We purchased this item for our then 20-month-old daughter to go along with her KidKraft Large Kitchen and, although I thought it was super cute, it was largely ignored for months. Now, at 2 1/2, my daughter loves this toy and plays with it frequently. It is a great toy to keep her occupied while mommy makes dinner, and it encourages an interest in veggies (an area in which my daughter needs all the encouragement she can get!) Overall a terrific toy, but probably a bit advanced for most 2 year olds, so you may want to pay attention to the "age 3 and up" label on this one.

This toy is quite nice. My son got it for his third birthday and has been playing with it a lot. It's neat that it actually makes a noise that sounds like cutting a vegetable because you have to slice through the velcro. I will say that it's a little hard for him to cut the tomato because it's kind of small and hard to hold while cutting it. And he hasn't quite figured out how to put them all back together. It's kind of a puzzle, too! I have a friend who has had them for a while, and she says her paint is chipping off and starting to look pretty bad. And it seems like the velcro could wear out pretty easily. It wouldn't be that bad to glue more velcro circles on it, but I think it would be hard to paint it and match the paint exactly. He's only had it for a few days, but it's a hit so far! He also really likes the pizza kit and the sandwich-making set.

I bought this for my son when he was about 18 months old and he abolutely loves it! It holds his attention 2 to 3 times longer than most toys. He loves the crunching noise made by cutting through the velcro. In addition, despite the vast number of blocks, books, toys etc. that I've purchased to help him learn colors.....this toy has proven to be the best tool we've found. The colors are vibrant and the pieces are very sturdy. We've loved every Melissa and Doug item we've purchased. I just ordered the sushi set and can't wait to get it.

This toy was brought to my house from my sons speech therapist. He took to it right away. The food makes realistic cutting sounds as the food velcro is separated. Since then we have bought the fruit as well. He has learned the names of the food verbally and in sign language. We have now bought this toy for all of his friends because when they come over they all want to play with it. Fantastic toy.

We purchased the Melissa and Doug Cutting Food Box along with the Melissa and Doug Wooden Sushi set for our sons at Christmas.

Here's four reasons we enjoyed this toy so much:

1. It was perfect for quiet play and indoor play during winter.

2. We reinforced good eating habits during meals with the playset.

3. Our sons learned a lot of vocabulary, especially verbs like cut, slice, chop, and mix.

4. Our sons had lots of FUN playing with the food box!

I got this for my 2 1/2 year old daughter who kept wanting to help me cut food when I was making meals. She LOVES this toy! She took right to it, and loves the action of 'cutting', the noise it makes, and her 'knife'. She is a little challenged putting the pieces back together (matching that the hooks of the velcro have to go with loops), but it is not a big deal to help her. My only dissapointment is that the velcro is already showing some wear, even though the toy is a only a few months old. Overall, I would highly recommend this toy, your child will love it!

Wonderful Learning Toy! I bought this for my son--yes, a BOY!--when he was about two years old, (along with a play kitchen set-up, etc.). I wanted him to explore toys that are traditionally considered 'girlie'--he had the 'boy' stuff already covered--he has tons of guns, action figures & military stuff since his big sister is a Marine!

As for this toy--along with just about anything that's made by Melissa & Doug--he LOVED it as a toddler & he continued to play with it off and on until he was in first grade--and unbeknown to him--I donated it to a younger neighbor. This truly upset my son. He was quite attached to the toy although we had lost a couple of the pieces over the years. Oh well, mom blew that one! lol...

At first glance, this may seem like a toy for the toddler crowd, but from our experience, even school age kids love to practice their cutting and creative food-combining skills. I've purchased this set several times as birthday gifts, and it is always a hit! And you can't beat the price for a dependable, high-quality wooden toy.

*** One note for parents or kids who are perfectionists ***
The cucumber, the carrot and the bread connect in many ways--but to get them back together perfectly--you may want to mark them before you first pull them apart so you'll be able to duplicate the original configuration. This sounds odd I know, but the items can 'look askew' if not 'just right.' To fix this problem, I used a fine point black sharpie and discreetly marked the direction & angle on the confusing sections. Worked like a charm!

My 20 months old loves to play cooking. And as soon as I opened this toy up, he immediately play with it. He plays with it for a long time. It's very durable. I am not afraid he will break them. We love the box that came with it. All the food toy fits in the box. I pack them up when we go to his babysitter so he plays with it when he's there.

