26 Best Gifts for People Who Love to Eat and Cook
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The fastest way to a cook’s heart might just be a gift that simplifies food prep, produces delicious results, or makes their time in the kitchen even more enjoyable. Whether that comes in the form of a splurge-worthy appliance or a tasty stocking stuffer is all up to you.
Treat the aspiring rookie or a seasoned chef with our picks ahead, which are sure to please.
Need more holiday shopping help and inspiration? We’ve got you covered with great gift ideas for everyone on your list.
Handy Kitchen Tools and Accessories
Le Creuset Butter Crock
For the butter enthusiast, we couldn’t think of a better gift. Le Creuset’s butter crock has a classic look that would fit in well with most kitchen aesthetics. It comes in four colors: “Cerise,” a rich red with a black fade; “Caribbean,” a happy blue and the colorway we evaluated; “Marseille,” a midtone, dusty blue; and white.
Like most Le Creuset products, it’s made from enameled stoneware. It’s dishwasher-safe and easy to wash by hand, too. The lid has a small divot that may retain water in a dishwasher, but putting it on its side will mean you won’t have to deal with accumulated water in the lid after it’s clean.
Cole & Mason Battersea Classic Electronic Mill Set
The Cole & Mason Battersea Classic Electronic Mill Set resembles mills you might see at a high-end restaurant when you ask for pepper on your dish. They have a large plastic window to see how much salt, pepper, or other spice is left in the chamber. They’re elegant and sleek, and they look wonderful on the kitchen countertop.
The set doesn’t come with the six AAA batteries you’ll need to use these grinders. The reservoir mouth is narrow, and thus harder to fill. And the lock/unlock graphic is a bit unclear, so it’s hard to tell whether the set is sealed. It does, however, produce an even grind and has a larger total volume than some other sets. It has a number of unmarked settings, and is bulkier and louder than many other sets we evaluated.
For more options: Best Electric Salt and Pepper Grinders
Crate and Barrel French Kitchen Marble Mortar and Pestle
A mortar and pestle is a timeless tool, one that combines both beauty and function, says cookbook author Kiano Moju. “It’s perfect for grinding spices, making pastes, or crushing herbs to release their full flavors,” she says. “Choose one that is both sturdy and aesthetically pleasing, like a stone or marble design, to add a touch of elegance to any kitchen.”
Great Jones Holy Sheet Pan
The Great Jones cookware line puts a vibrant spin on culinary staples, turning the stocking of a kitchen into a—dare we say—fun experience. It earns a very good rating for cooking evenness in our tests, plus it heats up quickly and cleans up nicely. Pair it with all the necessary ingredients for chocolate chip cookies or a sheet pan dinner and you’ll be golden.
For more options: Best Sheet Pans
iBayam Kitchen Shears
After testing six pairs of kitchen shears, all three of CR’s evaluators said the iBayam shears felt nice in their hands, were easy to use, and didn’t require them to grip too hard. Plus, you get two pairs of shears for this price, and our testers suggested you designate one for cutting meat and one for other kitchen tasks. The one downside is that the shears don’t come apart for cleaning, but the price and the comfort level make them CR’s top choice.
Read more: Best Kitchen Shears
Henckels Premio 8” Chef’s Knife
Henckels has been making knives in Germany for nearly 300 years, and its expertise in design is on full display with this knife. The Premio’s handle is contoured with no sharp edges, resulting in a knife that’s extremely comfortable to hold. It also excels at force transmission from handle to blade, which means you don’t need to exert as much effort when cutting.
For more: How to Shop for a Chef’s Knife
Essential Pots and Pans
An internet sensation, this Caraway ceramic-coated cookware set turned out to be a sensation in our tests, too, rising to the top of our nonstick-set ratings. It comes with 14 pieces, but only half of them are pots or lids. The rest are various racks, hooks, trivets, and things you might not want or have space for. But if this is your first cookware set—and you have the storage space—why not? It excels in all four of our key cooking tests (cooking evenness, simmering, nonstick food release, and speed of heating), and the handles are sturdy and stay cool to the touch while you’re cooking. It comes in six colors, including the terra cotta set pictured here.
