24 Best Cooking Gifts for People Who Love to Cook

The Pro fixes the original's annoyances: the inner pot has handles and can go on the stovetop to sear, and steam release is quieter. It is ideal for the cook who wants braised short ribs or beans from dry on a Tuesday night.

Cooks always need a handful of basil or cilantro and never want to buy a whole plastic clamshell of it. Twelve pods under a grow light keep fresh herbs on the counter all winter, and the app reminds them when to add water.

For the technique-minded cook, sous vide is a revelation: steaks cooked evenly edge to edge, salmon that never dries out, and custardy eggs. The Anova clips to any pot they already own, so it takes up almost no space.

The gift every baker hopes to unwrap. The all-metal Artisan handles bread dough and nine dozen cookies without complaint, and the attachment hub means it can later roll pasta or grind meat. If they bake even once a month, this will live on the counter for twenty years.

Fresh pasta is the project that turns a regular cook into an enthusiast, and the Italian-made Atlas 150 is the machine most pasta makers start and stay with. Pair it with a bag of 00 flour for a perfect weekend gift.

Three pre-seasoned skillets cover a fried egg, a seared steak and a cast-iron cornbread. They are a good starter set for a new cook or college grad and get better with every use.

Homemade pizza with a properly crisp bottom needs a stone. This cordierite one handles a fully preheated oven or the grill, and the included peel makes launching a pie easier.

Many cooks are still using mismatched glass bowls. Three nesting OXO bowls with non-slip bottoms stay put while whisking, and the steel will never chip. A practical gift for bakers.

If they do not own an enameled Dutch oven yet, this is the most useful pot you can give. It handles chili, braises, soups and crusty no-knead bread, and it costs a fraction of the French brands while cooking almost identically.

The right knife gift for a first home, a newly married couple or anyone still cutting with a single serrated knife. German steel, steak knives for the table and a block to keep them sharp and safe.

Cooking schools and test kitchens keep coming back to this knife for good reason: it is sharp, light and nearly indestructible. It is the best under-$50 upgrade for someone whose current knife is dull.

For the cook who already has a knife they love. Learning to sharpen on stones is a satisfying skill, and this kit includes the angle guide and flattening stone beginners need to get it right.

A maple board from the Illinois company that has been making butcher blocks since 1887. It is kinder to knife edges than plastic or bamboo, and at 16 by 10 inches it is big enough to work on but light enough to wash in the sink.

Thin, scorched cloth mitts are a burn waiting to happen, especially with a 450°F Dutch oven. Silicone mitts with a cotton lining grip heavy pots securely, and they come in colors that look nice hanging by the stove.

Melted plastic spatulas and scratched nonstick pans are common in kitchens that cook often. This one-piece silicone set handles high heat, is gentle on coated pans and cleans easily.

The single cheapest way to stop overcooking chicken and pork. A thermocouple probe that reads in half a second means the oven door is open for a moment, not a minute, and the auto-flip display reads at any angle.

Every serious cook owns one, and every cook who does not should. It zests a lemon without the bitter pith, snows parmesan over pasta and grates garlic into a paste. A perfect stocking stuffer.

Freshly cracked spices, real pesto and Thai curry paste all taste better pounded than blitzed. The unpolished granite grips ingredients, and the weight keeps it from wandering around the counter.

Dry greens hold dressing; wet ones turn into a soggy pile. OXO's one-handed pump spinner is the version cooks recommend, and it also dries herbs and rinsed berries.

Six small bottles of flavored extra virgin olive oil for drizzling over pasta, dipping bread or finishing roasted vegetables. It is a pantry treat most cooks would not buy for themselves.

For the cook who loves to host. The big bamboo board hides a drawer of cheese knives and a wine opener, so everything for a spread comes out together and goes away together.

The cookbook that makes people better cooks rather than better recipe-followers. Samin Nosrat explains the four elements behind every good dish, and once they understand them they can cook without a recipe. It is a great gift for beginners and long-time cooks alike.

For the cook who wants to know why: why to salt steak early, why stock separates, why some burgers are better. Kenji's massive, tested book is the one they will still be using in ten years.

Five blends from five continents (chimichurri, chakalaka, paella, tandoori and tzatziki) give a cook in a rut five new dinners to try. It is an easy gift to pair with a cookbook or skillet.