27 Kick Ass Gifts for Chefs

Is there a chef in your life? Lucky you! Want to keep those delicious meals coming? Here are 27 kick ass gifts for chefs.

1. Personalized Cutting Board

A chef probably already has a cutting board, but he or she probably doesn’t have a personalized cutting board! These custom boards are made from maple and are personalized with the last name or the first names of a couple.

2. Molecular Gastronomy Kit

Molecular gastronomy is the latest in food trends combining food and chemistry. The kit comes with everything needed to turn a kitchen into a food laboratory.

3. Chef’s Knife Roll Up Storage Bag

Chefs are fussy about knives. They don’t want to use your crummy Walmart knives when they cook at your house, so they bring their knives along. This bag makes porting knives easy and safe. It holds eight knives and has a zipper pocket for additional “can’t do without it” cooking utensils.

4. Handheld Food Smoker

A food smoker suffuses food and drinks with natural smoke flavor. The smoker comes with wood chips, but you can also use things like herbs, tea leaves, herbs and spices, and dried flowers to flavor food and drinks. 

5. Indoor Herb Growing Kit

Chefs often prefer fresh herbs to dried herbs, the flavor is fresher. Now you can grow fresh herbs year round and in your own home. This kit sits right on the kitchen counter and can be used to grow salad greens, flowers, and vegetables. The kit is hydroponic; the plants grow in water, so no dirt mucking up your kitchen!

6. Gourmet Finishing Salt

If you’re not much of a cook, you might think salt is salt. Au contraire! These are finishing salts and come in six flavors, Fleur de Sel, Hawaiian Red Alaea, Black Pyramid, Spanish Saffron, and Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt. The right salt can really add a lot of flavor to your dish.

7. Beeswax Reusable Wrap

Don’t want plastic touching your food? Trying to be more environmentally friendly? Then you will love this food wrap. It’s all natural, made from beeswax, organic cotton, organic jojoba oil and tree resin. It’s reusable, lasting up to a year when properly cared for. 

8. Salt and Pepper Mills

These beautiful grinders have a nautical theme; they’re modeled after a fishing reel. Perfect for the seafood chef on your list! 

9. Stainless Steel Soap

Regular soap just doesn’t get the smell of things like onions and garlic off your hands. Weirdly, rubbing your hands on stainless steel does! You just rub this “soap” on your hands under running water, and the smell disappears. 

10. Steel Herb Chopper

Chef’s love knives and an ax is a knife of sorts! This beautiful, hand-forged herb chopper cuts up herbs beautifully and will give the kitchen a Game of Thrones vibe. 

11. Stoneware Fermenting Crock

Fermented foods are another big foodie trend, a health trend too. Fermented foods are a great source of probiotics to keep your gut and therefore the rest of you healthy. You can make your own fermented veggies. This little crock turns cabbage and salt into delicious, healthy sauerkraut in just a week or two but can be used on all kinds of veggies.

12. Stone Salt Cellar

Each of these salt cellars is made from a stone collected from a New England river or coastline. The stone is naturally moisture absorbent which helps keep your salt from clumping. It comes with a cute little bamboo serving spoon. 

13. Kitchen Scissors

It might seem strange to a non-chef to use scissors in the kitchen, but there are some tasks that they are much more suited for than a knife like butterflying a whole chicken, cutting bones, and snipping herbs. You can also use these scissors for cracking nuts and opening a beer. 

14. Jadeite Mixing Bowl Set

This set of three Jadeite mixing bowls comes in 20, 40, and 65 ounces. They can be nested for easy storage and come in a variety of colors. 

15. Loch Ness Monster Ladles

Look how cute! Little Nessie poking out or your soup pot! Each order comes with three Nessies. They are made of nylon, and the little feet keep them standing upright on the counter and in a pot. 

16. Mason Jar Ceramic Kitchenware Set

Mason jars are an American classic. They’ve been around since 1858 and can be almost considered American folk art. This three-piece set includes a spoon rest, measuring spoons and stackable measuring cups and all are made of ceramic.

17. Fire Fighter Fire Suppressant

Even seasoned (see what I did there?) aren’t immune from the occasional kitchen fire. This can put out electric, kitchen, grease, oil wood, and even gasoline fires, although you are unlikely to have gasoline fires in your kitchen. Once used, the residue can be cleaned up just by wiping it away, it’s non-toxic, non-irritant (won’t sting or burn your skin or eyes) and biodegradable. 

18. Cooking Journal

Part of being a good chef is tweaking and experimenting. You can document what worked and what didn’t in this journal. The paper is waterproof, perfect for the kitchen where there are lots of spills and splatters. 

19. Culinary Torch

Chefs love fire. Fire and knives. That’s why they became a chef. Now they can play with fire right in the kitchen! We mostly think of these torches as a way to caramelize sugar, but they can be used for all sorts of things; searing meat, making roasted red peppers, melting cheese and toasting breadcrumbs. 

20. Cedar Grilling Planks

Cooking food on a cedar plank infuses it with a lovely cedar flavor. Salmon is the go to, but you can also use these planks to cook other types of fish, beef, chicken, and pork.

21. Sushi Socks

Even if the chef in your life isn’t a sushi chef, they will still love these fun socks. Hell, everyone loves fun sushi socks! At just $10 a pair, you can use these as stocking stuffers for everyone on your list!

22. Chef’s Mat

If you’ve ever had a job where you were on your feet all day, you can appreciate why this is such a wonderful gift for a chef. This mat helps cut down on the back and knee pain and the fatigue those who stand a lot can develop. 

23. Sharpening Stone

As previously mentioned, chefs are fussy about knives, and part of that means they like to make sure their knives are always sharp. It’s a safety thing. Cutting things with a dull knife is dangerous, pressing down hard enough to cut can cause the knife to slip and cut your hand. This sharpening stone will keep knives in tip-top shape. 

24. French Press

Coffee made in a French press tastes better, and chefs have discerning palates. And if you’re going to have a French press, why not one made by one of the most respected cookware makers in the world, Le Creuset? Ohh la la!

25. Chef’s Mitt

Chefs suffer a lot of burns no matter how careful they are so why not try to cut down on that number? This mitt protects from heat, cold, and slippage. It’s water repellent which helps prevent steam and liquid burns, the nastiest kind. 

26. Where Chefs Eat

The mailman doesn’t go for a walk on his day off. While a lot of chefs do enjoy cooking at home, you can see why sometimes they want someone else to cook for them. This book covers a lot of ground, more than 3,000 restaurants in more than 70 countries. So your chef will never go hungry. 

27. Cast Iron Cleaner

Cleaning cast iron sucks! You can’t just toss it in the dishwasher. But chefs like it because it’s such a good cooking surface. This bad ass, chain mail looking scrubber makes short work of dirty cast iron Also you will feel like you are in the Middle Ages which is awesome. 

The Perfect Gift

It can be hard to shop for gifts. This list has something for every chef on your gift list. Happy shopping!