Best Gifts for Cooking Lovers 2022

Dig in! Here’s the Best Gifts for Cooking Lovers 2022 guide.

Here are the absolute best gifts for cooking lovers, food lovers, foodies, and bakers. The holidays are just about here, so if you’re looking for what gifts to get for home cooks in your life, we’ve got your covered.

Photo by Nina Mercado via Unsplash

The Best Gifts for Cooking Lovers and Foodies

It’s Unpeeled Journal’s annual holiday gifts for cooks, food lovers, and bakers guide! Each year, Unpeeled pulls together a list of holiday gifts for home cooks, pro cooks, and foodies that covers a variety of price points and interests. This year, you’ll see gifts from stocking stuffers to big-deal equipment, with lots in between. So this Christmas, you’ll know just what to gift a person who likes to cook, from chefs to home cooks.

So if there’s someone in your life who loves to cook, bake, or eat, then Unpeeled has some creative holiday gift ideas for you. Read on.

(And if you don’t see anything of interest, check out some other best cooking lover gifts roundups and lists of best gifts for home cooks, including Unpeeled’s last year’s best culinary gifts list.

What to Get the Person Who Loves to Cook

Photo by Joshua Lam for Unsplash

Gifts for Home Cooks: $50 or Less

These holiday gifts for cooks cost less than $50. These culinary gifts include fun stocking stuffers and practical gifts alike.

1. Sandwich Spreader

A sandwich spreader is one of those “where has this been all my life?” kitchen tools that everyone should have in their drawer.

2. Copper Cookie Cutters

Cookie cutters make a very cute gift for home bakers at the holidays, but a lovely set of copper cutters add a classier touch. I particularly like this snowflake set from Williams-Sonoma.

3. Thermopen Thermometer

Every cook, home or professional, should have a cooking thermometer. A good cooking thermometer is the most accurate way to tell how your meat is cooked, and makes an essential pastry tool as well. Think: caramel, cake, jams, and more.

4. A Great Cookbook

A gift guide for cooking lovers would not be complete without a few good cookbooks. Some of 2022’s best cookbook releases include Ina Garten’s new book Go-To Dinners, famed pastry goddess Claudia Fleming’s new pastry cookbook, and the always-reliable J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok. Smitten Kitchen’s new cookbook is out in mid-November and will be a bit hit. 

5. Custom Scanned Tea Towel

Food always plays a personal role in our lives, connecting us to people and memories. This personalized recipe card tea towel adds a personal touch to an already great gift for hosts and cooks.

6. Mini Waffle Maker

Is this the cutest thing? Just when you thought waffles couldn’t get any better, this mini waffle iron makes an adorable addition to any home cook’s toolbox. This nonstick waffle iron makes 4-inch waffles. It gets too hot for kids to use alone, but this could make a fun gift for a parent-child breakfast project. It comes in tons of colors.

7. Baggu Tote Bags

The best and most stylish grocery totes of them all!  I’ve been a Baggu fan for years–I often use them as a purse, to be honest. These bags weigh nothing, fold up tiny into their own little pouches, hold a ton of groceries, last forever, and come in many cool prints. Goodbye, bulky canvas totes!

8. Zojirushi Vacuum-Sealed Travel Coffee Mug

There are travel mugs, and there are Travel Mugs. This is the latter. The Zojirushi is a serious status travel tumbler with all kinds of cred. It keeps beverages hot seemingly forever, and won’t spill. The 20-ounce is my favorite; it holds a nice amount of liquid, but maintains a sleek shape, but the company also makes 12-ounce and 16-ounce options.

9. A Bucket of Maldon Salt

The ultimate finishing salt, this large flaky sea salt has a lovely, not-too-salty flavor and adds that little special touch to everything from pastas to roasts to avocado toast and more. An essential for every chef ever. This should last for the year. I put this on the list every year, and always will.

10. Ceremonial-Grade Matcha + Matcha Whisk and Bowl Set

Matcha’s popularity has grown (deservedly so) in the past few years, as people become more conscious of the many health benefits of matcha, search for jitter-free caffeine, and get on the vibrant green latte bandwagon generally. Don’t spend $8 per drink at a matcha bar. Whisking up a cup of matcha at home is fun with a bright, warming result.

For home cooks this year, indulge in ceremonial-grade matcha powder, such as this from Encha, or these single-origin Kettl options, for the true connoisseur.  This matcha whisk, spoon, and bowl set completes the gift.

Matcha whisk, powder, and bowl / Photo by Alice Pasqual via Unsplash

11. Serving Spoons

I don’t know anyone who can’t use another set of serving utensils. A set of serving spoons or forks makes a particularly good holiday gift for cooking lovers and hosts, with all those big family-style gatherings.

Crate + Barrel gets my perennial vote for best selection, with numerous styles in a good price range.

Photo courtesy Crate + Barrel

12. The Marks & Spencer for Target Collection

Fancy British department store Marks & Spencer has a very limited-edition collaboration going with Target, featuring Scottish shortbread cookies, gingerbreads, chocolates, and other bonbons in just the nicest collectible tins. These are going fast. Good luck!

