Gift the Cook: Great Kitchenwares for Your Favorite Chefs, Hosts and Bartenders

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We’re about to enter holiday party season, and Brooklyn is filled with handmade tools and original home goods that make it easier and more fun to entertain. If you’re hosting, it might be time to invest in a serious cheese plate or tools to that will make rolling out piecrust a pleasure, and if you’re in search of a good host gift, design-forward coasters will outlive the bottle of wine you’re bringing. Here are seven gifts for the cooks, hosts and home bartenders in your lives.

1. French-style Rolling Pin ($24.90) Just as you’d expect from something French, this style of rolling pin is sleeker and more elegant than your standard handled pin. Not only does it look lovely, it also transfers pressure from your hands to the dough more evenly, making rolling out pie crust or cookies easier. And, it’s only French in name–these pins are made from kiln-dried maple in Indiana, as American as apple pie. –Annaliese Griffin

2. Brooklyn Slate Round Cheese Board ($44) It doesn’t matter how much you spend on your fromage if you don’t have a decent cheese platter for presentation. This honed, circular board is a new addition to Brooklyn Slate’s rough hewn rectangular models, and is perfect for plating cakes and pies as well as your Bonne Bouche and wild boar cacciatorini. Designed by Sean Tice and Kristy Hedeka, the materials are actually sourced from Kristy’s family slate quarry in upstate New York. Each board comes with a soapstone pencil, which can be used directly on the slate to help guests tell the difference between the Chabrin and the Chevrot. Meredith Craig de Pietro

3. Mason Jar Shaker ($29) The Mason Shaker is just the thing to shake up your eggnog martinis this season, or give to your favorite host, because nothing says Brooklyn more than a Mason jar, except maybe an Edison lightbulb. Conceptualized by Brooklyn residents Eric Prum and Joshua Williams, and inspired by their Southern roots, this cocktail accoutrement is an ingenious take on an appropriated classic. The quart size of the jar is larger than an average shaker, which allows you to mix more drinks at once, all the better to spend more time schmoozing, instead of holed up behind the bar.  —M.C.

4. Butternut Brooklyn Double Handle Cutting Board ($95) These gorgeous, heirloom quality walnut cutting boards were designed by Sarahana Shreshtha and made in Gowanus by Peter Cavanaugh, who claims that his interest in wood was formed “running around his grandpa’s workshop,” and that years later he’s still “knee deep in wood shavings.” Long and lean, this board is perfect for displaying a holiday buche de noel or presenting hors d’oeuvres. This weekend you can find them in the Curated 48 pop-up shop at 46 Hicks St. in Brooklyn Heights. —M.C.

5. Wolfum Iggy Trivets ($34) and Paloma Triangle Coaster Set ($34) These uniquely shaped trivets are just the thing to cool all your holiday pies, but they’re so pretty that you may not want to cover them up. Handmade from birchwood, they perfectly represent the unique patterns and sustainable design that Wolfum’s designer, Annabel Inganni, is known for. Handmade in Los Angeles, they are sold in Brooklyn at Red Pearl in Williamsburg, Peace & Riot in Bed-Stuy, and People of 2morrow in Greenpoint. If you need even more to brighten up your table, the Paloma coaster set features a bright geometric design hand-printed on birch. —M.C.

6. Cut Brooklyn Knives and Knife Magnets ($350-675; ) Serious cooks need serious knives and you’d be hard pressed to find blades more beautiful than those from Cut Brooklyn. You may want to turn this into a field trip to go and feel the weight of the knife in your hand before buying–the Gowanus workshop where they are produced is open  Wednesdays 3pm to 7pm and Saturdays noon to 5pm. Knives available for online sale go up on the Cut Brooklyn website every Thursday at 3pm, and they do sell out each week. They also make rustic-chic wooden knife magnets out of black walnut, maple and other hardwoods which come in lengths of  13″, 16″ and 22″ and go for $75, $85 and $105, respectively.  –A.G.

7. Sweet Deliverance Fifo Cycle Knife Bag ($280) If you’re in love with a chef who loves to cycle, this might be the ultimate holiday gift. These leather and waxed canvas knife bags were designed by the bike-loving cooks at Sweet Deliverance, and are sewn here in Brooklyn. They’re beautiful and durable and will likely long outlast any relationship you have with a chef who isn’t a blood relative. –A.G.

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