Gourmet Gifts: 7 Incredible Gifts For Someone Who Loves Cooking

There’s something oddly reassuring about someone who cooks for joy. Not out of obligation, or desperation, but from an actual, voluntary desire to chop, sauté, roast, and reduce. These people tend to be generous by nature. They give you sourdough starters as casually as others give compliments, and they can spot supermarket olive oil fraud from twenty paces. When you’re lucky enough to know a person like that, you’ll want to give them something they’ll actually use — ideally something they won’t already own six of.

Which brings us to gourmet gifts. Thoughtful, practical, quietly beautiful. And, if possible, not coated in suspicious chemicals. Here are seven gifts that do the trick.

1. Non Toxic Cookware That Actually Works

We’re not talking about some trendy pot that looks great in a flat lay but scorches everything you put in it. We’re talking non toxic cookware sets that are ceramic, stainless steel, or seasoned cast iron. Cookware that’s heavy enough to last but light enough to lift without a gym membership. Brands that skip the forever chemicals and still let you cook eggs without scraping them off with a chisel. It’s a gift that says, “I care about your health, and I’d like your onions to brown evenly.”

2. A Japanese Mandoline (Plus a Kevlar Glove if You’re Kind)

Mandolines are miraculous for precision slicing—wafer-thin radishes, cucumber ribbons, perfect pommes frites. But they also have a reputation for bloodshed. The smart move? Get the chef in your life the gold-standard Japanese Benriner Mandoline, and pair it with a glove that’s literally cut-resistant. This combination allows for artful cooking without the need for plasters.

3. Fermentation Vessels for Controlled Chaos

Fermenting things is not just trendy; it’s wildly satisfying and deeply delicious. Give your culinary friend the tools to become the kind of person who casually says, “Try this beet kvass I made.” A proper fermentation crock or a set of glass jars with airlocks can transform cabbage into kimchi, milk into kefir, and curiosity into compulsion. It’s science, it’s art, and it usually smells slightly alarming. That’s part of the appeal.

4. A Hand-Carved Olive Wood Salt Cellar

Salt matters. So does how you reach for it. There’s something aesthetically calming about dipping your fingers into a smooth olive wood cellar rather than shaking iodized salt from a tin that’s been in the cupboard since 1993. This is the sort of gift that feels luxurious, even though it’s basically a little bowl with a lid. It’s the little rituals—pinch, season, taste, repeat—that shape a cook’s day.

5. High-End Olive Oil That Tastes Like It Should Cost More

There’s a staggering difference between real, cold-pressed, early-harvest olive oil and whatever’s on sale in a plastic bottle. Look for something fresh, grassy, and a little peppery. Get a bottle from a single estate, in dark glass, ideally organic. It won’t last long, but that’s the point. Good olive oil is for drizzling, dipping, and savoring—not hoarding.

6. A Mortar and Pestle That Could Double as Sculpture

There’s a tactile pleasure in grinding spices by hand. You feel it in your shoulders and smell it in the air. A heavy stone or marble mortar and pestle isn’t just a tool; it’s a piece of kitchen theater. One that rewards patience and punishes laziness. Bonus points if it looks like it belongs in an art museum and weighs enough to anchor a sailboat.

7. A Subscription to a CSA or Rare Ingredient Box

Sometimes the best gift isn’t a thing per se, but a steady supply of things. Give them vegetables that come with dirt still clinging to the roots. Or a quarterly delivery of strange and delightful pantry goods—smoked salts, single-origin flours, wild herbs, unidentifiable but delicious condiments. Food that surprises them. Ingredients that inspire them. Gifts that keep them experimenting.

Cooking is a craft, and every craftsperson deserves tools that respect the process. Whether it’s non toxic cookware that supports clean living, or fermented adventures that border on science fiction, the goal is the same: thoughtful, sustainable, usable joy. Gifts that don’t shout, but whisper—quietly insisting on better quality, fewer chemicals, and more flavor.

Give well, eat better.

Photo: Maarten van den Heuvel / Pexels