Olives
On the whole, olives from supermarkets are a bad idea and taste awful. Olives Et Al is a small, Dorset-based firm founded solely on a passion for olives that borders on obsession, which means they're often in Europe sampling them. They do a huge range of wonderful crunchy, fleshy ones in different marinades, great olive oil and run a brilliant mail-order service with jars starting from as little as £4. They supply Harrods, Harvey Nichols and lots of top-end restaurants, and do oils and gift packs: 01258 474300; www.olivesetal.co.uk
And I do recommend Boots' Dip It - three different olive oils and three dishes for £12. Stockists: 0845 070 8090
Cheese
If you can't get to a Paxton & Whitfield shop (London, Bath, Birmingham and Stratford upon Avon), to be signed up for a monthly cheese box would be a pretty good Christmas present, as would their gift vouchers: www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk; 0870 264 2101
And there's no need to feel excluded from another of OFM's favourite cheese shops, Neal's Yard, which does mail order: 020 7500 7653; mailorder@nealsyarddairy.co.uk
La Fromagerie, a winner of this year's OFM Food Awards, is a favourite source of Christmas cheese supplies. They have London shops in Highbury and Marylebone and do mail order. They are also a must for my - and Nigel Slater's - favourite peppery olive oil from Granchiaia, £13.95 for 50cl: 020 7935 0341; moxon@lafromagerie.co.uk
If you're in the West Country, go to Dr Stephen Gunn's amazing Truro Cheese Shop, 01872 270 742; and in Edinburgh Valvona and Crolla who also do a mail order service: sales@valvonacrolla.co.uk; 0131 556 6066
Cheese accompaniments
These fruit mustards and jellies are all terrific with cheese, hefty Italian meat stews and sometimes ice-cream. I love the flavour of Crellow quince jelly, produced in tiny batches in Cornwall by a farmer who had to redeploy when his eyesight failed, so he started making the jelly from his mother's quince trees. He makes a number of relishes, from beetroot to a mustard-based one called Fruity Lilli, and supplies to local farm shops or mail order via www.foodfromcornwall.co.uk . Prices start from around £3. Waitrose also stocks a good delicately flavoured quince paste by Delicias Dorìa Natalia (£1.89).
Fortnum & Mason does delicious fruit mustards called Mostarda di Voghera, traditionally made and bottled in Italy by Barbieri (£6.80): mail order 0845 300 1707; www.fortnumandmason.co.uk. Another favourite is an equally traditional product, Le Tamerici's Mantuan mustard pickle (£4.85), available from Portobello Food: www.portobellofood.com ; 0208 980 6664. Portobello Food also does a mind-blowing soft cheese with truffles, Bianco di Langa (£24 per kilo). Eco Terra's Fig and Port conserve (approximately £3.45) is just about robust enough to stand up to this, too. This is a small company importing lovely things from Portugal, stocked by Harrods, lots of delis and House of Fraser, Birmingham: www.ecoterra.co.uk
Selfridges does a zesty little bottle of grape must called Arrope (£9.99), which is great with cheese, cold meats on Boxing Day and those fabulous drunken late-night white-bread turkey sandwiches: mail order 0870 8 37 7377; www.selfridges.com
Smoked salmon
I buy our Christmas supplies from the Hebridean Smokehouse because I've seen how they're reared and cured and feel totally reassured by their quality. This year they're launching a gift pack, Complete Hebridean, which would make a great present. For £34.50, inclusive of first-class postage and packing to all UK addresses, you get: 125g peat-smoked salmon slices; 100g peat-smoked seatrout slices; two 130g pieces of hot-smoked salmon; 100g of their new range of smoked scallops which have a sweet, delicate flavour and make a wonderful first course or canapés; 125 g pots each of peat-smoked salmon and hot-smoked salmon pâté plus a pack of Macleans Hebridean Oatcakes. But order soon: 01876 580 209; sales@hebrideansmokehouse.com; www.hebrideansmokehouse.com
RR Spink and Sons is an old Scottish family firm responsible for the kippers and Arbroath smokies supplied to Balmoral and Sandringham, and at some time during Christmas week both kippers and smokies with soft brown bread and butter are the answer to life. Spink and Sons also does smoked trout, salmon and mackerel - the products are stocked by Sainsbury's and Tesco. Stockists: 01241 872023
Andy Race does good organic smoked salmon (£30 a kilo), available by mail order: 01687 462626; sales@andyrace.co.uk
Or for an unusual alternative, how about smoked moda, barracuda or snapper from Selfridges (£39.95 per kilo).
Chocolates
L'Artisan du Chocolat was an OFM award winner and we love them for their unfailingly high standards, and the fact that they're still a tiny little shop making huge waves and getting their wonderful chocolate into all the best restaurants. So, luck holding, we'll be stuffing our faces with these: www.artisanduchocolat.com; 89 Lower Sloane Street, London SW3, 020 7824 8365
Fortnum & Mason's chocolates score highly on many counts, not least as an excuse to amble around the food hall. Their pencil-thin chocolate buyer, Chloé Doutre-Roussel, does mesmerising tastings, and packaging is sublime - lovely Oriental padded boxes, wonderful graphics on their dark chocolate selection (£22).
Cocoa-covered truffles (£14.40) this year will come from La Maison du Chocolat - absolutely delicious. The shop is in Piccadilly, London; 020 7287 8500;www.lamaisonduchocolat.com. And swirly chocolate painters' palettes will come from Hotel Chocolat, which has just opened its first London shop opposite Harrods in Montpelier Street. Mail order: 0870 442 8282; www.hotelchocolat.co.uk
Glacé fruits
My particular weakness. Good ones are rare, but Fortnum & Mason's are so good they bring tears to the eyes (so does the price, at £50 a kilo). They take me straight back to my childhood. A more economic version might be Eco Terra's glacé greengages, which come in a little round wooden box and cost just £12 (stockists as before).
Game
And if you haven't ordered a turkey yet, you could try Waitrose's free-range Four Bird Roast - a deboned goose is on the outside, stuffed with deboned turkey, guinea fowl and duck breasts from three ducks plus sausage meat. Much less effort for the cook than Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe, it feeds 15, takes around five hours to cook and costs £200. Contact your local branch or call 0800 188 884; email: customer_service@ waitrose.co.uk.
Whisky
Created in a single day - 24 August, 1972 - only 2,000 bottles exist of the Glenlivet Cellar Collection 1972 which explains its price tag: £400. What you get for your money is a bottle of deep amber-coloured whisky of extraordinary complexity, though if you find the prospect of consuming hooch at £25 a sip a little too nerve wracking, the distillery's other main release for the season - the Glenlivet 21- year Archive - is a mere £80 a bottle.
