Trying to cook up a gift idea for someone special in your life?

Finding a gift for a home cook can be hard, especially if they have everything (or are stubborn and don’t give you anything to work with). You want to give them something that they’ll use and also something personal that shows you care. We’re here to help!

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For the Home Cook Who Loves Flavor

Okay, everyone likes flavor. No one likes bland food — so these gifts are likely to go over well with pretty much any home cook.

Fancy olive oils and vinegars (we recommend Brightland’s gift sets)
Maldon Flakey Sea Salt (adds the perfect finishing touch to dishes)
Herbs and spices from The Silk Road — their spice sets make a great gift!

Brightland olive oil gift set — The Mini Artist Series from Brightland - 4 infused olive oils for $85 USD

We don’t want to tell you what to buy, as this will depend on the type of cuisine that your home cook gravitates towards. Pay attention and get them something that will compliment what they make. Or, if they’ve expressed interest in trying a new type of cuisine but don’t have the right spices in the kitchen, you can help them get started!

🎁 Shop Local: Check out your local farmer’s market to see what they have!

For the Home Cook Who Loves The Heat

Some people like it hot. Really hot. For the spice lord in your life, get them a hot sauce gift pack (they’ll especially appreciate it if they watch Hot Ones) or ghost pepper salt or jalapeno lime salt from South Church Salt Company.

Hot Ones hot sauce — Season 13 Hot Ones Trio Pack - $42 USD

For the Home Cook Who Enjoys Cookbooks

Not every home cook likes cookbooks. If they don’t have a few already, chances are they might not appreciate receiving one as a gift. Some people prefer to use the internet to source recipes, or just like to wing-it in the kitchen. If they love to pour over cookbooks and sticky note recipes, here are a few to consider — just make sure they don’t own it first!

Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat - $23 USD

🎁 Shop Local: We’ve linked to these books on Amazon, but if you have a local bookstore check them out!

For the Home Cook Who Likes to Drink

If your home cook just so happens to also love cocktails, check out Cocktail Emporium — they have everything from bitters to syrups to glassware to gift sets. If they like wine and you know what kind they like (e.g. Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, etc), buy them a bottle of the type they enjoy. Chances are they’ll enjoy it, unless they’re a huge wine snob.

Ginger Shimmer Highball Ingredient Set - $72 CAD

🎁 Shop Local: Where we live we’re blessed with Sherbrooke Liquor — it has a ton of products that you won’t find at your average chain liquor store. If there is something like that where you live, check them out! Another way to support local is to shop directly from the smaller wineries in your country. Since we’re in Western Canada, we try to support the wineries in the Okanagan as much as we can.

For the Eco-Friendly Home Cook

There are a lot of different ways you can reduce waste in the kitchen. Here are some of our favorite gifts for the eco-friendly cook in your life:

Reusable beeswax food wrap from Abeego
Earth-friendly Swedish dishcloths from Ecologie
Reusable silicone food bags from Stasher

Earth-friendly Swedish dishcloths — Set of 3 washcloths for $25 USD

For the Home Cook Who Uses a Slow Cooker

Slow cooking is a great way to make a large quantity of food that requires minimal effort. If the cook in your life is into meal prep and uses a slow cooker, you might want to consider upgrading them to an Instant Pot. It has all the same features as a crock pot, but is also a pressure cooker! The possibilities are endless with an Instant Pot — it can boil eggs, make yogurt, cook rice, roast chicken, and so much more.

We love to make homemade broth in our Instant Pot. It takes way less time!

For the Home Cook Who Wants a Break

Even if you love to cook, sometimes you need a break from cooking. One thing you can do to give the gift of easy week-day meals is to buy them a subscription to a meal kit subscription such as Goodfood or HelloFresh.

🎁 Shop Local: To support local businesses, you can instead buy a gift card for their favorite restaurant.

For the Home Cook Who Loves to Garden

If you’re like us and live somewhere where it gets cold in the winter (we mean below freezing), then you probably miss having the fresh herbs and produce that you can grow in the summer. The AeroGarden is perfect for home cooks who love using fresh herbs — it can grow them indoors year-round!

