Best Gifts for British Foodies

A Lovely and Useful Gift Guide for British Foodies and Those Who Love Them

Looking for the Best Gifts for British foodies? Right this way.

In this gift guide, we focus on British businesses offering truly fantastic items—from quality ingredients and hand-forged chefs knives to kits and prepared foods, plus classes, experiences, homewares and select kitchen gear.

Honestly, there is such an embarrassment of riches here, you may be hard pressed to choose to perfect gift.

Gifts for British Foodies: Fine Ingredients and Provisions

Good Sixty

Through Good Sixty you can order from independent food retailers and producers around the UK. Their Artisans by Post service showcases producers selling unique food gifts and specialist items—delivered to wherever you are in the country. Local grocery deliveries are also available in London, Bristol, Oxford, Leeds, Exeter and Bath. The gift options are many, from individual items to subscriptions.

Dishoom

Biryani feast with sparkling wine? Grilled paneer? Chai and chutney? Say hello to food kits and gift from Dishoom. 'An eclectic mix of favourites to discover, from make-at-home Dishoom favourites, to Permit Room tipples, our cookbook and much more besides.'

Panzer’s Deli & Grocery

Panzer's is a beloved grocer (established in 1944) that carries curated products from over 80 countries, and you can now order many lovely items from them online. They are also known for their extensive collection of Kosher items.

Courtyard Dairy

The Courtyard Dairy is a specialist cheese shop in North Yorkshire that won ‘Best New Cheese Retailer’ at the British Cheese Awards and ‘Cheesemonger of the Year’ at the World Cheese Awards. Your gift options include a rolling 3-cheese monthly subscription and other delights.

Welsh Cheese Company

A fine gift option from the Welsh Cheese Company is the Taste of Wales collection, which includes cheeses from Ceredigion, Anglesey, Wye Valley and Pembrokeshire.

The Baker’s Pig

Sticking with the Welsh theme, The Baker's Pig is a provider of Welsh Charcuterie with many deliverable gift items available.

Melrose and Morgan

Based in Hampstead and Primrose Hill, Melrose and Morgan sell provisions, cheese and charcuterie as well as wine and spirits—all of which can be combined in various ways to form a lovely gift hamper. Delivery is available.

Fortnum & Mason

The grandfather of wicker gift hampers is an easy win. The Fortnum & Mason Savoury Selection Hamper is especially nice come Christmas. The vegan mushroom pâté is a nice choice for vegans and vegetarians.

Cutter & Squidge

Cutter & Squidge is a great source for gift hampers and a variety of other delights—and they deliver throughout the UK! 'Playfulness is our passion; we love to create exciting, experimental flavours and artisan designs, having fun in the process.' Cheers to that.

National Trust

The nice thing about shopping with National Trust is that it benefits National Trust. 'Working with specialist producers, our fruity jams, tasty curds, crunchy biscuits and very quaffable wines are all locally sourced, UK-made and completely moreish.'

Gifts for British Foodies: Chocolate Gifts

Melt London chocolate gifts for London foodies

Charbonnel et Walker

Founded in 1875, Charbonnel et Walker is one of Britain’s earliest chocolatiers, with a half-dozen locations in London. Their online store allows you to sort items by flavour, from 'alcohol' to 'truffle' and more. Their boxes and wrappings are just as beautiful as their chocolates and this is partly what makes them a lovely gift.

Hotel Chocolat

Whilst just about anything from Hotel Chocolat makes an excellent gift, if you're looking for a fantastic gadget for the foodie who has everything, look no further than the Velvister Hot Chocolate Maker.

Melt London

Melt's monthly chocolate subscription is a lovely gift idea, as are their personalised chocolates and gift vouchers. Melt also hosts chocolate making courses available on site in London and virtually, another great gift idea.

Rococo Chocolates

Another chocolatier that does a nice job with packaging and presentation is Rococo. They have 5 'brand pillars' and one of them is British Creativity. For a gift that keeps on giving, check out the Fresh Collection, available monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly. They also offer many lovely Christmas themed collections.

Gifts for British Foodies: Biscuit Gifts

Bettys

Bettys offers all manner of delightful gifts related to tea and baked goods, including cakes, biscuits, hampers and gift boxes for a variety of occasions. If you're in Yorkshire, take advantage of their baking-focused cookery school (in Harrogate) or pop in for afternoon tea. Hampers and other gifts are available for delivery.

Biscuiteers

Biscuiteers makes a wide variety of hand-iced biscuits and they deliver worldwide—next day within the UK! They have two Icing Cafes in London where they also host icing classes in the School of Icing.

'Our biscuits are hand-iced in London and each one is unique. Our luxury biscuits are made the old-fashioned way and we aim for 100% biscuit happiness on every order! Add a message (if you like) and we’ll carefully deliver your gift on a day of your choice.'

