Food Network Star Anne Burrell Dishes Out 2 Tips To Make Hosting Thanksgiving Seamless
Thanksgiving is here & if you’re in panic mode getting ready to host your family & friends, Food Network star Anne Burrell has some advice.
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, oh my! It’s hard to believe that it is already Thanksgiving, and after a wild year, it’s so nice to bring family and friends around the table together for a beautiful meal. However, the prep and panic beforehand can be seriously daunting! Luckily, longtime Food Network star, Anne Burrell, who you may know from Worst Cooks In America, has come to the rescue! “I have a couple of great tips for balancing it all on the holiday as host and chef, and one is take people up on their offers,” the recently married chef told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY ahead of the holiday. “When people say, ‘What can I do? What can I bring?’ Take them up on it. Everyone likes to be involved in creating a feel for the holidays.”
Anne’s other major tip is to plan ahead. “The day before Thanksgiving, there’s definitely dishes you’re doing that you can do ahead. You can make stuffing ahead, you can peel your potatoes and keep them in water for your mashed potatoes the day before. A lot of that stuff can be made ahead and then that saves on oven space,” she explained.
Anne advised to “get the star of the dish done first,” which in this case, is the turkey. “When you pull the turkey out of the oven to rest for about an hour before you carve it, that is primo oven time. That’s when you want to pop your stuffing in the oven or mashed potatoes, whatever you can. Put things in the oven to warm up and then you could be making your gravy and everything else. That all funnels into everything being ready to serve at the same time.” Such amazing advice!
Anne definitely knows what she’s talking about when it comes to pulling off the perfect Thanksgiving feast, as she just joined Carson Kressley in hosting the Battle For The Bird on Food Network. In the special, two competing kitchens go head-to-head with a full-throttle Friendsgiving vs. family Thanksgiving, to see who can throw the best party, judged by Anne and Carson. “We give them a budget and five hours and they have to create their Thanksgiving — not only dinner, but whole experience. So the decor and all of that, from scratch, and then we descend upon them and declare a winner,” Anne explained. While the Thanksgiving special already aired on Foot Network, you can still catch it on discovery+!