Growing up, I was spoiled by my mom’s citrus peeler, a piece of flat, kidney-shaped stainless steel designed by Georg Jensen. It was (and continues to be) an essential part of her kitchen setup, ...

Every so often, a gadget enters your life and leaves you wondering how you managed beforehand. It might sound frivolous, but for me this gadget is an orange peeler from the Italian brand Alessi.

For 40 years, Wilbur Blank’s orange peeler was nothing more than an idea whose time never came, one of the countless inventions that tinkerers like Blank create but can’t market. Then one day it ...