Every classic cut, from a fine brunoise to a tourné, drawn at the same scale with its size in inches or millimetres. Calibrate your screen with a bank card and the pieces show at actual size, so you can hold your cut against them. Tap a piece for how to cut it. Print it for the kitchen. No sign-up.
Knife cuts chart, actual sizeplateartists.com/tools/knife-cuts-chart · print at 100% scale; the ruler should measure true.
Every piece is drawn to the same scale. Calibrate once to see them at actual size.
Sticks
US culinary-school sizes, the lengths shown at the long end of their range.
Dice
Cubes, each cut across a stick of the same thickness. The US textbooks agree on every size.
French and British classics
Named cuts from Escoffier, Larousse gastronomique and Practical Cookery, which work in millimetres.
Slices and flat cuts
Thin pieces, drawn standing on edge so their face shows at full size.
Shaped cuts
Carved, rolled or shredded rather than cut to a grid.
Rough cuts
No set size: the job decides. Drawn as a typical pile.
How the cuts relate
Every dice starts as a stick
The square cuts come in families. Cut a slab, cut the slab into sticks, then cut across the sticks and you have cubes whose sides match the stick. Get the stick right and the dice follows.
Stick
Cut across into
Fine julienne1/16 × 1/16 × 1 to 2 in (1.5 × 1.5 × 25 to 50 mm)
Fine brunoise1/16 × 1/16 × 1/16 in (1.5 × 1.5 × 1.5 mm)
Thin sticks ⅛ in (3 mm) square and 1 to 2 in long. Cut from potatoes, the same stick is called allumette.
On Cooking gives a fixed 2 in length. Names drift: the SkillsUSA chart calls this size allumette and keeps julienne for the 1/16 in stick, and some cooking sites put allumette at ¼ in. In France, Larousse gastronomique cuts julienne 1 to 2 mm thick and 3 to 5 cm long.
How to cut it
Square off the vegetable and cut it into lengths of 1 to 2 in.
Slice the lengths ⅛ in (3 mm) thick.
Stack the slices and cut them into strips ⅛ in wide.
Use it for: Garnish for clear soups, salads, meat and fish, stir-fries and slaws, and matchstick potatoes.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking; Larousse gastronomique; SkillsUSA knife cut chart (2024)
Batonnet (bâtonnet)
Say it: bah-toh-NAY
¼ × ¼ × 2 to 2½ in · 6 × 6 × 50 to 60 mm
Sticks ¼ in (6 mm) square and 2 to 2½ in long: the stick behind small dice.
On Cooking gives a fixed 2 in length. A few school handouts and cooking sites call a ½ in stick a batonnet; the three US textbooks all say ¼ in.
How to cut it
Square off the vegetable and cut it into lengths of 2 to 2½ in.
Slice the lengths ¼ in (6 mm) thick.
Stack the slices and cut them into strips ¼ in wide.
Use it for: Crudités, glazed or roasted vegetables, jardinière garnishes in US kitchens, and small dice.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking
French fry (pommes frites)
⅜ × ⅜ × 3 in · 10 × 10 × 75 mm
Potato sticks ⅜ in (1 cm) square and about 3 in (7.5 cm) long.
On Cooking gives the same ⅜ in section and a 7 cm length. British chips in Practical Cookery are 1 cm square and 5 cm long. Steak fries, in both US textbooks, are potato wedges, not sticks.
How to cut it
Peel the potato and square it off.
Slice it lengthwise ⅜ in (1 cm) thick.
Cut the slices into strips ⅜ in wide.
Use it for: Fries. Cut thinner for allumette or straw potatoes, thicker for pont-neuf.
Sources: Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking; Practical Cookery
Fine brunoise
1/16 × 1/16 × 1/16 in · 1.5 × 1.5 × 1.5 mm
The smallest dice with a set size: 1/16 in (1.5 mm) cubes.
Line up several strips and cut straight across them every 1/16 in (1.5 mm).
Use it for: Garnishing sauces, vinaigrettes and clear soups, where a brunoise would look coarse.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking
Brunoise
Say it: broon-WAHZ
⅛ × ⅛ × ⅛ in · 3 × 3 × 3 mm
Tiny ⅛ in (3 mm) cubes.
