A Fuss-Free Holiday Feast

Have Someone Else Prepare the Food
And Enjoy Christmas Day for Yourself

By Emily Horton

    Even for the most die-hard of enthusiastic home chefs, holiday cooking can well up incomparable anxiety and dread. For some, "the great Christmas dinner," beloved as it may be, is more like a great taunting menace, which ceremoniously points out the slew of challenges involved in preparing one of the season's great holiday meals: You are likely cooking for a crowd (which equates to more hard labor in the kitchen), expectations are higher (which means that disappointments - real or imagined - will be invariably more devastating), and unless you are a master planner (or actually follow the step-by-step prep schedule in one of your dog-eared epicurean magazines), you will be marooned in the kitchen for the greater part of the day while half of your crowd is entranced by football on television and the other half tosses one around in the front yard.
     This, after you've already rolled out the red carpet with orange-and-cardamom-scented cinnamon rolls and eggs-five-ways for breakfast, and, if you have younglings in the house, likely only snagged a couple of hours' shut-eye the night before. There is a way out though, because forgoing a high-maintenance tâte-á-tâte with the stove need not necessitate sacrificing great food, and lots of it, on this most celebratory of holidays. By delegating the day's cooking tasks to the professionals, you can enjoy the food without the fuss, leaving you with ample time to spend cavorting with friends and family instead of your cookware.

Catering to the Occasion
    Christmas Day, 2 p.m. A troupe of platters, radiant, aromatic and steaming, has taken over the better part of your dining room table, now flush with guests, who are puzzled by your spotless kitchen. Haven't they all been chatting with you for the past four hours about the recent family debacle? You claim ignorance and give credit to the Christmas Feast Fairy, otherwise known as your caterer.
You may actually find that your favorite caterer is closed for business on Christmas Day. "Caterers work so hard during the month of December, and we really like to be good to our staff," said Susan Steinberg, owner of The Epicurean in Decatur. "On Christmas Day, they want to be with their families." Sound familiar?
     In order to cater to clients who need their hands free of food duty, but still prefer playing host on Christmas Day, The Epicurean, as do a number of other area caterers, offers advance pick-up options. Mix-and-match holiday menus allow clients to tailor their Christmas tables to their personal preferences. An herb-roasted turkey breast sidled with a corn soufflé, roasted winter vegetables and apples, and green beans almandine is a classic, simple affair, while beef Wellington and salmon coulibac flanked by all the trimmings and followed up with a festive bouche de Noel calls for a party with more pizzazz.
     If you're hosting a more formal affair that demands service and your caterer's servers are home for the day, consider hiring servers from area temp agencies to handle the reheating and serving of the food.
     Want a few more bragging rights? In a twist on the conventional catering theme, Midtown-based Affairs to Remember General Manager Patrick Cuccaro had this in mind when he came up with the company's new Hands-on Cooking Class and Hands-off Holiday Feast.
    "People want to give it the personal touch, but they don't have time to do it," Cuccaro said. "When you're with family, it's often ideal to serve a meal from home, and this way you can comment on the recipes." Even if you leave the grunt work to someone else.
     The plan - four days before Christmas, clients attend a two-hour cooking class at the Affairs to Remember catering facility, where they get acquainted with ingredients, participate in some of the less-involved prep work, and get a run-down from Affairs' chefs on what they'll be serving guests Christmas Day (a turkey platter with sage butter and pear chutney, a citrus chicken bathed in a lemon-orange nutmeg dressing, gemelli pasta tossed in a vegetable-studded Alfredo sauce, roasted root vegetables served with a basil peppercorn syrup, and enough side dishes and nibbles to keep everyone's mouths busy).
    "[The cooking class] gives the client a sense of intimacy with the menu they wouldn't receive if they'd just ordered the food," Cuccaro said. "Being able to talk about the food adds a level of conversation to the table, as well."
     After class, the rest is left to the chefs, until clients return the morning of Christmas Eve to pick up their bounties for 10 (or have them delivered on request for an extra cost). Christmas Day, reheat and serve on your best showboat place settings. Aunt Lydia wants to know how you got those roasted vegetables to turn out so incredibly golden? Five minutes later, she's convinced you spent all morning babysitting them yourself. And cleanup? Nothing a little dishwasher can't handle.

