Six Holiday Gifts for Your Kitchen-Centric Pal

Listen, I know that I am hard to shop for. First off, I buy whatever I want. No, I’m not just walking around buying Vitamixes, but, as a gainfully-employed adult in a DINK household with decent financial knowledge, I can usually save up and purchase things that I want/need. Second, I’m particular. I know all too well the pains my friends and family go through when trying to buy me gifts—buying for easy-going loved ones is hard enough.

With that in mind, Karen and I really wanted to create a gift guide filled with options that people who like to cook, like to host, and like this blog, will actually like for themselves. We have six categories—with a wide range of prices—and if your person of gifterest already has one of these, they will probably like the rest. Here we go.

1. Staub

Your food-loving friend needs a good dutch oven. You could easily go with another high-end brand, but we love Staub’s price-quality ratio, sleek design, and muted-moody colors. There are three sizes that are important to have in a fully stocked kitchen, so if your gift-getter already has one, consider getting them another size based on what types of kitchen things they like doing best.

5-6 QT: This is the first Staub you should own. It does it all.

3.75 QT: This is the best for baking, or batch cooking for small households. Karen uses this size to bake her famous loaves and Dylan uses hers to cook smaller tough cuts for her two-person household.

7-9 QT: This is great for anyone who likes to entertain or plan ahead. You can feed a small army with braised pork shoulders or brisket in this badboy. You can also make a vat of tomato sauce at the end of the season to freeze and use all winter long. This is a serious gift for some serious kitchen tasks.

2. Starter bar

Starting a home bar is intimidating—why not help a friend out by starting it for them? We made a foolproof three-step guide to getting a home bar started, and the foundational elements would be a fantastic gift for anyone in your life who loves cocktails.

What does that really mean? One whiskey (~$30), one gin (~$30), one interesting, but not expensive, tequila (~$30), Angustora bitters (~$15), one sweet vermouth, and one dry vermouth (~$60). The overall cost is about $140, but you could also simply choose one or two from the list if you’re on more of a budget.

You could also get your friend set up with all the elements of a house cocktail—and make it one that you actually enjoy for the next time they have you over. A rum old fashioned, perhaps?

3. Cute, cheap cocktail glasses you can totally mistreat

While on the topic of cocktails: These pretty, vintage-looking glasses, from IKEA, can be mistreated by the rowdiest of drinkers and the likelihood of breakage is low. Plus, if they do break, they only cost $3 a glass. Who cares! Throw them out the window if you’d like! (But not really, it was just a joke.)

You can also head straight to your local Goodwill or favorite second-hand store and search through the glassware. There are treasures to be found here—especially when on a budget.

4. Subscriptions galore!

We love the idea of getting a present once a month for a whole year. Think about gifting a subscription, either of very useful content or high-quality items. Bonus: You don’t have to actually wrap or send anything!

Fatcork is a grower Champagne importer and retailer located right here in Seattle. They focus on bringing the very best undiscovered Champagnes from France to the U.S. They ship almost everywhere, so you don’t have to be local to enjoy.

Herkimer coffee is Karen’s favorite Seattle roaster. She decided to move all the way to New York, but she loves that Herkimer offers a coffee subscription. If you need to buy Karen a gift, this is a pretty good one.

Or, make it coffee AND an album! Tandem Coffee—in Dylan’s hometown of Portland, Maine—has the Good Thing – a coffee and vinyl record subscription club. Each month, members will get one 12" record and one 12-oz bag of coffee. A pretty dreamy combination.

NY Times Cooking is basically the best bang for your buck when it comes to gift subscriptions. Anyone who likes to cook has been hit by that famous paywall upon finding a promising NY Times cooking recipe. When you give your loved one NY Times cooking, you’re really giving them unlimited access to Alison Roman, Sam Sifton, Yotam Ottolenghi, and more.

5. Stoneware

There is something so lovely—and so grown up—about hand-made tableware. A statement bowl or serving plate can easily elevate your average dining room table to a party-worthy, aspirational, instagrammable one. (Something we all want from time to time, right?) For your favorite host—or even favorite homebody—consider a unique, one of a kind piece of pottery. Natasha Alphonse and Akiko Graham are local Seattle ceramicists we love. (Plus, we wholly encourage shopping at female- and POC-owned, local shops around the holidays). One of Dylan’s friends also makes beautiful pieces that decorate her home.

However much we love handmade pieces, many of us can’t afford an entire collection. Plus, when they break, it’s extra excruciating. At both of our homes, we intermix one-of-a-kind pieces with a staple set from Crate and Barrel. (This one, to be exact.) There’s a place for both in your house, too.

6. Champagne!

When in doubt, bring Champagne. Truly, there’s no greater gift during the holidays than a nice bottle of bubbles. Reach out to our friends at Fatcork or simply stop by your favorite wine shop an ask them to help you pick out a bottle. Find out the story behind the wine—the type of soil it grows in, the grapes used, the name of the family that makes the wine—and recount the tale as you slurp oysters and cheers to another year ending.

Um, excuse me?

I’ve got a gift idea—is it any good?
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