The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science
32 Excellent Food Gifts for Everyone On Your List
The best kitchen and food gifts this holiday season are the ones that the home chefs, eaters, and snackers in your life will use day after day. Depending on their individual tastes, that could mean parading around in their sturdy new apron, finding constant inspiration from a gorgeous cookbook, or expanding their palate with a variety of different spices and seasonings.
So, to help you find the pitch-perfect present for anyone you know who enjoys a good meal, we've assembled a list of food gifts (plus some food-adjacent gifts and stocking stuffers) that are sure to fit the (restaurant) bill. Read on to browse meal kits, drink sets, specialty cookware, and more—then be sure to order sooner rather than later, as there are already widespread shipping delays and many retailers have a shipping deadline of December 15.
All products featured on SELF are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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Brightland
For the Person Who Finishes Every Dish With a Drizzle of EVOO: Brightland The Artist Capsule (Set of Four)
Eye-catchingly pretty on the pantry shelf and lip-smackingly good on first taste, this trio of California-made infused olive oils will bring even the blandest hunk of bread to life. The only difficulty will be choosing which one to sample first: lemony Lucid, chili-based Ardor, or basil-driven Arise.
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Material Kitchen
For the Person Who Eats by Grazing: Material Kitchen The (Mini) ReBoard
When home-cooking fatigue sets in, carrot sticks, hummus, and some stinky-in-a-good-way lumps of cheese make a fine meal in and of themselves. And for humble charcuterie-board-style dinners like that, these pastel-colored mini cutting boards from one of our favorite eco-conscious brands, Material Kitchen, are the perfect size.
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Ban.do
For the Person Who Wants to Save the Earth and Their Leftovers: Bando Reusable Floral Food Wraps (Three-Pack)
Peace out, plastic wrap! These reusable beeswax food wraps have about 100 uses in each of them, meaning your eco-conscious friend will get to enjoy them (and their fun, floral prints) for many, many rounds of leftovers to come.
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Amazon
For the Person With Pitmaster Aspirations: Rodney Scott's World of BBQ by Rodney Scott and Lolis Eric Elie
From spare ribs and wings to hush puppies and banana pudding, this book from James Beard Award–winning grill master Rodney Scott is a veritable tome on all things seasoning, grilling, and barbecuing.
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Our Place
For the Person Who Needs More Kitchen Space: Our Place Always Pan
If the one-pot-meal maker in your life somehow doesn't have an Always Pan already, you're about to change their life. This all-in-one single piece of cookware can sauté, fry, steam, and stand in for a traditional saucepan, with a built-in spoon rest to boot, and it just happens to look great while doing it all.
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Food52
For the Person Who Prefers Screen-Free Games: Piecework Modern Jigsaw Puzzle (Rise & Shine)
Puzzles are the perfect source of respite, and this splashy 1,000-piece breakfast scene will help your favorite puzzler slow down and smell the bagels, so to speak. And after they're done, it'll make a damn tasty wall hanging too.
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Great Jones
For the Person Who's Never Cried Over Spilled Milk: Great Jones Party Towel (Set of Two)
These vibrant, playful towels make clear who's the boss in the kitchen. They're the result of a collaboration between Great Jones and Meena Harris's Phenomenal, which, come to think of it, is exactly how we'd describe the limited edition set.
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MoMA Design Store
For the Person Who Lives at the Farmers Market: Wire Mesh Bowl
These striking bowls are ideal for cradling winter citrus, radicchio, or an array of artisanal squashes. But their uses don't stop there: They're also great for displaying holiday chocolates, storing car keys and knickknacks, or wearing as a hat and calling it fashion, sweetie.
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Baggu
For the Person Who Picnics: Baggu Wine Bags (Three-Pack)
These adorable reusable bags are so cute that the recipient won't mind lugging wine to the park. Each bag folds into its own flat pouch, and is perfectly sized to fit olive oil, a water bottle, kombucha, and more. Also a fun idea: Use them to wrap your holiday gifts!
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Omsom
For the Person Who Travels With Their Taste Buds: East Asian Omsom Sampler
Omsom's clever, SELF-approved starters make it easy to experience bold, spicy Asian flavors at home. These East Asian starter pouches contain two sauce sachets for each dish—Yuzu Misoyaki, Korean Spicy Bulgogi, and Chinese Mala Salad—which can be added to proteins of your choice, giving you a fresh meal in under 30 minutes flat.
