What's the usual Christmas dinner of chefs?
Christmas dinner is a tradition all around the world. It’s when all the favorite dishes of every family member are prepared for everyone to enjoy! It’s the time when we forget all our dieting and just enjoy the night. Get ideas from what our favorite chefs prepare in their homes for Christmas dinners. Read on as they share with us what they have prepared for tonight!
Florabel Co-Yatco
I always prepare morcon and pork barbecue for our Christmas day family feast.
Millie Reyes
Our family Christmas dinner is usually a toss-up between my mom and my dad’s favorites dishes. What we normally do is if we have Mom’s menu for Christmas Eve, then it’s Dad’s traditional favorites for New Year’s Eve or vice versa. Mom always prefers her paella Valenciana, lengua estofada and callos Madrileña and, of course, The Plaza’s Premium Baked Ham along with yummy desserts like food for the gods, brazo de mercedes, sans rival and Christmas prune cake, a hand-me-down recipe that Karla or I would bake. But when the kids were growing up, they could not relate to the ox tongue so Mom would occasionally add in a whole roast turkey which Dad also adored with apple, prune and chestnut stuffing, cranberry and mushroom gravy. On the other hand, dad’s menu is always a hands-down winner! Broccoli or cauliflower cream soup, roast prime rib of beef with lots of mashed potatoes or pommes gratinee, Caesar’s salad and, for dessert, baked apple pie topped with lots of crumble, strawberry cheesecake and white chocolate cheesecake. Through the years, we added smoked Norwegian salmon for starters as some family members were not eating meat. We couldn’t have prawns as one of my brothers-in-law was allergic to prawns.This year, we haven’t really decided as none of my siblings want to foot the bill with both my parents gone. I hope Santa Claus comes around to solve this problem. Otherwise, it will be a pot luck Christmas Eve dinner and I dread to think what it will be!
Gilbert Pangilinan
Every Christmas, the Ocampo clan gets together in San Fernando, Pampanga where our Aunt Luz prepares a banquet for 200 people. The dishes are classic Pampanga home cooking that our parents grew up with and that we continue to enjoy today: Christmas nilaga — beef, pork and chicken with chorizo — cooked in broth and pork fat until it’s fall-off-the-bone-tender, lengua, steamed lapu-lapu, fried catfish with burong hipon, umba (slow cooked sweet pork stew), asadong manok, buko pandan, palitaw balls stuffed with caramel.
Margarita Fores
Christmas dinner for us is a quiet celebration and coming together, sharing dishes that remind us of the value of family and the importance of always remembering to give thanks for all our blessings. The spread on the table is a selection of dishes that require the least amount of fuzz, especially for those who help us prepare them at home. The star dish is our Wawa Ester’s red beans with pork that symbolizes blessings and bounty for the coming year. Of course, some long noodle pasta — spaghetti with Italian bottarga di muggine perhaps, if we have some saved from trips to Italy, or smoked salmon, cream, and asparagus or simple olive oil, anchovy, garlic and capers. The standard long pasta dish for long life is for everyone! A “time warp” whole fish with mayonnaise with all the garnishes is also a staple. Of course our standard roast turkey and roast beef, standard recipes from the family’s New York days in the ‘70s are always present. Like most homes, never absent is a traditional lechon. The menu is completed by the Cubao canonigo and a sharing of cheeses, salami or hams from everyone’s pantries, with any interesting honeys or jams available. A few bottles of champagne, chilled beer, and wine, plus chilled sodas to toast with and give thanks for the year that has passed and the next one to look forward to with great anticipation!
Jacqueline Laudico and Rolando Laudico
We usually have ham, cheese platter, paella, lechon, Angus beef roast and Jacqueline’s wonderful chocolate truffles and pralines and also her Belgian chocolate cake!
Cyrille Soenen
Because we’re in the restaurant business, Christmas Eve dinner with the family is in the restaurant. The kids get to choose whatever they like. For the past few years though, a good cut of beef has been a staple with a nice red wine, topped off with some champagne of course and chocolate.
Sharwin Tee, host of Lifestyle Network’s ‘Curiosity Got the Chef’
For Christmas, I usually cook about four to five dishes for the family. I make my own twice-cooked hamonado, arroz los santos (my version of paella), baked fish with malunggay crust, kamote mash and chocolate leche flan.
Sandy Daza
Not necessarily in this order but off the top of my head: paella Valenciana, roast beef, Russian salad, rellenong manok, lechon, cannelloni, The delicious hot pata soup my father-in-law boils for hours every Christmas! Plus Yunnan ham, pate, ensaymada, thick hot Spanish chocolate with peanut butter. I get a lot of dishes from people who want me to try their own creations or what they sell. I love my work!
Jessie Sincioco
Christmas is the only occasion when the whole clan gathers in our house in Bulacan. We serve practically the same food every year. Lechon, with the roasting done by my Uncle Benjie, is a staple with the home-made liver sauce by my auntie Yaya. Embotido, which becomes a sandwich filling the following day, pork barbecue (because the children love it), country roast chicken (my favorite!), halabos na hipon with sesame oil! My auntie Lita’s buco-fruit salad (my other favorite!), ube-macapuno cake, gateau gloria, Princess Carmen (everybody’s favorite!) , blueberry cheesecake (also everybody’s favorite). Queso de bola and Virginia ham (from relatives in the US). And of course a lot of kakanin from relatives! We can add to the list but never miss any of the food listed above to make everybody happy.