Gifts for British Foodies: The Gift of Knowledge and Skill

Leith's Cooking classes gift

Here are some great places for British foodies to learn and refine new cooking skills. Note that many of the UK business listed in this guide (bakeries, chocolatiers, etc) offer classes locally.

Cordon Bleu

Whilst Le Cordon Bleu London is a world-class school for professional chefs, short summer courses and online courses are available, starting at around the 200 pound price point. The classes run the gamut from cooking skills (cheesemaking, fermentation) to business skills (the French do have a word for entrepreneur) and even food writing and photography.

Leiths

Leiths is another professional school that offers a wide array of online, one-day, weekend, week-long and other courses. Pricing for these starts at around 200 pounds.

Masterclass

A subscription to Masterclass gives one access to many high-quality video classes from chefs like Yotam Ottolenghi. You can download or print the notes and recipes from each class and add them to your cookbook collection or recipe file. An annual subscription costs around 200 pounds.

Sous Chef

One of the great things about Sous Chef, based in North London, is the availability of their Sets for Cookbooks. In one go, you get a cookbook and the set of unusual and/or premium ingredients used in the recipes within. Such a thoughtful (and efficient) gift idea.

Books by Chefs & Restaurant Cookbooks

Speaking of books, Britain has loads of brilliant chefs who've published scores of lovely and useful books—and they make great gifts. We recommend getting these from your local bookseller, perhaps a Waterstones.

A few authors to consider (in alphabetical order) for a book gift:

Mary Berry (Baking Bible, Simple Comforts and more)
Raymond Blanc (The Lost Orchard and more)
Mark Hix (British Regional Food and more)
Nadiya Hussain (Nadiya Bakes, Time to Eat and more)
Nigella Lawson (Cook, Eat, Repeat and more)
James Martin (Great British Adventure and more)
Thomasina Miers (Meat-Free Mexican and more)
Jamie Oliver (5 Ingredients, Food Escapes and more)
Yotam Ottolenghi (Plenty, Simple, Sweet and more)
Gordon Ramsay (Derisive Screaming and more)
Claudia Roden (The Food of Spain and more)
Rick Stein (From Venice to Istanbul and more)

This is a partial list. Who is your gift recipient's favourite chef? Many UK restaurants and locales have namesake cookbooks, such as:

Aran
The Borough Market Cookbook
Canteen
Dishoom
East London Food
Gail's Bakery
Gather
Hawksmoor at Home
The Incredible Spice Men
Monica's Kitchen
The Red Rooster Cookbook
The Ritz London
Rosa's Thai Cafe

And many more. If your foodie has a favourite restaurant, see if they've published a cookbook.

Gifts for British Foodies: Experiential Gifts & Festivals

Taste of London

This London food festival features 5 days of feasting from 30+ restaurants with 100+ dishes from 50+ chefs for 55,000 guests. Tickets to Taste of London could be a great gift. Pro tip: Perusing their list of participating restaurants is a great way to get ideas for a night out at a particular place.

A Market Trip

A day trip to a fantastic food market (your local or somewhere farther afield) is an excellent gift idea and there are so many fabulous markets to choose from. In London alone, we have Borough Market, Greenwich Market, Seven Dials and so many more. And within any of these markets are many gifting possibilities.

A Guided Food Tour

Some of the aforementioned markets are so rich with possibility and history, it's nice to have a professional guide take you through them—or through any number of other food-focused destinations.

In the UK's major metro areas, including London, one can easily find an abundance of food tour companies. One we can vouch for is A La Carte, which is run by qualified Blue Badge guides.

Coastal Foraging

A Coastal Foraging experience will teach you about edible seafood and where to find or catch it. These courses take place within 10 to 20 minutes of Tenby or Saundersfoot. A dash of local history gets added to the mix.

Gifts for British Foodies: Homewares and Gear

Blenheim Forge

If your foodie is in the market for a high-quality chefs knife, take a look at the hand-forged knives from Blenheim Forge. As a bonus, they also offer a knife sharpening class at their Peckham location in London.

'From start to finish our knives are carefully hand-made. We have spent many years fine-tuning our hand-forging process in order to create knives of the highest character and performance that are loved by world-class chefs and cooking-enthusiasts alike.'

Caro Somerset

Caro carries items that are so lovely, one feels compelled to buy them even when one doesn't really need them. If an essential non-essential is what you're looking for, look to Caro Somerset.

Soho Home

Another source for achingly beautiful and functional tableware and more is Soho Home based in Soho, London.

Tala

Founded in 1899, Tala is one of the oldest kitchenware, bakeware and cookware brands. Their dry cook's measure (one of many possible gifts from Tala) is still produced in the same way, on the same machines, as it was in 1934.