The 47 Best Kitchen and Cookware Gifts, All Tested by CNET

This $18 kitchen tool is a favorite of chefs and experienced home cooks, but as food writer and culinary school grad Pamela Vachon writes, a surprising number of kitchens are missing one. A reliable zester will encourage you to add citrus or finely grated garlic to your next sauce or salad dressing. Need a gentle wisp of parmesan? The Microplane is your new best friend.

When we tested a trio of produce keepers, Ambrosia’s cozy linen bags came out on top in extending the life of leafy greens and bell peppers. As CNET’s wellness editor Anna Gragert writes, “Linen is the way to go since the material is antimicrobial, meaning it prevents bacterial growth and the formation of mold.” It doesn’t hurt that they look nice, too.

We asked 10 coffee professionals how to brew coffee best. Nearly all of them said pour-over. While the method requires a few more steps — and a gooseneck kettle — the pour-over brewer itself is inexpensive. This $20 Oxo model is our favorite and makes the perfect gift for a coffee drinker who wants to brew like industry insiders do.

Last year I discovered the Fluicer and my home citrus-juicing will never be the same. Most clamshell juicers kind of stink at their main task, but this bend-and-squeeze version gets nearly every bit of juice from a lemon, lime or orange wedge. There are three sizes but I’m partial to the medium, yellow Fluicer, which is sturdy enough to juice the dickens out of lemons and limes.

Folks are ditching their plastic cooking utensils faster than you can say “a mouth full of plastic.” While it’s unclear how dangerous all synthetic cooking tools are, you may want to take a better-safe-than-sorry approach. These bamboo cooking utensils are carbonized, meaning they’re baked quickly to give them that rich, rustic tone. A set of four costs just $12 at World Market and can be snuck cozily into a stocking.

Aside from being undeniably fun, these chameleon-inspired tongs are sanitary because the grabbers stay high in the air when you rest them between fetching cheeses or olives.

Who says salt and pepper are old hat? Give the king and queen of spice a glow-up with stylish shakers to adorn the dining room table.

If you’re going to cook scrumptious steaks or perfect poultry, you’ll want to nail the internal temperature. Oxo’s simple precision digital thermometer gives an instant read between -40 F and 302 F and costs about $20. 

If you know a wine drinker who could use a little lightheartedness, this wacky wine stopper is the gift to get.

If you’re looking for something more wallet-friendly, you can’t really go wrong with a Boos. This 16×11-inch maple block is light enough to fling around the kitchen, but maple will last a while if you care for it properly. This is perhaps more of a workhorse than a showpiece but any home chef will appreciate it for many chops to come.

If you’re a Star Wars fan who loves cheese, this Death Star cheese board and toolset feels like an absolute must-have. The cheese board is made from eco-friendly rubberwood with more than 81 inches of serving space. The swivel top opens up to storage for four stainless steel cheese tools: a cleaver for crumbly cheese, a planer for hard cheese, a fork-tipped knife and a classic hard cheese knife and spreader.

The sleekest blender on the market is now available for under $100. The Beast Mini, used by CNET’s Managing Editor David Watsky, packs a ton of power into a small, visually pleasing package. Its modest 21-ounce blending cup doesn’t leak and cleans easily in the dishwasher.

The blender is perfectly sized for smoothies and comes with a drinking lid with a cap and straw, so you can take your morning shake or smoothie on the go.

Every kitchen should have a few key herbs growing all year to grab for soups, sauces, marinades and roasts. Cheaper options exist, but the best-looking set I’ve found is Lettuce Grow’s trio of amber grow vases. It’s a simple design, but it works well either in natural sunlight or with the optional add-on grow lamp ($50).

The system includes three plant pods when ordered directly from Lettuce Grow.

My new favorite hybrid kitchen utensils are as beautiful as they are useful. Tenderly toss and serve a salad or break up diced meat for chili right in the pan with these wooden spatulas handmade in Montana. A four-pack means your giftee won’t have to choose which job to use them for on any given night.

Making paella at home is fun and much easier than you might think, but you need the right pan if you plan on serving a group. This excellent 15-inch carbon steel pan from Lodge is reserved for those with kitchen space to store it although it’s not nearly as heavy as it appears (remember, it’s carbon steel and not cast iron). It also looks darn good hanging from a cookware rack. 

Pair it with some quality saffron-seasoned salt, saffron threads or paella spice blend and wait for your invitation to paella night to roll in.

Few serving vessels get more compliments than the mighty molcajete. Use the bowl to make and serve fresh salsa and guacamole, and the hand-woven basket to store the molcajete, or to serve chips or warm tortillas on taco night. 

Sous vide is the perfect gadget for a food nerd. This water bath cooking method requires little technical skill and produces excellent results and consistently tender chicken, steak and fish filets.

You might not use it at every meal, and a good chef’s knife works in a pinch, but having a proper carving knife is a total chef’s kiss when you need it. Laguiole’s elegant carving knife and fork set is ready for the feast.

