The New York Times reports in almost 1,000 breathless words this morning that the most recent cross-disciplinary tool in a chef’s batterie de cuisine comes from the operating room: medical tweezers. In some of the country’s most ambitious restaurants, a pair of them allows a chef to put the final, seemingly impossible touches on a dish.

Grant Achatz, the chef at Alinea, in Chicago, said his restaurant bought 100 of them. “Now we give them to our cooks when they start, Most slip them into the pocket of their chef’s coat. They’re always there. They’re always used.”

How about thermometers for those chefs along with the tiny tweezers?