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MICROPLANE’S BLADES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT AS GOOD AS YOU CAN GET, SAYS MATT BIELBY, BUT NOW THEY DISMEMBER FOODSTUFFS WITH ADDITIONAL ELEGANCE Graters are rarely the most glamorous kitchen items, are they? Most of them are cheap, blunt and generally hopeless. And, I’m guessing, this will be equally as bad – just much, much more expensive. Whoa there, grumpy! This grater’s from Microplane, the Arkansas, USA woodwork company. It first expanded into kitchen utensils when a ’90s Canadian housewife found her husband’s carpentry tools worked far better than her rubbishy kitchen graters, and the company found its focus switch virtually overnight. Microplane stuff isn’t the cheapest, but it’s almost always the sharpest – thank ‘photo-etching’ technology, which means each cutting edge is like a tiny razor. Don’t use it to exfoliate, then! Probably best not to. Even the bog-standard Microplane graters are handsome tools, but the new, high-end Master Series – with stainless steel graters, loops at the end for easy hanging, and elegant oiled walnut handles – are particularly lovely looking, while the wood element is a nice reference to Microplane’s history, too. There are five graters in the set, each coming in at £30-35: a
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long, narrow Master Zester, for zesting citrus fruit and grating anything from hard cheese to garlic; and four paddle-shaped versions with fine, coarse, ribbon and extra-coarse blades. Do I really need so many? That’d be – does quick calculation – about £170 for the set! Perhaps not, but it’s easy enough to pick the ones you’ll really use. The fine one’s great for spices like nutmeg and cinnamon, and hard cheese like Parmesan; the coarse one’s really versatile, and perfect for carrots and coconut; the ribbon one creates elegant strips of everything from apple to chocolate; and the extra-coarse loves spuds, onions, and grating cold butter for pastry. I’d suggest just buying one or two to start, and seeing how you get on. Sounds grate! You’ve been pushing it for years, but congratulations: you just earned your P45.
✱ Microplane graters are available at Kitchens Cookshop, and branches of Lakeland, John Lewis and Steamer Trading; microplaneintl.com
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