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The Best Gadget Gifts for Home Chefs

 & Chandra Steele Senior Features Writer

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It can be hard to shop for the chefs in your life. You might not know how well-equipped their kitchen is or what they want. The sheer number of cooking gadgets out there is mind-boggling, but most are pretty low-tech (and generally fall into the As Seen on TV category). It's enough to make holiday shopping seem like a tense binge-watch of The Bear.

We're here with some tantalizing solutions that will have them imagining themselves competing on Top Chef or sweating it out under the tents at The Great British Bake Off while they sous vide, grill, bake, or mix cocktails.

These are the gifts they'll be happy to receive. And if you get invited over for dinner or find yourself the recipient of a holiday pie, even better. (And for more gift ideas, check out PCMag's full holiday gift guide.)

GE Café Specialty Drip Coffee Maker

Cafe Specialty Drip Coffee Maker

The GE Café Specialty Drip Coffee Maker works with Alexa and Google Home so all they have to do is call out their coffee order. It works with the SmartHQ app so they can schedule brewing strength, size, and temperature. While the coffee maker's looks are notable, so is the cup of coffee it makes; the machine is one of the few that is Gold Cup Certified for taste by the Specialty Coffee Association.

For Avoiding the Grind

Urban Noon Electric Salt and Pepper Grinder Set

Help them escape the grind of grinding by hand. Urban Noon's Electric Salt and Pepper Grinder Set lets them salt and pepper at the push of a button. The grinders have built-in lights and can adjust for coarseness.

For Frying Away

Cosori Smart 5.8-Quart Air Fryer

4.0 Excellent

Air frying is just convection cooking by a more trendy name. But that doesn't make it any less convenient or delicious. The Cosori Smart 5.8-Quart Air Fryer cooks up crunchy potatoes, bakes pies, and even turns reheated pizza back into its original delicious form.

Cosori Smart 5.8-Quart Air Fryer review

For Those Who Don't Have the Time

HelloFresh Meal Delivery Service

4.5 Outstanding

If they're just getting started cooking or love to cook at home but don't have time to shop for ingredients, get them a HelloFresh subscription. While they get everything they'll need to prepare a delicious meal, there's still the satisfaction of prepping and measuring and they can adjust ingredients according to their taste. There are six types of plans (Meat & Veggies, Veggie, Family Friendly, Fit & Wholesome, Quick and Easy, and Pescatarian) to choose from. And HelloFresh is our Editors' Choice meal-kit delivery service.

For a Home (Ice Cream) Bar

Cuisinart Mix-it-in Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker

They can have a soft serve (or fro-yo, sorbet, or sherbet) bar at home with the Cuisinart Mix-it-in Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker. It takes just 20 minutes to freeze and has dispensers for three mix-ins or toppings.

For Talking Trash

SimpleHuman Dual Compartment Rectangular Sensor Can

No one has to worry that their hands are too full of kitchen scraps to open a garbage can when the SimpleHuman Dual Compartment Rectangular Sensor Can responds to verbal requests. It has one compartment for trash and one for recyclables.

For the Littlest Eaters (and Their Parents)

Evla Baby Food Maker

Making baby food is a harder enterprise than just cooking up some meat, fruit, and veg and throwing them in a blender. The EVLA Baby Food Maker blends, steams, reheats, and defrosts to simplify the process. It's also self-cleaning, which is something busy parents can also appreciate.

For Ice Queens

GE Profile Opal 2.0 Nugget Ice Maker

4.0 Excellent

"The good ice" comes at a price, but it's worth it for a neverending supply of delectable cocktails and even just elevated glasses of water with the GE Profile Opal 2.0 Nugget Ice Maker.

GE Profile Opal 2.0 Nugget Ice Maker review

For Sous Vide Chefs

Anova Precision Cooker

4.0 Excellent

Sous vide is the process of sealing food in plastic and submerging it in hot water until it reaches the perfect temperature. It keeps all the juices in the food and makes overcooking virtually impossible. On the surface, it sounds fancy and complicated, but the Anova Precision Cooker makes it simple.

Anova Precision Cooker review

For Lego Master Chefs

Waffle Wow Building Brick Electric Waffle Maker

Lego those Eggos with the Waffle Wow Building Brick Electric Waffle Maker. It makes delicious building bricks of different sizes that will stack up to be the most fun breakfast they've had.

For Getting That Bread

Hamilton Beach Digital Bread Maker

Whether or not they embarked on the early-pandemic sourdough craze, they'll appreciate the ease with which they can churn out a fresh loaf of bread every morning with this Hamilton Beach breadmaker. It has programmed cycles for artisan, gluten-free, French, whole-grain, sweet, quick, and express breads and even cakes and jams.

