Tool time

Gifts for cooks

By Culinate staff

December 18, 2012

We’ve already run a list of recent cookbooks to give as gifts, but what about other holiday goodies?

For beginner cooks, the new cookbook Kitchenability 101: The College Student’s Guide to Easy, Healthy, and Delicious Food recommends such useful items as a rice cooker, a pair of tongs, and one good chef’s knife. The Huffington Post plumps for the true basics, including measuring cups and aprons.

For cooks of slightly more skill, other suggestions floating around the Web include thermometers and graters, ceramic serveware, and silicone oven mitts. And the Huffington Post advocated such gadgets as a pressure cooker and a pasta maker.

And, of course, if you’d rather give tools that aren’t handheld but cultural forces, there are plenty of worthy food-policy organizations to donate to. Check out Culinate’s own list of Food Politics, Environment, and Agriculture nonprofits on our Resources page.