More people than ever are cooking these days, which makes holiday gift shopping a pleasure (and a snap!) for those who share the passion. To kick-start your thinking, here are gifts that will excite every kind of cook — from enthusiastic newbie to seasoned pro, and everything in-between.
For the fledgling cook
A bundle of basic cookware and a fabulous starter cookbook.
- A high-quality 12-inch stainless steel skillet. All-Clad D3 is the classic (on sale for $100 at Amazon); Tramontina Gourmet Tri-Ply is another good choice ($51 at Amazon).
- If you’re looking for a sauté pan/frying pan rather than a skillet (Serious Eats’ J. Kenji López-Alt explains the difference, along with pros and cons), a 10-inch frying pan from Plano-based Avacraft start-up is a great choice: high-quality, well priced at $46, and it comes with a lifetime warranty. Avacraft also makes quality saucepans. (Note: Skillets are sometimes listed as “frying pans,” so the subject is a bit fraught. The All-Clad and the Tramontina listed above are skillets, which have angled sides.)
- Oxo makes excellent tools, including this Pro-Y Peeler ($14 at Amazon), my favorite counter-gripping, stainless-steel mixing bowls ($60 at Amazon) and more.
- No-nonsense stainless steel measuring spoons and measuring cups, a good whisk and sturdy spatula. They’re all over Amazon, or choose a gift card from Ace Mart restaurant supply, which carries excellent versions of a wide array of tools at great prices (and you’ll support a family-owned and -run Texas business when you shop there; gift cards are available in-store only, not yet online).
- A Microplane zester/cheese-grater, $11 at microplane.com.
- Superstar Israeli-born British chef Yotam Ottolenghi is at his best in his 2018 cookbook Ottolenghi Simple — filled with smashing recipes, many of which seem restauranty, but are actually very easy to achieve. Novice cooks will learn a ton about flavor and technique as they cook through them. $32 at Bookshop.
For the cook who has everything
Long-lasting beautiful pieces where function meets form.
- A beautiful cherrywood salumi board, designed and hard-carved by revered Dallas chef David Uygur of Lucia and Macellaio restaurants, $75. Oak or walnut boards are $55. Or spring for a year-long Salumi Subscription: 5 types of salumi chosen monthly by Uygur. The first comes on a hand-carved oak or walnut board; subsequent installments come on a disposable board. $350. Two-week advance order required for either; purchase online at Lucia’s Square site.
- A bespoke set of mixed-and-matched vintage china from Table Heirloom. Longtime Dallas-based food stylist Beth Maya Pollok founded the company when food-styling gigs dried up as a result of COVID last spring. Mixed services for 8 start at about $350 or $400; services for 12 are also available. See the “cheat sheet” of Table Heirloom’s current offerings at its Facebook Group; to purchase, contact Pollok through the group or email beth@tableheirloom.com.
- A 4 1/2-quart Le Creuset Round Dutch Oven. Le Creuset is the gold standard of enameled cast-iron cookware, and the 4 1/2-quart size is the one most useful for someone cooking for a family or party of three or four, and most recipes. It’s the oven-to-table piece I reach for more often than any other. At Le Creuset for $335.
For the perfectionist
An old-school peppermill and a high-tech thermometer.
- A Fletchers’ Mill pepper grinder. My handcrafted, wooden 8-inch “Federal” model, which first cracks the peppercorns, then grinds them, is the best peppermill I’ve ever owned, bar none. $50 at the Fletchers’ Mill website; it comes with a lifetime guarantee.
- Thermoworks Classic Super-Fast Thermapen. Use this once, and you’ll never settle for another instant-read thermometer: It registers anything from the inside of a turkey thigh to a decanted Bordeaux to oil for deep-frying with instant precision. No more fear of frying. The Classic Super-Fast is specially sale-priced for the holidays at $63 at the Thermoworks site.
