Holiday Gift Guide 2012: Great Gifts for Food Lovers

By Kate Knibbs | December 18, 2012

For aspiring chefs and people who just love to eat, a great gadget is a priceless gift to transform the kitchen experience.

Holiday Gift Guide points you to the most appropriate phone picks for every lovely person in your life.

Best Phones for Foodies

When picking out a phone for someone who loves to cook, find a device that can stand up to a little mess and splatter, such as Samsung's Galaxy Rugby Pro. It's built to withstand exposure to water, dust and extreme temperatures, so it'll stand up to the splashing of cooking wine or flour, or if you leave it a little too close to the stove. And the mix of rubberized materials and hard sheathing make it easy to grip with one hand, so it won't slip out of your fingers while you're whisking up a tasty treat.

The 4-inch screen has a high-resolution display that's ideal when glancing at recipes. The 5-megapixel camera won't replace a point-and-shoot, but if you want to capture photos of your culinary masterpiece for a blog, it'll do in a pinch.

If you want a phone that doubles as a recipe storage unit and food camera, go with the Galaxy Note 2. It's not as hardy as the Rugby Pro, but the generous 5.5-inch screen will be easy to read if you're using it to display recipes.

What's more, by doodling with the "S Pen" stylus, you can easily annotate recipes and ingredients you find online. You'll also save the screen from getting splattered with globs of batter. It's a digital notebook as well as a phone, so great for if you're into collecting recipes. The 8-megapixel camera offers a tremendous collection of filters, so you can get the lighting just right and share pictures of your food.

Great High-Tech Food Tools

If you love to grill, get a tech-savvy gadget to your barbecue: iGrill. It turns your iPhone or Android device into a Bluetooth-enabled meat thermometer, making it easy to cook tasty meats to perfection. You can set an alert telling you when meat reaches an appropriate degree, ensuring it's not undercooked or burnt. It's fantastic for barbecue lovers who want to socialize while they prepare dinner.

Protecting Smartphones and Tablets in the Kitchen

A lot of people use iPads as kitchen tools, and if you are one of them, you risk ruining it when you leave it uncovered. Belkin's Kitchen Stand and Wand for tablets is an amazing solution. It holds a tablet at just the right angle to see even the tiniest-font of recipe, and the wand lets you scroll and search without dirtying the display with a doughy finger.

The stand works for most tablets, and it's hand washable, so you can cook without worrying about splatter.

If you're using a smartphone as a recipe guide, a protective case is key, like Lifeproof's iPhone case. Lifeproof cases are waterproof and keep an iPhone safe from sauces and marinades of all kinds.

Cooking Apps Galore

There's no shortage of food-related apps available for smartphones, but some are better than others. One of the best: Foodily, a recipe app with a social-media component. The app lets you share and swap recipes with ease, and offers several different cooking options based on favorites from award-winning chefs, popular bloggers and regular Joes. The diversity and breadth of the recipes is impressive, and yet the app isn't overwhelming or difficult to navigate.

And if you're looking for an app to make the most out of your pantry ingredients, give Gojee a look. The app helps you discover recipes from across the Internet, which you can select from ingredients in your kitchen. Have a giant hunk of Napa cabbage or way too many sausage links? It's an invaluable tool.

Agree or disagree? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Share your experience and leave a comment below. ♦