The 39 Best Food and Kitchen Gifts for Cooks, Dinner Party Enthusiasts, and Everybody Else Who Loves Food
Finding the best food and kitchen gifts for the holidays is always a little bit tricky. This isn’t a wedding registry, after all—you’re likely not buying your friends their first chef’s knife or sauté pan. So this year, we're recommending gifts that will be beautiful, special additions to any kitchen (and ingredients so delicious you’ll buy a second helping for yourself).
A good platter is hard to find. Which is why we were so excited to happen upon this French porcelain beauty in mustard—sorry, moutarde. We love the sleek, minimalist look of this platter, whose unglazed edges reveal a strip of raw black clay. And good news—it's microwave, oven, and dishwasher safe, which means you can go ahead and reheat that whole pan of lasagna at once.
This butter knife is pure genius: its sharp, scalloped and perforated edges can shave your cold fridge butter into thin, quick-to-melt ribbons ready for a piece of bread, or toast, or pancakes. For people who don’t keep a butter crock out on the counter, it’s a lifesaver.
Our go-to move when we need a quick present for a food-obsessed friend? A beautiful jar of something that will add a punch to whatever they’re into cooking. Enter Chile Crunch, a crispy, spicy, oil-laced condiment that’s perfect on sandwiches, salads, toast, or drizzled onto dips. Consider that stocking stuffed—and spiced, too.
These linen napkins, made from stonewashed French flax, have the worn-in feel of a favorite pair of jeans, while making any dinner table look a little more put together. Pick up a few four-packs for yourself if your napkins are looking a little sad, or keep a stash of them as hostess gifts.
A tortilla press is one of the greatest single-use kitchen tools you can get, mostly because homemade tortillas are leaps and bounds better than store-bought, especially when you’re making tacos. This cast-iron number comes with a napkin to keep your tortillas warm, and the deep red color will brighten up any kitchen counter.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food and Prop Styling by Liza JernowBurlap & Barrel works with small farms and growers to source super-special spices that you can’t find at your local Whole Foods. We love making customized sets as gifts, depending on who—or what cuisine—we’re buying for. We especially suggest the Ground Black Lime and the Black Urfa Chile.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food and Prop Styling by Liza JernowQuick-cooling a bottle of wine is always stressful: your guests are here, and they’re ready to drink, and that low-sulfite white from Sardinia is wallowing at room temperature. But these coolers make the situation a whole lot easier: stash them in the freezer, slide them around your bottle, and they’ll cool it in 15 minutes. Plus, this set is pretty enough to put out on the dinner table.
You don’t have to be an aspiring outdoorsman to warrant a handsome, expertly-crafted folding knife. They come in handy for everything from opening a package to slicing an apple. And we love this one from Kanekoma, which features a blue steel blade with a versatile edge that means it’s great for lefties and righties alike.
These lotions can soothe even the crankiest of dry, washed-too-many-dishes hands. Weleda Skin Food is thick but not goopy and absorbs quickly; our cleaning correspondent ranked it highest among all other hand lotions. The bottle is small enough to sit comfortably on your kitchen counter or sink. And we love the gentle, herbal scent that comes from a mixture of rosemary and chamomile.
For a more luxe stocking stuffer, go for Goe Oil. Free of all the dicey ingredients that often come standard in lotion, it’s derived from plant-based oils. You only need the tiniest amount to hydrate your hands for an extended period of time.
