Holiday Cooking: From a Chef’s Table to Yours

For many people, the holidays bring a much-needed break from the everyday hustle and bustle of life. It’s a time when friends and family members gather and, even if only for a day or two, return to the customs and memories that tie them together.

Traditions vary from one household to the next, but for most, nothing signifies the arrival of the holiday season more than the abundant spread of culinary delights ceremoniously laid across the dining table. And just as Christmas falls on the 25^th of every December, holiday cuisine is often just as familiar and predictable—sprinkled with a few surprises here and there.

Even for chefs whose job it is to dazzle and surprise restaurant goers with their ever-evolving craft, the holidays are a time to revisit history and enjoy recipes and traditions that are often passed down from one generation to the next.

Anna Omoyeni – La Boniche, Lowell

Omoyeni is self-taught, and decided during her fourth year at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, where she was poised to earn a degree in chemical engineering, that she wanted to pursue her first love of cooking, a romance that started by reading her parents’ collection of Time Life cookbooks at ten years old. “I just had an interest in it. French cooking in particular.”

One of seven children born to a Lebanese father and a French and Irish mother, Omoyeni points out, “a lot of cooking was going on all the time.” And while her mother may not have been a gourmet cook, she always prepared fresh, ethnic foods. “I grew up eating my father’s cultural food,” she said, which included cabbage and grape rolls and kibbeh, a dish made of minced lamb, bulgur, and spices.

Omoyeni describes the menu at La Boniche, which opened in 1988, as simple dining with a French accent. Veal medallions sautéed with garlic, shallots, rosemary, tomato, corn, spinach, and a wine sauce, is a classic and popular dish.

But at home, especially during the holidays when family time is paramount to Omoyeni, meals tend to be a bit simpler and more traditional, even though her son and daughter have a more sophisticated palate than most children. “My friends kid me that it’s not a holiday at my house if I don’t have a turkey in the oven,” Omoyeni says with a laugh. “It is pretty traditional. It’s a memory for me. That’s how I grew up.”

One thing that parts with tradition at the Omoyeni household—at least American tradition—is the serving of spicy goat stew on almost every major holiday, including Christmas. She makes this for her husband, who hails from West Africa, “so he can have some food memories from home.” While the rest of America is braving the malls or online ordering last-minute Christmas gifts, Omoyeni, a self-described organizer, has had her Christmas meal planned a month in advance and her turkey marinating for two or three days before the holiday. And when the meal is served, it’s not often that she asks friends and family to bring anything with them. That’s her realm of expertise.

It’s also a part of what Omoyeni calls her gift. “Hospitality is a huge part of the Lebanese culture,” she explains. “It’s how I do God’s work. That’s really how I feel about it. It’s spiritual. It’s love. It’s just a natural thing for me.”

A mainstay of the Omoyeni holiday celebration is the chef’s roasted turnips, which she prepares with orange juice and brown sugar. “I’ve been making that forever. Even if I’m not having Christmas, I have to make that.” Another culinary tradition, one that started with Omoyeni’s grandmother and one that she is now passing down to her own children, is baking sugar cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. “I want my kids to have all those traditions that I had,” she said.

As a chef and restaurant owner, the holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for Omoyeni, which is why she started her own tradition—closing La Boniche’s dining room for the entire day on Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas. “For me, when I’m home, it’s family time,” she said. “Once we do get to Christmas, I really look forward to that time.”

Her customers, many of whom are regulars—people she calls part of her La Boniche family—have become accustomed to that. Besides, she makes up for it in the days preceding Christmas when she passes out homemade eggnog, infused with several different liqueurs, to La Boniche diners.

Try making Anna’s Grandma’s Buttercrisp!

Scott Pelletier – Evenfall, Haverhill

Scott Pelletier, executive chef at Evenfall in Haverhill, grew up eating the traditional New England holiday meal: turkey. Festivities took place at the home of his grandparents, who owned a small farm in Stratham, and his grandmother made her own cranberry sauce. And while he still enjoys the customary meal—“it just brings me back to my childhood”— he also says, “around the holidays, it’s nice to have things you don’t have all the time.”