The cocktail shaker has been around for a long time, but it hasn’t seen much innovation. This elevated shaker from Huckberry is double-walled so your hands don’t freeze and has a nonstick lid so you’re not pounding it around the kitchen like a maniac to get into your drink. It’s also large enough to make four drinks at once. (Three for me and one for you!)

You may need different types of cookware depending on what you’re making and the results you’re after. For searing steaks, burgers, pork chops and other meats, it’s hard to beat carbon steel. For one, it holds heat well, getting and staying hotter than Hades, but it’s also lighter than cast iron so you can maneuver it over the stovetop easily. Pair this sleek pan with a box of quality cuts of meat from one of our favorite online butchers.

Compostable pod coffee makers are finally hitting the scene, and Lavazza’s Tabli might be the most giftable. The $130 compact espresso maker uses 100% compostable coffee rounds to brew authentic espresso. Our coffee expert tested and praised the category-first brewer for its ease of use and its ability to churn out rich, complex shots at the push of a button. Read our full review of the Tabli here. 

A coffee grinder that looks this good and grinds this well could cost a lot more. If you’re serious about coffee, you need a burr grinder that smashes beans uniformly instead of cutting them wildly and unevenly as cheaper blade grinders do.

I use a rice cooker about as much as any other small kitchen appliance. In our testing, this $25 Oster model did great, but for a more giftable version with fancy features and a sleek look, I recommend Tiger’s 5.5-cup rice cooker. It has a special setting for brown rice and doubles as a slow cooker and steamer.

Glass-bowl air fryers are my trend to watch in 2026. This model packs all the punch and convenience of a normal air fryer but without the nonstick basket. It’s perfect for air fryer enthusiasts concerned about PFAS.

A beautiful set of steak knives is an often overlooked gift, but it shouldn’t be. This striking eight-piece set has full-tang blades for increased strength and comes housed in a handsome wooden box.

Immersion blenders are a kitchen tool even some seasoned home cooks don’t have in their arsenal — but they should. For pureed soups and sauces, a stick blender is much easier than transferring hot ingredients to an upright blender. Breville’s Control Grip model is the best I tested, with tons of power and a sleek, sturdy build.

The Vermicular cast-iron skillet is a wonder to behold and perhaps the best piece of cookware I discovered last year. The Japanese cookware company managed to create a skillet that holds heat just about as well as thick cast iron but weighs a fraction; a 10-inch pan is just 2.4 pounds. 

The skillet is also very nice to look at if not just a tad fussier to care for than the classic cast iron. It’s not a budget buy — $170 for the pan and $45 for the striking lid — but it’s one of those kitchen splurges I believe is completely worth the money.

This stylish Swedish water purifier is great at removing dissolved solids and looks fabulous doing it. What’s not to love?

Most slot toasters use a simple timer and temperature settings to get your morning toast to the shade of brown you want. Breville’s latest addition relies on a pulsing internal sensor to watch the bread’s color as it toasts, finishing only when it hits the perfect result. It mostly nailed bread and bagels in our testing, making it a great gift for a tech-forward toast lover. Read our full review of the Eye Q 850 here.

Glass-bowl air fryers have made a big splash in recent years. They’re nontoxic, easier to clean than their nonstick basket counterparts and the cooking chambers double as serving and storage. We love Ninja’s Crispi, but Magnifique has built on the idea with its combo air fryer and slow cooker. The glass bowl sits atop a cooker base which can slow cook, braise, and steam. Ready to air fry? Just plunk the coiled cooking unit over the top and blast food with one of four air fryer modes. The whole unit breaks down for easy storage. When assembled, it looks more elegant than most multicookers we’ve tested.

If you haven’t noticed, we’re big fans of carbon steel around here and the unique material makes a great candidate for a roasting pan. Carbon steel lets scorched food lift off the surface more easily than stainless steel. Unlike nonstick—another popular roasting-pan material—it can handle scorching heat without worrying about chemicals leaching.

This handsome pan, complete with an included rack, comes from a collaboration between Made In and Tom Colicchio. It makes a stunning centerpiece and, with proper care, will last for many years to come.

A trash bin may not sound like a special gift, but trust me: any home cook will appreciate the smart design of this dual-compartment trash can. The automatic lids are a lifesaver when hands are dirty or holding spatulas and chef’s knives.

The recycling bin lifts out for easy emptying, and the garbage side has a pocket to hold air fresheners to keep the worst odors from taking over. Built-in bag storage dispenses custom-fit liners one at a time, though you’ll need to buy SimpleHuman’s bags for them to fit.

It’s the very garbage can I use in my kitchen, and I wouldn’t trade it for another.

Making seltzer at home is a good idea. It’ll save you money and keep loads of cans out of the recycling system. Plus, you won’t have to lug them out to the curb. SodaStream is the most well-known brand, but Aarke beats plastic seltzer makers big-time when it comes to style. The Aarke carbonator is made from stainless steel and comes in shiny and matte finishes.

It also uses the same SodaStream CO2 canisters, which are easy to find and have a great exchange program that’ll only cost you $15 per bottle.

