The toughest part of celebrating the holidays is zeroing-in on the perfect gift—even for the seemingly easy-to-please food enthusiast. While yours truly may never turn down a pair of oven mitts, not all food-folks actually like to cook. Foodies come with all different eating preferences, cooking interests, and experience levels. While one friend might be obsessed with food-themed clothing, another might have executive chef goals. There’s something in this list for every food fanatic—from the scientific or esoteric to the whimsical. Here are the best gifts to show love to the food enthusiast in your life this gifting season.
A cooking class
Let’s warm up this gift list with one of my favorites: a cooking class. Cooking classes are the kind of thing most chefs (both amateur and professional) look into doing, but would never invest in for themselves—a combination that makes for the perfect gift. One-time cooking classes can range from wine pairings to frying homemade doughnuts to learning how to sear the perfect steak. Often the class sizes are small, which means the instructor can help those who need more attention, catering to a range of skill levels.
I suggest checking out local culinary schools. The instructors are usually active or former professional chefs, and along with the professional programs, schools often offer public classes. I’ve always enjoyed the recreational programs at the Institute of Culinary Education: Check out their calendar here.
If an accredited cooking school is too formal (or unavailable), try something with a bit more soul like The League of Kitchens. With a focus on exploring cultural cuisine, The League of Kitchens offers classes like Persian Cooking Online or Japanese “Taste Of” Workshop. Some classes are in-person where folks travel to the instructor’s home to learn and cook, and some are online, which means you can access quality cooking instruction from anywhere.
An actual nice apron
You know what professional chefs and home cooks have in common? Neither person likes ruining their clothes. A good apron is always appreciated, and they don’t last forever. That means even if they have one in use right now, they’ll probably need a back-up soon. Try this 2-pack of the bib style apron for casual cooking at home, or a stylish yet comfortable chef’s coat from Hedley & Bennett for the professional at work.
A restaurant gift card (seriously)
It might sound basic, but a fully paid for meal at a restaurant you’ve been meaning to go to is a treat if I’ve ever heard of one. This is the sort of gift that spans the spectrum; it’s perfect for the foodie who hates cooking, or the one who needs a break from always cooking. Then there are the folks who are real restaurant-heads. Maybe they dabble in cooking but really they just love to keep a list of all the latest openings and a tally of their conquests. Look for the newest hot restaurant openings in their nearest metro area, book a reservation (in a clever way, so you know they can make it), get the gift card, and get them the gift of being trendy and well fed.
The Taco Bell SOS kit
If you’re current on Taco Bell news (like a respectable adult), you already know this kit is a “fire” item. The $7.99 SOS kit was intended for college students who don’t have a Taco Bell nearby to fuel their studies, but the kits sold out in record time earlier this month, which tells me that there are more than just college students who miss the smell of liquified cheese and spiced meat.
The fast-food chain is hopefully replenishing stock soon, and when they do, you should grab two—one for your Taco Bell obsessed friend (we all have them), and one for yourself. Each kit has four full bottles of their delicious hot sauces—Diablo, Fire, Hot, and Mild—two boxes of taco shells, powdered seasonings, and a stain-resistant sheet. Yes: It’s purple and pink, there are tacos on it, and it’s the honest admission that you need a drop cloth when you eat this.
The Hot Ones hot sauce challenge kit
It only takes watching one episode of Hot Ones to be convinced that you’d do great on Hot Ones. That means eating 10 chicken wings each doused with 10 increasingly intense hot sauces. Oh, and then answering questions under the physical and emotional stress of your body addressing the unnatural amount of capsaicin it’s dealing with.
The Hot Ones 10-pack is the absolute best gift for the hot sauce lover, wing lover, or Hot Ones fan in your life. Even if you’re pretty sure they bought themselves a kit, they probably didn’t buy all of them. Choose from 10 packs from the most recent seasons, or build your own flame fest with specific trios from a combination of seasons; the interview questions you’ll have to provide yourself.
S’mores extendable skewers
Oddly, s’mores opportunities pop up more than you might think they would, and almost everyone loves them. Whether it’s for the hiker-camper cooking over a campfire or the snack-lover warming marshmallow over the kitchen stove, telescoping skewers make s’more easier to indulge in year-round. The extendable skewer is a boon to making s’mores comfortably. Simply pull the prong-end away from the handle to reach full extension, and plug one or two marshmallows onto the points. Then you can roast from a safe distance without tiring out your shoulder, or feeling the heat on your hands.
These skewers are great for using in any s’more situation, but are especially valuable for the outdoorsy cook. I got a set for my brother when he bought an outdoor fire pit, but he and his family also frequently go camping. He’s used them for roasting marshmallows and sausages.
Bee’s wrap
Plastic wrap is a common instance of waste in both the home and professional kitchen. For the sustainable chef looking to reduce their reliance on the stretch plastic, give the gift of Bee’s wrap. This is a washable, reusable wrap made of bee’s wax coated cotton fabric. The cotton is flexible while the wax coating seals the fabric, making it waterproof and bacteria resistant. Simply use the heat from your hands to press the wrap onto a glass bowl of leftovers, or press it against itself to wrap up half of the bell pepper you didn’t use. The wax will warm up and gently cling to surfaces for temporary storage, so they can use less single-use plastic wrap.
Celebs on sandwiches art print
Do you think your favorite foodie has it all? They might not have sandwich art yet. Celebs on Sandwiches is watercolor art featuring exactly what it says—your favorite celebrities lounging on sandwiches. Usually it’s a sandwich that is applicable to them in some current way or a clever pun, like Freddy Mercury with a shrimp po’ boy, or Taylor Swift with a chicken tender and “seemingly ranch.”
These prints are excellent for just about anyone, because we all have our favorite celebrities, and the sandwiches add a whimsical touch that always inspires a smile. Look for a celebrity that your food enthusiast loves, or check out the chefs collection.
Food fashion
For the professional chef or foodie who enjoys a splash of self expression, get them a bit of food fashion. You can be practical, with a professional chef’s hat from Hedley & Bennett, or something a tad less serious like a Christmas-y red velour jumpsuit from the popular tomato sauce company Rao’s Homemade, bedazzled with those very words on the back. If neither of those seem right for Christmas, you can always browse around for something that makes more sense, like this adult pineapple onesie.
Anova combi steam oven
As far as kitchen gear goes, this is the ultimate gift in kitchen appliances: The Anova combi steam oven provides the powerful and speedy convection you love from a countertop air fryer, but with a steam injection feature. Instead of just adding a pan of water to make sourdough loaves, now your giftee can actually control the level of humidity for baking bread or lower for roasting carrots without drying them out. This is an incredible gift for the food scientist in your life to properly geek-out.
An international food magazine
I get my best ideas from flipping through food magazines—specifically, ones from other countries in languages I can’t read. While you don’t have to go that far, a subscription to an international food magazine is an exciting gift for the cook who enjoys exploring a wider food experience. The pictures are always phenomenal, and the dishes will likely inspire new flavor combinations or cooking techniques to try. Most of the time, I’ll experiment with dishes in my own way, but if there’s a recipe I’m set on duplicating, I’ll use the Google Translate app with the camera to help me go over the measurements and key words.
Meal Kit Subscriptions
Meal kit subscriptions are an excellent gift for the beginner chef, the first-apartment experiment, or the time-crunched family member who loves cooking but doesn’t have time to shop. You can choose how many kits you want per month, your dietary preferences, and usually exactly how much cooking you want to be doing (ready-to-microwave, or shaping burger patties). Blue Apron has an enormous list of options so you can narrow it down to exactly what your food enthusiast needs.