Aerogarden — AeroGarden Harvest Elite Slim - $149.99 CAD

Still Not Sure What To Get? Here Are More Gift Ideas:

Tumbler Knife Sharpener

When is the last time they’ve sharpened their knives? You take their knives to a professional to have them sharpened, or buy them a Tumbler knife sharpener so they can easily keep their knives sharp themselves.

Check out our full review.

Tumbler knife sharpener — Tumbler Diamond Rolling Knife Set - $179 USD

Cutting Board

A good cutting board is worth its weight in gold. Boos Boards are more or less the industry standard. They also happen to be a bit pricey, however, when treated with care (and periodically oiled) a good quality board will last for years.

Vacuum Sealer

Does the home cook you’re buying for freeze a lot of meat and veggies? If they’re using crappy ziploc bags and don't eat it fast enough, they likely freezer burn a lot of their food. A vacuum sealer solves this problem by allowing you to properly pack and store food so that it retains its quality for much longer. It’s something that a lot of home cooks want — they just tend to buy the shinier items first (e.g. knife they really want). We personally use this FoodSaver vacuum sealer at home. (It’s also great for sous vide!)

Apron

Not all aprons are made equal. There’s a very fine line between fun and joke-y and super tacky. For example, don’t ever give someone this abomination as a gift:

Obviously you’ll know the person better than we will, but if you’re going to go to the trouble of buying an apron as a gift, we suggest picking one from this list. The options are utilitarian while also good looking.

Gifts To Impress The Home Cook In Your Life

These gifts are on the pricier end, but are sure to make your home cook swoon.

Sous Vide

There are a wide variety of choices for sous vide cooker, from super pricey self contained units, to robot sticks that have varying levels of features. Sous vide offers the promise of never overcooking anything ever again. If you really are trying to impress the foodie in your life, consider gifting them a sous vide.

Dutch Oven (Le Creuset or Staub)

Much like a cutting board, a good quality Dutch oven can last for years. Le Creuset and Staub are the big names here and in our experience are worth the money. We can confidently say that any foodie who doesn’t have one would love to have one — just be sure to get them the right color!

Le Creuset Round French Oven - $200-$795 USD

KitchenAid Stand Mixer

Whoa there. You’re really pulling out all the stops here aren’t you? KitchenAid essentially owns the stand mixer market, so if you’re going to drop mad stacks on a stand mixer, you may as well get a KitchenAid mixer. Do you research and make sure you don’t get a mixer that’s too under or over powered. And since they come in a variety of colors, make sure you get the right color to match their kitchen! If they already have a KitchenAid mixer, you could buy them an attachment they don’t have instead.

New Kitchen Knives

If you’re going to buy a kitchen knife for someone, make sure to do your research first. Also be sure to talk with them about what kind of style of knife they like or are missing from their arsenal.

There are many, many, many different types of kitchen knives and it can be hard to know where to start. Here are a few ideas to start with:

🎁 Shop Local: Does your town have a knife store? GO THERE. The staff there are knowledgeable and will guide you in the right direction.

Masakage Kiri VG-10 Santoku 165mm knife — Masakage Kiri VG-10 Santoku 165mm - $259 CAD

Things NOT To Get The Home Chef In Your Life

Below are a few things we recommend gifting with caution or just not gifting at all.

One Use Gadgets

Your home chef likely doesn’t need or want an avocado slicer, pizza scissors, cherry pitter, banana slicer, egg cracker, or {insert specific produce here} peeler. There are a million gadgets that only do one thing that are a waste of space and are just unnecessary. Most of the gadgets above can easily be replaced with a knife.

Don’t do it, unless they specifically ask for one.

Dishware & Cookware

There are a number of reasons why gifting dishware and cookware (pots, pans, etc) is not a great idea. For dishes, it might not be the theme or style that they want. For cookware, while a pot or pan set may look nice, it may have some unfortunate design quirks that make them not ideal. For example, it might have trash handles or it might not be oven safe.

If you were thinking of getting them dishware or cookware, just ask first. It’s likely that they already have something specific in mind.

We hope this list helps you shop for the home cook in your life! Let us know in the comments below if we missed anything on our list that we should have included.

The Best Kitchen Gift Ideas for Every Type of Home Cook