The Invention

 

The first cheese grater was invented way back in the 1540s, by a man named François Boullier. It was invented so that hard cheese could still be used properly. The grater that he used and made is made of pewter, which is a soft metal. It is now sat in Museum du Havre in France.

 

The threat of disease in meat made this invention extremely popular with farmers as they turned their focus to dairy products; because of this, there was A LOT of cheese in France, and a large amount went hard over time, thus popularising the cheese grater.