Christmas is but days away and we've asked some of our favourite foodies what they have planned for the festive week ahead.
Chris Thornton, Restaurant Mason
We don't really have any weird and wonderful Christmas traditions. Myself, Ami and the kids tend to just spend Christmas morning together at home. For Christmas lunch we always have pork, ham, chicken and turkey, potato bake, salads and a few beverages. Usually my brothers are off somewhere around the world and Mum and Dad are away caravanning, so we'll spend the rest of the day with Ami's family. We take it in turns as to whose house we have it at. When it comes to cooking, we spread the load around. I always do the ham and the stuffed and rolled pork belly (all supplied by Mick at Hungerford Meat Co). The restaurant is shut for a few days over Christmas. Saturday the 21st is our last service and then we are back on Friday the 27th.
Lisa Margan, Margan Restaurant and Wines
Christmas is all about gathering your nearest and dearest together, so that's the focal point and we make it special by creating some tasty meals and moments around that. Our kids have all been living away from home while at university and will arrive for Christmas Eve so we make this meal special. The favourite family meal in our home is my roast chicken (they voted!) so that is always what we have for Christmas Eve, matched with a special chardonnay. Before that we will have a nice bottle of champagne, with some Port Stephens or Wallis Lake rock oysters. For dessert this year I will make a tarte tatin from the incredible apricots growing in our orchard.
Our kids all work in hospitality, so they are real assets, and we all have our jobs on Christmas Day. Setting tables, chilling wines, preparing food ... it's all action. We'll have grazing plates for entrée (oysters, prawns, rillettes, dips etc) then for the main event we always have a baked ham and duck, roasted potatoes (in duck fat) and a few sides. A cheese selection follows, then traditional pudding with rum butter and custard. Cooking is a family effort. Andrew is always across the baked ham and plays around with his marinade, perfecting it each year. My Mum always made the Christmas cakes and Andrew's Mum the pudding, but we have lost both these ladies now, so this year Andrew has made the pudding and I have made the Christmas cakes - both from old family recipes which is a nice way of keeping their memories alive.
There will always be raids to the wine cellar, cool room and cellar door for things we need. The business always closes for Christmas Day and Boxing Day as we want to allow our team to enjoy time off with their families and these holidays without working. We personally try to take time off over these weeks before we start picking grapes for vintage (early January) as then we don't stop for six weeks.
Frank Fawkner, EXP. restaurant
Ever since my wife and I returned from travelling over in the UK in 2010 I have made pancakes for Christmas breakfast at Grandma's. They're always served with chantilly cream, maple syrup, blueberries and strawberries, sometimes caramelised banana. Then we head off to another grandparent's place for lunch where all the extended family comes and everyone brings a dish each. This year I'll be doing herb pork tenderloin with plum sauce and a few salads. I might also sneak in a few cheeky sausage rolls and condiments. EXP. restaurant is closed for a week and a half over Christmas but Fawk Foods will be open most of the time, excluding the public holidays. This is a very special Christmas with our new addition to the family, little Olivia, so I am really looking forward to some time off. We will do a Christmas Eve dinner at my place where Emma, Hugo, Olivia and I will be joined by my younger sister, her husband and baby Remy. Dinner will be something light, definitely a prawn cocktail followed by steaks of local Hunter wagyu on the charcoal barbecue and cheese to finish.
Reece Hignell, Cakeboi and MasterChef
Christmas is 100 per cent family and friends time. On Christmas Day, those who can make it have a family breakfast then we all dart around seeing other friends and family. I am always in charge of the Christmas menu - I wouldn't have it any other way - and each year I try to mix things up. This year I wanted to opt for something a bit lighter than the traditional ham by doing a side of salmon with a delicious mango and avocado salsa. Christmas dessert is my thing! This year I will be working on an Instagram-worthy trifle with layers of passionfruit set mousse, fudge chocolate brownie and toasted meringue. With my cake business Cakeboi officially being launched, I am run off my feet with Christmas cake orders. This year my Christmas cake is a rosewater, pistachio and cherry cake which I am taking orders for right up to Christmas Eve.
Stephanie de Sousa, MasterChef
We put our tree up on Christmas Eve and we take great pride in it being the ugliest tree of anyone we know. All the decorations have been made by the kids when they were little. Some of them are 24 years old now, so you can imagine the state they are in! We also have a tradition of having breakfast together. A lot of us have worked in hospitality so breakfast was often the only meal we could manage to be all together for. Whoever isn't working or heading off somewhere else will head down to the lake for the afternoon. Swimming, playing, drinking nice wine and eating fresh seafood. On the menu is croissants, leg ham, poached eggs and hollandaise, the most mature cheddar cheese I can find, mango, watermelon, cherries, fresh orange juice and lots of coffee. I will have all four of my children and their partners and my lovely husband with me. On Boxing Day I am heading off to Queensland to visit my family for a week and then I am off to take on India for a month! Exciting things are on the horizon. I will be doing the cooking, of course. That is how I show my family I love them.
Liz Love, Newcastle Herald dining critic
As we've been privileged to have spent Christmas in several different countries, we have experienced a range of traditional foods. Glogg and gluhwein, roast turkey, ham and all the trimmings in Canada and the UK; oysters, foie gras, capons, buche de Noel and 13 desserts (a Provenal specialty) in France.
