The grater shows its teeth
Rubbing, reducing, seasoning, zesting, spicing... It does it all! But where does this utensil come from, that Gruyère cheese couldn't do without? Flat or bell-shaped, giant or miniature, this spiky accessory is capable of reducing to calibrated crumbs whatever you put in front of it.
The generous gesture of the chef crowning your scrambled eggs with a shower of truffle slices; the diligent gesture of the cook concentrating on the dosage of his nutmeg; the fragrant rush of ginger root, vigorously rubbed over an army of small picots... Grating is an essential part of cooking. Of course, there's nothing to stop you buying your carrots in tubs and your Parmigiano Reggiano in bags, but let's be serious: let's talk about the right utensil for the right product, calibrated to the micron. When it comes to graters, it's all about the diameter of the holes and the angle of the blades.
Mind your fingers
Although its origins date back to ancient times - the Egyptians were already shredding their spices and herbs on stone or metal files - the grater was for a long time confined to a single version: a plate inclined by hand, on which you had to be careful not to cut your fingers. Then came the bell-shaped model - also known as the universal rasp - which is still in use today. With its four surfaces of varying cutting power, from the finest to the coarsest, it's supposed to adapt to everything, despite its bulky side.
For cheese, a whiff of nostalgia might lead you to François Boullier's invention, patented in 1828: the small, hand-cranked drum, capable of transforming a hard cube of dough into a melting cloud. For a long time a must-have, the tool has become more sophisticated, and true cheese lovers now draw their flat, electric or boxed graters at the end of the meal, or even the famous little individual "Bjorklund" marvel, invented in Norway in 1925. Still in the show-off department: the bircher grater, designed in the 1920s by Swiss Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, who not only invented the bircher müesli, but also the tool for cutting apples and nuts into perfect, thumb-safe pieces.
The Microplane breakthrough
Would you like to step up a notch in sophistication? Pull out the Microplane! Recognizable at first glance by its long metal head dotted with ultra-sharp asperities and its handle its handle in a range of acidic colors, this utensil has become so famous that its name has become part of everyday language. This old carpenter's tool, designed in the USA in the 1990s by Richard Grace, has been hijacked by clever cooks and is now the darling of chefs, turning cheese into shavings, nutmeg into powder or citrus peel into zest.
But let's not get carried away: the zester, which is more in the diaphanous league, or the mandolin, worn on the edge, may well be rivals: with its range of hole diameters, blade aggressiveness and grip diversity, the grater will remain unrivalled in the subtle art of linting.
