Monday, December 3, 2007

Gift ideas for the foodie

My sister recently walked away from her job to start a new career at the San Diego Culinary Institute. I'm really happy for her, she's no longer working 7 days a week. For gift ideas, I reached out to my friend, Tommy, who just graduated from the Culinary Institute of America for suggestions. These are his suggestions:

A great thing to get would be a diamond stone for sharpening her knives. You should be able to find one a bit under $100. She may have a regular sharpening stone. The diamond ones are more expensive but easier to use and they pretty much last forever. I still don't have one and would have been stoked to get one so she would probably like that. One good book is Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking." It breaks down the science of cooking and is very useful. An immersion blender is extremely useful and she probably doesn't have one. Also if you could buy an ALL CLAD saute pan. I'm not sure how much it costs for one (preferably the 12 inch or bigger). Their pans are amazing and last forever. One of the best things I've ever bought for the kitchen is a really good pepper grinder. The best ones are made by Peugeot, the French company (that also makes cars). It is incredibly worthwhile to get one. I think they are about 40 or 50 dollars.

I was thinking about getting my sis the immersion blender. Turns out both Macys and Amazon.com have it on sale for 49.99 (down from 69.99). Unfortunately, they're both sold out. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for one. If you know where I can get one, I'm all ears.

1 comment:

Vi said...

you can get me a good pepper grinder next time :). I spoke with Dad about doing a week away in florence to work at Uncle Sabatolli's restaurant. I know its not some uber famous italian restaurant but its still better then any italian we have here right? what do you think?