Revealed: The festive food celebrity chefs James May, Tom Kerridge, Joe Wicks and more can’t wait to eat this Christmas

From Tom Kerridge and Gizzi Erskine, to Clodagh McKenna and Kim-Joy, celebrity chefs tell Ella Walker about the Christmas foods they look forward to all year.
James May can't wait to tuck into turkey. Photo: Ian West/PA.James May can't wait to tuck into turkey. Photo: Ian West/PA.
James May can't wait to tuck into turkey. Photo: Ian West/PA.

Do you dream of turkey? Long for Quality Street? Wait every second of the year for the moment you can have cranberry sauce on everything?

We all have our favourite Christmas foods, the morsels we look forward to endlessly, and we asked celebrity chefs and food writers to name theirs.

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“I think we should eat Christmas pudding all year round,” says Michel Roux Jnr, whose restaurant Le Gavroche has two Michelin stars. “I don’t know why we don’t! I love Christmas pudding. I make a Christmas pudding, it’s an adapted Mrs Beeton’s recipe, and it’s go lots of Guinness in it. And lots of brandy.”

Kim-Joy is looking forward to Yorkshire puddings. Photo: Steve Parsons/PAKim-Joy is looking forward to Yorkshire puddings. Photo: Steve Parsons/PA
Kim-Joy is looking forward to Yorkshire puddings. Photo: Steve Parsons/PA

For Leeds’ Kim-Joy, it is all about Yorkshire puddings and a nut roast. “I’ve been really into Yorkshire puddings recently, they’re not necessarily Christmas, but they kind of are,” muses the former Bake Off contestant, and author of new cookbook Christmas With Kim-Joy. “I’ve been really into making them because when you make them homemade, they’re massive. They’re just so good homemade.

“And then Mary Berry’s veggie nut roast. I have issues with a lot of nut roasts, but Mary Berry’s is so good. It’s got a lemony taste and there’s aubergine that you put around it. It’s really, really nice.”

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James May, who spent his teenage years in South Yorkshire, cannot wait for turkey. “I actually like Christmas lunch and I like it to be turkey and sprouts and bread sauce and parsnips, all the usual stuff, a pot of cranberry sauce, Christmas pudding, I like all that,” says the Grand Tour presenter, who has recently joined the world of food via his debut cookbook, Oh Cook!.

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“Even in the run-up to Christmas, I try not to have the turkey. I want to save that for Christmas Day as a real treat. A big slice of turkey breast, blob of cranberry – I’m thinking about it now and getting quite excited.”

“I love sprouts and I don’t care what anybody says,” announces Tom Kerridge – who is celebrating 15 years of his restaurant The Hand And Flowers, with a cookbook of the same name.

“Sprouts are amazing and they’re great all the way through Christmas, they’re brilliant in January.

“And sprout tops – Brussel sprouts, they’re grown on stalks, and on the stalks there are these sprout top leaves which are amazing. They’re lush with loads of butter and salt – absolutely delicious.”

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Gizzi Erskine can’t pick – she wants it all. “The whole lunch: that’s what I want to eat every day,” states the author of new sustainably focused cookbook Restore. “I really can eat Christmas lunch all the time. That’s my favourite meal. And actually, I like a Christmas sandwich.”

For Clodagh McKenna, it’s all about potato stuffing. “I love potato stuffing in my turkey – a traditional one I grew up with,” explains the Irish chef, who wrote her latest cookbook, Clodagh’s Weeknight Kitchen during lockdown. “And I just can’t change it. It’s just really simple potato stuffing with sage and thyme.

“I’ve tried many years putting different things into it and I do regret it. It’s one of those types of tradition. I jazz up other things around it. I’ll do the red cabbage different ways. And I’ll do the Brussel sprouts in different ways. But my stuffing has to stay the same.”

Kate Young would eat Christmas cake all year round if she could. The writer behind The Little Library Christmas cookbook says: “I know you can eat fruit cake year-round but there is something about calling it ‘Christmas cake’ rather than fruit cake that makes it special, and to have the marzipan, to have all of it. That’s what I want.”

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As for Joe Wicks, whose latest book is called 30 Day Kick Start Plan, he cannot wait for pigs in blankets – but he’s not a massive turkey fan. “I normally do a lamb or chicken for Christmas, like a roast leg of lamb or something. And I love all the chocolate.”

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