We’re Kitchen Gear Experts, and We’re Sure These 10 Gifts Will Never Be Regifted

Including a multitasking rice cooker and our favorite Dutch oven.

Serious Eats / Reese Herrington

Sometimes, you get a gift so functional and beautiful that it stays with you through every life transition, from one home to another, and even across generations. As gearheads who spend every day testing kitchen equipment, from air fryers to toaster ovens, we have a few opinions on kitchen gifts that won’t just wow your loved one, but serve them well through years of use. Whether you want to get a family member their first Le Creuset Dutch oven or a super sharp and stunning utility knife they’ll use every day, we’ve rounded up some of the best kitchen gifts we could think of that will last a long time and be a pleasure to use.

Best Kitchen Gifts They Won’t RegiftThe Best Dutch Oven: Le Creuset 5.5-Quart Enameled Cast Iron Dutch OvenA Cast Iron Skillet That’ll Last Decades: Lodge 10-Inch Cast Iron SkilletThe Best Toaster Oven: Breville Smart Oven Pro Toaster OvenA Cooler for Any Adventure: Yeti Hopper Flip 18 Soft CoolerA Beautiful Utility Knife: New West Knifeworks 6-Inch Petty KnifeDo-Anything Pasta Bowls: Le Creuset Stoneware Pasta Bowls SetA Stainless Steel Pan From the Future: Hestan Nanobond Titanium SkilletOur Favorite Instant-Read Thermometer: ThermoWorks Thermapen ONEA Cleverly-Designed Cutting Board: Bernal Cutlery Hinoki Cutting Board with StandA Multitasking Rice Cooker: Tatung Electric Rice Cooker and SteamerLe Creuset 5.5-Quart Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Amazon

$420

$310

Buy on Amazon

We’re believers that a Dutch oven deserves a place in every kitchen, and Le Creuset makes one of the best ones. Le Creuset’s 5.5-quart enameled cast iron Dutch oven sears meats to a golden brown just as easily as it can gently cook stews and braises. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving, and it’s $110 off right now.

Read More: The Best Dutch Ovens for Braises, Bakes, and Stews (According to Our Tests)

Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

Lodge 10-Inch Cast Iron Skillet

Amazon

$34

$20

Buy on Amazon

For only $20, you could give the gift of cast iron, and what’s better than that? This Lodge cast iron skillet has been our favorite for years thanks to how well it heats up and evenly cooks foods. For everything from cornbread to fried eggs, the Lodge skillet is a piece of cookware that will last through the decades.

Read More: To Find the Best Cast Iron Skillets, I Seared Steaks, Baked Cornbread, and Fried Dozens of Eggs

Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

Breville Smart Oven Pro Toaster Oven

Target

$270

Buy on Amazon

I’ve seen many Breville toaster ovens that have been unwrapped with pure glee and  gone on to feature prominently on people’s counters for years. We’ve found that this appliance churns out evenly browned toast, sizzling grilled cheeses, piping hot reheated pizza, and more. This is the kind of gift that goes on to be an integral part of anyone’s kitchen.

Read More: I Tested 23 Toaster Ovens for All Your Toasting, Roasting, and Air-Frying Needs

Serious Eats / Nick Simpson

Yeti Hopper Flip 18 Soft Cooler

Yeti 

$300

Buy on yeti.com

For the adventurous person in your life, our favorite cooler, the Yeti Hopper Flip 18, will be a welcome gift. It has incredible cold retention and is comfortable to carry. During our tests, it kept contents cool for up to 40 hours and survived a push out of the back of a car.

Read More: We Found the 4 Best Soft Coolers By Going Through 45 Pounds of Ice

Serious Eats / Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm

New West Knifeworks 6-Inch Petty Knife

New West Knife Works

$255

Buy on newwestknifeworks.com

Every kitchen needs a conversation-starter knife. This six-inch petty knife from New West Knifeworks fits the bill perfectly with its colorful wooden handle—available in nine shades—that is visually striking and comfortable to hold. The blade is also something to write home about, as it's incredibly sharp and agile, making quick work of chopping onions and cutting cauliflower florets.

