Food gift ideas?

It's my BIL's birthday, and I always have a hard time buying gifts for him. He's big on cooking and food. For our BP gift we gave him Omaha Steaks but I didn't want to necessarily do the same thing.

Any other thoughts?

Re: Food gift ideas?

Wine of the month to go with the steaks? Maybe a set of rubs and marinades to go with it? Or a personalized brander?

Re: Food gift ideas?

He doesn't drink.

Where can I get the rubs and marinades? Does anyone sell a set?

Re: Food gift ideas?

I am pretty sure William Sonoma does.

Re: Food gift ideas?

I love getting stuff from Williams Sonoma.

DH's aunt got us some of the gourmet olive oils and pasta and "different" kind of flavored sauces as part of her Christmas gift to us this year.

I also got a bread mix with lovely ceramic bakeware from there once.

You also could go to either an Italian or other "ethnic" market and get a bunch of stuff and throw into a basket with a big bow.

Re: Food gift ideas?

how much did you want to spend? Maybe a gift certificate to take a cooking class? Otherwise I love the idea that someone listed of the meat rubs & marinades

Re: Food gift ideas?

It depends on how much you want to spend. I like the idea of the monthly food clubs but those are very expensive. To make your own, why not make a big basket of items that go together.

Like for instance if you decided to go with the steak/meat seasoning basket you can include:

-Sauces
-Seasonings
-Marinades
-Rubs
(these can be bought at the supermarket, specialty food stores, williams sonoma, chef outlets, online on the omaha steak website, etc.)

Get a variety. You could also add some pretzels or cheese dips or nachos. I've seen those added in professional sauce and rub baskets before.

What else does he like to eat/do besides steak? Other gift basket ideas could be:

-a typical gift basket and popular for meat loving men is a sausage basket (lots of different kinds of sausage, different types of mustards, horseradish spreads, crackers)
-snack foods (fancy chips, assorted nuts, dips, different kinds of pretzels)
-dessert foods (cookies, candies, coffee, tea, hot chocolate)
-movie night (different popcorns, candy, different seasonings to put on plain popcorn)
-italian night basket (special pastas, different pasta sauces, coffee, a nice olive oil or other flavored oils, balsamic vinegar, maybe a tapenade or olives)

You said he doesn't like alcohol so a wine or beer basket is out of the question. And he probably wouldn't want a fruit basket, plus those can be boring.

Re: Food gift ideas?