25 ways to transform your Christmas dinner with genius tips from top chefs, from why you should add cocoa to gravy to the simple ways to revamp carrots, ham and spuds
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Are you fed up of dry turkey, soggy sprouts and lumpy gravy? Would you like to take your Christmas dinner to the next level?. With years of experience in the country's top restaurants and hotel kitchens, professional chefs know all the secrets to transforming your festive feast, without making more work for yourself – or upsetting your more traditional family members.
![[Development chefs at M&S suggest using pigs-in-blankets as a crowd-pleasing canapé – paired with an unusual accompaniment]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/20/10/93349379-0-image-a-1_1734692018723.jpg)
From cooking the turkey upside down to spicing up your gravy with a very unexpected ingredient, industry insiders share their 25 secrets for revolutionising your meal. Here's how to hack this year's Christmas dinner like a pro…. 1. ADD BICARBONATE OF SODA TO ROASTIES.
![[Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge is offering an entire 'BBQ box' for Christmas dinner this year]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/20/11/93349481-14213549-image-a-9_1734692534199.jpg)
If you struggle to make roast potatoes with golden crunchy outsides and soft fluffy insides, try this. Elliott Grover, executive chef at 45 Park Lane, London, suggests adding two teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda to the water when parboiling them: this makes the water more alkaline and helps break down the skin of the potatoes as they cook.
![[Adam Smith of Coworth Park says: 'Prepare your roasties days in advance, blanch and fluff them up before freezing']](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/20/10/93349375-0-image-a-3_1734692108324.jpg)
'Also add smashed garlic, rosemary and thyme, and boil that with the potatoes,' Elliott adds. 'This really does make the potatoes so fragrant, and the outsides super fluffy as the bicarb breaks down the potato perfectly.'. 2. TURN YOUR TURKEY UPSIDE-DOWN.
There's nothing worse than spending all day cooking a turkey – only for it to end up dry and unappetising. Asda's senior innovation chef, Rich Harding, has the solution: turn it upside-down once it comes out of the oven. This would also work if you're cooking chicken for a regular Sunday roast.
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