Grate Spatula is Vijay Malik’s latest invention…but wait, there’s more

Yes, I do own a vintage Veg-O-Matic. And a set of Ginsu knives. Hell, who could live without them?

But a local inventor, Vijay Malik, has a new kitchen tool that, while it may not have as many uses as a Veg-O-Matic, fits more comfortably in a kitchen drawer. Malik introduced his newest kitchen device, the Grate Spatula, at a launch party last Saturday at Mike Kelly’s Westsider in Westport.  He hired the Tres Diablos band to play, and he gave away 50 hamburgers that afternoon; he grilled them behind the saloon using his newest product.

“It’s designed to use on an outdoor grill. It keeps meat and fish from falling apart and sticking to the grill,” Malik says. “It’s slightly larger than a traditional spatula and has these spoonlike indentations right on it for any kind of sauces. I call them super spoons.”

The 16-and-a-half-inch tool is manufactured in China (“Walmart is looking at it,” Malik says, “so the price point has to be low”), unlike the plastic versions of Malik’s other culinary innovation, the Butter Mill.

“It’s like a pepper mill for butter,” Malik says.

“It squeezes out a ribbon of butter,” Malik says. “It’s perfect for pancakes and corn on the cob. You can practically shrink-wrap your corn with butter.”

Who could live without that, right? But it’s a big seller for Malik, who sells 20 different versions of his inventions through his Max Space company. The website is here.

And to think that it all started with a shoe rack. “The first product that I invented and had manufactured was a shoe rack,” Malik says. “And then I went on to other products.”

Malik’s Butter Mill is available in both plastic versions and a shiny stainless-steel incarnation. “For the one-percenters,” Malik says.

The launch party was successful enough that Malik even sold a few to the regular Westsider bar crowd, who were there mostly to drink beer. “We sold 50 spatulas,” Malik says.

One for every burger that he gave away.

Malik commissioned a short YouTube film to promote the Grate Spatula and is toying with the idea of producing a TV infomercial for it, inspired by those classic Ronco commercials featuring owner Ron Popeil that were once a staple of late-night television.

“I read  Ron Popeil’s biography,” Malik says. “He was a great sales pitchman from the old school.”

The Grate Spatula and the Butter Mill are sold at Pryde’s Old  Westport, at 115 Westport Road.

Or you can just wait for the infomercial.