Top Five Gourmet Food Gifts

When I first started out in the business world, the accounting firm I worked for sent "gourmet food" baskets as Christmas gifts to all of its corporate clients. Invariably, the baskets were filled with overpriced summer sausage, plastic-tasting cheeses, and maybe a tin of stale cookies.

If you have true foodies on your gift list this year, however, they will be looking for more useful and special gourmet foods in their basket. Think about gifts that they can use to cook with rather than eat directly. Here are the top five gourmet foods I would love to see in a gift basket this year:

1. Natural truffle oil

Truffles are a delicacy related to mushrooms. They impart an earthy nutty flavor to foods. As actual truffles are incredibly expensive, foodies turn to truffle-flavored oils to impart the taste of truffles without taking out a second mortgage. Most truffle oils are not made from actual truffles but from a synthetic compound. Try to seek out natural truffle oil even though it will be a bit more expensive.

2. Smoked salmon

Thin slices of smoked salmon are popular in appetizers that often include cream cheese on crackers. Choose a high quality wild salmon from either Alaska or the east coast of Canada. Smoked salmon lasts without refrigeration for extended periods of time when vacuum sealed.

3. Aged balsamic vinegar

The Italians are as serious about their balsamic vinegar as they are about their wine. The vinegar is actually a wine reduction aged over many years. Like wine and cheese, the longer that balsamic vinegar is aged, the more complex and sublime the flavors become. Also like wine, the more you spend on it, the better quality it is likely to be. Look for a traditional Italian aged balsamic vinegar that is at least 8 years old.

4. Vermont (or Canadian) maple syrup

There is nothing on the planet quite like real maple syrup. Real maple syrup is a gourmet treat not only for drizzling on pancakes but as an ingredient in baking and cooking. Choose maple syrup from Vermont or Canada- the two largest maple syrup-producing areas in the world. The top grades of maple syrup are Grade A in the United States and Canada #1 north of the border.

5. Kona coffee

This dark rich coffee bean comes from the Kona district of Hawaii and is the only commercial coffee grown in the United States. Its quality is legendary and, as such, Kona coffee commands a high price. Be careful of coffees labeled anything other than "100% Kona". There are many blends that contain only 10% Kona coffee and include cheaper foreign coffee grinds. The real thing is worth it.