PLANNING HOLIDAY MEAL
Prepare dishes ahead of time
Cooking shows portray chefs whipping up dishes, well-supported by staff who do all the chopping and prepping moments before a glamorous meal is due on the table. The reality, even for chefs, is that when it comes to meal preparation, it’s best to leave very little until the last minute. Rather, it’s smart to do as much work on your meal beforehand as is humanly possible. Learning to execute this concept is at the root of a successful holiday meal.
While at Christmas in November, the annual food festival in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, I surveyed several Canadian celebrity chefs, including Vancouver’s Vikram Vij (of Dragons’ Den fame), Toronto’s Mairlyn Smith (cookbook author and former standup comic) and Christopher Chafe (executive chef at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge).
Come Christmas Day, they all want to enjoy their friends and families, rather than spend the entire time in the kitchen.
Smith said she learned to cook differently after spending years as ‘The Christmas Martyr.’
She worked so hard the day of the big meal that “by the time everyone came, I wanted them to go home.”
Now, Smith has some key, go-to dishes that she can put together ahead of time.
She bakes cubed sweet potatoes with apples and cranberries a day or two early, and reheats just before dinner is served.
Likewise with chef Christopher Chafe.
“Do as much as possible before, and then just impress your guests as if you are pulling it together last minute.”
As a chef, Chafe likes lots of sides, but for regular folk, Chafe says three to four sides, including potatoes and a pureed root vegetable, is more than enough.
Here are two delicious and reliable dishes, all of which can be made in advance.
Do as much as possible before, and then just impress your guests as if you are pulling it together last minute.