What 20 Famous Chefs Are Cooking For Thanksgiving This Year Slideshow
What 20 Famous Chefs Are Cooking for Thanksgiving This Year
Though you may be quick to think that chefs always serve gourmet meals at their Thanksgiving feasts, you would be wrong. This is a holiday that's all about family time and comfort, so they're not afraid of the green bean casserole, premade pumpkin pie crusts, and canned cranberry sauce. Sure, you have your turkey confit, rabbit stuffing, and stuffed acorn squash. But those all-American staples are on everyone's table, even Harold Moore's.
So from Bobby Flay's Puerto Rican-inspired feast to Lydia Shire's anadama bread stuffing and Valerie Bertinelli's ever-changing roasted turkey, here's what 15 famous chefs are cooking for Thanksgiving this year.
Ben Daitz
"This year I'm going to spatchcock the bird and smoke her on the big green egg! I usually go pretty traditional, chestnut stuffing, sweet potatoes, greens, and cranberries cooked gently so they just burst open. Then pecan and pumpkin pie. Then nap.
Bobby Flay
"I always theme my Thanksgiving Day menu after something to talk about around the table. Puerto Rico has had a really hard time this year and there is a huge Puerto Rican community in New York, so I am going to cook Thanksgiving with Puerto Rico in mind. I'll be making an adobo-spiced turkey, mofongo, and plantains."
Charlie Palmer
"My team of talented chefs are all serving their own interpretations of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, with more modern but still seasonal dish options available as well. I am particularly excited about the venison loin that we're serving at Aureole this year. We pair it with sweet potatoes, maitake mushrooms, and cardamom jus — the flavors are so unique and dynamic, a true representative of progressive American cooking."
Claire Welle
"In a cook's life, holidays are for other people and their families. Restaurants are open and services are usually very long. But for a few short minutes in the middle of the day, we come together as a staff for family meal. Usually, it's just whatever the cooks have time to make — but Thanksgiving is different. We take the time to sit down, maybe have a glass of wine, and actually eat the same food that we'll be serving that day to other people and their families. It's nothing fancy, nothing glamorous, but it's our time together, and it's everything."
Curtis Stone
"I love celebrating Thanksgiving and I'm a big fan of a traditional spread — everything from a juicy turkey to cranberry sauce to dessert. I made my own cranberry sauce years ago when I hosted for the first time and I still make it today. It's just three ingredients: Fresh cranberries, sugar, and water. Then you can add your own spin to it; I like a cinnamon stick and orange peel for a true holiday classic."
Damaris Phillips
"I'll make a vegetarian 'turkey roast.' I'll take wheat gluten and fill it with savory stuffing and maybe some cheese and roasted vegetables and I'll roll it in wheat gluten and I'll cover that with bread crumbs or nuts. Then, I'll bake that off for a roasted protein-rich entrée for the vegetarians at the table. But we've also done things like stuff a vegetarian sausage into an acorn squash, which works awesome. Or we've done stuffed peppers with soy crumbles with poultry seasonings. Turkey is just turkey. But when you think about the flavors that go with turkey, you think of sage and rosemary and thyme. So as long as you're incorporating a lot of those flavors in, you can get the essence of what Thanksgiving tastes like. Don't skimp on the oil, don't skimp on the butter... Just give everybody some of that fattiness so it feels like comfort food."
Ford Fry
"Thanksgiving for me is all about the gravy — I pour it over everything on my plate. I've noticed for the past few years, people are getting more creative with different ways to cook a turkey on Thanksgiving. Those are all great, but, if you're frying your turkey, you won't get the stock to make gravy! Or, if you're from Texas like me and you smoke everything for Thanksgiving, how do you get turkey juices from a smoked turkey? The answer requires extra work but is totally necessary: cooking two turkeys. If you have leftovers, that's okay; white bread and Duke's Mayonnaise sandwiches are a must. I always cook one turkey in a nontraditional way, and for the traditional turkey, I use clear roasting bags. I first brine the turkey for 1 to 2 days, depending on how large. Then, I'll roast the turkey in the roasting bag, which is a super easy way to collect all the juices. I'll snip the corner of the bag, and drain the juices into a pot while the turkey is resting to make my gravy. You'll get at least a quart of fragrant and delicious turkey juices this way."
Harold Moore
"Of course we always have turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. But personally, I'm a huge fan of the green bean casserole — like the classic one made with canned soup and canned green beans and those crunchy fried onions. [My partner] Julia and I combine culinary traditions from both of our families. Her family roasts the turkey with sausage underneath, which is great for a gravy base. And I always look forward to my grandmother's cranberry sauce. She makes a Jell-O mold that has cranberries in it (from the can), plus raspberry Jell-O, mandarin oranges, and finely chopped walnuts."
Jenn Louis
"I am pretty traditional, but always open to mixing things up. For the past few years, I have done something different each Thanksgiving. Last year, I went to a vegetarian Thanksgiving, and this year, will be at an entirely gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner. For the vegetarian meal, I made a super-rich mushroom gravy — mashed potatoes and gravy are my favorite. It was awesome, and I will definitely be using it again, for years to come!"
