Mother's Day

Lisa McManus’ Top Five Mother’s Day Gifts

Treat your mother with one of these high-end tools—or some delicious high-end EVOO.

By America's Test Kitchen | May 10, 2017

In anticipation of Mother’s Day, we decided to celebrate mothers all week at America’s Test Kitchen. Today our resident gadget expert and the executive editor of our Tasting and Testing team, Lisa McManus, who’s tested thousands of products over the years, lists five of the best high-end gifts to give or receive on Mother’s Day.

Lisa's Top-5 Mother's Day Gifts

1. Our Favorite KitchenAid Slow Cooker: Pair it with a mani/pedi gift certificate. The slow cooker can make dinner while mom is out getting pampered. (It’s the ultimate in hands-off cooking.) [Read Our Review | Buy on Amazon]
2. Our Winning Hybrid Chef's Knife by Masamoto: The Masamoto gyuto is an amazing, wickedly sharp, lightweight and agile knife that makes me feel like I have the knife skills of Jacques Pépin. Your mom deserves a knife this good. She might even let you use it sometimes. Maybe. [Read Our Review | Buy on Amazon]
3. Vitamix 5200 Blender: This thing can make smoothies, hummus, pestos, nut butters, and most important, frozen drinks for summer. It's a big ticket item, but your mom is worth it, right? p.s. Please pass this note to my kids. [Read Our Review | Buy on Amazon]
4. Oxo Electric Kettle: Because for some reason the sight of water boiling in a glass kettle is totally mesmerizing and relaxing, plus this kettle is fast, easy to use, and very useful in the kitchen, whether you're making tea or pour-over coffee, or blanching something. [Read Our Review | Buy on Amazon]
5. Our Favorite High-End Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Gaea Fresh: Really great, fresh, high-quality olive oil wakes up the flavor of everything you use it in. This is a medium-robust olive oil from Greece, with plenty of olive fruitiness and bright, lightly peppery flavor. It's terrific as a dip for crusty bread, drizzled over grilled fish or meat, in salad dressings, and on warm beans. So, so good. [Read Our Review | Buy on Amazon]