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Great Jones
For the Person Who Makes a Perfect Cuppa: Great Fellow Kettle
This is essentially the iPhone of electric kettles: Aesthetically sleek and technologically powerful, the Fellow toggles between Celsius and Fahrenheit, its gooseneck spout offers a steady and precise pour, the heating element boils water quickly and holds temp for 60 minutes, and the variable temperature control spans 135°F to 212°F. It now comes in this limited-edition broccoli and mustard color as part of a collaboration between Fellow and Great Jones.
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Universal Yums
For the Person Who Craves Variety: Universal Yums
From Czech caraway pretzels to Taiwanese bubble tea popcorn, Universal Yums keeps subscribers flush with tasty, fascinating snacks from around the world every month. Depending which subscription box plan you choose to gift, and how big their pantry is, your favorite snacker can receive as many as 20 types of snacks per month.
Cost: Boxes of five to seven snacks start at $15 per box; 10- to 12-snack boxes start at $25 per box; and 18- to 20-snack boxes start at $38 per box.
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Amazon
For the Person Who Never Orders In: Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food by Julia Turshen
Featuring make-ahead dishes, weeknight dinners, and one-pot meals, this book by New York Times best-selling cookbook author Julia Turshen was made for anyone who wears the title of "home cook" like a badge of honor.
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Ghia
For the Person Who's Sober Curious: Ghia Nonalcoholic Apéritif
Ghia's tagline—"All of the spirit, none of the booze"—pretty much sums up its Mediterranean-inspired bitter aperitivo. It's free of alcohol and fake stuff, but full of biting, botanical flavors. It's excellent on the rocks, topped up with seltzer, or even mixed into an alcoholic drink.
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Etsy
For the Person in a Long-Term Relationship With Pasta: Delicacies Jewelry Rotini Pasta Necklace
After consuming bowl after pesto-laden bowl of pasta, it's high time the rotini enthusiast in your life made it official and wore their devotion to carbs with pride and in style. Doughnut lovers and herbivores needn't feel left out—this food-focused brand has jewelry for every type of foodie (plus, many more types of pasta, from ravioli to rigatoni).
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Food52
For the Person Who Adores Ina Garten: Food52 x Dansk Kobenstyle Saucepan (Two-Quart)
This is one of those beautifully made pieces that'll make anyone look and feel like the Barefoot Contessa herself. The wooden handle of this Scandinavian-style saucepan is heatproof, meaning they'll never scald a hand grabbing hot metal. And the lid doubles as a trivet, so they can take that spaghetti al limone from stovetop to tabletop without dirtying extra dishes. So rustic! So Puglia!
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Avec Drinks
For the Person Who Can Never Decide What to Order: Avec Drinks Sampler (Three-Pack)
These colorful cans are like seltzer that has grown up and gone to culinary school. Each flavor features thoroughly unique and adult flavors, such as yuzu, hibiscus, blood orange, and jalapeño, that taste great straight up or with a nip of your favorite booze. They're also made from real fruit juice, with no added sweeteners.
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Amazon
For the Person Who Wore Out Their Copy of Cravings: The Pepper Thai Cookbook: Family Recipes From Everyone's Favorite Thai Mom by Pepper Teigen and Garrett Snyder
Chrissy Teigen's Instagram followers are already familiar with her mother's home-cooking acumen, and with this book, they have the chance to re-create Pepper Teigen's family-favorite recipes, like fried chicken larb and Thai beef jerky, in their own home.
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MoMA Design Store
For the Person Who Hasn't Quit Kindercore: Bodum Caffettiera French Press
This Italian-made color-contrasted French press is both gorgeous and useful. The bold design will brighten any morning, and this model produces a rich, full-bodied cup without much effort; dump in some grounds, cover 'em with hot water, and plunge after a few minutes. È perfetto!
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Great Jones
For the Person Who Binges GBBO: Great Jones Fully Baked Set
If the baker in your life owns only sheet pans caked in stuck-on bits of brownies and chocolate chips, it's time for an upgrade. This colorful ceramic-coated set of seven pieces of high-quality hued bakeware (including one sheet pan, one casserole dish, one pie plate, two loaf pans, and two cake pans) will be a major step up in both the form and function department.
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Amazon
For the Person Who Hosts Movie Night: W&P Microwave Silicone Popper Maker
Corn kernels consistently pop to movie-theater perfection in this collapsible, microwavable silicone popcorn maker. Drizzle with EVOO, sprinkle with salt and some Parmesan, and bagged popcorn is sure to be a snack of the past.
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Sur La Table
For the Person Who Wants to Branch Out From Maldon Salt: Bitterman's Black Truffle Salt
Food lovers who crave a one-two punch of salinity and earthiness in their dishes will devour this (budget-friendly) gourmet food gift of Italian sea salt infused with luxurious black truffles. Make sure they try it on their eggs (or popcorn!).
