By Mari Uyehara
Almost everyone claims to love food, but some people take it to the next level. Maybe they’re the type to plan a trip to Tokyo around a highly curated list of yakitori, sushi, and natural-wine spots. Or perhaps they wax poetic about cucina povera while making an incredible three-ingredient sauce with tomatoes from their own garden.
Whatever the case, these are the people who deeply believe that the dining table is where life happens—and they already have their kitchen basics covered. To that end, we’ve rounded up some delicious, good-looking, and offbeat gifts sure to surprise and delight a food obsessive, from a gorgeous little yuzu tree to a serious outdoor pizza oven.
Your giftee may be set with All-Clad skillets, a Dutch oven, and a Vitamix blender. But if you’re looking for more food and drink ideas, check out our favorite food gift baskets, our top picks for cocktail-themed gifts, and our best ideas for coffee lovers.
Spanish snacking
Take the apps off your favorite dinner-party thrower’s hands with the Deluxe Tapas Starter Sampler from La Tienda, one of the US’s premier Spanish-food importers. It features 10 exceptional, shelf-stable noshes, with two tender logs of chorizo (including an Ibérico variety), silky fire-roasted piquillo peppers, Ines Rosales torta crisps, plump manzanilla olives stuffed with mild anchovies, and more. Our one complaint is that the company notes that it may substitute products of equal value, and we were a little bummed when candy-coated almonds came instead of the listed Rabitos Royale chocolate fig bonbons (presumably due to the meltingly hot weather at the time). Other great La Tienda samplers include the smaller and less expensive Tapas Classics Gift Box and the pricier, cold-packed Bestsellers Gift Box, which offers three cheeses along with other goodies.
