25 Fantastic Gifts For The Food Lovers In Your Life
Photo illustration by Aimee Nishitoba.
Not sure what to give the aspiring chef or the foodie who already has everything? We’ve got you covered. Whether it’s for the pandemic baker, zero-proofing a Zoom party, jazzing up a cookbook collection or adding one more time-saving toy for the kitchen, these gifts will inspire and keep the recipient — or yourself — well-fed.
CapaBunga Bread Cap
All the quarantine bread baking means there’s a lot of loaves to be eaten. Extend the life of your ciabatta or sourdough for up to five days with these silicon bread caps that protect the exposed ends of your cut boule from drying out while allowing the crust to breathe. $14.95 USD, capabunga.com.
Babbi Cremadelizia Pistachio Spread
Slathered liberally over bread, cake or enjoyed by the spoonful straight from the jar, this creamy and delicate spread is addictive. Made from toasted pistachios using artisanal methods in Emilia-Romagna, a dollop transports gelato and pastries to an unctuous and aromatic otherworldly level. $9.90, eataly.ca.
ANOVA Precision Oven
Known for bringing the sous vide immersion circulator to the general market, the company has now introduced pro-level combi oven cooking to the home kitchen. This countertop appliance uses app-enabled steam and convection heat to churn out restaurant-quality foods that retain their moisture, flavour and nutrients. Besides a juicy roast chicken with crispy skin, crusty sourdough boule, perfect omelette or snappy asparagus, it even makes rice and congee. $799, anovaculinary.com
CR Woodcraft Wood Chorreador
This handcrafted conversation piece is perfect for those who enjoy the meditative ritual of pour-over coffees. The traditional way of making coffee in Costa Rica, brews made using the easy to assemble device tend to be richer since the sock-like colander doesn’t strip the dripped coffee of its oils and flavours the way a paper filter used in similar gravity-dependent coffee drippers, like a V60 or Chemex, can. $65.09, amazon.ca.
Drinks by the Dram Whisky Holiday Calendar
The Christmas countdown gets a little more fun with this grown-up boozy advent calendar. Featuring award-winning small-batch whiskies from some of the top craft distilleries around the globe, the kit includes 24 hand-waxed 30ml drams packaged in graphic novel-style labels filled with industry inside jokes and puns. $199, lcbo.com.
Eat Something, by Evan Bloom and Rachel Levin
This cookbook doubles as a light-hearted scrapbook filled with nostalgic essays, family photos, illustrations, and more than 60 homey recipes from the Bay Area’s Wise Sons, a nationally-recognized deli. Divided into the events and celebrations that chronicle Jewish life through food, this fun and lively read is a must for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of Jewish cuisine and culture. $42.95, chapters.indigo.ca.
EZPZ Happy Mat and Bowl
These all-in-one placemat plates or bowls are a godsend to parents since they suction to the table, minimizing the possible mess as baby starts to navigate the world of big people foods. Available in a rainbow of colours and sizes. Starting at $19.95, well.ca.
Fellow Stagg EKG Electric Pour Over Kettle
For the perfect pour over coffee or cup of tea, look no further than this sleek and stylish kettle that soundlessly and synchronously heats water to your exact desired temperature, then holds it steady until it's turned off. Functional and elegant, it has a built-in stopwatch to time your extraction and comes in a host of colours and finishes that would look great on any countertop. $210, cafune.ca.
Flora Mānuka Honey
Valued for its antibacterial properties, New Zealand mānuka honey’s authenticity is guaranteed when the bottle is UMF-rated, meaning the product meets the strict quality criteria expected of licensed producers. Canadian company Flora works with Onuku, a sustainable, eco-friendly and Māori-owned honey operation to produce jars that are traceable back to the source. $79.50, well.ca.
Fly by Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp
This umami-packed condiment is more than a gateway food for the food curious: it’s a spicy, crunchy, and addictive pantry staple for anyone who loves flavour—and can even punch up a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Made with tribute peppers and er jing tiao chillies, a signature spice in Sichuan cuisine, the small-batch vegan chilli oil was the first premium Chinese food developed by Jing Gao, a Toronto-raised chef-entrepreneur who runs a US-based company that pays living wages. $20, flybyjing.com.
FoodSaver Multi-Use Food Preservation System
A useful gadget for the home cook who buys and cooks in bulk, this heat and vacuum sealer helps keep frozen foods fresh up to five times longer while preventing freezer burn. The system comes with various sized bags to get you started. $199, foodsaver.ca.
Forty Creek Nanaimo Bar Cream
The award-winning Grimsby distiller does it again with a whiskey cream that nods to the popular west coast dessert. Blooming with coconut aroma and laced with graham, chocolate ganache, custard and nut flavours, the well-balanced liqueur is not saccharine or overly creamy. Enjoy this 1950’s throwback straight on the rocks, in an Alexander-style cocktail or splashed into coffee. $29.99, fortycreekwhisky.com.com.
General Assembly Pizza Subscription or Gift Box
Give a box of North America’s favourite food in this convenient, heat-and-serve format from the world’s first pizza subscription service. The 10” pies require no kitchen preparation, come with a variety of crowd-pleasing toppings, and cook in 5 to 7 minutes. Gifts are delivered up until December 23 and come with a card designed by a local artist and an eco-friendly canvas General Assembly tote. Starting at $39, gapizza.com.
Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid
Making the most of the popular Canadian invention, Instant Pot’s air fryer lid turns the pressure cooker into a 6-quart air frying, broiling, baking, roasting and dehydrating machine. Easy to use and clean, the attachment is available as a standalone item or combined with the original device. $99.99, instantpot.com.
Kiin Cookbook by Nuit Regular
Beloved Toronto chef Nuit Regular takes readers on a trip through Thailand in this tribute to the home she grew up in, her family and passion for cooking. Through memories shared between 120 flavourful regional recipes and rich photography of sweeping landscapes and bountiful spreads, Kiin lets you traverse northern Thailand’s energetic markets, visit Regular’s home and be drawn to the explosion of flavours promised between the pages. $38, chapters.indigo.ca.
Kilne Knife Set
Upgrading your knife set without retail markups is made possible with these designed-in-Canada knives from the same co-founder that started Endy. Crafted from high-grade German steel, the 6-piece set includes four classic blades (chef knife, general-purpose Santoku, bread knife and paring), detachable kitchen shears and a sharpening steel in an attractive acacia wood block. Bonus: the handle’sergonomic design means the full tang blade can still be securely held even in wet hands. $190, kilne.com.
Mary Macleod Gluten-Free Shortbread
Leave it to Canada’s first artisanal shortbread company to craft an even more crowd-friendly line of their light and buttery handcrafted holiday staples. Taking 117 tries to perfect, Mary Macleod’s new gluten-free line is looser and sandier than the iconic melt-in-your-mouth cookie. Made from rice, almond and coconut flours they’re available in traditional or chocolate crunch. $10.75, marymacleod.com.
Ottolenghi Flavour Cookbook
Yotam Ottolenghi teams up with Ixta Belfrage for the bestselling author’s third instalment in the vegetable-focused Plenty series. Turning their eyes to the fundamentals of intuitive cooking, the book explains ways to coax the most flavour out of ingredients. Besides vibrant photography, the collection of more than 100 flavour-packed plant-based recipes proves that, once again, vegetables can be the headliner in every meal. $45 for a signed edition, chapters.indigo.ca.
The Outdoor Kitchen Cookbook by Eric Werner and Nils Bernstein
This is the ultimate guide for anyone looking to cook outside sans gas or electricity—which these days, is likely more of us. Award-winning chef Eric Werner of Hartwood in Tulum, Mexico partners with food and wine scribe Nils Bernstein in this ode to wood-fired cooking. Covering everything from setting up an outdoor kitchen to making foods beyond fire-licked meats – we’re talking sautéing, boiling, deep-frying and steaming – in 80 mouth-watering, foolproof recipes like grilled romaine with smoked fish dressing, chicken stock and smoked chocolate mousse. $47, chapters.indigo.ca.
Phantom Creek Wine Club
Discerning oenophiles have been anticipating the opening of this $100-million organic and biodynamic Okanagan winery. But it’s the exceptional estate-grown, limited production premium wines from historic vineyards made by an influential international winemaking team — Olivier Humbrecht MW, Philippe Melka and Francis Hutt — that has many clamouring to secure keepsakes or cellar-worthy bottles. It’s now possible via their wine club especially since B.C. wines rarely make it outside the province. Subscriptions start at $255, phantomcreekestates.com.
Søbrii 0-Gin
Made in Stratford, Ont. using classic gin botanicals — juniper, coriander, allspice, star anise and ginseng Canada’s first distilled alcohol-free spirit promises great taste without the negative consequences associated with alcohol. Containing no sweeteners, artificial flavours or calories, the small-batch non-alcoholic gin doesn’t compromise on taste. Also available with premium tonics in no-hassle cocktail kits. $35, sobrii.ca.
Tupperware CheeSmart Small Square
Know a turophile? Chances are they’ve got multiple cheese wedges and blocks that could benefit from proper storage. A temperature-controlled cheese cave might be out of reach, but this accessible solution helps preserve the taste and freshness of cheeses by retaining moisture levels while containing odours. $25, tupperware.ca.
Vitamix Food Processor Attachment
It’s like having your own sous chef able to finely chop, mince, mix, knead, shred and slice with the blender brand’s lauded speed and precision. Simply pop the 12-cup food processor attachment on the motor base from an Ascent or Venturist blender and watch your mise en place appear with the touch of a button. $259.95, vitamix.com.
Yamazaki Home Ladle & Lid Stand
A space-saving ladle and pot lid rest that’s made from powder-coated steel. Bonus: it doubles as a cookbook or tablet stand. $37, amazon.ca.
Flax Sleep Cuisine Collection’s Oversized Dinner Napkins
Remember those luxurious weighted linens that draped over our laps back when eating at restaurants was a thing? Designer, baker and author Jackie Kai Ellis has teamed up with women-led Flax Sheep to create a capsule collection of French flax kitchen linens, including dinner napkins large enough to cover more than one leg—or even be used as placemats. There’s even a sweet buttonhole detail that can be used on the shirtfront like the napkins from fine dining restaurants. Two for $48, flaxsleep.com.
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