# Tomatoes dicer



## slavaser (Aug 23, 2017)

Hello.
I have some question for all professional cooks and cooking hobbyists who spend time in kitchen. I got some experience, of couple of years as a cook (army, hotel). When I worked as cook, I pay my attention for that when we needed for dicing tomatoes, for salat, we never used vegetable dicer machine, we did it manually, because the machine was squeeze them. All rest of vegetables we cut by dicing machine. Recently, I thought about some idea for a product, that may be able to dicing tomatoes gently, without squeeze them and now considering to try to make design of that product. I make my short market research and found that there are not much products(dicers) that can deal with dicing tomatoes, except few, like mandoline slicer, that not exactly dicing, moreover makes long rectangular pieces and Dinamic Dynacube dicer that is little expensive. What I wanted to ask you, as professionals, is do you think that there is need for a product that be able to dice gently tomatoes without squeeze them? Do you use already some kind of product that able to do this kind of job? If yes, what is that product, is it makes satisfying job? I would very grateful to get any piece of information and any opinion. Thanks


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## CraigC (Aug 23, 2017)

For that type of work, I stay away from gadgets and stick with a chef's knife.


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## slavaser (Aug 23, 2017)

What is the reason for that?


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## CraigC (Aug 23, 2017)

slavaser said:


> What is the reason for that?



Just something else to take up space and I'll have to clean it. Besides, if the tomato is really ripe, you won't get clean cuts and probably end up with mush. If the tomato is still firm, you might be able to use an egg slicer, if you're inclined to use gadgets.


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## Addie (Aug 23, 2017)

I just do it by hand with a nice sharp knife. I don't like gadgets that are for one purpose only. By the time I would take out the gadget, set it up and get ready, I would have all the needed for diced tomatoes sitting in a bowl done. And no loos of the liquid.


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## Katie H (Aug 23, 2017)

A sharp knife has worked fine for me for nearly 60 years.  No need for a gadget.


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## slavaser (Aug 23, 2017)

Thank you for replays. I know that sharp knife do its work. I am also use knife, no any gadgets, for my own home needs. But I thought, that when we talk about hotels and restaurants, some gadgets can save our time and time is $


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## Addie (Aug 23, 2017)

slavaser said:


> Thank you for replays. I know that sharp knife do its work. I am also use knife, no any gadgets, for my own home needs. But I thought, that when we talk about hotels and restaurants, some gadgets can save our time and time is $



As a rule, commercial kitchens are short on real estate. They are small and have limited room for large pieces of equipment. Each person has their own station and responsibilities. If the piece of equipment is portable, that means the person doing prep has to be running around getting the needed equipment for his/her job. If he needs a different piece of equipment for prepping a different food, he has to put it out of his/her way to make room for the next piece. 

I understand your concept. The dish looks nicer with food that hasn't been mashed and is unappetizing to look at or even eat. But any equipment should have more than one function in a commercial kitchen.


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## jennyema (Aug 23, 2017)

A sharp knife for me


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## CraigC (Aug 23, 2017)

slavaser said:


> Thank you for replays. I know that sharp knife do its work. I am also use knife, no any gadgets, for my own home needs. But I thought, that when we talk about hotels and restaurants, some gadgets can save our time and time is $



Are you talking fine, 5 star restaurants that have folks with great knife skills or Joe's bar and grill that probably uses canned, diced tomatoes? Keep in mind that most of us are home cooks, there are a couple pros though that either own or work in restaurants/delis.


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## buckytom (Aug 23, 2017)

Sounds like you need an industrial slap-chop. Maybe you can make one with geared serrated blades.


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## caseydog (Aug 23, 2017)

I use a dicer from Williams Sanoma (see photo) for dicing onions and such, because it does a better job than _I can do_ with a knife, in a lot less time. But, it would not work on tender vegetables. For tomatoes, I slice with a knife. 

CD  .


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## dragnlaw (Aug 23, 2017)

I believe the OP is trying to figure out whether or not to attempt to make/produce/manufacture a commercially viable tomato slicer geared to the restaurant business.  Not necessarily for home cooks.  

A restaurant, high end or not, will appreciate the speed of one slice/press to produce what they want with tomatoes notorious for being 'squished'. 

My personal opinion is ...  don't waste your energy or time ..   as mentioned previously, most restaurants have skilled knife wielders as perhaps you are yourself.  Would you reach and grab something else? or use what you probably already have in your hand from cutting the onions...

But again, is this strictly towards prepping 5 bushels of tomatoes? might be an idea or do restaurants, at that point, just open a can...  aha! food for thought!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Aug 24, 2017)

This is what we always used in the restaurant, slice and then run a knife through for diced: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/vo...ato-slicer-with-straight-blades/9220643N.html


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