I get asked a lot what is my favorite kitchen tool. I have so many and I it is hard for me to say which one is my favorite. So, I will start here with one of my favorites and one I use almost every time I am cooking. That is, the bench scraper or sometimes called a food or pastry scraper.
I mostly use my bench scraper to scrape cuttings off my cutting board into a bowl or directly into a pot or pan. 
Trying to do this without this tool can lead to dropping a lot of your ingredients. The bench scraper is also used to cut dough for a pastry and to scrape the dough off of the surface on which you are working. They can be made of metal, wood, rubber, silicone or plastic and can have different handles or no handle at all. They also come with metal grips, non-metal grips and no grips. My preference is the metal grip. Some may have a beveled edge and others a flat edge. The sharper edged tool allows for better cutting and scraping, but I have had no trouble using a dull edged tool.
Other uses of the bench scraper is as a flat surface to lightly smash garlic cloves to loosen their skin and make it easier to peel off. It can also be used to crush or or chop other soft foods. You can flatten small potatoes after boiling to make crispy new potatoes. It is good for cutting dough into even portions. Some come with a ruler on the edge making it even easier to cut dough
into even pieces. Use the bench scraper when making home made gnocchi to cut in even pieces. Whatever the best use is for you, the bench scraper will make your work much easier.