Do you need advice related to buying gifts for the foodie in your life? The No. 1 priority is you do not leave the choice to the last minute. Show you care and plan a little and take the following into consideration.
Is the foodie on your shopping list a culinary traveller? A culinary traveller likes to try different foods when they travel, but they also buy international cookbooks, have special equipment originating in other countries and make sure their herbs and spices are selected with an international flair. Unfamiliar cuisine excites them to the core, and their herb and spice racks are adventurous. In Orillia, the international cookbooks are available at HomeSense, where there is also a great collection of equipment.
Tagines, yogurt cheese strainers, popover pans, and other creative tools can be found at The Kitchen Shop , Canadian Tire, Walmart, Liquidation Nation, and other places. But if you want something really unique like a Corzetti stamp or a Maamoul mould, you’ll have to get the order in fast enough to Amazon or some other source after you watch a few YouTube videos so you know what to look for.
If you are wanting to help Santa fill the Christmas stocking for a foodie, check out herbs, spices and sauces at Gaudaur Natural Foods and Winners and all places named already, plus the grocery stores and Home Hardware. Does your foodie like to entertain? Does the cupboard contain lots of little bowls and serving pieces used for exciting things like tapas and pintxos? Are there pâté knives and tasting spoons and other fancy things waiting to be used? These are fun items to add to lists for stockings.knives to
Does your foodie have a good collection of knives and a safe place to store knives? There is more to life in the kitchen than a French knife. Is there a missing knife in the collection? Are there enough paring knives so when cooking friends come to help, there are enough boards and knives to make it easy?
Can you find a cooking class you could take together? Check out what the local activity centres are offering in their cooking classes and give an IOU to attend together.
Does your foodie want to make sourdough bread? How about a gift box or picnic basket containing a bottle of wine, and an invitation to a date night of watching YouTube and Instagram videos on how to make sourdough or lama bread?
Let’s not forget the beverages. How about a cocktail cookbook that includes mocktails? Does your foodie maintain a bar with interesting items? Is there a missing liqueur?
Ask your foodie to keep a little box with notes about what they want to have in their collections, what restaurants they want to experience, what food supply places they want to visit. If they do this all year, your gift-buying dilemmas will be resolved and you will have selected gifts that match the person you care for.
You might also consider a gift certificate to the foodie’s favourite restaurant or to one they want to experience, or to a store that has any of the items above.
Above all, don’t delay. If you are buying for a foodie, don’t leave it to the last minute as the interesting things will no longer be available in local shops.
Trish McCracken is a retired former registered home economist.