People in your life are embarking on big adventures. Start them off right with great tools for the kitchen.
Staub Cast Iron Cookware
If your grad or newlyweds are serious cooks, they will treasure a gift of Staub cast iron cookware. All are made in the Staub foundry in northern France. A single piece can take a week to make and requires almost two dozen people to go from raw iron to finished enameled piece. For the pieces that come with lids, the underside of the lid has “bumps” which collect condensation from what you’re cooking and drip it back down on the ingredients. The bumps are a classic Staub feature, as is the dark matte interior that resists stains. At Cook’s Warehouse they have more than 50 pieces of Staub cookware available from frying pans to French ovens (a Dutch oven, but French! and essential for all those loaves of sourdough and no-knead bread) to braisers and bouillabaisse pots.
Prices range from $139.95 for an 8-inch frying pan with wooden handle to $559.95 for a huge 13.25-quart cocotte. Available at Cook's Warehouse or online at cookswarehouse.com/category/staub-cast-iron-cookware.
Hurom’s Easy Clean Slow Juicer
Juices are an important part of many people’s diets, whether they’re in it for the health benefits or just because they like having a quick way to get nutrition from lots of fruits and vegetables at once. If the newlyweds in your circle, or your recent grad, fall into that group, consider gifting them Hurom’s Easy Clean Slow Juicer. We’ve had a fast (or centrifugal) juicer for years. It does the job, but it’s the noisiest appliance in our kitchen. But now that we’ve been introduced to this slow juicer, also called a cold press juicer, we’re not going back. Its elegant design means we won’t mind keeping it out on the counter and the quiet operation means we can run it even when the rest of the household is sleeping. Slow juicers have a reputation for being difficult to clean but this “easy clean” Hurom juicer lives up to its name. It took just a few minutes to rinse everything clean (nothing should go in the dishwasher). We love dreaming up juicing combinations and with this new appliance, we’ll enjoy the process even more.
$499. Available online at hurom.com/.
Wüsthof Knives
The Wüsthof family has been making knives for over 200 years. They’ve been in business this long because they make such high quality products, knives so good they will last the lifetime of your grad or newlywed. You can certainly find less expensive knives, but these are absolutely worth the splurge. If you’re gifting someone who is starting their kitchen collection from scratch, we recommend one of Wüsthof’s starter sets. We like the one with an 8-inch cook’s knife, an 8-inch bread knife and a 3 1/2-inch paring knife. The cook’s knife is the kitchen workhorse for pretty much anything you want to do with a knife, the bread knife with its serrated edge is what you need for slicing bread but also tomatoes and other soft skinned vegetables and a paring knife is what you need for smaller chores like peeling apples and slicing just one clove of garlic. If you just had these three knives in your arsenal, you could cook for years. We’re partial to their Classic series. The handles just feel right in our hand. But there are eight lines of Wüsthof knives to choose from including the affordable Gourmet series with blades that are stamped rather than forged.
$103.95 for the three-piece Gourmet starter set. Available at Williams-Sonoma or online at wusthof.com/.
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