Halving Olives and baby tomatoes

Halving cherry tomatoes, olives, grapes etc. is such a pain. Mindless, precision. So I have come up with a better way. I don't remember where I saw this technique - on one of the cooking shows, I think. Since then I have seen Chris Consentino (twitter @offalchris) talking about it.

Equipment

2 plates
1 sharp knife

Technique

Place one plate on your cutting surface - face down. Note the ridge. The plate in the picture is on a damp piece of paper towel to prevent it slipping.

 

Place some pitted olives (cherry or grape tomatoes, grapes, pitted cherries, etc.) into the dish on the bottom of the plate.

 



 

Place the other plate face up on top. The olives are now trapped between the layers.

 



Using a very sharp long knife (long enough so that the length of the blade is greater than the diameter of the plates) slice between the plates, using one of the rims as a guide.

 



 When you have cut all the way through, your olives are neatly halved

 

And ready for use in a dish.