Cheese Graters
One of the most frustrating cooking utensils to use is the 4-sided cheese grater, which typically looks like this:
The cheese grater I have in my kitchen looks more like the image on the right, but I’ve included the second image because the side pictured is what the other two sides of my cheese grater look like. The issue with my grater is that it’s trying to do too much. It has 4 different sides with 4 different grating designs, and 3 of them are a complete waste. The side with the long, horizontal holes doesn’t even grate cheese at all but attempts to do longer slices; this works with something like a peeler, which has just one serrated edge, but is less effective here. A block of cheese won’t even really reach all 3 edges, and if it did it will be too large to move up and down.
Meanwhile, the holes on the other 2 sides of the grater are far too small to do anything at all. The overall effect is that the cheese gets stuck in and around these small holes and almost nothing falls down the middle. The fourth side (facing us in the right image) is the clear favorite, but the overall shape of the grater still makes this side difficult to use. For one, the handle to hold the grater steady is very awkward to hold. To get a good grip, you have to hold your elbow very high, which is neither comfortable nor very stable. The most intuitive grip to me is actually just gripping the sides of the grater with my whole hand, the only problem being that this is quite painful because of the other sides.
The final reason why I no longer buy cheese that isn’t shredded is that cheese graters are incredibly difficult to clean. The 2 sides with the smallest holes are the worst offenders; not only is the cheese impossible to get out of these holes, but they tear up your sponge in the process.
That being said, the metal, rectangular design means that the product is both inexpensive to make and durable. So while it may leave something to be desired in terms of user experience, it is lasts a long time (maybe too long) and costs very little. There is also some logic in having four different options for grating your cheese, ranging from larger slices to very small gratings. Although the smaller holes have not worked as well in my experience, they certainly have a purpose and are useful for some recipes.
Lastly, the grater has some clever affordances that make it easy to learn for first-time users. The circular handle fits nicely inside your palm, hinting at how to properly hold it, and the downward-slanted edges make it clear what direction to move the cheese in. The grater also stands nicely on its own, which suggests it would be used that way as well.
My redesign involves collapsing the 4-sided cheese grater into more of a sheet -grater and having it sit over a wood or metal box where the cheese gratings would fall in. The cheese grater itself would have medium-sized holes like in the right image above, and would slide nicely into the open box. The box would also have smooth, rounded sides for an easy-grip with one hand as you grate with the other. To access the cheese inside, you would simply pull out the metal sheet and empty the contents. See the diagram below:
The flat grater would ideally slide right into the box like the wood sheet does here, and although it’s not picture, the box would have a rounded edge on one side like the grater pictured, which would allow for a more natural grip.
