The Best Cooking Gifts and Kitchen Supplies to Give All Your Hungry Friends

Can you smell what The Rock is cooking? No? OK, how about what your roommate/Hinge date/stepdaddy is stirring on the stove? Would you love to see them preparing some spicy wings in a carbon steel grill pan? Handling a razor-sharp mandoline that spits out paper-thin slices of cucumber? If you’re being handed a pineapple margarita, would you rather sip it from a Solo cup or an artisanal Mexican glass with a cobalt-blue rim? It’s the details that make the difference when it comes to cooking and entertaining, which is why kitchen supplies make the best gifts, because they’re practical and fun at the same time.

We’re calling it now: 2023 has been, uh, a little weird, but 2024 will be the year of feeling good all the time! (We’re sure of it.) When it comes to food, the world is full of shiny things that were designed to make the process of cooking for yourself and your loved ones ever more enjoyable, and it’s not too late to gift them to yourself or others. These are our favorite tools, gadgets, glasses, and other miscellaneous things that should be in your kitchen cabinets.

Still the “it” pan

If you publicly express even a passing interest in cooking, you have likely been inundated with ads for about a bajillion different direct-to-consumer cookware companies—but perhaps most famous of them all is the highly Instagrammable, much sought-after Always Pan, a.k.a. the most aesthetic way to showcase that you’ve perfected a Dutch baby or shakshuka. Available in a variety of soothing Millennial-friendly colors like “Blue Salt” and “Terracotta,” it’s accrued 4.6 out of 5 stars from almost 35,000 reviews. Good news: it’s on sale right now. If your cabinets are still full of scratched, Teflon, hand-me-down skillets from discount stores, toss ‘em all out and grab one of these instead.

Misen’s awesome knife set

Speaking from experience, we can tell you that Misen’s elegant knives stay super-sharp for literally years, and are the easiest way to step up your slicing skills while also looking hella #adult. Time for your lucky recipient to banish all those dull-ass IKEA knives they stole from their roommates.

Haden’s stainless steel electric tea kettle

It’s baffling that so many people insist on hovering around their stovetops like maniacs, waiting for their old-fashioned kettles to scream at a deafening volume, when they could just get an electric kettle like this Haden bad boy, as handy for Top Ramen fans as for big-time tea drinkers. Hit the switch, and you’ll have piping-hot water in just a couple of minutes. It even has a little old-timey dial to tell you precisely how hot your water is. Best of all, this thing really jazzes up a countertop.

Leather oven mitts

These sexy suede oven mitts are perfect for everyday kitchen use or grabbing skewers off the grill. Dare we say you may even want to wear them in public to keep warm this winter? OK, maybe that’s a bit too far, but these fancy mitts are so much prettier than those side towels you usually use to grab the cookies from the oven.

Handcrafted Mexican cocktail glasses

These chic, super-affordable cocktail glasses look straight out of a mezcal bar in Mexico City. They’re thick-walled and virtually unbreakable, and just as perfect for everyday water-sipping as they are for enjoying round after round of margaritas with your friends.

Our editors and readers alike absolutely love this chef’s knife

Trying to get someone (or yourself) one amazing knife that will upgrade their entire cooking situation? This reader-fave Japanese chef’s knife is perpetually on sale for the price of a stocking stuffer. And if your comrades’ recs weren’t enough (rude), almost 12,000 Amazon reviewers also love it.

Your dad’s new favorite grill pan

[Tim Allen voice] Arf arf arf, non-stick, high heat, carbon steel, arf arf arf. We’re fairly sure that Tim Taylor would improve his home—get it?—with this blue carbon steel grill pan, so the daddy in your life deserves one, too. This bad boy totally rules for wings and veggies, but it’ll stand up to anything you throw in there. We also love Made In’s griddle, which we reviewed here.

A burrito thermos (yes, it’s real)

Eating a burrito doesn’t always have to be synonymous with making a humongous mess—that’s just been your experience so far. Well, no more! Now you can savor your oversized masterpiece at the movie theater, on the hiking trail, at the library, or on the bus (but maybe don’t be that guy), knowing it’ll be warm and easy to contain.

An Ooni pizza oven

We hear you’ve gotten really into baking lately. Well, instead of making bread nonstop, why not make some pizza dough and throw it in Ooni’s cult-fave pizza oven, or the brand’s newer, electric indoor/outdoor oven? They heat up quickly, are portable, and cook pizza in less than two minutes. Sounds way cooler than some stupid bread, if you ask us. (Like, does bread usually have pepperoni on it? No.) Plus, there are wood-burning, gas-burning, electric, and multi-fuel models.

