Bartender Tips Video Tutorial
How to Cut Lemon Wheels
In this bartending tip video tutorial, learn how to cut fruit – lemon slices – for the bar. Not hard, yet countless bartenders do it wrong – which translates into lost time and money for the establishment (the longer is takes a bartender to serve each customer, the less money the bar makes).
Learn how to cut lemon slices step-by-step the right way in this bartending basics video tutorial. Also watch How to Cut Lime Wedges.
How to Cut Lemons Bartender Tips
First cut the ends of the lemons off. Then, sit the lemon standing up on one of the ends you just sliced off. Cut straight down the middle, slicing the lemon in two halves. Hold the lemon, rind-side down on the cutting board with your thumb and forefinger applying slight pressure to the edges of the lemon. Place the knife in between the tunnel created by your finger and thumb and slice the lemon down the center, about halfway through.
Don’t cut too far down else you’ll cut the lemon in half. Place the lemons upside-down and proceed to slice them from side to side, each slice about the width of your little pinky’s fingernail.
When you cut fruit, try to ensure that all slices are similar sizes and that they all have a small slit through the middle to allow you to place them on glasses. You won’t believe the amount of frustration you’ll go through if they don’t have those slits in them. This is the number one mistake that bartenders make when cutting lemon slices. Make it a habit and you won’t ever have to deal with the headache again.
[Video Transcript] Bartender Tips Video Tutorial: How to Cut Lemon Wheels
In this tutorial we’re going to cut fruit; show you how to cut fruit for the bar. We’ll start off with a sharp knife and our lemon. We have our two containers here. So, you want to first cut off the ends. Ok. You want to cut off all the white stuff at the end. Again, on the other side. Step 1. Step 2, sitting like this ok, with a newly cut end facing down. You’re going to cut it in half. Ok, now you have 2 slices; 2 halves. Now, very important: You have to make sure that there’s a cut down the center here or else it doesn’t fill the glass. So you want to go half way down. Ok, spread a little bit of pressure here as you’re cutting and just cut about half way down. Ok, halfway and now you turn them back over, put them together. My fingers will gonna come down like this, because i don’t want to cut my self, right. I want to use my fingers to guide the knife blade and i’m gonna cut. One. Two. Three. Four. xxx about five for each half, okay? One. Two. Three. Four. Five cuts. And then, to pick them up, slide your knife underneath, pick them all up and put them into your container. Ok, so there’s the lemon and the lime is cut differently. So, you’ll notice that lemon that we’ve just cut has a nice little break in it, right here, so that we can slip it in the side of a glass. Easy right? If it doesn’t have that break it is very difficult to get it on the side of the glass so you need to have that cut on the center.