With its pink-blush exterior, white ceramic interior, and gold handles, the GreenPan Padova Reserve certainly makes a style statement. But how is it on substance? Not too shabby. In fact, its scores on all our major cooking tasks are top notch, including an excellent rating for speed of heating. Its handles are sturdy and stay fairly cool to the touch. The nonstick coating is durable, although some of the other nonstick pans we tested did even better on that test. The 10 pieces include two frying pans, two saucepans, a sauté pan, a stockpot, and four lids.
Weighing in at just about 5 pounds, this 6-quart Dutch oven from Our Place is a real lightweight—but only in the best sense of the word. When it comes to performance, no other Dutch oven in our ratings matches it. It earns excellent scores from ease of cleaning to bread baking, sauce simmering, cooking evenness, and speed of heating. Made of aluminum with a ceramic coating, it’s also induction-compatible and oven-safe to 425° F.
For more options: Best Dutch Ovens
This Tramontina frying pan excels at two tasks that you depend on with a cast-iron skillet: searing steak and browning scallops. We also baked cornbread, and it earned a very good rating.
For more options: Best Cast-Iron Frying Pans
If you love the convenience of nonstick cookware but are wary of traditional Teflon coatings, this ceramic frying pan from Caraway may be the answer. In our tests, fried eggs slid out easily and the surface stood up well in our durability test. Another plus: It’s induction-compatible.
Oxo may be a favorite brand for kitchen gadgets, but the company also produces sturdy cookware. The Oxo Tri-Ply Stainless Mira Series set excelled in our tests for cooking evenness, speed of heating, and evenly simmering tomato sauce. Four eggs cooked consecutively with oil slid out easily. This set also showed excellent performance in our handle stress test.
For more options: Best Cookware Sets
Goods for the Pantry
Graza Sizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 750 ml
In an evaluation of the best extra virgin olive oils, our testers found Graza’s Sizzle to be prime for dipping and a good option for salad dressings, as well as for spicy and bold-flavored foods. They found its flavor to be slightly bitter, with big, grassy flavor and some fruitiness.
Fly By Jing Triple Threat Sauce Trio
Miguel Leal is a big fan of Fly by Jing. The co-founder of Somos—a purveyor of ready-to-eat Mexican foods—recommends the Triple Threat gift set for home cooks who want to get creative in the kitchen. “It contains three products, one of which is the Sichuan Chili Crisp, which is a super-versatile sauce that I use on everything from eggs to dumplings and rice, and even on sushi,” Leal says. “It has a great level of spicy—but isn’t too spicy!—and I love the texture it adds to my food.”
Red Clay Hot Sauce The Whole Shebang Gift Box
Pass the hot sauce! “Everyone knows someone that considers themselves a hot sauce aficionado—and this set is perfect for them,” says Eunice Byun, co-founder of Material Kitchen, a direct-to-consumer kitchenware brand. This curated collection of Red Clay’s bestselling sauces and honey includes flavors like spicy peach honey and a verde hot sauce. “I love the vinegary flavor of the Original Sauce, and the hot honey drizzled on pizza is out of this world,” she says.
Mixers, Food Choppers, and More
The KitchenAid Bowl Lift KSM70 looks good on a counter, and its bowl-lift style fits nicely under upper cabinets. Its kneading performance (with the included dough hook) is top notch, and its scores for whipping speed and mixing speed are very good. It works fairly quietly, too. It weighs 27 pounds and is available in blue as well as 10 other colors.
For more options: Best Stand Mixers
When you buy the Ninja Foodi Power Mixer System CI101, you get a top-notch immersion blender with an attachment that converts the blender’s motor base into a hand mixer with beaters and a whisk. (The package also includes a 3-cup blending jar.) As an immersion blender, the Ninja earned excellent scores in our yogurt blend and soup purée tests. It’s also the most powerful handheld blender in our ratings, at a maximum of 15,500 rpm on its turbo setting. It has variable speeds, with five for mixing and two for blending, and carries a one-year warranty.
For more options: Best Immersion Blenders
The Ninja Master Prep Professional QB1004 chopper has a 2.5-cup capacity and features a top-mounted motor that you push down to operate. It earns a very good rating for chopping, turning out nicely chopped veggies and nuts in our tests. Included in the set is a larger 5-cup processing bowl and a 6-cup blender jar.
