Would I make a good Santa Claus?
My annual holiday gift guide is back
Hola people of the world…how was your weekend? Have you chosen your Thanksgiving menu yet (if not, I might have an idea for you on Wednesday…)? This is about the time of year where it feels like everything is moving quicker and quicker around you—the days are literally getting shorter, and from now until January, it feels like one long string of holiday parties, cooking, doing errands, cooking, finding gifts, cooking some more…I am tired just thinking about it!
Today, it is time for my annual Longer Tables Holiday Gift guide, which hopefully will make your life a little easier as you’re scratching your head trying to figure out what to give your loved ones. And hey, if you’re a paid subscriber, remember if you haven’t used your Mercado Little Spain discount yet, you can get 15% off your purchase either online or in person. There are so many things there that will make the cook or eater in your life really happy, you know I wouldn’t steer you in the wrong direction, people!
Here are my recommendations for this year, from my team and close friends!
For the kitchen and table:
Tinned fish
We Spaniards have a love of taking the best ingredients at their peak—maybe it’s a specific vegetable with a short season, like white asparagus, or amazing seafood—and preserving them so you can enjoy them all year round. We’ve been canning for generations, people! Treat yourself or someone you love to some tinned fish and maybe open it on the afternoon of Christmas Day, when nobody feels like doing anything…all you need are a few toothpicks and a couple bottles of albariño. Sounds like the perfect stocking stuffer to me!
e-Fish
Speaking of fish…if you have a seafood lover in your life, consider getting them something from e-Fish—where you can buy some of the freshest seafood in the world. This is an especially amazing gift if your loved one lives in a place where it’s difficult to find really fresh seafood. You can of course buy in-season seafood like California bluefin tuna, or Love Point oysters from Maine, but you can also get more specialty items like uni…I always love fresh uni on my Christmas table!
Farmer Jones Farm at the Chef’s Garden
After your fish appetizer, maybe you want some vegetables? My friend Farmer Lee at Farmer Jones Farm grows seasonal produce for the very best flavor using regenerative farming techniques which create healthy soil. You can give a loved one a box of their produce, curate your own, or gift a subscription that delivers weekly, every two or three weeks, or monthly. They also have amazing pantry items like homemade preserves and freshly cut honeycomb.
Lindera Farms Vinegars
Vinegars are a great gift because they’re so versatile—you use them in everything from dressing your fish or your vegetables or making meats or even using them in cocktails. I discovered Lindera Farms Vinegars ten years ago—I think I might have been their first customer! They’re made in rural Virginia by Daniel Liberson, who my team and I worked with to create two new amazing vinegars, gazpacho and sangria.
Need an easy and quick gift idea…? Give a gift subscription to Longer Tables!
Olive oil
And what’s the best friend of vinegar? Olive oil, of course. I know I’m biased, but I really do believe that Spain has the best olive oil in the world…and it’s not just me, they win awards all the time! Extra virgin olive oils come from the first pressing of freshly-picked olives, and you can use them in everything…to cook, for salad dressings, for dipping bread.
Paella kits
Now it’s time for the main event! Of course I would tell you that if you want amazing, authentic paella, you just need to take your loved ones on a trip to Valencia (and people, they need all the help they can get right now, so if you can donate to World Central Kitchen this holiday season, we are on the ground there and many other places). But if you know someone who is obsessed with paella and loves to cook, think about getting them a paella kit. And if you love making it yourself, well…it’s ok to get yourself a little present as well.
Flying Disc Ranch Dates
It’s dessert time…and luckily, we are in date season, people! Fresh dates are usually in season from early fall right up until March, and dates are such a treat, with all their natural sweetness and perfect texture! There’s a funny story from my first visit to Chez Panisse, the Berkeley restaurant of Alice Waters, when she served me three dates and three unpeeled tangerines on a plate. That was the entire dessert! I thought she was joking…until I tasted the dates and peeled the clementines. You can do the same for your own holiday meals…it’s nice to end a big meal with a small, perfect dessert. Flying Disc Ranch dates are some of the best, though they’re a little hard to get outside of California…if you give farmer Robert Lower a call, you might get lucky. Tell him José sent you!
Tangerine Man
And then there are the unpeeled tangerines! If you live somewhere that’s cold and dark in the winter, a box of brightly colored, fresh citrus can go a long way in beating the cabin fever. Every year I order a case of tiny heirloom Kishu mandarins from the Tangerine Man, Jim Churchill, and his business partner Lisa Brenneis, who grow them on his 17-acre citrus grove in the Ojai Valley…I can eat 10 of them in a row, and still want to have another one. They’re perfect.
Caviar
How about a little bump for the road at the end of the meal? Does anything say “I love you” more than a tin of caviar? Ok ok ok…there is no getting around it: caviar can be expensive, but it is so special. It’s one of my favorite foods, and I will eat it with a spoon or straight off of my hand. There are many different varieties, but they should all come from a sturgeon. Much of what you can order at a specialty food store, online or in a restaurant falls into the osetra or sevruga categories of caviar. If you buy it in person, ask about the origins of the caviar—they should be able to tell you exactly where it came from. I love the Spanish brand Reál Caviar—you might not be able to get it in stores just yet, but come into my restaurants and you can try it!
