Best Secret Santa Gifts for Foodies
by Holly Thomson
Browse hundreds of extraordinary Christmas food gifts at Sous Chef. Or for the foodie Christmas gift that every food-lover is hoping for, see our finest Italian panettone.
Whether you are doing a Secret Santa in your workplace, with your friends or just for fun with family, find the clever ideas that will delight every food-lover.
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Find our pick of the best Christmas food gifts here, or browse hundreds of gifts for chefs and food-lovers.
Best small gift for the stylish foodie
Gift a style lover something unexpected with this lemon sock set. Soft, stretchy socks are rolled to look like bright yellow lemons, then wrapped in green mesh for a playful, market-fresh look.
Unroll them to find two pairs of ankle-length crew socks. One features bold stripes, the other an abstract pattern, both in lively greens and yellows.
A fun stocking filler for the person who likes their food obsession to extend beyond the kitchen.
Best small gift for wine lovers
This quirky but beautiful corkscrew is shaped like a sardine, finished with shimmering blue scales and a forked tail.
It opens wine and cava with ease, and doubles as a bottle opener for beer. Better still, it comes packed in a bright yellow sardine tin decorated with waves, fish and olive branches.
A brilliant stocking filler for anyone who loves tinned fish, wine or kitchen tools with a sense of humour.
Best small gift for a sweet tooth
Fragrant, sweet and intensely fruity, François Doucet fruit jellies are a particularly grown-up sweet.
They're made with apricots and pears grown in Provence alongside raspberry, strawberry and mandarin, then finished with a sparkling coating of sugar.
François Doucet has been making exceptional pralines, fruit jellies and chocolate treats in Provence for more than 50 years, using local fruit and nuts wherever possible.
Best small gift for coffee lovers
Leone's chocolate coffee beans combine roasted Arabica coffee beans with a thick shell of rich 64% dark chocolate.
The bitter espresso crunch against smooth dark chocolate makes them very difficult to stop eating.
They arrive individually wrapped in a beautiful vintage-inspired tin, so the packaging is worth keeping long after the chocolates have disappeared.
Best small gift for Japanese food lovers
Use these lucky cat rice bowls to serve Japanese dishes in style. The set includes two bowls, one black and one white, both decorated with cheerful maneki-neko cats.
Each bowl comes with wooden chopsticks and is a great size for donburi, noodles, vegetables and rice dishes.
The beckoning lucky cat is traditionally associated with good fortune in Japanese culture, making this a particularly cheerful housewarming or Christmas gift.
Best small food gift for cocktail and dessert lovers
Fabbri Amarena cherries are one of those ingredients that feel like a present before you've even opened the jar.
The dark, intensely flavoured sour cherries sit in a thick cherry syrup inside Fabbri's instantly recognisable blue-and-white opaline jar.
Spoon them over ice cream, cheesecake and panna cotta, use them in cakes, or drop one into a glass of fizz or a cocktail.
And when the cherries are gone, the beautiful ceramic jar is worth keeping.
Best small gift for the ingredient obsessive
A really good bottle of balsamic is exactly the sort of ingredient a keen cook will appreciate but may not buy for themselves.
Giusti's 3 Gold Medal balsamic is aged for 12 years, developing a rich, syrupy texture and a balance of sweetness and acidity.
Use it sparingly over Parmesan, strawberries, grilled vegetables or simply good olive oil and bread.
A compact present with a great deal of flavour inside.
Best small gift for the hands-on cook
These traditional wooden paddles are delightfully low-tech – and surprisingly useful.
Use them to shape pats of homemade butter with neat ridges, or roll fresh gnocchi across the surface to create grooves that catch sauce.
They're inexpensive, unusual and exactly the sort of specialist little kitchen tool that makes an excellent stocking filler for an enthusiastic cook.
Best little luxury for food lovers
A small bottle of truffle oil can transform a very ordinary dinner.
Marini Tartufi's white truffle oil has those unmistakable musky, garlicky aromas that work beautifully with risotto, eggs, mashed potato, pasta and mushrooms.
You only need a few drops at a time, so even the smallest bottle goes a surprisingly long way.
It makes a brilliant little gift for someone who thinks almost everything can be improved by truffle.
Best small gift for the impossible-to-buy-for cook
From unusual ingredients and Japanese tableware to professional cookware and specialist kitchen tools, there is plenty for a food lover to disappear into at Sous Chef.
The physical gift card is available in denominations of £25, £50, £100 and £200, so they can choose exactly what they want.
Particularly useful when the person you're buying for knows far more about knives, pans or olive oil than you do.
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Looking for more stocking fillers? Explore our gifts under £20, food Christmas tree decorations and chocolate gifts.
