Mandolines

This kitchen tool is used for quickly julienning and slicing an array of vegetables. Until recently, the large French stainless-steel mandoline was the only type found in professional kitchens, where it has been used since the nineteenth century. A mandoline-style vegetable slicer, such as the Benriner cutter from Japan, has become more common in recent years. It has a razor-sharp blade that will slice vegetables from ¼ inch (5 mm) thick to almost paper thin. It works especially well for truffles (much better than the expensive Italian truffle slicer) and has a toothed blade for extremely fine julienne.