Good luck everyone!
in 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 garnished party trays.
Now here's the host of our show, Mike Levy.
Hi, I'm Mike Levy and this is Charlie McClay.
Do 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 slicer?
We did the oranges, the tomatoes, we did the cucumber.
Beautiful.
We did the yellow squash, shred the red cabbage,
mushrooms, carrots, peppers, wafer thin slice of onion.
And that's only the beginning, Mike.
I like the onions, no tear onions.
This is great.
Onions without tears, we're going to chop onions.
Look, nice and finely.
You see the way we did the celery?
Beautifully, perfectly chopped.
Chopped down the tomatoes for tacos and salads.
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.
They're ideal for dips, Mike.
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.
Okay, 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.
They make the French fries.
They do 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.
But Mike, what 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.
They're 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?
But 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.
Mike, what about this job here?
All the onions.
Everybody hates doing these.
Smell your hands, stain fingers.
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 there.
Just watch this, Mike.
Just look at that.
You see all of those slices of the 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.
And now you can 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.
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.
You like it coarser, you like it finer,
you do it as you like it.
Very versatile.
Now what I'm gonna do now, Mike,
is my job here.
Let's go around here and let's turn the dial
right the way around.
We're gonna get it to setting number three now.
Setting three now.
Setting three.
Now I'm gonna 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.
When you do the radishes on the show,
you put three radishes on the inside.
Absolutely.
Cut them all at the same time.
And look at this, Mike,
for 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 wanna.
Let me show you here.
You always make sure that the peppers go on the guard
this way.
So the stem side out.
Stem side out.
Absolutely.
Okay, got it.
That's good.
Now all we've got to do now, Mike,
is just do the first couple of cuts.
Right.
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.
Great.
We throw those away.
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.
And 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.
Now you couldn't slice these peppers down any quicker.
They're beautiful.
Look at how they're.
Look at how they're easier than that.
They're perfectly cut.
I like this.
Isn't that fabulous?
Save these for later, because we use them for stir fry.
I love it.
I love props here.
Oh, without a doubt.
And Mike.
Got a hungry crew.
I've got some kiwi fruits here,
and I love kiwi fruits.
Now this is hard to cut,
because it's a very soft fruit.
Absolutely.
And 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. Tomatoes.
They're a real difficult thing to slice.
What I'm gonna do here
is we're gonna 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?
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.
I see.
Or the bottom to the top,
whichever way you wanna do it, Mike.
Got it.
But look at this.
You see the way we slice these to perfection
right the way through from one end to the other?
I see.
I mean, you couldn't slice a tomato
any better than that. Look at that.
And look, the seeds, everything is,
they're right directly in the middle.
Look at how perfect that slice is.
Yeah, Mike, they're in the center where they belong.
And each two, they're exactly the same thickness.
They're perfect.
Oh, you get a perfect result, Mike.
Now you know that I did the cabbage for the coleslaw, right?
I've got some red cabbage here.
Falling out here.
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 could 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.
Mike, I'm gonna show you my granny's recipe.
You're gonna show us?
In a little while from now, Mike.
Now let me tell you something.
This is 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.
Instead of getting those round cuts,
you actually get those long cuts
which are great for steaming or for stir fry.
Ah, 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.
And of course, fresh fruit salads.
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.
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.
But first of all, 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 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.
If 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 gonna get long French fries.
If you put your potato on straight down,
you're gonna 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.
Your super slicer, do what 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.
Every one stamped BSS.
It's British standard size.
They all cook at the same time.
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.
Real easy.
Just like, look at that.
All these just come apart here, Mike.
Real simple and straightforward.
Can you imagine anyone out there
that's ever made these for a party,
you gotta 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.
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 wanna 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.
Oh, potatoes.
This is like you're at a restaurant.
Dice potato.
Now what we're gonna do first of all
is we're gonna cut the potato in half.
This just makes the job a little easier.
We pop it inside the guard.
With the flat side going back.
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?
Got it.
Uh-huh.
Right the way across the potato.
Right.
It's that simple and it's that easy.
Well, how's it gonna turn out to be little cubes, though?
Well, watch, Mike, because now we're gonna 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.
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.
This is, people are gonna think you bought this at a store.
This is perfect. Absolutely, Mike.
Look at that.
And Mike, you know, if you do like tacos
and you wanna shred down the lettuce,
you can shred the lettuce 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.
Nice to make it yourself. Perfect, isn't it?
It's perfect, look at it.
Now we 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 kinda lose your appetite.
Mike, you just gotta, there we go, Mike.
Oh, thank you very much.
No problem.
Now this is the way you chop down an onion.
And 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.
For soups?
Yeah, and soups, absolutely.
Now why doesn't it make your eyes tear,
like if you do it by midnight?
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, this is pretty important,
the safety holder. That's a really good idea.
This is great.
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.
What about a tomato here?
Tomato, a tomato, you know,
I've been here a few weeks here now, Mike, it's a tomato.
Listen carefully, you wanna chop these.
We like your accent.
Don't lose it, Charlie.
We're gonna 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?
It's perfect.
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.
Right.
You 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.
Who 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.
Mike, I'm gonna 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 does small teeth make?
Small fries?
It's pretty easy, isn't it, Mike?
There's no prizes for guessing.
You're definitely with the programmer.
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.
When you go to a restaurant
and you see the carrots done this way,
you don't think that the chef's out 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.
Isn't that fabulous, Mike?
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 gotta 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 wanna 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.
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 now.
But Mike, we're on our way.
Good, what we do here, I'm gonna use a bowl
because we're gonna 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.
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 cleanup
because it goes right inside the bowl.
That's right, and you can actually 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, okay.
But remember, Mike, the coarse chopped onion?
Yes, right.
