Food & Entertaining Gift Ideas

Everyone loves food, so kitchen gadgets and deluxe dinner settings are usually a safe bet for a holiday gift.

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Disclaimer: Just so you know, if you order an item through one of our posts, we may get a small share of the sale.

What’s the one thing that everyone has in common, no matter how tough they are to buy gifts for? They all eat, and many of the people on your nice list probably like to cook, too! That doesn’t mean you can wrap up any old dish and wow your friends and family, though. We scoured the internet to find the most interesting, unique, and hard-to-find food and entertaining items available. Here are some great presents for anyone on your list who loves to host dinner parties—or just to eat.

1. Cast-iron Dutch ovens are a kitchen essential, and here we have one of the best in the world.

This enameled cast-iron Dutch oven from Le Creuset holds 7.25 quarts of whatever you’re preparing with even heat and reliable temperature retention. Choose from 12 gorgeous shades of enamel to match the lucky recipient’s kitchen color palette perfectly. This is the lightest-weight cast-iron Dutch oven we could find, but it still offers larger handles designed to fit into an oven-mitted palm. The knob on the lid stands up to 500 degrees of heat for dependable, long-time usage. This premium piece of enameled cast-iron will last for generations so you might just be gifting an heirloom.

2. Who has room in the kitchen for a pressure cooker, a steamer, and a slow cooker? Make a gift of all three in one handy device instead.

Give the culinary enthusiast in your life a one-piece marvel from leading brand Crockpot with this 6-quart, 8-in-1 multicooker. It slow cooks for incredible stews and pot roasts and works as a pressure cooker and a steam cooker as well. Try the “brown and sauté” setting to start the dish off right. This easy-to-use, all-in-one cooking machine has eight settings that can be used to cook common foods in a hurry. If you have a little more time, though, you can always throw in a roast and slow cook it for up to 12 hours. This multicooker does everything but dice the carrots for you.

3. Nothing says “holiday season” like a cozy house filled with an inviting scent.

The NEST fragrances reed diffuser fills a house or apartment with a blend of pomegranate, Mandarin orange, cloves, and cinnamon. Hints of vanilla and amber round out the irresistible scent, making it the perfect gift for anyone on your list, particularly the tireless holiday host or hostess.    The custom-designed glass has light traces of gold and slowly releases fragrance into the air over the course of 90 days. NEST reed diffusers are crafted with high-quality fragrance oils to fill the air with a subtle but memorable scent.

4. For an unforgettable gift, empower your favorite coffee lover to become an at-home barista.

A Nespresso Creatista Plus makes it easy to create cafe-quality espressos, lattes, and more. It features automatic milk texturing and a three-second heat-up time.   This top-of-the-line machine gives its user precise control over every element of their milk and beans. It’s simple to use and creates a professional caliber drink every time whether you choose a ristretto, espresso, lungo, latte, cappuccino, flat white, latte macchiato, or milk froth.

5. Nine out of 10 people who love entertaining agree: Only cloth napkins will do for special occasions.

Actually, we never conducted that survey, so we’re sort of guessing there. But what we do know is that you’ll thrill your favorite host with a set of 12 Egyptian cotton dinner napkins, attractively tied together with a delicate band. Paper napkins simply can’t compete with these elegant, reusable essentials. Cloth napkins are great gifts for anyone who’s looking to reduce their ecological footprint, too. Paper napkins create waste, while these durable Egyptian cotton alternatives provide a lifetime of lip-dabbing without adding to landfills.

6. Grillmasters will go gaga for a grill set made entirely from stainless steel. Bonus: The set comes packaged in a convenient carrying case.

Looking for the perfect gift for your favorite outdoor chef? This 14-piece stainless-steel collection of grilling tools from Cuisinart fits the bill perfectly. It includes a durable steel spatula, tongs, four pairs of corn spears, and a grill-cleaning brush with a spare head. All of this comes conveniently packaged in a handsome aluminum case. The spatula hides an integrated bottle opener and all the tools feature end rings for easy hanging. If you’re buying for someone who lives for barbecue season, this is the perfect gift.

7. If it’s one of Oprah’s favorite things, it’s probably worth checking out.

This 10-piece Seville Series Cookware set from Fleischer and Wolf has handles and interiors made of stainless steel with hammered copper exteriors. A thick, heat-radiating aluminum core helps control and retain heat in each pot and pan. These durable vessels are inspired by the cookware of the southern Andalusia region of Spain and are built to last a lifetime. The copper exterior takes on an attractive aged look the more someone uses it, attesting to all the meals they’ve crafted and enjoyed.

