Jean-Georges Vongerichten Shares His Top Holiday Entertaining Tips

Photo Credit: Jean Georges Management

Jean-Georges Vongerichten is one of the world’s most famous chefs, with skills that extend far beyond the kitchen. A savvy businessman and restaurateur, Jean-Georges is responsible for the success of over 60 restaurants worldwide, including his namesake, Jean-Georges, the abc kitchen concept, Nougatine by Jean-Georges, and his new effort, Four Twenty-Five. Here, he shares his top entertaining tips for the holidays.

Photo Credit: Jean Georges Management

What are your top tips for entertaining during the holidays?

For me, it depends if it’s a friends or family visit. Sometimes I do things simply — just open a can of caviar with some creme fraiche and some sprinkles. Or it could be a sit-down dinner where you put one meal on the table, like a whole fish or roast chicken in a pot, and everybody jumps in and it breaks the ice. One thing I don’t like is to plate food when I’m at home or entertaining people or friends or family because I plate food every day in my restaurants. So, when I’m home, I like to stand around and share things and drink cocktails. I like things family-style and shareable.

If you were throwing the ultimate New Year’s party and having some haute cuisine there, what makes it a party for you? Is it about the food, the decor? And what if you were doing it for a group of people instead of just yourself?

It depends if I’m a country house or if I’m in my apartment. For Thanksgiving, I start putting the turkey in the oven around like 1:00. It takes 2.5 hours; with the roasting time, three hours. So I usually start around 2:00 in the afternoon. I give everybody a cup of butternut squash soup and we a glass of champagne. Then we move to a little king crab on caviar. So that’s another hour. Then I do something warm, like a bay scallop Provencale, just with some garlic and herbs. That’s another hour. Then finally, around five, 5:30, we sit down for the turkey. And I like to do a buffet style, you know, because I have so many side dishes. Mashed potatoes, braised red cabbage, roasted Brussels sprouts, baked sweet potato, cranberry sauce. I put the whole thing on the table, carve the turkey in front of everybody, fill up the plates with whatever they want. Dark meat, white meat, whatever. So that’s from usually 5 to 6:30. Then we, you know, watch TV, talk, we drink more.

It’s like a marathon of food, because otherwise, you have your family driving an hour to come to visit you. So this is like a marathon of eating and drinking. You pace yourself. Nobody gets too sleepy. And then usually around 9 or 10 o’clock at night, I cook some pasta, I put some turkey with parmesan on pasta — sometimes with a little shaved or white truffle — a little luxury. I like my party to last.  People always come back to the table and eat and drink again.

I can’t believe you don’t take a nap. That’s huge.

I may want to take a nap, but I don’t because I’m always anticipating the next course. The only time we sit down is just for the turkey plate. The rest of the time everybody’s standing around drinking. It’s the same thing for New Year’s Eve. For about the last 20 years, I usually have friends over for snacks, caviar, some tartare of the local fish, whatever it is. We start around 8 pm. I like to things to last, you know, because usually when you go to a restaurant, usually the meal is two hours, 2.5 hours. At home, I want to enjoy friendship and family, so I make the meal last a long time.

What are some French traditions that you’ve brought over to the States?

I learned all this from when I grew up. My parents were always like that, you know, New Year’s Eve, Christmas Eve. We don’t have Thanksgiving, but we had Christmas Eve, we have New Year’s, we had the birthdays, whatever celebration. They taught us to make the the party last. We would always go from one room to another room, eating different things, all the way to dessert, on any festive holiday.

Do you have any traditions that are purely European?

France is similar to Italy; every region has a different style of food. So coming from Alsace, you know, the tradition is really for Christmas. My father was always making foie gras, so we had a slice of foie gras with some toasted brioche. My mother was doing the goose egg stew, so she would get the goose the day before, and marinate it in Riesling and vegetables. The next day she she would braise it, roast it, and then put it in a pot with a casserole with a little more wine, and it would cook for hours. That was the tradition I got to start. Today, people have foie gras and things like that on the menu every day on in restaurants. And also for us, at home, those luxuries like foie gras and caviar, things were only for Christmas or New Year’s Eve, once a year. This made it special, because we were waiting for it. Plus, nobody can eat that rich food every day. We also had traditional cookies, made by my grandmother, some by my mother, and some by the kids. It was a cookie factory at home.

What kind of cookies?

We had some with dry fruit, sugar dough with spices, almost like a spice bread, some with anise, some that were almost Linzer with a little jam. Those those thumbprint cookies, you know, all the traditional cookies. So. And what’s great about cookie is if you don’t eat it that day, they’re good for two or three days a week. You put them in a box, those old metal boxes, and they’d last until January. They’d get a little harder, dry out a bit, but they’d still be good.

And what are you doing this year for the holidays? Where are you going to be?

This year for me, since I’m in the States now, Christmas has become my vacation. I usually go to an island every year for the last 15 years. I work hard all year, but for Christmas and New Year, I want to I want to look at a palm tree as my Christmas tree. Anywhere you are in the world on New Year’s is a celebration, but when I’m on an island, I can do it barefoot in shorts and a T-shirt.

What else do you currently have cooking?

We just launched under my name at Williams-Sonoma a whole line of products, like a mignonette for oysters,  cocktail sauce, and yuzu barbecue sauce. All kinds; eight to nine different sauces that just went online. I think they’re great for the holiday because the sauces are very festive and great with a piece of roast meat or chicken, especially if you don’t want to have to make your own sauces.

Photo Credit: Jean Georges Management