The Royal Chef At Home: Easy Seasonal Entertaining

I can smell, see and hear it all so clearly. The rugged scent of roasted coffee and properly thick bacon sizzling in the frypan. A fruit salad of oranges and grapefruit cut clear of the pith, like shiny jewels in a bowl. Fruitcakes doused with whiskey (or rum) eaten thin slice after thin slice, until they seem to disappear. Pots of tea with crumbly scones. A roasting turkey in the oven so big my dad would joke every year “we are going to have to take the door off to get this one in.” My Nan, mother and auntie busying away in the tiny kitchen mashing potatoes, parsnips and straining brussels sprouts, my Nan’s eyeglasses steaming up. My grandmother’s sideboard, groaning with puddings and a wobbling jelly (always a rabbit jelly mold—I think it was just the only jelly mold she had) and at the center, a ridiculously ornate trifle topped with a whipped cream mountain. Oh that trifle! We always made sure to save room.

I was always more interested in what was going on in the kitchen than playing party games with my brother and sister even at a young age. Of course when I got to Buckingham Palace and saw how the chefs there created a sumptuous holiday table, the McGrady celebration seemed rather homespun by comparison… but I’ll defend it to the end. It was wonderful to be a McGrady child at Christmas.

These days our Christmas meal is a study of American-European goodwill. There is beef bourguignon with its roots in French cookery and its timeless comforting appeal to stew lovingAmericans. The accompanying potato pie references the English love of savory tarts, rich with cream and potatoes but with the addition of amazing California crafted Humboldt Fog cheese. At the end of the day, our family is English and for dessert we must have a trifle. Sometimes I make a traditional one with layers of sherry soaked vanilla sponge, jello, blancmange and custard. Other years, our trifle is both fancy and fanciful with layers of chocolate sponge cake drizzled with Baileys, whipped cream, pears and a crumbled heath bar replacing the chocolate flake bar of my mother’s. And yes, a lovely dollop of whipped cream on top to make everyone smile. Merry Christmas to you all.

169 WINTER · CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION FOR FAMILY & FRIENDS