The $100+ Cutting Board Used By Ina Garten
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When Ina Garten prepares ingredients on her counter, there are often two butcher's blocks acting as solid foundations for everything she's doing. (Butcher's blocks are basically thicker, sturdier cutting boards.) In a NYT Cooking video, Garten gives a tour of her kitchen and her favorite tools. Third on her list are butcher's blocks, which she calls "really important." Not just any butcher's block will do — Garten uses the high-end Boos Blocks. These durable cutting boards are on our list of nine Ina Garten-approved kitchen tools.
In an Instagram video of Garten making a cranberry fruit conserve for Thanksgiving, the Boos Blocks brand is clearly on display. She often uses an extra-large and thick Maple R-Board. Williams Sonoma asked the celebrity chef for her top 12 kitchen tools, and number nine was the Boos Edge-Grain Rectangular Cutting Board.
None of these options are cheap; the R-Board series is around $150 on Amazon, while a Walnut Edge Grain can run up to $326. Fortunately, as Garten told NYT Cooking, "if you take care of them, they last forever." (John Boos sells a maintenance kit to help you achieve your own forever cutting board.)
What others say about Boos Blocks and what makes them so great
John Boos has its fans. In a segment about manly kitchen gear, Bobby Flay told The Today Show that he uses a Boos Block at home. Flay praises the "beautiful" board for looking "like a piece of furniture." Flay is a partner with John Boos & Co., maker of the cutting boards. Another marketing partner with the brand is Giada De Laurentis, presumably to show the cutting board isn't just for manly men.
Wooden cutting boards in general last a long time thanks to the material. The woods and cuts — such as edge- or end-grains — used by John Boos & Co. are sturdier and easier on your knives. This, and the company's name value, drive up the price. But, for that high price you're getting a board that lasts. On a Reddit forum devoted to items you can buy for life, a user asked others what they thought about their boards from John Boos. "[Mine's] going on year 8 or 9 ... Just hand wash and oil as needed," replied one commenter. Another chimed in that they had their "classic rock-maple rectangular board for more than twenty-five years." Our nine tips for cleaning and maintaining your cutting boards will help you make this purchase a potential buy-it-for-life item.