When reviewing innovation in food and the culinary industry, the Microplane zester/grater stood out to me as quite the ingenious product. The Microplane is a relatively new tool to the culinary world, but has changed the way many chefs go about their daily tasks in the kitchen. It is certainly a tool that many of us would not want to go without. The Microplane has its roots in Grace Manufacturing Inc., a company founded by Louis Grace and his son Richard in 1967 (Microplane Ltd., 2016). This company got it start from producing small components for computer printers, but quickly realized that they needed to change their game plan upon the arrival of laser printers in the marketplace during the early 1990’s. Initially they decided to shift their focus to develop and produce specialized woodworking tools which contained very sharp teeth with small razor-like edges (Microplane Ltd., 2016; The History of Microplane, n.d.). It was in 1994 when this company underwent even further changes due to a lucky strike of innovation. As the story goes, a Canadian housewife had been in the process of preparing an orange cake and decided to use one of her husband’s wood rasps made by Grace Manufacturing in place of her old traditional grater. She found that the rasp, originally intended for wood, did an outstanding job in zesting oranges. This led to a Toronto based company choosing to market Grace Manufacturing tools as food graters within their woodworking catalog (Microplane Ltd., 2016). From this success, Grace Manufacturing decided to start marketing their wood rasps as food graters for kitchen use in their own catalogues and began to see their business boom with many chefs deciding that they needed to get their hands on one of these tools to see what it was all about (Microplane Ltd., 2016; The History of Microplane, n.d.). Of course, much has changed since 1994. Louis’ grandson Chris joined the company in 2002, helping to expand their products by marketing them throughout the globe. Chris now serves as the CEO of the company and has helps take Grace Manufacturing Inc. to new heights by progressively adding new products to the Microplane product line, such as colourful box graters, herb mills and spiral cutters (Microplane Ltd., 2016; The History of Microplane, n.d.). I find it quite amazing to see how easy innovation can occur, especially when you least expect it. It seems that through a stroke of luck, a product originally designed for use with wood happened to be applied in a different way that worked. The manufactures could have easily decided to look at this as something bewildering to them and tell their customers that these tools were not designed to serve any purpose beyond use on wood products, but instead they chose to grab a hold of this newly found use and market the Microplane in an innovative way. Not only did this likely result in increased profits for Grace Manufacturing, but it also helped to fill a gap in the marketplace for chefs who either had to rely on using less productive alternative graters or mincing food through experienced knife work. But the true beauty of the Microplane is seen in its versatility. Of course, any experienced chef can mince garlic with speed, yet but by having this one simple tool in their chef kit they can use it to do things that knife work cannot accomplish, such as grating nutmeg. For those of us that have used a Microplane, you can likely attest to its versatility and ability to stay sharp. It is also slim and portable, which helps chefs who travel and cater events by allowing them to bring one simple tool rather than an assortment of various sized graters serving various purposes. For me, I find that this tool has helped a great deal with my mise en place by decreasing the number of tools on my workstation and increasing the speed at which I prepare ingredients, such as minced garlic, giving me more time to focus on preparing my dishes. As a child, I can still remember picking up one of those cheaply made hand-held graters my mother kept in her kitchen to grate some cheese only to end up having the cheese slip due to the dullness of the grater and resulting in a horrible series of cuts into the side of my palm. I can now use this tool and its sharp teeth to finely shred parmesan directly onto my pasta, rather than having to rely on one of the dull equipment in my mother’s kitchen that does nothing more than bring back flashbacks and fear of experiencing those childhood cuts all over again. The Microplane is one of the most important tools in my chef kit. I carry it with me whenever I go to a friend’s house to cook, and will likely continue to carry it with me for many years to come. References:
Microplane Ltd. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.microplaneintl.com/ The History of Microplane. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kitchenproject.com/history/Microplane/index.htm
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AuthorHi everyone. I'm Peter, and I have decided to follow my passion and pursue a career in cooking. I look forward to connecting with you all. Archives
February 2017
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