8 gourmet gifts for your foodie friend

Coffee presses feel passe, and it can be a grind to find a gift that measures up to a gourmet’s gustatory goals. This year, do your foodie friend a favor and focus on big flavors, old favorites or just go for some high-frying fun.

DIAMOND PANS

Diamonds are more than merely best friends and the hardest naturally occurring substance on earth — they’re also terrific heat conductors (four times as effective as copper) and naturally non-stick. Each of Swiss Diamond’s Prestige Clad Fry Pans boasts more than 200,000 real diamond crystals. $129.95 to $269.95, swissdiamond.com

FLAVORED SYRUPS

We came for the name — how could we not love Runamok? — but stayed for the nine flavors of maple syrup, which include bourbon barrel-aged, pecan wood-smoked, cardamom-infused and hibiscus flower-infused. For a real sweetie, indulge in the Sugarmaker’s Cut. Gift sets of three, $64.95 to $74.95, runamokmaple.com

TRIPLE FRYER

Some of us still are frying (we are Americans, after all), and aren’t necessarily limiting ourselves to one fried food at a time. With the T-fal Triple Basket Fryer, you can fry your Italian grandma’s bow-tie cookies at the same time as your Swedish mother-in-law’s rosettes, or make more of one kind at once (to give away, of course!) $79.99, target.com

HERB CUTTER

Using a lot of herbs at this time of year? Let’s not mince words: This device makes it much easier. The Orbit Rolling Herb Cutter from Urban Trend lets you expertly chop fresh greens in no thyme. $19.99, bedbathandbeyond.com

INSTITUT PAUL BOCUSE GASTRONOMIQUE

With 720 pages and 1,800 photographs, the subtitle says it all: “The definitive step-by-step guide to culinary excellence.” Famed Chef Paul Bocuse shares his core culinary techniques and recipes — the same used to train legions of chefs for the last 25 years. $56, amazon.com

DROP SCALE

This clever cooking companion coordinates with an iPad app to expertly guide you through recipes, measurements, substitutions and conversions to make every dish deliciously perfect, every time. $79.95, surlatable.com

THE ESSENTIAL WOODEN SPOON

Sometimes the simple things make the biggest difference — like these elegant beechwood spoons from Chef Thomas Keller. Embellished with a Bouchon beach ball, Ad Hoc pig or classic The French Laundry clothespin, each has a clever corner for scraping every last bit of goodness from the bowl. $10 each, finessethestore.com

GROW YOUR OWN

Southern Nevada isn’t known for its lush gardening conditions, so if you want to make that food-to-table connection, consider something from Back to the Roots. The company, which says it’s on a mission to “undo food,” offers products such as Garden-in-a-Jar, with all you’ll need to plant basil, cilantro and mint. $27.99, backtotheroots.com