Essex

<a href="https://thechequersmatchinggreen.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Chequers Matching Green</a>, has a new Head Chef, Richard Dean, and while he only joined the team in October, we hear he&#8217;s made some transformative improvements to the kitchen! Maybe he can lend us a hand too – we talk turkey, trimmings and tipples.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="1004" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Richards-photo.jpg" alt="Richard Dean, Head Chef, The Chequers Matching Green" class="wp-image-26764" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Richards-photo.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Richards-photo-797x800.jpg 797w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Richards-photo-996x1000.jpg 996w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Richards-photo-768x771.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



What&#8217;s on the festive menu at The Chequers Matching Green this Christmas? Well, turkey with all the trimmings is the obvious one, but we also have halibut, duck, lobster, beef bourguignon, and beetroot salmon gravlax, to name a few.



What&#8217;s the key thing to remember to keep Christmas dinner stress-free? Have a plan, but don’t get stressed if your dinner isn’t ready for the time that you wanted. The most important thing is that everyone is together and enjoying themselves.



What can be made ahead of time, say in the weeks before? If you’re making your own stuffing, sausage meat keeps well in the freezer, so you can make it the week before, rolling it in cling film to make a big sausage. You can then defrost it a couple of days before, roast it, and cut it into slices ready to reheat in the oven on the day.



Which jobs could we be doing on Christmas Eve? You can even start the day before Christmas Eve by prepping the veg like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and any green veg you like. Then, on Christmas Eve, blanch all your green veg for a few minutes. This will help on the day when you want to get all the food out at roughly the same time. You can parboil the potatoes, then drain them and let them steam for around 5-10 minutes. Then soak them in your goose fat or beef dripping, whichever you prefer. This allows the potatoes to really absorb the flavour of the fat.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Xmas-Dinner-Photo.jpg" alt="Christmas dinner, The Chequers Matching Green" class="wp-image-26765" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Xmas-Dinner-Photo.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Xmas-Dinner-Photo-800x800.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Xmas-Dinner-Photo-400x400.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Xmas-Dinner-Photo-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/Xmas-Dinner-Photo-500x500.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



Do we need to be getting up at 5am to put the turkey in? You still need to get up early, but if you are only doing turkey, there is no need to be up at 5am. If you do a lot of the prep the day before, it will make the day go smoother.



What&#8217;s the key to cooking a succulent turkey? I believe brining your turkey will always make sure it doesn’t get dry, but not everyone has the space in the fridge to do this. Otherwise, the key is to use a food probe to make sure you don’t overcook the turkey, allow it to rest before cutting, and put lots of butter under the skin. Fill the cavity with slices of orange and cloves &#8211; this will steam as it cooks and add just that little bit of extra flavour.



And the crispiest roasties? Prepping the potatoes the day before and allowing the steam to escape before soaking them in the fat will help, as well as not overcrowding the roasting tray to allow airflow to crisp them up.



How long can you keep meat out of the oven before serving, and how do you keep it hot? Your turkey will stay hot for quite a while, as it carries on cooking even after you take it out. When you take it out to rest, if you cover it with foil, it should be fine while you are cooking everything else in the oven.



What&#8217;s worth making from scratch? And what’s worth buying ready-made to take the pressure off? Stuffing from scratch is always good, and you can incorporate so many of your favourite flavours to make it your own. Buy cranberry sauce &#8211; there is no need to make your own. Making your own gravy can take a long time, but there are quite a few different types of ready-made stock that you can turn into gravy nowadays to get that real gravy flavour –&nbsp;a good alternative to gravy granules.



So, everyone’s waiting for their dinner, it’s taking a while &#8211; what simple nibbles or canapés would you provide for guests? If you want to do canapés, you can make some mini quiches &#8211; you can buy the mini tart cases and just add your own filling. Or prawn cocktails served in a baby gem leaf. Smoked salmon blinis with crème fraîche and caviar are always good. But if you want to make your life easy, we normally have charcuterie and cheese laid out for people to pick at as the day goes on, as this takes little to no effort to put out but looks good spread out on some serving boards.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/the-chequers-1000x667.jpg" alt="The Chequers Matching Green" class="wp-image-26818" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/the-chequers-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/the-chequers-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/the-chequers-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/12/the-chequers.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



What do you eat on Christmas Day? We normally have turkey and beef, but we have been known to have goose from time to time. My wife’s side of the family is from Italy, so we have a pasta course before our dinner when we are with them for Christmas. We always have freshly roasted chestnuts as well to nibble on throughout the day.



And what are you drinking with your Christmas meal? We normally have Asti sparkling wine during the meal and Kahlúa coffees in the evening.



Can you suggest a dessert that&#8217;s a bit of a showstopper but can be prepped ahead of time? Making anything homemade for Christmas is always nice. We personally make tiramisu, which is really easy and will keep for a few days without any issues.



What about a Christmas Eve dinner that&#8217;s low prep but feels extra special? I will usually do fish for dinner, which will normally include prawns, calamari and some nice fish like halibut or turbot. These are all low-prep dishes, but as we don’t get to eat much fish normally, it feels special for us.



What are your favourite local ingredients to use over Christmas? Or local suppliers? I love using winter squash over this period &#8211; there are so many, with such different flavour profiles, it’s a must over winter. Also, game season is in full swing now, and pigeon is one of my favourites this time of year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-in-the-mood-for-more">In the mood for more?</h2>



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Stress-free secrets: How to cook Christmas dinner without the drama

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