Best Gifts for Cooking Lovers: $50 to $125

These gifts cost a little more money, but make special holiday gifts for cooks, chefs, and food lovers this season. Choices range from the purely whimsical to very beautiful.

1. Bread Lamp

Yes, it’s real! And it’s spectacular. Japanese artist Yukiko Morita takes real bread and pastries and turns them into little lamps or “pamp shades.” A cute conversation piece of food-as-art that would make any baker or bread lover smile, you can also choose from kaiser rolls, full baguettes, and more.

Photo Credit Yukiko Morita

2. A Pasta Extruder

A KitchenAid mixer is a gift that keeps on giving. Not everyone knows that KitchenAid mixers can be outfitted with front attachments, like this pasta extruder for fresh ziti, spaghetti, bucatini, rigatoni, and fusilli. Currently offered at a nice discount.

3. Bread (and More Bread) from Poilâne

If you like food and have been to Paris, there is a high probability that your wanderings took you into famed bakery Poilâne, a jewel box artisan bakery still using their ancient oven, which arguably turns out the best crusty bread in France.

An in-the-know Francophile food lover will flip for a loaf of their big sourdough miche loaf with its signature swirl “P.” And while you’re at it, throw in a bag of their “punition” butter cookies for yourself.

4. Panini Press

With almost 50 thousand excellent reviews and counting, a nice panini press makes any same-old sandwich into something truly exciting — especially when the cheese starts too ooze out. It doubles as a grill and griddle.

5. Japanese-Style Crossback Linen Apron

I usually recommend a beautiful apron in my holiday gift guides for cooks (such as last year’s Hedley & Bennett choices). This year, I am all about the simple elegance and practicality of a Japanese-style cross-back apron, such as this one from Alder & Co.

6. Candles and Candleholders from Hay

No one does colorful, touch-of-something-different home styling like Scandinavian design company Hay. These lovely tapers and candleholders will make any dining table pop.

7. A Fancy Advent Calendar

You’ll have to snag this well before that first door opens on December 1, the start of Advent. Advent calendars are definitely popular, for good reason. Exhibit A: What about a chocolate truffle per day from internationally-acclaimed La Maison du Chocolat ($90)?

Other best food Advent calendars I’ve seen this year, in varying price ranges, include:

• For cuppa lovers, this set of pretty teas from Adagio
• Macarons from famed French macaron house Ladurée ($110)
• A lovely Bonne Maman jams and preserves Advent calendar ($39)
• Walker’s Shortbread (yum) Advent calendar ($30), and
• This Dolly Parton Advent calendar from Williams-Sonoma ($39.95), because Dolly is awesome in all ways

Holiday Gifts for Cooks and Bakers: $125 and up

A few thoughtful, pricier gift ideas for the cooking lover in your life. This category of gifts for cooks and chefs are designed to impress and indulge your loved one.

1. A Fabulous Cheese and Charcuterie Board

Be a holiday party hero and send one of these gorgeously-prepared cheese and charcuterie platters. Boarderie was founded by high-end chefs in a pandemic pivot, and the rest is history. These former caterers to the stars (Prince Harry, Bruce Springsteen) can be your caterers now, too, with options for different sizes and themes. Each board comes beautifully packaged and insulated. 

2. Authentic Gullah Sweetgrass Basket

These handmade treasures are true works of art. There are few food-based objects more personal, more beautiful, or more steeped in early African-American history than an authentic, handmade Gullah sweetgrass basket. The sweetgrass basket weaving tradition came to the South Carolina in the 17th century. 

Generation by generation, sweetgrass basket weaving continues a critical link (and a way of life) to descendants of these early enslaved individuals. Supporting these accomplished Lowcountry artisans helps preserve an important — and fading — tradition. These baskets make a stunning and meaningful gift.

Photo credit Ruth’s Sweet Designs via Etsy.

3. A Proper Espresso Maker

For the home cook or coffee nerd who is ready to level up their morning beverage, a high-quality countertop espresso machine may be just the thing. This one gets great reviews, and looks so sleek.

4. A Fancy French Press

And speaking of coffee, this double-wall insulated French press from Georg Jensen looks beautiful and will elevate everything from your weekday morning cup to special occasion meals with loved ones.

5. A Pretty Cake Pedestal

These Mosser glass cake pedestals elevate any cake — literally and figuratively. They are also timeless and cheerful. In a range of beautiful colors, it’s hard to pick only one. The 10-inch cake pedestal would be my pick, since it works for both 8- and 9-inch cakes, and would also look beautiful holiding bundts, cookie stacks, and more.

Photo by Food52

6. Handmade Ceramic Fruit and Salad Bowls

I love a beautiful piece of hand-thrown pottery. Etsy has lots of handmade ceramics available, but I’m particularly in love with this beautiful salad or fruit bowl’s simplicity and modern lines.

Cooking Up the 2022 Best Gifts Ideas for Home Cooks and Food Lovers

This year’s roundup guide includes some of 2022’s best gifts for cooking lovers, foodies, home cooks, bakers, and general kitchen enthusiasts alike. Need more foodie gift ideas? Check out previous years’ holiday gift guides for cooks, or just ask in the comments, below.