15 gifts for foodies to ensure they invite you over for every dinner party

1/15

Chef knives for the next Masterchef, ₹1,990

If your foodie friend is as enthralled with making food as they are about eating, proper knives are essential. It doesn’t matter if they’re a kitchen noob or the next Tarla Dalal.

Well-made sharp knives that actually serve their purpose make dicing tomatoes and onions a breeze rather than turning then into mush. You’re less likely to have a slicing accident — a dull knife requires more pressure so it makes it more likely to slip and slice an appendage. Do this for the sake of their fingertips.

2/15

What’s in your dabba? cookbook for the enthusiastic homechef, ₹399

This cookbook from Tweak Books is a collection of 60 delicious recipes from celebrities like Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Bhumi Pednekar and more, along with professional chefs, home chefs, nutritionists and our own Tweak readers.

Food-lovers will want to keep this within arms reach for when it’s breakfast time and you don’t know what to make or you need to sneak some healthy veggies into your picky kid’s lunch box.

The perfect kitchen companion for people looking to eat healthy with ragi idlis, ‘zoodles’ and sweet potato chocolate cake.

3/15

Spice Market candle for the food-obsessed homebody, ₹850

Even if they’re stuck eating bland khichdi, you can fill up their home with the wafting aromas of the Spice Market candle.

It’s warm and comforting, from the fragrance of cinnamon that fills the room when they light it. It’ll have them thinking back to their misguided heists as kids when they stole sticks of cinnamon from dadi’s spice box to chew on, thinking it would taste as good as her laddoos used to smell.

4/15

Air fryer for the samosa addict trying to be healthy, ₹10,999

From all the gifts for foodies, this little bundle of joy will have them swooning. They can finally reunite with all the former loves they had to part with when they embarked on their diet. It cuts down on calories by about 70% with less fat while still giving the crispy, crunchy goodness we’ve come to love.

Snack time french fries, morning breakfast bacon and chocolate chip cookies for cheat days. An air fryer is a multitasking hero that’ll cement its a spot in every healthy Huma’s heart.

5/15

Cutting Chai T-shirt, ₹599

A comfortable T-shirt that announces their beverage of choice as they enter the room. Guaranteed to start a debate about which style of tea makes the cut but they don’t mind indulging for a bit because they already know the answer.

6/15

King Chilli Chocolate for the daring sweet tooth, ₹160

This artisanal chocolate brand from the Northeast has brought together sweet and spicy in one delicious bar. Bhut jolokia, or King Chilli, has been the final frontier for food lovers to conquer.

This fiery chilli is one of the hottest in the world, enough to bring tears to the most seasoned foodies. Ease them into the spice world with this experimental sumptuous slab that combines bittersweet cocoa with a tongue-tingling burst of bhut jolokia.

Send their taste buds on a wild ride to shake them out of the slumber of their Zomato Gold subscription.

7/15

Bowls for the relentless snacker, ₹2,299 (set of 2)

Elevate snack time with these multi-purpose snack bowls by Thoa. They can be used for farsan, breakfast cereal (or late-night cornflakes) or a hot bowl of tomato soup on a chilly day. Don’t forget that dollop of butter on top.

Our favourite part about these bowls? They’re surprisingly deep, so no round trips to the kitchen or pausing in the middle of an episode of the latest mind-bending TV show that you would then have to rewind and watch again to understand what is actually going on.

8/15

Coral Bottle Stoppers for the lazy wine lover, ₹1,500 (set of 2)

It’s a special kind of joy when you find the perfect wine to go along with a dish. But there’s nothing sadder than emptying what was once a delicious wine down the drain because you lost the cork it came with and it was left open for too long.

Bottle stoppers for wine bottles can help preserve the wine you’ve opened but can’t finish ASAP.

They also make great place holders when you end up destroying the cork into 50 little pieces while winding in the corkscrew.

9/15

Pizza Love Notebook for the one who thinks pizza is a gift from God, ₹349

Watching the cheese string after someone bites into a slice of pizza is the real food porn. Pizza can be simple, it can be healthy if you want to go the cauliflower crust way (please, don’t) and uniquely your own with a melange of exotic toppings (butter chicken and pineapple included).

Pizza lovers can endlessly list out the reasons for this culinary enthusiasm and why not let them do it in this notebook that proclaims their devotion?

Beauty and pizza really do come in all shapes and sizes.

10/15

Glass food containers for the one who’s just learning to adult, ₹399 (round) + ₹449 (square)

It’s time to give back mama’s Tupperware and be an adult. Nothing says elevated adult life more than glass food containers because it means you can be trusted not to drop it.

The bamboo lids on these containers by IKEA give it a slightly more elevated aesthetic than the regular plastic boxes, which the environment will also be grateful for. They come in different shapes and dimensions so you can pick and choose which ones you want to gift.

The see-through glass containers also mean you can keep track of how much delicious Malvani fish curry is left in case they were feeling generous and planning on sharing it with their roommate.

11/15

The Festive Box for the condiment connoisseur, ₹1,900

For the gourmands, a simple store-bought jam and spread will just not suffice. The Gourmet Jar offers a range of jams, preserves, mustards and spreads, all prepared using 100% organic and fresh produce.

The festive box lets you pick and choose from their unique offerings. You can make it a unique culinary experience with some banana rum jam, walnut cinnamon honey or stick with the fail-safe classics like strawberry jam and wholegrain mustard.

12/15

Four Food Art Print for the one who insists good food is real art, ₹3,495

Art is subjective. For some, it’s MF Hussain and Picasso, for others it’s a 20×20 inch print of their favourite local street side snacks.

Adorn the walls of food lovers with this quirky wall art as an homage to our favourite Indian snacks.

Reminisce over vada pavs you’d sneak out of college to binge on between classes. That time you had a competition over who could eat the most idlis and the late-night chai and samosas you’d debrief over after a night of partying.

13/15

Slow Rising Squishy Burger for stressed-out Seema, ₹499

While lockdown was in place, it gave foodies the time to try out elaborate recipes that they’d bookmarked on their computers, make a full bag of makhanas a meal when they’re too lazy to cook and have Nutella waffles for lunch every day, just because.

Now that they’re back to being adults in the working space, there’s little time or privacy to indulge in wild food dreams. Instead of stress-eating, let this burger-shaped stress ball be their release.

14/15

South Indian Filter Coffee Kit for a tasty trip down south, ₹1,600

Keep your turmeric lattes and affogatos, we’ll take a cup of piping hot filter coffee any day.

A meal is only complete when it’s followed by coffee and we can all agree that filter coffee hits all the right spots. The Flying Squirrel has made it a lot easier to take a trip down south with their kit. It comes with a packet of their Parama coffee, a brass tumbler and saucer and a south Indian coffee filter.

Keep a towel and some ice handy if they’re going to try pouring it back and forth between the dabara and the tumbler like the kaapi pros.

15/15

Blush cotton kitchen apron for a messy kitchen experiment, ₹690

The messy Mamtas in your life will love this soft, and more importantly, long apron that’ll keep their clothes stain-free the next time their experiments in the kitchen backfire. It also makes them feel a lot more like a pro.

Also particularly useful for those among us that like to watch along with recipe videos while trying to cook. More often than not, the kitchen becomes a disaster zone as you star in your very own comedy-horror-action reality show in motion.