I remember the day we first met. I was 22 years old and you never revealed your true age. At first I had no idea how this relationship would work out. You with your sharp edges and sturdy handle and me a young pastry student with a bright future ahead of her.
I started slow, only using you to clean up my messes after chopping nuts, or to cut the extra dough from the edge of a pie.
After I felt more comfortable with you and realized that you were indestructible, I relaxed. I started seeing you almost daily. If I needed to slice frozen cookie dough, you were there. When I made dinner rolls you helped me portion them out in no time. If I lost my pizza cutter, you were there to help, no questions asked. You were also there in the hard times when I was decorating wedding cakes and I needed smooth sides when working with buttercream.
As I got older, our relationship changed. I moved on to teaching classes for adult and kids and you were left at the bottom of my tool kit. I forgot about you and our time together, until, one day a six year old child I was teaching needed to cut some carrots. A twelve inch knife did not seem to be the right choice for this young budding chef. Then, it came to me….the perfect tool for young chefs, my trusty, sturdy always-been there for me…..the bench scraper.
In closing, I recommend that everyone invite a bench scraper into their lives. They are inexpensive, sturdy and they also come made of plastic for scraping cookie doughs out of a mixing bowl.

Happy Cooking!
Chef Alekka