I'm not usually disorganised. At work I like to have strict rules and regulations. At Christmas my restaurants close and my routine breaks down.

I no longer need to wake up at 4.30am and, since I often return home at 11pm, Christmas gives me time to spend with my family.

We always arrange it at the last minute. This year is strictly close family, just my wife Jenny and our two boys. In an ideal world I would unwrap a Ferrari 360 and have the most wonderful meal cooked by Jenny. I will definitely end up cooking since I can't smell food without wanting to cook. She cooked one year and I couldn't resist taking over. This year will be goose or turkey. A couple of years ago we had suckling pig. We brought it home with the head on, stuffed and everything. My boys fell in love with it but I couldn't fit it in the oven so I sent them to play while I sawed its head off (I told them that the little piglet had gone and we were eating roast pork).

Each year we tend to have a starter just to get the whole thing in motion, then we'll go on to the full roast, but I always leave space for Christmas pudding.

Green garden soup

This soup is a good excuse to bring these vegetables together, but if some are not available, there are one or two others which could happily take their place - broccoli and spinach offer rich green flavours. Included in the recipe, as an optional extra, is a combination of egg yolk and cream. This is a rich thickening agent usually referred to in culinary terms as a liaison. It can only be added just before serving, as reboiling will scramble it. Without this, the soup can be enjoyed purely as a broth.

Another optional extra is a slice of French bread placed in the bowl before ladling in the soup. The liquid-soaked bread offers an additional texture to enjoy.

Serves 6-8

100g small Brussels sprouts

100g curly kale

100g runner beans

100g courgettes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 celery sticks, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or crushed

1.25 litres vegetable stock or water

1 small leek, thinly sliced

salt and pepper

knob of butter (optional)

2 egg yolks (optional)

4 tbsp double or whipping cream (optional)

1 tbsp chopped chives

1 tbsp picked chervil leaves

6-8 slices of French bread about 2cm thick (optional)

To prepare the vegetables, remove the bases of the stalks and outside leaves from the sprouts and halve each sprout. Pick the curly kale leaves from the stalks, washing and tearing the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Remove the outside strings from the runner beans and finely shred the beans. Halve the courgettes lengthwise and cut into thin slices. This whole process can be achieved well in advance of making the soup.

Warm the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the sliced onion, celery and garlic and cook for 5-6 minutes, until beginning to soften. Add the stock or water and bring to simmer.

After 5 minutes of simmering, increase the heat to bring the stock to the boil. Now it's time to add the vegetables - first add the sprouts and after a minute the curly kale. These will now both need 3 minutes before adding all the remaining vegetables - runner beans, courgettes and leek - and cooking for a further 3-4 minutes, until all are tender.

Season the soup with salt and a generous twist of pepper, and add the knob of butter, if using. If slightly thickening with the liaison, mix together the egg yolks and cream. Add a ladle of the soup liquor to this and mix well. Remove the soup from the heat and pour the liaison mix into the soup as you stir, slightly thickening and enriching the end result. Add the two herbs and the soup is ready to serve. Place a slice of bread, if using, into each bowl before ladling the soup over.

Sautéed cep mushrooms and Cox's apples on walnut toasts

Should ceps not be available, the chestnut mushroom - not a wild mushroom, but one that is available throughout the year - has a good nutty taste. The Cox's apple carries the title 'the king of English apples', probably because of its flavour and quite rich, creamy consistency, with a juicy, sweet, nutty edge and enough acidity to work through all three.

The balance between the mushrooms and apples is helped by the walnut bread toasts and the fromage frais and chive dressing. The toasts can be simply toasted or buttered and pan-fried for a richer finish. Fresh salad leaves can also be added to the finished dish.

Serves 4

8 ceps (12 if small)

4 slices of walnut bread, about 2cm thick

knob of butter, plus extra for spreading (optional)

2 Cox's Orange Pippin apples

1-2 tbsp walnut or groundnut oil

For the dressing:

4 tbsp fromage frais

2 tbsp vinegar (white wine, red wine or sherry)

1 tsp Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

1 tbsp chopped chives

Wipe the ceps clean with a damp cloth and trim the bases of the stalks. Cut the mushrooms into 5mm thick slices. The walnut bread can be toasted at the last moment, while you sauté the mushrooms. If pan-frying, first butter both sides of the bread. Warm a frying pan and sauté the slices of bread to a golden brown on both sides. Keep warm to one side.

Quarter the apples, then peel and cut away the core with a small paring knife. Cut each quarter into three, providing six slices per portion.

Heat the oil in the frying pan and once hot, fry the mushrooms for a few minutes on each side, to a rich golden brown. While the mushrooms are sautéeing, make the dressing by mixing the fromage frais with the vinegar and mustard, and seasoning with salt and pepper. Add the chives just before serving.

