Know someone who’s always experimenting in the kitchen and want to get them something? Here are our top five gifts for the fledgeling chef in your life…
We all know someone who thinks they have what it takes to be a professional chef. From your other half who likes to invite his mates over for “Come Dine With Me” dinner parties so he or she can show off their latest kitchen appliance to that one friend who insists on posting every single meal they cook to Instagram.
When it comes to sourcing gifts for such culinary devotees, it can be tempting to simply bung the latest major celebrity chef cookbook in the basket and be done with it. But there are so many more exciting gifts for chefs that deserve your attention and if you end up being the beneficiary of the delicious dinners they end up adding to then everybody wins!
Smokers
A smoker is a hallowed piece of cooking equipment that any BBQ enthusiast needs to add to their arsenal. These cookers are designed specifically to slow cook your food in smoke, creating an authentic flavour that will bring almost any BBQ cynic to their knees. Particularly strong with pulled pork.
Cutting Boards
A chef without a good cutting board is lost and whilst there are many different blends of wood and plastic to choose from, oak is almost certainly the blend that cuts across the board (pun very much intended).
Knives
A decent selection of knives is an absolute necessity for any fledgeling chef, but quality is subjective when it comes to a chef’s most valuable tool. What every chef will want to start off with is a chef’s knife that feels comfortable in the hand and can be used for a number of different applications. Nisbets stocks a range of chef’s knives that are ideal for beginner and professional chefs. When choosing your knife, however, be sure to take into account the kind of food the chef in question enjoys to prepare. If they are a vegetarian, for example, a meal cleaver probably isn’t your best bet.
Pizza Stone/Oven
There are few joys in a foodie’s life as special as dining on a proper, Italian stone-baked pizza. Dedicated pizza ovens might be expensive, but the results are tough to beat. There is, however, a cheaper alternative in the form of a pizza grilling stone that has a similar effect for a fraction of the price.
Food Tech
Whilst it might be a pastime as old as the human race itself, cooking has been brought kicking and steaming into the modern age by a range of clever gizmos, many of which can be tracked and controlled by your typical smartphone. The “Meater,” for example, is a smart meat thermometer that sends the current temperature of whatever you’re cooking directly to your phone. The Breville Smoking Gun, meanwhile, is a device that infuses your food with gorgeous flavoured smoke. Odd, but tasty!
Of course, we’ve just scratched the surface here. From deep fat fryers and sushi kits to digital kitchen scales rapid egg cookers and more, you’ll be amazed how many exciting and genuinely bonkers chef gifts you’ll find both online and off for the wannabe pro chefs in your life. So you should never struggle to think of a gift again! Well, for them at least!
