Foodie Alert: The Ultimate Food Lovers Holiday Gift Guide

The BEST Gifts for the Foodies on your list!

Here is the ultimate Christmas List for the Foodie, Food Lover or Chef this season. These are the best of the best goodies for cooking, entertaining or presenting as host gifts for those with discriminating tastes (like you)! So here are my favorite finds for an unforgettable Gourmet Gift plus a few ideas for putting together a personalized Holiday Gift Basket.

Monthly Food Delivery Subscriptions and Food Gift Certificates
A monthly subscription from a place like ButcherBox or a gift certificate from NYC's Fulton Fish Market means the recipient will get premium grass fed, free range meats and fresh seafood delivered to their door year round. These services were once only available to professional chefs but now ship to anyone. I posted some wonderful menu ideas for these food delivery services HERE. Visit them online at ButcherBox.com and FultonFishMarket.com

Add a few grilling accessories like these from Charcoal Companion.

Fulton Fish Market's Halibut in Parchment. Convection Microwave & Grill by Cuisinart

Holiday Gift Guide: Sweet Christmas Presents from Godiva and Crabtree & Evelyn!

Holidays are extra special with tasteful gifts. Godiva Signature Truffles just arrived at my house!

What do you give the person who has everything? Well, if they've not been naughty but nice, think about giving a "foodie" gift this year. You don't have to know their shoe size or favorite color. Just hit them with these sumptuous goodies:

Godiva Signature Truffles are a chocolatier's work of art!

Godiva Chocolates
These are always welcome at my house. You can even sign up online for the Godiva Rewards Club and get a free Truffle each month at their store. That way you sample what you like and order your favorites. This collection of 36 Signature Truffles are the best of the best and include their most delicious pieces:

• Dark Vanilla Mousse Truffle
• Chocolate Lava Cake Truffle
• Butterscotch Walnut Truffle
• Dark Chocolate Truffle
• Cappuccino Truffle

Tea Time! Crabtree & Evelyn's new collection of food gifts, the Kensington Hamper Petite

Crabtree & Evelyn Fine Food Gifts
This new line of fine food gifts comes from Crabtree & Evelyn of London. The Kensington Hamper Petite is the perfect gift for those who enjoy a delicious cup of English tea and biscuits. Strap this little perfectly sized hamper to the rear rack of your bicycle and you're off to the park for a light lunch!

"Have yourself a proper tea party on the green with our Kensington Hamper Petit. Contained within this handsome little basket are all the preserves, biscuits, sweets and of course English tea that makes any lazy afternoon a true delight."

• English Breakfast Tea (50g)
• Lemon and White Chocolate Biscuits (200g)
• Double Chocolate Chip Biscuits (200g)
• Raspberry Preserve (227g)
• Breakfast Marmalade (227g)
• Striped Humbugs (200g)
• Biscuits contain gluten, milk, soya  and wheat 
• Striped Humbugs contain milk and soya
• May contain traces of nuts

The Raspberry Preserves are delicious on scones too!

Crabtree & Evelyn Christmas Pudding Biscuits
What we call "cookies" the English call biscuits and some very old companies still retain that tradition such as the Uneeda Biscuit Co.or Nabisco. If you really want to harken someone back to days of Yuletide cheer, gift them a tin of Christmas Pudding Biscuits. It's a lot easier than making Yorkshire Pudding and ships better too. Visit Crabtree & Evelyn Online to see more from this exquisite collection:

Crabtree & Evelyn's Christmas Pudding Biscuits and tea

Gift Hamper & Biscuits c/o Crabtree & Evelyn, London

Taste de Italia: DeCecco and Amoretti

DeCecco pastas, olive oil and pesto all offer a unique glimpse into authentic Italian cuisine.

I can remember growing up in the NYC/Metro Area and visiting with friends and family living within the five boroughs. My aunt lived next door to Italian immigrants who shared their age-old cooking secrets and ingredients with her. As a result, her pasta dishes always tasted SO much better than my Mom's (sorry)! Auntie shopped where they did, used the same ingredients and therefore got results equal to her Italian neighbors. Starting with the pasta...there IS a difference.

DeCecco de Italia Rigatoni, Olive Oil and Pesto
This Italian based company makes everything you could possibly need to pull off authentic Italian cuisine. Most everyone has had baked Rigatoni or Ziti. Well, you only THINK you have.  DeCecco's is the first Certified Pasta which means it has the selection of the best durum wheat which gaurantees a greater firmness of the pasta while cooking. I've found this to be true. In the dish below, I cooked the DeCecco Rigatoni No. 24 until al dente for about 11 minutes. I baked it in the oven afterwards and it still retained a great deal of pleasant firmness while expanding to absorb the flavors of the sauce. A teaspoon of their Pesto and a drizzle of their Extra Virgin olive Oil made with only Italian olives garnishes the plate.

DeCecco Rigatoni with tomato sauce, sausage and mozarella cheese.

Works with Seafood
The sky is the limit with what you can do with pasta but the true test is how well it blends with the delicate flavors of shellfish and other seafood offerings. Heavier flavored fish such as salmon can handle most sauces but clams and oysters require more delicate nuances like white wine. 

My favorite Sewansecott Clams and hot Cherry and Poblano peppers.

DeCecco Angel Hair
With seafood, I prefer a lighter mouthful of pasta so I prefer to add my clams and oysters to the thinner Angel Hair Pasta. It's cooks up perfectly in only 2 minutes as it is made by a traditional processing method of slow drying at low temperatures. No gummy or sticky texture. Just perfection. Here it is with these same clams only they have been steamed first.

DeCecco Angel Hair with Sewansecott Clams in a red sauce.

Give the Gift of Good Taste
One of the things that I like to do is to give a gift basket of some of my favorite foodie things to friends and family. You can make up a Taste of Italy Inspired Basket by filling it with pasta, herbs, sauces, Parmigiano cheese and olive oil. An Italian man once told me, "If you got a jar of sauce and a box of pasta you've got a meal!"
Very true. I add our garden fresh eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and squash to my sauces for a super nutritious serving of beta carotene and vitamin C. Make your own gift basket or select a set from California based Amoretti for a tasteful holiday present.

Amoretti makes organic infused oils packaged in Gift Sets for the holidays. Pictured here are their Organic Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar & EVO, Pure Organic Kalamata EVO and Premium Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar.