With less than a month to go, it’s time to start thinking about your Christmas food shop… Or is it? I spoke to some top chefs and restaurateurs about how they approach the most important meal of the year and asked them for their pro tips on making it one to remember (for the right reasons).
“I have learnt from experience to buy things when you see them as opposed to when you need them,” advises David Moore, owner of Pied à Terre in Fitzrovia. “Start off by writing out a shopping list – right down to the last grain of salt and twist of pepper – and don’t allow yourself to get carried away with impulse purchases. Only perishables should be bought last-minute to give you the longest possible second, third and fourth servings.”
This sensible approach does, of course, have a drawback: you miss out on the strange festive joy of scouring the aisles for last-minute bargains. “I like to get mine done in the week building up to Christmas,” says recipe developer and presenter Sophie Wyburd. “There is something so festive about lining up for your bits in the butchers, the cheese shop and the supermarket. I don’t even mind the queuing.”
It’s not only the timing of the Christmas food shop you need to worry about but the focus. “Buying too many different things is a common mistake,” says Jacob Kenedy, chef-owner of Bocca di Lupo. “Getting fewer things makes for an easier day and also a better meal. One meat or fish, with two or three vegetables and one sauce will simply taste better than a buffet of a thousand things collapsed into a pile of mush on your plate.”
I have learnt from experience to buy things when you see them as opposed to when you need them
Moore says you should think long and hard about where you source your Christmas turkey and advises against the false economy of plumping for the cheapest one. “Poultry can’t and shouldn’t be left to chance,” he says. “it’s a big investment in time and enjoyment; the best ever turkey I have found is from Fortnum & Mason. It is so worth the extra money as the meat has a wonderful, unctuous flavour and texture.”
Wyburd says she tends to forgo the turkey altogether, favouring “basically any other meat on offer”.
For the later courses, Wyburd says Mont d’Or is “the ultimate festive cheese,” although she advises against over-buying for your cheese board: “It is much easier to buy three big chunks of something to avoid an overcrowded situation – I go for something hard, something blue, and something soft and stinky.
Moore, Wyburd and Kenedy all said they would ditch the traditional Christmas pudding. Kenedy says he’s partial to a “very boozy” Raspberry sherry trifle, Moore recommends mince pies from Konditor + Cook – “simply the most delicious mince pie on the planet” – while Wyburd says her husband has won her around to eating a banana topped with brandy butter.