Three-Michelin-star expert gives Christmas dinner tips • FRANCE 24 English

less than a week to go before Christmas. And those who are hosting this year are no doubt planning their Christmas dinner or lunch depending on where you celebrate. Now, there’s a lot of advice out there, but today I’m joined by the best of the best to go through all the dos and don’ts this Christmas. Food guide and restaurant critic Andy Haylor joins us live from London. Thank you so much for being with us, Andy. >> Thank you very much for asking me. >> So, you know your food. You’ve eaten at every Michelin three star restaurant in the world. What’s the key to a great Christmas meal? Aside from maybe not talking politics with your family. >> Uh [snorts] yeah, it’s very wise. Um uh well, of course, the thing is to have fun, but I think you want to try the best ingredients you can you can find. So, um, personally I’m a big fan of the the way that the the French, for example, have capon instead of turkey, um, for for Christmas because it just tastes a great deal better than turkey. And I was lucky enough to have some terrific cape on just a few days ago at a at a restaurant in in Serban. So, I I would, you know, I think the key thing is finding the best ingredients you can. Are there any food trends that you’ve seen creeping into Christmas menus that have drawn your attention this year particularly? >> Um yeah, I mean I think of course some people go for very traditional Christmas. I think in general in terms of of sort of restaurant food trends in London at least. I mean I think there’s a couple of things I think. Um firstly there’s been a big move towards more sort of Asian influences and flavors. Um so you’ll see in um you know even a restaurant like the Ritz um which is incredibly traditional um you’ll see a dishes like a Japanese style chowam mushy savory custard in their case with truffles and so on. Um so you’re seeing sort of more Asian influences I think and I think it also in terms of restaurants um a little bit more um sort of plant-based options than perhaps they used to be. I think 6% of the UK is now claims to be u vegetarian and 11% say that they’ll only very occasionally eat meat. So that’s sort of meant that for restaurants they’ve got to offer a lot more in the way of um uh of you know plant-based choices and and of course you’re going to have some luxuries like on on the flying on the screen there you see some some white truffles and some early some black truffles. So certainly some it’s definitely the season for truffles at the moment. Um, so that’s a lovely way to um to add a bit of luxury to your uh to your Christmas. >> Now, inflation has been hitting households quite hard. Um, do you think good food has to be expensive, whether that’s out at a restaurant or at home? >> Um, I don’t think it does actually. I mean, one of my favorite restaurants in London is a place called Dwana Bilpuri, which is a little um, South Indian vegetarian snack place in Houston. And I think the I can’t remember exactly the price there, but I mean you would be struggling to spend £15 per person there. And and of course it’s vegetarian, so you don’t have expensive, you know, meat and fish dishes there. Um but the food is actually delicious and you know it’s actually really good value. So it can be done. Um but requires a sort of a bit more sort of imagination I think. Um I don’t but I think I think you you raised a good point. I think the um you know food inflation in particular has been very high and certainly in sort of the London restaurant scene some of the more recent openings in central London are showing some astronomically high sort of prices both on the food and on their wine lists. Um so I think people you know will try to look for alternatives and for sort of better value. Um and I think you can do that honestly mostly in the ethnic food sector as I say if you if you look around in sort of you know Indian food, Chinese food, Thai food and so on. Um you you can still find you know terrific high quality cooking you know at a at a fair price. It’s a lot harder to do that in the sort of up market sort of you know European and French fine dining sector. >> You’ve traveled a lot and tasted a lot of food from from around the world. Is there a country that in your view does Christmas food best? >> Uh, well, I’d always go for France to be honest. It’s not just because this happens to be a French channel. I mean, I think the um the French French is just the best cuisine really. Uh, in in in the world. I mean, I love Japanese food. I love Indian food. Um, but I mean, yeah, if it’s for a special occasion, um, I’d always end up in in France, and I think somewhere in, you know, a lovely fine dining restaurant in in in France would be where I would I would I would start. And and yeah, hopefully I would I would order a capeon, you know, and uh have that as my as my main main course. Um, because I think that’s, you know, one of the finest, you know, meats