Essential Equipment

There are many different utensils and accessories that make up a busy kitchen, a lot of which are easily overlooked when running around trying to get the customers served and keep the restaurant running smoothly. Tea towels, can openers, cheese graters and chopping boards are just a few examples, but these items, and all the others that aid and assist kitchen staff, are essential to any successful catering business or restaurant.

Chopping boards, for example, provide a range of services to the chefs using them. A chef without a chopping board is equal to a fireman without a hose, and as they are available in a wide variety of styles, colours and makes, there is truly a chopping board for everyone.

Starting with their primary use, chopping boards are very good for protecting surfaces from wear and tear when food is being prepared. If a knife is being used to slice up a vegetable, then there is a risk that the kitchen work surface will be damaged during this process, unless the board is there to protect it. As well as this, having several chopping boards available in a kitchen means that different foodstuffs can be prepared at once, and thus reducing the risk of cross contamination. Multi coloured chopping boards are available for this purpose; you can chop different foods on different colours to help keep them separate.

As well as individual chopping boards, sets can be purchased that tend to include approximately six different boards as well as certain accessories such as wall charts. These wall charts help chefs to identify which colour board should be used for what type of food; i.e. raw meat on the red board, vegetables on the black board etc. These sets are cost effective, especially for a larger kitchen, and make life a lot of easier for those using them.

Chopping boards come in both high and low density and can be made from either wood or polyethylene. This makes them non-absorbent and non-toxic, as well as very strong and durable.

As well as the chopping boards themselves, accessories can be bought that will aid those using them. Anti slip mats can be purchased to stop plastic boards from slipping (not so much of a problem with wooden boards as they are that bit heavier). There are a wide variety of storage racks that are made primarily for cutting boards; this is a necessity really as it is important these boards are kept safe when not in use and not left lying around at risk of being damaged. The wall chart that comes in the sets (as mentioned earlier) can also be bought separately in a kitchen where coloured boards are used. To avoid cross contamination, this is an important consideration. Another vital consideration when running a kitchen is hygiene, and chopping boards are no exception. Board scrapers are available that actually remove small nicks and cracks in propylene and polythene boards, thus removing the risk of bacteria staying on the board even after cleaning.

Chopping boards may not be very exciting, but they are an indispensable part of any kitchen and must be treated as such. Whether you have one board, or one hundred, they must all be treated with the same care and consideration given to other kitchen equipment, and looked after properly. With this treatment, they will last longer and do their part to ensure your kitchen runs smoothly, safely and efficiently.

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