19 Best Amazon Gifts To Impress The Foodie In Your Life

Fall and winter are prime holiday times, at least when it comes to giving and receiving presents. The colder weather also means that these seasons are ideal for baking and cooking. So, it makes sense to start hunting now for the best gifts to impress the foodies you know — whether they're cooking for one or 20, putting together an intricate holiday meal, or just whipping up some breakfast on the go.

The gifts gathered here are all available on Amazon, which makes searching, shopping, and comparing easy. We've also made a point of finding the best versions of each item we could. After all, you've got a lot to do in the next few months, so why spend it wading through page after page of questionable options? Instead, here are the knives, graters, sauces, oils, and books for everyone from first-time home cooks to the experienced home (or pro) chef on your list.

Many of us use these oversized scissors for tasks they're unsuited for, like opening packages. The fact is, kitchen shears have a ton of surprising uses. Sure, they break down a chicken and chop herbs. But you can also cut up pizza or peel potatoes. Though the blades on these Joyce Chen shears might seem small, it's a rugged tool. Torque engineering and large handles help you cut through muscle and bone with ease.

Purchase the All Purpose Kitchen Shears from Joyce Chen for $24.95.

Take a rasp grater, zester, and spice grater, and combine them all in one small, elegant package. This handy wonder is just under 3 inches by 4 inches, and is designed to be held flat in one hand while you grate with the other. It's made specifically for wasabi root, but since most people don't grate real wasabi, it also works wonderfully for ginger and spices like nutmeg or cinnamon.

Purchase the Japanese Wasabi, Ginger and Spice Grater from Konatu for $8.23.

It's super important to score free-form bread dough before you bake it, particularly when it comes to crusty sourdough loaves. Not only is it attractive, but it provides a release for carbon dioxide that builds up during the baking process. Otherwise, your loaf will likely split in unpredictable ways. Using a lame — with its razor-sharp edge — controls the depth of the cut and creates nice clean lines. This offering from Saint Germain with an elegantly designed handle comes with 10 replacement blades and a leather cover for protection.

Purchase the Saint Germain Bread Lame for $8.99.

A standard immersion blender handily whips up creamy hollandaise or tasty cold foam over your latte. It's compact, fast working, and easy to clean. Even better is this cordless, six-in-one multitool kit from Black & Decker. You'll get attachments to turn your wand into an immersion blender, whisk, milk frother, can opener, salt and pepper grinder, and can opener. It comes with its own mixing cup and sits upright in its charging dock.

Purchase the Kitchen Wand Cordless 6-in-1 Blender from Black & Decker for $199.99.

There are a number of ways to make ice cream without a machine, but really, if you have access to an ice cream maker, you should use it. The best ones are easy to handle and work well, so you can spend your time enjoying ice cream while making the next batch. The best versions, like this Cuisinart 1.5 quart machine, also make yogurt, sorbet, and other goodies you might not know it could. It's also Double-walled, so ice and salt aren't necessary.

Purchase the 1.5 Quart Ice Cream Maker from Cuisinart for $69.95.

We're big fans of hot sauce at Chowhound, filling up the pantry and pairing it with everything from beer to breakfast burritos. One of the best characteristics of hot sauce is its diversity: mild or hot (or seriously hot), red or green, fruit-driven or chili-focused. Tia Lupita offers a variety pack featuring four flavors: salsa verde, chipotle, jalapeño and habanero. They're gluten-free, sugar-free, and made with non-GMO ingredients. Chip up!

Purchase the Hot Sauce 4-Pack from Tia Lupita for $31.99.

Finding your favorite olive oil is a special culinary moment. Hailing from Spain (the largest olive oil producer), this certified extra virgin (EVOO) oil is considered a single origin product, since the olives are all of the picual variety and harvested from Jaen, Spain. Though Graza's Sizzle is an elegant EVOO that is great for making salads or dipping crusty bread in, it's got a fairly high smoke point and is branded as a cooking oil. The squeeze bottle is a convenient vessel that makes the oil perfect for searing and frying.

Purchase Sizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Graza for $17.99.

Flaky sea salt from Maldon, England has developed a near-cult following among foodists in the past decade or so, with good reason: It's one of the the best salts you can keep in your cupboard. The large, flat crystals are drawn from the Blackwater Estuary during the spring when the waters' salt content is highest. Its flaky nature makes for a cleanly flavor-filled finishing garnish with a pleasing, crunchy texture. Some people keep a small packet in their bag, to sprinkle atop takeout lunches or on fresh, hot bakery focaccia for added zing.

Purchase Sea Salt Flakes from Maldon for $7.98.

Whether your food-loving friend is just getting into East Asian cooking, or already knows and loves the packaged products Momofuku is putting out, this starter kit makes a great gift. Not only are the products — the Original Chili Crunch, soy and scallion ramen noodles, soy sauce, and seasoned salt — all well-crafted and reliably delicious, they will definitely help upgrade homemade and even instant ramen. Include a recipe for jammy ramen eggs with your gift and your recipient will be ready to roll.

Purchase the Starter Pack from Momofuku for $54.99.

