If you’re hunting for the perfect holiday gift for the food and drink lovers in your life, you’ve come to the right place. When planning our holiday issue, the team at IN Kansas City thought: Who better to ask about gifts to give food lovers than the local chefs who feed us?
So, we asked 17 local chefs who own and/or cook for some of the best restaurants in the city to share what they like to give and what they are hoping to get this year, as well.
The results were fascinating. The chefs recommended a wide variety of food and beverage gifts. Many recommended each other’s places, which should come as no surprise, as this industry supports its own.
We told them to have fun with this list and encouraged them to think as big or as small as they liked. Some were very practical, and some chose to go all out, money is no object, fantasy wish-list items for themselves and others. Their answers give us a peek into what they care about, the places they want to go, and the equipment they want to use.
It should come as no surprise that many wanted to travel, far away, for many weeks at a time to relax, soak in the local culture, and come back ready to cook. Where each of these chefs wanted to visit is, quite literally, all over the map.
Their wish lists go beyond naughty and nice; many asked for things for their restaurant. Some were pie-in-the-sky altruistic acts of kindness, like buying an apartment building so their employees can live rent free, while others asked for more practical items like more walk-in traffic for their own restaurant, or even new dish racks for their restaurant dishwasher.
The chef Vaughn Good and his partner, Kristine Hull, who own Fox and Pearl and Night Goat BBQ, went a step further, sending this response, which sums up what many in the restaurant industry are feeling this year.
“Honestly, I think both Vaughn and I would forgo any gifts and wish for a stronger economy, so that people had more money and the financial security to go out to eat at local restaurants. It would be great if the cost of goods would go down so our margins weren’t so tight. That is truly what is on our minds right now.”
Take their honest response as a reminder that many of our favorite spots are still struggling, so please support your favorite local restaurants this holiday season.
Nick & Leslie Goellner | Antler Room
To give:
“We both think a subscription to Bokksu would be a fantastic gift for anyone who loves to snack and try new things. It is a subscription service that provides seasonally themed Japanese snacks monthly. The best thing about it is much of what is included in the boxes is very hard to find in the States.”
To receive:
Nick: “I would love to get Sentan 170 mm Chinese Cleaver Stainless Clad Shirogami 2 Kurouchi from Bernal Cutlery for the holidays. Learning to cook in mostly Western kitchens has meant my knife of choice for everyday tasks has always been a western chef’s knife (Gyuto). So, I have always been intrigued by Chinese cleavers—the work horse of many Asian kitchens. This one is jacketed in stainless steel for easy cleaning and maintenance. Bernal Cutlery is my favorite knife and kitchen store on the planet and the quality is guaranteed.”
Leslie: “Honestly for me, my favorite gifts are always experiences. I would say a Delta gift card so I can take a trip somewhere new and explore the food and drinking culture somewhere I have not been. There are so many places on my list to visit, but Colombia, South America, is probably the place I am most intrigued by right now.”
Jhy Coulter | Orange by Devoured
To give:
“I would definitely gift someone special a Gozney Arc XL pizza oven. They are so versatile. I use Gozney ovens in my restaurant, and I love them. You can also cook whatever you want in them, not just pizza.”
To receive:
“Honestly, I hope every chef on this list asks for a trip for the holidays. We work long days and many hours. I am dreaming of the day I’m in the north of Spain or the south of Italy sipping a prosecco and shoving jamón in my mouth, just cheesing with my toes out.”
Johnny & Helen Jo Leach | The Town Company inside Hotel Kansas City
To give:
“We would give gift cards to Big Mood Natural Wines & More or to Yoli Tortilleria. We love Yoli’s tamales. Another good gift is an apron from Kufukaa, a local, woman-owned company.”
To receive:
“A meal or drink at some of our favorite places where we like spending time with family and friends, such as Garden House, Chingu and Chingu coffee, Earl’s Premier, Antler Room, Waldo Thai, Nguyen Grill & Pho. Also, we can never seem to get enough cookbooks.”
Anh “Bass” Pham & Nam Phan | Kata Nori
To give:
Anh “Bass”: “I would host an exclusive tasting of some dishes I’m working on and invite close family and friends to come and enjoy it.”
Nam: “I would give Kata Nori gift cards.”
