Best Holiday Gifts for Home Chefs

The heavily hyped nonstick Always Pan is famously known for its claim that it can replace a frying pan, sauté pan, steamer, skillet, and saucepan. And whether it’s for a novice cook—who has yet to amass their personal collection of pots and pans—or for the seasoned one, this versatile cookware could be the ideal fit. The 10-inch pan is made of cast aluminum and comes in 10 bright colors that are perfect for personalization.

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Lodge has been making cast-iron frying pans in its Tennessee foundry since 1896. It’s one of the few surviving iconic American brands. This 12-inch Lodge cast-iron pan is top-notch at browning scallops and earns an Excellent rating for searing a steak. Baking is only so-so, though. Heating evenness is also mediocre. It weighs 7.8 pounds, which is about average.

For more options: Best Cast-Iron Frying Pans

The 5.5-quart Le Creuset Signature tops our ratings for this category. It earns an Excellent rating in our browning tests, the only Dutch oven to do so, and is a cinch to clean. It weighs 12 pounds, less than most, and has an 8-inch cooking diameter. We found that the loop handles are nice and wide, not always a given on Dutch ovens.

For more options: Best Dutch Ovens

With its pink blush exterior, white ceramic interior, and gold handles, the GreenPan Padova Reserve certainly makes a style statement. But how is it on substance? Not too shabby. In fact, its scores on all our major cooking tasks were top-notch, including an Excellent rating for speed of heating. Its handles are sturdy and stay fairly cool to the touch. The nonstick coating is durable, although some of the nonstick pans we tested did even better on that test. The 10 pieces include two frying pans, two saucepans, a sauté pan, a stockpot, and four lids.

This nicely priced 10-piece set should satisfy most of your cooking needs. The lids are glass, so you can watch what you’re cooking without letting any heat escape. Cooking evenness is top-notch, and this set earns high ratings for both speed of heating and gently releasing eggs from the pan. The handles stay cool to the touch but could be sturdier.

For more options: Best Cookware Sets

This Calphalon waffle maker makes two square waffles at a time. It scores a Very Good rating for even browning but loses some points in the color-range test, in which it scores a Good rating. That means there’s less variation between the dark and light settings; waffles cooked on the light setting still come out brown. This model has a countdown timer, an alarm that sounds once the waffles are ready, and a wraparound moat to collect excess batter.

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Great Jones’ cookware line puts a vibrant spin on culinary staples, turning the utilitarianism of stocking a kitchen into a (dare we say) fun experience. It earns a Very Good rating for cooking evenness in our tests, plus it heats up quickly and cleans up nicely. Pair it with all the necessary ingredients for chocolate chip cookies or a sheet pan dinner and you’ll be golden.

For more options: Best Sheet Pans

The KitchenAid Classic K45SS excels at mixing, kneading, and whipping. It gets a middling score for noise, however. The 10-speed mixer comes with a 4.5-quart stainless steel bowl, flat beater, dough hook, and wire whisk. It’s compatible with all KitchenAid attachments, so you can branch out from baking into more savory foods, such as sausage and pasta. It weighs 23 pounds and comes in either white or black.

For more options: Best Stand Mixers

The Ninja Master Prep Professional QB1004 chopper has a 2.5-cup capacity and features a top-mounted motor that you push down to operate. It earns a Very Good rating for chopping, turning out nicely chopped veggies and nuts in our tests. Included in the set is a larger 5-cup processing bowl and a 6-cup blender jar.

For more options: Best Food Processors & Choppers

Cuisinart introduced the food processor to Americans in the early 1970s, and it has been a recognized brand in the category ever since. The Cuisinart Custom 14 DFP-14BCNY garners an Excellent rating in chopping, meaning it consistently chopped onions and nuts into medium-sized pieces. And it’s one of the quietest models we’ve tested. It operates on 720 watts, has a 14-cup capacity, and stands almost 16 inches high. Many of the food processors we’ve tested have touch buttons, but this one has levers—one for on, the other for pulsing and off. The warranty lasts three years; five for the motor. It’s available in brushed stainless, copper, and stainless mixed with black or white.

For more options: Best Food Processors & Choppers

Vitamix earns an Excellent rating in predicted brand reliability, according to our survey of CR members. That means this blender will continue to produce thirst-quenching icy drinks for years to come. It’s also terrific at blending soups and can even heat the soup using the friction created by the fast-whirring blades. In our test, raw ingredients went from cold chunks to steaming soup in 5 minutes.

For more options: Most and Least Reliable Blender Brands

In our lab tests, this nicely priced hand mixer outperformed models costing twice as much. It’ll turn whipping cream into fluffy peaks in seconds. Stiff cookie dough, which undoes many bargain mixers, proved no problem. You won’t get much in the way of add-ons, but its wire beaters do just fine.

For more options: Best Hand Mixers

One of the lightest large-capacity air fryers we recommend, the Gourmia GAF686 Digital is a top performer in CR’s air fryer tests. Though its measured capacity is 4.3 quarts, its overall size is equivalent to some smaller-capacity models. In addition to receiving top marks for controls, the model also impresses when it comes to noise and ease of cleaning.

This 6-quart Hamilton Beach is one of the least expensive of the programmable models we tested, and it beat out the Crockpot, long synonymous with slow cookers, in our tests. The Hamilton Beach is the only model to earn an Excellent rating in our high-setting tests; it’s the fastest in its category. Program this cooker for up to 24 hours; the auto-warm option lasts for 24 hours, too. The owner’s manual includes tips on using the temperature probe and hold-temp mode to cook meat and fish using the sous vide method (placing food in a sealed bag and slowly cooking it in a warm bath of water).

For more options: Best Slow Cookers

The Duo 7-in-1 is Instant Pot’s oldest model that’s still on the market. Even though there are several newer versions out with more functions—the Max, for instance—this comparatively basic model is more than enough for most home cooks. It also usually retails for half the price of the Max and performs similarly in our tests. It earns an Excellent score for pressure cooking and top marks for rice cooking and sautéing.

For more options: Best Multi-Cookers