You’re a good home cook. Your friends swoon at your table. People ask your advice on how to bone a chicken and they’re not even making a joke. So how can you push yourself into the next realm? How can you top your culinary achievements? You could turn a FunGuy mushroom.

Turn it into what?

Turn it into a beautiful piece of vegetable plate jewelry is what. Turning vegetables is a way to make your excellent knife skills visible to your guests. They can’t taste your knife skills (we hope). But even if you can’t turn a turnip into a tourner (looks like a skinny football; very fancy) or score a haiku into your baked bread, people will still think you’re the kitchen Confucius. Here’s a very simple trick you can do with FunGuy mushrooms that will impress your friends and help you level up.

You’ll need a paring knife and a mushroom.

Take a mushroom and carefully clean the cap with a damp kitchen towel. You’ll notice a thin skin of color will peel off—that’s what you want. You’ll be left with a perfectly, evenly toned mushroom cap.

The Cut

Holding the mushroom in your hand, lay the tip of the paring knife in the center of the mushroom cap. Hold your knife loosely by the back of the blade—almost like your fingers are a fulcrum for the blade and handle to pivot on. Rock the blade down from the center of the cap so the edge of your knife scores a groove in the mushroom all the way down to the edge of the cap. Let the blade do the work. Let the knife rock naturally down the cap of the mushroom. Do this several times until you have a good feel for it. The cut should be shallow and decorative.

The Turn

Now comes the trick. Start with a new mushroom, cleaned and ready to score. This time, as you make the cut, turn the mushroom in your hand. When you finish the cut, it should appear to swoop down from the center to a space a half a centimeter or so to the side. Put the blade in the center again, right next to the cut you just made, and do it again. Remember, you are not moving the knife laterally! It is still making a simple vertical cut into the mushroom cap. You only move the mushroom.

Cut. Turn. Cut. Turn. Cut. Turn…. You get the idea.

Do this with a couple of mushrooms to garnish a dish and people will think you went to le Cordon Bleu. Turn a mushroom before you stuff it. Turn them before you toss them into soup. If you make a mushroom pie, stick a trio of turned mushrooms in the middle to cause your hipster friends to fly into a furious fit of Facebooking. It’s so easy! By your 3rd or 4th mushroom, you’ll be a pro. As you get the hang of it, you’ll be turning out beautifully scored FunGuy mushrooms in no time.

Here’s a good video tutorial from Food Wishes:

Photo of paring knife from MountainMadePhotos.

Have you seen a turned mushroom? Have you to carve one yourself? Upload a pic to Instagram and tag with #funguy.