Happy Christmas to Roux: Michel and Emily have created a gourmet Christmas lunch with meal-kit specialists Dishpatch
(Picture: Press handout)The first week of January is famously the busiest time of year for divorce lawyers: something to bear in mind before “forgetting” your other half loathes Brussels sprouts this Christmas Day. Alternatively, buy a Christmas meal kit and leave pretty much all the festive food choices to the professionals. Because what is the true spirit of Christmas if not having someone else to blame for things going wrong on the big day?
Not that this is likely from the kits we’ve selected below. All had availability at the time of publication, though a turkey shortage and the fact that we haven’t weaned ourselves off recipe kits since lockdown means they are likely to sell out faster than this year’s must-have toy in Hamleys.
So from whole Norfolk Bronze turkey with all the trimmings to alternatives of beef Wellington and duck, veggie options and fishy festive feasts, here are the best recipe kits to make lunch a doddle this Christmas — and also take care of Boxing Day. Each one is a cracker, and some even contain them, too.
Hame by Adam Handling
This year’s festive box from Michelin-starred chef Adam Handling not only contains everything for Christmas lunch but the option to add a Crimbo breakfast, too. The pre-prepared dishes of best-of-British ingredients come with a QR code to watch videos of Handling demonstrating how to prepare them. Choose between a main of turkey or beef Wellington, both with all the trimmings, desserts of Christmas pud or tarte Tatin, plus smoked salmon to start, bread with Handling’s signature chicken butter and a bottle of the Scottish chef’s own-label English sparkling wine. For breakfast there are bacon rolls, fresh orange juice and more fizz and salmon, as well as veggie alternatives for everything, too.
Serves: 4
How much? Christmas Day Menu, £250 (vegetarian £200); Breakfast Box, £130 (vegetarian £120)
Order by: December 16
Made in Oldstead Christmas Day duck
If you can’t make it to Yorkshire this Christmas, let Yorkshire come to you, without the hassle of train cancellations and tailbacks on the M1. Chef Tommy Banks of the Michelin-starred gastropub The Black Swan at Oldstead has put together a four-course alternative to turkey, with beetroot and goat’s curd followed by smoked salmon with whipped buttermilk and pickled fennel, duck crown with ducks in blankets, dauphinoise potatoes and bread sauce, and a chocolate, hazelnut and damson fondant to finish. There are also boxes of beef Wellington (from £190) and a vegetarian box for two (£160).
Serves: 4
How much? £350
Order by: December 20
Chefs for Foodies ultimate turkey
If you’ve been wondering what Steven Wallis has been up to since winning MasterChef in 2007 then this Christmas lunch forms part of the answer. The kit is made from British ingredients sourced from family-run companies such as Lidgate butchers in Holland Park and includes turkey breast fillet with prosciutto, trimmings of sage and onion stuffing, roasted parsnips with polenta and Parmesan, bacon pangritata Brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and gravy, and it all arrives in recyclable packaging, too. There’s also a video masterclass from Wallis on how to get Christmas lunch right — though lesson one is you’ll need to supply your own starters and puds. If you’d rather have beef Wellington, that’s in a Boxing Day kit, and there is also a vegan Christmas box with a centrepiece of Portobello mushroom Wellington.
Serves: 6
How much? £139
Order by: December 18
Dishpatch Roux family Christmas
To elevate your Christmas table, meal kit specialists Dishpatch have teamed up with Michel Roux Jr and his daughter Emily (of Le Gavroche and Caractère respectively) to offer a four-course festive lunch. Chicken liver parfait with brioche and caramelised onions is followed by a fish course of Champagne and saffron soup with poached scallop then a choice of main: beef Wellington or stuffed duck crown. Side dishes include celeriac dauphinoise, Chantenay carrots and Brussels sprouts with beurre noisette, and there’s salted caramel bûche de Noël (French for Yule log) for pudding. Not stuffed enough? Add some truffled Camembert for £25.
