More than food for thought in menus

IF you read between the lines on any menu, there's a little bit of the cook's biography in your hand. Chefs, contrary to popular myth, do not come die-pressed out of a commercial kitchen handbook. Where should you go for the traditional Christmas lunch? The choice is mind-boggling. In Hong Kong, it is a buyer's market. Preparations are hardly last minute. Menus, press releases, batters for puddings, dough for stollen (Germany's yeast-raised, fruit cake), and mince meat for pies were started in the summer while ideas for hampers and entertainment for children were conceived and executed in hotels and restaurants with the precision of a pilot preparing for landing at Kai Tak airport. Chances are, this season's Christmas lunch will whisk you off to a chef's memory lane. Before you raise a forkful of sage dressing or dip into the cranberry relish, look around: the spirit of someone's family may be lurking at the kitchen door. For Umberto Bombana, of Toscana restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton, the aroma of goose braised with savoy cabbage and fresh pork sausage takes him back to Italy. It was a traditional dish prepared from a heirloom recipe by his mother and grandmother. Additions which Bombana will add to the buffet menu at Toscana include an array of Italian charcuterie. His father, a hunter, provided the family table with pigeon, quail stuffed with polenta and pancetta and pheasant. For Canadian-born Donald Berger, the Ritz-Carlton's executive chef, the sweets he makes for the lunch buffet in the Ritz Cafe and tea in the Chater Lounge will revive memories of his grandmother and her oatmeal shortbread cookies, butter tarts and fruit cake. Born and raised in the cosmopolitan city of Montreal, the Berger family supped on a variety of international cuisine. Besides the traditional turkey with chestnut and sage stuffing, candied yams and mashed potatoes with gravy, chef Berger is partial to a Canadian specialty, tourtiere, a pork and meat potato pie. At Christmas, this savoury snack or main course was canonised into Saganaury tourtiere with rabbit, duck, goose, venison and pork, stewed for two days over gentle heat. Traditional Italian pastas and entrees highlight the Christmas buffet at Toscana ($380, adults; $280, children). At the Cafe, a magician and Santa Claus will clear the palate as families load plates at the Christmas lunch buffet ($328, adults; $298 children). Reservations: 2877-6666. Seamless service, piano music, fine wines and Santa will lure families to the Petrus in the Island Shangri-La where a four-course Christmas day lunch sets the mood for the happy day ($650, adults; $450, children). For reservations phone 2820-8372. In case you need a gift for your dinner hostess, stop by the Island Gourmet in the hotel and drool over an array of goodies (puddings, gingerbread, English fruit cake, Yule logs, chocolate Christmas trees). At the Kowloon Shangri-La, the newly renovated Margaux will offer brunch ($588, adults; $288, children), including a glass of champagne, photos, gifts and visit by Santa. The chefs at Napa restaurant will be serving a buffet of American classics but updated with 1990s flair. The hotel's flower shop on the mezzanine will send bouquets to your friends and relatives around the world. For dining reservations, phone 2721-2111 ext 8656. Al's Diner in Lan Kwai Fong lacks a wine cellar with vintage reds and cooks with Michelin pedigrees. 'Our Christmas lunch is for working people or weary party animals,' assures owner Richard Feldman. 'Turkey, lumpy mashed potatoes, bread stuffing, the kind of pies that make cardiologists scream. Just real food, a warm spirit, no Santa, no family feuds in the kitchen, no dishes to wash. Nothing fancy.' When chef Joseph Martin prepares the garnish for his Highland pate for the Christmas buffet lunch at Parc 27 and the Park Lane's Cafe, he will be thinking of Agnes McCleod, the woman who used to supply the venison. She taught the then-apprentice how to make the holiday savoury when he was learning the trade at the Scotlands Hotel in Pitlochry. He complements each slice with a dollop of whipped cream and cranberry sauce, flavoured with ginger. Personalised photos, a visit from Santa and gifts are included in any of the Park Lane's buffets. (Adults, $368; children, $268). For reservations call 2839-3645. Red satin bows and a 20-foot Douglas fir tree are icing on the cake at The Regent. Decorations are not necessary when its view of Hong Kong Island is spectacular 12 months of the year. But Christmas blends European tradition under the hand of the executive chef, Swiss-born