Collection: Bambu

Bambu Kitchenware: Hand-Shaped Bamboo, Finished in Oil

Bamboo is denser and less porous than most of the woods a cutting board is usually made from. That single property carries most of the case for Bambu kitchenware: the grain absorbs less liquid, resists swelling and stains, and takes fewer knife marks, which leaves fewer ridges for food and bacteria to collect in. It is also light in the hand and gentle on a knife edge.

The making stays deliberately plain. Boards are handcrafted from sustainably harvested bamboo and hand finished with a light coat of natural, food-safe wood oil, with nothing layered over it. The carved pieces go further: a spoon or a spatula is shaped from one piece of USDA certified organic bamboo and polished by hand, so no glue line and no lacquer exist anywhere in the tool. Bambu is the brand behind all of it: boards, carved bamboo kitchen utensils, travel and toddler cutlery, a cork fabric bowl, a scrub brush and the oil that keeps the grain fed.

Three board shapes, one finish

The Bamboo Cutting & Serving Boards are fully reversible: cut on one face, serve on the other, with smooth rounded edges that make an appetizer spread look considered. The Bamboo Undercut Cutting & Serving Boards are the same material with carved indentations at each end, so a loaded board lifts cleanly off the counter. The Droplet Bamboo Cutting Board is the outlier: a sculpted, slightly oblong shape drawn for cheese, charcuterie and bread as much as for chopping, with a waxed cotton tie so it hangs on a hook.

Board sizes: the Bamboo Cutting & Serving Boards come at 9 x 6 x 3/8 inches, 12 x 8 x 5/8 inches and 15 x 11 x 3/4 inches; the Undercut boards at 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 x 5/8 inches, 10 x 7 x 5/8 inches and 14 x 9 x 5/8 inches; the Droplet in one size, 15 x 8.5 x 5/8 inches.

Hand wash any of them in warm soapy water and wipe or rack them dry; bamboo resists stains and moisture on its own, so that is usually the whole routine. When a board looks pale, the Bamboo & Wood Grain Finishing Oil goes on with a cloth, sits ten minutes and wipes off: a 4 oz blend of aged linseed oil, pure tung oil and beeswax, made without petroleum distillates or heavy metal dryers, and food safe once dry.

Cork taken from the bark, not the tree

The Natural Cork Fabric Bowl is the one piece here with no bamboo in it. Cork is stripped from the bark of the cork oak, a tree that lives roughly 170 years and gives up its bark every 10 to 12 years; the bark grows back and the tree stays standing. Thin sheets of it are laminated to a cotton-blend backing, making a fabric that is anti-microbial, water-resistant, stain-resistant and washable, and that softens the longer it is handled. The bowl comes at 8 and 10 inches across and holds whatever shape you fold it into.

Carved from one piece, with nothing glued

The Bambu Kitchen Utensils - Set of 3 shows the method plainly: an oval spoon, a round spoon and a spatula, twelve inches each, burnished to a satiny feel, stain-resistant, anti-microbial, and carrying no flavor between dishes. Kids in the Kitchen Utensils Set is those same three shapes at nine inches, for cooks aged three and older. The Bamboo Baby Fork and Spoon Set is finished in certified organic flax seed oil, BPA-free and phthalate-free, CPSC tested to US code CFR Title 16, and shaped for toddler grips from 18 months. The Bamboo Eat/Drink Tool Kit packs a seven-piece bamboo cutlery set into an organic cotton mesh bag, and the All-Purpose Bamboo Scrub Brush pairs soft Tampico bristles for delicate produce with stiffer Tampico-Palmyra for root crops; there is no plastic or glue anywhere in it, packaging included.