RSSUnique Food & Cooking Gifts for the Holidays
December 10th, 2009 by Dawn, Co-founder of Rouxbe
Going to a holiday party and can’t think of what to bring for a Hostess gift? Or maybe you have someone in your family that is really getting into cooking and you are not sure what to get them. Here are a few ideas for unique, yet very thoughtful gifts.
Rather than giving a bottle of wine, why not give a nice bottle of olive oil. Not only will it last much longer, it may even expose the person to other quality olive oils. You could even print out a good recipe that uses and highlights the olive oil. This Spaghetti Aglio e Olio would be a great recipe. If you are feeling generous, you could buy some nice extruded pasta, some chili flakes and even a wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
How about a nice jar of gourmet salt? Fleur de sel from France would be a great way to go and it won’t break the bank. Slip in a copy of these fantastic Chocolate Chip Cookies (which use fleur de sel) and you will have a winner. Better yet, make a batch and wrap them up along with the salt…maybe just don’t use their jar of salt to make the cookies :-)
Now if you don’t mind putting a little elbow grease into your gift…here are a few other ideas.
Almost everyone loves a good Thai curry, yet they may have no idea how to make it themselves. Why not make them some Panang Curry Paste. Again, you can add a recipe (Panang Curry with Pork) and a few of the potentially harder to find ingredients, such as palm sugar, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves…maybe even a can of thick coconut milk.
Another idea is this delicious homemade Indonesian Peanut Sauce. This peanut sauce has multiple layers of flavors and textures. You can make a batch or two, let it cool and then place it into fancy little jars with some sort of personal label on them.
This next one might seem strange to some, but believe me whom ever you gift this to will love it.
Caramelized Onions are easy to make and even better they are super cheap. Again, just transfer them to a sexy container of some sort and maybe add a recipe or two, that uses caramelized onions. My two favorites are the Alsatian Onion Tart and the Tapas-Style Pork Tenderloin - these would also be great served at any holiday get-together.
Of course you could always give the gift of Rouxbe to anyone you think would like to learn more about cooking or perhaps they may just want to hone up on their cooking skills. Either way it’s the gift that keeps on giving. 
Purchase Your Rouxbe Cooking School Gift Cards Here
Happy Holidays Everyone!
From the Rouxbe Team.
Great ideas! My only question is how to wrap/contain them – do they all have to be refrigerated the entire time? I would imagine so and sometimes that can complicate things depending on how and when they will be given to the lucky recipient. Maybe wrapping and putting under the tree wouldn’t be such a good idea.
Other than that, I think I’m good to go. Nice variety of ideas, Dawn!
Hi Judi
Yes many of these gifts will need to be refrigerated so they may not be the best “under the tree” ideas.
Of course if they are left out of the refrigerator for a bit, none of them will spoil, so no worries about that.
I know a chef who gives out his famous black peppercorn demi sauce every year…it has cream in it and everything. People go nuts for it and each year they look forward to that little jar of gold.
Happy Holidays Judi!
Dawn these ideas are fabulous, I love to cook and these will be so much better than contributing to the commercialization of a Holy Day……Merry Christmas