We’re back with more holiday gift ideas for home chefs. If you didn’t catch it before, make sure to check out our 6 Hot Holiday Gifts for Home Chefs. Last time we took a look at versatile kitchen tools, and today we’re taking a look at a few which are more specialized, but these will make cooking a whole lot easier for the home chefs on your holiday shopping list.
WÜSTHOF CLASSIC 7-inch Hollowed Edge Chai Dao
From the manufacturer:
“Inspired by the traditional Chinese cleaver, the Chai Dao’s extra wide blade and razor-sharp fine edge has a rounded tip to facilitate “rocking” motion on cutting boards. Its new hollowed-edge helps prevent sticky foods such as raw potatoes from adhering to the blade. Available now for $119.99 suggested retail.”
Have a vegetarian chef in the family? This is the perfect gift for him or her. Onions, potatoes and green peppers all slid right off the blade in our tests. The only thing we chopped that stuck was garlic, but garlic will stick to absolutely anything. Another brilliant feature of this knife was that fact that it was extra wide, which provides both superior control of the blade and the ability to chop through more veggies without having to clear the blade. This extra width will also allow the chef to carry ingredients straight from the cutting board to the range with just the knife. From chopping to cooking in no time.
Unlike an Asian-style Nakiri knife, the CLASSIC 7-Inch Hollowed Edge Chai Dao knife boasts more curvature, which will help in mincing, chopping, dicing and slicing ingredients quicker than squared-off blades. Just like WÜSTHOF’s CLASSIC 7-Piece Traveler Set — which we featured as one of our top 6 gifts for home chefs — the Chai Dao knife is made in Germany using WÜSTHOF’s patented Ptec Edge.
Part of WÜSTHOF’s CLASSIC line, this is going to be one of the top performing knives in the entire world. Whoever receives this is in for a real treat. It’s available at cutleryandmore.com.
OXO Good Grips Chopper $19.99
From the manufacturer:
“Make easy work of onions, nuts and more with the OXO Good Grips Choppers. Press the soft knob and the blades rotate for even chopping. An internal soft bumper absorbs any shock to increase comfort and sound quality. Chop ingredients in the enclosed cup with its soft, non-slip base, or remove the base and chop directly on a cutting board. A tab rotates within the cup to prevent food from accumulating on the side walls. The entire blade cartridge can be removed from the Chopper by simply unscrewing it, so clean up is a breeze. And the blade is symmetrical for ease of reassembly. Simplify the task of chopping garlic with OXO’s Mini Chopper, smaller and more efficient for fine dicing. Both Choppers include a spoon for scooping so there’s no need to leave your hands smelling like onions or garlic.”
Sometimes easy is good, and the OXO Chopper takes easy to a whole new level when it comes to chopping. Not everyone has impressive knife skills in the kitchen, and for those people OXO created the best device possible.
Basically foods for chopping — nuts, veggies, fruits, etc. — go into the cup, and the chopper top slips right into place. Apply pressure from above, and all of a sudden you’re chopping your way to yumminess. No stray pieces of food falling on the ground, no dirty smelly hands and no hassle. Everything that’s been chopped is stored inside the bottom of the shopper. You can even seal this for later with a lid OXO provides.
If you would like to Purchase the OXO Chopper as a Christmas gift, head over to Amazon and place an order.
OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer $14.99
From the manufacturer:
“Making cucumber salad, an apple tart or a potato gratin? Try the OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline. Use the soft knob to adjust to the desired slice thickness, and slide the food over the stainless steel blade for perfect, even slices. The Hand-Held Mandoline features a clear surface that shows slices accumulating below. Slice on a cutting board or plate, or hook the soft foot over a bowl. The food holder protects hands and covers the blade when not in use.”
For a perfectly uniform slicing job you need a mandoline, but sometimes mandolines are big and bulky, which is why we really appreciate the Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer from OXO. Compact enough to fit in a kitchen draw, manageable enough to lay across a bowl for easy food collection and good enough to replace your larger, bulky mandoline. This mandoline handled everything we threw at it: potatoes, onions, zucchini and even tomatoes.
Stop by Amazon to purchase the OXO Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer this holiday season.
OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner $29.99
From the manufacturer:
“For fast and easy salad preparation, try the award-winning OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner. Simply press the soft, non-slip knob to start the basket spinning. Easy, one-handed operation makes this Salad Spinner a pleasure to use, and a built-in brake stops the Salad Spinner immediately for easy unloading. The bowl doubles as an elegant serving bowl and a non-slip base keeps the bowl steady on the countertop, even through vigorous spinning at top speeds. For thorough cleaning, the underside of the lid comes apart with the simple press of a button. The lid is flat for convenient storage.”
Pre-washed and bagged lettuces and salad mixes are expensive and ripe for contamination, but washing your own leafy greens can be time consuming, particularly trying to get them dry. Enter the OXO Salad Spinner. All the veggies we had been chopping eventually ended up in a romaine and spinach salad we made for lunch, and the salad spinner got a good workout. Our entire staff was impressed with how easy it was to dry our greens after washing them. Two big thumbs up here!
An OXO Salad Spinner is a great gift idea for anyone who eats — or wants to — healthily. Grab it for only $29.99.
OXO Good Grips Salad Chopper with Bowl $24.99
From the manufacturer:
“Quickly transform everyday vegetables into appetizing and nutritious chopped salads with the OXO Good Grips Salad Chopper and Bowl. The Chopper has a soft, non-slip handle and two stainless steel blades that effectively slice lettuce, vegetables, cheese, fruit and more. The Bowl has a continuous curve that is in constant contact with the blades for efficient cutting, and the rim serves as a grip for rotating the bowl while chopping. The Bowl can also be taken directly to the table for serving. Simply assemble salad ingredients in the bowl, chop, dress and serve. At 5.5 quart capacity, the Bowl can accommodate up to 6 servings. Both Salad Chopper and Bowl are dishwasher safe for easy cleaning.”
So, our chopped nuts, sliced veggies and washed & dried greens all went into the bowl and the salad chopper gave us a chopped salad. It was very simple. While we could have used a nice chef’s knife to accomplish the same thing, OXO’s product line made everything easy as pie. The best part about the OXO Salad Chopper with Bowl, as well is everything else from OXO, cleanup was easy, because everything was self-contained. Cooks won’t even need to get their hands dirty anymore.
You can purchase the OXO Salad Chopper with Bowl at Amazon.
Christmas Stack-N-Melt™ Candy Bark Silicone Mold $7.99
From the manufacturer:
“Create beautifully detailed candy bark with the Christmas Stack-N-Melts Candy Bark Silicone Mold. Gifting candy bark and serving it at parties is a breeze with this silicone mold and easy-melting Wilton Candy Melts® candy.”
Of all the products we’ve reviewed this holiday season, this was easily the simplest and least technical — and it was absolutely brilliant. It’s a pretty simple concept, you place little Candy Melts® in the tray and microwave on a lower setting until they eventually melt into the shape of the mold. Once you let them cool you can easily pop them out and you’re left with a perfectly formed candy bark that just oozes Christmas spirit.
We sampled three flavors: Limited Edition Sugar Cookie, Candy Cane Colorburst and Light Cocoa. Our favorite was the Light Cocoa, which was perfectly chocolatey, but things were taken to a whole new level when we combined the Light Cocoa and the Candy Cane. That’s the beauty of this product and the melts — there is no limits to what you can do. We have absolutely no doubt that kids will love helping cook this holiday season with the Christmas Stack-N-Melt™ Candy Bark Silicone Mold.
