Jonathan Cheung's holiday gift guide to cookbooks and kitchen essentials

If anyone in Montreal knows what belongs in a home cook's kitchen, it's Jonathan Cheung. The chef and owner of Appetite for Books—the city's go-to cookbook shop and one of its best cooking schools—has spent over fifteen years cooking professionally, from classical French kitchens in Vancouver to his family's restaurants in Hong Kong.

These days, he's less about plating dishes and more about showing people how to make them, which means he's seen every kind of home cook walk through his door: the ambitious beginner, the dinner party show-off, the person who just wants to nail a roast chicken.

So we asked Jonathan to put together a holiday gift guide. Far from a list of pretty spines or trendy gadgets, these are books and tools he's used and watched people use to great effect: splattered with sauce, dog-eared to hell, and recommended to friends. These picks deliver.