Zyliss E900020U Cheese Grater: Grate Over the Plate

A block of Parmesan can be easy to store and awkward to finish neatly over a plate. A flat grater works, but it also leaves your hand moving close to an exposed surface while cheese scatters onto a board or counter. The Zyliss E900020U takes a restaurant-style approach: load a piece of hard cheese into the chamber, close the handle, and turn the crank so fine shreds fall exactly where you point the drum.

That makes the selected B01HX6HAK6 most useful for people who regularly grate hard cheese at the table or directly over finished food.

The drum puts the grating inside the tool

The E900020U uses a fine stainless-steel rotary drum inside a white housing. Instead of dragging the cheese across a stationary blade, you hold the ingredient against the drum while the crank rotates it.

For Parmesan, Pecorino, hard chocolate, or nuts, that changes the mess and the hand position. The grated ingredient exits from the side of the drum, so you can aim it over pasta, soup, salad, or a dessert rather than creating a separate pile first.

The mechanism still depends on the ingredient. Zyliss positions this fine drum for hard cheeses, chocolate, nuts, and similar foods; it is not a promise that every soft or sticky ingredient will feed cleanly. Buy it for the firm foods the drum is designed to grate.

Switch the handle for either hand

Amazon and Zyliss both describe the E900020U as suitable for left- or right-handed use. The crank and handle arrangement can be switched so the same grater does not force every user into one orientation.

That matters more here than it would on a tool that sits flat on a counter. A handheld rotary grater asks one hand to hold and press while the other turns the crank. If that arrangement feels natural, the motion is simple and repeatable; if you prefer pushing food across a broad flat surface, a box or rasp grater may still suit you better.

Amazon also lists a non-slip finish on the rotating knob. That is a small detail, but it is the part your fingers repeatedly turn while the drum is loaded.

Disassembly is part of the appeal

A rotary grater would be frustrating if the cheese stayed trapped around the drum after dinner. The current E900020U listing says the tool disassembles for cleanup, and Zyliss says the grating drum is designed to be easier to remove.

Amazon currently marks the product dishwasher safe. Even so, removing the drum and knocking loose visible cheese before it dries can make cleanup more straightforward. The stainless-steel drum is a cutting surface, so handle it by the intended edges and housing rather than running fingertips across the grating teeth.

The handle also folds inward for more compact storage. That helps a specialized tool make a smaller claim on a drawer, but it still occupies more pieces than a single flat grater once disassembled.

Buy it for fine finishing, not every shred

The selected Amazon child is B01HX6HAK6 under parent B0B85SYS94, with the Restaurant Cheese Grater style selected. Amazon identifies model and manufacturer part E900020U, UPC 054067000206, and currently shows 4.4 stars, 15,337 ratings, and 4K+ bought in the past month.

Zyliss describes the same E900020U as its professional rotary cheese grater with a fine drum for hard cheeses, chocolate, and nuts. The manufacturer also lists NSF restaurant certification for this model.

Choose it if you often want fine Parmesan or similar toppings to land directly on the food and you like a hand-crank motion. Keep a box grater if you need several shred sizes from one tool, or a Microplane-style rasp if you want a long flat surface for zest and very small ingredients.

The E900020U earns its place by making fine, table-side grating a contained motion. It does not replace every grater; it makes one recurring finishing job tidier and more deliberate.