Big old slab of rock

So I've decided to try and get back into sugar and chocolate work. I played with it a little at school, and quite frankly, I was lousy at it. I know that I just need to practice, but who has the time? Not me. So I've decided to make the time, and to buy the equipment. But what I needed was a big old slab of rock. That's what the pros use, and the amateurs too: a big old slab of granite or marble. But where do I get such a thing? I started with Froogle. It quickly became obvious that I didn't know how to look for slabs of rock. So I walked over to Pete and said, "hey Pete, you know stuff, right?"

Pete recommended I call up Artesan Water Jet, in Orem (UT). You see, when you decide to install marble countertops in your kitchen, you have to buy the whole slab, and then have it cut to fit. And one of the things that needs to get cut out is a space for the sink. That's what these people do; they cut the countertops for you, and then hang on to a bunch of the scraps. When I drove down there and told the guy I needed to buy a sink cutout to do chocolate work, he said "oh, you need a candy board! Yeah, come on back, I'll show you what we have." Apparently, I'm not the first person to do this.

He showed me a few stacks of the stuff. I grabbed the top piece of granite from a stack, and said "how much?" $15 later, he was helping me load it into my back seat, and explaining to me how I needed to carry it on its side, so that it didn't buckle from its own weight. This thing is about 17"x30", give or take, and about 3/4" thick. Heavy, but perfect! Now I just need to wash off all the dust and I've got me a candy board! All I need now is an infrared thermometer. Fortunately, they sell them at CostCo.