A julienne slicer is a great tool to have in the kitchen arsenal and the Microplane Gourmet Julienne Slicer is compact, stylish abd very efficient.

Julienning, like so many French cookery techniques, is a bit out of favour now, a style that makes young, tattooed, chefs sneer’pah! cordon bleu!’ as they go back to setting fire to something, or foraging under a bush in Hackney.

It is, of course, the art of cutting vegetables into matchsticks. A slow and boring job.

In the old days, it was usually done with just a knife and woe betide the apprentice chef who presented his boss with uneven sized julienned vegetables. 

Julienned veg do look rather nice on the plate though, the best veg for julienning being the harder veg such as carrots, courgettes and celeriac as well as fruits such as pears, apples.

If you’re making coleslaw, celeriac ravi or sauerkraut, julienning is the best way to ensure maximised contact between the veg and the liquid, or salt.

But you can do all kinds of things with julienned vegetables, for example deep-frying julienned potatoes for perfect string chips. And if you’re stir frying having regular-sized vegetables is very helpful with such brief cooking times

If you have a decent mandolin you may well have a julienne attachment for it, or you can use the basic slicer to give you a head start and then slice the disks into sticks by hand.

Better still use this neat device, the Microplane® Gourmet Julienne Slicer . Easy to put in a drawer or hang over a worktop – it has handy loop – it’s protected when not in use by a plastic shield.

Like all the Microplane hand tools it has a comfortable’soft-touch’ grip and a rubber’foot’ so it won’t slide about when in use, either stood on a cutting board or placed over a bowl.

And of course, it’s very sharp. The Microplane® Julienne Slicer has durable razor-sharp teeth to cut ingredients precisely into long, thin uniform strips without ripping or tearing/chopping.

The ultra-sharp blade doesn’t need to be adjusted or reset, it’s always ready for use.Of course this sharpness means being careful not to inadvertently add yourself to the vegetable mix and so it’s worth buying the Microplane gripper to keep your fingertips safe when you’re working fast.

We made up a quick coleslaw with ours, easily shredding the white cabbage and julienning the carrots and apple in seconds.

Courgettes from our allotment came out beautifully, so finely sliced they didn’t need cooking.I soon found myself trying to julienne everything, it’s rather addictive and oddly satisfying

After use, the Microplane® Julienne Slicer is easy to clean, that is if you don’t let it dry dirty, simply hold it under a fast tap and the bits are soon dislodged.

Like all Microplane kit, this is very well-made and looks elegant. Quick to bring into action and takes up little space in a drawer.

The new Microplane® Gourmet Julienne Slicer in black, RRP £24.95 (W 31.5 x D 7.5cm) and the Microplane® Universal Hand Guard in black RRP £4.95 (W 14 x D 22cm) are available from hartsofstur.com and independent cookshops nationwide.