What Sydney chefs are cooking at home for Christmas

The end of 2020 is nigh and nobody could be happier, especially chefs, who have battled the hardest year in living memory.

While most chefs are still battling to get over the finish line with restaurants full of Sydneysiders hell-bent on squeezing more Christmas cheer out of December, plans for loaded tables and well-earned relaxation are afoot.

Some might argue Polish-Argentinian chef Elvis Abrahanowicz and his wife, Sarah Doyle, are busier than most after opening two new venues this year – Surry Hills pasta restaurant Bastardo and neighbouring bakery Humble. On top of running their other restaurants (Continental Deli in Newtown and the CBD, plus Porteno and Bodega in Surry Hills), the couple also has three children to tangle with, including identical twin toddlers.

"Because South Americans celebrate on Christmas Eve, we always spend it with Elvis's family," says Doyle. "At midnight everyone does all the Christmas gifts. And then on Christmas Day we go over to my family's house and have the big Aussie Christmas."

So what's on the table at an Argentinian Christmas feast? "Nuts and smallgoods at the beginning and then a turkey," says Abrahanowicz.

"There's always heaps of pasta and salad. We'll sometimes cook a whole pig. There will be lots of seafood and desserts such as pan dulce, which is like panettone but more dense. We eat all day."

Alex Pritchard, the head chef of Icebergs Dining Room and Bar in Bondi, is going to attempt a suckling pig hangi on his family property in Kurrajong. "Depending," he says, "on how energetic I am."

Given he's never done one before, Pritchard is taking a fairly hefty risk with a hangi, the traditional Maori method of cooking food on heated rocks, buried in a pit oven.

"Luckily we have a pretty big property. There will be plenty of ham, lamb and seafood so if it goes wrong, it'll be right. A red emperor or saddle tail snapper is the easiest crowd pleaser ever. Minimal effort and hard to screw up. The biggest thing this year is relaxing a bit."

Neil Perry is taking a similar approach to Christmas this year, keeping it relaxed with prawns and oysters to kick off proceedings. "I've been doing it long enough that I've learned to keep it relatively simple," he says.

"Bread, butter and anchovies on the table to start and then when we've knocked all that off, ham, porchetta and a couple of chooks. A salad, maybe some caponata because eggplants are great right now, and then we'll roll into a tiramisu. There's such great produce around at the moment it's crazy not to utilise it all."

Meanwhile, New York-based former Sydneysider and recipe writer Hetty McKinnon will be at home with her family in The Big Apple as COVID-19 continues to rage through the US.

On the table, the Community cookbook author will be recreating the flavours of a European Christmas market – gluhwein, fruit dipped in chocolate, German kartoffelpuffer (potato pancake) with apple sauce, spaetzle with walnut pesto and chocolate fondue.

"Growing up, I always loved the idea of a cold Christmas, but since we have been cooped up for most of the year I would love a big, summery Christmas barbecue with my family's signature 'Moroccan mess', which is an Eton mess with pomegranate jelly and Persian fairy floss," she says.

"I miss summer in Sydney. Mango juices dripping down my arms, gorging on stone fruit, watermelon at dusk and watching movies outside."