We asked the Dream Dinners Chef for her favorite gift recommendations to create the ultimate chef-inspired holiday gift guide for food lovers.
Do you have someone in your life that loves all things food-related? Whether your best friend is a self-proclaimed foodie, your husband is a grill master, or your Mom loves to spend her Sundays in the kitchen. This holiday gift guide will help you come up with the most thoughtful gift for anyone that loves to cook (and/or eat) in your life.
Chef Laura’s Holiday Gift Recommendations for Food Lovers
“When buying gifts for the food lovers in my life, my absolute favorite is to pick a theme or country that fits who I’m buying for and send a personalized meal basket. For example, I could make an Italy-themed meal basket and fill it with fun dried pasta flavors and cool jarred sauce. Maybe some biscotti for dessert, that kinda thing. Not only does this make your gift super personal to the person you’re making it for, but it’s such a thoughtful and fun gift for the holidays! If you’re looking for a place to buy some food gifts instead of making them, a company called Goldbelly does gourmet food gifts that I love.”
-Chef Laura
We love Chef Laura’s idea of themed meal baskets as a holiday gift for Food Lovers. To make holiday gifting more effortless for you this year, we created 8 fun and adorable themed meal baskets for every type of foodie in your life.
For the Person in Your life that Loves Italian Food
As Chef Laura said, an Italian-themed meal basket would make the perfect holiday gift! There are many ways to make the basket fun and unique to the person you’re gifting it to. Start with different kinds of pasta noodles and jarred sauces to mix and match for a feast straight from Italy. This Italian Pasta Bundle comes with 3 different shapes of noodles perfect for your basket. The bundle comes with 16 oz bags of Strozzapreti, Farfalle, and Penne Rigate noodles.
Next, include some delicious, jarred pasta sauces in your gift basket. We love this Pasta Sauce Trio from Williams Sonoma. The trio comes with three different sauces: Garlic, Tomato & Calabrian Chile, Pecorino & Black Pepper, and Sausage Ragu. If you have a sauce recipe you love, try jarring your own sauces for your pasta-loving person! There are many cute jar options from Etsy for you to choose from, or you could decorate your own jars if you’re feeling crafty. To top off the Italian meal basket, throw in some biscotti and a nice bottle of Vino. Bonus points if you throw everything into this Italian Flag Tote Bag!
For the Person in Your Life that Loves a Little Spice
Everyone knows someone who loves to kick up the heat no matter what the dish is. For the people in your life that love everything spicey, put together a Hot & Spicey meal basket to gift them this holiday season. First things first, our fiery food basket will need a few bottles of hot sauce. You can go with a mix of totally different hot sauces, or, if your spice-lover has a favorite, choose a few different styles of their favorite hot sauce. For example, if they are obsessed with Sriracha (as many spice lovers are), this sriracha hot sauce gift set is perfect for your spice box. The set comes with 4 different sriracha hot sauces in cute individual glass bottles, 1.5 fl oz each. More specifically, you’ll get Original, Green, Garlic, and Super-Hot Spicy Sriracha sauce.
If you want a variety of hot sauces, opt for this Hot Sauce Gift Set from Fuego Box. This wooden crate comes with 5 different hot sauces, including Jersey Barn fire Indian Summer, Black Garlic Bacon Hot Sauce, Friendly Fire Guava, Habanero Hot Sauce, Lucky Dog Cherry Chipotle, Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce, Riza Ghost Pepper Verde Hot Sauce, SEGA Smoked Onion Pineapple Reaper Hot Sauce, Hoff Sauce Southern Stinger Hot Sauce, and Fat Cat Cat in Heat. SO many choices, and… they come in an adorable wooden crate, so you don’t have to worry about what to put everything in. Throw in this Spicey Food Lover’s Cookbook, so they have plenty of new recipes to try their hot sauce with!
For the Grill-Master in Your Life
It might not be grill season, but a grill master will significantly appreciate an addition to their mastery any time of the year. A grill basket is the perfect holiday gift for the person in your life that fires up the grill any chance they get. First, you’re going to want to populate the grill basket with some high-quality grill-ready food that’ll get them eager to get grilling. Omaha Steaks allows you to build a custom gift set of 7 premium types of meat perfect for your grill-themed basket.
Make sure to add in a couple of unique dishes to make their grilling experience extra special! Dream Dinners offers ready-to-grill meals that are delicious and easy to send as a gift. Gift the Sicilian Cheese Stuffed Turkey Burgers or the Grilled Chicken Caesar Sandwiches. Next, throw in some seasonings and spices. We love the Grilling Spice Gift Set from FreshJax. This Grilling Spice Set comes with 5 different seasonings made for the grill; Pepper Habanero, Fresh Bay Sea Blend, Grill Master Burger, Citrus Pepper Blend, and Smokey Southwest Grill Blend. Finally, add some grill tools to your grill master basket.
Check out the first 3 recommendations in this blog; a smoke and spice griller gift box, personalized gift sex, and grill-ready meals. All perfect for your grill master basket. Throw everything together in a cooler bag to make the basket an added gift. Bonus points if you throw in a 6-pack of your grill master’s favorite beer!
