Growing up my foodie Dad had a huge section of his bookcase that was dedicated to cookbooks. I’d be able to rifle through books about indigenous Colombian cuisine, classic French cookbooks, and gorgeously photographed tomes of food from the Levant. I did notice, however, that he rarely, if ever, used these books. It turns out my parents needed that section not because my dad loves cookbooks, but because people love giving them to him. I wonder what would happen if they bothered to ask what he wanted instead of making a quick choice based on an interest they couldn’t possibly know the depth of. 

Twitter user @clairelizzie addressed the problem this past week by asking their foodie followers about the common foodie gifts they don’t want to receive. I, like my father, guess I could be considered a foodie. But people aren’t giving me cookbooks. They’re giving me infused oils and flavored salts that I will literally never use. One area of my cupboard can basically be considered a salt graveyard. At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I simply do not need any more truffled salt. And it seems I’m not alone. Loads of people shared contempt for seasoned salts, as well as flavored oils and single-purpose gadgets. While some people found the responses to be entitled, we enjoyed the banter in the thread’s comments. Sure, it might sound ungrateful to scoff at a set of sauces from Williams and Sonoma, but maybe you’d scoff too if you’d received them every year since you outed yourself as someone who simply enjoys cooking food.