A mandolin is a flat rectangular tool fitted with several detachable or adjustable blades. It's what the professionals use for cutting vegetables into impressively neat slices and strips.

No tool can beat it for speed, precision and versatility. Depending on the shape of the cutters you can produce paper-thin slices of firm-fleshed vegetables, as well as matchsticks, waffles, crinkle-cuts and wispy shreds.

A mandolin is great for slicing carrots, daikon and other radishes into papery circles for salads. It also zips through compact cabbage - great for making coleslaw - and reduces knobbly vegetables like celeriac to uniform shapes. Perfect straw-cut potatoes appear as if by magic, ready to be transformed into frites.

Some models have a useful lower box for collecting the slices. Otherwise it's best to put the mandolin on a large cutting board, rather than the worktop, or place a shallow bowl underneath.

Mandolins were traditionally made of wood, but modern models come in classy black fibreglass or stainless steel. The best have rubberised supports to keep it in place while you slice, and the all-important finger guard.

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