A long, narrow rasp grater with hundreds of tiny, photo-etched teeth sharp enough to shave rather than tear, so citrus zest, hard cheese, garlic, ginger, nutmeg and chocolate come off as light, fine fluff. The design is borrowed from a woodworking rasp; Microplane is the trademark of the company that first sold it for the kitchen in the 1990s, and the name now stands for any fine rasp grater. Also sold as a zester.
It takes the coloured, oil-rich outer layer of a lemon without the bitter white pith underneath, which a box grater or a channel zester cannot do as cleanly. Grated by microplane, Parmesan melts into pasta on contact and a clove of garlic dissolves into a dressing. The teeth are sharp enough to take skin off knuckles; grate away from the body and stop before the end.