Gift Guide: 10 Holiday Gift Ideas for the Guy Who Loves to Cook… and Loves to Eat

Whether you’re actually looking to buy a kitchen gadget or piece of gear for a man, or just fulfilling your mom’s wish to “send her a list,” here are my (Gabriel’s) ten picks for some serious food-oriented holiday gifts. I found some not-so-common gifts (other than cooking books), cause honestly, those who love to spend time in the kitchen probably already have all the staples. Take a look!

1. Range Smart Thermometer (starts at $54) High tech FTW! This smart thermometer can send push notifications when your food achieves the desired temperature or you can set it to alert you at several stages of the cooking process.  There are a few different kinds that range from candy thermometers to meat and barbecued items. Mind you, you’ll have to pre-order this late in the game, but hey, better late than never!

2. Herb drying rack – $39.  Every kitchen aficionado out there knows that the meal is as good as the quality of the ingredients used in the recipe. So obviously, getting something like this to dry herbs from your garden or the market makes perfect sense. It’s simple and clean. Also, quite affordable and could double as a kitchen towel rack. Or DIY your own!

3. Natural cork coasters – $15. With the holidays in full gear, all sorts of cocktails and fancy concoctions will be served, which means you need a set of grown-up coasters – that also happen to look quite rugged and awesome. And hey, you can always DIY it and take this model as inspiration.

4. Oversized copper mug – $28. Speaking of cocktails, what about this cooper mug to make some might Moscow Mules? Or…you know, any other cocktail. This mug has a camping-in-the-woods feel to it which we all love. Oh! And if you want to make it extra especial, pack a few goodies in the mug: a few cocktail tools or even some recipes.

5. Coffee drip pot – $40. Nothing beats a good cup of coffee! Any devoted foodie will tell you that generic coffee machines make coffee taste like crap, and that the simpler the better. This manual drip pot will surely make your morning, and the experience the making a cup of coffee using one of these bad boys is almost as exciting as opening presents all over again.

5. Kitchen towels – $18. There’s no such thing as have too many kitchen towels, and honestly, the more unique, the better. These are cool, masculine, and just a bit food nerdy! That’s a lot of checkmarks on your list.

6. Kitchen medicine poster  – $13. For the geeky and curious, this poster full of herbs and their health benefits is perfect. Food people know what most of those plants are, it looks great! Just add a black frame and you’re done. You can get an affordable frame from IKEA or the craft store.

7. Portable humidifier – $25 Ok, even though you may not use one in the kitchen, this humidifier is plain cool. But you food-gifted friends and family can whip up their own scented oils with common ingredients, then make the whole house smell like ’em any time they want.

8. Victorinox Knife Block – $51. Even thought a lot of us still buy printed cook books we gotta admit that we takes tons of notes from cooking blogs and other online publications. This stand will allow your foodie friend to browse through recipes online in his tablet, while he gets his knives ready to rock.

9, Pure black knife set – $314.  Beautiful and durable…hence the price tag, but hey, these are an investment. 

10. Mater bartender set – $198. All this shopping is making us thirsty, so why don’t we chill out while sipping some master cocktails? What’s that? You don’t have set? Oh, well then try this one.  This master set has a bit of a bigger budget, but its the only one you need. The feel is timeless and the looks super dapper. Done.