for anyone who loves to cook, pretty much every utensil/kitchen nik-nak is essential.
one that sticks out in mind that is often forgotten though, is the egg slicer. not a necessity but it is SO nice to have when you're making something that uses a lot of hard boiled eggs, like egg salad or potato salad. they really need to run with this idea and make an onion slicer/dicer that does the same thing to cut down on all the boo-hooing while cutting onions.
also, on the subject of garlic presses, i chop A LOT of garlic and have always gotten by without one. i got my mom a nice one a while ago and she says it jams up a lot with garlic gook. so i have officially crossed that off my kitchen wishlist.