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2018 Gift Guide: For the Chef

In some ways, picking out a gift for someone who especially enjoys cooking and entertaining is the easiest person to buy for. That’s because passionate home chefs are almost always looking for the next best knife, a novel ingredient, or curious about the latest kitchen appliance. But it’s a little challenging, yet fulfilling to feed their hunger for something new along with something beautifully designed. Here are a few of our favorite kitchen-inspired gift ideas, several paired with personal food favorites to elevate a single gift into a thoughtful set.

Gina Drip Coffee Maker + Coffee Manufactory Holiday Bundle \\\ $245 + $55
From Kickstarter to winner of one of the Red Dot Product Design 2018 awards, the Gina is for the coffee connoisseur always seeking yet another method for making the perfect cup. A 3-in-1 machine equipped to handle a pour over, immersion, or cold drip preparation, the Gina’s built-in scale and Bluetooth+app connectivity makes it a 2.0 coffee machine, but it’s minimalist design strikes a low-key profile. Pair it with our current favorite roaster’s Holiday Bundle (or individual bags) from Coffee Manufactory for the complete gift set.

Coco Chocolatier Chocolate Bars \\\ $6
High quality, beautifully packaged chocolate bars are always an easy and happily received stocking stuffer. These single origin bars in unique flavors like Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh or Gin & Tonic will surely appease the most discerning and adventurous of chocolate lovers.

Repast Supply Co. Ravioli Rolling \\\ $99
Let your food-loving recipient channel their inner Alice Waters using this handmade sustainable hardwood Ravioli Rolling Pin. Designed and made in California, the 17″ length makes readying a batch for others quick, easy, and most importantly deliciously rewarding.

Origami Chopstick Rest Set \\\ $15
If you’re ever in Los Angeles, we highly recommend dropping into Toiro Kitchen & Supply. Operated by Tokyo native Naoko Takei Moore, the store is stocked with artisanal products from all over Japan that are highly adaptable to all sorts of cuisines and cooking styles for the imaginative home cook. But they also carry small affordable accessories like these origami-inspired chopstick rests which make discern any occasion as special.

HAY Dish Drying Organizer \\\ $111
Personally, we believe the holidays are normally a time to steer away from purely pragmatic gifts. That said, as someone who has long desired the perfect convergence of beauty and function in the dish rack department, HAY’s dish drying set is certainly worthy of our dish soap dried hands. But for the holidays, consider having a set of these reusable/biodegradable bamboo fiber plates when you’d rather enjoy the festivities rather than worry about clean-up.

Hedley & Bennett Mise Knife Bag \\\ $320
This is for a very specific and particular type of person. The person who commits to hand sharpening their knives using water stones, understands the superiority of VG10 steel cladding, and has different knives for different tasks. The leather exterior and elastic strap grid system within offers room for up to 6 knives, a combination sure to impress the highly organized home chef that you recognize their passion for the chef’s blade.

BergHOFF Table BBQ \\\ $227
Diehard carnivores will certainly roar in approval upon realizing you’ve given them an easy-to-carry portable grill, especially if opt to pair it with a starter pack of Binchotan charcoal and a package of properly dry aged Prime grade cuts of steaks (we’re partial to thick cuts delivered with dry ice from New York iconic steakhouse Gallaghers if you’re looking for an exceptional test run).

YYY Teapot + Bon Temps Tea  \\\ $143 + $48
There’s hardly anything more civilized than a proper cup of afternoon tea shared amongst family and guests. This wheel thrown, handmade piece of ceramic art from YYY is available in three different finishes, but it’s the satin peach and cobalt glaze combination that tickles our Ettore Sottsass-loving hearts the most. A trio of 3 blends of tea inspired by the life of poet Maya Angelou from Bon Temps offers a particularly inspiring addition, each bag intended to “enhance intuition and creativity” by the cupful.

Black Gourmet Food Collection \\\ $115
The all-black packaging here isn’t merely an aesthetic decision. Flavors of kitchen staples like olive oil, wildflower honey, and maple syrup can diminish over time when exposed to too much light and oxygen. The black vessels are also undoubtedly pleasing to look at between meals deserving of a sprinkle, dash, or drizzle from one of these artisan-sourced ingredients, and sure to be reused rather than tossed out.

Samsung Built-In Chef Collection Refrigerator \\\ $8,999
A truly big ticket, luxurious splurge, these new Chef Collection refrigerators are designed to upgrade kitchens with flush mount profiles, alongside a bevy of technological features engineered to integrate electronic touch controls, app-accessible monitoring (there’s an internal camera to allow you to check what’s in the fridge remotely), and individual temperature controlled zones to keep produce, dairy, meats, and other perishables kept at the optimal temperatures with greater accuracy.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.