My daughter, 4, loves fixing sandwiches for me with this. She also bring it along to 'cook' with me when I am in the kitchen. I wouldn't classify it as being an educational, but it is a lot of fun. It is neat how the veggies are velcroed in to allow children to experience cutting them.

The only improvement would be to make vegetables actually look like their real counterpart. I could hardly recognize the cucumber, if that is what it is.

My granddaughter loved it and so did the adults. The only problem was a mis-shipment which delayed its arrival a few days. It's very educational as well as indestructible. It even sounds like you are cutting food because the wooden knife slices through velcro. Very cleaver.

This toy more than met my expectations. My grandson who is three years old loves the challenge of cutting up and reassembling the fruits and vegetables and the fun of having imaginary picnics. It is also a great introduction to numbers and fractions and encourages healthy eating habits.

My 2-year-old loves this set and plays with it every day! She always wants to help in the kitchen, but there are only a few things she can safely do. This set was a great way for her to learn to cut things. Now she can help me chop soft things.

I just want to say that this product does NOT come with two knives and two cutting boards like one of the featured reviews indicated. That review was written in 2002 and maybe it came with two then but it doesn't now. This is a significant con for me.

That been said, my sons ages 18 months old and 3 years old both love this toy. Wonderful idea! My older son loves to "help" me in the kitchen and sometimes I just don't have time to let him. The food cutting box is just what I needed. He cuts his veggies while I cut mine and I can actually get dinner cooked. It makes cooking dinner quality time for us since I'm not stressing out because I'm not getting done what I need to do. Anything that improves the mood gets my vote.

My 2 and 4 year olds got this for Christmas, and decided to make vegetable soup. And whats vegetable soup without a little (or lot) of water. 30 mins later, the paint is peeling off all the tomatoes and carrots and the whole box has to be thrown away. Im suprised this hasnt come up in any of the 100+ reviews, maybe I have the only kids who extensively use water when they're playing with food. They rinse, they boil, they wash and these pieces cannot handle water.

Im sure this is a great quality toy, but not for the way my kids play. Also, the pieces are heavy and hurt when dropped on toes.

It's hard to find kitchen-related toys that aren't really girly. This realistic set has already provided hours of entertainment for my 2.5 y.o. son. It's worth it for vocabulary building alone.

I purchased this for my daughter after she played with it at a local "old town" village. She absolutely loves this. She feeds her dolls and the family.

I'm able to teach her counting & math with this by asking for 3 slices of bread or asking if there's enough of something for everyone to have a piece.

She got this when she was 1 1/2 and still plays with it a year later!

Non toxic paint, not made in china, great toy for kids to learn how to cut...will make it easier to let her help in the kitchen earlier. She learned the sharp side, leaveraging and how to keep her fingers out of the way! Great toy plays with it frequently and for long periods.

My 4 year old son loves to cook or pretend to cook. We purchased this for him for his 4th birthday along with the bead lacing. This is a big hit! He loves to put the veggies on the cutting board and chop them up to make food for mommy, daddy or big brother. I recommend this one for the little cook in your house!

Just purchased this food set for my grandson...and during the last weekend he spent with me, it was by far his favorite toy!!! He is 2-1/2 and it kept him busy for hours.

My 2-year-old received this set for her birthday and it's wonderful. I can't believe hook-and-loop tape can work so well, but "cutting" through the wooden food pieces with the play knife is very satisfying! It feels real. My little one has fun pulling the pieces apart and reassembling them (the carrot has four pieces, for example) and my older daughter likes to cut up the food. What I love the most is that they are playing with play foods that are healthful and made to last of quality wood -- a sharp contrast to the cheap, plastic pieces of pizza and cookies that came with other sets.

I gave this to my daughter for her 4th birthday. She was interested in it immediately. At an age when you want to do everything yourself, this toy gives a feeling of accomplishment. She found it very enjoyable to chop food to prepare "soup" for her babies. Her big sister, 8 years old, could hardly wait for her turn to chop food, too. This is a very well-made, durable toy, great for imaginative play.

We bought this for my daughter when she was 18 months, and she absolutely loves this toy. She "cuts" food multiple times a day.. and is a pro at it! At first, I had to show her how to cut the food.. and she would get frustrated easily when she couldnt do it on her own, but it didnt take long and she mastered the skill of cutting.

The food items are very durable. I do have two drawbacks to this toy though:

- First, my daughter plays with this toy multiple times a day. She is a pro at cutting it up.. but at 22 months, she still doesnt know how to put the food back together. That means, she cuts everything up, and there is a HUGE pile of broken food on the floor! I have to put them all back together for her so she can cut up again. Hopefully she will learn how to do this on her own soon..