Escoffier's Guide culinaire of 1907 also cuts it 3 mm. Later French and British books go finer: 1 to 2 mm in Larousse gastronomique, 2 mm in Practical Cookery.
Line up several strips and cut straight across them every ⅛ in (3 mm).
Use it for: Garnish for consommé, sauces and stuffings, and a fine mirepoix for quick sauces.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking; Escoffier, Le Guide culinaire (1907); Larousse gastronomique; Practical Cookery
Line up several sticks and cut straight across them every ¼ in (6 mm).
Use it for: Soups, salsas, sautés and stuffings.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking
Medium dice
½ × ½ × ½ in · 12 × 12 × 12 mm
½ in (12 mm) cubes.
The metric figure wanders between US books for the same ½ in: 1 cm, 1.2 cm, 12 mm and 1.25 cm.
How to cut it
Slice the vegetable ½ in (12 mm) thick.
Cut the slices into ½ in sticks.
Line up the sticks and cut across them every ½ in.
Use it for: Soups, stews, roasted vegetables and potato salad.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking
Large dice
¾ × ¾ × ¾ in · 20 × 20 × 20 mm
¾ in (2 cm) cubes.
Some websites call this carré. We could not find that name in the CIA, Gisslen, On Cooking, Escoffier or Larousse.
How to cut it
Slice the vegetable ¾ in (2 cm) thick.
Cut the slices into ¾ in sticks.
Line up the sticks and cut across them every ¾ in.
Use it for: Stews, braises, roasting and long-simmered dishes.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking
Macédoine
Say it: mah-say-DWAHN
about 3/16 × 3/16 × 3/16 in · 5 × 5 × 5 mm
A dice of mixed vegetables or fruit, 5 mm (about 3/16 in) in Practical Cookery.
Larousse gastronomique cuts it 3 to 4 mm. For Escoffier in 1907 a macédoine was not a size at all but a garnish: the jardinière's vegetables mixed and bound with butter. The CIA's macédoine of vegetables uses large dice.
How to cut it
Cut the vegetables into 5 mm slices.
Cut the slices into 5 mm strips.
Cut across the strips every 5 mm.
Use it for: Mixed vegetable garnishes, and macédoine salad (Russian salad) bound with mayonnaise.
Sizes vary more than for any other cut: 3 × 3 × 25 mm in the New Zealand growers' guide, 5 × 5 × 60 mm on the French training site BPI Campus. Escoffier's jardinière garnish scooped its carrots and turnips with a spoon-cutter, and US textbooks cut jardinière vegetables batonnet.
How to cut it
Cut the vegetables into 1½ cm lengths.
Slice the lengths 3 mm thick.
Cut the slices into 3 mm batons.
Use it for: Garnish for roasts and braises served à la jardinière, 'the gardener's way'.
Potato sticks 1 cm square and 7 cm long. Escoffier called it the basic type of fried potato.
Escoffier gives the 1 cm square section and Larousse gastronomique the 7 cm length. Gisslen's Professional Cooking makes pont-neuf potatoes thicker, ½ in (1.25 cm) square or more.
How to cut it
Square off a peeled potato.
Slice it 1 cm thick.
Cut the slices into 1 cm sticks about 7 cm long.
Use it for: Fried potatoes, and the stick behind a parmentier dice.
Round slices cut straight across a long, round vegetable such as a carrot or cucumber.
How to cut it
Trim the ends.
Slice straight across at an even thickness, ⅛ to ½ in (3 mm to 1 cm).
Use it for: Glazed carrots, soups and salads.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking
Bias cut (diagonal)
any thickness, cut on an angle · any thickness, cut on an angle
Rounds cut at an angle, so each slice is an oval with more cut surface.
No textbook sets a thickness for a bias cut, only the even thickness of a rondelle.
How to cut it
Hold the knife at an angle to the vegetable (45 degrees is common). The wider the angle, the longer the oval.
Slice at an even thickness, keeping the angle the same for every cut.
