Best Holiday Gifts for Home Chefs
We have you covered with great ideas for the culinary enthusiast on your list
By Anna Kocharian and Kimberly Janeway
The fastest way to a cook’s heart might just be a gift that simplifies food prep, serves up delicious results, or makes their time in the kitchen even more enjoyable. And whether that comes in the form of a splurge-worthy appliance or a handy 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? Check out these guides: Best Early Black Friday Deals and Top 10 Black Friday Shopping Tips.
Essential Pots and Pans
Nonstick Frying Pan
Our Place Always Pan
The heavily hyped nonstick Always Pan is famously known for its claim that it can replace a frying pan, sauté pan, steamer, skillet, and saucepan. And whether it’s for a novice cook—who has yet to amass their personal collection of pots and pans—or for the seasoned one, this versatile cookware could be the ideal fit. The 10-inch pan is made of cast aluminum and comes in 10 bright colors that are perfect for personalization.
For more options: Best Nonstick Frying Pans
Cast-Iron Frying Pan
Lodge Cast Iron Pre-seasoned
Lodge has been making cast-iron frying pans in its Tennessee foundry since 1896. It’s one of the few surviving iconic American brands. This 12-inch Lodge cast-iron pan is top-notch at browning scallops and earns an Excellent rating for searing a steak. Baking is only so-so, though. Heating evenness is also mediocre. It weighs 7.8 pounds, which is about average.
For more options: Best Cast-Iron Frying Pans
Dutch Oven
Le Creuset Signature Dutch Oven
The 5.5-quart Le Creuset Signature tops our ratings for this category. It earns an Excellent rating in our browning tests, the only Dutch oven to do so, and is a cinch to clean. It weighs 12 pounds, less than most, and has an 8-inch cooking diameter. We found that the loop handles are nice and wide, not always a given on Dutch ovens.
For more options: Best Dutch Ovens
Nonstick Cookware Set
GreenPan Reserve
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 were 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 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.
Stainless Steel Cookware Set
Kenmore Elite Devon Tri-Ply
This nicely priced 10-piece set should satisfy most of your cooking needs. The lids are glass, so you can watch what you’re cooking without letting any heat escape. Cooking evenness is top-notch, and this set earns high ratings for both speed of heating and gently releasing eggs from the pan. The handles stay cool to the touch but could be sturdier.
For more options: Best Cookware Sets
Countertop Appliances
Smart Oven
Tovala Smart Oven
Tovala is a 1,525-watt smart countertop oven and meal delivery kit service, which features a weekly menu of single-serving meals that arrive raw with simple instructions and a QR code that can be scanned by Tovala’s smart oven. The oven downloads the recipe’s cooking settings and cooks most meals in under 20 minutes.
In addition to toasting, baking, and broiling, it can air-fry, reheat, and steam. Many meal settings and recipes will use a combination of cooking methods and you can customize your own cycle for non-Tovala foods, too.
Learn more about the Tovala Smart Oven.
Waffle Maker
Calphalon CKCLWF1
This Calphalon waffle maker makes two square waffles at a time. It scores a Very Good rating for even browning but loses some points in the color-range test, in which it scores a Good. That means there’s less variation between the dark and light settings; waffles cooked on the light setting still come out brown. This model has a countdown timer, an alarm that sounds once the waffles are ready, and a wraparound moat to collect excess batter.
For more options: Waffle Makers
Kitchen Tools and Accessories
Sheet Pan
Great Jones Holy Sheet
Great Jones’ cookware line puts a vibrant spin on culinary staples, turning the utilitarianism of stocking 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
Accordian Cutter
Juome 5-Wheel Pastry Cutter
According to Jesse Szewczyk, a food stylist and cookbook author, this culinary tool may be a bit of a niche kitchen item, but it’s also one that may come in handy more so than one would think. "I love using my accordion cutter for cutting brownies into perfect squares, cutting rolled-out cookie dough into even planks, and for just about anything else that would benefit from perfectly even cuts." Cue an Instagram-ready dessert tray.
