Why chop ingredients for a salad on a cutting board only to transfer it to a serving bowl, especially when you could do it all in the same place? That’s the question Tyler Florence wants to address with his new collection of Salad Boards. The tools-turned-servingware double as a cutting board on one side and a shallow serving dish on the other. We asked him to talk about the story behind his design, and why salad is so much better when it’s served on a platter.
WS: Okay, so, tell us: What’s so great about salad on a platter?
Tyler Florence: Typically when you make a salad, you put all the ingredients in a bowl, add the dressing, mix it up, and what happens? All of the good stuff ends up on the bottom of the bowl! All you see is the very top layer of the salad that you worked so hard to prepare. By layering on the Salad Board you can see all the beautiful ingredients, and you don’t have gravity weighing down the delicate produce.
WS: Where did your idea for the concept of a salad board come from?
TF: The idea of the Salad Board came when we were writing our last cookbook, Inside the Test Kitchen. We were testing out the Chicken Waldorf Salad and had just chopped all the ingredients together on a large cutting board. The salad looked so beautiful spread out that we just decided to dress and shoot it right on the board! I liked the presentation so much that I’ve been serving my salads at home that way ever since.
WS: The two-sided feature makes it that much more special. Why did you decide to make a two-sided board?
TF: I want everything in the kitchen to serve more than one purpose. Space is at such a premium in kitchens that having multiuse items to free up space is essential.
The Salad Board is such a beautiful serving piece as well. It’s carved from 100 percent sustainably harvested North American walnut, and is made here in the United States. Use the flat side for preparing all your ingredients, and the curved side for serving everything from a salad to a roast. And because of the curved design you never have to worry about your dressing or sauces running onto the table!
27 comments
[…] routine. The first place we’d urge you to start is to think outside the salad bowl. From salad boards to grain bowls, there are so many different ways to enjoy the combination of chopped raw and […]
Love Pam K`S. New word …RADICCHIO-LOUS…. TYLER…YOU BLEW IT ON THIS ONE…FOR ALL THE ABOVE COMMENTARY
Utterly Radicchio (lous)!!!
I’m with everyone else here. The price is absurd and the two sided design makes no sense. I don’t understand the concept of cutting on one side, moving all the ingredients to another “holding” dish while you wash off the cutting board side so you can turn it over and “layer” the salad on the other side. You can also layer a salad in a large bowl Tyler, gravity will not treat the bowl differently than your expensive cutting board serving dish. Gravity is going to act on the salad in the same exact way no matter where you put it, that is the thing about “gravity”…it is a constant. Also I have serving dishes for meat that have *rims* so that the dressing won’t drip off that are pretty and WAY cheaper than these serving dishes. I would never spend that kind of money on a serving dish. I can think of much better things to spend 250 dollars on.
I agree with those who question the price point of this attractive, but overpriced, salad bowl. I also agree with LSM, who would love the recipe for the gorgeous salad! Tyler Florence has long been one of my favorite chefs. Every recipe I have tried from his cookbooks has been delicious and beautiful, and studying the photo of this salad made me drool. Tyler, your market is not only comprised of wealthy people who can afford to pay a fortune for salad plates/bowls. Most of us are overpaying for the best ingredients we can find, after which we might have to go for plastic plates from a party store. Focus on the food, Buddy. You are brilliant at that. Stay with what you do best! I will buy your next cookbook, just as I bought the current book.
I would love to have the recipe for the beautiful salad. Presentation is beautiful as well.
There is no lettuce in that salad. Lot’s of what looks like apple slices, i can’t tell what is underneath.
Tyler, you’ve lived in LaLa land too long, might you and Martha be related? “Roast your lovely leg of Lamb on grapes vines”? I personally dont have grapes in my yard maybe weeds and the two of you might like to see how the rest of us survive? 250.00 boards? Excuse me while I go throw a piece of soupmeat in a pot and get out a plastic bowl for my salad! Try it, not bad, just close your eyes and use imagination
Tyler, you can’t be serious about this! This is complete and utter BS and I’m surprised, and a little disappointed, to hear this coming from Tyler who I’ve always admired and respected. I’ve come to the obvious conclusion that he’s lived in Marin a little too long and it has begun to eat away at his brain. That said, I’m sure the $250.00 salad board will fly off the shelves in Marin Co. However, I’m heartened that everyone that has posted thus far is in agreement.
