Vince Cook is a fine woodworker who strives to bring beautiful wood objects to your every day life; he makes unique cutting boards, salt and pepper shakers, and coasters from locally sourced wood. Chop Finely provides kitchen items that have a reverence to the materials they are made from, crafted with live edges and natural wood grain. Find something amazing for the chef in your life from Chop Finely!
Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Vince Cook, owner of Chop Finely. We create handcrafted wooden kitchenware including cutting and serving boards; large serving trays; salt and peppershakers and drink coasters.
What’s the latest thing you’ve been working on?
We are always creating new cutting board designs, but recently have been hand-carving dishes from black walnut logs. These are really fun as they incorporate the bark into their design and every single piece is unique.
What do your customers love most about your products?
We often hear from our customers that they love the unique designs that we create and they appreciate that we use sustainably harvested or salvaged trees to make our products.
Have you always been passionate about art and design?
I’ve been making things from wood, painting, and drawing since I was very young. I had my first commission at about age 14.
Is this a full-time business for you?
I’m a professional furniture maker and started making wooden kitchenware as a way to fully utilize the workshop. It also allows me a creative outlet to try out new designs and building techniques.
What do you think sets your designs apart from others?
All of our designs are unique but we are one of the only makers incorporating live-edge (bark) into our serving trays. We also work with a local blacksmith to design unique hand forged iron handles for many of our pieces.
How does the city you live in influence your work?
Our business is in Brainerd, MN and it hosts one of the few remaining small forestry coops in the country. Through them, I am able to obtain many Minnesota hardwoods that provide the unique materials for our products.
Where did your business name come from? Is there an interesting story behind it?
Chop Finely is a cooking term that we thought very appropriately fit with our first products – cutting boards. We created our first board and my 10 year-old daughter sketched it, and that became our logo.
Check out more of Vince's work online, and be sure to stop by his booth at the Minneapolis Gift & Art Expo, November 3-5, 2017 at the Minneapolis Convention Center!