The First Ever Weekly Special Holiday Gift Guide!
Food-art gifts for friends and family of all ages 🥐 🌽 🍄 ✨
Welcome to the latest issue of Weekly Special, a food-art newsletter by Andrea Gyorody.
‘Tis the season for gift guides, and here’s yet another — but I daresay it’s the funnest one you’ll receive in your inbox this year, with all kinds of objects that look like oysters, shrooms, croissants, corn cobs, salami, and more! Stressed that you didn’t complete your shopping during all of the dizzying sales for Black Friday (which now starts on Wednesday?!), Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday? Here’s your answer. You can’t go wrong with any of these gems.
Happy Holidays, friends. Let’s dig in!
This Week’s Special: Your 2022 Holiday Gift Guide!
Ornaments in Every Food Group
$8 and up from John Derian
Our Jew-ish family doesn’t do Christmas, but if we did, our tree would be decked out in these handblown glass ornaments from John Derian. I can see a whole New York deli theme, with bagels and lox, caviar, sausages, pickles, pretzels, milkshakes, cheesecake — all of my favorite things. It’s almost tantalizing enough to make me buy a Hanukkah bush. Almost.
A Book About Eggs
$50 from Taschen
This season, there are dozens and dozens of books to recommend, but none quite so perfect for Weekly Special as The Gourmand’s Egg: A Collection of Stories & Recipes. Edited by food critic Ruth Reichl and arts writer Jennifer Higgie, it’s the first book in a new series The Gourmand is publishing with Taschen, and it celebrates what is, IMO, the world’s most perfect food as it appears in stories, recipes, and works of art. The book includes sumptuous full-page photos of works by Sarah Lucas (above), Andy Warhol, Urs Fischer, Bobby Doherty, and many others. If you wanna make it a touch more extravagant, pair it with a blown-glass egg by Blown Away winner Deborah Czeresko (from $100 to $310), who also sells slices of bacon (from $315 to $370).
Giant Corn Stool
$245 from Third Drawer Down
Nothing can make a guest smile like food-shaped furniture. This corny little number can function as a stool, or with the addition of a glass top, as a sturdy side table. And while you’re on Third Drawer Down’s website, don’t sleep on their extensive collection of tea towels ($36), with great designs based on the work of Faith Ringgold, Louise Bourgeois, David Shrigley, the Guerrilla Girls, and many more. Use ‘em in the kitchen or pin them up anywhere as decor.
(Paper) Pad of Butter
$10 from Urban Outfitters
I can’t think of a better stocking stuffer for someone who needs paper at hand for all of their rich (or salty) ideas. This butter-shaped pad is ideal for a Secret Santa gift, too, but could also pair quite nicely with the giant corn stool and a bucket of Maldon ($24.78) for a more fabulous themed surprise.
An Epic Mushroom Gift Set
Mushroom People magazine: $22 from Broccoli Mag // DIY grow kit: $30 from North Spore // lion’s mane tincture: $30 from Myco Myco // customizable lamps: $150 from Sofiest Designs
Fungi-obsessed friend in your life? Look no further than this DIY gift set, which encompasses the whimsical, the edible, the pharmacological, and the psychedelic. (For something even more high-brow, check out Atelier Édition’s John Cage: A Mycological Foray, $60, with optional postcard box supplement, $17.) Throw in a copy of Andrea Gentl’s brand new cookbook Cooking with Mushrooms ($27.90), wrap it all in this gorgeous Peter Max-inspired paper ($24, but worth it), and add a John Derian ornament or two (from $10 to $50), and you’ll have one very happy forever friend.
Surrealist Props for Creepy Cool Dinner Parties
$34 and up from Gohar World
After following @lailacooks on IG for quite a while, wistfully admiring her offbeat, baroque dinners from afar, I was tickled to see Laila Gohar, the woman behind the account, profiled in the New Yorker this fall. It’s doubtful I’ll wind up eating her goods at a Paris Fashion Week party anytime soon… but I can bring some Gohar vibes to my own dinner table with salami and smoked mozzarella candles (from $34 to $38) and a surreal egg chandelier ($298, eggs not included). Send these links to a lover who needs a hint about what you want, and then start party-planning.
A Croissant That Shines
$85 from Food52
During the fabulous Japanese breakfast service I had last week at Konbi Ni, I was mesmerized by the sight of a glowing croissant and quickly googled where I could get one. Now you can too! The craziest part: it’s a real croissant that’s been preserved to stave off mold. Pure magic that could light up a table, a countertop, or even — why not? — a nightstand.
The Most Delicious New Yorker Cartoons
starting at $100 from Condé Nast
I love New Yorker cartoons and New Yorker cartoonists love to joke (in their New Yorker way) about all things food. On the Condé Nast site, you can order prints of any cartoon from a past issue, including ones that would be well suited for foul-mouthed pasta lovers, devout bakers, unabashed meat-eaters, carb-loving hairdressers, stressed home cooks, anyone with a kid who likes to “help” in the kitchen, cilantro haters, cheeseheads who like cheesy humor, cheeseheads who like monster movies, the gluten obsessed (or the gluten-free, if you fancy a good troll), friends on the dating app circuit, Mad Men fans, chocolate fiends, aspiring chefs, reluctant salad-eaters, spiritual potheads, people who love bagels and hate lines (most everyone?), and admirers of Ratatouille. Spend $100 for a small 8x8-inch print or up to $729 for a massive framed and matted version.
The Spiciest Spices
$2 and up from Penzey’s
The packaging of Penzey’s spices tells you right away that they are not, as one of my grad school classmates would say, “hipster bullshit.” (That bullshit was usually some LA restaurant I was dragging him to, where the food was bomb and the prices were… less cute.) No, Penzey’s is a down-to-earth Wisconsin-based spice purveyor that sells legit pantry staples while also being incredibly vocal about their progressive politics, even — or especially — when it might hurt the bottom line. They speak truth to power (one of the tabs at the top of their homepage reads “About Republicans” and the content is brutal) and they create addictive spice blends with slightly cringey names that would make for ideal stocking stuffers for family members of all political persuasions. Subversive spices, y’all. Highly recommend.
A Maximalist Cake for Any Occasion
Varies by baker and size/complexity, starting at around $100
Maximalist baking took off during the pandemic and has now been the subject of a handful of features in the New York Times and elsewhere. Fame, however, has not made these bakers totally inaccessible for normal people with a little extra cash to spend on a bespoke cake with flavor and design unlike anything you can get at your local bakery. Place an order now for a special person who deserves to be celebrated in 2023 — and if you want the cake to count as a holiday gift, you can always drop a hint that something spectacular is on the way with a handmade I.O.U.
All of these bakers have robust IG accounts, with ordering details on their profile pages. Clockwise from the left: @frostedhag in New York; @dreamcaketestkitchen in Chicago; @yip.studio_ in New York (with a strawberry-bedecked cake made for Harry Styles); all-vegan @rustcakes in Berlin; dairy-free @gigislittlekitchen in New York; @deaux_baker in Austin, TX; and @yungkombucha420 in New York. Not pictured, but also fabulous: @crybaby.cakes in Toronto, who has perfected the buttercream squiggle.
The Coolest Stuff for the Kids in Your Life
There are so many great food gifts for littles, it’s hard to summarize. Kids Eat in Color, an org that encourages kids to overcome picky eating, has published an incredibly useful list of book recommendations by age and theme, including one of our family faves, Dragons Love Tacos ($17.66), the cute (and slightly horrifying) We Are Fungi ($7.97), and the charmingly erudite abcedarian A is for Artichoke ($9.29), which introduced our three-year-old to the word “ganache.” (Thanks, Grandma Martha!) We also love these indestructible sensory stones in the shape of various breads, fruits, and pizza toppings ($29.95 per set), and have our eye on the new food truck fleet from Norman and Jules ($108), perfect for a budding entrepreneur.
For That Person Who Has Everything: Give Back Instead
I distinctly remember receiving a certificate for ducks when I was a kid. Someone had donated to Heifer International in my name, making it possible for a struggling family far away to invest in ducks for their own sustenance. It’s now become Hanukkah tradition in our family to donate to a worthy cause on one of the eight nights, and this year, I plan on giving to World Central Kitchen. Founded in 2010 by chef José Andrés, this extraordinary nonprofit shows up to scenes of natural disasters and manmade tragedies to ensure that people who are suffering get a filling, locally sourced meal. Right now, WCK is at the Ukrainian border (where they’ve been serving food for months) and in flooded villages in Pakistan, and there’s no end to the critical work they do. Donate cash, crypto, or stocks here.
A Few More Quick Gift Ideas Just Because I Love You, Dear Readers
Negroni and mortadella stickers. Really dope kiddush cups and hanukkiahs. Tenugui cloths in every pattern. A 1000-piece brunch puzzle. Challah covers. One of the best still-life exhibition posters I’ve ever seen. Gouda, burrata, and spaghetti hats. An orange surprise ball. A t-shirt emblazoned with Guy Fieri holding a giant hot dog. And a Japanese snack box subscription.
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Go enjoy some art and food IRL, and see you again soon!
This is GREAT. Thank you!
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