Chef's Knife
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 Permio’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
Silicone Mat
Greenrain Silicone Pastry Mat
Whether it’s rolling out a pie crust from scratch or kneading dough for bread, kitchen counters can get a lot of action during the holiday season. Enter this handy nonslip silicone mat, which comes with measured markings that can take the guesswork out of baking. Szewczyk loves to use this silicone mat for rolling out dough to specific shapes and so much more. "Need a 10-inch circle for a pie? Or an 11-inch square for shortbread? Just check the mat! Not only does it help make measuring easy, but it’s nonstick and makes cleanup a breeze." The best part? You can roll it up and take it to the sink—no need to clean the countertop—and just as easily stash it in a drawer when you’re done.
Mixers and Food Choppers
Stand Mixer
KitchenAid Classic (250 watt) K45SS[WH]
The KitchenAid Classic K45SS excels at mixing, kneading, and whipping. It gets a middling score for noise, however. The 10-speed mixer comes with a 4.5-quart stainless steel bowl, flat beater, dough hook, and wire whisk. It’s compatible with all KitchenAid attachments, so you can branch out from baking into more savory foods, such as sausage and pasta. It weighs 23 pounds and comes in either white or black.
For more options: Best Stand Mixers
Food Chopper
Ninja Master Prep Professional QB1004
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
Food Processor
Cuisinart Custom 14 DFP-14BCNY
Cuisinart introduced the food processor to Americans in the early 1970s, and it has been a recognized brand in the category ever since. The Cuisinart Custom 14 DFP-14BCNY garners an Excellent rating in chopping, meaning it consistently chopped onions and nuts into medium-sized pieces. And it’s one of the quietest models we’ve tested. It operates on 720 watts, has a 14-cup capacity, and stands almost 16 inches high. Many of the food processors we’ve tested have touch buttons, but this one has levers—one for on, the other for pulsing and off. The warranty lasts three years; five for the motor. It’s available in brushed stainless, copper, and stainless mixed with black or white.
For more options: Best Food Processors & Choppers
Full-Sized Blender
Vitamix 5200
Vitamix earns an Excellent rating in predicted brand reliability, according to our survey of CR members. That means this blender will 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
Hand Mixer
Cuisinart Power Advantage HM-50
In our lab tests, this nicely priced hand mixer outperformed models costing twice as much. It’ll turn whipping cream into fluffy peaks in seconds. Stiff cookie dough, which undoes many bargain mixers, proved no problem. You won’t get much in the way of add-ons, but its wire beaters do just fine.
For more options: Best Hand Mixers
Classic Cookers
Air Fryer
Chefman TurboFry Air Fryer 4.5 Quart
The Chefman TurboFry Touch has a measured capacity of just 2.4 quarts (contrary to its claimed capacity of 3.5 quarts). It earns high marks for controls and ease of cleaning, and it operates quietly, acing our noise test. Though it does have a digital display, it does not come with programmable settings. That means you’ll need to have a general idea of the temperature and time required for each recipe. It does, however, come with a one-year warranty, as well as a cookbook and parchment liners for the fryer basket.
For more options: Best Air Fryers
Slow Cooker
Hamilton Beach Temp Tracker 33866 6 Qt.
This 6-quart Hamilton Beach is one of the least expensive of the programmable models we tested, and it beat out the Crockpot, long synonymous with slow cookers, in our tests. The Hamilton Beach is the only model to earn an Excellent rating in our high-setting tests; it’s the fastest in its category. Program this cooker for up to 24 hours; the auto-warm option lasts for 24 hours, too. The owner’s manual includes tips on using the temperature probe and hold-temp mode to cook meat and fish using the sous vide method (placing food in a sealed bag and slowly cooking it in a warm bath of water).
For more options: Best Slow Cookers
Multi-Cooker
Instant Pot DUO60 7-in-1 6 Quart
The Duo 7-in-1 is Instant Pot’s oldest model that’s still on the market. Even though there are several newer versions out with more functions—the Max, for instance—this comparatively basic model is more than enough for most home cooks. It also usually retails for half the price of the Max and performs similarly in our tests. It earns an Excellent score for pressure cooking and top marks for rice cooking and sautéing.
For more options: Best Multi-Cookers
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