Xuxos for breakfast
If you’re still hungry the next morning after your big holiday meal, you might want to treat yourself and your loved ones to Catalan xuxos for breakfast! You might ask me, “hey José…what the heck is a xuxo???” And I’ll tell you, it’s the croissant of the gods, because it’s fried, dusted with sugar, and filled with pastry cream! You can order these amazing breakfast pastries from Goldbelly…and while you’re there, check out what else we have, like our paella kit or an incredible burnt Basque cheesecake.
What to drink?
Raventós Blanc des Blancs or Mas del Serral
Maybe you read about Pepe Raventós and his winemaking projects a few weeks ago? Well, maybe you want to gift a bottle of his sparkling wines to a friend. For someone you don’t know very well, or a holiday party, you could bring the Blanc des Blancs or the de Nit. If you are looking for someone you love who loves wine, try to find the Mas del Serral. It’s an incredibly special wine, and I think of it as a piece of art as much as a bottle of wine. I promise it’s worth it—you can’t get this quality at the same price for a bottle of sparkling wine from the region further north that you might be thinking about….
Anything from Álvaro Palacios
If you’re looking for a beautiful red wine to go with all the amazing foods on your a holiday table, this is the one, whether you want to drink it yourself or bring it to a party. My friend Álvaro Palacios is a world-class winemaker and a world-class guy. And guys, it’s even more important to support Priorat right now—this year, they had some major wildfires due to a long drought in the region, so let’s make sure the winemakers can make it through by buying their wines!
For the cook, bartender, and entertainer:
Cazuela
If you’ve read some of the recipes here on Longer Tables, you know that they sometimes call for a cazuela, or a terra cotta baking dish that can also be a serving dish. These cazuelas are really functional and come in a couple different sizes, so they can be used for anything from paellas to tapas. They’re hand made in Catalonia and last forever!
Porrón
While I’m talking about Spanish kitchenware, I can’t forget about a porrón! Bring it out at your holiday party and get the fun started…just make sure to fill it with white wine, sparkling, or clara (beer and lemonade)—really anything but red wine unless you have seasoned drinkers…or if you plan on only wearing very dark colors!
Masienda
If you know someone who loves making their own tortillas, I think some heirloom corn masa harina from Masienda, an heirloom corn company that we work with at Oyamel and China Poblano, is an amazing gift! Pair it with their tortilla press and then invite yourself to their house for dinner.
Arcos steak and fish knives
There is a closeness we have with our knives, a personal connection…we have them in our hands when we cook, so I think a knife is a perfect present to give someone who loves to cook. I love the knives of Arcos, a centuries-old Spanish knifemaker, and these steak and fish knives, made for The Bazaar, can bring beauty to your dinner table.
For the bookshelf:
Zaytinya cookbook
Earlier this year, we launched the cookbook for our Eastern Mediterranean restaurant Zaytinya! I am so proud of this book…it contains some of my favorite recipes from Greece, Lebanon, and Turkey, featuring fresh, seasonal ingredients and amazing stories about the regions and the people who put so much love into the food. If you know someone who loves Zaytinya or Mediterranean food, it would be a great gift.
Alice Waters: Coming to my Senses
A few months ago I had the honor of speaking at a gala event celebrating the great Alice Waters, who received the Julia Child Award, which is given by the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, along with the team at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. It was an amazing way to celebrate someone whose impact has resonated way beyond the walls of Chez Panisse in Berkeley California (where of course I had my mind blown by those dates!!). Her memoir is the perfect gift for anyone who loves food and would be inspired by Alice’s legacy.
Katie Button: Cúrate
Katie Button is one of the most important chefs in Asheville, North Carolina (where I just visited, and people…they need a lot of help right now), and she is also a good friend—she worked with me many years ago, before she set off on her own. Her restaurants, Cúrate and La Bodega, bring Spain to Appalachia. She was on my podcast just about a year ago, so give her a listen when you have a moment, and give someone you love her cookbook for the holidays!
Feeding Dangerously
I don’t know if you know this about me, but I am a huge comic book nerd. Last year, the brilliant comic book writer Steve Orlando and I published Feeding Dangerously, a graphic novel about the work of World Central Kitchen. Steve joined the WCK team as we cooked after Hurricane Michael in Florida in October 2018…so he got a real taste of the work that we do. And then we started to work on the story, chapter by chapter, from when Hurricane María hit Puerto Rico to the eruption of the Fuego volcano in Guatemala…the story evolved and Steve was able to share more and more moments from WCK’s history. The amazing drawings are by the Italian artist Alberto Ponticelli.
A gift from the heart
Make your own membrillo
Sometimes the best gifts are homemade. They let the recipient know that you spent time making something with your own two hands, using ingredients that you found yourself. And the holiday season involves a lot of cheese boards, right? So of course it would make sense to make a big batch of membrillo, or quince paste, and give it away to the entertainers in your life. Maybe you’ve tried it at Jaleo but didn’t know exactly what it was…it’s that beautiful orange-red paste on the side of many cheese and charcuterie arrangements, and it’s sweet, a little tangy, and goes perfectly with so many cheeses.
So people…happy gifting!!
My annual Christmas gift to my family members is a donation, in their name, to World Central Kitchen.
You ARE Santa Claus (prove me wrong - I never see the two of you in the same place)!