I am a fan of at-home pizza ovens—not just for pizza, but for all sorts of meal-making when you don’t want to turn on the oven. You can cook burgers, fish, veggies and more in very little time because these ovens get up to 900 degrees. And with its sleek, modern design, the Ooni Koda makes a stylish, delicious addition to anyone’s backyard space.

If a chef on your gift list is short a Dutch oven, Le Creuset’s 3.5-quart round Dutch oven is a no-brainer. They’ll praise you every time they bust out this elegant and durable pot for making a slow sauce, braise or soup. These luxury French pots can cost more than $500, so less than $280 for the 3.5-quart (a good size for cooking for two or three) is a proper steal.

If you cook at home often and want to rely less on your full-size oven, the Wonder Oven Pro deserves a spot on your counter. The stylish countertop oven has precise temperature control, a powerful air fryer mode, and is easy for the whole family to use.

If the counter is tight on space, the smaller original Wonder Oven may suit you better. But if you want the most cooking modes available and a way to cut down on single-use gadgets, this is a stylish, versatile choice. It handles appetizers, sides, and full meals as well as my wall oven, if not better, and it does it faster. Read our full review of the Wonder Oven Pro here.

A water filter might not seem like an obvious gift, but when it looks as good as Rorra’s, all bets are off. Rorra’s classic design and brushed steel build slide seamlessly into any kitchen setup—no plastic in sight. It’s a great size and easy to refill, making it one of the most user-friendly filters we tested. Rorra uses a novel dual-layer pleated electrokinetic nanofiber filter to remove harmful contaminants like lead and forever chemicals without stripping minerals.

Here’s my full review of the Rorra water filter.

Keurig’s most advanced brewer to date, the Alta looks and functions like a modern espresso machine and brews using 100% compostable coffee pods wrapped in plant-based alginate. An on-board touchscreen guides you step by step through a range of coffee and espresso drinks and the machine’s integrated frother whips up silky, consistent froth, including cold foam. 

Editor’s note: The preorder bundle has currently sold out but we expect a restock soon.

If you’ve tried traditional compost but can’t handle the smell, a Lomi will make green living much easier. It’s shocking how much organic waste ends up in the trash bin and landfill, but not with Lomi. This small countertop machine turns eggshells, rinds, coffee grounds, and other food scraps into sweet soil for the yard or garden.

There are the gifts we think people want and the gifts they definitely want. An absolutely beautiful piece of sushi-grade tuna belly is the latter for a foodie, I promise. If you’re looking to give a special piece of tuna belly, hamachi or yellowtail, I suggest this family-owned online seafood purveyor based out of Los Angeles. The Ito family procures some of the best high-end sushi-grade fish, along with more common catches like wild salmon, prawns and unagi. 

Riviera ships fresh or flash-frozen fish to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and most of it is sashimi-grade, meaning you can slice and eat — no cooking necessary.

ButcherBox is known for sending premium cuts of beef that are 100% grass-fed, grass-finished and humanely raised to satisfy even the choosiest carnivores. Most customers choose a subscription they can easily cancel or pause, but you can also gift someone a one-time send like the Steak Lover’s Box. This collection of cuts includes two 10-ounce rib eyes, two 10-ounce NY strips, two six-ounce filets and four six-ounce top sirloin steaks for $175.

For someone who likes to toy around and tinker in the kitchen, a bundle of interesting pantry staples is about as good a gift as they could hope for. Bokksu sells loads of Japanese pantry staples including misos, chili crisps, spice mixes and plenty of snacks, too. Snatch a preassembled bundle or curate your own for the home chef on your list. The Discovery Pack (shown here) costs $56.

This is another gift for a foodie or home chef that’s about as foolproof as it gets. Every chef uses spices, but sometimes we’re limited by region or a meager selection at the grocery store. RawSpiceBar opens up a world of exciting spice blends for less than $12 per month, sending freshly ground global spice mixtures to your giftee’s home along with recipe ideas to try them with.

You can give a one-, three-, six-, nine- or 12-month subscription or buy a gift card for the person on your list.

If the person you’re buying for could use a lift in the kitchen, a few weeks of handy meal kits will do the trick. Blue Apron is one of the best meal kit services we tested, offering fancy bistro steak and fresh seafood options. It also no longer requires a subscription, making it more giftable than in years past.

Sometimes the best gift you can give a busy home chef is a night or two off from cooking. If you’re looking for a great gift to send from afar, Mosaic Foods’ inventive plant-based meals are my pick. It’s one of the best prepared meal services I’ve tasted and the brand allows for easy gifting. You can send six meals (four servings each) for under $100 or create your own custom box. 

Read my full review of Mosaic Foods. 

Unless you live close to the docks, the easiest way to get quality seafood may be via one of these great online fish purveyors. Fulton Fish Market has one of the best selections anywhere — web or otherwise — with loads of wild salmon, trout, scallops, shellfish, caviar and more for unique edible gifts a food lover will enjoy. Snatch a bundle and have this unique gift delivered directly to your giftee’s home. They’ll certainly appreciate making one less trip to the market.