Cooking Christmas dinner for 18 people

Feeding all those faces took some work

This weekend, I did something I never thought I’d do. I cooked Christmas dinner for 18 people. I’m not going to lie to you – I got a lot of help (namely from co-head chef Rachel Defriez), we did chicken instead of turkey and I didn’t have to touch a potato peeler – but for someone who has rarely cooked for more than eight, and never cooked a Christmas dinner, this was something of a defining point in my culinary life so far.

The occasion was an ‘Alternative Christmas Gathering’ with friends – a nice variation on the family Christmas – an idea which Gordon Ramsay might want to have a think about. and I was nominated on the Saturday to cook – giving me almost no-time to prepare myself mentally for my first foray into mass catering. This may well have been key in the meal’s eventual success. The only answer was to allow four hours for the cooking and throw myself whole-heartedly into the task with a glass of red wine at my side – (which was difficult considering the preceding evening had culminated in whisky at 7am).

The ensuing four hours is a bit of a blur. I recall that because we were in someone’s holiday home rather than an actual place of residence there was a rather thwarting lack of roasting trays, which meant that one of the three chickens had to be transferred into a cake tin an hour before serving to make room to roast the parsnips. It was also tricky because the pan needed to par-boil the massive amount of potatoes was too big to lift. Luckily there were men around to help with the lifting.

The timing of it all that was the biggest thing to overcome – when to put the potatoes in, how to organise different ovens at different temperatures, that sort of thing. I think at one point, the pressure must have got too much, as a friend recalls:

“You would occasionally come into the living room, stand there in a daze for a bit and then head back into the kitchen.”

In the end though, somehow it all came together, and we did it, using an incredible volume of food. The main event was a follows:

It took four hours and was gone in ten minutes

Three chickens with streaky bacon stuffed with lemon, garlic, red onion, rosemary and thyme

Bacon-wrapped sausages

Sage and onion stuffing

Potatoes roasted in goose fat

Parsnips roasted with maple syrup and fennel seeds

Sweet potato puree

Cauliflower cheese

Sprouts with crumbled crispy bacon

Bread sauce

Cranberry sauce

Gravy made with the juice of three chickens

I don’t think I’ve ever felt such immense satisfaction after cooking.  It was like that warm glow you get when someone says you’ve made a nice meal, times eighteen. Would I do it again? In a second.

Does anyone else have any Christmas dinner cooking stories to share?

Read about a Polish Christmas dinner here>>

And a miniature Christmas dinner here>>