Patent ID: 8485510

Claim:
A food preparation apparatus for use on a horizontal work surface, comprising: a rigid, substantially horizontal panel comprising an upper surface upon which food may be cut; a periphery; a pattern of grid points on the upper surface covering at least a portion of the upper surface; a plurality of vertical holes having a uniform horizontal hole dimension placed through the panel at at least some of the grid points; means for mounting a blower on at least one location along the periphery; a blower; a substantially vertical food guide having a means for mounting the food guide in at least one of the vertical holes; and a substantially vertical knife guard having a means for mounting the knife guard in at least one of the vertical holes; the periphery is a rectangle having a horizontal length, a perpendicular horizontal width, and a thickness: the pattern is a rectangular grid of grid points, each grid point separated from its adjacent grid points by a horizontal distance in one horizontal direction and by the same horizontal distance in the other perpendicular horizontal direction: the food guide has a substantially vertical leading edge, a substantially horizontal lower edge having a lower edge length, and a vertical surface having a guide height: the knife guard has a vertical guard surface, a lower end, and a guard height: the means for mounting the food guide is a plurality of dowels depending vertically from the lower edge and spaced along the lower edge by one or more multiples of the horizontal distance; the means for mounting the knife guard is a dowel depending vertically from the lower end; the dowels being of a diameter such that the vertical holes grip the dowels when the dowels are inserted into the holes: a removable tray mounted below the holes having a volume capacity for holding juices released from food during cutting: the blower comprises a base, the base including at least one horizontal tang: the means for mounting a blower is taken from the list comprising a. at least one horizontal slot molded in the periphery and sized to frictionally grip the at least one tang: b. at least one horizontal slot affixed to the bottom of the panel and sized to frictionally grip the at least one tang: a plurality of panel supports attached to the bottom of the panel to hold the panel above the work surface by a panel height: and the panel height is sufficient to accommodate the tray.