Foodie Christmas gifts for ambitious home cooks

Know someone who’s seriously talented in the kitchen? Expand their culinary artistry with these foodie gifts for ambitious home cooks

Hot Smoked Cold Smoking Kit, £47

Introduce your bestie to next year’s outdoor cooking trend: cold smoking. Hot Smoked’s cold smoking kit has everything they will need to get started – all they have to provide is a hooded barbecue or smoker.

The kit includes a square mesh maze, which is used to create mellow wood smoke flavours (beech, maple and oak wood dust are included) without the heat, as well as a recipe and instruction booklet with guidance on how to cold-smoke the likes of bacon, pancetta, salmon, duck and cheeses. Pop it under the tree for someone special this year, then sit back and await your invite to a smokin’ feast.

Buy it here.

Philleigh Way Gift Voucher, £5-£200

Expand your home-cooking chum’s repertoire with a gift voucher for Philleigh Way Cookery School in Cornwall and they’ll soon be whipping up Scandi suppers, street-food fare or cooking feasts over fire. The food-obsessed chef tutors share recipes handed down through generations and use uber-fresh ingredients from local producers.

Buy it here.

High Grange Fire School Voucher, £130-£225

Whether your foodie friend has already converted to the religion of all things wood-fired, they’ll be a follower of the flame after High Grange’s baptism into barbecue.

Its full or half day fire school courses cover a whole host of outdoor cooking, barbecue and butchery skills and techniques, and are set among the rolling hills of rural Devon near Axminster. Attendees get to make the most of the gorgeous surroundings when they tuck into the fruits of their labour in the covered alfresco dining area.

Buy it here.

Pareusi Steak Knife Experience, £550

Buying knives for serious home cooks is a minefield (their favourite will be like an extension of their arm), but how about gifting them the experience of creating their own set of steak knives?

This highly exclusive (there are only three spots available in each of the three courses next year), cutting-edge pressie will see your loved one spend two days with the team at Pareusi in Cornwall making a set of two, four or six knives. They’ll grind, polish, clamp, sand, shape and sharpen during this memorable experience and emerge with an entirely unique set of knives – plus a story to dine out on for years.

Buy it here. Use code Christmas-thyme at the checkout to receive a 10 per cent discount exclusive to Food readers.

Àclèaf book, £50

Chef Scott Paton has long been a friend of Food (he’s recently been sharing his seasonal hero ingredients in his bi-monthly column) and now he and the team at Àclèaf are opening their kitchen doors to curious cooks via their new book.

Gift an ambitious friend an intimate guided tour of the inner workings of the four AA rosette restaurant within Devon’s Boringdon Hall Hotel. From the design concept of dishes to wow-factor recipes, this coffee-table tome is brimming with inspiration.

Buy it here.

Like 5 of the best gifts for ambitious foodies? Check out our roundup of food and drink gifts under £50.

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