What SA chefs and cookbook authors will be cooking for Christmas

Planning your Christmas feast? Steal ideas from SA foodies' festive menus

DAISY JONES

Author of 'Star Fish', Sunday Times Food Weekly Cookbook of the Year 2014

My Cape Town paella, spiced with pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika) and turmeric (instead of saffron, to give it a Cape Town feel). The chorizo and chicken are traditional - they nod neatly to sausage and turkey - and the mussels and squid are sustainable. It's a casual, one-dish meal with deep pinks, yellows and reds as warm as the evening air.

CHEF REUBEN RIFFEL

Restaurateur, MasterChef SA judge and author of 'Braai: Reuben on Fire', runner-up in the Sunday Times Food Weekly Cookbook of the Year Awards 2014

A beach buffet with fruits of the sea: legal perlemoen, crayfish and galjoen on the braai, with my wife Maryké's potato salad. Roast leg of lamb with basil-mustard pesto for the meat eaters, and for dessert a lightly boozy trifle with pannetone, thick vanilla custard, summer fruits and strawberry jelly.

NIKKI WERNER

Co-author of 'Cook. Better.', runner-up in the Sunday Times Food Weekly Cookbook of the Year Awards 2014

This year we turned a corner and convinced our family to forego the turkey (turns out they're only in it for the trimmings anyway!), so we'll be stoking the coals pool-side and presenting an array of salads with our open-air butterflied leg of Karoo lamb on the braai. We might miss the duck-fat roasties, homemade stuffing, from-scratch gravy and cranberry sauce, but we won't miss the hot kitchen.

ERICA PLATTER

Co-author of 'Durban Curry', finalist in the Sunday Times Food Weekly Cookbook of the Year Awards 2014

The late Petersburg Madondo's duck curry with a locally raised Dargle duck (not some jet-lagged, waterlogged, frozen foreign bird). The recipe starts with gently braised onion, garlic and ginger and revs up with all the traditional festive spices.

CHEF ANDREW ATKINSON

Executive chef, Hyatt Regency, Joburg

A whole roast suckling pig. I had better plan to slow-roast it in a fire pit as we'll probably have load-shedding. At Christmas I cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

CHEF ARNOLD TANZER

Kitchen director, MasterChef SA

Milk stout and molasses ham with mustard fruits, hot-smoked turkey breast served cold with green mango tamarind relish, and a dessert of Christmas pudding ice cream with star anise roasted nectarines.

CHEF VANESSA MARX

Owner of Dear Me Restaurant, Cape Town

Roasted bone marrow on sourdough toast and a bottle of bubbly. I used to do a traditional Christmas, but this year my mom is going away, so bone marrow on toast will be great.

CHEF BENNY MASEKWAMENG

Tsogo Sun executive chef and MasterChef SA judge

A whole pig from nose to tail - legs and shoulders for roasts, chops for the braai and head, tail and trotters for terrines.

CHEF KABELO SEGONE

HTA School of Culinary Arts, Randburg

Sage and onion chicken galantine with Brussels sprouts and mushrooms, chestnut purée, potatoes dauphinoise and a crème berry jus.