How to Make Tomato Roses

Way back in high school, I took a Hospitality Foods class. Also known as "Caf." The students in the Caf classes were responsible for prepping and cooking the school's cafeteria food and running the kitchen. One of the more useful things I learned in that class was how to make a tomato into a rose. I'm sure there were lots of other useful things I learned, like how to use a gas stove without blowing up the entire cafeteria and basic prevention of food borne illness, but for some reason the tomato rose always stuck with me. It's actually quite simple to turn a tomato into a rose and you can use these roses as a garnish on your meals when you really want to impress someone and have it look extra fancy.

Step one: Get yourself a small- medium tomato and pinch off the stem if it has one. Then flip it over and grab a small sharp knife

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Carefully slice into the bottom of the tomato, but do not cut all the way through.

Rotate the tomato and skin the outer layer off using the sharp knife. Continue to rotate the tomato and very carefully peel off the outer skin into one big piece.

Now you have one really long piece of tomato with the bottom piece still attached. Starting from the loose end, very carefully start to roll the tomato skin up until you reach the bottom part and rest the rolled up tomato on that base piece.

Tada! It looks like a rose!

You will have a whole tomato with no skin left over. You can chop the tomato up and use it in whatever you are cooking, then use the rose as a garnish on the side. These tomato roses would look great on a salad or pasta dish. With Valentines Day coming up this weekend it's a nice way to impress your valentine!