THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
Covid-19 has changed the way we socialise and celebrate, but it doesn’t mean this festive season has to be any less special. JORDAN KRETCHMER speaks to four people who have always done Christmas a little differently.
Jordan Kretchmer speaks to four people who have always done Christmas a little differently.
For many chefs, Christmas is a time to shut-up shop – but not for Guy Grossi, who’s been hosting his triple-threat December 25 extravaganza since he started running his restaurant Florentino 21 years ago. Most years, the build-up to Christmas runs strong from the spring racing carnival right up until Christmas Day. “It’s always busy, but also such a rewarding time of year,” he says.
This year will be a little different, but Grossi still believes that whatever the festive season looks like for each of us, the most important thing will be coming together – particularly for those in Melbourne. “One of the greatest things we can do is come together and socialise. Most people have been starved of this in 2020,” he says. “This Christmas, there will be restrictions and it will look different. But I hope that we can take time out with our family, just to take the focus away from the problems of 2020.”
Grossi is a man of tradition, and he is still holding out hope that he’ll be able to carry out the Christmas customs he, his staff and his family have practiced for years.
Typically, the chef hosts a three-pronged Christmas event: for his staff, his customers, and his nearest and dearest. “Every year, I make sure the team sits down for Christmas lunch. It’s really about doing a beautiful, simple family meal to take a moment to share before service,” says Grossi. Each year the menu changes, whether it’s roast chicken and all the trimmings, a beautiful shared pasta or cotoletta [veal schnitzel]. It also offers a moment of calm before the rush of lunch service, which sees around 90 jolly guests file into Florentino for a multi-course feast.
“Often it’s the same guests year after year, and they hold their tables. Many of them actually know each other,” says Grossi. Plates of antipasti, crab salad and turkey are served, before diving into Grossi’s signature crisp-skinned suckling pig. Finally after the last bits of panettone are devoured, Grossi heads home for the family Christmas dinner. There, he sits down with his wife Melissa, their children Loredana and Carlo, extended family and some longstanding team members (around 35 people all together). “It’s an action-packed day but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he says. They share plates of fresh seafood, a pasta course (“It’s not an Italian Christmas without pasta”) and Christmas pudding before heading to bed early after a marathon of a day.
When it comes to advice for hosting a great festive gathering, Grossi suggests keeping some simple tasks at the end to involve guests, whether it’s chopping herbs, making a dressing or plating something. “The family table is so much more than just sustenance,” Grossi adds. “It’s where you go to get emotional sustenance, and this year is going to be more important than ever.”