JAMIE & NIGELLA CROWNED BRITAIN’S CHRISTMAS CULINARY FAVOURITES
Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver have been revealed as the celebrity chefs most Brits want to prepare their Christmas meal, in a new survey into the 2009 British Christmas dinner.
A new poll by Cherry Valley, shows there is a definite gender divide in choosing our dream Christmas chef, as women opt for Jamie Oliver’s pukka culinary skills (26 per cent) and men plump for Nigella’s assets in the kitchen (21 per cent). The overall top five that Brits would trust with the all-important Christmas meal, are revealed as:
1. Jamie Oliver (26 per cent)
2. Nigella Lawson (21 per cent)
3. Gordon Ramsay (16 per cent)
4. Marco Pierre White (11 per cent)
5. James Martin (10 per cent)
However, without a top chef on hand to do the hard work, a third would consider ordering in their favourite takeaway (33 per cent). The takeaways voted top three to save Brits from slaving over a hot stove on the 25th December 2009 are:
1. Chinese – duck and pancakes (14 per cent)
2. Indian – chicken tikka masala (9 per cent)
3. English – fish and chips (6 per cent)
When it comes to the traditional and much-loved Christmas roast dinner that most of us look forward to all year, meat is far and away our favourite part of the meal (40 per cent), with lamb (50 per cent) and duck (40 per cent) the preferred alternatives to the traditional turkey. What’s more, those educated to degree level or higher agreed duck was the perfect meat for a festive lunch, making it the thinking man’s choice this Christmas.
Surprisingly, 10 per cent of us are still sticklers for tradition when it comes to the ever controversial sprouts, believing the notorious green vegetables are what makes the dish!
Eric Jagger, sales and marketing director at Cherry Valley, said: “Christmas Dinner is arguably the most important meal of the year, so for the member of the family responsible for pulling it together, it can be a lot of pressure! Therefore I’m not surprised to see that most Brits would like to enlist the help of the likes of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson, and that some would even resort to buying in a ready-prepared meal such as a takeaway to ease the stress!
“However, in the run up to Christmas, we are already seeing sales of our ducks rise as they have in previous years, so we are confident that the British love affair with the traditional roast Christmas dinner is still going strong.”
Media enquiries:
For further press information please contact: Gemma Walters on 0113 220 0518 / g.walters@brahm.com or Nina Hands on 0113 22 00 532 / n.hands@brahm.com
Notes to editors:
• Cherry Valley surveyed over 2,000 respondents from across the UK, aged 16-55+