Use it for: Stir-fries and other quick cooking, where the extra surface cooks faster.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; On Cooking
Fermière
Say it: fair-MYAIR
⅛ to ½ in thick · 3 to 10 mm thick
Rustic slices of even thickness but no set shape.
Gisslen notes the thickness is usually about ⅛ in (3 mm) and must be even so the pieces cook evenly.
How to cut it
Cut the vegetable lengthwise into halves, quarters or eighths, about the size of a batonnet.
Slice across at an even thickness, usually about ⅛ in (3 mm).
Use it for: Soups and home-style dishes where a rustic look fits.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking
Tourné (turned)
Say it: toor-NAY
2 in long, ¾ in across, 7 faces · 50 mm long, 20 mm across, 7 faces
A small barrel with seven curved faces and flat ends, carved rather than cut.
Figures from Gisslen. The CIA's glossary allows five or seven faces, and Practical Cookery turns its fondant potatoes into eight-sided barrels 5 cm long. On Cooking allows 1 to 1½ in across. Cocotte potatoes are turned about 1½ in (4 cm) long.
How to cut it
Cut the vegetable into blocks slightly longer than 2 in (5 cm), about ¾ in across.
Hold a block in one hand and a paring or tourné (bird's beak) knife in the other.
Carve from one end to the other in a curve, so both ends end up narrower than the middle, then turn the block and carve the next face.
Make seven faces of even width in as few cuts as possible, and leave the ends flat.
Use it for: Château, fondant and cocotte potatoes, and turned carrots and turnips for classic garnishes.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking; Practical Cookery
Chiffonade (chiffonnade)
Say it: shif-uh-NAHD
fine ribbons, no set width · fine ribbons, no set width
Leafy herbs or greens rolled up tight and sliced across into fine ribbons.
No textbook gives a width, only fine shreds. Larousse gastronomique allows strips more or less wide.
How to cut it
Stack the leaves (basil, sorrel, lettuce, spinach).
Roll the stack into a tight cylinder.
Slice across the roll into thin shreds, then fluff them apart.
Use it for: Garnish for soups, salads and pasta. Escoffier's chiffonade of sorrel or lettuce went into soups.
Chunks with two angled faces, made by cutting on a diagonal and rolling the vegetable between cuts.
Gisslen and the CIA roll the vegetable a quarter turn between cuts; On Cooking rolls it a half turn, and the CIA allows both.
How to cut it
Hold the knife at about 45 degrees to the vegetable and make the first cut.
Roll the vegetable a quarter turn and cut again at the same angle.
Keep rolling and cutting along its length.
Use it for: Carrots, parsnips and other long roots for roasting, braising and stir-fries.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking
Mince
very fine, no set size · very fine, no set size
To chop into very small pieces.
On Cooking notes that finely chopped and minced are often used interchangeably.
How to cut it
Slice or chop the item first.
Gather the pieces and chop back and forth across them, keeping the tip of the knife on the board, until they are very fine.
Use it for: Garlic, shallots, ginger and herbs.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; Gisslen, Professional Cooking; On Cooking
Rough chop (coarse chop)
about ¾ in pieces · about 2 cm pieces
Pieces of roughly the same size, for when looks do not matter.
How to cut it
Cut the vegetable into pieces of about the same size, roughly ¾ in (2 cm), without squaring it off.
Use it for: Stocks, sauces that will be strained, and anything puréed later.
Sources: CIA, The Professional Chef; On Cooking
Mirepoix
Say it: meer-PWAH
½ to 2 in, by cooking time · 1.2 to 5 cm, by cooking time
Onion, carrot and celery cut to suit their cooking time: the longer the simmer, the bigger the pieces.
On Cooking: 1 to 2 in (2.5 to 5 cm) for beef and veal stocks, ½ in (1.2 cm) for chicken and fish stocks. The CIA slices it very fine for fumets that simmer under an hour. Escoffier cut it into a more or less fine brunoise, depending on its use.
How to cut it
Cut the onion, carrot and celery into pieces of about the same size. Neatness does not matter.
