch box.
That's a fabulous idea, Mike.
And you know, in the mornings, if you like fresh grapefruit juice, how could you get
it any fresher than that?
Just look at that.
Right out of the grapefruit.
Oh, look at that.
Fabulous.
That's nice.
Grapefruits and lemons the same way.
But don't make the mistake that one lady made.
What was that?
She went and screwed her juice extractor into an apple.
She gave the apple a squeeze.
She thought she might get cider.
No, it doesn't work like that.
Mike, now you need the grip of a gorilla.
What I actually said to you was you screwed into an apple that way, then you screwed into
an apple this way.
And you see what happens here now?
Oh, yeah.
You can actually core an apple as clean as a whistle.
It took a couple of seconds.
I mean, I tried that with a knife.
I tried that with a metal coring things.
It never turns out right.
You get a perfect result every time.
Look at that.
Not one seed.
That's perfect.
Very good.
OK.
How about the coleslaw recipe?
We all want the restaurant coleslaw.
What?
I'm going to show you one of his famous coleslaw recipe.
I'm going to let you know now.
It's really simple.
All you need.
Now, you're going to want to write this down.
Listen carefully.
This tastes great.
You need a half a red cabbage.
You need a half a white cabbage.
Half a green pepper.
Half an onion.
OK.
You need one medium-sized carrot.
OK.
One teaspoon of caraway seed.
Oh, that's unusual.
Caraway seed.
And half a cup of mayo.
And you can substitute for non-fat mayonnaise if you're on a diet, right?
And the same because you need sour cream.
A half a cup of sour cream.
And you can use non-fat.
They taste great.
And Mike, you need two tablespoons of lemon juice.
And I bet I know how you're going to get the lemon juice.
It is, Mike.
Lemon juice straight from the lemon.
What could be fresher than that?
All right.
I've got to taste this.
I'm going to make a fabulous coleslaw.
Well, put it together.
I've got to try this.
Let's have a look here, Mike.
Well, there's our red cabbage, Mike.
And I want you to do a little bit of work for me here now.
Sure.
There's the carrots.
Mm-hmm.
And here we go.
We're going to put...
Look at the colors.
Beautiful.
It just took seconds to make with the super slicer.
And Mike, what I want you to do here...
Okay.
I want you to start doing a little bit of mixing for me.
Just put it in there.
And Mike...
Mm-hmm.
Don't worry yourself too much here because...
Okay.
Remember?
What's that?
It's a bit of a cookery show, this one, Mike.
And I've got one ready.
Oh, you've got it all ready.
I've got it ready for you, Mike.
I could have done this.
Come on.
Hey, listen, Mike.
We're going to give that to the crew later.
You just have a little taste of that.
And I promise you...
Oh, this is...
...your spinach, the finest coleslaw.
Oh, by the way, Mike.
This is perfect.
And a little bit of black pepper.
Mm-hmm.
This is...
This tastes just like restaurant.
It's fabulous.
Just like that famous chicken placemake.
This is really good.
It's the best coleslaw you're ever going to get.
Thank you very much.
This is truly easy to do.
You saw it in my own kitchen.
And by the way, if you at home have any recipes that you'd like to share with people, you
can write us at Ask Mike, P.O. Box 470, Hollywood, California 90078.
Or even easier than that, send us a fax at 310-FAX-MIKE.
Until next time, I'm Mike Levy.
And remember, you can't get everything you want out of life that you have to ask.
Thank you, Charlie.
It's been a pleasure.