@susie >It's a freaking burger patty. You could cut that with a butter knife if you wanted to. It doesn't need a specifically designed cutting platform underneath it...

It's a fucking beef cake, with several layers of stuff atop of burger bun. You start cutting it with butter knife it all slides off and falls apart.

>The family plates at my mom's are over 30 years old and they have little to no marks.

are those plates white? i bet they are, marks are practically invisible on those, unlike on darker plates

>Plates aren't supposed to be damaged in the eating process.

because you aren't supposed to use "real" knives on them, only table/butter knives which are not sharp and leave no marks but also fucking pain to use on anything but butter.

>As for assembling/cooking surfaces: metals exists.

Metals are more expensive, slippery and not as fancy and in some cases (i.e. pizza making) remain hot for long time rendering them not very useful for serving. Plastic plates/cutting boards also exist but they are plastic.

All I'm saying, everything has drawbacks and benefits, I just don't think restaurant using wooden board just for stacking burger layers and serving is outlandish. Although I do think putting some paper between food and wood wood (hehe) be better