For the community-minded produce lover
A 6-month subscription of harvest boxes or a custom-built raised bed from Promise of Peace Gardens. The project is a 501c3 nonprofit, and your donation is tax-deductible.
- Anyone who loves cooking with the seasons will be thrilled with boxes of crops harvested from the nonprofit Promise of Peace Gardens. Subscriptions ($180 for 6 harvest boxes) begin in the spring; recipients pick up their boxes by arrangement with founder Elizabeth Dry at La Bajada POP Farm, 3106 Herbert St., Dallas. 214-240-9220, ejdry54@yahoo.com.
- Want to give someone special an entire garden? Promise of Peace will create and install a raised bed for your recipient, including seeds or seedlings and coaching support. Prices begin at $1,000 for a 4 foot by 4 foot custom raised bed.
For the intrepid cook
Cookware, ingredients and instructions to match the recipient’s cultural cravings, such as Thai:
- Hard-to-source Thai ingredients such as makrut limes, $17 from Angkor Cambodian Food.
- A bundle of Thai ingredients, including makrut lime leaves, Thai basil, fresh lemongrass, galangal root and palm sugar from Hiep Thai supermarket in Garland.
- Leela Punyaratabandhu’s excellent cookbook Simple Thai Food, $23 from Bookshop.
- Mae Pranom Thai Chili Paste, essential for making Tom Yam Kung (hot-and-sour prawn soup), $10 at Amazon.
- Thai curry pastes imported from Thailand, such as Nittaya brand ($14 to $16 at Temple of Thai) or Lobo brand ($10 for 5 assorted from Amazon); or American-made Mike’s Organic Curry Love, $6 from Whole Foods.
- Thai mortar and pestle — ideal for making Thai curry pastes, they’re also great for general use for any type of cuisine. $33 for a 7-inch model from Temple of Thai.
For the cookbook collector
One of the superlative new titles from this season. If you buy through Bookshop, you’ll be supporting independent booksellers. You can even indicate a local bookstore when you enter the site, and that bookstore will receive 100% of the profit of the transaction.
- The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food by Marcus Samuelsson, $35 at Bookshop; .
- Falastin: A Cookbook by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley (goes great with a gift card from Sara’s Market and Bakery in Richardson, where they have a great selection of Middle Eastern ingredients) $32 at Bookshop.
- Chaat: Recipes from the Kitchens, Markets, and Railways of India, by Maneet Chauhan and Jody Eddy, $30 at Bookshop.
- The Mexican Home Kitchen, by local author Mely Martínez, $26 at Bookshop.
- My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes, by Hooni Kim, $37 at Bookshop.
(Find more cookbook recommendations, including reviews of most of the titles above, at Cooks Without Borders.)
For the cook who’d like a leg up
A gift of one of the clever kits created by Dallas chefs helps support local restaurants. Each of these requires some actual cooking or assembly.
- Duck Fat Fried Rice kit from Uno Immanivong’s Red Stix Street Food. $19; order through Red Stix’s Chownow web page or call 972-913-4883.
- Cannoli Kit from Partenope (only involves assembly, not actual cooking). $20 for a kit that makes 6 cannoli; call Partenope at 214-463-6222 or email ciao@partenopedallas.com.
- French Brunch Package ($72) or Ultimate Crepe Package ($65) from Whisk Crêpes Cafe.
- DIY Handroll Kit from Sushi de Handroll (only involves assembly). (Full disclosure: Sushi de Handroll was formerly my consulting client.)
- Chef Mint at Home: Asian Mint’s Nikki Phinyawatana is offering a wide array of cook-it-yourself kits from her restaurants, including summer rolls or dumplings ($7 each), Tom Yum soup ($10 for soup for two) and main courses like Pad Kee Mow, Green Curry, Cashew Chicken and more ($30 each, serves 2). Order through Asian Mint’s Square site.
Former Dallas Morning News restaurant critic Leslie Brenner, now a restaurant consultant, writes about cooking at Cooks Without Borders.