Top chef Richard Hughes' top hacks for a stress-free Christmas dinner

Richard Hughes Christmas dinner. Credit: Richard Hughes Cookery School
Richard Hughes' has shared his tips for Christmas dinner. Credit: Richard Hughes Cookery School

It's the biggest family meal of the year - and the one with the most potential to go wrong.

But with a few simple tips and tricks, you can make sure your Christmas dinner is one your guests remember for all the right reasons (and you can keep your cool, too).

Chef Richard Hughes - owner of the Assembly House in Norwich, where his eponymous cookery school is based - talks ITV News Anglia through some of his Christmas dinner hacks.

  • Size matters

Check your turkey fits in your oven BEFORE Christmas Day. Simple, but you'd be surprised how many people don't!

  • Work smart, not hard

On Christmas Eve, prepare and blanch your vegetables. Then, pull a proper magic trick out of the hat: put the turkey legs, stock, a little wine and some herbs in a slow cooker and leave to simmer overnight – bingo, ready-made gravy for the morning.

  • Get it laid

If possible, lay the table the morning or night before you’re serving Christmas dinner. You'll thank yourself later.

  • Bend the rules

Is there any reason that you have to eat at lunchtime? Wouldn’t it be more civilised to eat at dinner or later in the afternoon? The longer you have to cook, the less stressed you will feel and the less rushed the whole event will be. As an added bonus, your guests may be a little tipsier than usual which will hide a multitude of sins on the plate.

These tips should help your Christmas dinner go (almost) without a hitch. Credit: Richard Hughes Cookery School/Assembly House

  • Be tactical

Choose a starter that doesn’t require the use of an oven (smoked salmon with prawns and horseradish cream is a winner) and a dessert that can be served straight from the fridge or quickly warmed up in a matter of minutes. This will save you time and oven-space.

  • Court (mild) controversy

What will save you even more time and oven-space is not having a starter at all. Controversial – to everyone apart from the cook.

  • Season with confidence

Do not serve generous helping of self-deprecation with your meal: you may be your worst critic but don’t start making apologies before your guests have sunk their teeth into your (possibly burnt) offerings. So what if the turkey is dry? What do people think gravy is FOR?

  • Style it out

There is a reason why Marks and Spencer’s best-seller at Christmas is ready-made sausages wrapped in bacon: have no shame in passing off pre-prepared food as your own. Dust icing sugar over bought mince-pies, add a flourish of home-made brandy butter to a shop-bought Christmas pudding. 'Tis the season to be sneaky.

  • And if all else fails...

Keep saying the Christmas Day Mantra over and over to yourself until it feels like the truth or until you are led away to have a lie-down in a darkened room: This is just a glorified Sunday roast. This is just a glorified Sunday roast. Note: this mantra is far more effective if every time you utter it you have a very large glug of wine.