you can possibly possibly eat. Um, so yeah, so I’ve always had a big sort of love for France. >> And and aside from the Capeon, what what would be your kind of ideal menu? >> Um, well, I’m a huge fan of shellfish, so I particularly would love to have some longestines. Um, you know, maybe from the um, you know, just Normandy or you know, some sort possibly a little bit further north around sort of from around the waters of Scotland perhaps. Um, so yeah, some sort of longestine dish would be great. you know, also, you know, I love sort of scallops, which again, you get fantastic um scallops off the waters of the UK and and France. Uh so something involving shellfish, just a sort of starter, I think, would be my my sort of favorite. And then, yeah, so, you know, moving on to your your main course and a and a and a some sort of proper French pastry uh dessert. >> Desserts tend to be a bit of a controversial one, I find. I mean, the the bush in France could be absolutely delicious, but it’s not always everyone’s favorite. I feel like the same thing goes for for Christmas pudding. Any suggestions on on a dessert that isn’t divisive? >> Oh, yeah. Christmas pudding is I’m not a huge fan of personally. I mean, obviously some people really like them. Um, yeah. I mean, we will at home we we my wife will make a apple and mince meat pie, you know, which has got the mince meat. It’s a sort of slight Christmassy thing. Um but but but it’s still really an apple pie in truth. And I so I think I think you just got to have whatever you you enjoy, you know, whether that’s you know sort of chocolate or pastry or whatever. I I think uh it’s good to um you know sort of get into the spirit of things, but you you’ve got to enjoy what you what you’re eating. >> You mentioned earlier a lot of people moving towards vegetarian or or flexitarian diet. We’re just trying to trying to um get rid of of a little bit of meat. Do you have any kind of ide suggestions of maybe a staple or a central piece uh for a Christmas meal that wouldn’t necessarily involve meat because I find that might be the the kind of trickier thing there. >> Yeah, sure. I think there’s a couple of things. I think um for a start I think celeryak is is a lovely thing if you can be done in a like you can have instead of having a beef Wellington you can have a curriak Wellington for example as a sort of as a big sort of centerpiece dish and and I think um also for um for vegetarian options it’s not strictly a vegetable because it’s a fungus but um I’m a big fan of mushrooms and I think a really top class mushroom is possibly a little bit late for seps though I did have one just this week so I think you’re right at the end of the se season, but seps or porchini the same thing are um I think really beautiful and a very a sort of really nice big sort of se um can be really quite sort of a quite a sort of vegetarian centerpiece. Um so that that I would you know go for sort of luxury mushrooms and as as I think we mentioned truffles which you know have this fantastic fragrance. Um, so I think you can uh you can en enhance or enliven your your um your dish with a little shaving of white truffle if you can afford it. >> Just, you know, in the in the final days leading leading up to it, any kind of last minute tips that you want to share to anyone who’s who’s stressing about about getting their their meal done in time? I know some people prepare months in advance. I know people who who’ve got their gravy done three three months in advance, but any last minute tips for people? >> Oh, look, I know. I think you just need to to relax. I mean, you know, this is something which, you know, it’s not supposed to be a sort of stress test. I mean, you know, you’re supposed to be en enjoying yourselves here. So, I think it’s very easy to get over, you know, sort of worried about the, you know, the doing some incredibly elaborate banquet. And I don’t think that’s necessary at all. I think, you know, you you just got to enjoy yourself. Make sure you be cooking things within your own sort of capabilities you feel comfortable with. Um, and make sure you open some nice wine and uh and just just enjoy yourself. Um, yeah, don’t don’t worry about trying to impress others and so on. I think just uh just, you know, just relax and and have a good time >> and maybe get some help from the rest of the family as well if [laughter] you’re in charge. >> Absolutely. >> Andy Haylor, thank you so much for for taking the time to speak to us here on on France 24. My tummy is rumbling. Uh the thoughts of a Christmas meal.

With less than a week to go until Christmas, hosts everywhere are finalising plans for their festive meal, whether it’s dinner or lunch depending on where they celebrate. Amid the abundance of advice, we’re turning to the best, as food guide and restaurant critic Andy Hayler joins us live from London to walk us through the key dos and don’ts for Christmas.
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