Microplane

It started out in 1990, merely as a new type of woodworking tool. The Microplane® rasp was first invented in 1990 by brothers Richard and Jeff Grace at their jointly owned contract manufacturing facility, Grace Manufacturing Inc., in Russellville, Arkansas.

Microplane® tools' tiny razor-like edges are formed by a totally different process called photo-etching in which holes are dissolved with a chemical, leaving edges that finely slice instead of tearing or shredding.

The big moment came in 1994, when Lorraine Lee, a homemaker in Ottawa, Canada, was making an Armenian orange cake. Out of frustration with her old grater, she picked up a new tool her husband, Leonard, had brought home from their hardware store, Lee Valley Tools. She slid the orange across its blades and was amazed. Lacy shards of zest fell from its surface like snowflakes. The Lees marveled at the tool, ate the cake, then promptly changed the product description in their catalog. The Microplane® grater had earned permanent space in the kitchen.