Knife Skills

Batonnet

Cut into tidy sticks, thicker than julienne — think classic fries

Batonnet cuts food into uniform sticks, larger than julienne, the size of a classic French fry. It's the cut for crudités and pommes frites, and the starting point for a medium dice. Square off the vegetable first so every stick comes out the same length and thickness.

Batonnet is the classical stick cut — uniform sticks larger than a julienne, roughly the size of a thick French fry (traditionally about 6 mm square and 5–6 cm long). It's the cut behind pommes frites and crudités, and the starting point for a medium dice (cut a batonnet crosswise and you get cubes). As with all the classical cuts, the secret is squaring off the vegetable first so every stick comes out the same length and thickness, which means even cooking and a clean, intentional look.

Difficulty: Intermediate

Types & varieties

Pommes frites

Potato batonnet cut to fry size for classic French fries.

Crudité sticks

Carrot, celery, and cucumber batonnet for dipping.

Batonnet for medium dice

Sticks cut crosswise into uniform medium cubes.

How to do it

1
Square off the vegetable
Trim the rounded sides into a clean rectangular block so the sticks come out uniform.
2
Cut even planks
Slice the block into planks about 6 mm thick — the width of your target stick.
3
Stack the planks
Lay the planks flat and stack a few to cut efficiently.
4
Slice into sticks
Cut down through the stack at 6 mm intervals to make even sticks.
5
Trim to length
Cut the sticks to a consistent length, around 5–6 cm.
6
Use or dice further
Cook the sticks as is, or cut them crosswise into a tidy medium dice.

Why square off first

Squaring the vegetable into a clean block before cutting is what makes batonnet (and brunoise and dice) uniform. Round, tapered edges produce uneven, oddly shaped sticks that cook at different rates and look haphazard. Trimming to a block wastes a little (save it for stock), but it's the difference between a precise, even cut and a ragged one. From a clean batonnet, a medium dice is just one more set of crosswise cuts.

Common uses

French fries (pommes frites)Crudités for dippingStir-fry vegetables with biteBase cut for a medium diceRoasted vegetable sticksVegetable batons for braising