Start your Christmas Day sunny side up

THE BRUNCH BUNCH Australian cook and restaurateur Bill Granger keeps things light and bright before the big feast. He shares his hit dishes with Madeleine Howell

Bill Granger, the Australian restaurateur behind London’s four Granger & Co restaurants and a string of others in Sydney, Toyko, Honolulu and Seoul, is in no small part responsible for the global proliferation of avocado on toast. His debut cookbook, published in 2000, featured smashed avo (with a lick of lime juice) on sourdough, and he’s been widely hailed as its champion ever since.

But don’t hold that against him. Granger’s food is sunny, colourful and wholesome, and he has made his name with brunch menus that riff on big bowls of protein-packed salads. Unsurprisingly, it’s his favourite meal of the day. “Brunch is informal and casual,” he says, “and tends to be eaten with people you’re close to. It should feel like a kitchen supper, rather than a formal meal.”

For Granger, incorporating brunch into your festivities is a way to relieve the stress of entertaining – and because his dishes are packed with eggs, fish and fresh fruit and vegetables, they’re a welcome counter to the heaviness and richness of meat-heavy winter dinners.

“Save yourself for the traditional feasts of Christmas Day and Boxing Day,” he advises. “A light, colourful brunch on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day morning, before you have your main meal at perhaps three or four o’clock, balances that out. It also means you only have to worry about two meals for the day. If you’re the cook of the family and the entertainer, Christmas can be exhausting, so these are all simple dishes that deliver bright and refreshing flavours.”

For the all-important brunch cocktails, Granger suggests clementine juice topped up with prosecco or champagne. “You could also make a pear juice cocktail with a bit of cinnamon and cardamom, topped up with gin and soda. Or use Seedlip’s non-alcoholic spirits. I like the Fever-tree spiced orange ginger ale – it feels cosy.”

His favourite days of the season are between Boxing Day and New Year. “The pressure of Christmas Day is over, but the house is set for entertaining – it’s a time of abundance: nuts, cheese, chocolate, chutneys.”

And while the fun and games continue, he keeps everyone’s energy levels up with wholesome dishes of glazed salmon and baked eggs – and even the odd slice of avocado on toast.

‘These are all colourful, simple dishes that deliver bright and refreshing flavours’