Chef's To The Royal's Share Their Top Tips For The Perfect Christmas Dinner This Year
With Christmas only a handful of advent calendar doors left to open away, it’s time to start thinking about the main event for the big day. Now, as we all know, this year is a little out of the ordinary, but that doesn’t mean that you have to miss out. Replacing quantity with quality - we have done some digging and found some expert tips that are loved and used by Royal Family chefs across the world, but are super simple to incorporate into your own festive feast.
We have enlisted the help of Signature Staff, a 60-year-old British company who provide only the best and highly sought-out exclusive household staff, including our aforementioned chefs to some of the most prominent Royal and Celebrity families across the globe. Before they jetted off to get their prep on, they came up with eight tips and tricks to give your Christmas dinner the royal treatment.
Sticking to what we all know and love best, the classic English Christmas Roast is again a key trend for many families this year, but with a modern-age twist. Taking these simple yet classic dishes and adding high-quality and unusual ingredients to create something quite special for 2020.
Canapé or Not To Canapé
Canapés are are great idea for Christmas but are often overlooked. This year, why not try having a small selection of delicious 'finger food', always on hand (excuse the pun) to keep people happy and satisfied until the main event. There is nothing worse than smelling all of the delicious food being cooked and not being able to eat anything for hours - and being shooed out the kitchen by a chef on a mission.
One Bird, Two Stones
Turkey is absolutely still one of the most popular choices this year, although Signature Staff recommends breaking down the bird if you are keen on sticking to this classic. Dividing it up the bird will allow you to roll the breast and stuff it before cooking - you can then marinate and cook the legs separately to ensure you always get the most moist meat that everyone wants.
A Royal Win: it also helps to reduce cooking time and leaves you with more space in the oven.
Be a Duck In a Flock of Turkeys
Although turkey is still the main choice, this year, a lot of people may choose to opt for something a little less traditional. There are plenty of delicious and succulent meats you can choose that work amazingly well with all the best-loved side dishes. Keep things still traditional by opting for goose or duck - go a little further off course with partridge, pigeon or squab - especially if your group is a little smaller than usual. These meats are smaller in size but packed full of flavour. Or why not go the whole hog and go for something even crazier:
Some of the meats our Royal’s will be eating this Christmas:
Pork Cooked in Milk with Sage and Lemon Zest. This can be cooked in advance and simply left in the oven. Serve with red cabbage, sprouts and roast potatoes. This will bring an alternative, Italian-themed celebratory feel.
Osso Bucco, Veal Shanks, or Veal Chops. A very different alternative, but still very classy. Osso can also be prepared in advance and left to rest while you work on the rest of the feast. It is an expensive style of meat, but well worth a try, especially this year - we all deserve a treat.
Pan-fried duck breast with all the trimmings, or a Slow Roast Duck Leg with Quince and Marmalade sauce. Duck offers a rich and complex flavour you don't get with Turkey and adds a little extra layer of luxury.
Prep, Plan and Execute
Once you have decided on what you are serving, make sure to lay out a plan in advance. We do not recommend leaving everything until Christmas morning! Buy as much as you can in advance so you aren't running around at late notice when nothing is open, nothing is left or another lockdown occurs. Try to get as much off your plate as possible before the big day comes, leaving you with simple and achievable goals on the day, and more time to spend with those you love.
A Royal Plan: peel the potatoes the day before and leave them in water either outside, if it's cold and not much room, or in the fridge. Red cabbage can be made in advance, sprouts can be pre-prepared and gravy can even be made a few days prior and frozen - just defrost on the day and re-heat just before serving. All puddings can and should be generally prepared ahead of time and frozen or fridged.
The Potato Is King
Roast potatoes are the most important part of a meal for our chefs to get right. They recommend Maris Piper or King Edward’s for the best results. Make them in advance when you have a free oven - spread across a few trays to ensure they all have enough space around each potato to get extra crispy. Potatoes do not like to be crowded. They keep their 2-meter-social-distancing super serious.
A Royal Tip: Cook in advance - and when it comes to serve, reheat at a high temperature to get them even more crispy. Just make sure they are warmed all the way through.
We Eat With Our Eyes First
The meal isn't just about what you are eating. Get creative when choosing your colour scheme and decorate the table with some effort and elegance. This can go a long way into making everyone feel festive and puts less pressure on the cook themselves - as everyone is already halfway there with the celebrations already!
A Royal Tip: When decorating your plates and table use this simple chef's rule. When in doubt - garnish! A simple piece of holly, pine needles or pine cone on the plate or scattered across the table works a treat at this time of year. Just ensure the kids watch their hands!
Double Dip Dishes
We find that very few people don't like the traditional side dishes - stuffing - be it meat-based or vegetarian / vegan and it always goes down well with children - so our biggest tip is to ensure you always have plenty of them. So people can pick and choose what they want and go back for seconds. Cauliflower cheese is also a good dish as it can be made in advance and everyone enjoys it. Make sure to have some green beans and broccoli or frozen peas in the freezer to bring out, as they can just be boiled and ready in minutes on the day, but also go into a nice boxing day salad the next day if not used.
But Most Importantly - Have Fun!
It is so easy to get stressed on the day, but by preparing in advance it will help take the load off - also don’t be afraid to rope people in if you need help. Christmas should be fun for everyone and those little moment of preparing these meals for our families, together creates a lifetime of memories and by mixing things up a little this year will help make the experience fresh and new and forget about all the troubles from the past year.