Walked into a noodle shop in Portland and saw a chef using a blowtorch on his cutting board

I was grabbing ramen at this tiny place off Hawthorne last month and the guy behind the counter just casually lit his wooden cutting board on fire (well, torched it clean). Turns out he does it between orders to zap bacteria and remove stains, which I guess is smart but man it looked wild. I asked him about it and he said the heat doesn't hurt the wood if you're quick about it (like 5 seconds tops). Has anyone else seen this or am I just missing a common kitchen trick?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancythomas12d agoMost Upvoted

Oh wow that's wild! I used to work in a kitchen where we'd hit our wooden spoons with a torch to clean them between uses and it worked great.

mark_mitchell12d ago

Heard a chef on YouTube talking about how the heat kills bacteria but also seals the wood, makes it last longer. He said you gotta be careful not to char it too deep or you'll weaken the spoon. Always wanted to try it myself but never had a torch handy.

harper69312d agoTop Commenter

My buddy at a bbq joint in Austin does this with their spoons and it works amazing. He says the heat seals the pores so they don't hold onto moisture as much, less cracking over time. I finally got a cheap torch from a hardware store and tried it on an old spoon and man, it came out a lot darker than I expected but it's holding up fine.