Why have I so stubbornly refused to get one of these wonderful gadgets for all these years?! My good friend Dave Stefanik and I were shopping at Sur La Table the other day and he was in the middle of a recital of all the expensive kitchen equipment he has that he never uses, including several thousand dollars’ worth of All-Clad cookware, when we passed a display of Microplane graters. He said, ‘Now that is one purchase that I’ve never regretted!’ To which I replied, ‘But I have the Zyliss rotary grater!’ and he said, ‘No, you simply have to get one of these!’

So I did. And today I tried it out for the first time. I know everyone else bought these things 10 years ago but I resisted, partly because I couldn’t believe they were that much better than the graters I already had, and partly because they shortly became available in a bewildering variety of shapes, sizes, and choice of coarseness. You know, research has proven that consumers are actually unhappier when given more choices, not happier.

Anyway, I was flabbergasted at the ease with which this grater transformed a hard, elderly chunk of parmesan into a fluffy cloud of freshly grated cheese, virtually effortlessly, cheese I was ready to throw away because I knew my Zyliss wouldn’t have been able to do a thing with it. I am now completely sold on these Microplanes and urge any readers who don’t already own one to go buy one forthwith.