The Shop

This Cutting Board Never Leaves My Kitchen Counter

Andrew Pearce has designed a cherry wood masterpiece.

August 17, 2023
Photo by Ty Mecham

There’s no shortage of high-quality, well-designed, and long-lasting wooden cutting boards on the market. While some have conducted in-depth, borderline scientific analyses attempting to identify which board reigns supreme, I’m less interested in finding the “best,” because I’m certain the one that I have (and use daily) is already perfect.

Allow me to introduce the Andrew Pearce Handcrafted Cherry Wood Live-Edge Thick XL Cutting Board. The board of all boards, this beautiful wooden cutting surface is the star of my kitchen. It routinely garners compliments, both in real life and whenever it sneaks onto my Instagram story. While there are many reasons I’ll always use this board, for your convenience, I’ve highlighted the six most important, useful attributes below.

The wood looks good.

Even in my tacky, all white, LED-lit kitchen, the wood pops. It looks so good the board never leaves the corner of the kitchen counter for more than two minutes (sometimes it needs a bath). While the slab of handcrafted cherry is certainly noticeable (unlike the Five Two Drying Rack), it’s subtle enough to fit into any kitchen aesthetic. The wood’s beauty becomes especially useful when you consider its potential as a serving platter. There’s no combination of cheese, meats, snacks, spreads, crackers, and breads that won’t look good on the Andrew Pearce stage.

It’s big.

At 24 inches long and 15 inches wide, the board offers 2.5 square feet of cutting surface—enough space to hold 13 average sized onions, 300 average sized strawberries or 50% of my New York City apartment. Roll out a pie crust, chop a stew’s worth of vegetables, or build the cheese board of your dreams—you’ve got the space to do it.

When set up correctly, it never wobbles, squirms, or slides.

Although more of a requirement than a unique attribute, a wobbling, squirmish cutting board so swiftly ruins any prep session, it’s worth pointing out that this one can sit still. Allow me to confirm: Two months into ownership, this board has never wiggled. As for proper setup, your cutting board should always rest upon an unraveled, damp paper towel. The thin, wet paper (or cloth, if you prefer a kitchen towel) provides enough friction to hold the wood still without creating an uneven surface beneath the board.

It aligns with the kitchen counter.

Unless you work on a circular island (sounds fancy), this right-angled board will neatly sit on the edge of your counter. I like this for a few reasons. First, it means you can easily sweep your scraps into an adjacent trash can without picking up the board, making it easier to clean throughout prep. Second, it’s an efficient use of space—when the board sits neatly in a corner, it won’t create any pockets of useless countertop real estate. (For what it’s worth, creatively shaped cutting boards are atop the list of kitchen items I don’t care for. The thought of removing cutting space so the bottom left corner of a board can better resemble Southwestern Connecticut baffles me. They do make a fine cheese board, though.)

It’s made by people who care.

I like that every Andrew Pearce cutting board is made in Vermont. I like that they source wood exclusively from loggers in Pennsylvania, New York, and their home state. And I especially like that they’ve developed a machine that enables them to get more product out of a single block of wood.

And, it’s easy to care for.

Simply hand wash with soap and water after each use. Occasionally wipe down the entire surface with walnut oil to recondition the wood. Other than that, let the board be.

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Paul Hagopian

Written by: Paul Hagopian

Content @ Food52

1 Comment

Nancy D. August 17, 2023
If you cut onions and strawberries on the same cutting board you must not have taste buds.