--- title: "Holiday gift guide for fussy home cooks" url: "https://probablyworthsharing.com/newsletter/holiday-gift-guide-for-fussy-home/" author: "Marko Savic" published: "2022-11-28" type: "newsletter post" description: "How to find gifts people in your life will love. My family and friends will tell you I’m a very… particular person, that I’m very hard to buy gifts for…" source: "https://probablyworthsharing.substack.com/p/holiday-gift-guide-for-fussy-home" --- # Holiday gift guide for fussy home cooks *How to find gifts people in your life will love* My family and friends will tell you I’m a very… *particular* person, that I’m very hard to buy gifts for because I have strong opinions and will buy myself what I want or need. I wanted to provide a framework for when you have… *particular* people in your life who happen to also love cooking. Think of it as love languages for food lovers and the people who love them. You can view the [whole thing on my website](https://probablyworthsharing.com/gifts) filled with links to buy all the things (and recipes to make). So for the newsletter I wanted to focus on how to give gifts that matter. ![](https://probablyworthsharing.com/images/newsletter/holiday-gift-guide-for-fussy-home/91a8abbf-84f6-4d80-b7e9-6d0d3ca2b46f-9d10cd.png)### The gift giving values gap To give a gift that conveys love and meaning, you should show the person you understand them and their value system. When you impose your own value system you create a gift giving value gaps. I will demonstrate this by shamelessly making fun of my sister, and make myself seem quite rude. I hope this helps you. My values can be very rigid: I care deeply about things that are local, supporting independent creators, I believe that food should be made with natural ingredients, and I love home-made, hand-crafted, and fair trade products. Those are my values, it’s okay to have different ones. But these are mine! My sister values things that are branded, status-oriented, socially validated commercial products – and above all she loves hunting for a good deal. She refuses to pay more for an individual product than she personally believes it is worth. These are her values! This leads to our annual values gap. My sister asks what I want, I ask for some obscure-but-online-available chocolate or coffee – let’s say its $50 – something I probably wouldn’t buy for myself, but I would love. I only want the one thing, but she feels that it is a waste of money. “*I would **NEVER** spend that much on chocolate!”* is the usual response. The problem isn’t the money – she will inevitably buy me $200 of Lululemon clothes that I’ll never wear, a book of Beyoncé quotes, and a RuPaul chia pet (last year’s actual gifts). Inevitably, *“they were on sale”* gets mentioned. Well, they’re on sale at the thrift store now! When you put your values system first, you will disappoint yourself and your gift recipient when you give gifts that impose *your* *values*. Unless you’re doing this intentionally to make a point, you want to close this gap. Reflect on where you have shared values. For example, my sister does like to support her friends – and one of them makes home-made chocolates. I look forward to eating those chocolates on the way to the donation bin every year. ![](https://probablyworthsharing.com/images/newsletter/holiday-gift-guide-for-fussy-home/f325bdb5-7422-4844-b6cc-84c77481d43d-d62cdc.png)### So what kind of cook are you shopping for? If you’re not a cook yourself, people who cook might seem like a uniform culture of foodies – but knowing your foodie can help guide you to the right gift. Try to figure out their person: * Are they a baker? If so, do they usually make bread, cookies, or cakes? * Are they a from-scratch project cook? Or a weeknight meal person? * Are they always looking for a new hot sauce, chili crisp, or popcorn powder? * A midnight snacker? A weird coffee person? A pop culture fan? If you aren’t sure how to answer this question, think about what they cook or post on social media. Ask them questions: * What did you cook recently that you loved? * What’s something you want to cook soon? * Who do you follow for cooking on social media? To give a gift that conveys love and meaning, you should show the person you understand them and their value system – and try not to impose your own. When you use your value system you create a gift giving value gaps. ![](https://probablyworthsharing.com/images/newsletter/holiday-gift-guide-for-fussy-home/ebd15d97-d96c-4fce-897b-4eb9f6d907b4-552b76.png)There’s no right or wrong – it’s about understanding the person you’re shopping for. I hope you check out my gift guide. It covers gifts like: * [Independent creators who make beautiful objects for kitchens](https://probablyworthsharing.com/my-kitchen/blog/2022-gift-guide#creators) * [Kitchen tools under $30 that any home cook (or baker) can have 5 of (so you don’t need to worry about buying duplicates)](https://probablyworthsharing.com/my-kitchen/blog/2022-gift-guide#kitchen-tools) * [Bougie, expensive kitchen items when you want to spend money on someone](https://probablyworthsharing.com/my-kitchen/blog/2022-gift-guide#bougie) * [Pantry essential for different types of cooks and bakers](https://probablyworthsharing.com/my-kitchen/blog/2022-gift-guide#pantry) * [My favourite cookbooks of the year](https://probablyworthsharing.com/my-kitchen/blog/2022-gift-guide#cookbooks) * [Recipes that are easy to make and are great gifts](https://probablyworthsharing.com/my-kitchen/blog/2022-gift-guide#recipes) * [A bonus section on Made in Canada clothing](https://probablyworthsharing.com/my-kitchen/blog/2022-gift-guide#made-in-canada) I hope you enjoy this – I tried to put a lot of thought into all the recommendations. I’ll be back to regular recipe content soon, swapping Hot Tomato Summer for Ugly Vegetable Winter – coming to warm your hearts and fill your bellies through the season of cabbage. Marko