Six pro tips for a festive dinner

It is a well-known secret that most professional cooks and chefs spend very little time in their home kitchen, let alone entertain. Yet, they do have serious skills feeding large crowds. Moving into December, sustainable chef and author Sheila Struyck collected their experience and turned that into  six practical steps for achieving a manageable and budget friendly feast.

Rene Redzepi famously said in the Guardian: 'What we eat matters. There's no conflict between a better meal and a better world'. With that in mind we are happy to offer a starting point to plan your festive meal for the season:  

1 Plan for success. Start early and centre your thinking with the vegetables, legumes and grains you love. This helps to make a menu with a majority of pure plant ingredients, which adds flavour and colour. Having a wide ‘green’ array ensures guests with a vegetarian and vegan preference are automatically catered for, without extra fuss. Extra bonus, this is wallet and planet friendly. Determine your killer dish, that one part of the menu that needs to wow. Put all your energy and focus in this showstopper. Then surround it with alltime favourites. Serve dishes you know well to prepare. Routine and experience are fundamental for stress reduction. Want to try something new? Do a ‘dress-rehearsal’ one week in advance. Like all pro’s do.

2 Here and now. Fill your table with seasonal delicacies and freshness. Think pumpkins, brussels sprouts, chestnuts, pinenuts, jerusalem artichoke and mushrooms. Choose those that grow in your area. This means you have the freshest and best elements for your celebration. The taste of winter. Reinventing heritage dishes adds an element of nostalgia, everyone loves the flavours of their childhood. No need for food that travels the world by plane or is forced to grow in hothouses. This is a double whammy: your guests relive fond memories ánd you reduce your ‘CO2 and km foodprint’, Plus you don’t need to cross town searching frantically for that one exotic ingredient.

3 Search for small suppliers. Endeavour on a small sourcing safari in your neighbourhood two weeks in advance. Choosing local small suppliers and producers has many benefits. It is a great outing with young children. Seeing how animals are kept, and vegetables grow expands their palette and infuses them with a lasting love for nature. Your patronage allows small mom and pop business to continue their business. And you see with your own eyes the benefits of ethically raising and growing. Not only for the animals and the biodiversity but also for the quality of your ingredients. Every chef who values quality knows: a happy and carefree roaming life adds to the flavour.

4 Mise en Place. Key in any professional kitchen, everything is put in place before the restaurant opens. This means you create a menu you can have ready before the guests arrive. With starters and desserts that can be served at room temperature or cold from the fridge. The oven is a chefs best friend for warm dishes, allowing for controlled heating and reheating. Packing all the flavours in advance gives chefs tranquility to enjoy the process of preparation. Nothing to worry about when the familiy arrives!

5 Clean as you go. The first lesson in any culinary education. It may be tempting to plough on with the cooking and ignore the washing up, but cleaning after every step frees up your mind. It removes all the ‘I still need to do that…” from your busy brain. Enter laser like focus on the task ahead and free kitchen top space to work with. When you are ready cooking, you are really ready. Lastly, plan the cleaning! Serving family style from platters and asking guests to hold on to cutlery and glasses reduces the washing up, water and energy use.

6 Plate like a pro. Love your toppings and condiments. Add a crunchy element like toasted buckwheat, roasted seeds or a nori-sesame mix. This is visually and textural pleasing and creates a fine dining experience. Use exquisite oils and vinegars to create complex flavours. These live in your cupboard and don’t need cooking time. Repeat key ingredients in the garnish. Green fresh twigs of rosemary to your oven roasted rosemary potatoes guides your guests to tasting more elements and brightens up the brown tones. Add height to your plating. Put elements on top of each other, add vertical elements. This 3D thinking gives a clear fine dining experience. A plating ring helps to create towers.