The journal · · 4 min
A gift guide for people who cook over fire
Skip the gadget shelf. The fire cooks we know want a real rake, a long spoon, a year of good wood, and one restaurant night they did not cook themselves.
Every December someone asks what to buy the person who cooks over fire. The honest list is short, cheap at one end and generous at the other, and none of it comes from the gadget aisle: fire cooks want tools that survive, fuel that is ready, and one great dinner nobody expects them to cook.
The under-fifty list
A real coal rake, welded not riveted. A spoon longer than the forearm. A dozen lake-salt caramels if you can find them, and heavy leather gloves that fit, because the fireplace-store ones fit nobody. Ren would add: a bench scraper, for reasons that only make sense at one in the morning.
The generous end
A cord of seasoned birch, delivered and stacked, is the best gift a fire cook can receive and the least romantic to wrap. A gift card to the restaurant where somebody else feeds them runs a close second; ours are on the gift cards page and never expire, because expiry dates on gifts are a tax on affection.
What not to buy: anything with a dial that promises to make fire predictable. The unpredictability is the hobby.
Hungry now? The board is chalked at 4.