Size them to the cooking time: large for long stocks and braises, small or sliced for quick ones.
There is no single standard. The American Culinary Federation names the cuts in its certification exams (a julienne carrot, a batonnet carrot, a standard mirepoix) but publishes no sizes: it points candidates to Gisslen's Professional Cooking and On Cooking. Those two books and the CIA's Professional Chef agree on every US cross-section in the chart. They differ on stick lengths: a julienne is 1 to 2 in long in the CIA and Gisslen, and exactly 2 in in On Cooking.
Names drift. The SkillsUSA student competition chart calls the 1/16 in stick a julienne and the ⅛ in stick an allumette. Several cooking sites and school handouts call a ½ in stick a batonnet, which is twice the textbook size. The CIA's macédoine of vegetables is cut in large dice, while a British or French macédoine is 3 to 5 mm.
French and British kitchens work in millimetres. Escoffier cut brunoise 3 mm in 1907. Larousse gastronomique now says 1 to 2 mm and Practical Cookery 2 mm. A jardinière is 3 × 3 × 15 mm in Practical Cookery and 5 × 5 × 60 mm on a French training site. Escoffier himself used jardinière and macédoine for garnishes, not sizes.
Even the conversions differ. US books print ½ in as 1 cm, 1.2 cm, 12 mm and 1.25 cm. The chart uses the metric figures Gisslen prints beside his inches, gives the French and British cuts in their own millimetres, and marks any figure we converted with "about". Each entry notes where its sources disagree.
Before you cut
Want the how, not just the size? The knife skills guide walks through the grip, the claw and each cut step by step: how to julienne a carrot, brunoise, chiffonade basil, dice an onion and mince garlic.
Give it a flat side. Square off the vegetable, or at least slice a thin piece off one side of anything round, so it sits flat and cannot roll under the knife. The CIA recommends this for safety as much as neatness. Keep the trimmings for soup or mash.
Curl your fingers. Hold the food with your fingertips curled under and the knuckles forward, so the side of the blade rests against your knuckles and never reaches your fingertips. Move the hand back as you cut.
Keep the knife sharp and the board still. A sharp knife is safer than a dull one, because it needs less pressure and is less likely to slip, and a damp towel under the board stops it sliding. If a knife falls, step back and let it fall.
Use the right part of the blade. A chef's knife does nearly all of these cuts: the tip for small, delicate work, the middle for most cutting, the heel for heavy work. A tourné wants a paring knife or a curved tourné (bird's beak) knife. For fine julienne, a mandoline with its guard keeps fingers away from the blade.
Why bother with exact sizes? Gisslen gives two reasons: pieces of the same size cook evenly, and they look better. Mixed sizes in one pan means some pieces are raw while others turn to mush. The safety and technique notes here are from Gisslen's Professional Cooking, the CIA's Professional Chef and On Cooking.
Neat cuts, then a neat plate
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FAQ
Knife cut questions, answered
What are the basic knife cuts and their sizes?
The standard US sizes, from the CIA's Professional Chef, Gisslen's Professional Cooking and On Cooking: julienne ⅛ × ⅛ × 1 to 2 in (3 × 3 × 25 to 50 mm), batonnet ¼ × ¼ × 2 to 2½ in (6 × 6 × 50 to 60 mm), brunoise ⅛ × ⅛ × ⅛ in (3 × 3 × 3 mm), small dice ¼ × ¼ × ¼ in (6 × 6 × 6 mm), medium dice ½ × ½ × ½ in (12 × 12 × 12 mm), large dice ¾ × ¾ × ¾ in (20 × 20 × 20 mm) and paysanne ½ × ½ × ⅛ in (12 × 12 × 3 mm). The tourné is about 2 in (5 cm) long with seven faces. The chart above draws every one of them to scale.
What is the difference between julienne, allumette and batonnet?
Thickness. A julienne is ⅛ in (3 mm) square and a batonnet ¼ in (6 mm) square, both about 2 in long. Allumette is the name for julienne cut from potatoes in the CIA's and Gisslen's books, but the word drifts: the SkillsUSA competition chart uses it for the ⅛ in stick and calls the 1/16 in stick julienne, and some cooking sites put allumette at ¼ in. If a recipe gives a size, trust the size over the name.
