Fresh off our stint in cooking school, here are some of our top picks to spoil the cook in your life this Christmas. If you need classy, gimmick-free, and last-minute gifts for someone who loves to cook, here are our (mostly) Prime eligible recommendations:
Maldon Salt — $5 for an 8.5 oz box. This is mega-flavor in perfect pyramid salt flakes. For more than 100 years, saltmakers in Maldon, England have hand-harvested this flaky goodness. This salt packs an unbelievable punch whether you sprinkle it on top of dishes to finish or use it to accent flavors mid-cooking.
Escali Kitchen Scale — $24.95. This understated digital scale is perfect for precision cooking and baking alike. A big winner in the Wire Cutter scale-off, we use this everyday for baking bread and making our pour-over coffee in the mornings.
Norpro Stainless Steel Scraper — $6. This no-nonsense tool is a life-changer for bakers and cooks alike. Whether you need to scrape up veggies to throw into sauces, or kneading sticky dough, this cuts through grime and keeps your hands and workplace relatively clean.
Tahitian vanilla pods — $19 Baking with Tahitian vanilla pods is a next-level kind of experience. Treat your baker to the real deal with these pods.
Simple and Healthy Cookbooks — $19+ With more dietary restrictions than ever, it can be hard to find good cookbooks for entertaining. Some of our favorite cookbooks for fussy eaters include Eat Complete ($19), Ina Garten’s Barefoot in Paris cookbook ($27), and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution ($21). Not every recipe may qualify, but you can usually work off these fresh flavor profiles to accommodate everyone in your life.
Staub Cast Iron Cocotte — $99. This French cast iron pot does it all: Braising, stewing, bread-baking, and more. The 4-quart is $99, but you can always scale up to the 5.5 or even 7. If that’s too pricey, check out more reasonable off-brand options like Amazon’s $38 version.
We love spoiling our friends and family in the kitchen, whether through cooking or shopping. We hope this list inspires you, too. Buon appetito and happy shopping!
*We only recommend products we actually like, but some of these links give us a small reimbursement if purchased. Let us know if you have any questions about that.