What to gift people who love food
A good present says ‘I got you’ more than it says ‘I got you this’.
When I was about five, my eldest sister sent a huge box of Christmas presents home from London. I got a wind-up mouse and I remember lots of little tins of those intensely flavoured Italian sweets dusted in icing sugar. The most excitement, however, was centred around mum’s present: a Magimix.
My sister was working at Divertimenti, a shrine to kitchenalia on Marylebone High St, where she was demonstrating these revolutionary new devices. It was the perfect gift for someone who liked to cook (and for a family who liked to eat). I’ll wager we were the only household in a 200km radius with such a device, since food processing in the south Waikato was more about freezing works or dairy factories than French culinary tools. We were all entranced by it, even my father, who probably seldom operated it but admired its precision engineering. That Magimix lasted decades (and sparked a longstanding, long-distance family love affair with Divertimenti, but that’s another story).
I got my own Magimix about 30 years after that Christmas. It was tough convincing my husband that it was what I really wanted. He’d grown up working in his family’s hardware store, where as a teenager he’d spend the days before December 25 convincing grown men that they should NOT buy their wives an electric knife or other kitchen appliance. “If it plugs in, don’t buy it” was his mantra. (For the most part, this is solid advice that also applies to Mother’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries and most other gifting opportunities unless the recipient has explicitly asked for the appliance in question.)
Whatever the season, a lot of food-adjacent gifts are depressingly heavily gendered; barbecue tools and manly hot sauces for men, aprons and ‘amusing’ fridge magnets about wine for women. If you feel desperate enough to unironically buy something like this, walk away from the till or the online checkout. Send them a card with a lottery ticket inside instead (there’s more chance of success). If there is a food-loving person in your life and you’re short of ideas, let me offer some assistance.
Tools: Since they’ve probably recently binned their black spatula, your giftee might be hanging out for a beautiful new wooden spoon. Or maybe a kick-arse masher or a microplane. Think about the sorts of things they like to eat (and cook) and go from there. Some people might be totally charmed by a proper Swift Whip egg beater like this one (if you know, you know) or a set of spoons embossed with the faces of the Royal Family (always good at dinner parties). One of the best presents I ever received was a bread knife (20 years and still going strong), though there are rules about knife gifting that you’d be brave to ignore.
Cookbooks: Seems like a no-brainer, I know, but it can be harder than you think. Do your homework before being seduced by the household name on the cover. Always get an exchange card if you’re going new, or get someone who knows the giftee to check their shelves in case of double-ups. At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, op shops and secondhand bookshops can be absolute treasure troves of vintage gems. Three new(ish) books I love are: Dinner by Meera Sodha, Yiayia: Time-Perfected Recipes from Greece's Grandmothers by Anastasia Miari and The Secret of Cooking by Bee Wilson (all Bee’s books are wonderful).
Edibles: A recent newsletter by the fabulously named Sophia Money-Coutts asks whether olive oil is an acceptable gift. I’m with the commenter who says good olive oil was on a par with someone offering to pay the mortgage… “though oil is more costly”. Now that everyday food is a luxury, not all excellent food presents have to be posh. Last year I gave my 12-year-old nephew two cans: one of aerosol cream, the other of aerosol chocolate mousse. Some other things I think are great presents: the recipient’s favourite chocolate, cheese, fancy biscuits, sardines in pretty tins… all the things that people don’t normally put in their trolleys. This applies to food bank gifting also. Give chocolate biscuits, not rolled oats.
Drinkables: What do they like drinking? Far better to give them something they can’t wait to open than a bottle of something that sits in the cupboard for months before they turn to it in desperation because there is nothing else. That applies to non-alcoholic drinks too. No one wants to drink tea that shares its flavour profile with air freshener.
Miscellanea: A voucher for their favourite bakery. Or cafe. Or restaurant. A box of cherries. A pretty little bowl to put nuts in. An implement for removing snails from their shells (I got one of these for my birthday - now I just need the snails). An invite to dinner at yours. A candy thermometer and a bag of sugar. A jar of sourdough starter. Handwritten instructions for your signature recipe.
The TL:DR: A good present says ‘I got you’ more than it says ‘I got you this’.
Good things
Here’s the latest in my quest to find Wellington’s best baked goods: a Black Doris plum danish from Volco.
Volco has two outposts, one in Kelburn and the other in Thorndon. The Thorndon one is attached to a shop selling mountain bikes and related accoutrements, but don’t let this put you off (a swarm of MAMILs arrived while I was there, but they seemed harmless enough in their natural habitat). The cycle lane/road works vs parking wars in this part of the city have been well-documented but I can report that early on a Saturday morning there was lots of parking. Anyway, the danish was excellent.
“When we heard about a death or illness in our town, my mother would put on her apron, turn on the oven, and start cooking.” - This is a beautiful, extremely relatable essay from my former colleague Denise Irvine about funeral food (especially asparagus rolls). RIP Bill Irvine, a kind and generous man.
Don’t judge me, but I can’t bear ‘classic’ Kiwi Onion Dip (an unholy blend of reduced cream and onion soup mix). This luxury version by Kelly Gibney, on the other hand, sounds incredible.
Have a great week and happy shopping!