Food-Related Gifts for the Holidays
Our Fleishman Hillard-Austin holiday party this year was perfect for our office. While about half of our team specializes in food-related PR (clients include the National Mango Board, Tri-Lamb Group, California Table Grapes, and others), the rest of us just LOVE to Eat!
We decided to take a hands-on cooking class called Global Cocktail Party at Whole Foods. There were 11 of us and 6 regional foods represented so we split up into groups of two and worked together at our stations that had been prepped for us in advance. If only I could train Lucy to do my grocery shopping and food prep, I would eat gourmet meals at home every evening!
If you are interested in trying out the recipes yourself, just send me a note and I’ll be happy to share them. The regions represented were Greece, Asia, Mexico, Italy, Caribbean, and Africa. What is your favorite type of food. It’s a tough call for me but I’m going to have to vote for Asian.
Check out more information about Austin cooking classes by taking a peek at these links:
Whole Foods Market – Lamar Culinary Center*
*I’ve taken both passive and interactive cooking classes at Whole Foods. You can read about my experience in a Lunch Express Indian Class from a previous blog if you like.
On my way out, I impulsively bought a board game called “Foodie Find.” It was about $20 and I think it’s totally worth it. The questions are difficult enough to stump even the most geeked out foodie but there are those that are pop-culturey enough to keep the novice entertained. I brought it to a party and we played for hours and I learned so much! For example, did you know that the first American president to hire a French chef was Abraham Lincoln? Do you know the average number of bubbles in a bottle of champagne? Think about how nicely that fact would come in handy during your New Years celebrations….
Other great gifts for the foodie in your lives include:
Magazines like Saveur, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Cooks Illustrated, Gourmet
Books like The Food Lovers Companion, The New Yorker Book of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, or the many wonderful and gorgeous cookbooks that are published in time for the holidays every year.
Food of the month clubs – While expensive, there are clubs to tempt every taste including cheese, wine, fruit, potato chips, beer, etc. And, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
A pretty serving dish, table cloth, that coveted Kitchen aid mixer, etc. One of my favorite local cooking supply stores for gifts is in Fredericksburg. It’s called The Kitchen Shop.
An inexpensive food-related idea is to make your own gift. I whipped up some pralines the other weekend to give out to colleagues. You can also check out some recipes in a jar ideas online as these can make fun and attractive gifts (oh god I sound like Martha Stewart).
On that note, what ideas do you have for great food-related gifts? And just to reiterate — don’t get me anything please. I have all I need 
