A single kitchen tool can be a serious game changer, and at times, it may get you even further than a good all-purpose knife or pan will. For celebrity chef Michael Symon, there's one overlooked kitchen tool that he finds essential for his cooking, and it's made a few appearances on the chef's TV show "Symon's Dinners Cooking Out."

According to Symon, a bench scraper is "the greatest and cheapest kitchen tool," and he buys them by "the dozen" to give out to friends and family. Traditionally, a bench scraper is a thin rectangle of metal attached to a handle, used by bakers to cleanly cut and manipulate dough, since dough doesn’t easily stick to the tool.

A bench scraper keeps your hands and the work surface clean, and prevents the heat of your hands from affecting ingredients such as butter; it can even be used to chop veggies and other ingredients, or to sweep scraps off of your workspace. Symon recommends purchasing a polypropylene scraper, as it is both durable and flexible.