What the experts recommend
The 12-year-old celebrity chef
In some ways, Omari McQueen is like any other 12-year-old whose mother worries that he “plays too much Fortnite”. But there aren’t many boys his age who make jackfruit wraps for their siblings’ lunch, says Bridget Harrison in The Times – and even fewer with their own cooking show. Omari is a vegan, and on What’s Cooking
Omari?, on CBBC, he tries to encourage other children to cook, and enjoy, plantbased food. “I want kids to know they shouldn’t be afraid of vegetables,” he says. Omari, who lives with his parents and five siblings in Peckham, south London, began helping out in the kitchen when he was about eight, to relieve his mother, Leah, who suffers from migraines, and his father, Jermaine, who works long hours as a bus driver. Now he does most of the cooking at home. He is, he says, bossy in the kitchen. His ambition is to be the next Gordon Ramsay – but “without the swearing and the meat” – and he is on his way: as well as fronting his TV series, he is CEO of his own dip-making company, Dipalicious, and has a recipe book coming out in January.
The myths of Christmas pudding
“Christmas is the most traditional time of the year, even if many of those traditions aren’t really very old,” says Annie Gray in The Daily Telegraph. And Christmas pudding is no exception: it’s a “great example of modern mythologising”. The origins of the dish do lie centuries back, in the late medieval dish plum pottage, which was often eaten in the Christmas season. However, it bore little similarity to Christmas pud as we know it, being a porridge-like concoction consisting of beef, wine and fruit. Plum pudding, which emerged in the 17th century, was more like the dish we eat today, though it wasn’t specifically associated with Christmas. It’s almost certainly a myth that George I (aka the Pudding King) demanded to be served plum pudding at the first Christmas of his reign: it was actually the Christmas-loving Victorians who “rebranded” it: the first reference to “Christmas pudding” is found in an Eliza Acton cookbook from 1845.
Christmas dinner in a box
If you’re “keen to let someone else bear the culinary burden” this Christmas, or the normal chef is not around, the good news is that “restaurants have us covered”, says Olivia Potts on Spectator Life. Home-delivery meal kits are one of the innovations that have kept the industry alive this year, and many establishments are now offering festive versions. For a traditional Christmas dinner, try Elite Bistros’ “Turkey and all the trimmings” box: it contains, along with the standard main course, a starter of potted mackerel and a whisky- and brandy-soaked Christmas pudding (£109 for two, elitebistros.com). Hawksmoor’s box features a starter of smoked salmon and soda bread followed by fillet steak, chips and creamed spinach (served with a bone marrow and madeira jus), and for dessert, sticky toffee pudding. The box, which also includes various drinks, “serves two extremely generously” and costs £165 (thehawksmoor.com). If you can manage Christmas dinner, but need help with other meals, you could consider the provision box that Tommy Banks (tommybanks.co.uk) is offering. It contains glazed ham, charcuterie, Courtyard Dairy cheeses, homemade mince pies, wine and a lot more, and costs £195.