Revealed: The Most Expensive & Time Consuming TV Chef’s Christmas Recipes

New research reveals that Nigella Lawson’s Christmas recipes are the most time-consuming to make, while British chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s festive feasts are the most expensive costing $A366. The research, it has to be said, is from a British context.

By compiling a list of the most popular TV chefs, British energy firm Uswitch collected ingredients data from their recipes of iconic items making up a Christmas dinner and used food cost calculators from major online supermarkets to discover the costs of different recipes. The time needed for each recipe was calculated using the ‘preparation and ‘cooking time’ figures from each recipe.

Uswitch used food cost calculators from major online supermarkets to discover the costs of different recipes which revealed Yotam Ottolenghi’s Christmas meal to be the most expensive. Coming in at $A61 per person his recipe costs a grand total of $A366; for those who follow Ottolenghi on social media, it will come as no surprise that his recipes require more unique ingredients to give classic recipes the extra wow-factor. The cheapest item of his you can recreate is his ‘crispy roasted potatoes with lemon, garlic and sage’ costing just $A2.85 per person.

The TV chef with the second most expensive festive recipe is Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall with a total cost of $A331.80, which is $A55.30 per person, and third is the A-lister Chrissy Teigen whose entire ingredients list comes in at $A52.37 a head giving it a total of $A314.22.

Though he is known for show-stopping creations that blur the line between real-life and fantasy food, Heston Blumenthal doesn’t put you out of pocket the most as he is revealed as the fourth-most expensive, followed by everyone’s favourite cursing chef Gordon Ramsay in fifth.

The study involved analysing the recipes of iconic items that make up a Christmas dinner to calculate the cost and time of each which revealed Nigella Lawson to be the celebrity chef putting home cooks to the test for the longest. Her festive feast takes 41.5 hours (2,490 minutes) which is over 1.7 days, meaning preparations must start on the 23rd! Her ‘spiced and super juicy turkey,’ which had a cameo appearance in Gavin and Stacey, requires being soaked in a bucket of infused water for up to two days before roasting. Her Christmas pudding also requires a lot of your time as the fruits need to be soaked in alcohol and it has a steaming time of eight hours.

Heston Blumenthal is second on the list of the most time-consuming celebrity Christmas chefs with a total creation time of 35.5 hours (2,130 minutes) with his turkey recipe alone taking 13.5 hours (810 minutes) to perfect! Third place goes to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, famed for his earthy, back-to-basics food, whose Christmas Day meal takes 34.9 hours (2,099 minutes) to complete.

Delia Smith and Gordon Ramsay also make up the top five requiring 31.8 hours (1,910 minutes) and 31.6 hours (1,895 minutes) respectively.

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