Produced by Yamamoto Foods Co., Ltd., a food company established in 1905 in Shizuoka,
HAGANE-ZAME is a stainless-steel grater with an innovative design developed exclusively for wasabi.
Premium hon wasabi (real wasabi) delivers pure, fresh pungency. The idea for this product came from customers’ comments stating home-grated wasabi was not very pungent because ordinary graters made of metal or plastic were not fine enough. Each cell wall releases pungent flavor when broken during grating and is aerated. Thus, the finer the grate, the more cell walls are broken making the wasabi paste more pungent and flavorful.
Traditionally, sharkskin was said to be the favored material for grating wasabi as its abrasive skin is ideal for breaking down the dense texture of wasabi, allowing it to fully release its nuanced flavor. However, sharkskin graters are not widely used in ordinary homes as a specific technique is required to use them properly and maintenance can be also difficult. In addition, the number of Japanese angel sharks used for the material is decreasing and is likely to be added to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
As a wasabi specialist, Yamamoto Foods has long sought to create a tool that would allow anyone to enjoy the original flavors of grated wasabi as served in sushi restaurants.
The surface of HAGANE-ZAME graters are textured with a pattern of the word “wasabi” in three hiragana characters applied with the company’s unique etching technique. Yamamoto Foods has experimented with hundreds of shapes, including triangles, squares and stars, before realizing that the irregularities of the hiragana characters ground a finer paste than any other. After creating over 200 prototypes, adjusting the font size and space between the characters, the company finally succeeded in developing the current design. While sharkskin graters require wasabi to be grated in circular motion, HAGANE-ZAME graters allow you to grate wasabi in any direction and still produce a fine paste that brings out the best wasabi flavors and aroma.