Read More: I Tested 10 Petty Knives—My Favorites Made Food Prep Easy

Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

Le Creuset Stoneware Pasta Bowls Set

Le Creuset

$72

$58

Buy on lecreuset.com

Versatile and practical, pasta bowls make for thoughtful gifts that your loved one will reach for daily. These shallow bowls are ideal for serving salad, rice, soup, pasta, and more. Our favorite, the Le Creuset pasta bowl set, comes in a variety of colorful glazes and is even on sale for 20% off. The bowls keep foods warm and contained thanks to their gently sloped walls, which also make it easy to pick up spaghetti or fried rice.

Read More: To Find the 3 Best Pasta Bowls, We Cooked Boxes and Boxes of Spaghetti

Serious Eats / Caroline Lange

Hestan Nanobond Titanium Skillet

Hestan Culinary

$320

Buy on hestanculinary.com

Coined the “frying pan from the future” in our stainless steel skillet review, this pan is coated in nano layers of titanium molecules that help it heat up quickly to cook and brown foods with ease. It’s a beautiful pan that we enjoyed using to sear pork chops and fry eggs, and while it’s at a steep price for a stainless steel pan, it may be worth the splurge for a holiday gift if you have a particularly design-minded cook in your life.

Read More: I Tested 28 Stainless-Steel Skillets—Three Were Sear-iously Good

Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore

ThermoWorks ThermaPen ONE

ThermoWorks

$109

Buy on Thermoworks

With lightning fast readings and an easy-to-adjust probe, the Thermapen ONE is the best instant-read thermometer we’ve ever tested. It also has a 360-degree auto-rotating screen so you can get an accurate temperature reading from any angle. My own Thermapen ONE was a holiday gift years ago and it’s one of my most-used kitchen tools.

Read More: Our Favorite Instant-Read Thermometers Are Lightning-Fast and Incredibly Accurate

Serious Eats / Irvin Lin / Amanda Suarez

Bernal Cutlery Hinoki Cutting Board with Stand

Bernal Cutlery 

$68

Buy on bernalcutlery.com

If you know someone whose kitchen knife collection is their pride and joy, you can help them keep their blades sharp with this wooden cutting board that’s made of hinoki wood. The soft cypress wood is gentle on knife edges and the natural oils in the wood help resist odors. As someone who’s been testing this cutting board for months, I can vouch that it’s easy on blades and I especially like the built-in stand that slides out to keep the board upright to dry after washing.

Read More: I Tested 14 Wooden Cutting Boards by Cutting on Them 2800 Times—Four Emerged (Nearly) Unscathed

Serious Eats / Grace Kelly

Acacia wood boards were slightly harder on knives and showed scratches more readily, though they were not deep.Tatung Electric Rice Cooker and Steamer

Yun Hai 

$180

Buy on yunhai.shop

If a rice cooker could feel like an heirloom, it would be this one. The pea green Tatung rice cooker from Yun Hai isn’t just a nostalgic machine that happens to make incredibly fluffy rice; it’s a cornerstone of Taiwanese cooking and can steam vegetables, braise meat, and, yes, steam tender breads and cakes. It can even be used to gently reheat leftovers.

Read More: We Made Countless Batches of Rice with 19 Rice Cookers to Find Four Top Picks

Serious Eats / Alexander Huang

Frequently asked Questions

What other gift guides should I explore?

We have several gift guides, including ones for food items, baking tools, coffee gear, stocking stuffers, and more.

Where can I find kitchen gifts on a budget?

We have a guide of kitchen gifts under $50.

Why We’re the ExpertsAn Uong is a commerce writer for Serious Eats and Food & Wine.An has been testing kitchen equipment for Serious Eats for two years and loves to give kitchen gear during the holidays.

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation.

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