Festive Tips

• Why not try using filo pastry for your mince pies - you can then shape them into cracker or star shapes making your mince pies unique as compared to your competitors.
• When cooking your turkey, remove the breast bone from your turkey, this reduces the cooking time and makes carving a lot easier allowing you maximise you portion control.
• Sometimes a traditional Christmas pudding can be a really heavy dessert, why not try crushing your Christmas pudding, adding some port and Cinnamon cream until you have a mousse consistency. Line a coupe with a thin layer of chocolate sponge, then fill with the mousse, top with another thin layer of chocolate sponge and allow chilling. Once chilled remove from the coupe and cover with a thick setting chocolate sauce. When that is set, garnish with little white marzipan (represents the brandy sauce) and two marzipan holly leaves and serve. It looks and taste like Christmas pudding but is a lot lighter!
• Christmas can be a stressful time for chefs. To make things less stressful be as organised as you can, make sure all those orders are placed well in advance and the staff know their they are doing. Make sure all equipment is in working order - there is nothing worse than walking into a busy service and your combi is down or your stove is not working.
• Talking of hygiene and food safety, if you are using frozen turkey, make sure you have thawed it properly and cook it so the juices run clear, the last think you want is a visit from the EHO in the New Year saying you have given your guests food poisoning! The fact that your guest may have had more Christmas spirit than they intended at their Christmas bash will have nothing to do with it - they will always blame your perfectly cooked meal.