Great gifts for the food lovers on your list

Help the budding chef on your holiday list with primo tools, big and small, from mixers to fridges. Consumer Reports suggests the following:

Smeg 5-Quart stand mixer SMF01RDUS, $460. Smeg is best known for its retro-looking fridges, but the Italian manufacturer recently launched a line of equally mod small appliances, including a toaster, a blender and an electric kettle. Adding noteworthy performance to the high design, Smeg’s stand mixer snagged a spot on Consumer Reports’ winners’ list, thanks to its prowess at mixing large batches of cookie dough and whipping cream into stiff peaks. Throwback hues include pastel blue, cream, fire engine red and classic black.

Ronco Ready Grill RG1005BLGEN, $80. This vertical broiler uses two sets of heating rods to quickly cook food in a basket from both sides, kind of like a toaster. It has no temperature control, just heating elements that are on the whole time and a 30-minute timer that turns off the grill when time is up. Chicken wings, frozen fries and burgers were nicely browned and tasty but not smoky or grilled, and the Ready Grill cooked them faster than even a convection oven. Plus cleanup is a cinch.

Kenmore red food processor 414302, $75. A food processor is all about food prep, but if it’s going to stay out on the countertop, a bit of style doesn’t hurt. This Kenmore delivers on both counts, with its sleek design, colorful accents and capable chopping, slicing and shredding. Throw in a very competitive price, and this model is a great way to balance your holiday gift budget – don’t be surprised if the giftee thinks you spent a lot more.

Ninja Nutri Ninja Pro, $90. Personal blenders feature a smaller blending container that doubles as a travel cup – perfect if the giftee likes to take his or her morning smoothie on the go. Ninja’s version beat out the other half-dozen tested models by a wide margin, combining pureeing prowess with superior ice crushing. Like all personal blenders, the Ninja is best for low-impact tasks – say, making fresh fruit smoothies or mixing up a milkshake.

Ginsu Chikara, $75. Ginsu knives have come a long way since the name became synonymous with cheesy 1970s-era infomercials. For less than $10 per knife, this eight-piece set offers great value, providing the cutting performance and handle comfort of knife sets costing three to four times as much. The set includes a chef and santoku knife, but you’ll have to pay an additional $10 if you want a slicer.

Crock-Pot Smart Cooker With WeMo, $130. Slow cookers have maintained their appeal in our too-busy-to-cook lives. This model boasts some better-than-basic features, including a roomy 6-quart capacity, cool-touch handles and dishwasher-safe stoneware and glass lid. Plus, you can connect to it through an app on your smartphone, so if you’re stuck at your kid’s ballgame and need to turn down the heat on the evening jambalaya before the chicken turns to mush, you can do that.

Vizio E28h-C1, $180. This 28-inch television set is sure to please the family cook. It’s compact, has good high-definition picture quality and – unlike other sets this size – comes with a smart TV platform: Vizio’s Internet Apps Plus. That means you can quickly summon Alton Brown’s eggnog recipe from the Food Network’s online archives, enjoy your favorite holiday music via Pandora or, better yet, stream “Babette’s Feast” and steam broccoli at the same time.

Panasonic Inverter microwave NN-H965BF, $200. This mighty microwave has one of the largest usable capacities of all of the models in Consumer Reports’ tests. And it earned its top ratings for two of the most-important tasks – heating and defrosting. A sensor lets you know when food is perfectly cooked. It measures 14-by-24-by-20 inches and comes in black and white.

2015 Consumers Union Inc.