Drinking while cooking is always a good idea

Bro, are you even cooking if you don’t have a drink in hand? (Maybe if it’s breakfast; but, then again, passable Bloody Marys are fairly easy to whip up.) If you’re searching for a gift for someone who can’t light the stove unless a negroni’s been prepared (same), Material recently did a collab with the drink masters at Death & Co. to make a cocktail set that’s equal parts beautiful, freaky, and funky.

If they’re someone who needs to have a cold glass of low intervention Albariño while preparing a feast in the kitchen or manning the grill out back, Yeti just dropped an extremely-on-brand new wine chiller.

OXO mini tongs

Is it weird to be obsessed with a pair of tongs? Because that’s how we feel about these little guys. They’re perfect for flipping veggies in your cast-iron, serving spaghetti carbonara to the one you love, or pinching the bums of anyone that disturbs you while you’re cooking. Take them camping, take them on a picnic, or just leave them home to use every day.

Wes Anderson’s Dutch oven

OK, so it isn’t literally Wes Anderson’s Dutch oven, but it looks like something he’d own, right? (Though Great Jones did validate our feelings on this with a mind-blowing meme.) If it’s seeming like a long winter of French onion soup, chili, gumbo, and mac and cheese—or just continuing to eat popcorn for every meal—this Dutch oven will have your back through and through.

One ticket to the Cool Club, please

It’s been Hedley & Bennett’s year, and we’re just living in it. From Top Chef to The Bear, the brand’s stylish kitchen gear is front and center on our screens right now; but that doesn’t mean it can’t be in our kitchens, too. Give your fave tuned-in homie the gift of kitchen high style with a Hedley & Bennett crossback apron.

Microplane’s classic stainless steel zester and cheese grater

If you don’t have a microplane yet… it’s time. Zest a Meyer lemon into your cookies! Grate some fresh Pecorino Romano onto your spaghetti! Get some fresh nutmeg goin’ for your Tom & Jerry!!! You will find a million uses for this thing—and so will whoever is lucky enough to get one in their stocking.

Store food (and drink water) like a chef

Whether you struggle with maximizing the space in your fridge or you’re a horny superfan of The Bear, a pack of 32-oz. deli containers will take you to the next level (Wilco vinyl not included).

The MUNCHIES cookbooks

Hey, we’ve got to mention MUNCHIES’ cookbooks, because they all really are that good. Buy one for your mom; buy one for your roommate; buy one for yourself. This one—the MUNCHIES Guide to Dinner—has a really, really excellent lasagna recipe. You’re welcome.

Gir spoonula

Since the moment we found this spoonula, life just hasn’t been the same. It’s the ultimate tool for the home cook and baker alike. You thought that merely having a spatula and also owning a spoon was enough, but you were wrong. Get a spoonula for each and every one of your friends, and two for yourself.

Breville’s Bambino espresso maker

Before the work-from-home-forever days, you relied on your office and local cafe to supply a steady stream of oat-milk-laced stimulants. And let’s face it, the sludge you’re brewing at home isn’t cutting it. It’s time you upped your caffeine game and invested in a professional-level espresso maker. Embrace your inner barista. And with a name like The Bambino, how can you resist?

Or just upgrade their pour-over and bean game

OK, not everybody wants to go hard with espresso every day. (Nobody we know, but we’ve heard they’re out there.) If someone you know loves great coffee but doesn’t have a killer setup, set them on the dark road to over-caffeination with an AeroPress—they’ll love it, especially if they’re a dad—and vacuum-sealed canister to keep their beans fresh. (Maybe also check out this guide to buying gifts for people who love coffee, which we created for this exact gifting situation.)

An aesthetic set of stainless steel cookware

We loooove Caraway’s new stainless steel cookware set. In addition to looking like it came from the Apple store or a Christopher Nolan film, it simply *handles* everything from heavy-duty chili and gumbo to fish, veggie stir-fry, and sauces. Yes, it’s an investment—but gift it to your spouse and consider it a gift to yourself, too.

That dang Benriner mandoline (again)

Yes, we recommended this very same mandoline last year. But it really is that good. It has truly changed the game, and made countless quarantine meals things of beauty instead of sad couch lunches. It has topped our salads with elegant curls of carrot and transformed our fennel into paper-thin slices of semi-translucent vegetal perfection.

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The Rec Room staff independently selected all of the stuff featured in this story. Want more reviews, recommendations, and red-hot deals? Sign up for our newsletter.