Give a Gift to Someone Who Likes to Cook
Does someone on your gift list love to cook? Cooking tools, gadgets, and other kitchen gifts can be some of the most-cherished gifts an aspiring chef can receive. Know how to pick the best kitchen gifts for the Emeril in your life!
Steps
- Watch your recipient in the kitchen. Help out, if you have the chance. Notice if any tools or utensils seem flimsy, worn, or if any task seems to require undue time or effort.
- Find out if the recipient is trying anything new. Is he learning how to bake bread? This might be the right time for a dough scraper.
- There is a gadget for almost everything. The right tool will be a great help in their cooking. The wrong tool will be just so much unused clutter.
- Remember that a worn tool may be worn because it's well used and the right tool for the job. If it's on its last legs, a replacement may be just the thing. If it's an old standby and still going strong, don't replace it.
- Keep your ears open for any opinions (good or bad) about the tools they have or don't have. These are often good clues as to what gifts would be well received.
- Share a recipe. If you also cook, there's a good chance you know a dish or two that would be new to your recipient.
- Offer to cook it with the person, if you have time. This is especially valuable if the recipe involves any special techniques. Create a small gift voucher or promise note setting out the offer.
- Write out the recipe and put at least the non-perishable ingredients together as a mix or kit. One possibility is to Create a Recipe in a Jar Gift.
- Offer ingredients. The best ingredients may not be something entirely new, but something a little fancier or more expensive than the ones they currently use. Here are some possibilities to get you started:
- Salt and pepper. For a gift, look for the fancy, gourmet versions, such as pink Himalayan salt, that your aspiring chef may not have tried yet. Many come in grinders.
- Real maple syrup. You could pair it with a pancake or waffle mix, or with a griddle or waffle iron if they don't yet have one.
- Honey. Honeys can be as diverse and complex in flavor as wine, depending on what kinds of plants the bees visited. See what your local natural foods or specialty store offers, and get a special kind, or a selection.
- Handmade Pasta and Noodles. Include some quality olive oil to round out the gift.
- Balsamic vinegar. If you live near a wine region, your local winery should have some excellent choices.
- Share your personal specialty. Homemade bread, jam or preserves, or fresh, homegrown produce all make excellent gifts.
- Include a label with relevant dates and ingredients. You might also like to share the recipe, unless it's a family secret!
- Go on an outing together. A foodie outing can be a wonderful experience as a gift and you get to enjoy the experience too.
- Go wine tasting.
- Give the cook a day off. Visit a good restaurant together, or cook for the person.
- Visit a farmer's market or gourmet market together. Offer to purchase some items there as part of the outing.
- Look for local restaurant events in which you get to sample restaurant cuisine portions at great prices; this can make a fun and inspiring outing.
- Look around for subscription services. In many places, it's possible to subscribe to an assortment of things, either on a one-time or monthly basis.
- A wine of the month.
- A Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA). Here, you support with a local, small farm, buying fresh, local produce (and sometimes eggs and meats).
- A cooking-related magazine.
- Consider kitchen scissors. Good kitchen scissors are indispensable, yet scissors get damaged and lost, and kitchen scissors are often chosen as an afterthought.
- Quality knives are also desirable but not everyone is comfortable with giving knives as a present.
- Give a gift certificate to a local food store. Natural and specialty foods are good choices, if your recipient will use them.
- Another useful idea is to give a certificate to cooking classes at a local store or restaurant. Be sure to check for flexibility in the classes so that your recipient can attend at their convenience.
- Give plants. Even if it's just a windowsill, start an Grow an Indoor Herb Garden or supply the seeds, pots, and soil for one.
- An indoor salad-growing kit is a wonderful gift for apartment dwellers and winter gifts.
- Consider giving him/her cultural cookware. A wok, chopsticks, and sushi rollers can be a great gift as well.
- Buy them a cookbook. Maybe they could make some exotic recipes they've never heard of using that, or even making a classic recipe that's really popular among a lot of people.
- Take close up pictures of dishes they have made. A macro lens or camera set on close-up or food mode works great. Compile the images into a photo book and add in notes or simply blank lined pages for the recipient to write in their recipe for the dish.
Tips
- Making up a basket of ingredients is a fun exercise for you and a delight for the recipient.
- Use your judgment about how the recipient cooks and what he or she will really be able to use.
- Look for practical, well-constructed tools, not gimmicks.
- If you know your recipient is left-handed, keep that fact in mind when selecting tools. If you can find left-handed tools, you'll be doing them a great favor. If you can't, at least you can avoid selections that would be difficult for your recipient to use.
Warnings
- If posting elsewhere, be aware of food restrictions, such as not sending meat products or honey to countries like Australia and New Zealand.
- Keep food allergies and preferences in mind, if you choose to give ingredients.
Things You'll Need
- Gift(s)
- Gift wrapping
- Card, markers, etc.
- Camera with close-upmode or macro lense
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