Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a man who knows how to do Christmas well, which is exactly what we’d all expect from a celebrity chef and food writer who lives in the idyllic Devon countryside and works with only the finest local ingredients.

Speaking at GH Live, Good Housekeeping’s annual festival of food, books and celebrity talks, Hugh let the audience in on what happens at the yearly F-W festive get-together.

The fam head to Gloucestershire to be with Hugh’s mum and dad. His sister starts a WhatsApp chat discussing the Christmas spread early in November. There’s a decent ham and Hugh brings a fish (a bass).

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“I promised to bring a fish, so I’m going to try to catch one if I can, hopefully, between now and Christmas,” he revealed. “I’ve got a back-up one in the freezer. I did catch it, though! It’s big enough, just about, to feed us all.”

So far so, normal, right (apart from the actual fishing and the spare in the freezer bit)? But it’s the humble Christmas salad, which Hugh has taken to a whole new level of seasonal simplicity and perfection, that’s the, well, ‘chef’s kiss’ part.

(Get your pen and paper ready to take notes, because we’re not talking cherry tomatoes, cucumber batons and waterlogged Little Gem here.)

“One favourite salad that comes out at Christmas includes red cabbage and clementines or oranges. The colours are so festive,” he said.

“Cut purple cabbage as fine as you can – nice thin, raw shreds. Then slice oranges or clementines and add some some nuts and seeds, probably some grated carrots, maybe a little sprinkling of raisins.”

Sure, why not Hugh? But he goes on.

“If you soak the raisins in a bit of cider vinegar they’ll have a lovely little acidic pop that stops the whole thing becoming too sweet. Things like that are just as much a part of the festive excitement as the centrepiece.”

GET THE RECIPE HERE

Delicious. Which, brings us nicely to the mains. What exactly does Hugh serve instead of turkey?

“This year it might be a shoulder of goat,” he says, “because we keep goats at home.”

Oh, Hugh.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s latest book, How To Eat 30 Plants A Week: 100 Recipes To Boost Your Health And Energy, is out now BUY NOW