Serves: 2
How much? £140
Order by: Until stock runs out
Tom Kerridge Beef Wellington box
It can take up to 12 months to get a table at Tom Kerridge’s two Michelin-starred Marlow gastropub The Hand and Flowers — whereas the chef’s Christmas Day box can be on your table in two weeks. The star attraction is a 1.2kg, 30-day aged fillet of organic British beef with black-truffle duxelles and herb crêpe, wrapped in an all-butter puff pastry, with a red wine sauce and Cumberland pigs in blankets. Veg alas is not included (though there are recipes for suggested side dishes) but there is a sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce and Christmas-spiced brandy butter, plus cubes of salted caramel fudge, to finish.
Serves: 4
How much? £195
Order by: December 18
Forman & Field ultimate Christmas feast
Only have two to feed this Christmas — or elderly parents in need of some TLC? Forman & Field’s Ultimate Christmas Feast has everything needed to celebrate the big day with no waste: not just a ballotine of Norfolk Bronze turkey with all the trimmings of Brussels, roasties and sauces but mince pies, Christmas pud, Stilton and biccies, English sparkling wine and a pair of crackers to pull. And, of course, some London-cure salmon: Forman & Field supplies London‘s top restaurants and hotels — Hide, The Connaught and The Game Bird, to name a few — with the finest British fish prepared in its east London smokehouse.
Serves: 2
How much? £109.95
Order by: December 15
Durslade festive feast
Durslade is the neighbouring farm (and farm shop) of the Somerset outpost of the Hauser & Wirth gallery — which means you’re getting the same meat for Christmas lunch that is served at the art world sensation’s new Mayfair hangout Mount St Restaurant. A free-range Bronze turkey, seasoned with Durslade’s turkey rub, comes with sage and onion sausage-meat stuffing, pigs in blankets and roast potatoes cooked with wagyu beef dripping. There’s also a choice of beef, gammon and lamb joints for Boxing Day; add a bottle of Durslade’s Boxing Day Sandwich Sauce for cold-cut perfection.
Serves: 6
How much? £195
Order by: December 22
Stein’s at Home festive sharing menu
For a pescatarian Christmas, the delivery arm of celebrity chef Rick Stein’s Padstow empire is offering three courses of sea bass ceviche followed by monkfish with Parma ham and sauerkraut and a flambéed Christmas pudding with Cornish (natch) clotted cream. There are recipe cards and how-to videos from Rick’s son Jack (chef director of Rick Stein Group) and, for the perfect wine match, what else but a bottle of Rick Stein white Burgundy?
Serves: 4 or 6
How much? £120 (for 4), £160 (for 6)
Order by: December 19
The Newt in Somerset lunch hamper
Most Christmas hampers are filled with the sort of foodstuffs one can’t ever imagine eating (how many Florentine biscuits can a household need?). Not so this whopper from Somerset celeb hotspot The Newt, which contains not only a whole Bronze turkey with all the trimmings (and then some) but cold smoked trout, a 1kg Christmas cake, a fig, plum and damson Christmas pudding with brandy butter, and a pair of chardonnay and shiraz from The Newt’s South African owners, Babylonstoren Wine Estate. Boxing Day leftovers are pretty much guaranteed.
Serves: 8
How much? £320
Order by: December 20
All in a Box Christmas in a Box
Prefer to have more say in what goes into your Christmas box? All in a Box’s step-by-step ordering process could not be any simpler: choose your portion size of protein — turkey, beef, gammon, chicken or a nut roast — add as many trimmings as decency permits, et voilà! Crimbo lunch sorted in a few easy clicks. What’s more, the company claims that the pre-portioned, part-cooked and ready-seasoned ingredients take under an hour to cook — which sadly mean less time to hoover up the optional canapé selection. In the unlikely event that things go wrong, there’s a “roast hotline” open on Christmas Day, which also offers suggestions for Boxing Day leftovers should you need a break from talking to your nearest and dearest.
Serves: 1-8
How much? From £50
Order by: December 18
DukesHill Boxing Day favourites
Make sure there’s something nicer to eat on December 26 than cold turkey with DukesHill’s box of Boxing Day favourites. The Shropshire-based pork specialist was awarded a royal warrant for manufacturing hams to the late Queen, who would receive a whole ham every Christmas. The ham really is something else — sweet and savoury, juicy but not fatty — though the pastry on the Melton Mowbray pork pie comes a close second. The box also contains oak-smoked salmon, Colston Bassett Stilton, Isle of Mull Cheddar and half a dozen mince pies.
Serves: 6-8
How much? £98
Order by: December 22
