Curtis Stone shares Christmas game plan to ease holiday cooking

Celebrity chef Curtis Stone has unveiled a Christmas game plan to help home cooks survive the festive feast, insisting that a structured approach can keep the day calm and enjoyable. Speaking to Daily Mail at the 2025 Coles Christmas Lunch, Stone framed the strategy as accessible to anyone taking charge of the big holiday meal, even for first‑time hosts.

Stone emphasizes starting with a clear list of what will be served, then breaking down every dish into the tasks required to get it to the table. In his words, the process mirrors mise en place in a professional kitchen: write down all the dishes you want to serve, then map out the jobs needed to prepare them. He says this exercise reveals the true scale of the task and can be a half‑hour or more of staring at a laundry list before you even begin cooking. "What you need to do first is write down all the things you want to serve," he explained. "Then make a list of all the jobs you have to do to prepare and make those dishes. In a professional kitchen we call it mise en place. You basically approach it like a chef would - and you end up with this laundry list of things to do. And you'll be like, 'Holy cow, this is a crazy amount of stuff'."

By sorting the list, the lead‑up should focus on tasks that can be completed before Christmas Day, leaving only a handful of last‑minute jobs for the big day itself. Stone urges home cooks to analyze their lists and mark items that can only be done on the day, which helps to prevent kitchen gridlock and reduces stress on the holiday.

The takeaway, according to Stone, is to prioritize hosting over hovering in the kitchen. "The best hosts have the most fun," he said. "If you go to someone's house and they're stressing, it makes you uneasy. But if they're larger than life, you feel like you can be too. So you can't put too much stress on the day." He also stresses that asking for help is essential. "I'm always a big advocate for asking people to dig in," Stone said. "Whether it's getting guests to bring a plate or inviting them to join you in the kitchen, spreading the load makes for a more enjoyable experience because, suddenly, you're in this together."

Coles Development Chef Michael Weldon joins Stone in promoting a strategic menu that minimizes oven congestion and keeps the focus on showstopping dishes that don’t monopolize the entire kitchen. Weldon recommends starting with cold courses where possible in Australia’s warm Christmas climate, suggesting prawns, cold cuts such as ham, and a bright fruit‑driven salad that features in‑season stone fruit. "Start cold - especially here in Australia where the weather is hot at Christmas," Weldon told Daily Mail. "Go for prawns, cold cuts like ham and a salad, maybe even featuring fantastic stone fruit that's in season at this time of year." He adds that the oven should be used for set‑it‑and‑forget‑it dishes like roasts and roasted vegetables to keep the space free for other components. He pointed to Coles Finest Boneless Chicken Prosciutto Wrapped Fromager D'affinois, $28, and a Dukkah Spiced Cauliflower Kit, $15, as examples of impressive, low‑effort centerpieces. "Set it and forget it" foods that can be roasted in the oven minimise time spent in the kitchen.

Stone also notes a shift in Australian Christmas appetites away from a single showpiece main course. While turkeys remain available and some households will opt for them, he concedes that the big bird can be challenging to cook well and can overwhelm a smaller gathering with leftovers. "We'll always have turkeys available, and some people will always want that traditional meal at Christmas time," he said. "But unless you're cooking for a huge number of people, it doesn't make a tonne of sense, apart from tradition." He added that the crown and legs can finish at different times, leaving the other parts dry and complicating leftovers. "With turkey - because it's so big - I always have trouble cooking it. By the time the legs are done, the crown is quite dried out," he observed. "And then what do you do with all that leftover turkey? It takes up the entire oven so there's no space for anything else. For me, there's a lot of reasons not to do a turkey." Weldon and his Coles team have noted a broader trend toward a collection of smaller, flexible components that accommodate varying dietary preferences and guest lists, rather than a single, all‑encompassing centerpiece.

For Stone, the festive table is as much about the rituals and company as it is about what ends up on the plate. The couple’s Christmas plans vary year to year, with celebrations alternating between Australia and the United States. The Stones and Lindsay Price, his American actress wife, split time between family gatherings at Curtis’s family homes and at their own residence abroad. The constants remain: roast pork with crackling from his mum and a ham every year, plus generous leftovers. "Mum always does roast pork with crackling and we have a ham every year," Curtis says. "And we always cook way too much. But I kind of love the leftovers. It's easy for me to think of a hundred different ways to use them."

This year, Stone is embracing another long‑running family tradition. He says he will join his mother in making a Christmas cake, a project his mum has done for years. "I've never made a real Christmas cake, but my mum does one every year - they take a long time to make. This year she told me, 'All right, we're going to make the Christmas cake together'. Not that my wife will touch it - Americans aren't really into those kind of flavours."

Ultimately, Stone says what makes Christmas meaningful is the chance to be together. "Christmas is that moment when the whole world sort of stops. You slow right down. It's just you and your family, and that's really special." For him, the rituals and abundant holiday food are part of bigger life moments—getting married, celebrating birthdays, and coming together as a family around a table filled with food.