Singapore-based Michelin-star chef on his Christmas dinner with a twist using Marks and Spencer ingredients
- Kirk Westaway, known for his modern British food at Jaan by Kirk Westaway, was challenged by the British store chain to reinvent the turkey dinner for Christmas
- ‘I kept it simple,’ he says of his turkey breast Wellington with a side dish of mashed sweet potatoes, and cinnamon-roasted white nectarines for dessert
Singapore-based chef Kirk Westaway, known for his Michelin-starred cuisine, has teamed up with Marks and Spencer to create an alternative – and relatively easy – Christmas meal amateur cooks around the world can put together at home.
The British store chain contacted the executive chef at Jaan by Kirk Westaway in the Grand Stamford hotel in early November about the collaboration and Westaway was excited to take part.
“I’m known for doing modern British food, and it made sense to collaborate with Marks and Spencer, an established food and clothing brand, particularly renowned for having the best ingredients in the UK,” Westaway explains.
Marks and Spencer gave him a list of some 100 items from the store he could use to reinvent the turkey dinner for Christmas.
“They didn‘t give me much of a guideline, so I chose things that mean something to me and that could be recreated in a household. So I kept it simple,” says Westaway, who was born in Devon, southwest England. He made sure the dishes look impressive too.
Westaway created a turkey breast Wellington by taking a Marks and Spencer turkey breast joint, wrapping it in pork sausages that have been taken out of their casings and flattened, then adding a layer of thinly sliced potatoes and baking it in the oven for over an hour.