Hi. I've done plenty of wiring around the house, but this presents a
new challenge. I'm wiring in a new cooktop, and it's wired
differently from the last one (which seemed to have a breaker for
every element, four 20 Amp breakers for the cooktop). This time, the
cooktop runs on 240V with a 30A breaker.

The wiring instructions seem to indicate that the two hot wires (red
and black) from the breaker box each get wired to corresponding red
and black wires from the cooktop, the bare copper ground from the
cooktop gets wired with the bare copper from the breaker box, and to
the junction box, but the neutral from the breaker box isn't used?
Does this sound right? Would I just wire-nut the neutral and leave it
in the box?

The whole thing is to be on its own 30A breaker, is it okay if this is
the breaker in the main panel, or should I have a subpanel under the
cooktop?

TIA for your help.

Cheers.

maurice