Once again I have taken on the task of telling you what you should be getting the cooks in your life. While I stand by Last Year’s Guide there is always room for improvement. Here are some ideas for those for whom cooking is less drudgery and more fun.
Like last year I insist you start at Hill’s Kitchen. Not only because I have been helping local buyers with their purchasing this year. (No I’m not telling you what your mom got you.) It is simply the best place in town to find gifts for both the adventurous cooks and the newbies on your list.
Owner Leah Daniels stocks several lines of cookware and is happy to offer advice about style, size and care. That niece who just graduated? She could probably use a frying pan for omelettes or maybe a sauce pan for making ramen. From sleek, gorgeous and super heat reactive copper pans to the beloved All Clad to Zwilling you can find a pan to suit all budgets. Me? I am a recent convert to the non-stick Swiss Diamond line. I swear the thrill of rinsing egg off the pan with zero scrubbing has yet to get old.
Does your mom need a new pot? Mine does. She’s getting a Staub Universal Pan. It is a newish offering from this French cookware line that can easily handle a Wednesday night veggie saute or a weekend roast.
The gadgets are where I have always good gifting fun via Hill’s Kitchen. This year the Kale Stripper has been a hot item. I small green oval with holes in a variety of sizes, you pull greens through and is tears the leaves off leaving the stems bare. It works for herbs like rosemary and thyme as well. The other fun gadget this year is the spiral Cutter. It will cut carrots, zucchini and other veggies into noodle-like strands to sub in a healthy gluten-free alternative to pasta.
Barracks Row’s Souk offers all kinds of spices including some house made blends such as Z’Aatar. Shoppers can sip coffee or tea while browsing the curated selection kitchen goods such as mortar and pestles to grind up whole spices and seeds. Beautiful serving pitchers and trays and a line of ceramics are sure to please those home cooks with an eye for good design.
Blue Ridge Cutting Boards in the Eastern Market Flea Market are a great gift. The boards are both beautiful and sturdy and come in a number of sizes. I gave my parents one the year I moved to the Hill and it still looks great.
In Union Market Salt and Sundry offers gear with an eye towards hosting. I mean after you cook it, the food needs to go somewhere because eating over the sink gets pretty grim pretty quickly. Here you can pick up serving ware, plates and bowls and even some pieces of vintage flatware. In case anyone asks, I was quite fond of a serving platter featuring a whale. Add a pretty tablecloth and that ramen you made in your new sauce pan is going to taste even better.
Over at Honeycomb, the retail outpost of H Street’s Toki Underground and Maketto, offers some home made sauces, slaws and miso. A basket of these goodies plus Chef Erik Bruner Yang’s recipe for ramen broth will make your niece swear off the plastic packages forever.