& DRINK Make a meal of 2017 G
IZZI ERSKINE is on a mission to make holiday feasting easier for everyone. Fed up with fiddly foodstuff like Hors d’oeuvres and aperitifs, she thinks simplicity is the key to entertaining at home.
“I swear, if I go to one more dinner party where it’s canapes and amuse bouches...” says the 37-year-old chef, breaking into an exasperated laugh. “No chefs eat like that at home, so why make it?
“Those things are made for restaurants. That’s the exciting thing about going to restaurants, so if you’re making that, you’re just showing off!”
Her solution is the humble buffet. But before you start threading cubes of pineapple and cheese onto toothpicks, Gizzi has something more upmarket in mind.
And in her latest cookery book, Season’s Eatings, a celebration of food for occasions from Halloween to New Year’s Eve, she outlines her plan.
“One of the things I’ve really tried to bring back in this book is the buffet,” she says.
“We used to do it so well in the UK, but now we’ve stopped making it a thing, because we’ve all got a bit posh and think a buffet isn’t. Well it is, and it can be! It’s still impressive.
“If someone wants to contribute, you can make space for the things they’ve brought along. It’s so much cheaper and so much less work.
“You might make a big ham and then loads of salads, a cheeseboard, some charcuterie.
“It’s easy, and it means everyone can focus on eating and the host can get everything done in advance.” Forget faffing with fiddly canapés – it’s time to embrace the British buffet again. Gizzi Erskine tells
how to see in the New Year in fab foodie style
Although Gizzi adores the festive period enough to devote an entire book to it, New Year’s Eve leaves her cold.
“I’m turning into an old man – but it’s expensive, you can’t get in anywhere, and you can’t get to the bar,” she says with a sigh, revealing she’ll either be abroad with friends or working when the clocks strike midnight.
Born in Dumfries, before moving to London as a child, Gizzi trained at Leiths School of Food and Wine, before her presenting career started in 2005. She hosted Channel 4’s Cook Yourself Thin from 2007-2010 and is now a regular on cookery shows, as well as a food columnist and author.
Owning her own restaurant, she says, is “the dream... eventually”.
“The problem is I’m a stickler for detail,” says Gizzi, known for her love of vintage Sixties clothes and memorabilia.
“I don’t want to just hand over my brand name to a restaurant;
I took this round to some pals and they loved it. It’s one of my staple buys when I want a cheap bottle of fizz and it has extra wow factor with its flute-shape bottle. A crémant is made in the same way as champagne and this one is fizzled by fresh apples and vanilla. With its looks and its taste, my pals thought it was worth around £17.
This fizz is produced in Argentina from pinot noir grapes which give the wine a light rose colour and fresh red fruit flavours, with hints of strawberry and raspberry. There’s more depth than in your average sparkle and a good acidity that makes it very drinkable. I really want to be involved. I want to cook. What people don’t realise is that I am actually a real chef, so I don’t want to just pass over or do development to the recipes.”
So why don’t people know she’s a trained chef?
“I think people just presume I’m a domestic cook because I’m a girl,” she says, noting that her experience in the restaurant industry has been positive.
“I get a lot of, ‘Where are you a chef?’ And I’m like, ‘Well actually I work here and here’, but I don’t scream it because I don’t feel it’s necessary to have to prove my credentials all the time.
“It’s that weird misogyny that you find in the media. They just presume that you’re not capable because you’re female, or because I like to wear nice clothes, that you can’t be a serious chef... I just crack on and do what I do.”
Want to crack on too? Here are two lovely recipes from Season’s Eatings to keep guests happy...
A blend of traditional champagne grapes, with pinot noir taking the majority share, it has fresh and dried apples on the nose, together with caramelised apples with hints of brioche. There’s a touch of creaminess too and a good structure which the pinot noir brings. This fizz from Kent is gloriously rich and fruity with deep fruit flavours running from citrus to strawberries. If you’re serving any seafood at your New Year party, this is the wine to go with it – in fact, make sure the seafood is of good enough quality to avoid embarrassing the wine. (PS I’ve also found this wine on Amazon Prime).