Well, we wanna chop an onion fine,
and when I say fine,
I do mean really, really fine.
And don't forget, leave the roots on the end here,
it holds all those leaves together.
Okay, so the safety holder goes inside the end
with the stem on it, okay?
Absolutely. Got it.
Once again, you can chop the onion straight
into a base, or a saucepan, or a stew pan.
It might be meatloaf,
we gotta chop an onion nice and finely.
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 chopped, Mike.
That's finely chopped.
Can you see this?
Look at this. That is finely chopped onion.
Now, that would take a long time with a knife.
You'd be so tired, you'd go out to dinner.
That's what I've done before.
It's perfect. And Mike, don't forget,
you can plant that little piece in the garden,
a little rain, 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 gonna do it now?
We're gonna put some onion in there, Mike.
And I'm gonna show you how to do that in a moment.
We've got to grate some carrot,
and you're gonna see the chef's super slicer, grater.
Okay, all right.
And that's one of the best graters in the world, Mike.
Okay, I'm ready.
You're ready? We're gonna do that for you next.
Well, let's just do,
can't we just do the coleslaw recipe now?
Now, if you've ever been to a party
where someone is 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 wanna know is,
how did you make these waffle cuts?
This is a bead here that you've made a little waffle cuts
that has holes in it.
You could actually make a little waffle cut
and then you can make a little waffle cut.
So it has holes in it, you could actually see through.
How did you do that?
Mike, I'm gonna show you this.
This is our decorating and garnishing fancy waffle cutter.
Good, and then you get started.
I'm gonna save this for later.
No problem here, Mike.
The crew's gonna 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.
Okay, I'm gonna use a potato here.
Now, it could be potatoes.
It could be carrots, cucumbers, and beets.
Now, 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 got this.
So each time, half a turn, that's right, Mike, and down.
Got it.
That's how simple and easy it is.
And that's the way, can you see,
you're gonna 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 part boil the carrots.
And you can see how you get that perfect result.
There they are.
Look at this, each and every time you do a job.
But they look so perfect.
They look like you bought them 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 gonna get those perfect results every time.
Beautiful.
If you wanna 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'll look just like you bought them in the store.
They look professional.
That's pretty good.
I like that.
It's marvelous, 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.
Oh, come on, how does it work?
Mike, 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.
You, yes, I know.
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 gonna go down to the last little piece,
your hands are safe, you wanna do carrot cake.
It's fabulous, do you see the way the job's done there, Mike?
Look it, 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 gonna 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 Romano?
You can grate those just as simply,
look at that, 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.
Okay, little holes with kind of little teeth
all around that.
That's right, now what I'm gonna do
is I'm just gonna 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 wanna 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,
they're gonna poke and prod the pieces out.
So I'm gonna 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.
Mm, that 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.
Cut a point there.
I like this.
Now this would be impossible to do with a regular knife.
This is great, Charlie.
Mike, you do this.
Mike, you're gonna 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.
The spiral cutter.
The spiral cutter.
What you must do is this.
If you're doing a potato, take the tip off,
you're gonna get a flat working surface.
Now you're gonna 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've peeled your vegetables in seconds.
It looks so different.
It's fabulous.
Now 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.
It has sort of a screw thing in the top.
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 gonna 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 gonna 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 this 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 rose edit.
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?
So it's a bit more firm, of course,
when it's a deep fry.
That's right, that's what we're gonna do here.
We're just, 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 gonna 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.
I mean, 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.
That's right.
It's a chef's secret, right?
It's a chef's secret.
Do carrot the same way and beetroot.
Oh, that's nice.
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.
And look, I think you'll agree, Mike,
it makes a fabulous centerpiece.
This took like a couple of seconds to do.
This is beautiful.
I like that.
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, 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's secret food decorator.
It does the job for you.
Just watch.
I'm gonna 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.
Look at that.
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 certain,
this is beautiful.
And the kiwi, look at this beautiful kiwi.
I'm gonna show you something here, Mike.
So that you actually have the kiwi stand up straight.
What you're gonna do is this.
You're just gonna cut the end from your kiwi this way.
Right.
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 secrets 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.
This is what a beautiful display.
But you know, I've been waiting for you to show me
how to use the world's smallest juice extract.
Remember that little juice extractor?
That's right, Mike.
Show us how and slow down
because I gotta 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 a little screw thread.
Look at that.
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 lunchbox.
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, no, 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.
Do 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.
We get a perfect result every time.
Look at that.
Not one seed.
That's perfect.
Very good.
Okay.
How about the coleslaw recipe?
We all want the restaurant coleslaw.
What?
My granny's famous coleslaw recipe.
I'm gonna let you know now.
It's really simple.
All you need, now you're gonna wanna 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.
Okay.
You need one medium sized carrot.
Okay.
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?
That's 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 gonna get the lemon juice.
There it is, Mike.
Lemon juice straight from the lemon.
What could be fresher than that?
All right, I gotta taste this.
I'm gonna make a fabulous coleslaw.
Well, put it together.
I gotta try this.
Let's have a look here, Mike.
I've got a little 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 gonna put...
Look at the color.
It's beautiful.
Isn't this beautiful?
This 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,
remember?
What's that?
It's a bit of a cookly show, this one, Mike.
And I got one ready.
Oh, you got it all ready.
I got it ready for you, Mike.
I could have done this.
Come on now.
Listen, Mike.
We're gonna give that to the crew later.
You just have a little taste of that
and I promise you, you'll find it's the finest coleslaw.
Oh, by the way, Mike.
Oh, I like a little bit of black pepper in mine as well.
This is perfect.
A little bit of black pepper.
This tastes just like restaurant.
It's fabulous.
Just like that famous chicken place, mate.
This is really good.
It's the best coleslaw you're ever gonna 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 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.
And we'll see you next time.