Kitchen condiments from local chefs make great last-minute gifts for the foodie in your life

If there's a foodie in your life, no doubt they get really excited about condiments like salt and pickles. What might seem like mundane kitchen staples to you sparks a flicker of anticipatory deliciousness in their eyes. Here's a roundup of affordable condiments created by local chefs, perfect last-minute holiday gifts for the epicureans among us.

Get pickled

Boat Street Cafe chef and owner Renee Erickson has been making all manner of pickles at her restaurant for years. They accompany many of the appetizers and entrees on the Boat Street menu, including the cheese plate, the pate, the sardines and the pork belly. I can still remember a bite of crisp pickled onions that I took in the mid-1990s; they're that good. Starting in May 2008, Erickson has been making and canning jars of pickled onions, figs, raisins and prunes out of the Boat Street kitchen. Serve the plump, piquant raisins over blue cheese, drizzle the sweet and sour figs over vanilla ice cream or pull out all the stops and top your Christmas goose with pickled prunes. Each jar retails for about $9 and can be purchased at The Boat Street Cafe, Metropolitan Markets and Watson Kennedy.

Salt blends

There's more to salt than kosher or coarse. Salt aficionados ooh and aah over salts from all over the globe, from the Himalayas to Hawaii. Salt pairs well with savory and sweet foods; I've even had divine salt-flavored gelato. TASTE executive chef Craig Hetherington and his team have created Salt ++, a blend of kosher, Utah Basin red and Hawaiian black lava salt with flecks of toasted spices and an unexpected touch of cinnamon. Chef Hetherington pairs Salt ++ with eggs, pizzas and salads, and offers it on the tables for the guests to use as well. Available at TASTE at the Seattle Art Museum, a four-ounce tin is $3.99.

You can't go wrong with a classic steakhouse seasoning, and El Gaucho makes one that is just about as classic as you can get. Paul Mackay and corporate executive chef Ken Sharpe have combined kosher salt, black pepper, garlic, onion and cayenne as a delicious go-to blend for steaks, chicken, fish and vegetables. The El Gaucho Wicked Spice is a feisty blend of salt, three types of pepper and other herbs that redefines spicy. This fiery mixture works well with shrimp, beef or chicken and can be (parsimoniously) sprinkled on anything you would top with red chili flakes. Both El Gaucho blends retail for $15 and can be purchased at any El Gaucho location.

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