& DRINK Season’s

Just like the rest of us, Christmas is set to be a pretty busy affair in Tom Aikens’ house – but, he tells with enough preparation, we can all dish up a drama-free day Tom’s Kitchen Deli in Dubai, and in December the chain (which has five sites across London, plus an international flagship in Istanbul), will open its first UK site outside the capital, in Birmingham.

Little wonder he’s looking forward to “getting out of the chaos of London” this Christmas.

At home, he will probably cook goose, duck or ham – and turkey, with mulled wine and port on the drink’s menu.

To avoid a Christmas cooking meltdown, he recommends getting as much done in advance as possible, and preparing things like vegetables, chipolatas, bread sauce and cranberry sauce the day before.

“I brine my turkey first and leave it out the night before, so it’s at room temperature and I know it’s going to cook evenly. Then when I get out of bed – I put it in the oven straight away and cook it really, really slowly, so when it comes to lunchtime, you’ve got a nice moist turkey.”

He says he isn’t “regimented” about having turkey on the menu, however.

“As a chef, I don’t want to always do the same thing at Christmas, and it’s nice to do something different.

“But I will always have Christmas pudding,” Tom adds. “That’s the one thing I won’t ever change.”

Here are three festive recipes from Tom’s Kitchen to try...