Gremolata, a mixture of parsley, garlic, and lemon zest, offers heat and fresh herb and citrus flavors to assertive leg of lamb. The best part of this recipe is that putting it all together for a dinner party or weeknight meal is a snap. Serve the lamb with a carrot mash or roasted potatoes.

In many families, mine included, Christmas can be quite a challenge. Everyone, but everyone has an opinion, and it's often that everything should be exactly the same as it was last year. And the year before that. "We always have turkey/brussels sprouts with chestnuts/parsnips roasted with honey…" come the cries, even from those who never do any of the cooking.

Cranberry sauce has become as much a part of a modern Christmas as mince pies and brussels sprouts, despite the berries not being indigenous to these shores. I keep my recipe simple, using fresh cranberries, white wine and sugar with a spritz of orange, but frozen cranberries work perfectly.

Turkey, pheasant, beef – and a pile of quails too. The chef behind London's Rochelle Canteen guides you through some perfect Christmas main courses

Last night an on-screen Jamie Oliver went to some lengths testing three types of roast spud. Our verdict? Lightweight! Here, our own Vicky Frost tests three varieties of spud with four sworn-by recipes from celebrity chefs. That's 12 lots of potatoes eaten selflessly, all for you. You may find the results surprising ...

Honestly, I really do look forward to my first, frost-sweetened sprouts of the year. (Though, if I'm completely honest, perhaps not quite so much as I look forward to the first broad beans, though that may just be because they often come with a side order of sunshine.) I treat sprouts tenderly, boiling or steaming them until they're cooked but still retain a little bite – about six minutes should do it for small, walnut-sized sprouts, which are the ones we're hankering after here anyway. The other benefit of choosing small sprouts – apart from their superior flavour – is that you don't have to bother with that fiddly nonsense of cutting crosses in their bases to ensure that they cook evenly.

I sometimes think that if I could have only one piece of meat it would be a piece of pork belly. It has everything I look for – crisp skin, chewy fat, tender meat and masses of flavour. It also happens to be one of the cheapest cuts. I often just whack it in a very hot oven, leave it for 20 minutes or so, then turn the heat down and let it cook very slowly. Sometimes I leave the ribs in, other times I get the butcher to bone and skin it. A real carnivore's cut, this one – wonderful with masses of steamed greens at its side.

Theo Randall makes Italian-style roast lamb with rosemary, olives, anchovies and garlic

With autumn comes rich food. Sometimes too much of it. When I feel as if I've been on a binge that would do a Borgia proud, I often long for something a little more bracing, cleansing even, and that's where fennel comes in. Ah, sweet fennel, Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum, or Florence fennel, to be precise. My own lightbulb moment, if you like.

Is your stock in trade shop-bought or homemade? How do you do your patriotic duty by the scrapings in the roasting pan?

"Prep like a pro and avoid disaster on Christmas Day. What's your top tip for taking the stress out of cooking Christmas dinner?"