Soft synthetic boards

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skewed

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I am really starting to think that getting a good high quality soft synthetic cutting board would be better than buying another knife. Two months ago I started using my personal small end grain wood board at work (another thread). The results have been very good. It has chopped my sharpening routine in half. I really think this is an under spoken of part of the overall work experience of prep work on the job.

Do many pros around here take personal boards to work? Do you leave them there or heft them around? I am mostly focused on Hi-soft due to cost and availability. What is the up keep like? Do they need to be flatten and if so, how?

Daveb and S-Line, this is directed towards the two of you :)

Thank you,
rj
 
i use a hi-soft at home but they are way too soft to use at work. i know dave and brainsausage use sani-tuff and i plan on getting one as well. probably get the medium sized one and keep it in the office when not in use.
 
i use a hi-soft at home but they are way too soft to use at work. i know dave and brainsausage use sani-tuff and i plan on getting one as well. probably get the medium sized one and keep it in the office when not in use.

I had not heard that before about Hi-soft being too soft. I will look around some more for sani-tuff. The ones I found are smaller than I would like.
 
I have Asahi sushi Board for large fish cutting and proteins fabrication. For regullar prep Sani tuff the 3/4 inch thick is rightfully designed and priced . You cant go wrong with these boards. I have seen the Hi-soft i didnt like the looks of them .

I have not tried it yet but they tell me you can sand them down . I would love to try it soon to see how well it works.
 
for what its worth, i used hi soft in professional kitchen and i have a ton of friends that do so currently. Its not too soft... thats an issue of personal preference.
 
I have an Asahi board and would highly recommend it. I prefer it over my Maple endgrain board.
 
Not sure what I'll add to the discussion (but that's not stopped me before....)

I've two of the sani-tuff boards, don't remember dimensions but pretty large. I take one to work when I can leave it out of the way. I've got 1/2 inch boards and they'll bow if not left vertical or flat. Weight is not bad but they're a little awkward to carry every day.

I've not tried it but have thought about ripping one of them into 2 pieces for 2 smaller boards. Bought mine from Amazon for just over 100 bucks.
 
There is another competition to hisoft where sushi bar is concerned but I cannot recall the name or anything other than its a few shades lighter than hisoft and denser. You can get rubber ones too but those are way too heavy to lug around
 
RJ,

I've been in your shoes before. Brought a small hi-soft to lug to work daily when the restaurant didn't provide any decent cutting surfaces. I choose to not leave it at work because it was a fairly large establishment with way too much turnover for me to feel comfortable leaving it. All the other restaurants that I've previously worked before always had good cutting boards so my small hi-soft stays at home now, I use it way more then my end grain board due to the easier maintainance.

I do recommend however if you feel comfortable with your co-workers to leave the board at work.. get a slightly bigger one. You'll thank yourself with the extra board space when prepping in large quantities.

Upkeep for hi-soft are fairly simple. I handwash and sanitize it myself rather than sticking it in the dishwasher, every once in a blue moon I would do a quick bleach and a good buffing to get the original color back. As for warping, it doesn't happen with the small boards. If you're using the longer boards and let it air dry standing vertically, it will warp but it works itself out when you lay it down on the work table. Never had a problem with it at all.

I've actually purchased a few more hi-softs for the new restaurant that I am opening. Heres a comparison of the other sizes next to my "small" hi-soft (it's due for a little bit of bleaching).

IMG_20161215_235238.jpg


There is another competition to hisoft where sushi bar is concerned but I cannot recall the name or anything other than its a few shades lighter than hisoft and denser. You can get rubber ones too but those are way too heavy to lug around

There is asahi board (which I don't recommend at all) and also hasegawa (highly recommended). I only crossed paths with hasegawa boards twice working in the industry. It's got all the good stuff hi-soft is known for but it's so much lighter and it doesn't flex. However they do cost about 3 times more than hi-soft for comparable sizes.

IMG_20161215_235238.jpg
 
Expense wise Asahi>Hi-soft>Sani-tuff. Asahi is a bit more than I would like. So I think I am looking toward the latter two. MTC has a nice sale right now...
 
S-Line--

Thanks for the response. I think you pushed me over the edge. I am mainly looking at getting a larger sized board so I can really let my 270s shine. The 100cm x 40cm x 2cm board is the one I have my eye on right now. I should not have an issue keeping it at work.
 
Not a problem, glad to be of help. The 100cm board is a big boy, it's the same size as the bottom 4 boards in the picture that I've attached. Not sure how much area you have at work, but the 100cm boards I got are for the sushi chefs working the bar so they have an entire 48" work table to themselves. Your co-workers may not like you if you have to share a worktable and your board take up majority of it. ;)
 
When you're done looking at pic there's also dimensions, a source and a price.

@ Panda - This is a 3/4"

Nice, I missed the 'each height' line in the specs. The price is really nice.
 
3/4 will do for most uses 1" will be good for more heavy duty maybe butchering even though i have found the 3/4 enough for most applications and easy to hadle around in a busy kitchen . Also a good difference in price usually between the 3/4 and the 1 inch versions sometimes which i think most dont need to pay.

Earlier someone referred to the Asahi Board . Personaly i have used the Asahi for a lot of fish fabrication tasks and it proved pretty bulletproof . It is expensive , at least more expensive than the other boards (hi soft, synthetic, wood core or even hinoki ) and to me feels a little "harder" but it does perform flawlessly meaning even surface even with hard cuts , rubber adherence , no smell and microbe absorption plus it has survived a busy 4 sushi chef station for 5 years so i think it was a good choice .
 
My wife is blind and does not trust herself to wash a wooden board good enough so she wants to be able to put it in the dishwasher. I had our main counter covered in one big piece of hdpe but finally removed it and cut it into smaller boards. but I need up with two few of them. so to have a couple more what would be the easiest on my knives but is fine in a dishwasher? (I made the mistake of trying some smooth faced hdpe I had left from a job) all the food slid off it.
 
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