In Australia we go for a menu suitable to the weather but with a nod to our British heritage. Prawns, freshly shucked oysters, salmon gravlax, glazed ham, salads, Christmas pudding, custard, with summer pudding or pavlova for the dried fruit phobics. Things which are a little bit luxurious and special. This year will be at Fingal Bay with both our children and their families. This alternates each year with the in-laws. Arthur, my husband, does a lot of the cooking now that I'm in a wheelchair, under direction from me. He's pretty adept at shucking oysters.
Alice Lees, Baked Uprising
I adore Christmas lunch. I am torn between formal Christmases and the more casual way of celebrating that seems to suit Australian summers. I always love when my Mum cooks a traditional roast. Cheesy carols are usually playing in the background and this is the one time of the year her special crockery makes it out of the cupboard. My love of the sweet treats we sell at Uprising started in my Mum's kitchen. I have made our family's mince pies since I was a teenager and Mum had me rolling rum balls from when I was small enough to need to stand on a stool to be able to see the bench. The smell of the spices and booze-soaked fruit always evokes childhood memories of time spent with Mum making these treats.
It's why this time of year is so special and fun at the bakery - everything I loved as a child still comes out of my oven at the bakery, just on a much bigger scale.
Cooking at Christmas is an all-in affair. It's lovely seeing family and friends bring food to the table that they enjoy cooking or something new they want to try making and sharing. Or, in some instances, their favourite item from the grocery store shelves.
Since becoming part of my partner Kyle's family Christmases, I have been introduced to new Christmas experiences - his huge family celebrates by everyone bringing their favourite dish to lunch and setting up a Christmas grazing room. There is plenty of seafood, cold cuts and salads as well as multiple Christmas puddings (Kyle's dad makes the best pudding). The day usually ends with a vicious game of Canasta and lots of chocolate.
This year Kyle's cousins are hosting Christmas in Singleton. His parents live in Laurieton and have an oyster farm. Naturally I have put in my request for a stupid amount of unopened oysters so on Christmas morning I will happily find a quiet spot to sit and shuck them, following the rule of one for me and one for someone else. Apart from oysters and Christmas morning with Kyle's family, I won't be missing out on a late Christmas lunch with my parents in Newcastle. Kyle and I will be bringing along a pavlova, a Christmas cake which will probably be eaten with some cheese, and a stuffed porchetta using our Uprising lemon, barberry and macadamia stuffing.
If I can manage it, I will squeeze in an afternoon dip at the beach between attending Kyle's family celebrations and my parents'. Wherever I end up celebrating you can guarantee that at some point I will make myself a plate of leftovers, head home, and watch Die Hard in bed while stuffing my face (again).
We shut the Maryville bakery early on Christmas Eve so our staff can go out and get ready for their own celebrations. The Maryville bakery and Harris Farm bakery will be closed on Christmas Day. We will close the Maryville shop front for a few days in the New Year, although out the back in the kitchen our bakers and pastry chefs will still be busy preparing wholesale and to stock the shelves at Harris Farm. We celebrate Christmas with the staff later in the year when things have calmed down.
Brian Lizotte, Lizotte's
We usually spend Christmas on the beach with champagne. Last year we were in Ireland and had the big spread. Now, we do it meatless, with a bit of fish. Our traditional fare has changed quite a bit. We're off to Ulladulla where our daughter and son-in-law have built a home of recycled timber. The organic markets are an absolute food mecca and our granddaughters are food machines. On the menu will be hot smoked ocean trout (lemon myrtle tea smoked), white-flesh fish, a nice side of kingfish, with native cranberries (muntry berries) and dill sauce. We're doing a huge baba ghanoush with fresh pomegranate. We go for colour when we go to the markets. It all gets put on the bench and everybody gets a job. As many dishes as possible is my motto. Different flavours, different textures. Go nuts on pesto, side dishes. As for drinking, we're right into pinot noirs. Good Aussie pinot. We'll be smashing down the organic Tamburlaine pinot 65 and obviously a good sparkling. We'll be drinking Gardet - it's on our wine list. They do a beautiful brut rosé.
Leonie Young, The Essential Ingredient
We always spend Christmas Day with just immediate family - our six children and their partners. It's a low-key, all-day graze. Ham and eggs for a late breakfast, a day spent relaxing with the obligatory swim at Bar Beach, and an afternoon with everyone in the kitchen. We all love cooking, so everyone is hands-on. We have a few musicians in our family so they are in charge of the music playlist. We are going traditional, which is a first. An entrée of oysters, a main including turkey, duck fat roasted potatoes and a fabulous green salad. Simple. Boxing Day will be seafood (my brothers will brave the Sydney markets). Oysters with smoked soy and shallots, we will hot smoke a side of salmon, prawns and a glazed ham. Lots of salad. I'm not sure about a dessert - but I am thinking a chocolate and berry trifle. Everyone chips in to cook. Gone are the days of a martyr in the kitchen! My family (immediate and extended) love to cook and we are all control freaks; but somehow it works. It's pretty special. No, I don't have any time off, just the public holidays. I have a retail business ... what was I thinking?
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