To receive:
Anh “Bass”: “I would like to receive a big bottle of Caymus wine and a dry-aged, bone-in rib eye.”
Justin Clark | Urban Restaurant, Urban Café, and Urban Food Truck
To give:
“I would love to give tickets to the Aspen Food and Wine Festival. Being from the Midwest, I feel as though any food-loving friend from Kansas City would find the most inspiration from this festival, as the ingredients used there are not that different from what we find here. I feel like that experience would be one of a kind for a food lover.”
To receive:
“A culinary trip to Greece. It has always been a dream of mine to go horseback riding there. I want to experience the culture, eat the food, and swim in that beautiful sea. Either that, or I’d also love to have a wood-burning grill from Grillworks EXO Pro line.”
Ryan Brazeal & Jessica Armstrong | Novel
To gift:
Ryan: “We cook a lot at home and doing dishes is a big chore, so anything that makes the job easier is a great gift. All-Clad makes really great non-stick sauté and sauce pans that are just the right size for the home cook. Big enough for pasta or sautéed chicken, but not so big that it takes over the whole sink. You can throw them in the dishwasher or just wipe them out with a damp cloth.
Jessica: “Every year I like to gift batches of soft ginger molasses cookies and holiday tea. I’ll even slip a bag of holiday tea in with each holiday card I send out. Homesong Market in the Crestwood Shops is owned by my friend Amanda Watters, and she carries all kinds of quality kitchen goods and tools that make great gifts. I love her fabric bowl covers, French-made Opinel brand knives, and selection of kitchen towels.”
To receive:
Ryan: “I love a good cup of coffee in the morning, and it doesn’t get any better than fresh roasted beans from Cielo from my partner Kyle Evans at Penrose. I’d also love some Zalto wine glasses. They’ve been on my Christmas list for a while but have been unavailable for the last couple of years. We’d also love a set of Material: The Table Knives steak knives.
Jessica: “As a baker, I’d love to get candied ginger, candied orange peel, and cookie cutters for holiday baking. Holiday disposable baking cups and pan liners are nice too, really anything that makes holiday baking more fun. I’m always up for a brand-new cookie sheet, too. In the kitchen at Novel this year, we need new dishwasher racks!”
Jo Marie Scaglia | Midwest Maven, The Mixx, and Caffetteria
To give:
“I love to gift a good kitchen gadget. It’s easy to buy grated cheese in the store, but how much more fantastic is it if you buy a chunk of Parmesan, Romano or asiago cheese and grate it yourself with a Zulay Kitchen rotary cheese grater. I am also an avid vintage shop and estate-sale shopper, and I love to find little treasures to gift to friends and family. The salt cellar is one of my favorites. Gold silverware and brass candlesticks have come my way lately, and it’s so fun to gift someone a group of items that they can set on the table with some vintage pottery and florals and be done. I just love a good tablescape. It is okay if things don’t match, just align them with a color scheme or a type of metal, and everything just all seems to go together that way.”
To receive:
“If you ask me what my dream gift would be, I would probably say a trip to Paris and Italy with my daughter for a couple of weeks. I would love to incorporate Spain in that trip, as well. Closer to home, I would like to take a trip to New York this year to see a Broadway musical.”
Michael & Nancy Smith | Farina, Extra Virgin, and EV Grab & Go
To gift:
“We would give personalized gift baskets from our new Extra Virgin Grab & Go. The curated food, products, and wine we sell represent who we are as culinary- and wine-driven individuals. It would give us so much pleasure to hand-select items and bundle them in a basket for our family and friends—of course, with a signed copy of Farina, the cookbook!”
To receive:
Nancy: “Michael knows my obsession with this dream dinner-wine experience. He would like to treat me to dinner at the chef Eric Ripert’s Le Bernardin in New York City. I want to have Aldo Sohm, the renowned wine director, choose our wine pairings for Ripert’s legendary cuisine. I can’t imagine a more lovely—and instructional—evening.”
Michael: “I’ve wanted a Viking Range for our home kitchen, and Nancy, who always says to people, ‘You should see what he cooks on at home!’ knows that’s at the top of my appliance bucket list.” Nancy: “Michael makes just as amazing food at home as at Extra Virgin or Farina, despite the oven deficit! We would love to remodel our kitchen to one outfitted for a chef. Sometimes, I imagine how a new kitchen could elevate our Sunday dinner tradition. Michael also dreams of an authentic pizza oven in the backyard.”