If your idea of canned fish stops at Starkist, Bumble Bee, or Chicken of the Sea, know that there's an entire world of incredible tinned seafood you're missing out on. Popular as bar food for decades in Spain and Portugal, high-quality tinned seafood, like sardines and mackerel, have reached new levels of popularity in the United States. Fishwife, a relatively new woman-owned brand, has been making waves among millennial gourmands, even opening a pop-up store in Times Square. You get three cans of wild-caught, hand-packed tuna seasoned with hot paprika and cayenne.

Purchase the Albacore Tuna in Spicy Olive Oil 3-Pack from Fishwife for $34.

If your giftee tosses hot sauce over everything, they know the textural pleasures of hot-and-sweet chili oil, particularly Fly by Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp sauce. Fans can make short work of any of the Chengdu-inspired varieties offered by the woman-owned company. If they've already got the sauces, level them up with this branded hot pot kit, which includes the electric hot pot, two sets of metal chopsticks, and two slotted spoons designed to rest on the edge of the appliance.

Purchase the Hot Pot Kit from Fly By Jing for $89.99.

For many years, dining at Roberta's restaurant in Brooklyn was something of a badge of honor: hard to get to, hard to score a seat, and the wood-fired pizza was (and is) definitely worth the odyssey. The cookbook, like the original restaurant, is stark and no-frills on the outside, but the interior has all the goodies. Sure, the pizza section is pure gold, but you'll find plenty of intriguing Italian-inspired apps, entrees and desserts. Plus, the stories the authors share sound like something out of "The Bear."

Purchase the Roberta's Cookbook for $26.11.

Many people don't realize there is a difference between Dijon and brown mustard. Beyond the name, Dijon is a French style of mustard making in which seeds are blended with verjuice or wine in place of vinegar. Creamy and full of flavor, it's perfect with charcuterie, braised chicken, or in a salad dressing. Edmond Fallot makes a variety of top-notch Dijon mustards, but this one is seasoned with tarragon for a slightly licorice vegetal tang in each mouthful.

Purchase Edmond Fallot Dijon Mustard at Amazon for $7.62.

From the moment it was published in 2017, this storytelling cookbook by Samin Nosrat became an instant must-have on every cook's bookshelf. It even inspired one of the best cooking shows on Netflix. What makes the cookbook stand out, beyond incredible writing and over 100 essential recipes, is the concept of balancing flavors by using a scientific approach to the four title influences on cooking. If you don't already see a copy on your foodie friend's countertop, it's time to fix that.

Purchase "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" for $23.07.

Shucking your own oysters properly is not difficult to learn, yet incredibly satisfying when you get it right. But it takes the right tools. Sure, they can be shucked using a spoon handle or any handy knife, but why risk cutting up your hands or breaking shells when more appropriate tools exist? This kit includes a quality shucking knife, cut-resistant gloves and a little how-to brochure all in a decorative box perfect for gifting. The gloves are also handy when grating cheese to avoid knuckle scratching.

Purchase the Oyster Shucking Kit from Melocean for $59.97.

Dutch ovens are one of the most versatile cooking tools in a kitchen, a workhorse ideal for braising, stewing, frying, baking and much more. But sometimes you don't need a dozen servings of stew or peach cobbler. Le Creuset, already widely known as perhaps the best manufacturer of stoneware crockery and Dutch ovens, offers these single serving cocottes in sets of four. Each holds about 8 ounces and can move from broiler to fridge to microwave.

Purchase the Mini Cocottes from Le Creuset for $89.95.

Some people think there's such a thing as having too many dried spices, but that's simply not true. No matter how full a cupboard is, gifting flavorful, uncommon spices is always a good idea. Burlap & Barrel, a sustainability-driven spice company, sources single-origin seasonings and spices from around the world, emphasizing fair trade, non-GMO, and other virtuous practices. This six-pack includes super-fragrant jars of sun-dried tomato powder (Turkey), garlic (Vietnam), cinnamon (Vietnam), black lime (Guatemala), smoked paprika (Spain), and wild mountain cumin (Afghanistan).

Purchase the 6-Pack Spice Set from Burlap & Barrel for $52.99.

While many people likely know their preferred store-bought soy sauce, there are actually many different types of this fermented condiment and myriad brands to choose from. The kishibori style combines soybeans, water, and salt with roasted wheat. It's a milder version called shoyu. However, what makes Takesan's kishibori style of shoyu stand out is the extremely slow fermentation process. Batches are fermented for a full year in century-old cider barrels, creating a sweet-and-umami complexity that's hard to resist. The attractive paper wrapper is perfect for gifting.

Purchase Takesan Kishibori Soy Sauce at Amazon for $11.99.

It's easy to land in a rut cooking the same pasta, despite there being hundreds of shapes. But perhaps a whole box of something new seems like overkill. Instead consider this sampler from NYC-based Rubirosa. The Manhattan restaurant just outside Little Italy has been carrying on family traditions brought to America from Naples in the 1950s, and now share them with home cooks. This whimsical sampler, designed like those classic flavored popcorn gift tins, features three different pasta shapes handmade in New York from durham wheat flour.

Purchase the Pasta Sampler Bucket from Rubirosa for $48.99.