Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat – don't bother putting a penny in the old man's hat, though, you'll need that to put towards one of these culinary contraptions.
If the technophile in your life is more excited about cooking the Christmas dinner than eating it, our round up of the top kitchen gadgets should give you an idea or two for what to stuff in their stocking this festive season.
Beep Egg
Price: £15.99
Web: Firebox.com
Egg boiling is a tricky business. Over-do it and you'll be left with a hard-boiled waste of space. Under-do it and you're stuck with slimy egg white goo all over your soldiers. Not a good start to the day – BeepEgg means an end to all this egg-based woe. Pop it in the pan with your eggs and it'll beep out the tune to Killing Me Softly when your eggs are soft boiled, I Wish I Was A Hen for medium and the Carmina Burana theme when they're hard boiled. Wonderful.
Bodum Bistro Blender Stick
Price: £57.99
Web: Dunelm Mill
Bodum describes the Bisto Blender Stick as a kitchen essential, and it's not far off – hand blenders make it easy for the chef in your life to whip up everything from soups to soufflés. They'll be whisking, chopping, mashing and whipping like a pro in no time at all. What we like about this particular one is that eye-catching orange, green and purple shades it comes in.
Griffin iPad cabinet mount
Price: £63.00
Web: Amazon
We're straying into dangerous territory here because you may have to get your loved one an iPad to stand in it, but the Griffin iPad cabinet mount will handily hang their recipe-displaying slate in style.
It can be fixed to the underside of a cupboard, holding that precious tablet out of the way of the chef's frantic mixing or over-enthusiastic sieving. And when the washing up's done and you're sitting down to a nice mince pie fresh from the oven, just fold the stand away under the shelf and you won't even know it's there. Yours for £63 – iPad sold separately.
Pantone digital scales
Price: £25
Web: Heals
If your epicurean loved one likes a bit of style along with substance, these are the scales for them. The Pantone kitchen scales weigh ingredients digitally leaving no room for error, with the added bonus of coming in eye-catching colours and the now-familiar Pantone design. The scales are available in purple, black and what we'd call pink but must bow to the colour experts at Pantone, who brand it red.
Kitchen Aid artisan stand mixer
Price: £420
Web: Currys
This one may come as no surprise. We could recommend any number of other food mixers, but we just know that the cuisine-lover in your life doesn't want any of them: it's the Kitchen Aid artisan stand mixer or nothing. Kitchen Aid's iconic device works brilliantly, looks gorgeous and you can get all kinds of clever add-ons that make it so much more than a mixer – pasta maker, mincer, sausage stuffer: you name it. The only downside is the price – in the UK it'll set you back a hefty £420.
