The 7 Food Gifts That Everyone Will Love

There’s nothing sweeter this time of year, than an edible gift. Food gifts are the perfect choice for friends and family who already have everything they want or need. And, this selection of food gifts is so good that you may decide to give them to yourself.

Food as Art

Nick Cave x Eli’s Cheesecake Cuties

Renowned artist Nick Cave collaborated with Eli‘s Cheesecake to make a limited-edition set of (cheesecake) Cuties, the bakery’s popular, 1” x 1” cheesecake squares enrobed in chocolate.

Nick Cave is an artist educator working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums, including sculpture, installation, video sound, and performance, and now through Eli‘s Cheesecake.

The package contains two sets of five Cuties, each a different color, a different delicious flavor and a different symbol to communicate the message, “love, happiness, equality, and peace.” The flavors are vanilla, raspberry, lemon, chocolate-vanilla, and Dulce de Leche, (2 of each). The set is priced at $125.00 and includes overnight shipping. The inspiration for the Cuties is Cave’s new exhibition.

“Nick Cave: Forothermore” is an ode to those who, whether due to race, homophobia, or other forms of bigotry live their lives as “the other.” The exhibit was launched in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art and can be seen at the Guggenheim in New York City through April 10, 2023.

The colorful collaboration will benefit Nick Cave and Bob Faust’s Facility Foundation, a non-profit supporting young and underrepresented artists with scholarships, commissions and life-changing opportunities.

Superior Spices

Curio Spice Company

If you were looking for better spices, and better spice blends you need to look no further than Curio. The founder and blender-in-chief of Curio, Claire Cheney, is passionate about spices and the stories they tell and Curio was the result of her passion. Prior to opening Curio in 2015, in Cambridge, MA, she worked in coffee, chocolate and fine dining and held an unusual and maybe the coolest job in the restaurant business as a spice blender for Chef Ana Sortun at Sofra Bakery & Café.

I was especially impressed with the Chili Today which is Claire’s “better” version of chili powder. Chili powder is a staple in most homes and on the barbecue circuit, but one taste and you will switch to Curio’s version. It is cleaner, has more depth of flavor and is warm and rich. It includes ancho chilies, Urfa chili, long pepper, ginger and cinnamon in addition to the classic cumin, garlic, onion, paprika, and oregano.

For gift giving, I am particularly fond of the Preserved Lemon Kit which makes it easy to make your own preserved lemons. The Kampot & Salt is a year-round best seller and is made with a rare peppercorn from Southern Cambodia and Maine sea salt with a touch of ginger, lime and tarragon.

If you like exploring spices you can spend hours browsing through the website. And, if you are looking for an at-home spice exploration, consider the monthly subscription club called the Secret Spice Society. At $12 a month it’s a fun way to discover new spices and seasonings and a great gift to give.

Osmo Salt

Osmo Salt was co-founded by Chef Nick DiGiovanni and offers culinary salts of all kinds. If you aren’t familiar with the charismatic chef, Nick was a finalist on MasterChef season 10 and he’s one of the top food creators on TikTok.

He says, “ We need salt to cook anything. Foods doesn’t taste right without salt, and that’s when it hit me, we need to make seasoning more fun. Everybody likes to season in a different way. Some like original, some like spicy and some like smoky, and that’s why we created Osmo so you can season anyway you like.”

The salts are designed for topping, finishing, baking, grilling and curing—and for rimming glasses. The cocktail salts are what initially caught my eye, and I am partial to the Mango Chili Rimming Salt. There are three flavors of the fruity rimming salts, Grapefruit and Lime and Strawberry and Lime—in addition to the Mango. They are priced at $16.99 each or bundled with a professional glass-rimming tray for $59.99.

There is every kind of salt that you can think of on the website from basic kosher salt to white truffle salt from Sicily. The Flaky Sriracha Sea Salt, and the Roasted Garlic Sea Salt are two of my favorites for everyday cooking. If you’re a fan of everything bagel spice, they have a spicy everything bagel sea salt, as well as a classic everything bagel sea salt. If you are looking for a salty gift, you can’t go wrong with The Holiday Bundle which includes the new Rosemary Salt, my two favorites—Sriracha and Roasted Garlic—black sea salt and kosher salt priced at $76.99.

From the Land and the Sea

E3 Meat Company

There is nothing like a great steak or a slow-cooked barbecued beef rib. If you are looking for a special gift for your favorite carnivore, E3 Meat Company is your ticket. In fact, I first found out about E3 from friends on the barbecue circuit and there is a BBQ Cuts option on the website where you can find a delectable beef rib.

