Christmas With... Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver

Who would be surprised if we said that festive eating and drinking is a professional pursuit in the households of St. JOHN Restaurant's esteemed founders? We loosened our waistbands to join Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver, the people behind the food and wine of one Britain's most beloved restaurants, as they guided us through their Christmas merriments and indulgences.

Where do you spend Christmas?

Trevor: For over 20 years we’ve spent it in our house in France on the Canal du Midi, as a family and with good friends. We have recently moved to a new house, in the same village as our St. JOHN winery, and now that we’re free to travel once more it’s all the more exciting to be in our (new) French home for Christmas again.

Who does the cooking at Christmas?

Fergus: Myself and Margot, with Hector pitching in too. Having three chefs in the family means that it’s quite an ordered process. We divide and conquer. Each of us has a speciality - I love doing the stuffing. It’s essential, magical, central to proceedings.

Trevor: Everyone pitches in, with various tasks allocated amongst me and my two sons, with my wife Nicola in full command of the kitchen.

What’s everyone drinking, and when does the first bottle get opened?

Fergus: Quite early! You have to start with Champagne at breakfast, of course. There’s usually a nice chunk of panettone around, which is a perfect accompaniment. The Champagne flows until lunch, when the red wine is opened, which must be a good Burgundy. Madeira with the Christmas Pudding of course, then an eau de vie to help the digestion – probably Poire William. Then a long nap!

Trevor: Christmas Eve is important in France. The first glass is after the morning market – a ritual for us, in the very lovely market halls either in Narbonne or Toulouse. It can sometimes be a cold beer with our first oysters, but then there’s always a white Burgundy for lunch. And on Christmas morning it is always a vintage Champagne.

Do you have a Christmas cocktail?

Fergus: Cocktails should be fairly classic, and I’m not a fan of anything sticky like egg nog. Quite wrong. But Christmas Eve is the perfect moment for a few Fergronis – that’s what the good folk at St. JOHN call my own recipe for a rather gin-heavy negroni.

Trevor: The children, now adults, are pretty adept as suddenly producing all the ingredients for a negroni. I steer clear of the cocktails - for me, it’s those bottles of wine which, well if you don’t drink them at Christmas when will you? There are plenty of happy folk to help, and usually a magnum in there somewhere. Again, it’s Christmas!

What are your (family) traditions?

Fergus: We always have friends popping in for drinks before lunch. It sets the day up beautifully for merriment. That, and also we always sit in a big circle for the great present giving, and we open them one by one. No great unwrapping frenzy.

Trevor: The market on Christmas Eve, where we do a shop for that evening’s seafood. All the crustacea, crab, whelks, langoustine, crab, oysters, winkles etc., then cheeses, vegetables and fruit, dates, breads, paté, pickles for Boxing Day. And of course there must be a St. John Christmas pudding! It is not Christmas without it.

Do you stick to those traditions or have you evolved them?

Trevor: They evolve, but the patterns remain the same. Boxing day is always a walk in the hills, be it the Pyrennees in the snow, or our Montagne Noir… unless on a clear translucent blue sky day we’ll go down to the étangs on the Mediterranean, where there are flamingos and more out on the reserves… it’s marvellous, and there mut be more seafood and some local white!

Which cheeses would you have on a cheese board?

Fergus: It’s Christmas, so it must be Stilton. It’s… it’s perfect. A bit of goat’s cheese too, which has an alchemical effect with red wine – just as your palate tires of Burgundy, the goat’s cheese reinvigorates the tongue.

Trevor: Occasionally a British cheese will be smuggled through on special request, but for the most part it is the things that call out to us from the counters at the market. Hard sheep cheeses from the Pyrenees, probably Lagiuole and Beaufort, various goats cheeses, blues that take our fancy…. And always a Mont d’Or Vacherin.

Talk us through your Christmas feast...

Fergus: It may surprise you to learn that the centrepiece must always be turkey. It has a bad reputation which it doesn’t deserve. The accompaniments are very classic too, to allow each element to sing. That means the sauces are essential – cranberry, bread sauce, and gravy which must be made with bacon fat and madeira. The Christmas Pudding (St. JOHN of course) comes with brandy butter or cream, as some prefer the latter. But for me it must be brandy butter.

Trevor: The choice of centrepiece is always left until nearer the time. It can be beef, duck, goose… and occasionally our friends will insist on a turkey too, somewhat of a rare thing, but it has usually led a happy and free roaming life. An old vintage of our Boulevard Napoleon Grenache Gris will be opened for people coming by, and some of our reserve reds but each year there are the wines that have been set aside or the time is nigh for them, it’s a wondrous thing how all of a sudden the cellar is full of good things to be brought out into the light!

What do you have on Boxing Day?

Fergus: Cold cuts, of course. But I still remember one of my most successful culinary achievements – a little bit of everything captured in a toasted sandwich. The Breville press created a glorious rigour and compression. It was perfect.

And is there an accompanying Boxing Day condiment?

Fergus: Pickled walnuts, for the ‘nieugh’ factor. The sharpness, the savouriness, the ‘nieugh’!

Trevor: Nicola will have made some pickles – red cabbage a particular favourite - and there will be the essential smuggled pickled walnuts. The meats, cheeses and patés just taste even better the next day.

Which is your favourite dish and why?

Fergus: How can one separate them to choose? Each works in perfect harmony with the other. It is a perfection of synergy and ritual.

Trevor: It’s not a dish, it’s a meal. Boxing Day with all those delights, after a long walk as the evening draws in. Party games and fun, the fire burning, good wine, maybe some song… all feels well in the world.

What is your favourite (or funniest) Christmas memory?

Fergus: Any year when the turkey has been particularly perfect, I cherish. You would think that the turkey would always be perfection in my house, with so many chefs, but sometimes it’s a matter of the Great Chef in the Sky smiling or frowning at us – chance, magic, and how much Champagne has been drunk in the morning.

Trevor: I have asked for those videos to be returned!… No luck. But much fun with the children putting on their skits, adults in costume performing turns, badly but happily. Lots of noise, jokes, warmth and good times… each year funnier than the last and now as memories, they bring smiles as the years turn and new faces join us.

What are your 3 tips for keeping Christmas cooking stress-free?

Fergus:

1. Make all the sauces in advance. That’s the complicated bit, and the most important. So do it in times of calm.

2. See friends before lunch. It’s calming and distracting.

3. Drink enough Champagne. It’s a happy day – behave accordingly.

Trevor: Keep away from the chef! No really, obey all instructions, lay the table early and generously, keep on top of the washing up, advice is only to be given with the sole purpose of teasing said cooks… oh, and take the rubbish and empties out without being asked…!