Nancy & Michael: “We love Kata Nori Hand Roll Bar, so gift certificates are always welcome. They do an incredible job.”
Michael & Christine Corvino | Corvino Supper Club and Songbird
To give:
“We love to gift cookware pieces from Le Creuset. If it’s a young person just starting out, the cast-iron skillet is perfect. A growing family? The dutch oven. A stylish home cook? The fish baker. There’s something for everyone, and this is a gift that lasts a lifetime. We like to include a note with our belief that life’s best moments are shared with those you love around a table.”
To receive:
“Well, it’s hard to pick a favorite star in the sky! But a Forno Piombo brick pizza oven would be a dream. We love making pizzas at home and these beautiful, tiled dome ovens would just take our pizza parties to the next level.”
Colby & Megan Garrelts | Rye Leawood and Rye Plaza
To give:
“In past years we have gifted friends, family, and team members gift cards to local restaurants or even a wine subscription to Underdog Wine in Crestwood. This year, we highly recommend a basket full of goodies from Extra Virgin’s new EV Grab & Go in the Crossroads owned by our friends Michael and Nancy Smith. Other recommendations for food lovers would be a loaf of great bread from 1900 Barker Bakery in Lawrence, Kansas, or a Hedley & Bennett apron that you can customize. They even have a Chiefs-branded apron from their new NFL line, and Colby will have one of these in his stocking this year, shhhh.”
To receive:
“We have many dream trips, but the one we have on the list right now, is a trip to Germany where we start in Munich at Oktoberfest, then head through Bavaria and up through German wine country to taste the most beautiful Rieslings and other wines made there. We also love traveling to any place where you cannot eat unless you stay, and one of our first bucket list trips we ever gifted to ourselves was to Bras Restaurant in France. Michel Bras is a chef we had both admired for many years, his cuisine and legacy are astounding. We would love to go back and visit. You can also buy the authentic Laguiole steak knives and other dining room table accessories from their small shop down the road from Maison Bras.”
Swetha Newcomb | Of Course Kitchen and Catering
To give:
“My go-to gift for anyone is a Japanese Santoku 7-inch knife. I believe a great knife is an essential tool for any cook, and the Santoku’s versatility makes it perfect for everything from chopping vegetables to slicing proteins. This year, I plan on giving my friends and family packages of our tandoori and umami spice blends. They have become our mother spice blends at my restaurant and are the key to almost all dishes on our menu.”
To receive:
“I have spent years conducting private dinners, but I have never had the chance to be a guest at one. I would like to experience an in-home private dinner from a local Kansas City chef, six glasses of wine deep with my loved ones all around me. Maybe someone can relay this message to my husband? My birthday is the day after Christmas.”
Keeyoung Kim | Chingu and Chingu Coffee
To give:
“Gifts I would give to aspiring home cooks starts with a pair of non-slip Birkenstock clogs, a good chef knife—one that looks cool, but is not too pricey—a kitchen towel set, and a Hedley & Bennett apron. A must read is The Flavor Bible, considered one of the most influential cookbooks of all time. I would also give a gift basket with the condiments I consider the fab five of Korean cooking—gochujang, doenjang, soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil. Finally, a set of J. Chang Kitchen chili oil and a couple bottles of my Sura Eats sauces, as I use these two things on everything.”
To receive:
“A reservation, gift card, and plane ticket to a sushi omakase experience, wherever is amazing outside of our hometown; all-expenses-paid culinary tour to Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore; or a cottage stay in a Napa vineyard. On the more practical side, more walk-in business for my restaurant, Chingu, and comfy pants to work in that fit nicely.”
Alejandra de la Fuente | Red Kitchen KC
To give:
“If money was no object, I would love nothing more than to be able to buy an apartment building for my employees to live rent-free. My mom is also in need of a new car, so that is also something I’d like to help her with this year.”
To receive:
“I want to launch my own line of salsas. I am working with Kansas City Canning Company on them now, and we are so close; I am so excited to see them on my shelves. I would also love to travel to Milan, Italy, where my best friend lives and where my favorite niece is getting married next year.”