What is the smallest knife cut?
The fine brunoise, 1/16 × 1/16 × 1/16 in (1.5 × 1.5 × 1.5 mm), is the smallest cut with a set size. It is cut from a fine julienne. Minced food can be finer still, but mince has no set size: it just means chopped very small.
What is the difference between chop, dice, mince and brunoise?
Dice is a cube of a set size (small, medium or large). Brunoise is the tiniest named dice, ⅛ in (3 mm). Chop means pieces of roughly the same size where looks do not matter, and mince means chopped very small. Dicing and brunoise are measured; chopping and mincing are judged by eye.
What size is a French fry?
Gisslen and On Cooking both cut French fries ⅜ in (1 cm) square and about 3 in long. Escoffier's pont-neuf, the classic French fried potato, is 1 cm square, and 7 cm long in Larousse gastronomique. British chips in Practical Cookery are 1 cm square and 5 cm long. Steak fries are wedges, not sticks.
How many sides does a tourné have?
Seven, in the US textbooks: seven faces of even width, flat ends, and about 2 in (5 cm) long. The CIA's glossary accepts five or seven, and the British Practical Cookery turns fondant potatoes into eight-sided barrels. Use a paring knife or a curved tourné (bird's beak) knife.
How do you chiffonade basil?
Stack the leaves, roll them into a tight cylinder, and slice across the roll into thin ribbons with a sharp knife, then fluff the ribbons apart. No textbook sets a width; they only say fine shreds. Cut it just before serving.
What are macédoine and jardinière?
In British and French kitchens they are named sizes. In Practical Cookery a macédoine is a 5 mm dice and a jardinière a short baton 3 × 3 × 15 mm, about ⅛ × ⅛ × ⅝ in. Both began as garnishes rather than sizes: in Escoffier's 1907 Guide culinaire the jardinière is a garnish of vegetables served in separate heaps and the macédoine the same vegetables mixed together.
Why do French and British sizes differ from American ones?
They come from different books. US cooking schools teach from the CIA's Professional Chef, Gisslen and On Cooking, which work in inches and agree with each other. French and British kitchens work in millimetres from Escoffier, Larousse gastronomique and Practical Cookery, which do not always agree with each other either: a brunoise is 3 mm in Escoffier, 2 mm in Practical Cookery and 1 to 2 mm in Larousse. The chart keeps each size in its source's own units rather than rounding one into the other.
Do I have to square off vegetables before cutting?
For the precise cuts, yes: squaring gives you straight sides to measure from and a flat base, and the CIA points out that even slicing one side off a round vegetable makes cutting safer because it can no longer roll. Keep the trimmings for soup or mashed potatoes, as Gisslen suggests.
How can I check that my cuts are the right size?
Hold them against the chart. Press Make it actual size, match the bar to the short edge of a bank card, and every drawing shows at its real size on your screen. Or print the chart at 100% scale and lay your pieces on the paper.
Sources
The Culinary Institute of America, The Professional Chef, 9th edition (Wiley, 2011). The standard vegetable cuts chart and methods, pp. 619 to 630, mirepoix pp. 241 to 242, and the glossary.
Wayne Gisslen, Professional Cooking, 7th edition (Wiley, 2011). Figure 7.7 (basic cuts and shapes), p. 143, knife technique pp. 142 to 148, potatoes p. 625. In the copy we checked, the inch figures for paysanne and fine julienne in Figure 7.7 disagree with the metric beside them; we follow the metric, which matches the other books.
Sarah R. Labensky, Alan M. Hause and Priscilla A. Martel, On Cooking, 5th edition update (Pearson, 2015). Knife cuts pp. 81 to 88, mirepoix p. 185, potatoes p. 633.
David Foskett, John Campbell and Victor Ceserani, Practical Cookery, 11th edition (Hodder Education, 2008). The British catering-college text: cuts of vegetables pp. 473 to 475, potatoes pp. 525 to 531.