Twelve chefs of ChristmasTwelve chefs of Christmas

Bret Thorn

Weekends and holidays often mean more work for chefs, not less. But a dozen of the countless chefs around the country have managed to get some time off for Christmas. They shared their plans with Nation’s Restaurant News.

Natalia Machado, executive chef at Industria Argentina in New York, will be celebrating Argentinean style, which is to say mostly on Christmas Eve. It will be a late, “bubbly” night, she says, “for sure.” So she’ll sleep in on Christmas, wake up with a warm mug of coffee and the hangover cure she has learned in New York and includes apple smoked bacon and egg sandwiches, “while enjoying the whole family at home.”

Amaury Rosado, who owns Amaury’s Epicurean Affair in Aurora, Ill., will be making his version of a traditional Puerto Rican dinner with his parents Enrique and Nilda. The dinner includes Berkshire roast suckling pig with rice, pigeon peas and pastels — a sort of tamale made with green bananas, plantain and yautia, which is similar to taro. Dessert will be a coconut rice pudding called arroz con dulce.

“I am of Puerto Rican descent from Chicago, and serving Puerto Rican food during the holidays takes me back to when I was a kid, spending time with my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins, many of whom are now deceased,” Rosado says.

Jesse Schwartzburg, owner of Star Meats in Berkeley, Calif., is cutting meat, and then making brisket or a standing rib for his family, and baking wine cake.

Executive chef Ulrich Sterling of Agua Dulce in New York is heading to Kentucky for “beer, bourbon, bacon and bonfires with the missus and her family.”

Gelato chef Massimo Pino of MaximoPino Café in New York is going home to Italy for some time to enjoy his family and local delicacies.

“I can’t wait to have mussels!” he says.

Lisa Dubar and Jonathan Zimmer of Pomegranate Bistro and Lisa Dubar Catering in Seattle are adopting a Day of the Dead tradition from her Yucatécan chef and making a giant sort of tamale, called a pibil, which is the size of a large cake and is wrapped in banana leaves. They plan to drink pink grapefruit margaritas with it.

Patrick Quakenbush, chef of ZED 451 in Chicago, will be doffing his toque and letting his family in the suburb of Westmont do the cooking. Then he plans to take his kids, aged 9 and 3, sledding.

Zarela Martinez, chef-owner of Zarela in New York City, says “we are a very democratic, open-minded family, so our gathering will include many exes and step-step children.”

On Christmas Eve she and her boyfriend, the 1970s porn star Jamie Gillis, will be joined by Gillis’ first girlfriend and her husband, along with New York food writer Gael Greene and her boyfriend Stephen Richter. Her stepdaughter Marissa and her husband will bring her stepchildren, Catya and Shane, and their sister Rogue, who is the daughter of Marissa’s husband’s ex-wife.

On Christmas Day, Annie Sigal, who was the girlfriend of Martinez’ son, chef Aaron Sanchez, when they were 15 years old, will be coming with her husband, chef Julian Medina, who will be making salt-baked fish and the traditional Mexican Christmas vegetable, romeritos.

Anne Mendelson, co-author of Martinez’ cookbooks, will bring “her usual fabulous poke.” Martinez herself will make gravlax, her multi-root purée, and her ham, which was featured on the cover of a recent issue of Saveur magazine.

She will also make the only two desserts that she ever makes, and she only makes them at Christmas: Coffee crunch cake and “a frozen lemon-toasted meringue confection.”

Matthew Deckar of Taco Mac in Atlanta is taking a break from visiting parents and in-laws and staying at home with his wife and two sons, and cooking salt-crusted roast beef with Brussels sprouts and potatoes dauphinoises.

Jeremy McLachlan, chef de cuisine of Salty’s on Alki Beach in Seattle, goes on a veritable dining odyssey on Christmas Eve, starting at his grandmother’s house, where they open presents, “usually a $10 gift certificate to Red Robin,” he says.

“Then we have a smorgasbord of popcorn balls, my aunt’s taco salad, layer dip, cheese balls and punch made with sherbet and Squirt soda.”

Tamales are also on the menu, and are assembled in November at his parents’ house, as the Mexican custom requires.

“They are like fine beer or wine,” he says. “The flavor changes every year and it all depends on how much Champagne my uncle has while he is making them.”

Next he visits his wife’s side of the family for “a night of wonder and amazement,” originally started when the family all lived so close together that after midnight mass they just walked from house to house.

At Aunt Kim and Uncle Tom’s they have sausages and beers. At Aunt Charlene and Uncle Pat’s its light appetizers and coffee. At his in-laws’ a buffet table is set with salads and appetizers, and then it’s off to Aunt Mary and Uncle Dennis’ with a 3 a.m. breakfast of scrambled eggs and biscuits and gravy — made by Nick, McLachlan’s father-in-law. They’re “bone smackin’ good,” the chef says.

Christmas morning is at his parents’ house, where he makes eggs Benedict and then opens presents. Finally, McLachlan goes to Aunt Bobby and Uncle Gary’s for traditional clam dip and cheese balls, followed by a round of Bunko in which everyone gets a prize.

“I think my aunt just loves giving and this is her way to get everyone something,” McLachlan says.

Christian Ortiz, after spending 16-hour days tasting mise en place in preparation for the opening Bar Henry in New York City, where he is chef de cuisine, plans to eat his way through the menus of restaurants he has been meaning to check out.

“This meal-a-thon will also be accompanied by copious imbibing of alcohol and hopefully the company of beautiful women,” he says.

“Yep, that’s it. On Christmas I will just try to be a normal, soft-spoken gentle human being. No order fires, no ticket machines and no menu additions.”

Happy holidays, fellow chefs, thanks for stepping up and doing the job that can take a palate on a journey.”

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].