It's Birthday Week, and we're rounding up some of our favorite gifts for food-lovers and cooks. Our earlier roundups were on the economical end, but now is the time to look at that handful of covetable, forever-useful kitchen tools that cost a little more (and rightly so), but will last a lifetime. There are the usual suspects — Dutch oven, stand mixer — plus a few other special splurges for a loved cook or for yourself!
TOP ROW
• 1 Le Creuset Signature Oval Dutch Oven, $225.00 - $370.00 at Williams-Sonoma. - A weighty, beautiful Dutch oven — perhaps the most-coveted high ticket kitchen tool?
• 2 Vitamix CIA Professional Series Blender, $498.95 at Amazon. - Another expensive yet totally solid tool we love.
• 3 Splash-Proof Thermapen, $89 at ThermoWorks - At just shy of $100, the Thermapen is a splurgey sort of thermometer. But its speed and accuracy make it one of the most-used tools in my kitchen (review here).
• 4 All-Clad® Stainless Steel Multi-Cooker, 12 qt., $169.95 at Sur La Table - A really, really big pot, that comes with multiple inserts to make steaming and pasta-cooking easier. A super price for an endlessly useful pot.
• 5 KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer, $279.99 at Amazon - Surely another of the most-coveted expensive kitchen tools. And a stand mixer is truly useful: It speeds up so many kitchen tasks!
BOTTOM ROW
• 6 Sodastream Crystal Soda Maker, $179.95 at Amazon - If you like seltzer water, then a Sodastream is a great investment, cutting down on wasted bottles. Just make your seltzer yourself. Also a great semi-luxury gift that people don't think to buy themselves.
• 7 Shun Premier Chef's Knife, 8-Inch, $119.95 at Amazon - Knives are considered unlucky gifts, but you can circumvent this old tradition by giving a knife with a penny, which the recipient returns to you to "buy" the knife. A technical way around giving a very welcome, very useful lifetime gift!
• 8 DeLonghi Gelato Maker , $248 at Amazon - Have an ice-cream-crazed friend or relative? There are cheaper ice cream machines, but I love the luxury of this compressor model, which lets you make batch after batch without the hassle of keeping a big bowl in your freezer. See my review here.
• 9 Staub Baker, 3 1/4-Qt., $100 at Williams-Sonoma - When it comes to enameled cast iron, Dutch ovens get all the love, but don't overlook the cast iron baking pan. It's fantastic for roasting, and beautiful on the table.
• 10 Fuego Element Portable Gas Grill, 149.99 at Amazon - A little gas grill that even apartment-dwellers can use! See our review here.
Have you ever given (or received) a more splurgey yet forever useful kitchen gift?
More Kitchen Gift Roundups
• Smart Food Gifts $10 and Under
• Useful, Beautiful Kitchen Gifts Under $25
• Kitchen Tools & Edible Gifts Under $100
(Images: Williams-Sonoma; Amazon; ThermoWorks; Sur La Table; Amazon; Williams-Sonoma; Amazon; Amazon; Williams-Sonoma; Emma Christensen)
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I have the Thermopen thermometer and love it. Instant read with large numbers I can read easily at a distance.
Kitchen-aid definitely a must have. In retrospect though, I really wish I had bought the tilt head, instead of the one pictured. The tilt head makes it so much easier to add ingredients, scrap the bowl, etc - and I don't *really* need the extra power or space you get with the higher model.
The soda stream is awesome and all, but I really wouldn't consider it "lifetime" like a cast iron dutch oven or a great knife. If you use it a lot, you're committing to buy at least a couple of these in your lifetime, whereas you'll hand your dutch oven down to your grand kids.
Acutally, you have it backwards with the knife. The person gives you a penny for the knife. That was they "bought" it as a square deal. Giving them a penny with a knife just means that you gave them a penny with a knife, unless of course, they give the penny back.
I happened upon a Le Creuset dutch oven at Goodwill a couple months ago, in perfect condition, for $8. I snapped that right up!!
I've read in the blogosphere about quality problems in KA mixers that make me think twice about buying one.
I gifted myself a Staub Dutch oven for my last birthday, don't tell my husband but it was my best gift :)
Having wanted a Le Creuset dutch oven for the longest time, I went out and bought one a few months ago (the catalyst being the beautiful shoulder roast of lamb my parents donated me after doing a slaughter). I was twenty and it cost me two and a half weeks rent, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I've used it for so much - if it doesn't get used twice a week then we're probably on holiday or studying for exams.
Between that and my stand mixer, which I purchased six months ago, I'm in heaven. If I had the cash, the dutch oven is definitely something I'd give as a gift. Everyone ought to have one. Mine made me a better cook overnight (don't tell your guests that, though - take all the credit for yourself).
I developed a love for cooking while at school and since then its developed into a lifestyle. I just turned 23 and moved into my first apt in March. After moving out it very quickly occurred to me how spoiled I was living and cooking at home with an entirely stocked kitchen including my mom's pretty good collection of Le Creuset cookware. For my 23 birthday my mom got me the Le Creuset dutch oven and my girlfriend got me a Le Creuset oval baking dish. Without hesitation I can say that these are the best gifts I have gotten in a while!