For the Person in Your Life that Loves Mexican Food
A Taco-themed gift basket is a great holiday gift for all food lovers, but an even better gift for food lovers who love Mexican food! Create a meal gift basket for the perfect Taco Night. There are plenty of ways to make this gift basket fun and festive. Start with a soft shell and hard shell tortillas, so they have all shell options for their taco night. You could even include a tortilla mix if your taco-lover really loves to cook!
Throw in a jar of Nacho cheese sauce, some salsa, and a few different types of hot sauces to add a little spice. Add this adorable tortilla warmer to the gift basket so your taco lover will always have warm and crispy tortillas. Grab these taco holders to add some restaurant ambiance to taco night. Another excellent value add to the taco gift basket is a lazy Susan for taco night. This cute gadget makes it easy to add all the fixings into your tacos. Last but not least, throw in a bottle of tequila and some margarita mix. This will level up their fun and festive taco night!
For the Food Lover in Your Life that Loves to Travel
For the food lover in your life that loves to travel and experience new cuisines, create an around the world food basket for their holiday gift this year. Choose some of their favorite faraway places and include an item of food from each! Bring a taste of France by including a French pastry, cheese, and wine. Add a variety of Japanese teas to take their taste buds to Japan. Popular Japanese teas include green tea, oolong tea, and jasmine tea. Include a jar of feta cheese stuffed Greek olives and a delicious Greek recipe so that your food lover can get a taste of Greek cuisine.
Grab a Tapas gift set so they can enjoy a night in Spain from the comfort of their own home. This set includes everything you need for a fantastic night of tapas. It comes with Green Manzanilla Olives, Extra Virgin Olive Oil potato chips by Jose Andres, Marcona Almonds with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Cherry Peppers stuffed with cheese, mussels in pickled sauce by Ramon Pena, mini breadsticks with olive oil, and 2 metal forks so they can dive right into their delicious tapas. Another idea for your travel-loving foodie is to buy them a subscription to Food Passport and include it in their meal basket. Food Passport is the world’s most extensive collection of international recipes and global food culture, so anyone who loves food from around the world is sure to love this gift.
For the food lover in your life that is obsessed with sports
For the person in your life that loves sports as much as they love food, a game-day basket is a perfect gift. First, you’ll want to populate this meal basket with some excellent game-day snacks. If you’re looking to minimize snack shopping, this gift set from Harry and David has all of the game-day snacks you need. The set comes with all-beef, football-shaped sausage, Moose Munch Premium Popcorn, Havana black bean dip, dos queso dip, hoot n holler snack mix, three-seed crackers, and sharp white cheddar cheese.
In addition to some game-day snacks, you can also include a couple of tailgating recipes. Throw in a jersey from their favorite sports team. Include a 6 pack of their favorite beer so they’re all ready to enjoy the next big game. If you’re feeling really generous, you could buy tickets to a sporting event.
For the Cheese Lover in Your Life
What better holiday gift for a cheese-lover than a gourmet cheese basket? For this cheesy basket, choose 3-5 delicious cheeses. That way they have a variety to sample. Make sure to add in some extra snacks to complement their night of cheese. Include different meats, crackers, jellies, and dried fruits. Now you have a ready-to-go cheese board. If you’re looking for something pre-made, this Curata Cheese & Charcuterie Board makes the perfect holiday gift. The board includes 7 different types of cheese, including cheddar red wine, blueberry vanilla goat, rosemary & olive oil asiago, huntsman 2 layer, Wensleydale cranberry, bellaviano espresso, and sage derby. The board also has a variety of meats. Specifically calabrese salami, pinot grigio white wine salame, speck alto adige, soppressata, finocchiona, capicola, and trufa seca/dry cured black truffle salami.
The most significant part of this box? All of the beautiful cheese condiments included. Condiments that come in the set include sweet dried orange slices, dried strawberries, Turkish figs, dried passion fruit, candied pecans, candied papaya, truffle Marcona almonds, dried mango, chocolate covered almonds, fig orange jam, pistachios, cashews, hazelnuts, and so much more. This set has absolutely everything a cheese-lover needs for the dining experience of their life. Create your own cheese basket or buy one pre-made. Regardless, we promise the cheese lover in your life will be highly grateful for you.
For the Food Lover in Your Life that Always opts for breakfast
Breakfast for dinner is fun on occasion. However, we all have that person in our life who would eat breakfast every meal of the day. For this person, a Breakfast Basket makes the perfect gift. Breakfast baskets are super easy to make, making for countless brighter mornings! Include a box of pancake batter, chocolate chips, and syrup for a savory and sweet pancake dish. Throw in some waffle mix and a cute and colorful mini waffle maker. Order a few of these breakfast bacon frittatas, so they have a ready-to-go hearty breakfast for several mornings to come. Add some coffee beans and a cute coffee mug to your basket. This will make the perfect gift for any breakfast lover!
Stay tuned for upcoming Holiday Gift Guides from Dream Dinners!
We will be posting them throughout December to help you prepare for holiday gifting. We hope you enjoyed our Holiday Gift Guide for Food Lovers inspired by our very own Chef Laura. If you decide to make a themed meal basket, snap a photo and tag us in your pictures @dreamdinners. We’d love to see them!
Dream Dinners is the perfect gift for anyone this Holiday season. Give the gift of delicious, prepped meals this year. Send meals to family and friends or purchase a Dream Dinners Gift card. Purchase a Dream Dinners Gift card between now and December 25, 2021, and receive $10 off your next order.