What’s on your Christmas wish list for 2024?

Spirits of Christmas

Another twist on the traditional is adding Christmas drink flavours to food. For instance, French bakery Bridor offers mulled wine and chestnut bread for caterers looking to create Christmas canapés. Its latest creation, made in collaboration with pâtissier Maison Lenôtre, comes in a long, slender shape suitable for slicing before being used as a base for sweet or savoury recipes. Each 130g loaf makes around 20 slices.

Alongside the typical orange, cranberry, gingerbread and cinnamon flavours for festive sweet treats, new flavour fusions are making their mark. “Reinterpretations of classics appeal to adventurous palates,” says Kirsty Matthews, brand manager at ingredient manufacturer Macphie, who suggests Black Forest pâtisseries for a refined variation on gâteaux, or shareable savoury-sweet hybrids such as smoked salmon choux buns.

“Incorporating these on-trend flavours into classic bakes gives a fresh spin on otherwise traditional dishes – think dark chocolate and salted caramel crème brûlée, for instance,” she adds.

Elevating desserts at a time when diners are more likely to indulge could prove to be a key draw for operators too. According to Scott Dixon, managing director of the Flava People: “Adding a layer of indulgence to a meal can be as simple as incorporating an extra ingredient into an existing recipe. For example, mulled wine syrup drizzled over cheesecake, brandy ice-cream instead of vanilla, or a cinnamon-infused crumble topping.” The supplier is catering to this trend by teaming up with Diageo to create a non-alcoholic Baileys caramel sauce.

Have a happy free-from Christmas

With the proliferation of allergies and the rise of the moderation movement in drinking, it’s more important than ever for hospitality sites to offer alternative options for diners at Christmas. As it’s never easy to predict the number of guests requiring a vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free meal, the frozen option could be a chef’s friend this year. Flavoursome and unusual alternatives include Central Foods’ Menuserve Cajun spiced roulade, which is suitable for gluten-free and vegan diners.

Plant-based meats could also offer the opportunity to surprise and delight guests who may not typically choose plant-based dishes, while also providing flavoursome alternatives for those who do. For instance, meat could be swapped out of a festive dish like a Wellington for products like Novameat, which is based on pea protein.

Tipiak macarons

Looking towards sweet courses, gluten-free canapés or hors d’oeuvres could be a possibility in the form of Tipiak’s macarons, which are also frozen ready-made to further help with dietary requirements and freeing up the kitchen team to concentrate on other parts of the meal.

For the sober curious, Jing Tea has a non-alcoholic alternative to Champagne for toasting Christmas and New Year celebrations. Its Jasmine Pearls Sparkling Tea was created specially for its hospitality trade partners using one green tea from Shekou Garden in Fujian, China. The single garden tea, scented and infused with jasmine blossom, offers a natural and non-alcoholic glass of bubbles, with no compromise on taste.

Sustainable celebrations with a bang

It’s not just the food and drink that makes a Christmas meal, all the trimmings of celebration help to add to the festive atmosphere. Where many venues would offer Christmas crackers on the table, this can result in a lot of waste – an estimated 40 million crackers are discarded every year.

Table setting solutions supplier Duni thinks it has solved this issue with its new interactive eCracker. The firm provides the digital eCracker and matching party hat free of charge when ordered with its festive Christmas design napkins.

Guests scan the QR code on the festive party hat with their phone camera and they’re transported into a digital ‘wonderland’ with no download necessary. They can race their friends and family to pull their virtual cracker, test their knowledge and take festive selfies with numerous props, adding to the entertainment of dining out at Christmas. Once the meal is over, the paper hats can be recycled.

Whether shaking up menus, finding interesting ways of catering for dietary requirements or offering an alternative style of table setting, there are plenty of options to ensure your venue has a bumper Christmas.

Suppliers

• Bridor www.bridor.co.uk
• Central Foods www.centralfoods.co.uk
• Compleat Food Group www.compleatfood.com
• Duni uk.duni.com
• Jing Tea jingtea.com/trade-and-partnerships
• Macphie www.macphie.com
• Novameat novameat.com
• The Flava People theflavapeople.com
• Tipiak www.tipiakfoodservice.co.uk

Top photo: Madeleine Steinbach/Shutterstock