GoKawiilEvery cook has seen these checkerboard-looking cutting boards and thirsted for them a little. They're handsome, of course, but they're also functional. Using the smaller end-grain wood pieces makes your butcher block harder to nick (which matters not just for aesthetics but bacteria), and easier on your favorite knife. But because an end-grain board must be made from many pieces of wood, they are usually quite expensive. And so they are perfect gifts for the cook in your life—a functional indulgence they may not have afforded themselves, but which they will be grateful for each day they use it.
A Boardsmith walnut end-grain is the board I have been using and treasuring for the past year. Walnut wood, like most maple and fruit woods, falls in the sweet spot of hardness that's hard to ding up but easy on knives. It's got that nice dark, uh, walnut color. Its heft makes it unlikely to move around. And it makes me feel a little better each time I cook—as if cutting celery were a form of luxury I'd previously been denied. The cook in your life will likely feel much the same. Note that maple is also a terrific cutting-board wood, and Boardsmith's costs $50 less than walnut.
Other great cutting boards: If you don't have room for a big ol' butcher-block board, Steelport has an elegant solution. The Steelport SteelCore ($280) is a rare thing: a genuinely innovative cutting board. It's a still-hefty but much thinner board made with end-grain walnut on one side for veggies and everyday prep, a composite cutting board on the flip side for raw meat, and steel beams within for both heft and warp resistance—all in a slim enough package it's easy to stash. I've possibly never met a more useful board, and it's still a bit of a looker.
On the budget side, this reversible edge-grain block from Boos is also great (if not as great as end-cut boards), and it's only $87.