Every scratch across it came from a knife and a loaf of bread. Collected around the Rhône-Alpes, this tall rectangular cutting board hangs from an iron ring set into its top edge, its strong, figured grain crosshatched from end to end by years at the table. Every French kitchen kept a board like it, the planche à pain, cut for the daily loaf and carried to the table with the bread, worn a little deeper with every meal. Sylvie leans it against the kitchen wall when it is not in use, and lays it out with bread and cheese when it is. Each one is different, no two boards quite alike.