ONLY $250!!! Such a deal. Are you kidding TF? Nice try, but an idiot I am not. I will keep my salads on plates, bowls, platters and whatever looks nice, but never in your $179 – 250 overpriced “dual purpose” salad boards. If you need more space there are more creative ways to do it. As a matter of fact after you sell a few of these boards you will be able to expand your kitchen and have the space you need.
These first few rather negative comments restores my faith in those who care about food. The salad board seems a very blatant attempt at making a few bucks off the backs of idiots.
I thought of that very same thing until the simple solution came to my mind. Buy two of course.
Let me get this straight, you pay $250 for a cutting board, you chop up your salad stuff, and then you have to dump it into a bowl so you can wash the board and turn it over so you can put the salad back in it. And you shouldn’t leave the salad in the bowl you dumped it into because gravity will get to it? All righty, then.
Exactly what I thought, Linda! And he’d make the salad, dress it; dump it in a bowl and clean it before he served the roast on the flip side? Duh!!
Then of course you will not only have to wash the salad bowl but for those who can afford superfluous luxury wash the board also. It seems to me it is enough of washing a salad bowl, cutting board, dishes and cutlery. Of course there are some people I guess who love washing extra stuff.
Linda, Trudi, and Solange….you took the words right out of my mouth! Still laughing….
Or have people who wash extra stuff up for them. Sadly, I don’t have a maid…
So funny!
Why not use a beautiful platter, which I’m sure everyone has at least one, for presentation. Estate sales!!!
I used to like Tyler Florence. Not so sure now. His salad board prices are beyond ridiculous. He said, “I want everything in the kitchen to serve more than one purpose. Space is at such a premium in kitchens that having multiuse items to free up space is essential.” OK, but at these prices very few can afford them. Also, I have news for him regarding this quote, “By layering on the Salad Board you can see all the beautiful ingredients, and you don’t have gravity weighing down the delicate produce.” Gravity is ALWAYS a factor. We live on Earth, and gravity is happening whether you put your salad in a bowl or on a salad board. The only way something is NOT going to weigh something else down is if you put everything out individually, w/out anything on top of anything else. Or unless you add feathers in lieu of croutons. I’m pretty sure feathers won’t weigh any of the usual salad ingredients down. Spreading every ingredient out individually means really, really BIG salad boards. I’m thinking about $500 worth of salad board, at his current price-point. Not a very practical option. First off, “space is at such a premium” (his words) and a BIG salad board would take up most of the table, and secondly, who can afford a $500 salad server? Not most of us mere mortals.
I agree, not only is it more expensive to eat healthfully, never mind trying to eat organic, but it seems financially challenged/struggling families don’t deserve to feel special. He seems like the Gweneth Paltrow of the kitchen. I’m not being a ‘troll’ here, I’m just tired of the pretentiousness of others.
I think you are right. Regular working call people don’t have the luxury of paying $250. for a salad board.
Absolutely. Whenever I look at the cost of special serving pieces, I tally the number I would need to do a small group dinner. My groups are small, myself and perhaps 2 couples. $500 a couple for serving dishes I cannot use elsewhere is far, far beyond my means. And I can’t help but compare to similar wooden items my parents bought (all made in 3rd world countries, as they are now) and I find myself sad/offended that people who can’t afford it are being asked to pay enormous amounts for items made inexpensively by people who are also deeply, terribly struggling to just get by. /Screwed at both ends….low ethics. A total turn off.
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$250? Definitely an item for people with more money than sense.
Oh wow! A $250 serving board for salad, how wonderful. Seems a little (A lot) overpriced.
signs of the end times, bro….