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Haus
For the Person Who Loves a Low-Key Cocktail: Haus Ginger Yuzu Apéritif
This delightfully zippy apéritif sits squarely between wine and liquor, both in terms of flavor and alcohol content (18%). Made with yuzu, ginger root, and lemongrass, it's aromatic and delicious neat, on the rocks, or topped up with tonic or seltzer. As one shopper writes: "Not too sweet, just the right amount of ginger. Cheers!"
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Uncommon Goods
For the Person Who's Craving Comfort Food: Indian Biryani Rice Dinner Kit
All the necessary spices for a warm, aromatic bowl of biryani (plus, of course, a hefty bag of basmati rice) come in a gorgeous pouch made from a repurposed sari in this kit from Uncommon Goods. The recipient just needs butter, onion, and any veggies or meat they have in the fridge to complete their meal.
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Food52
For the Person Who Runs the Grill at the BBQ: Everdure Cube Portable Charcoal Grill
Holding court over the grill is a time-honored tradition, one that some natural-born grill masters may miss out on if they don't have the space for a big Weber. Enter the Everdure Cube, a compact charcoal grill that your BBQ bud can tote wherever they please. It even comes with a cutting board to make kebab prep easy as pie.
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Williams Sonoma
For the Person Who Dreams of Corner Delis: Farm Steady Everything Bagel & Cream Cheese Kit
Living outside New York City can mean scrounging and searching for a worthy everything bagel and schmear, so why not take a stab at re-creating the deli classic at home? This DIY kit comes with all the supplies a bagel fiend will need to bake, dress, and serve a fresh everything bagel with cream cheese.
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Amazon
For the Person Whose Weeknight Go-To Is Stir-Fry: Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker
This beloved Japanese rice cooker makes perfect rice with the push of a button, and more than 7,900 Amazon reviewers who gave it five stars agree. Thanks to the triple heating elements, the rice is heated from the bottom, side, and top of the cooker, which makes for consistently fluffy grains—the kind that beg to be drizzled with soy sauce and topped with a fried egg.
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Dada Daily
For the Person Who Dreams of Running a Bar: Ta-Dada Cocktail Party in a Box
This gift box from healthy-snack moguls Dada Daily can either say "I miss you" or "I'm coming over later," depending on your proximity to the recipient. It includes a quirky hand candle, cheesy cauliflower popcorn, honey-glazed cocktail nuts, and a box of dark chocolate truffles for an evening of at-home luxuriating.
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Golde
For the Person Who Runs on Tea: Golde Make Your Matcha Kit
The folks at Golde have compiled all the essentials for an excellent, at-home matcha experience: a traditional bamboo whisk and their Pure Matcha mix. For an instant latte, just add (any) milk and repeat after us: Better days are coming our way.
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Food52
For the Person Who Wants to Upgrade Their PB&J Sandwiches: Kerber's Farm Homemade Jam (Set of Four)
Artisanal jams like strawberry rhubarb and autumnal apple come jarred (in alluringly quaint packaging, no less) and ready to enjoy in this gift set from Kerber's Farm in Huntington, New York. As part of Food52's All for Farmers Market (done in partnership with Tillamook), 10% of the proceeds from every purchase of this jam set goes to support farmers around the country.
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One Stripe Chai
For the Person Who's Cutting Down on Their Coffee Runs: It's Haldi, Doodh! Turmeric Latte Blend
This peppery blend features single-origin heirloom turmeric from Diaspora Co., freshly ground organic black pepper, and organic cinnamon. With a little honey and hot milk, it's the ray of sunshine everyone needs.
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Amazon
For the Person Who Never Misses Brunch: All-Clad Belgian Waffle Maker
"This is the waffle maker of my dreams," says reviewer Kirstin. "It makes crisp, fluffy, golden waffles that are just the best." All of that is due to the machine's impressive specs: There are seven different browning settings to accommodate every preference, the fancy steam-release function keeps outsides crispy and insides soft and spongy, and the LED light indicates when to pour and when to remove.
Ali Francis is an Australian writer and editor covering food, wellness, mental health, and personal growth. Her bylines appear in Bon Appètit, Domino Magazine, and Vogue—among others. She loves surfing, but is more likely to be found staring into her fridge in Brooklyn.
Sara Coughlin is a writer living in Brooklyn, NY, interested in skin care, health, and wellness.
SELF does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional.
The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science
Source: https://www.self.com/gallery/best-food-gifts
Posted by: smithsamphy.blogspot.com

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