1. Sansaire Sous Vide Machine

Cooking food sous vide—in a bag submerged in water at very specific and often low temperatures—is a practice reserved for only the most ostentatious of at-home food nerds, owing to the device’s big price (usually more than a grand) and enormous size. But a Seattle native has found a way to bring that cooking potential into your kitchen, for a small price and a smaller footprint. The Sansaire slips into any standard large cooking pot and transforms it into a beautiful and capable sous vide machine. Get your bags of lavender-infused halibut ready: The Sansaire is the next ultimate food-geek tool you absolutely need. PATRICK HUTCHISON

$199. sansaire.com.

2. Beginning Modernist Pack

Sodium alginate and calcium chloride may not make an appearance in the standard recipe, but the Modernist Cuisine reader in your life will surely squeal to have their own Modernist Pack. A Beginning Modernist Pack includes seven ingredients (agar agar and sodium citrate, among other pixie dusts), and a set of starter tools will help even the molecular gastro-novice achieve food-lab perfection at home. A variety of modernist agents are also available and sold separately. TIFFANY RAN

$96. Marx Foods, 144 Western Ave. W., 447-1818, marxfoods.com.

3. Miyabi Birchwood Santoku Knife

For both the home cook in dire need of a knife upgrade and the chef who’s a sucker for the classics, this is the ideal everyday knife for fine dices on vegetables, thin slices on fish, and clean cuts on meats. Its thin blade is crafted with exactly 101 layers of resilient steel, and, relatively affordable, it’s a great introduction to the ease and elegance of Japanese knives. It’s safe to say that after a few uses, one will simply never go back. TR

$279.95 for the 7-inch. Sur La Table, 84 Pine St., 448-2244.

4. Burlap Holiday Napkin Rings

Some people are nuts for table settings, from cloth napkins to table runners. For them, decking out a holiday table is right up there with trimming the tree. And for them is this homemade set of burlap napkin rings with four holiday embellishments, like a single bright-green jingle bell and a wooden Christmas tree, sold by “The Sleepy Dog” vendor. Mix and match them or get one uniform set. NICOLE SPRINKLE

$12 for a set of four. etsy.com/listing/116125996.

5. Vegetable Peeler

Multi-use tools are a must in the kitchen, and a wide-set vegetable peeler is a good one, useful both for cooking and drinking. On the culinary front, it’s great for peeling lumpier items like potatoes and other root vegetables, while in the mixology world, it helps you make really nice-looking wide citrus garnishes. OXO in particular makes a comfortable and highly functional version called the Julienne Peeler. ZACH GEBALLE

$9.99. oxo.com.

6. Turnco Wood Goods French Rolling Pin

The best tool in your kitchen is not that newest gadget or most unusual item, but the most common. For home bakers, a rolling pin is as vital as a chef’s knife or the perfect saute pan, and Turnco Wood Goods on Whidbey Island might make the best you can find. Owners/makers Kelly and Janae Cameron use locally sourced wood for their French rolling pins. Versions in black walnut or PNW madrona are available, along with custom felt storage sleeves to protect them from all the other tools in your baking drawer. PH

$58. turncowoodgoods.com.

7. Finex Cast-Iron Skillet

When Portland’s Mike Whitehead was a kid, he didn’t collect baseball cards or pogs or Pokemon, but something that mattered: cast-iron skillets. Now instead of collecting them, he’s making them. “We’re all drawn to things that age more slowly than us, things that are going to be here after we’re gone,” says Whitehead. His company, Finex, is looking to revitalize the lost tradition of making truly great skillets—ones you pass down to your grandchildren. And from the looks of them, octagonal with polished, brass-capped handles, your grandchildren will be happy to inherit them. PH

$125–$195. store.finexusa.com.

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