For the Thrill of the Grill

Cinder Grill

4.0 Excellent

The Cinder Grill looks like your average electric grill, but it's closer to a sous vide system in execution. The grill is capable of heating up to very precise temperatures like an immersion circulator, heating foods to the ideal internal state. After the food is cooked, the grill can reach searing temperatures of over 500 degrees, producing the crisp texture that sous vide alone can't provide.

Cinder Grill review

For Phoning It In

Pottery Barn Handmade Reclaimed Oak Cutting Board & Smartphone Holder

The new cookbooks are phones and tablets and though they don't need to be propped open, they do need to be propped up. Two cutting boards have cutting-edge solutions (grooves): the Pottery Barn Handmade Reclaimed Oak Cutting Board & Smartphone Holder (for phones) and Teakhaus Edge-Grain Smart Cutting Board (for tablets).

For Growing Your Own

Personal Rise Garden

Fresh vegetables and herbs are always at hand with the Rise Gardens Personal Rise Garden.

For Rice Perfection

Zojirushi NL-AAC10 Micom Rice Cooker

Zojirushi is known for making the best rice cookers and the Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker is one of the best of the best. It makes perfect rice every time and has settings for white rice, sushi rice, mixed rice, sweet rice, brown rice, and porridge, as well as quick cooking. It also can be used to steam other dishes.

For Those Who Like to Coast

Barsys Smart Coaster System

No mixology classes are required with the Barsys Smart Coaster System. Set a glass atop it and the accompanying app gives step-by-step instructions and weighs ingredients.

For When You Need a Kitchen Assistant

Google Nest Hub Max

4.0 Excellent

Google Nest Hub Max is the perfect kitchen companion. Take calls hands-free, watch cooking tutorials on YouTube, and listen to playlists while you cook.

For Oodles of Noodles

Philips Smart Pasta Maker Plus

There is truly nothing like fresh pasta. But making it from scratch can be a pain. Not so with the Philips Smart Pasta Maker Plus, which weighs all the ingredients, mixes them, kneads the dough, and extrudes pasta in less than 10 minutes.

For Wafflers

Breville Smart Waffle Pro 2-Slice

Waffles are delicious but can be difficult to make. Getting the cooking time right is tricky, but the Breville Smart Waffle makes adjustments automatically based on moisture content and what's been added in. Plus it has settings to make classic, Belgian, chocolate, and buttermilk waffles. There's a two-waffle model and a four-waffle model.

Fradel Digital Food Scale With Bowl

Fradel Digital Kitchen Food Scale with Bowl (Removable) and Measuring Cup - Stainless Steel, Backlight, 11lbs Capacity -

They can measure and convert ingredients midair with the Fradel Digital Kitchen Food Scale with Bowl.

Yummly Smart Thermometer

Yummly YTE000W5KB Premium Wireless Smart Meat Thermometer with Long Range Bluetooth Connectivity and Assisted Cooking, 1

The Yummly Smart Thermometer allows for preset programming and remote monitoring of meat, fish, and poultry.

About Our Expert

Chandra Steele

Chandra Steele

Senior Features Writer

My Experience

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more. You might have seen me on TV talking about these topics or heard me on your commute home on the radio or a podcast. Or maybe you’ve just seen my Bernie meme

I strive to explain topics that you might come across in the news but not fully understand, such as NFTs and meme stocks. I’ve had the pleasure of talking tech with Jeff Goldblum, Ang Lee, and other celebrities who have brought a different perspective to it. I put great care into writing gift guides and am always touched by the notes I get from people who’ve used them to choose presents that have been well-received. Though I love that I get to write about the tech industry every day, it’s touched by gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequality and I try to bring these topics to light. 

Outside of PCMag, I write fiction, poetry, humor, and essays on culture.

My Areas of Expertise

  • Making incomprehensible tech news easy to understand
  • Expanding the boundaries of topics covered in the industry
  • Figuring out tips and tricks in apps and on devices and letting you know about them
  • Putting together gift guides for everyone in your life 

The Technology I Use

All that gadgets is gold for me: my iPhone 11 Pro, my fifth-generation iPad that I use only for streaming videos and music, my iPad mini 4 that I like to take with me whenever I carry a bag that can fit it, and my MacBook Pro. Why are they all different shades of gold, though? What’s going on, Apple? 

None of them quite live up to my two past loves: my LG Lotus LX600 phone and my Sony Walkman NW-E005 MP3 player. 

I've never given up wired earbuds so I was ahead of all those trend pieces. I use a Mangotek Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter to connect them to my phone. 

I have had so many ebook readers, but I prefer paper to them all. Still, my Kindle Paperwhite is perfect for traveling or when I’m too impatient to wait for a book to be released in paperback.

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