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I'm a Michelin-star trained chef. Here are my dos and don'ts for entertaining this summer

Délidoor

Key Facts:

• A professional chef with over 20 years of experience, including training in Michelin-starred kitchens, advises that great hosting does not require cooking everything yourself, and that trying to do too much is one of the biggest mistakes home cooks make.
• Hosts are encouraged to build their menu around one impressive centrepiece dish, complemented by a few sides and a dessert, rather than attempting multiple elaborate courses.
• Starting with nibbles and drinks before the main meal is recommended as a French-inspired approach that creates a relaxed atmosphere and buys the host extra preparation time.
• Home cooks are urged not to feel guilty about outsourcing complex elements of their meals to professional food producers, with quality frozen meals presented as a smart and legitimate option.
• The chef's most important advice is to avoid spending the entire celebration in the kitchen, encouraging hosts to prepare as much as possible in advance so they can enjoy the occasion with their guests.

I've spent more than 20 years working as a professional chef, including training in Michelin-starred kitchens, and there's one thing I wish more Australians understood about entertaining: you don't have to cook everything yourself to be a great host.

Growing up in France, my mother would spend two days preparing our entire Christmas menu. Dessert was my responsibility, and together we'd make fruits déguisés, dates filled with almond paste.

In fact, some of the biggest mistakes I see home cooks make are trying to do too much, overcomplicating their menus and putting enormous pressure on themselves to create a restaurant-quality experience at home.

As Executive Chef at Délidoor, an Australian premium frozen meal business producing around 80,000 chef-cooked meals every month, I've dedicated years to creating dishes that deliver exceptional flavour without requiring hours of preparation at home.

And with Christmas around the corner and summer entertaining season kicking off, I want to challenge the idea that a great celebration requires the host to spend half the day in the kitchen.

To help Australians host more delicious, stress-free feasts this summer, here are my top dos and don'ts for hosting:

DO: Build your menu around one showstopper

A beautiful centrepiece instantly makes a meal feel special, and you don't need five different main courses to impress your guests.

Whether it's a glazed ham, stuffed turkey breast, roasted salmon or a whole stuffed pumpkin, choose one standout dish and build the rest of your menu around it.

At Délidoor, we've created festive centrepieces like our 5kg Glazed Ham and our 2.5kg Stuffed Turkey Breast with Cranberry and Chestnut Stuffing, which serves 8–12 people and arrives stuffed and ready to roast. These are great options because they create that impressive Christmas table moment without requiring hosts to spend hours preparing everything themselves.

Add a couple of complementary sides, a delicious sauce and something sweet to finish, and you've got a feast that feels generous without being unnecessarily complicated.

DON'T: Try to cook too many dishes or experiment with complicated flavours

One of the biggest mistakes people make when entertaining is thinking that more dishes automatically means a better meal. Even in professional kitchens, a great menu isn't about having the most ingredients or the most elaborate recipes. It's about finding flavours that complement each other and executing them well.

Stick to a few crowd-pleasers that you know your guests will enjoy, and use ingredients like rosemary, citrus and cranberry across multiple dishes to bring everything together.

 

And remember, there's a reason traditional favourites like roast potatoes, glazed ham and rich gravy appear on Christmas tables year after year. Sometimes the simplest food is what people look forward to most.

DO: Start with nibbles, the French way

In France, a celebration starts with the apéritif: a drink in hand and a few small things to eat while everyone arrives. In my family, the Christmas apéritif meant my mother's savoury cakes, one with salmon, one with tuna and one with lardons, alongside quiches made without pastry.

It's also one of the smartest things a host can do because it buys you time. Nobody minds if the main course is late when there's something delicious to pass around.

This is where your freezer earns its place. I always keep finger food in my freezer throughout December, whether it's for Christmas itself or for friends and family dropping by, because I love entertaining.

This Christmas, we've added Mushroom and Truffle Arancini, Napoletana Arancini and Ratatouille and Hummus Tartlets to the Délidoor range, alongside our Goat Cheese and Roasted Tomato Tarts, Salmon Gravadlax and my Confit Pork Belly with Orange and Chilli Jam. They're great options for getting something impressive on the table without spending hours preparing appetisers.

I still remember visiting one of the earliest Picard stores in France, where you'd put on a jacket and walk into the warehouse to choose your frozen food. But the frozen meal I remember most fondly is my mother's beef bourguignon, which she would cook herself and freeze for later. When food is cooked properly using quality ingredients and the right techniques, then rapidly chilled and frozen, it can retain wonderful flavour and freshness.

That's the philosophy behind Délidoor. Our chefs cook from scratch in small batches before freezing the meals, allowing people to enjoy professionally prepared food at home whenever they need it.

DON'T: Feel guilty about letting professionals do the hard work

This might sound strange coming from a chef, but I genuinely believe more people should outsource the complicated parts of their entertaining. Professional chefs spend years perfecting recipes, mastering techniques and understanding how flavours and ingredients work together. I've spent much of my career doing exactly that, so why should someone hosting Christmas lunch for 12 people feel they have to recreate those same dishes themselves?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with buying a beautiful dessert, asking guests to bring a salad or letting a professional chef take care of the stuffing, the sides and the gravy.

Our glazed ham is a perfect example. Of everything in Délidoor's Christmas range, the glaze took me the longest to perfect, as I kept refining it until the balance of flavours was exactly where I wanted it.

In fact, dishes like Délidoor's Gratin Dauphinois or Truffade with Truffles and Bacon are perfect examples of food that takes time and technique to prepare, but can be enjoyed at home with minimal hands-on effort.

 

Taking shortcuts doesn't mean compromising on the quality of your meal. Sometimes it simply means making smarter decisions about where to spend your time.

DO: Prepare as much as possible before guests arrive

The best thing you can do for yourself as a host is get organised ahead of time. Sauces, cranberry chutney, stuffing and potato gratins can all be prepared in advance, while desserts like chocolate mousse, panna cotta and cheesecake are ideal for making the day before.

The less you leave until the day itself, the more time you'll have to enjoy the occasion.

DON'T: Spend the entire celebration in the kitchen

This is probably my most important rule. There's nothing worse than spending hours preparing a beautiful meal, only to realise you've missed half the conversations and celebrations happening around you.

Build extra time into your schedule, have a few backup dishes ready in case something doesn't go to plan, and don't panic if everything isn't perfect. Most guests won't remember whether the gravy was homemade, how many sides you served or whether you prepared the dessert yourself.

They'll remember the food, the laughter, the conversations and how much fun they had. And the person hosting deserves to be part of those memories too.

One of my favourite Christmas memories wasn't traditional at all. My wife and I spent two days in the kitchen with her mother preparing an Italian menu, making lasagne and ravioli, including rolling out the pasta sheets ourselves. We spent two whole days cooking, but we spent them together, and that's the difference.

So, this summer, my advice is simple: cook the things you love, get help with the rest and give yourself permission to enjoy the celebration. Because the best meal isn't necessarily the one that took the longest to prepare. It's the one everyone gets to enjoy together.

 

About us:

Sébastien Houillon is the Michelin-star trained Executive Chef at Délidoor, an Australian premium frozen meal business founded by two French dads, Jacques Lépron and Mathieu Thomas. Délidoor produces approximately 80,000 meals each month, with a range of more than 200 chef-cooked dishes spanning everyday meals, entertaining, sides and desserts. Its 2026 Christmas range includes festive entrées, centrepieces, traditional sides and desserts designed to take the stress out of entertaining

Contact details:

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