The Great Confinement sometimes feels like the Great Conversion: It has turned so many eaters into intrepid, adventuresome cooks.
That upside provides a delicious opportunity this holiday season: There’s a whole world’s worth of inspiring gifts all those cooks on your list — from eager fledgling to seasoned pro – will love.
We’ve already rounded up our favorite cookbooks published this season and last.
And you’ll find lots of great gifts in Cooks Without Borders Holiday Pop-Up Gift Shop. We’ll be adding more gifts up till New Year’s Eve, so keep checking back!
Here is a wide range of everything else that will delight your favorite cooks: essential tools we recommend that are great for beginners; beautiful, lasting cookware that every seasoned cook will cherish; hard-to-find fabulous ingredients.
See something you’d like to send yourself? Go right ahead — you deserve it.
For the Mexican cooking explorer
Molcajete
Anyone who’s serious about Mexican cooking needs one of these: a molcajete made of volcanic stone. There’s nothing like it for grinding onions, chiles and cilantro for guacamole. Great for serving the guac, as well.
Olé Rico Arbol, Ancho and Guajillo Dried Chiles
Ancho, guajillo and arbol chiles — the “holy trinity” of dried chiles — give flavor and body to all kinds of Mexican salsas and stews. Imported from Mexico, these are nicer quality than what you find in most supermarkets stateside; they’re fresher, more flexible, not brittle.
For the Indian food lover
Masala Dabba — Indian Spice Box
What’s more stressful than being in the middle of a recipe and trying to root through your messy spice cabinet to find the coriander seeds? A masala dabba — spice box — solves that problem with panache.
Buy now – $34
For the generalist
Fletchers’ Mill Pepper Grinder
My handcrafted, wooden 8-inch Fletcher’s Mill “Federal” model, which first cracks the peppercorns, then grinds them, is the best peppermill I’ve ever owned, bar none. It comes with a lifetime guarantee. Any cook who’s not in love with their peppermill needs this.
Vitamix 5200 Blender
A few years ago, I was close to throwing out my ancient Waring blender, thinking I only needed a stick blender, but then I started cooking a lot of Indian and Mexican dishes, and found myself using the Waring constantly.
Vitamix is pretty much recognized as the best blender out there, and Wirecutter — whose reviews we trust — prefers the 5200 model above all this year. It’s what I’m going to buy when that old Waring decides to quit, which could be any minute. 🙃
Classic Superfast Therma-pen Instant-Read Thermometer
This instant-read thermometer from Thermaworks is super-speedy and accurate. 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 — go ahead and make LudoBird-style fried chicken! The Classic Super-Fast is specially sale-priced for the holidays.
Le Creuset 4 1/2-Quart Round Dutch Oven
Thierry and Wylie gave me this honey-yellow Le Creuset Round Dutch Oven for my birthday this fall, and it’s the one I reach more more often than any other. The size is perfect for dishes for 4 to 6 (it’s larger than it probably looks). I like pieces like this (braisers and such) with straight rather than angled sides to maximize surface area on the bottom for browning. Looks gorgeous on the table, too! The price on this seems to vary by color and changes week by week; this price (which is the lowest I’ve seen for this size) is for a blue one this week.
Oxo Mixing Bowl Set
These are my favorite, counter-gripping mixing bowls. The 3-bowl set includes the sizes your favorite cook will appreciate.
Suisin Chef Knife
This 8.3-inch Western-style Inox knife is my favorite chef’s knife — I’ve owned it (and used it almost daily) for more than 20 years.
You might consider a larger one for a larger person. I love my smaller Suisin utility knife ($69) just as much. Be sure to get a penny back in exchange for good luck!
For Spice Cadets
Custom Spice Gift Box from Penzeys
Marble Mortar & Pestle
Any serious cook would thrill over a marble mortar and pestle (I own three in different sizes) and a custom gift box from Penzeys.
Toasting and grinding whole spices results in the most aromatic dishes with great depth of flavor. Penzeys spices are top-quality, and it’s a super cool company with a great culture. Choose one of three sizes of gift boxes and select the spices to fill it.
Not sure what spices to select? Coriander, cumin seed, Tellicherry peppercorns, fennel seed and saffron are great for grinding. Pre-ground favorites are Ceylon cinnamon, Aleppo pepper, sumac berries, cayenne, Punjabi-style garam masala and turmeric. Herbes de Provence and dried spearmint are great staples as well.
For cookbook lovers
Here are our picks for the best cookbooks published this season and last.
And here is the Cooks Without Borders Shop at Bookshop, filled with our perennial favorites — Cookbooks We Love. (Please bookmark it, if you’d like to support independent bookstores and Cooks Without Borders whenever you buy books online.)
For cooks who love geeking out on special ingredients
Makrut Limes, Curry Leaves, Galangal
Makrut limes from Angkor Cambodian Food
Anyone who makes their own Thai curry pastes (or wants to learn how) will rejoice at the sight of fresh makrut limes. Peel and freeze the rind for later use. They’re available through Angkor Cambodian Food, an excellent ecommerce site that also sells fresh curry leaves, fresh galangal and more. (Fresh curry leaves can also be frozen, and so can galangal — peel and slice thin first, and wrap in paper towels.)
Katsuobushi - bonito flakes
Katsuobushi — Shaved Dried Bonito
Dashi — seafood broth — is the cornerstone of Japanese cooking and katsuobushi (shaved dried bonito) is an essential ingredient. Two 100 g bags makes 5 - 6 batches.
Dried Rice Koji
Dried Rice Koji
The fermenting crazy is huge, and there are a grillion uses for koji salt, like this wonderful koji-marinated salmon, and all kinds of Japanese pickles. Sonoko Sakai’s cookbook Japapanese Home Cooking is a great gift that will show them how to make that and dashi.
You can find more gifts in our Cooks Without Borders Holiday Pop-Up Gift Shop. We’ll be adding more gifts up till New Year’s Eve, so keep checking back!