My second trick, the mandoline garnish, is another game changer. For so long, I was trying to get paper thin slices of fruit and veg with a plain old peeler or paring knife. HA! Unless you have some seriously impressive knife skills (teach me your ways), you’ll never get consistently perfect results. Also: easy! A mandoline is one of those kitchen tools that makes you wonder how you ever lived without one. My sad, mandoline-less days are very much in the past, and you can bet that every gorgeous, perfectly sliced garnish I serve spent some time on the sharp edge of my favorite cutting tool.