The cows are Black and Red Angus and are grass-raised, grain-finished and aren’t treated with antibiotics or steroids. The meat is hand-cut by the E3 master butcher and wet aged for 28 days before it is shipped out.

The beef rib is a must if you like smoking beef, and if you are looking to expand your grilling from steaks, burgers and dogs—although they sell those too, try any of the Butcher Cuts, including the bavette and something they call “Angus Wings” a.k.a. Korean Beef short ribs.

The ranch-to-table meat company was created from former Major League Baseball player, Adam Laroche at his wife, Jennifer’s six-generation family ranch in Ft. Scott, Kansas. When they had children, they wanted to make sure they were giving them healthy food. Adam wanted to know where his meat was coming from, so he started raising Black Angus steers. He raised them for himself, and for some teammates for years and shipped the meat to them. It didn’t take long before E3 meat was in demand and the business was born. Today E3 sells directly to consumers and has 2 restaurants in Nashville, TN, and Steamboat Springs, CO.

Sizzlefish.

Do you want to eat more seafood but find it difficult to buy high-quality sustainable seafood? These days, you can have fresh-frozen seafood delivered right to your door.

There are a number of companies that deliver seafood but Sizzlefish stands out. The team behind Sizzlefish worked to supply restaurants and hotels with premium seafood for 30 years before starting a home-delivery service.

You can choose from a large variety of wild fish and shellfish including Wild Alaskan King Salmon and Halibut, Yellowfin Tuna, Black Cod, Walleye as well as Shrimp, Scallops, Clams, Calamari, Dungeness crab and much more. Most of the fish and shellfish is wild, and the catfish, Atlantic salmon and Rainbow Trout are farm raised. There are also pre-marinated and prepared options like crab cakes. All of the fish and shellfish are vacuumed sealed in individual servings which makes it easy to cook for 1 or 2 without having to open up a large package and worry about it going bad.

My favorite thing about Sizzlefish is that they not only sell seafood by the type, but also sell it based on peoples lifestyle. If you look under the popular seafood assortment, you can buy seafood based on your diet. For example, they have a Paleo sampler, a Whole 30 compliant sampler, a light-eating sampler, and many more.

Baked

Olivieri 1882

It’s hard to believe that you can order a soft, airy, light, Panettone all the way from Italy, and have it taste “just baked” when you decide to slice it. This is what you get when you order a Panettone from Olivieri 1882.

Panettone is an Italian sweet bread that is typically an Italian Christmas dessert. It is tall and domed, and can be flavored with all kinds of things, including fruit, and nuts and chocolate—in fact there are 17 choices on the Olivieri 1882 USA website.

This year, Olivieri even teamed up with Carandini to make a Panettone with balsamic vinegar of Modena. The rich yellow cake is laced with balsamic cream and studded with balsamic-vinegar infused raisins. If that doesn’t strike your fancy, you can choose from an almost endless supply of flavors.

I am partial to the sour cherries, lemon and pistachio Panettone—it’s not the traditional Panettone, but if you like those ingredients, it’s perfect. The sour cherries, crunchy pistachios, and candied lemon are present but not overwhelming. It is still about the yeast bread as the texture is soft and the flavor is refined.

Even though this is a traditional Italian dessert, I think it would be a great breakfast pastry for any holiday celebration. Suggested retail is around $79.00

Wildgrain

Remember during the pandemic when you grew a sourdough starter and fed it everyday like a baby, and made bread a few times a week? Yep, I’m not ever doing that again. But I do love a great loaf of bread. Wildgrain bread box is as good or better than making it yourself.

Wildgrain is an artisanal bread and pasta subscription that comes par-baked and frozen. When you bake it, you have the most delicious fresh bread as if you were a world-renowned baker, but you baked it in 25 minutes!

It was the Slow-Fermented 3-Seed loaf that got me to sign up for a subscription. Each month the assortment changes, and in addition to the 3-Seed loaf, my other favorites are Sourdough, the Cranberry-Pecan Sourdough, the Walnut Sourdough and the Olive-oil Ciabatta—actually, I have loved all the ones that I’ve tried so far. Plus you get free croissants for life with every order now through December 31, 2022. And, they are really good croissants—like the best croissants you get in France, but hot from your oven.

Besides tasting great, it’s good for you too. The fermentation process used to make sourdough bread has unique benefits that make it healthy including the fact that fermentation breaks down most of the gluten so it’s easier to digest for those with gluten sensitivities. It’s also full of probiotics, and contains lactic acid to help your body absorb more nutrients.

You can send a gift box or a gift certificate, and you can choose between an all bakery box or a mixed bread and pasta box for $89.00. You decide the frequency of your box, and you can skip or cancel any time after your first order.