Once the ceps are ready, season with salt and pepper, and add the sliced apples and the knob of butter, if using. Stir for just a minute to warm the apples through before spooning them over the toasts. The dish can now be finished by drizzling the dressing over and around.

Parsnip fritters with blue cheese walnut whip

Deep-frying these fritters gives them the nutty caramel amber edges so recognisable when roasting the white roots. Not difficult to make, they are the perfect warm snack and the blue cheese and walnut whip is the perfect dip for them. A selection of blue cheeses can be used, but my favourite is the Irish cow's milk Cashel Blue, made in roughly the same way as Roquefort, but with a slightly softer texture and less salty finish. The whip is put together with mayonnaise, lime juice, double cream and walnuts.

Serves 4-6 as a snack or starter

(makes 30-35 fritters)

1kg parsnips, peeled

salt and pepper

1/2 onion, very finely chopped

2 eggs

25g butter, softened

25g plain flour

For the blue cheese walnut whip

75g blue cheese, crumbled and at room temperature

150ml mayonnaise

juice of 1 lime

8-10 walnut halves, chopped into small pieces

pinch of cayenne pepper

100ml double cream

oil, for deep frying

Quarter the parsnips lengthwise and remove the central woody core. Cook in boiling salted water until completely tender, then drain. Place the parsnips back in the saucepan and stir over a low heat, allowing them to dry. Then purée with a potato masher for a coarse finish or blitz until smooth in a food processor.

Rinse the chopped onion in a sieve, dry it and add to the parsnips along with the eggs and butter. Add the flour, beating it in well. Season with salt and pepper.

While the parsnips are cooking, make the whip. Whisk the cheese into the mayonnaise, breaking it down until reasonably smooth. Add the lime juice and walnuts, and season with a pinch of cayenne pepper. Lightly whip the cream into soft peaks, then gently fold it in to achieve the required whipped consistency. It can now be chilled for a firmer consistency or served at room temperature for the creamiest of finishes.

Preheat the oil for deep-frying to between 160o°/325oF and 180°C/350°F. The parsnip mix can literally just be spooned into the hot fat (oiling a spoon first helps create a non-stick effect). Turn the fritters from time to time, until a deep golden brown. Once they are cooked, remove them from the hot fat, drain on kitchen paper and lightly salt. The fritters and walnut whip are now ready to be enjoyed.

Scallops with puréed shallots and black-peppered tangerines

Scallops are without doubt one of the culinary luxuries of the world. When buying them, it's only really worth taking them home in the shell, ready to eat as soon as possible after opening. Scallops sold opened have often been soaked in water to plump up their size. Unfortunately, the soaked scallop is washed of its flavours, and can become quite tasteless.

Attached to the scallop is the brightly coloured coral. These I find are best for sauce-making, or perhaps eating fried in salads. They're not to be used in this recipe, but do freeze well, or can be blitzed to a purée with an equal quantity of butter, for dropping a knob or two into a fish sauce to act as a thickening agent.

The scallops themselves can be eaten just fried for a minute or two on each side in butter, then finished with a squeeze of lemon juice. Pleasure enough can be found within such a simple recipe. In this recipe, the shallots are cooked until completely tender, then puréed with cream. Serves 4

12 scallops

drizzle of olive oil

knob of butter

coarse sea salt

2 tbsp brandy (optional)

1cm chive sticks (2 sticks per scallop, optional)

For the shallot purée:

2 tbsp olive oil

knob of butter

324g shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

4 tbsp double cream

salt and pepper (use ground white for the shallot purée)

For the tangerines:

24 fresh tangerine segments, plus the juice of 6 tangerines

oil, for greasing

butter, for brushing

To make the shallot purée, warm the olive oil and the knob of butter in a saucepan. Once bubbling, add the sliced shallots, cover and cook over a gentle heat for 15 minutes, without allowing to colour, stirring from time to time. To guarantee the shallots do not stick and colour in the pan, 3-4 tablespoons of water can be added once the shallots begin to soften. Add the cream and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes, then remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper, and liquidise to a smooth purée. The shallot cream is now ready. This stage can be made several hours in advance, chilled and then reheated.

To prepare the tangerines, gently peel away the thin outer skin that surrounds each segment with the point of a small knife. This is a little time-consuming, but does produce a far more tender finish. Place the peeled segments on a lightly oiled baking tray, brushing each with melted butter and topping with a twist of black pepper. These are now ready to warm when needed.

To clean the scallops, prise the shells open with a knife, scraping and loosening from the flat shell. The scallop can now also be detached from the lower shell, and the surrounding membrane pulled away and discarded. The coral can now also be separated from the 'meat'. Rinse briefly and dry on kitchen paper. The scallops are now ready to cook.

· To order a copy of Gary Rhodes's Autumn into Winter (BBC Books, £18.99) for £16.99 plus p&p, call Observer Book Service on 0870 066 7989