Michelin-starred chefs may win awards but when it comes to cooking with love, few people do it better than a Dad. With that in mind, we’ve assembled a quick guide to some of the best food and drink gifts for Dad this Father’s Day, especially for Dads who love Italian cuisine. Father’s Day is this Sunday, June 16, so get shopping!
[Note: Appetito may earn commissions from products featured in links to this story.]
Fiero Forni Pizza Stone from Milk Street ($149.90)
Fiero Forni is well-known for its wood-fired pizza ovens, so it makes sense that they’d develop a first-rate pizza stone that delivers a perfect crisp crust every time. It’s manufactured to create great at-home pizzas, but it’s also designed for ease of use, with a steel frame featuring handles and lightweight construction. There’s also a sort of backboard built in so the pizza won’t slide off when Dad is transferring it from the peel. Bonus points: This stone can also work on a grill without cracking or burning.
SUADELA Explorers Club Membership ($239 + Shipping)
One of the best wine-tasting experiences I have had this year was a pairing of SUADELA wines with lunch at Eataly’s Bar Milano. I expected excellent pasta and starters from the team at Eataly, but SUADELA’s wines surprised me, representing the best of Italian varieties such as Barolo, Chianti Classico, and Brunello. SUADELA is a new brand that works with Italy’s most in-demand freelance winemakers to create limited-edition bottlings of their favorite expressions of terroir and style. Read more about the exclusive offer for Father’s Day, where the first two new subscribers to the SUADELA Explorers Club will receive access to the April shipment of two wines, with three bottles of each, featuring two acclaimed and in-demand wines:
- SUADELA Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2015 by Paolo Vagaggini, formerly of Biondi-Santi (95 Points, James Suckling); and
- SUADELA Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore DOC 2019 by Umberto Trombelli
Pasta Every Day: Make It, Shape It, Sauce It, Eat It by Meryl Feinstein (Hachette Book Group) ($18.21, Amazon)
This exciting pasta cookbook, published late last year, just won the James Beard Award for single-subject cookbook, and has earned raves from The New York Times, Bon Appétit, and others. Author Meryl Feinstein has written a guide for making and cooking pasta that is accessible for newcomers and inspirational for accomplished home cooks, and every Dad in-between.
YesChef Cooking Subscription ($119.88/annual)
YesChef features online immersive video cooking lessons in 4K from some of the world's best chefs and food personalities, including Darrio Cecchini, Nancy Silverton, and Jamie Oliver, all of whom are beloved for their Italian cooking but also are great teachers of culinary skills. YesChef is offering 35% off its subscription price for Father’s Day so you can help Dad become an even better cook!
Shaker & Spoon Pacific Negroni kit ($16) & Bottle of Ford’s Gin ($36.99)
Founded in Brooklyn “by two designers with an overfilled liquor cabinet,” Shaker & Spoon produces boxes of ingredients to help people make better cocktails (and mocktails) at home. They offer subscriptions as well as standalone boxes, usually in collaboration with world-class bartenders and mixologists. I tried the Pacific Negroni kit, which includes pandan syrup, Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters, and unrefined coconut oil for fat-washing an Italian bitter spirit. Liquor isn’t included in the boxes, so I’m suggesting a pairing with Simon Ford’s excellent Ford’s gin. The Shaker & Spoon kit elevated my cocktail mixing game exponentially, and they have many different offerings to explore on their website, including the Speakeasy Box, with incredible offerings curated by hosts of the Speakeasy podcast, including esteemed bartenders and writers Damon Boelte, Sother Teague, and Greg Benson.
Ooni Karu 12 Pizza Oven ($299, Ooni)
Ooni is a leader in at-home pizza ovens, and for the Dad who is still making pizzas in the kitchen, this is an excellent entryway to outdoor pizza cooking. The Karu 12 uses wood or charcoal to fire up 12-inch pizzas in just about a minute (a gas burner, available for $99, can be attached for more controlled cooking). The Karu 12 is also lightweight at 26.5 lbs., so it can be moved around the yard depending on where the hungry crowd awaits a delicious, home-made pie!
The Sfoglini Pasta Club Half-Year Subscription ($110)
Here at Appetito, we love fresh pasta, imported pasta from Italy, and even domestically made pasta when it’s as good as Sfoglini. This established pasta brand from New York’s Hudson Valley uses organic durum semolina from North America in most of its pastas, as well as New York organic whole grains in its specialty pastas. Known for creating shapes designed to grip pasta sauces, including collaborations with pasta shape-obsessed podcast host and author Dan Pashman of The Sporkful, Sfoglini offers a pasta club subscription that makes a great gift for Dad, with two shipments of six boxes of pasta each including three boxes of semolina pasta and three boxes of specialty pasta (grains, flavored versions, and limited-edition shapes).
Of course, if you haven’t already given the gift of Appetito, here’s a reminder than an annual subscription to our site not only helps us keep delivering the latest Italian food and drink news, recipes, features, and guide, but it comes with premium gifts from our partners at Bona Furtuna, including their award-winning olive oil. Subscriptions are available for $49.99 or $99.99 annually.
