26 Best Gifts For The Cook Who Already Has Everything — According To A Professional Chef

The Dash Chef Series convection toaster oven is so much more than a toaster oven. Sure, it’ll make the best damn toast of your life (you can choose how golden or brown you want it), but you can also use it to air fry, cook a whole chicken, a pie, make rotisserie chicken (we still love you, $5 Costco rotisserie chicken), and more. My husband and I personally used this to make our Thanksgiving meal (okay, the turkey got the standard oven treatment because it was so big). It’s really nice not having to use your oven and stove for everything, so it’s a smart alternative that saves time.

This cast iron pot can handle extreme heat and evenly distributes the heat with no hot spots. You can use it as a wok, sauté pan, and put it in the oven. It’ll last you a lifetime (and will be one of those things you end up giving your kids instead of china).

Chefs just want simple towels that’ll get the job done. And yes, white is actually ideal because you can toss them in the washer and bleach them if they get stained. These 100% ring spun cotton towels are lightweight, yet extremely absorbent, and you get 12 for under $15, which is a really good deal. Not the most “glam” present, but a super useful one.

According to my husband, “Everyone forgets these types of measuring cups exist.” They’re super handy for measuring liquids, and you can stack ingredients in it and only have to wash one thing.

If you want to grill, but don’t have a grill (or the space for a grill), get a Lodge cast iron reversible grill. It has grill ridges so you can give your steaks or portobello mushrooms grill marks and you can flip it on its smooth side if you want to make a grilled cheese. The heat distributing is super even, so you don’t have to worry about overcooking or undercooking any part of the meal.

You know how freshly cracked pepper just tastes better than regular pepper you get from a shaker? It’s kind of a small thing, but chefs depend on the potency of spices to really put their meals together. As a bonus, this grinder grinds coffee *and* spices, and chances are, your chef will be happy to use both functions.

This is considered the chef’s holy scripture and the Culinary Institute of America uses it to teach students. Aside from recipes, you get culinary theory and technique, as well as the basic tools to become a master chef.

It’s not the shiniest or glammest gift in the world, but all cooks need storage, and this comes with straining capabilities, which makes it a nifty 2-in-1 gadget. Best of all, the containers collapse, so you don’t run in the problem you probably have right now with all your Tupperware containers (as in, you have 5,000 containers and 5,000 lids that just take up an entire drawer).

These storage containers don’t collapse or have straining features, but they’re perfect for things like flour, pasta, cereal, and other goods you want to keep in an air-tight container (for freshness, but also in case you have critters — it happens in apartments!).