Three Gifts for the Chef Who Has Everything

Even the hippest cook with the best-stocked pantry is sure to be impressed with these special and small production ingredients crafted with incredible care by European artisans. With any luck, you'll be invited over to taste the results of your recipient's happy kitchen experiments!

Grande Reserve 8 Year Banyuls Vinegar

There are only 2,000 bottles of this unequaled French vinegar in existence. From all the Banyuls vinegar of La Cave de l'Abbé Rous, Grande Reserve has been hand-selected by an enologist (wine expert) for intensity of flavor and aroma and aged in oak casks for eight years.

This special vinegar is nuanced and bright, with notes of caramel, beeswax and black pepper. Use it to create a vinaigrette for a duck and dried sour cherry salad, reduce and serve it as a sauce for lamb or seared scallops, or add a splash to pear poaching liquid.

Green Walnut Syrup

This rich elixir from Italy is made with hand-picked green walnuts that are macerated in water and sugar for days and then cooked over a low fire with additional sugar and a secret blend of spices until thick and dark, velvety black. It is bursting with nutty, spicy flavors and aromas of nuts, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and allspice.

Green Walnut Syrup is wonderful drizzled over nut tarts, vanilla gelato, fresh cheeses and roasted poultry. For a digestif similar to the beloved Italian green walnut liqueur nocino, add a few teaspoons of syrup to a shot of vodka.

Marcona Almond Oil from Huilerie J. Leblanc

The importer friends who supply us with the incomparable nut oils of Huilerie J. Leblanc have managed an exclusive deal with the producer to present this small-production Marcona Almond Oil. It is lightly roasted, cold pressed, unfiltered, unrefined and 100% Marcona almond oil.

Use this light, elegant oil to finish a fillet of sole almondine, make a lovely vinaigrette for warm salads or drizzle over blanched green beans with fleur de sel. For a breakfast treat, try it instead of butter on pancakes.