For more options: Best Food Processors & Choppers
The 7-cup, 600-watt Cuisinart Pro Classic DLC-10SY is far from the best at grating, but it’s a champ at chopping and slicing, according to CR’s lab tests. It also nabs a strong rating for shredding, a passable rating for puréeing, and a stellar rating for noise. This 11-pound model comes with separate shredding and slicing blades, a three-year warranty for parts, and a five-year motor warranty.
For more options: Best Food Processors & Choppers
Vitamix earned an excellent rating for predicted brand reliability in our survey of CR members. That means this blender is expected to continue to produce thirst-quenching icy drinks for years to come. It’s also terrific at blending soups and can even heat the soup using the friction created by the fast-whirring blades. In our test, raw ingredients went from cold chunks to steaming soup in 5 minutes.
For more options: Most and Least Reliable Blender Brands
The hallmark of Smeg appliances is their retro design, and this hand mixer is no exception. We tested the pale green version, but it also comes in red and black and a few other colors. That styling doesn’t come cheap, but the mixer performed well enough to earn our recommendation. Whipping time for heavy cream was top notch and although this mixer scored only average at mixing cookie dough, the end results were fine. Our testers also found the Smeg quiet and convenient to use.
For more options: Best Hand Mixers
Great Countertop Appliances
Ooni Karu 12 Multi-Fuel Pizza Oven
The Ooni Karu is a perfect pizza oven if you’re looking to make small coal- or wood-fired pies. Many of the smaller pizza ovens we’ve seen feel flimsy, but the Ooni Karu is clearly built to last more than one or two summers. It has heft, weighing in at just over 26 pounds, making it pretty heavy for a small oven. It’s light enough to take camping or tailgating but heavy enough to feel sturdy when you’re cooking. The folding legs help with transport.
You control the heat in the Karu by adjusting the size of your fire—a bigger fire burns hotter—but this model also has a damper, which some other models don’t. Open it up all the way if you want your fire to burn hotter or close it a bit to restrict airflow, which causes the oven to cook at lower temperatures. A solid, well-built oven door helps hold in the heat.
For more: Best Outdoor Pizza Ovens
Multi-Cookers
Our Place Dream Cooker
The Dream Cooker from Our Place offers key cooking features that many home cooks want right now, albeit at a somewhat steep price. It streamlines the array of options offered by more traditional multi-cookers with far fewer functions (slow cook, pressure cook, sauté/sear, and keep warm). If you prefer the simplicity that comes with fewer buttons, status updates, and beeps, not to mention a chic design that looks cool on a kitchen counter, this cooker is not to be missed.
Read more: Our Place Dream Cooker vs. Instant Pot Pro: How Do They Compare?
This 8-quart Instant Pot is one of the largest pressure cookers we’ve tested. It’s also one of the best performers in our lab tests. The 1,500-watt cooker boasts top ratings for both pressure-cooking and slow-cooking, and it does a very good job at sautéing. It’s loaded with features, including an air-frying mode and a two-tier air-fry basket, a dehydrate function, a stainless steel inner pot, and a storage cover.
For more options: Best Multi-Cookers
The Vivohome Electric Portable Icemaker is second in our ratings. It produces bullet ice but not as quickly as the Opal icemaker. It’s one of only three models that score highest for efficiency, and it isn’t very noisy, scoring the same as the top model. The company claims it can make up to 26 pounds of ice a day. Weighing 17 pounds and measuring 12.59 inches high, 9.64 inches wide, and 12.59 inches deep, it requires less of your precious counter space than the Opal. This model comes in seven colorways—black, red, silver, light green, blue, white, and copper—and has a top-open design like all other models except the Opal.
For more option: Best Nugget Icemakers
The Dash Digital Tasti Crisp is small but mighty. With a measured capacity of 1.9 quarts and an overall size of less than a square foot, this 6-pound model is one of the most compact air fryers in our ratings. Still, it ranks among the best. It earns high marks for its controls and ease of cleaning, and it excels in our noise test. It has a one-year warranty, which is typical for air fryers.
For more options: Best Air Fryers
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