I've seen there is a related thread about restaurant practices and how long to retain food, but I don't think food safety comes into this as I'm only talking about cut vegetables kept for maybe 3 to 4 hours? It's more the issue of the effect on flavour I'm concerned with.
I'm a keen beginner, so my knife skills aren't yet good enough to prep veg quickly. As such, if I'm cooking for others, I try and prepare as much as possible in advance to serve food up in a reasonable time. I'd be very grateful if anyone can tell me:
How far in advance can I slice/ dice things like onions, celery, carrots etc without it having a detrimental effect on the flavours and textures?
Once they are sliced/ diced is it better to refrigerate them or might that make them wet/slimy?
If preparing the veg in advance does have a detrimental effect on the flavours and textures, are we talking a small difference that hardly anyone will notice or does it have a dramatic effect?
Thanks in advance.