Melissa & Doug Cutting Food - Play Food Set With 25+ Hand-Painted Wooden Pieces, Knife, and Cutting Board

We got this play food for our three year old daughter because she loves to help in the kitchen and she absolutely loves to practice cutting. Our one year old also loves to play with them and stick them together and work on his small motor skills. So many different skills collaborated with one activity which is so fun! The color is super vibrant, we’ve had it for a year now and the color hasn’t wore at all, such durability! The Velcro is still in tact and works great, and they get used a lot!! The product is child safe and we have had no issues with loose pieces or paint chipping. I love how large the food is, big enough for them to truly work on their cutting skills. Great price for what you get, Montessori learning activities are the best and this is definitely a top 5 for us!

The media could not be loaded. These have such beautiful colors, and great quality for being play food. They all work well with the play knife and are easy to “cut” while also being held together strongly. I also love that they come with the wooden bin, it makes it super convenient to store in my sons play kitchen and put away other play food in it too. Great addition!

This is our second set of play food we have ordered from Melissa & Doug that can be “cut” and connects back together. Our son loved the first set so much we had to buy more. The Velcro lasts well and is easy to reattach. It helps teach fine motor skills & is a safe environment for kids to “help cook”. Provides a long time of entertainment! Bonus that it fits well in our play kitchen.

I ordered this for my 2.5 year old daughter who is VERY curious about the kitchen, cooking, etc. She has a play kitchen and tons of plastic "play food", however, I have found that she loses interest in them quickly overall (the play kitchen keeps her attention longer if/when we allow her to use real water in the pots and non-draining sink...). If this sounds like your child, read on!The Melissa & Doug Cutting Food set has been a total A+!! It does actually make a crunch sound when she cuts because of the Velcro between the slices which she seems to really enjoy. I am always leery of buying sets with so many pieces because she just doesn't seem to want to use them for their intended purpose, or the sets don't appeal to her. That is NOT the case with this set!! She loves it for what it is! The pieces have a nice weight because they are constructed from wood. It comes with a wooden knife that has a realistic shape that's rounded at the bottom just enough that it doesn't seem that it would cause damage or scratching if it is used on surfaces other than the cutting board it comes with.My 9 year old son even likes the set! He also likes using them to practice chopping and cutting (he started learning how to make basic recipes in the real kitchen a year ago). But, the thing he really enjoys about it, in his words, "using it to do factions"! It gives him a nice visual for what a 1/4 means when he can chop the pepper into quarters and he now understands reducing basic fractions because of this set - when he chops the pepper or watermelon in half, he started by calling one of the halves 2/4, but visually it made sense to him that 2/4 is also 1/2!If your child or children are in a Montessori School or Daycare, I highly recommend purchasing this set - they will love it! It is great for building and practicing practical life skills. It comes in its own wooden tray (the tray does not have handles, but it is an appropriate size and has ample sides to keep the items from spilling out) making clean up and storage easy for even the youngest kids.I saw in some of the reviews that people complained about the smell - there was no chemical or paint smell to ours, it only has a slight wood smell. My best guess is that Melissa & Doug changed the products that they use on it since those reviews were written. The Velcro seems very good, although we'll see how it will hold up to multiple kids over several years. You could probably replace the Velcro with some effort, if it is needed - but I don't know that it would be the easiest job.

I bought this Melissa & Doug Cutting Food Box Set as a birthday present for my 2-year-old niece, along with the Melissa & Doug Slice and Bake Cookie Set and the Sushi Set. What a hit!! She loved them all, but this set was by far the favorite. Both my niece and her 4-year-old brother spent hours playing with it. It didn't take them long to get the hang of it, and they had tons of fun "slicing" up the food--we couldn't put the pieces back together fast enough! It's a fun toy for grown ups and kiddos to play with together, too. We made sandwiches, counted pieces, matched colors, named food items, and puzzled out how to put the pieces back together. I can see endless possibilities for creative and educational play!I noticed that there were a few pieces of loose velcro on the cookie and sushi sets, but so far this set seems to be holding up just fine. I did notice that the red paint was already rubbing off on the knife a bit, though. Not a big enough issue to take away from the fun of this toy. If you can't decide which Melissa & Doug play set to buy first.....buy this one! I'll definitely be buying more for my niece and nephew in the future.