- Second, the velcro is starting to wear out on some of the food. They still stick together.. but not as tightly as they did when the toy was new. So, I'm a little concerned that we have only had this toy for less than 5 months and the velcro has already started to wear down the "stickiness" for the food stick together. Would be better if they were magnets instead of velcro..

Overall, very good toy though.. and keeps my daughter entertained for a long time - highly recommend this toy.

My 2 year old daughter thought this toy was SO fun at first, but after a while she lost interest. I think, perhaps, it will be fun again when she's a little older and starting to play house and such. The toy itself is durable and VERY well made. I think I might have had more fun with it than she did! All in all, I'm happy with our purchase.

My three year old has recently become obsessed with making "food". He made food out of clumps of dirt in my garden, and "baked" with pans in my kitchen. So for his birthday we got him this set of play food. He likes it a lot! He enjoys cutting the pieces apart and sticking them together in unusual ways - the other day he presented me with an "apple sandwich". I'd say the toy is well worth the price - it is fun, durable, and provides for imaginative play.

I bought this gift for my youngest daughter at Christmas. She was 2 at the time. She and her 4 year old sister both played with it quite frequently. They really enjoyed being able to cut the food into pieces. They especially gravitated towards the cucumber & Italian bread. They don't play with it quite as often now, but it's still something they pull out occasionally - especially while playing "house."

I bought this set and the fruit set for my 2 year old son and I have to say this is the only toy thatkeeps him busy. He plays with these two sets for an hour+ which he doesn't do with any of his other toys. The only draw back is I have to keep putting the pieces back together so he can cut them again and again. These pieces are durable and well made. We love them!

My Daughter is 2 1/2 and this toy helped her to learn the fractions!!! Before this toy, we were asking her how much milk does she want in her cup: a half, a quarter, 2 thirds ... and she was saying almost all the time "a quarter" ... which it meant a lot for her (even if we were telling her that a half is more).
After she got this toy, we showed her how the fractions work and now she knows them very good!!!
She likes to cut the pieces, too, and put them back together, fix meals and "feed" us and her dolls.
Great toy!

Even though i downgraded this toy for 'educational value', it doesn't make it any less fun. Everything doesn't have to have a huge 'educational value'! The 2 year old I gave this to loved it and played independently with it for a long while. I think it is probably better for a 3 year old as when she couldn't handle the velcro or knife, she'd just rip the pieces apart. The toy is well made and promotes creative play. I do wonder, however, how long the velcro will last. I'd buy it again - a definite hit!

I got this for my 3 year old daughter and she loves it!!! She plays with it everyday. The only thing is that it is difficult for her to put the pieces back together properly after she cuts them apart, but she is learning. Also, I hope this toy will help her understand fractions when the time comes.

I have a 3yr, 4yr & 6yr old girls. They played with it ALL DAY long the first few weeks (I am talking wake up time till bed time...literally). They love serving food to people, dolls, stuffed animals etc. They enjoy the fact that they can now use a knife and cutting board while they mimic mommy when I make dinner.(mommy loves the fact that it is a safe way to teach them how to cut food) The sound of cutting sounds exactly like the real deal, which makes it more fun for them. When they show it to a new friend they have to make sure they hear how it sounds. My personal statement on this toy? Simple, but effective!

My daughter was 2.5 yrs old when she received this as a gift and 6 months later - she loves it still. My 9 month old also plays with the pieces (when his sister "feeds" him a fruit). The presentation is neat, the pieces are durable and your child can create a masterpiece with all the items inside. I just bought one for a birthday gift.

My 2 year old granddaughter loves her cutting food box. She is very diligent to give everyone the same amount of pieces of food! :) She fits everything back in the box when she is done feeding us all. I love the Melissa and Doug products! :)

This is a really cool toy. It allows my children (two yr old son & four old daughter) to cut vegetables and other foods just as I do on my cutting board. The cutting sound (velcro) is pretty cool, too.

My three year old loves this toy. SHe loves the slicing and the dicing aspect of it all. Real nice presentation, it's packaged nicely in it's own crate.

My little 5-year old niece LOVES this gift she received for Christmas. The velcros between the slices makes a very REAL-sounding noise when it is "sliced" with the included wooden knife. She has spent hours making up various "plates" of requested foods for me! This is a great item.