Kate's Global Kitchen: Christmas Cheer For Cooks

Christmas Cheer For Cooks:
Gift Guide 2004

Ho, ho, ho! Stuff those stockings and wrap up the year with gadgets, gifts, and goodies for cooks. Consider these cooking tools to spice up your favorite cook's life (even if that favorite cook is yourself!). For more perfect for information on each item, click on its link.

Gifts

Cookbooks by Kate Heyhoe—Put these on the top of your shopping list, please! They've gotten great reviews and cover everything from crunchy munchables to main courses to the business side of the wine industry, making them perfect for both cooks and business associates.

Macho Nachos
50 Toppings, Salsas, and Spreads for Irresistible Snacks and Light Meals
(Second Printing)

A Chicken in Every Pot
Global Recipes for the World's Most Popular Bird

Harvesting the Dream
The Rags-to-Riches Tale of the Sutter Home Winery

Look Sharp, Cook Sharp—Knives are without a doubt the cook's best friend. Which is why a good cook can never have too many. So add these to the family cutting board collection. From Messermeister, the Meridian elité Granton Chef Knife has a 9-inch, specialty blade that reduces drag and keeps food from sticking to the blade, and the Meridian elité 4-Inch Petite Chef's Knife takes the cake for tackling small jobs with German steel-forged efficiency.

Top Chop, Grate Great—Right up there with knives are chopping and grating tools: Microplane Graters (buy one or many, as they come in different models ranging from very fine for zesting to large holed for chocolate shreds); Kuhn Rikon's Twist & Chop turns garlic, onion and salad fixings into minced and chopped bits with a few swift twists of the wrist; and the multi-tasking KitchenAid Immersion Blender is a powerful workhorse that blends, chops, whips, and more, in a compact, convenient package.

Wake Up Call—Even noncooks find time in the day to brew a cuppa joe or a mug of tea, and these gifts can make a real splash. Coffee lovers know that it's not just the bean, it's how you grind it. Capresso's "Cool Grind" Coffee Grinder and Infinity Conical Burr Grinder (with settings ranging from Turkish fine to very coarse) are top of the line tools. Plug in Capresso's H2O Kettle and bring water to a boil in seconds, a handy item for making instant soups, hot chocolate, as well as fine tea.

Gadget a Go-Go—Stick these in the holiday stockings: The Kuhn Rikon Epicurean Garlic Press squeezes garlic and ginger effortlessly. The chemical-free Smellkiller Air Cleanser freshens a small area or a whole room, just add water; William Bounds Sili Gourmet BBQ Brush bastes with ease and cleans in a snap; the handsome and elegant William Bounds Signature Mills grind salt and peppercorns from fine to coarse. More of a mega-gadget, and big enough to command center stage under the tree, the Kuhn Rikon Big Chill Pastry Board keeps dough properly chilled for hours (just insert the compact, freezable packets into the board and roll away).

Gifts

Table Toppers—Chantal's Lobster Butter Warmer and Chantal's Starfish Segmented Star Serving Plate brighten the table all year long.

Last Minute Additions—At press time, a couple of other great gifts arrived on my doorstep. I'm wild about the Kyocera Ceramic Knives, and will feature them in more detail in 2005. These super-sharp, lightweight blades cut through vegetables, fruits, and boneless meats like butter, and complete the cook's repertoire of traditional steel knives, which are better for boning, carving, prying and working with harder foods. And like Kyocera's uncomparable knife blades, their ceramic blade peelers stay sharp ten times longer than steel! Look for them at Sur la Table and other cookware stores.

For coffee drinkers who want just one cup, or maybe two, check out the Senseo Coffee Maker. Just toss a premeasured, prepackaged coffee pod into the compact system and hot coffee is ready in two shakes, for you alone or with a friend.

Happy Holidays from Kate, Thomas and all of us at Global Gourmet.