The Kitchen Gadget Alton Brown Uses To Chop Garlic Fast

Vampires, beware. We're talking about garlic — in fact, we're singing its praises. Any garlic bread fan can tell you all about how any of the fragrant, flavorful variations of garlic transform a dish. Esteemed garlic-enthusiast Anthony Bourdain once famously proclaimed, "Garlic is divine. Few food items can taste so many distinct ways."

Chef and television personality Alton Brown agrees. From avant-garde (albeit controversial) margarita recipes to identifying the elusive and debated "best flavor on earth," Brown knows every trick in the (cook)book. The chef's long and illustrious career on the Food Network has spanned nearly 20 years. Brown served as the host and writer of the television show Good Eats for 14 years and has also appeared on Cutthroat Kitchen and Iron Chef America.

Brown is a two-time James Beard Award winner and recipient of the Peabody Award. This is a chef with a tip or two up his sleeve — and, in that spirit, here's the kitchen gadget Alton Brown uses to chop garlic fast. 

So, what's Alton Brown's secret garlic-chopping wonder gadget? An egg cutter. Via an Instagram post, the chef writes, "When you need chopped garlic fast... reach for the egg cutter."

Egg cutters, like this one from Williams Sonoma, are a useful little handheld tool not unlike an apple slicer. To use it, a circular arrangement of fine blades is gently pressed through a hard-boiled egg, neatly slicing it into even pieces. The garlic press is a similar tool that works in much the same way, using pressure to force a fresh garlic clove through a grid of blades and dicing it.

Home cooks in the comments section seem to approve: "How smart," "What a good idea," and "Genius!!!"

However, it seems that garlic purist Anthony Bourdain would beg to differ. "Misuse of garlic is a crime," the chef wrote. "[G]arlic that has been tragically smashed through one of those abominations, the garlic press, are all disgusting. Please treat your garlic with respect... don't put it through a press. I don't know what that junk is that squeezes out the end of those things, but it ain't garlic."

Whichever side of the debate you fall on, if you happen to find yourself in a hurry at dinnertime, that egg cutter can get the job done.