So on Christmas Eve, Pelletier and his family like to change it up. “Since we all kind of pitch in, it’s fun. Christmas Eve is probably the most fun night of the year,” he says. Celebrations with his family and in-laws often include a diverse mix of foods, with Pelletier contributing what he calls “the funky stuff,” such as sardines roasted with red onions and peppers or frog legs. “I always kind of like to keep it secret what I’m bringing.”

The menu at Evenfall is just as bold, with a revolving menu that includes entrees like the grilled peach glazed center-cut pork chops with crispy peach fries, fresh bacon, pulled pork on a mini brioche bun, and mustard slaw. “The way I usually cook is seasonal American with a funky twist,” explains Pelletier, who received a business management degree from the University of New Hampshire, but later decided that industry was too “button-down” for him. He made his way to San Francisco, where he pursued his love of cooking at the California Culinary Academy and worked with Chef Jeffrey Inahara at Coconut Grove and Elka Gilmore at Liberte, which at that time received a near-perfect score of 29 in the food category from Zagat Review.

“San Francisco really opened my eyes,” says Pelletier, who incorporates local and organic produce into his menu. It’s something he thinks is important, so much so that he is already teaching the practice to his seven-month old son. “As long as he’s under my roof, he’s going to eat seasonally.”

This holiday season, Pelletier will no doubt show up to his family’s Christmas Eve celebration with an exciting dish thanks to a new addition to his home garden. “I grew garlic for the first time this year, so I’ll be showcasing that,” he says.

Try making Scott’s Garlic and Potato Shooters with Pickled Shrimp or Herb and Garlic Pork Prime Rib Roast!

Francis Broadbery – Plum Island Grille, Newbury

Francis Broadbery, part owner and executive chef at the Plum Island Grille in Newbury, was born in Dublin, Ireland, and comes seventeenth in a family of eleven sisters and seven brothers. He remembers Christmas as a very long and social event when many years, all of his siblings gathered around the same table, at which turkey and boiled ham with a white cream sauce were the centerpieces, usually accompanied by potatoes, parsnips, and turnips. But for Broadbery, Brussel sprouts were an absolute, must-have holiday dish—and still are. “That was one of my favorite things as a kid,” he says.

Broadbery’s mother prepared plum pudding. The recipe—which includes dried fruit, suet, nuts, Guinness, whiskey, flour, and sugar, painstakingly prepared over a two-week period and served with brandy—was passed down only to his female siblings, though Broadberry, the only professional chef in the family, has managed to “illegally” obtain it from his sisters. “If I don’t do the plum pudding, I will make the traditional apple pie,” explains Broadbery, even though he claims he is not the best pie-maker. “It’s one of my weaknesses as a chef.”

Clearly, it’s one of the only weaknesses, as the Plum Island Grille is a hot spot in the northeast section of the Merrimack Valley. Broadbery, who is currently working on a cookbook, said that because he is open-minded about his food, the menus at the restaurants are difficult to categorize, though the cuisine is best described as New Mediterranean with a strong Asian influence. Throughout his career, Broadbery has worked all over Europe, including cities in Ireland, England, Switzerland, Spain, and France. In the United States, Broadbery had a successful career at Rebecca’s in Boston, Alberto’s in Portsmouth, and Arrow’s in Ogunquit, ME, before becoming part-owner of the Plum Island Grille in 2003.

Broadbery, who doesn’t do all that much cooking at home (except for the mandatory Tuesday pizza and movie night he spends with his two sons, Isaac and Joshua), every Christmas serves up a traditional Irish breakfast, with bacon and sausage ordered from back home. “It’s just a big, greasy fry-up. It’s great,” he says. “I only do that once a year.”

Broadbery alternates serving Christmas dinner at his own home with his in-laws, and besides the traditional Christmas fare, he’ll honor his Irish heritage with sauces and sides and will also prepare a few dishes that are more non-traditional, such as sweet potatoes pureed with olive oil and roasted garlic. He adds, “I just make sure the gravy is right on the money.”

And isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

Try making Francis’ Apple Tarte Tatin!