You’re in the kitchen again, about to prepare the holiday feast, and you realize, “Gosh, this year, it would be nice to try something different.” These three celebrity chefs have heard your pleas and, just in time for a Christmas/Kwanzaa miracle, are sharing the dishes they love to make and savor this season.
For Chef Carla Hall, it’s what goes inside your chosen bird that matters. “For my holiday dinner, it’s all about the cornbread dressing,” she revealed during a cooking class at The Bahamas Culinary & Arts Festival, presented by Baha Mar Resort in Nassau, Bahamas. “For Thanksgiving and Christmas, I start with my grandmother’s cornbread, so good.”
Chef Marcus Samuelsson has expanded his restaurant empire into the country with Marcus at Baha Mar Fish + Chop House, a place where he has fallen in love with the island’s culinary culture. “There are all of these different things that make the Bahamas so unique. And it’s my job to learn and study and then introduce it into the restaurant,” he shared with EBONY during the festival tasting inside the restaurant. “Right now, it’s lobster season, so you have to have fresh Bahamian lobster.”
Chef Simeon Hall Jr. concurs. The Bahamian native doesn’t see lobster as a special dish but rather as a regular staple in the Bahamian diet. “Lobster to us is not just an ingredient that is only for the wealthy. Everybody eats lobster, ’cause you could catch it yourself if you want them,” he declared.
“Seafood-flavored stuffing is a big thing in The Bahamas. And one dish that will be on everyone’s holiday table is Bahamian peas and rice, which is not to be confused with rice and peas or any other rice. Ours is a spin-off of jollof. All these dishes connect us to our island expression.”
And yes, Bahamians love their macaroni & cheese, a dish that Samuelsson has perfected for the season with this add-in. “Our pumpkin mac & cheese, I love making it with my son,” Samuelsson shared. “We roast the pumpkin, scrape it out and then we fold it into our mac & cheese.”
As the father of 9-year-old Zion and 3-year-old Grace, along with an older daughter from a previous relationship, Samuelsson knows that holiday cooking is truly a family affair.
“We love it, and to be able to do something with your kids, now that little Grace is in the kitchen with me too, is a gift.”