Nine Thoughtful Father’s Day Gifts for Foodies[html]
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Clichés suggest that when it comes to food, dads are only good for manning the barbecue. But plenty of dads are great home cooks, fancy coffee connoisseurs, or just guys who know how to appreciate a novel snack.
Father’s Day is June 15, so you’ve got just enough time to get the right gift for your own foodie father. Here are nine gift ideas any dad will devour, metaphorically or otherwise.
Gifts ideas mentioned in this post:
A speedy meat thermometer
After a couple years struggling with a cheap probe meat thermometer that would take nearly a minute to give me a semi-accurate internal temperature reading, I switched to the Thermapen One from ThermoWorks. I now shiver just thinking back to at all that lost time, because I get an accurate temperature reading of my steaks, chicken thighs, and roasts in one single second. Your father deserves this accurate, time-saving tool too. Check out the ThermoWorks website for their exclusive Father's Day sale, with plenty of fancy colors to choose from.
A good apron
Before culinary school, before cooking professionally, the first apron I ever bought myself was beautiful. It was from Anthropologie and it had a floral design—but it was more good looking than good for cooking. If you've got a dad who loves to spend time cooking, get him a good quality, practical apron. There are several styles out there, so consider what he enjoys cooking as much as his body type. For example, I prefer the bib variety. Beyond that, choose an apron that’s made of a sturdy canvas, with several easy to reach pockets.
A 'Saucy' cookbook
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Maybe dad can sear a fantastic steak or make the most beautiful kale salad you've ever seen, but there's still something missing. Odds are good that a swipe, drizzle, or dollop of sauce is what he needs to take his cooking to the next level. Saucy is a cookbook with about 50 approachable sauce recipes that range from thick, spreadable aiolis to pourable vinaigrettes. The best part is that there's a sauce for everything dad is cooking up, and the front of the book even gives you pairing suggestions. Read my full review of Saucy here.
A coffee pour-over kit
The jury is still out on whether or not coffee is a food group, so I’ll treat it as such until the decision is made. If your dad has recently emerged from his shell of Maxwell House and discovered the burgeoning world of boutique coffees, it might be a good time to present him with a pour-over coffee kit. All the better if your dad is a sometimes (or all the time) scientist because pour over is a measured dance of time and temperature.
A new generation air fryer
Air fryers aren’t new to kitchen gift roundups, but every year they’re getting more powerful, more intuitive, and cleverer in design. If your dad got a wee basket air fryer five years ago, it’s time for an upgrade. Try one with dual cooking zones, a window on front of the basket—or, if he’s fed up with the basket style, try the oven variety this time (or the other way around). Read about my favorite air fryers here to see which one is the best match for your dad.
A kitchen scale
Your scientific pops will need a kitchen scale to measure water and coffee grounds, but really, every cook should have a kitchen scale at their disposal. This is the definitive example of buying someone a gift they’ll use often but will never buy for themselves. Look for one with a large weighing platform and a large (or light-up) display.
Not your grandfather's chocolate-covered fruit
If yours is a dad who likes to snack, then your decision is easy: Get some snacks already! A mostly silky chocolate with the allure of a nutritious morsel of fruit tucked inside, Trü Frü is sure to win over your father's heart and tummy. They make two varieties of chocolate covered fruit: frozen or hyper-dried. The frozen ones are simply raw fruit pieces covered in milk, dark, or white chocolate. The banana one has the addition of
