• Wash all vegetables, using a vegetable wash and brush or scrubber if needed.

Fresh Vegetables:

• Avocado: Cut straight through the skin and cut the avocado the “long way” into halves first. Pull the halves apart, remove the pit. Slice the halves, still with the skin attached, into quarters, then eighths. Leaving the skin and flesh intact keeps more of the avocado from oxidizing, and makes it easier for guests to pick up with their hands.
• Baby Carrots: Trim the green carrot tops down to about ¾-inch. Use a sharp paring knife to “scrape” some of the dark stuff from around the “neck” where the greens attach to the top of the actual carrot. I have no idea if this dirt, but it doesn’t look great, so do what you can to scrape it off.
• Celery: Cut off about 2 inches of the root end, which you can stick it in a small cup of water to grow into new celery!. Then pull apart the stalks. Trim the leaves of any brown or wilted leaves and bits. Cut each stalk into thirds, about 3-inch pieces. I make bias (diagonal) cuts because that is how we have cut vegetables our whole lives. Serve the most tender inner stalks, and also the leafy tops, which present well on the board.
• Cucumbers: Cut the cucumber in half length-wise. Make ½-inch slices along a deep bias to make spears.
• Endive, Radicchio, and Treviso: Pull apart the leaves, and trim the bottom of each leaf of the jagged edges. Great for scooping. For radicchio and treviso, the innermost leaves are sturdier and better for scooping or dipping.
• Radishes: Scrubbing them well, leaving the green tops and leaves, and scraping away the dark spots around the “neck.” For regular round radishes, cut into small wedges, or thinly slice on a mandoline into rounds like baby beets.
• Sugar Snap Peas: Use kitchen shears to trim dark stem ends. And that’s it. 
• Tomatoes: Just wash.
• Watermelon Radish: Trim the green top and the root end off the radish. To make it easier, cut the radish in half the “long way,” then slice each half into half moons using a mandoline. Use a very sharp knife to carefully “peel” the thinnest, outermost skin of each slice. It may seem time-consuming to peel by hand for each individual slice, but it’s easier and makes for a “smoother” edge than trying to use a peeler on a whole, round radish.
• Zucchini: If the squash are thin enough, you can serve them whole, otherwise, slice them the long way into halves or quarters.

Lightly, Flash-blanched Vegetables:

• Beets: Baby beets are tender enough to be eaten raw. Slice them super thinly on a mandoline into "chips" which is especially pretty for candy stripe beets. Larger beets can be scrubbed, rubbed with oil, wrapped in foil, roasted, peeled, then cut into quarters to serve.
• Broccoli: Pour boiling hot water over the stalks through a colander. Cut the florets or stalk into 3-inch pieces.
• Green Beans: Trim the stem end off of each green bean. Pour boiling hot water over the green beans set in a colander, then immediately follow with ice cold water.