Recipes, ingredients, and steps lead to one destination—making a delicious meal. First attempt or second time’s the charm, there’s the rhythm and blues in every kitchen when it comes to cooking. A kitchen is indeed a noisy place. From the clanking noise of pots and pans, to the rumble of something boiling, to the sizzling of hot oil, to the tap-tap of the knife hitting the chopping board.

Chopped. Almost everything gets chopped or cut before it’s cooked. The chopping board is one of the most important tools in the kitchen. You could say it’s the center of the universe when it comes to kitchen tools. A chopping board is designed to take the beating, prepare food and provide a safe place to work or cut food.

The cutout space at the top of the chopping board is not only designed to be a handle. It’s created to help neatly slide vegetables into a bowl. Rather than getting chopped food scattered everywhere, this simple hole has a purpose to make things neater. No need to slide what was chopped into a bowl and risk it getting all over the place or losing most of it to the floor.

When it comes to the kind of chopping board to use, plastic is highly recommended rather than wooden boards. Wood boards absorb food juices which can be a breeding ground for bacteria. With plastic boards nothing gets absorbed, it cleans easier and the bacteria can’t get inside the board surface. It’s important to separate boards for meat and vegetables. Using different colours is advisable. White for raw meats and green for vegetables.