You can have metal rods inset into the wood worktop, called Trivet rods I think, and you can then place hot items onto the metal rods.
An example here..
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and here..
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OK, so wood is likely not the most suitable for worktops, but it depends on your point of view. It requires some maintainence... but basically to oil it you only wipe over the surface with a cloth with oil on it... takes about 5 mins... and you only do this every six months or so, and more often around the sink, or as required. The more coats the merrier...
It takes a while to dry, perhaps six hours or overnight, or before you leave for work.. no point doing this a half hour before tea-time. Just use Danish Oil, or a dedicated worktop oil, like ones from Liberon, or Chestnut, or others I'm sure.
Wood worktops can get scratched or marked, a bit of sanding will fix most of this, and marks can be desirable depending on your point of view.
You need to use upstands at the back, like a skirting board, (see pics above)... this allows you to leave an expansion gap at the back of the worktop, and it can expand and contract into the space left below the upstands. The worktop should only be firmly fixed at the front in this case, although you can use 'buttons' to keep the worktop down at the back while still allowing movement. The upstands will also tend to keep the back down so the 'buttons' may not be necessary.
In some cases, where there's no joins, you can firmly attach the back of the worktop, and allow expansion at the front edge... although you would likely need the 'buttons' to keep the front edge down.
The most suitable worktop is likely to be a laminate, in that it's cheap, hard wearing, durable, hygenic enough I think, etc etc...and they do look ok.
Commercial kitchens always use stainless steel... this may be because it is hygenic, and easy to see dirt on, and keep clean... you could have one installed in a house although it wouldn't look great, would it?
Other worktops could be made from glass, coloured glass, tiles, granite, stone, re-constituted stone or manmade stone (silestone?), slate tiles, or cast concrete, which you can do nearly anything with, and it's very cheap for the concrete itself, and it can be coloured, made in any thickness, items can be inset into it, and it can be made into any shape. Concrete is the most used substance on earth.. not for worktops, just in general.
I've never heard of plastic or rubber etc being used as a worktop..
I have other pics of worktops if you'd like them, Beech, Iroko, Walnut, Oak, maybe Birch.. check out woodworkers.ie for sizes, prices and pics as well.
Cheers so