best wood for a wooden spoon

I agree with John regarding the Osage Orange or
"Bois D'arc" wood. It also has a natural curved grain.

Another good option might be locust...

Just a quick note on osage orange wood: It is used in natural dyeing as a source of yellow, containing both tannins (so no need for a mordant) and various pigment compound that are classed as flavones/isoflavones (among others). It is not listed as toxic in any natural dye manual to which I have access, but working with a dyepot is a bit different than using the wood to stir your soup....

Interesting

I think Bowdark is also termite proof, probably due to those compounds you mentioned.

Whoah, I have never tried carving with green wood. Thank you whoever made that brilliant suggestion.
The best spoons you will ever own are those you made yourself.
I am a Steiner teacher, and as a rite of initiation, young teachers learn to carve a wooden spoon as their first artistic woodwork project.
We all have wood spons, spatulas or "mistakes" rattling around in our drawers, and it was a lot of fun making them, even the mistakes, which turned from huge ladels into tiny salt spoons as one thing or another went horribly awry.
We used a variety of timbers, quite often fruit woods, depending on what was available.
I applauded the spoon makers. I hope you have a lot of fun, and even produce a fabulous result that will live with you for a long time. hugshugs from early winter New Zealand where we have some crazed politicians, and some fabulous farmers.

The question has been answered many times already, but I will chime in with my favorites. Black cherry, beech and sycamore are all tight grained and carve beautifully. So is maple, though as it splits so cleanly I would be hesitant to use it for wide utensils. I made a beautiful spoon from a cedar branch with a natural curve, but the tip split off from use. Black walnut carves easily and makes gorgeous spoons, but is softer and tends to fuzz with use.

This suggestion comes late but I missed the bus. Being a wanna be Woodturner, it helps greatly to slow the drying process down to avoid the certain crack or three. Turning green wood give you lots of green shavings. Grab a brown paper bag , throw a few hand fulls of shaving, your wooden piece and more shavings on top. Fold the top and forget about it for awhile. So far I’ve only lost one bowl and it was more my fault because I was slow in doing this. Try it, you’ll like it