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A rasp-style grater, with its short, razor-sharp notches, can not only make short work of grating cheese, chocolate, citrus zest, nutmeg, ginger, and many other ingredients, it’s also easier to grip and store than a traditional box-style grater, sliding easily into a drawer or hanging on a wall alongside your other utensils. One brand is so ubiquitous in the rasp-grater space that it’s become synonymous with the tool: Microplane.
I’ve had a Microplane since college, when I first discovered how useful the tool could be. But because those sharp little rasp teeth eventually dull — and once they do you can’t easily sharpen them again — I’ve gone through a range of different styles of the tool. (A good rule of thumb is to replace your Microplane every year or so, when it starts becoming harder to use.) Microplane offers rasps that are long and thin, with or without a solid plastic or wood handle, as well as shorter, squatter models. Some versions of the tool have coarser teeth, and others have longer, more spaced-out slits, to produce curls of cheese or chocolate rather than a heap of fine shavings.
I’ve used many graters in my work as a food writer and cookbook author, and I’ve come to have strong opinions on the ones that I like the best. All of the rasps do the same job, but some are more comfortable to use. Because they’re also extremely sharp tools, it’s important to be able to get a good grip while you’re using them. As Liz Grothe, the chef of Scampi, told me, “It’s all fun and games to have a brand-new rasp until half of your finger is shaved onto a bowl of fettuccine.”
To choose the best ones, I tested many myself and also talked to chefs, bartenders, and food writers who regularly use their Microplanes. I’ve also included some other types of graters on the list.
What we’re looking for
Length
Rasp-style graters come in a range of lengths and sizes. A long and thin one allows you to make fewer movements with your wrists to fully zest a lime, which can be helpful for reducing hand fatigue. A shorter, squatter one might be more helpful for hard cheese, which often requires multiple shorter strokes in order to get a fluffy pile of shreds.
Handle material
Almost every rasp-style grater is made of stainless steel. Most also have a handle that allows you to grip the tool while you’re using it. The main options are soft plastic, hard plastic, and wood. The handle material is important for your comfort while using the grater, but it can also add to the solidness of the tool — after hard use, several of my rasps started separating from their handles, which makes using them a lot more difficult.
Coarseness
While most rasp-style graters produce fine shavings, there are some options with coarser holes for larger shreds. These tend to come in wider paddle or box versions, rather than the long, slim profile of a zester.
Best overall grater
Length: 12 Inches | Handle material: Ergonomic Soft-Touch | Coarseness: Fine
The overwhelming majority of chefs and bartenders who I talked to pointed to this long Microplane with a soft, easy-to-grip handle as their gold standard. And after using it in my own kitchen, I have to agree. It’s a tool that feels nice in your hand, and it quickly shredded anything I threw at it, from a huge chunk of chocolate I had brought back from a trip to Oaxaca to a pile of lemons. The thin, long shape allows you to easily maneuver it around citrus fruit, and it takes fewer strokes to yield an enormous pile of gratings. “It’s amazing for anything firm, like finishing cheese, citrus rinds, garlic, bottarga, etc.,” says Grothe. “It’s the workhorse of the kitchen.” Alexandra Holt, chef and owner of the Philadelphia restaurant Roxanne, is fiercely loyal to this model, too. “It’s the only one I use,” she says, noting that she replaces hers every three months or so.
The long, thin rasp with the comfortable handle makes it easy to grip and really bear down on a chunk of hard cheese. But chef Keith Bernstein, of Stella of New Hope in New Hope, Pennsylvania, particularly appreciates this model for its use in baking. He uses the 12-inch Classic Microplane for pastries. “Using the premium classic zester is beneficial for grating chilled, firm butter directly from the refrigerator,” Bernstein says, and this method makes it easy for him to quickly blend the butter into flour for pie crusts, tarts, and crumbles.
It’s the same trick that Kate Sigel, executive pastry chef of Saint Bibiana in Savannah, Georgia, uses to achieve airy, ethereal biscuits. “It allows for a really delicately buttered dough,” Sigel says.
Best less-expensive grater
Length: 14 inches | Handle material: Soft plastic | Coarseness: Fine
If you don’t work in a professional kitchen, you’re probably not going to have to replace your rasp-style grater every three months. But eventually wear and tear will make it duller, and it isn’t a tool that will last forever. So you might prefer a slightly less-expensive version of the kitchen tool. OXO’s version of the zester is slightly longer than the Classic Microplane Grater Zester, which affords a little bit of extra shredding every time you pass something that you’re zesting down it. Eva Suter, the beverage director of Bambino and L’Oca D’Oro in Austin, likes her OXO zester because it’s easy to find in stores and dependable. “My personal rule for tools like this for home is never buy the cheapest one, but usually you can find a good utility/quality balance at the second- or third-least expensive,” she says.
At her bars, Suter uses rasp-style graters for all kinds of drinks and garnishes. “It’s a handy tool for adding a bright bit of anything harder and aromatic — like topping a cocktail with a whiff of ginger or galangal, or some fresh zip on top of a Bloody Mary or savory martini with a few grates of fresh horseradish,” Suter says. Her main use for the rasp grater is making Limoncello, which involves zesting a lot of citrus.
Best higher-end grater
Length: 12 Inches | Handle: Wood | Coarseness: Fine
While the soft-handled version of the 12-inch Classic Microplane was the fan favorite, the extra strength provided by the Master Series with a walnut-wood handle is great if you find the softer plastic difficult to grip. Neal Bodenheimer, the mixologist behind the James Beard–winning New Orleans bar Cure and the co-author of Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em, prefers the wooden-handled version for the extra measure of security it gives.
