The present invention relates generally to food cutting devices and more specifically to food cutting devices adapted for cutting food into a desired ornate shape or configuration.
One method of enhancing the consumer's interest in a given food is to vary the form in which the food is presented. Included in such variation is the technique whereby the food is cut into a desired configuration which is esthetically pleasing to the consumer. Examples of such ornately prepared food products are known and include baked goods such as animal-shaped crackers, Christmas cookies, and the like. The cutting device employed to produce the desired shaped food product may include a knife, although hand-cutting the design is tedious and leads to variation in results. Typically the preparer employs a hand-held cutter which has a cutting edge shaped to conform to the outline of the desired configuration.The cutter is inserted in a layer of dough rolled into a flat sheet and removed leaving the configuration cut in the dough or stuck inside the cookie cutter. The cut design is then removed from the dough or cookie cutter and placed in an oven for baking.
The above-mentioned cutters often generally referred to as "cookie cutters" produce acceptable results when used on relatively flat, soft food products such as rolled dough. However, other food products not susceptible of or not desired to be prepared in a dough form cannot be readily cut into the desired ornate configurations with a cookie cutter. Vegetables, fruits and other firm natural foods break apart or become lodged in a cookie cutter (making removal of the configuration difficult or impossible) when one attempts to cut them with the cookie cutter. Further, the metal employed in most cookie cutters is usually too soft and/or thin to cut firm fruits or vegetables without bending. Cookie cutters are also intended to prepare one cut food product per use, requiring that the cookie cutter be inserted and removed from the food for each desired ornamental food product, thus increasing the probability of the food breaking apart or becoming lodged within the cutter. Cutting firm vegetables or fruits into ornate designs by hand with a knife is very tedious and unlikely to produce consistent results.
Of interest to the present invention are the following reports of food cutting devices intended to cut rolled soft dough or vegetables into relatively simple configurations: Hewett, U.S. Pat. No. 337,329; Compton U.S. Pat. No. 493,684; Carsley, U.S. Pat. No. 865,628; and Spence, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 944,700. Hewett discloses a biscuit cutter for cutting rolled dough into multiple hexagonal-shaped biscuits. Compton discloses a cylindrical potato chopper intended for chopping cold boiled potatoes into pieces for reheating and for cutting cakes and pastries. The Carsley patent describes a cylindrical vegetable cutter or chopper having concentric cylindrical cutting members. Spence, et al. discloses a cylindrical combination vegetable and pastry cutter, the pastry cutter being of a relatively shallower cylindrical depth relative to the cylindrical vegetable cutter and serving as the handle for the vegetable cutter when attacked thereto.
Of particular interest to the present invention is the fact that no vegetable or fruit cutter reported provides for ornate configurations to be cut into the food apart from cylindrical or circular shapes which do not greatly enhance the estetic appeal of the food product. It also appears that all the reported vegetable cutters would require multiple insertions into and removals from the vegetable to provide more than one cylindrical or circular configuration food product.
There exists, therefore, a need in the art for simple, easy to use food cutters which provide ornate cut configurations from vegetables, fruits and other firm foods.