The Kitchen Tool Ina Garten Says Every Beginner Cook Needs

There are numerous culinary gadgets available to stock a kitchen, making it challenging to determine what is needed compared to what is a luxury. Fancy food processors and blenders may catch the eye, but when it comes to essential kitchen tools, a zester is one of the most important items a beginning cook can have. Just ask Amy Poehler and Ina Garten. While visiting with Amy Poehler on the "Parks and Recreation" alum's "Good Hang podcast," the Barefoot Contessa seconded Poehler's suggestion that new cooks should reward themselves with a tool. But not just any tool — a zester.

Poehler said. "Get yourself a zester," to which Garten cautioned, "And don't keep it forever. You can't sharpen it like a knife! After a couple of years, get a new one." It's excellent advice. And if you are wondering what type you should buy, Garten's zester of choice is a microplane zester. In fact, back in 2017, she told Bon Appétit, "You know what I love is a rasp (a microplane) because I love the zest of citrus fruit. And actually now I do garlic on the rasp because it grates it so finely."

A microplane zester comes in all shapes and sizes. The one you are probably most familiar seeing Ina Garten use has a long, narrow stainless steel blade that grates things like nutmeg, parmesan cheese, garlic, and lemon rind with little effort. It is better than a box grater because of those sharp, fine razor teeth that produce piles of fluffy, feather-like curls of whatever you slide across it. A microplane works particularly well with citrus. Because the shavings are so fine, you don't get any of that bitter white pith when zesting a lemon, lime, or other fruit. It's also great for ginger, hard butter, and chocolate when you need to produce such fine bits that they melt into your soup or sauce.

However, before the microplane zester earned a place in Ina Garten's kitchen drawer, it was used for woodworking — smoothing intricate curves and hard-to-reach corners. In 1994, a woman from Canada, making an orange cake, became frustrated with her standard grater, which was old and had dull teeth. In a Hail Mary attempt, she took the woodworking tool out to zest an orange. It worked so well that it quickly caught on and became a must-have. So, the next time you want to treat yourself to a kitchen tool, take Amy Poehler and Ina Garten's advice and buy a zester. It also makes a great stocking stuffer for the home cook.