8. Many print magazines have fallen out of favor, but sometimes they’re a lot handier than an e-version.

A subscription to Real Simple gives busy people easy solutions to everyday problems. Recipes can be ripped out to make shopping trips and cooking a cinch. And cooking is just the tip of the iceberg with this dynamic magazine. Subscribers will learn tips on organization, shopping, decorating, and even relaxing. Everything in the magazine aims to simplify life and reduce stress. Who couldn’t use that during the holidays? 

9. Some kitchen gadgets do just one thinga select few can help with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The Breville Panini Press delivers a crisp, fluffy sandwich every time thanks to its Crush Control hinge design. The adjustable-height mechanism helps the chef achieve a perfect texture on the outside without smashing the inner contents into a dense blob. This innovative press is great for breakfast sandwiches, quesadillas, toasted wraps, and even open-face sandwiches. Its compact design takes up little space, and it can even be stored vertically for a smaller footprint.

10. Give the gift of sous vide, a cooking technique that was previously only available to chefs in the finest restaurants in the world.

Sous vide cooking is easy with the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker. It’s an immersible cooking tool unlike any other. It brings any pot of water to a precise temperature, circulating the water and applying the perfect level of heat to the entire surface of the meal. This ensures even cooking, moisture retention, and an all-around superior dish. The Anova Precision Cooker even integrates with a cell phone app so you can control it from anywhere. Sous vide cooking can take a while, but the Anova Culinary app will let the cook know exactly when their meal is complete. No more waiting around in the kitchen (unless they really want to).

11. Take their holiday cheese board to the next level with this bamboo beauty.

Deluxe cheeses deserve a deluxe presentation, and that’s exactly what you get with the Bambüsi bamboo cheese board and cutlery set, which comes complete with a slide-out drawer for your cheese-cutting knives. All-natural bamboo is the ideal material for serving cheese. It’s nonporous, easy to clean, and it won’t absorb colors or odors from the evening’s hors d’oeuvres. Four types of cheese knives are included in the set and stored in its gorgeous slide-out drawer. Meanwhile, a groove running around the sizable board serves as a great place to store crackers, nuts, grapes, or olives. This is a great gift for anyone who loves to host.  

12. For the host or hostess who believes presentation is everything, this beautiful salt and pepper mill set is the perfect gift.

Simple seasoning often makes or breaks a meal, and the Cole and Mason Oldbury Wooden Salt and Pepper Mill gift set provides some of the finest seasonings in the world. These classy wooden grinders come pre-loaded with coarse sea salt and fine peppercorns, so the lucky recipient is ready to start seasoning right out of the box. Most mills give up after a year or two, but these will last a lifetime thanks to a precision carbon steel grinder in the pepper grinder and diamond-sharpened ceramic teeth in the salt mill.

13. Give your loved one a beautiful presentation option that subtly flavors food with all-natural Himalayan salt.

The Himalayan Salt Plate and Holder Set from Charcoal Companion can’t be beat in terms of style, and this solid block of salt will even impart a hint of flavor. The chef in your life can use it as a cooking surface on a gas range or a grill, or put it in the fridge to keep food cool while they serve guests. Best of all, the gorgeous pink salt block naturally repels microbes, so there’s virtually no cleanup required. Choose this gift for anyone on your list who loves spending time in the kitchen or throwing great dinner parties.

14. Has there ever been a food processor that had so many functions?

The Ninja Intelli-Sense System comes with four high-performance attachments that automatically communicate with the base. Once an attachment is secured, the base adjusts the speed, power, and torque, and displays an attachment-specific menu accordingly. Turn veggies into gluten-free pasta, fruits into delicious smoothies, and even make healthy snow cones—all with the push of a button. This all-in-one crushing pitcher/precision processor/blender cup/auto-spiralizer will change the way a family eats for the better.

15. A good appetizer board has plenty of room for fruits, nuts, crackers, meat, and/or cheese.

This server tray from Montes Doggett is simple and elegant with plenty of room for whatever a host is serving. It features a compartment for sauce and a ton of real estate for crudités, bruschetta, tapas, and more.   It looks great filled with food on a table or hanging by its perforated handle on a pot rack. The tray can be cleaned hassle-free with soap and warm water.

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