George Bernard Shaw once said, "There is no sincerer love than the love of food." While this is true, I also believe there's no sincerer gift than the gift of food. Come on, what could possibly be better than an edible present?

If you consider yourself short on culinary skills, or don't have time to cook for homebound loved ones, let the chefs at GourmetStation bring the bistro to them.

This Georgia-based company delivers first-rate three-and-four-course meals that fill both the heart and stomach with joy.

Launched in 2000 by Donna Lynes-Miller and her husband Jeff, GourmetStation became the first to market upscale, multi-course dinner gifts. It's also the first to feature a blog where customers can find fun ideas about dining and entertaining.

It doesn't surprise me that GourmetStation is also the select gift-giving service of corporations such as Smith Barney, British Airways & MasterCard; they use the freshest ingredients from high-end local upscale food manufacturers. Their meals are FDA and USDA inspected, and flash-frozen before they're shipped to the recipient via freezer truck.

You can pick whichever palate-pampering banquet you want, from Parisian to Tuscan and Euro-Asian to Americana. Three-course dinners include handmade appetizers, entrées, sauce, side veggies and dessert for two, and four-course dinners come with artisan bread, two 12 oz. servings of soup, your choice of entree, side veggies, and coffee or tea.

Imagine sending all this to your lonely neighbor down the street who comes home every night to boxed mac and cheese or pasta with (I'm ashamed to even say it) jar sauce. Maybe that new mom who barely has time to comb her hair let alone cook a meal from scratch will thank you forever for this gift.

Just think how they'd feel about appetizers such as quiche Lorraine and French style mushroom tarts or wild mushrooms baked in light, flaky pastry crusts. Entrées such as crisp chicken cordon bleu stuffed with sweet ham and Swiss cheese, seared salmon cloaked in lemon butter sauce, or tortellini with shrimp in a white wine lobster sauce are additional savory delights.

That's not even half of what the chefs at GourmetStation have to offer. You haven't even seen the dessert list yet.

GourmetStation may be an at-your-service, posh restaurant-in-a-box, but your recipients make the rules: they can keep their feast low-key in slippers and pajamas or take it up an octave by getting gussied up for the occasion and whipping out their best china!

Every order comes with candy and a floating candle. And starting December 1, 2008, GourmetStation will even provide some dinner music: a free mp3 download from Portuguese New Age musician Rui Serodio to create the perfect mood for this elegant food.

Go check out their site for yourself. Don't know which dinner gift to pick? Their gift-certificates are the perfect idea because they never expire. Unlike many other gifts, they never go out of style.

You or your gift recipient can sample gourmet food menus from around the world or make any birthday, anniversary or special occasion extra delicious while saving 10% at www.gourmetstation.com

--Danielle Travali