No Hands Required
    If you'd rather relinquish all control of the Christmas meal, dining out may be a more appropriate bet. Not surprisingly, options Christmas Day are scarce, but a handful of restaurants and the magnificent meals they host make sufficient amends and promptly take the hosting responsibility off your shoulders entirely.
     Christmas Day brunches in Atlanta can be lessons in extravagant celebration. Served buffet style, the flexible format and something-for-everyone selections cater particularly well to families with polar tastes. And, of course, in the South, we all love a good buffet. The downside is that there is no limit to gluttony. Be sure to wear pants at least one size too large.
    In Buckhead, The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead (home of The Dining Room) will host its Christmas Day Brunch in The Grand Ballroom and The Café from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. ($75 per adult, $35 per child). Nosh on assorted caviars, shellfish and smoked fishes to start, then make the rounds between salads, soups, carving and side-dish stations, where you'll find numerous classics, but also a festive blend of Southern sophistication and international influence. Grilled fennel, charred onions and corn tossed together in a salad with cumin-sherry vinaigrette, ham and goat cheese tamales with a fiery red-chili sauce, a West-Indian pumpkin curry chowder specked with crabmeat, a lobster Wellington sauced with braised leeks and lemon sabayon, Kobe beef with Yorkshire pudding and red-eye gravy. The ubiquitous, but ever-vital turkey even takes an Eastern-inspired slant with an accompanying orange and star-anise-infused cranberry sauce. Another table, aromatic with the scents of oranges, olives, lemons and coriander, pays delicious homage to Greece, and another to the uttermost sweetness of life. Don't forget to take a dip in the chocolate fountain while you fawn over the dessert table.
   Farther south in Midtown, inside the Four Seasons Hotel, Park 75 will host a similarly lavish brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. ($72 adults, $30 children; complimentary for children 5 and younger) in the restaurant and Savannah Hall. Last year's spread (composed of carving, trimmings, salad, pasta, seafood, Asian, children's and dessert stations) managed to mingle the conventional with the eclectic, from a Mediterranean leg of lamb and Nicoise salad with Ahi tuna and Hong Kong dim sum to the requisite roasted turkey, crown rib roast, green bean casserole and Southern cornbread and sausage stuffing. Even humble Southern staples took a sophisticated spin for the better; black-eyed peas and braised Brussels sprouts picked up the smoky flavor of wild boar bacon, punchy sautéed garlic shrimp topped stone-ground grits, and a Georgia-grown beet salad perked up with the addition of fresh local goat cheese and a pine nut vinaigrette.
     Looking for less fanfare and more personal attention? Downtown, The Ritz-Carlton's Atlanta Grill will be accepting reservations between 5:30 and 10 p.m. for a four-course prix-fixe holiday menu in its luxe main dining room ($65 per person, $90 per person with wine pairings). Of course, if you have no guests on your hands, you might snag one of the Grill's most intimate tables for its no-holds-barred Cheater's Booth dinner, a four-course menu book ended by champagne and dessert. Recommended for significant others only. Seatings for two will be at 5:30 and 8 p.m. ($270 per couple)
     Great food always makes an even greater impression in an enchanting setting and from one of the city's greatest vantage points. The Sun Dial Restaurant, at the pinnacle of the Westin Peachtree Plaza downtown, will serve up a prix-fixe, three-course menu from 1 until 8 p.m. ($59 per person). This year's menu, a crowd-pleasing selection of spruced-up classics, is unlikely to disappoint; highlights include a delicate starter of Georgia white shrimp with a musky truffled celery root and potato salad, crunchy leeks and caviar; a festive pumpkin ravioli tossed with wilted radicchio, pecorino cheese and walnut cream, and an unapologetically classic grilled beef tenderloin served with a canvas of rosemary-garlic potatoes ideal for soaking up a roasted shallot jus and gorgonzola butter. Still, a 360-degree revolving view of the city is tough to beat. Having the energy to enjoy your company, the food, and the view, however, is priceless.