Whether plating, grabbing or twirling, tweezers can be an indispensable kitchen tool for club and resort chefs.
A chef’s hands are the most useful tool in the kitchen, but when some finesse or quick action is needed, tweezers are the go-to implement of choice. Tweezers come in a range of sizes and therefore fit many tasks with a simple squeeze.
Once mocked as a tool used for “tweezer-food” featured at specific types of restaurants (think avant garde food or intensely structured architectural food masterpieces) many chefs now find this tool in all its size variations extremely versatile.
For delicate tasks like garnishing look to a classic small fine-tip offset or plating tweezer. Here the chef can balance and arrange fragile ingredients without bruising herbs or edible flower petals, or crushing delicate edible gold leaf, for example. There are even models labeled “fine-bone” tweezers that are flatter and wider than standard tweezers. The unique shape aids chefs in removing those teeny elusive pin bones in fish.
Longer tweezers are ideal for tasks as diverse as fishing out that last pickled cauliflower from the bottom of the jar or snagging a spaghetti noodle out of the boiling pasta water to test for doneness. Also, speaking of pasta, chefs use the larger tweezer size for that perfect pasta or spaghetti squash twist presented on the guest’s plate.
For the grill cook, turning a steak or chop takes just a quick twist of the wrist with the aid of sturdy culinary tweezers. Also, flipping shrimp or scallops is a cinch without worrying about tearing the fine-textured seafood.
Pastry chefs, too, rely on tweezers for delicate and precision decorating jobs like meticulously detailed cookies, elegantly stylized wedding cakes, and fondant work on cupcakes.
Tweezers are equally useful for precise garnishing or flipping a mighty steak. And thinly structured yet sturdy stainless steel tweezers can be easily tucked into pockets or stashed in the tool crock next to the stove, grill, or prep table readily at hand in a pinch.
