Craft Talk - Surviving the hectic Christmas period

Craft Guild of Chefs member Michael Harding gives fellow pub chefs some wise words to help survive the hectic Christmas period.

At Christmas, staff generally have to work their socks off. The average day is about 14 hours and food sales see an increase of 20% and above, so the best thing chefs can do is to be as organised and prepared as possible. Carry out as much mis en place as you can each morning so that when the doors are open you are ready to go.

Offer customers the option of pre-ordering their choices in advance as this makes life in the kitchen even easier and you'll be surprised at how many people will be more than happy to do this. It's a great way to be able to offer freshly cooked food without quite such a long wait.

Ensure staff are well briefed about the menu and how many people are booked in. A kitchen working together will keep stress levels down.

I recommend having a set menu for Christmas with about four starters and four main courses; any more and things can get confusing. And although I would always recommend roast turkey, I think customer expectation are higher at Christmas, so make your menu special. Ours includes: roast turkey and all the trimmings; roast haunch of venison with a

port wine reduction; sea bass steamed with Thai spices, and poussin quasimodo with garlic and sultana stuffing.

Over the Christmas period, we serve about 130 covers a day although our restaurant only seats 30, which gives some idea of the turnover. Keeping the menu simple enables you to cope with this kind of turnaround and still offer freshly prepared food - something customers expect at this time of year.

On Christmas Day, I would only open for a limited period and just to serve drinks. If you're serving food on Christmas Day customers expect something amazing, in the region of a six-course meal, which means the chef starting at 7am. Plus, to offer something really special you are looking in the region of £40-£50 per head. Even for a gastro pub this is expensive so you have to be certain your customers will be happy to pay that much.

And, most importantly, the best way to survive Christmas is to make time for yourself at the end of a busy shift. My favourite way to relax is by settling down with my family and opening a bottle of Krug - I guarantee it will work.

And then, when January hits, take a well-deserved break and

encourage your staff to take a few days off to recharge too.

Michael Harding is proprietor and executive chef at the Foresters Arms, Frogham, Fordingbridge, Hampshire