THE ART OF THE HOLIDAY TABLE
LET MANITOBA’S HARVEST DO SOME OF THE HEAVY LIFTING
BUILD A MENU THAT LETS YOU BE A HOST
One of my favourite things about cooking in Manitoba is that our seasons give food a natural rhythm. By the holidays, our fields might be buried under enough snow to make us question why anyone settled here in the first place, but the harvest is still very much alive in our kitchens and pantries. Potatoes, squash, carrots, onions and root vegetables are made for roasting. Apples can bring sweetness to savoury dishes and des- serts alike. Manitoba grains and flour become beautiful breads, pastries and pasta. Local beef, pork, chicken, dairy, preserves and pick- led vegetables can turn a holiday table into something that genuinely feels like home. And don’t forget everything tucked away earlier in the year. Frozen berries, preserved tomatoes, pickles and pantry staples are little reminders that summer did, in fact, happen — despite what December might have us believe. That’s one of the things I love most about seasonal cooking. If you have a beautiful ingredient, let it do its thing. Let the potato taste like a potato. Let the squash caramelize. Let that freshly milled grain feed your sourdough and become good bread. The holidays are already special. Your food doesn’t have to work overtime proving it.
Restaurants have teams of cooks, special- ized equipment, commercial ovens and people whose entire job is making sure everything arrives at the table at exactly the right moment. At home, you have one oven, three burners because someone put a pot on the fourth one, and Uncle Dave asking where you keep the bottle opener. Plan accordingly. When we build menus for events, we don’t just think about what tastes good. We think about timing, temperature, holding, guest flow and how people are actually going to eat the food. The same thinking works beautifully at home. • Choose dishes you can prepare ahead. • Choose food that reheats well. • Choose items that can happily sit on a buffet or table without requiring your constant attention. A beautiful roast that can rest while ev- eryone arrives is your friend. A dessert that doesn’t require your atten- tion while everyone else is opening pres- ents is a best friend. The goal isn’t to make less impressive food. It’s to make impressive food that doesn’t require the host to disappear for half the evening.
Frozen berries, preserved tomatoes, pickles and pantry staples are little reminders that summer did, in fact, happen — despite what December might have us believe.
SAVOUR MANITOBA | FALL 2026 | 11
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