Go grocery chopping!
Whole Foods’ new ‘produce butcher’
If chopping your own carrots and onions is too much to handle, the folks at Whole Foods have someone they want you to meet — their new produce butcher.
Like a traditional butcher who carves up steaks and chops, one Manhattan supermarket’s personal cutter will slice and dice fruits and vegetables on demand.
Customers have five options: julienned, minced, sliced, diced and chopped.
The service — which costs an extra $1 per pound over the cost of the vegetables and fruits — is available only at the high-end grocery’s newly opened location on Sixth Avenue, across from Bryant Park.
The carving station is the focus of the produce section. It includes a wooden chef ’s chopping block with an assortment of fresh produce surrounding it.
The butchers — many of whom have culinary backgrounds — are on hand each day during regular store hours.
Zara Hoffman, a 24-year-old Upper West Side resident, had the butcher dice some sweet potatoes and a kabocha squash Wednesday.
She likes the produce butcher because she feels their cut veggies are fresher than the pre-cut items that are often found wrapped in plastic.
“It’s a no-brainer,” Hoffman said. “I cannot cut, myself, for the life of me.”
Whole Foods chose the Bryant Park location to roll out the new station because of its high traffic, though spokesman Michael Sinatra admitted it may be an “only in New York” option that wouldn’t make it past the chopping block at other locations.
“There are a lot of busy people coming through, a lot of commuters,” Sinatra said. “With all the hard-working people in New York, we just thought it would be a great option.”
He said the service will be es- pecially helpful for people who don’t want to deal with the pain of slicing onions.
“We’re saving people a lot of tears and agony,” Sinatra said.
But not everyone was sold on the gimmick.
“I do think it contributes to New Yorkers’ lazy mentality,” said Marjorie Kennedy, 37. “Like, have somebody else do it.”
And Gabrielle Porter, of Mur- ray Hill, was adamant that her husband would never use the chopping station, saying, “I’m not the cook in the family, but I trust him to prepare my food.”