“I really like a few different models of Microplane brand zesters, but none are as sturdy as the wooden handle,” Bodenheimer said. “Sometimes the plastic handle version can break or come apart — this happened to me, in fact — but the wooden version is durable and has a little weight to it, which strangely adds control. I like the all-metal versions, but it can hurt if you are grating consistently.”
Best hard-handle grater
Length: 12 Inches | Handle: Hard plastic | Coarseness: Fine
If the idea of more control over your zester grater appeals to you, but you’d prefer a lower price point — or to avoid the wooden handle — Microplane also makes a version of its classic grater and zester with a hard plastic handle. That can afford you the same amount of control over the tool, but without shelling out so much every time you need to replace it.
Trevor Langer, the beverage director of Porchlight, says this is his preferred version for that exact reason. “The hard handle gives you a firm grip, which alleviates the fear of the tool falling out of your hand when grating something that takes a bit of force and keeps you from embarrassing yourself in front of a guest,” Langer says. At Porchlight, Langer uses the Microplane for an unusual flourish. “When you’re feeling theatrical, it’s always fun to have a flaming feature on a drink, then grate something like cinnamon over said flame to create this visually stimulating sparking effect,” he says. “The smell of burning cinnamon is warm and enticing and gets you even more excited for your first sip.”
Best coarse grater
Length: 12 inches | Handle: Soft plastic | Coarseness: Coarse
Unlike the other grater/zesters on this list, this Microplane is more of a paddle shape rather than a long, thin rasp. That’s particularly useful when you’re maneuvering around a big hunk of cheese. The larger, coarser teeth on this model are great when you’re aiming for larger shreds of cheese, rather than the extremely fine and fluffy cloud of shavings that the rasp produces. I use this style when I’m grating a hunk of cheddar to make macaroni and cheese, for example.
Grothe likes this grater for cheeses or butter that haven’t been frozen first. “It’s pretty [great] for softer materials,” she says. She cautions, however, that you can injure yourself more easily by grating too close to this Microplane’s coarser teeth.
Best mini-rasp grater
Length: 9 inches | Handle: Soft plastic | Coarseness: Fine
If you’re frequently grating smaller items like spices, this smaller-size rasp is a great tool. Jewel Johnson, executive chef of Poppa’s Custard Company, has this rasp specifically for nutmeg but uses it for many other tasks too. “I reach for it for citrus before a 12-inch microplane,” she says. “This one gets more oil out of the fruit.”
Johnson particularly likes the mini rasp’s slightly conical shape, as opposed to the flat plane of the 12-inch microplane. The mini rasp also has a narrower surface, at just one inch, which makes it particularly useful for handling smaller items, like whole spices, without accidentally nipping your fingertips. A pro tip for extracting any lingering fiber from the tiny blades: “I use a skewer to get citrus zest out of it,” Johnson says.
Best rasp-style box grater
Length: 10.25 inches | Handle: Hard plastic grip over stainless steel | Coarseness: Both fine and coarse sides
If you like the style and heft of a traditional box grater, but you prefer the sharp, small notches that are on a rasp-style grater, great news: Microplane makes a box grater. Actually, Microplane makes two box graters that have rasp-style surfaces, the four-sided and the Elite. Both of them have plates with a range of different fineness levels, allowing you to switch sides to get the size of grated material you want. I tested both, and while the Elite Box Grater has a handy cap at the bottom to catch fluffy Parmesan shavings or shredded carrots, I preferred the four-sided Box Grater model because of two features. It has raised legs to stabilize the grater, meaning that there’s a little bit of space between the grater and the plate or cutting board that you’re using to catch your gratings. I found that this made it much easier to estimate how much I had grated, as opposed to the Elite, which obscures what’s inside. I also loved that you could remove the plates from the four-sided grater to clean them or to grate on them individually, making it a lot easier to get finicky bits of food that are stuck in the sharp slots.
Best traditional box grater
Length: 9.5 inches | Handle: Hard plastic | Coarseness: Mixed, coarser than a rasp
If you’ve read all this and think, what I want is a traditional, excellent box grater, well, no problem. Strategist senior editor Winnie Yang highly recommends the Cuisipro 4-Sided Box Grater. “The Cuisipro impressed me with how sharp it is. It takes very little effort to grate carrots or potatoes on it. It’s actually so sharp that you have to be careful not to let your finger or knuckles get too close, and I would, as a precaution, probably not do soft cheese on it,” Yang says. She’s had her model since 2017, and even after years of use and cleaning it by putting it through the dishwasher, it’s still very sharp.
Best oroshigane grater
Length: 5.5 inches | Handle: Wood | Coarseness: Fine
In Japanese cuisine, an oroshigane grater is the rasp of choice. It’s usually shorter and wider than a Microplane and often comes with a wooden brush or small spatula to help scrape the gratings off the surface of the tool. Chef Dominique Crenn, chef and owner of Atelier Crenn, swears by hers, calling it “my most trusted kitchen tool. I use it mostly to grate fresh wasabi but also garlic, ginger, radishes, and yam.
Our experts
• Keith Bernstein, executive chef of Stella of New Hope
• Neal Bodenheimer, managing partner of Cure, Cane & Table, Peychaud’s, and VALS
• Dominique Crenn, chef and owner of Atelier Crenn
• Liz Grothe, chef and owner of Scampi
• Alexandra Holt, chef and owner of Roxanne
• Jewel Johnson, executive chef of Poppa’s Custard Company
• Trevor Langer, beverage director at Porchlight
• Kate Sigel, executive pastry chef at Saint Bibiana
• Eva Suter, beverage director at Bambino and L’Oca D’Oro
• Winnie Yang, Strategist senior editor
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