Food Gifts

The only all-occasion guide to homemade food gifts that look as fabulous as they taste, with more than 150 recipes, hundreds of packaging ideas, and insider tips from best-selling author and food stylist Elle Simone Scott

Food fosters connection, and there’s no more meaningful way to connect with others than to give a personalized food gift that you’ve prepared and packaged yourself. Elle Simone Scott, food stylist, ATK cast member, and author of the bestseller Boards, turns her considerable talents to expanding the boundaries of what food gifts are (they’re endlessly customizable) and when they can be given (literally, anytime), proving along the way that food is one of the best (and best-looking) gifts you can give.

• Gifts for every occasion: A unique housewarming or new neighbor gift, celebrating a wedding or a new baby, a birthday, graduation, holiday cookie swap, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day--all these and more are covered.
• Any level gift, from simple to spectacular: Give one gorgeous bottle of Fruits of the Forest Liqueur. Up the ante by adding a jar of Citrus Simple Syrup. Gift a cocktail party basket with the liqueur, syrup, sparkling wine, flute glasses, and a cocktail recipe.
• Spin one item many ways: Make a big batch of homemade granola for gifting, or divide the recipe into thirds and flavor them different ways. Elle shows how to do this with shortbread cookies, hot cocoa mix, party snack mix, and more.
• Big-batch gifts: Bring Banana Caramel Pie in a Jar or Party Cake Pops to a school or work event. Gift your whole crowd at the holidays with Chocolate-Ginger Truffles or get them through the winter with Summer Tomato Sauce.
• Playful DIY meal kits: For friends who love to cook, there’s DIY Pancake Mix, Turkish Bride Soup in a Jar, or Mushroom Risotto in a Jar.
• Helping-hand gifts: Support and comfort someone with a fully cooked meal that’s ready to be popped into freezer or oven--think Chicken Ramen Soup or Stuffed Shells with Amatriciana Sauce.

You’ll also learn Elle’s favorite ideas for keeping food gifts fresh and packaging items cost-effectively yet creatively using edible garnishes, thrifted tableware, canning jars, cellophane bags, parchment, and more. With her expert help, you’ll never again resort to an expensive, impersonal store-bought basket.

Elle Simone Scott is a food stylist, cast member of America’s Test Kitchen and America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation, and author of the best-selling Boards. America’s Test Kitchen publishes award-winning cookbooks, along with Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazines, and produces public television’s top-rated shows, America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country. It is a very real 15,000 square-foot kitchen located in Boston’s Seaport district and is home to more than 60 test cooks, editors, and tasting and testing experts.