Gifts for wanna be chef?

[kendraS]

My cousin is graduating from high school and is going to be starting classes in a culinary school. Any ideas on what would make a good gift? I don't know if he has to buy any equipment for school {i.e. knives or other tools} but if you have any suggestions, I would appreciate it.

[andrea]

AWESOME IDEA, JB!

[kendraS]

What great ideas! Thanks everyone!

[Mandy]

I'm not sure how much you want to spend, but what about a nice set of knives? If you didn't want to get the entire set you could start him with a few knives and the block.

How about a subscription to Cooking Light and other culinary magazines?

[SusanT]

Usually culinary schools have their students buy their own knives and they're usually very expensive. It may be more than you want to spend.

I would give cash or gift certificate from the school.

[Ralph]

Originally posted by SusanT:
I would give cash or gift certificate from the school.

Or a gift certificate to a cook's/kitchen supply store (i.e. Williams-Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond), or a gift certificate to something like Chef's Catalog (www.chefscatalog.com) or Cooking.com.

[Chefmom]

Oh....books, books, books. If you don't know what they might want, then a GC for amazon.com or jessicasbiscuit.com (if they are online) or just the local bookstore. Some good books are anything from James Patterson, ESPECIALLY his Sauce book. Larousse's Gastromnique was a tome, but a one recommended by the Chef's. Shirley Corriher's "Cookwise", Madeleine Kamman's "The New Making of a Cook".

Also, extra aprons are nice, they usually come in the uniform package, but I always used more than the ones from school.

And, subsciptions for Cooks Illustrated or Fine Cooking. Both of those were magazines recommended in school.

Usually the knives and tools are in the school's tool package, so they won't need those from outside sources. But maybe a nice tool box, a good one from a hardware store to carry all the tools etc. I have a red metal "craftsman" one and I cut styrofoam to fit the removable box on the top to hold my knives. It fit just about everything!!

Tami

Oh, even a GC for SHOES, I had a NICE argument before school even started with one of the administrators over the shoes in the uniform package. They were garbage. We were told that we HAD to wear them or risk losing points for being out of uniform, but after everyone complained, we just needed to be sure we had black shoes. You could even look into clogs, you either love them or hate them.