New Delhi / Mumbai, 16 October 2026: This festive season, Foodstories presents its inaugural Festive Gift & Hosting Guide — A Joy of Gifting — an editorial exploration of gifting, entertaining and contemporary festive culture, created by a collective of people who shape the way we eat, live, host and celebrate. 

The Guide brings together food, gifts, recipes, hosting ideas, books, design, personal rituals and stories of provenance in one richly curated festive world. 

Over the past several months, Foodstories has brought together editors and writers, tastemakers and hosts, homegrown founders, growers and producers, and creative collaborators, to build a guide that reflects not only what we give, but the thought, people and stories that make a gift worth giving. 

The curation has been designed around the many ways people gift and entertain today — from corporate gifting to Mahjong parties, and different gifting personas from expat households and passionate hosts to protein enthusiasts, matcha girlies and those simply looking for something thoughtful to take to someone’s home. Across different tastes, occasions and relationships, the Guide offers an easier way to discover gifts that feel considered, personal and relevant. 

A special festive edit by Mira Rajput Kapoor brings her own philosophy of gifting to Foodstories through a selection of thoughtful, edible and useful gifts chosen for the way people actually live. Foodstories founders Avni and Ashni Biyani also share their personal discoveries and festive recommendations from across the Foodstories universe. 

The publication has been editorially curated by Smitha Menon and Samreen Tungekar, who bring together its many voices and stories into a singular point of view on contemporary gifting and hosting. 

Across its pages, Archana and Praachi Raniwala, Devika Narain, Heena Punwani, Arushi Mehra and other cultural voices share memories, rituals, hosting philosophies and the personal traditions they return to every festive season.

But the Guide also looks beyond the person receiving the gift to the many hands behind it. 

Readers meet founders and makers from brands including Libertario Coffee, Two Brothers India Farms, Satmya, Papa Patels and Beelicious Honey, alongside producers, growers and craftspeople whose work gives many of the products at Foodstories their distinct character, provenance and meaning. 

Together, these contributors form the larger story of the Guide: a collective of people coming together to make the act of gifting more thoughtful. 

The publication is also an extension of the role it increasingly hopes to play beyond the store — as a destination for people who are curious about food and the culture that surrounds it. 

Because food today is rarely only about what we eat. It shapes the way we travel, entertain, celebrate, discover new places, set a table, choose a gift and bring people together. 

“For the longest time, the great festive sport was Mahjong or poker. Today, we think there is another one — curating the perfect gift. The gift you give says something about you: your taste, what you have discovered, and how well you know the person receiving it. We wanted to make that process easier, more thoughtful and much more enjoyable,” say Avni and Ashni Biyani, Founders, Foodstories. 

The launch marks the beginning of a larger festive chapter for Foodstories, with the stories and discoveries from the Guide continuing across its stores, digital platforms and festive programming through the season.