Lydia Shire
"Thanksgiving is the warmest holiday. It is a true family gathering that focuses on food and comfort. Smart cooks do what they can to prepare for their Thanksgiving feast ahead of time. My stuffing can be made in advance and refrigerated. The bread that I use is a bread native to New England called anadama bread. What makes it distinct is that it has molasses and cornmeal in it. I also believe that there is no good stuffing made without the use of sausages in it. Sausages make the stuffing. Another tip is that I roast my turkey upside down. I do this because all the juices then enter the breast meat and you will never have a dry turkey when cooked this way."
Mary Sue Milliken
"Thanksgiving is my favorite meal to cook. This year, we are driving up to San Francisco because our son is in art school there. My San Francisco chef pal Traci DesJardins is putting together a box of all the best veggies as well some Wolf Ranch Quail (my fave). We'll do a regular turkey, gravy, and two kinds of stuffing plus all my childhood favorites: Mashed potatoes, sweet and sour red cabbage, shredded Brussels sprouts with lime, a big salad with roasted kabocha and pepitas. My hubby makes amazing pies — pecan, pumpkin, and rhubarb this year. Variety is what I love about Thanksgiving — that and leftovers."
Matt Abdoo
"At my house we like to cook up the classics like smoked turkey breasts, confit turkey leg and thigh, sweet potato casserole with candied pecans, green bean mushroom casserole with French's onions, mashed potatoes and gravy, ricotta lasagna, stuffing, and all the pies! There's never a shortage of food."
Michael Chernow
"Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, and it's tradition that I cook for my whole family. Every year, I have roughly 20 family members come to my house in upstate New York; I cook while they hang! I typically start cooking on Tuesday. It's all about music, fireplaces, and food. My staples are pumpkin and apple soup, a brioche, mushroom, sausage, and dried fruit stuffing, smoked turkey, and roasted root veggies. My wife bakes amazing pies — my favorite is her pumpkin pecan pie — yes, she combines my two favorite pies in one!"
Ree Drummond
"A huge turkey, a little bit of dressing inside the turkey. That's for my father-in-law and me. Nobody else likes it inside the turkey but the two of us. A big pan on the side. An unbelievable amount of mashed potatoes. I make those the day before, sometimes two days before. I put them in a casserole dish, and they have cream and cheese and butter, all sorts of good things. Of course dinner rolls in many shapes and forms, depending on how much time I have that year. Plenty of pie. I like pie. I do pecan pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie. Sometimes I make the crusts, sometimes I buy them. Sometimes in the same year, I'll make the crust for one pie and have a ready-made crust for another. I'm not afraid to whip out the shortcuts for Thanksgiving. There's so much that you do from scratch, you need to give yourself a break."
Robert Del Grande
"I guess Thanksgiving offers an opportunity to count the years; and I've counted quite a few by now. And learned a few important lessons along the way. First and foremost: Never be too creative at Thanksgiving. Every person has a history as every taste has a history. So everyone is their own history of tastes. Thanksgiving seems to be a relaxed chance to revisit those previously remembered tastes, not a potential thrill ride of new ones. A grand affair doesn't have to be complicated. Sometimes the simplest dish gets the most raves. (I learned this lesson more than once – some blanched greens beans with walnut oil and coarse sea salt and suddenly you're a genius). So, here's some recurrent staples from my Thanksgiving line up: roasted turkey simply seasoned with an apple cider cream sauce, sweet potatoes in banana leaves, Brussels sprouts, cornbread stuffing, green beans. And finally, if there has to be mashed potatoes, I try to get someone else to make them."
Thomas Chen
"Thanksgiving is a mix of traditional dishes and Asian dishes for my family. Along with the traditional bird, we also have a whole roasted suckling pig. We stuff the bird with sticky rice mixed with Chinese sausage and roasted kabocha squash instead of the usual stuffing. We still have the traditional sides liked mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, and sweet potatoes topped with granola and marshmallows."
Thomas Keller
"Thanksgiving is about tradition and so you'll find my mother's creamed pearl onions on the table. The dish is both nourishing and satisfying during the holiday season because of its simplicity, heartiness, and delicious flavor."
Tim Cushman
"My Thanksgiving is super traditional. I love turkey, but especially love the gravy. I make a very slow gravy from the drippings of the turkey in the pan and slowly incorporate flour for a super rich, tasty, and perfect consistency gravy. I love stuffing that my niece Jen makes every year with celery and cranberries. She's an amazing cook. And, as a New Englander, have to have Parker House rolls and fresh cranberry sauce from Carver, Massachusetts, where my friend Frank is a farmer."
Tim Love
"Family, food, and fun in that order... I'm about to hunt the turkey next week and we will fry and smoke one. Also on the menu is fried oyster casserole, chorizo-sweet potatoes hash, fall squash and corn nut succotash, rabbit confit stuffing, pumpkin flan, and snickerdoodle ice cream sandies!"
Valerie Bertinelli
"Usually a good, big bird or two because we like to have leftovers. You will see me in the kitchen every Friday after Thanksgiving making a gumbo, so I like to have plenty of leftovers. But we like to mix it up. Sometimes Tom will deep-fry a turkey or we'll stuff a turkey with citrus and rosemary and cook it that way. We haven't decided how we're going to make our bird this year. I love stuffing. I love a good, sweet and salty and spicy stuffing. I'll use regular bread stuffing or cornbread, and I put hot Italian sausage in it. Sometimes I put cranberries or dried cranberries in it, but this year I think I'm going to try apples."