Jurg Blaser, and his crew. They will stock enough temptation into the Chocolate Boutique (decorated butter cookies, truffles, Yule log, florentines, stollen, gingerbread men) to erase any trace of hunger. Favourites are roast turkey with Christmas pudding and there will also be a feast of seafood at the Yu and a gala Christmas day buffet in the Ballroom with games and a visit by St Nicholas. Adults, $480; children, $360. For reservations: 2721-1211. The folks at Jimmy's Kitchen and Landau's are returning to 1994 prices for the holidays. The Christmas day menu at Jimmy's Kitchen in Central costs $350 per person and includes roast rack of venison with noodles and cassis sauce, roast turkey with chestnut stuffing and all the trimmings. Also on the menu is rack of lamb and wild mushrooms with cream tarragon sauce. For reservations: 2526-5293. Pastry chef Friedrich Rekla has been working since summer on his stollen and the yeast-raised cake with fruits and nuts is only one tradition available to take home at the Deli Express in the shopping arcade in the New World Harbour View - just in case there is a hunger pain after lunch. Besides stollen, there's protein in forms of fillet of beef and turkey and pies (mince) and chocolate Santa Claus. For an elegant approach to lunch, the hotel offers a traditional one in Scala. Adults, $410; children, $280. For reservations: 2802-8888. Children will be the highlight of merriment in the newly refurbished Crystal Ballroom of the Holiday Inn Golden Mile. A lavish buffet (adults, $298; children, $198) will be offered from noon to 3 pm. Entertainment includes a visit from Santa and music. A buffet will also be served in Cafe Vienna (adults, $298; children, $198) and a traditional four-course sit-down lunch in the Baron's Table. For reservations: 2369-3111. Children are entitled to their own playground at the Grand Stanford Harbour View. Saint Nicholas will visit all outlets during lunch and cartoons and games will help the little ones digest their meal. Parents can relax with a glass of champagne before digging into buffets at The Belvedere (adults, $458; children, $278) and the Mistral (adults, $298; children, $188). For reservations: 2721-5161, ext 2728 (Belvedere); ext 2726 (Mistral). Why not pull out all the stops. And that's exactly the direction taken by chef K F Cho of Les Celebrites in the Hotel Nikko. Turkey with all the trimmings, sea bass and crabmeat with caviar sauce, and roasted French goose ballotine served with candied chestnut are among the choices. The seafood Christmas lunch buffet costs $328 per person. For reservations: 2313-4268. But not everyone goes out for Christmas. Many people prefer to stay home and rely on caterers or take-out service from restaurants and hotels. Cooks will be toiling around the clock to prepare for the deluge of customers picking up dishes and whole menus. At The Continental in Quarry Bay, owner Andrea Stedman's mind will be replaying memories of Billie Hunt, her mother. 'She'd get up around 4 am on Christmas morning to cook off the Christmas puddings.' The pudding with its fruit macerated in masala and brandy is served with sweetened brandy butter, poached peaches on the side, pure cream and custard or 'the works', according to Ms Stedman. Though Mrs Hunt, of Apollo Bay, near Melbourne, prepared the puddings three months in advance for flavour development, the size of Ms Stedman's storage facilities limit their ripening to six weeks. The traditional dishes at The Continental will remind Ms Stedman's colleague, Alison Wheatley, of holidays in Singapore. 'My mother is Malaysian, my father, British and we had Christmas with traditional food,' she explained. This is reflected in The Continental's ready-to-go list, including roast tenderloin of beef (marinated in Asian spices and condiments), baked ham glazed with cloves, brown sugar and honey), turkey breast on the bone (which can serve up to 10), stuffed leg of lamb with apricots, even a whole salmon with dill and a citrus hollandaise. To order: 2563-2209. Caterer Lori Granito, of Cajun Concepts/Bayou Catering, cannot fathom Chrismtas morning without sweet potato pie. 'The minute we'd get out of bed, we'd run for the pies,' said Ms Granito, recalling the pies made by her mother, Cathy Harris. If you're a native of New Orleans, the Christmas table must be decked with baked ham and gumbo, among the dishes on Ms Granito's carry-out menu. Other staples include gravy, candied yams, dressing (oyster and cornbread), buttermilk biscuits and pecan pie. Are her pies better than her mother's? 'The fact that my mom made them makes them better, I guess.' For ordering: 2574-5046.