A Holiday Luncheon for My Staff
The holiday season is among my favorite times to entertain.
Yesterday, I hosted a very special gathering for the entire staff at my Bedford, New York farm. All my employees work so hard during the year - caring for the property and my many pets and gardens, and helping me prepare for all the meetings, shoots, parties, and other events that are scheduled through the year. I planned a festive holiday meal, which was served buffet style in my Winter House kitchen. It included delicious sliced ham and biscuits, shrimp cocktail, caviar and homemade brioche toast, celeriac soup made with vegetables from my garden, stollen, Panettone, lots of tasty holiday sweets, and of course, my famous egg nog. It was a busy morning of cooking and preparing, but we had a most enjoyable end of year celebration.
Here are some photos.
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- I planned the gathering for 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Everything was ready just in time. Here is my famous egg nog, freshly made and positioned right at the end of the counter in my servery for easy access. It became a very popular spot to gather.
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- My egg nog is requested at every holiday party I host. The original recipe is in my very first book, Entertaining, Clarkson Potter 1982. There’s lots of everything – bourbon, cognac, rum, heavy cream, and eggs from wonderful chickens.
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- Tiered cake stands display cookies, brittle and other holiday sweets.
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- All the rooms in my Winter House are decorated for the holidays. I try to do it a little differently every time, but it always includes lots of trees – big, small, green, gold, and silver.
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- I also filled the rooms with lots of blooming orchids from my greenhouse. They’re all flowering so beautifully this year.
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- In my Winter House kitchen, I prepared a wonderful spread of food. Here are the trays of pre-sliced stollen, and Panettone.
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- I got the Panettone from Fatto a Mano, an artisanal Italian micro-bakery in Westport, Connecticut.
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- Homemade biscuits were served in another basket.
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- At one end of the counter I served shrimp cocktail from Mt. Kisco Seafood. It went very quickly.
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- And at the other end, I served delicious Black Diamond caviar.
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- The caviar accompanied sour cream and mini brioche toasts I made earlier in the day. It was also a very well-visited station at the buffet.
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- Holding their cups of egg nog are my operations manager, Matt Krack, and my gardeners, Josh Casali and Matthew Orrego.
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- Enjoying their first helpings are my stable manager Helen Paparo, my outdoor grounds crew foreman Chhiring Sherpa, and my head gardener, Ryan McCallister. I think everyone had seconds, and maybe even thirds of everything.
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- My resident tree expert, Pasang Sherpa, is enjoying a cup of celeriac soup I made from vegetables grown in my garden. Celeriac is a root vegetable variety of celery grown for its edible root instead of its stalks. It’s also known as celery root, turnip-rooted celery, or knob celery.
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- Here’s Ryan serving himself ham biscuit with ham I got from Stissing House in Pine Plains, New York.
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- Doug White is my property manager and JC Roberts is my business manager.
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- My crew member Fernando Ferrari and my driver, Andres Velastegui – they’ve both been with me for many years.
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- In this photo are Pasang, my housekeeper Enma Sandoval, and Pete Sherpa from my outdoor grounds crew. Cin cin to all of you!
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- Jonathan Massas is from my security team. He’s enjoying egg nog with Matt.
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- Crew member Phurba Sherpa and Cesar Felix. Cesar takes excellent care of all my chickens, turkeys, geese, peafowl, and pheasants.
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- Here’s Jimmy Oliveros from my farm team and my director of events and podcast producer Heather Kirkland.
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- Here’s my housekeeper Elvira Rojas. It was so nice to see everyone having such a good time.
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- I prepared a bag for each member of my team. Everyone got a copy of my 100th book and a Martha on the Mantel doll.
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- I also planned a fun “grab bag” gift-giving activity – everyone picked numbers from a bowl and then lined up to make their selections.
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- It was a wonderful luncheon and gathering. I, along with my entire staff, wish you all a safe and joyous holiday!
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