Last minute Christmas gift ideas for home cooks from pro chefs and restaurateurs include everything from handcrafted Japanese knives and good cutting boards to cookbooks, cooking classes and dinners, and products such as quality olive oils and mustards.
Every year, in the days leading up to Christmas, when some of you are scrambling to buy Christmas presents for your food-loving friends and family, we seek out last minute Christmas gift ideas for home cooks from pro chefs and restaurateurs on our contact list, including some of the world’s best chefs, everywhere from Australia and Asia to Europe and the Americas.
Their suggestions are always terrific, because they’re often very practical, thoughtful, often obvious (yet why didn’t I think of that?!) and are easy to buy, whether that means dashing out to your nearest kitchen shop or jumping on to Amazon to see if they can deliver on time – or buying a gift card if they can’t.
This year, we thought we’d share the best of the last minute Christmas gift ideas for home cooks from pro chefs that we have published over the years, as we thought it might be fascinating to compare chefs’ recommendations from year to year.
It’s interesting to see how many chefs suggest you buy the home cooks in your life a knife – a handcrafted Japanese knife, Laguiole wine knife, and a knife sharpener. We also love to see chefs recommending cookbooks or, as Virgilio Martinez did with such gusto, any books. “Let’s save the books!” he said, and we couldn’t agree more.
If you didn’t scroll our home page before landing on this post, we’ve been publishing Christmas recipe collections in recent weeks, including our best Christmas cocktail recipes, best dip recipes for crackers and crudités for festive parties, best Christmas starters, best Christmas salads, and best desserts for Christmas. We’ll add more recipes and recipe compilations between now and Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.
Now, before you scroll down to our best Christmas cooking tips, we have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by using our links to buy travel insurance, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, book accommodation, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. You could also browse our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers, including food-themed reusable cloth face masks designed with my images.
Another option is to support our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon; or buy us a coffee, although we’ll probably use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing; or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, travel books to inspire wanderlust, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers.
We wish you all a wonderful Christmas and festive holiday period wherever you! Please do enjoy your time with family and loved-ones if you’re able to get together. If you aren’t, we’re sending hugs. We’ll be having a very quiet Christmas at home here in Siem Reap so do get in touch in the comments if you need any advice or have any questions.
Here are some last minute Christmas gift ideas for home cooks from pro chefs and restaurateurs from around the world.
Merry Christmas!
Lara & Terence xx
Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas for Home Cooks from Pro Chefs from Kitchen Knives to Cutting Boards
Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas for Home Cooks from Pro Chefs – Cookbooks, Cooking Classes and Culinary Experiences
Virgilio Martinez, Central, Lima, Peru
Books, let’s save the books! (Ed: we wholeheartedly agree! See Terence’s classic cookbooks for serious cooks for ideas, below.)
Classic Cookbooks for Serious Cooks – My Desert Island Cookbooks
Raymond Lim, Les Amis, Singapore
The book entitled Where Chefs Eat published by Phaidon.
Eneko Atxa, Azurmendi, Bilbao, Spain and London, UK
Give away a dining experience at a restaurant.
Peter Gilmore, Quay, Bennelong, Sydney, Australia
The Quay cookbook is always a lovely gift.
Ian Kittichai, Issaya Siamese Club, Namsaah Bottling Trust, Issaya Cooking Studio, Bangkok, Thailand
A cooking class voucher for two, as it’s always fun for your foodie friend to cook with a partner.
Richard Ptacnik, Otto Ristorante, Sydney, Australia
Cooking classes, knives and cookbooks* always keep them interested. (Ed: take a look at my wish list of cookbooks for culinary travellers for more ideas.)
Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas for Home Cooks from Pro Chefs – Kitchenware and Cooking Appliances
Martin Benn, Sepia, Sydney (soon Melbourne), Australia
My gift idea is always a handcrafted Japanese knife. What else could anyone need?
Dan Hunter, Brae, Birregurra, Australia
Handmade Laguiole wine knife. Unless some pinches it, they’ll have it forever.
Julien Royer, Odette,
Singapore
A nice cutting board – bulky, solid and big. It’s never big enough.
Ross Lusted, formerly The Bridge Room, Sydney, Australia
A Japanese charcoal grill and a box of Binchu-tan.
Dylan Jones, Bo.lan, Bangkok
A proper-sized mortar and pestle. They are the ultimate in kitchen tools!
Ryan Clift, Tippling Club, Singapore
Who doesn’t love a good chef’s knife? Preferably the Ryan Clift series by Blades of the Gods as they are the best on the market, lol!
Jarret Wrisley, Appia and Soul Food, Bangkok & Hong Kong
A big enamel pot for braising is something everyone should have at home. I have three.
Donovan Cook, Ryne, Melbourne, Australia
To really spoil the foodie who has everything, a thermo circulator! Or a voucher to their favourite restaurant. Or who can beat a really good bottle of olive oil?
Joannès Rivière, Cuisine Wat Damnak, Siem Reap, Cambodia
The thing you never ever find in any household, a proper large reinforced conical strainer. Good for stock, soups, bisque you can push through with a ladle, dry spices… you can do everything with it and it is worth putting the money in it because you can keep it forever.
Jacques Reymond, formerly of Jacques Reymond Restaurant, Melbourne, Australia
A good knife sharpener.
Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas for Home Cooks from Pro Chefs –Gifts of Food and Wine
Tetsuya Wakuda, Tetsuya’s, Sydney, Australia, and Waku Ghin, Singapore
Good quality olive oil or a kitchen grater.
David Thompson, Aaharn, Hong Kong, and Long Chim at Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Seoul
Wine. I’d snatch a decent bottle of wine from my collection – the more desperate and remiss in forgetting, the better the wine.
Josean Alija, Nerua, Bilbao, Spain
I would give a foodie a good ham, which is a product that travels very well, or a special wine. And to sweeten the day, a panetonne!
Neil Perry, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Spice Temple, Rosetta, Sydney, Australia
A wonderful panettone or a Christmas hamper from Simon Johnson.
If you found these last minute Christmas gift ideas for home cooks from pro chefs helpful, you might also like our Christmas tips from food writers and editors and Terence’s Christmas gift ideas for Asian home cooking.
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