She’s long been famous in Britain as a writer and cookbook author, but Mary Berry broke into international renown with the transatlantic appeal of The Great British Baking Show. While she served as a tough-but-fair judge on the long-running competition, she’s the one making the food on Mary Berry’s Ultimate Christmas, a new holiday special streaming on PBS. Over the course of the hour-long special, Berry prepares a multi-course holiday meal, from pre-dinner canapes on to desserts.
Opening Shot: Mary Berry sits in a tastefully-appointed living room near a roaring fire, consulting a notebook full of ideas. She’s planning out a delicious multi-course Christmas dinner, and you’re going to get to see all of it come together.
The Gist: Christmas is coming, and Mary Berry has advice for the perfect holiday menu and how to make it. Over the course of this hour-long special, Berry makes miniature scones, handmade pasta, a Christmas pudding, a succulent roast turkey, stuffing, vegetables and dessert. The dishes naturally trend toward British traditions, but they’re so expertly made even the most American viewers will be salivating.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Strong Barefoot Contessa vibes are on display here; unapologetically fancy food made by an upper-crust entertaining expert who still makes the hoi polloi like you feel at home.
Our Take: If you’re like millions of other viewers here in the States, you’ve become aware of Mary Berry as the stern backbone of The Great British Baking Show. For the first seven seasons of the wildly-popular baking competition, Berry served as one half of the judging panel, a grandmotherly contrast to the brash bullishness of Paul Hollywood. She was the judge you desperately wanted to please; the judge you didn’t want to disappoint.
On Mary Berry’s Ultimate Christmas, a new standalone hour-long holiday special airing through PBS and PBS streaming here in the States, Berry’s putting her own food on the line, and demonstrating exactly how she earned the right to judge so many technical challenges past. She’s cooking a full Christmas dinner, starting with miniature scone canapes, and progressing through a handmade pasta course, a roast turkey and potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, a rich boiled pudding flambeed with brandy, and a decadent sherry-soaked truffle. It’s a menu that’s at once glamorous and homey, showstopping and accessible; these are the kind of things a mildly-ambitious home chef might just find themselves taking on in a few days.
The special has a lovely flow, and the production is as understated as you’d expect of a British show airing through American public television; there’s none of the bombast or silliness of many American-born food shows here, just a lovely menu coming together in a smart, careful and skilled manner. Berry structures the show the way that you’d prepare the courses at home–preparing the dishes that can be prepared ahead first, and progressing to the carefully-timed choreography of the big day. She’s got a plan, a timetable, and a clear picture of how it’s all going to come together, and this is hugely instructive if you want to take on such an endeavor yourself; making a meal like this is possible, you just have to plan ahead.
Berry handles this all with the understated, dignified charm longtime viewers of GBBS will find utterly familiar. In one scene, she convinces an avowed fussy eater who professes not to like Brussels sprouts to try hers, and he’s won over as a convert after tasting her shallot-tinged dish. Mary Berry can convince you to eat your vegetables, and not just because you’re not getting any of that delicious pudding if you don’t.
Sex and Skin: Sorry to disappoint you, but the only sensuality on display here is the buttery scones.
Parting Shot: Mary and her friends–including some of the chefs she’s collaborated with on delicious dishes throughout the special–sit down around the dining table for a warm, celebratory Christmas meal, and raise a cheerful toast; you’ll find yourself wishing you were there, too.
Sleeper Star: For the first course, Mary meets with a friend of Italian heritage who helps her make handmade tortelli that look absolutely spectacular, and even Mary’s in awe of the skill with which the filled pastas are quickly and expertly made.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Opening this bottle here just makes you think of Christmas,” Berry effuses, taking a whiff of a fragrant spice mixture as she pulls together the ingredients for a sweet Christmas pudding. Later, after trying Berry’s potatoes, twice-roasted in goose fat, a friend exclaims “this truly is the miracle of Christmas!”
Our Call: STREAM IT. If you’re pulling together a holiday meal soon, you’re going to need all the help you can get, and Mary Berry’s among the best teachers you can find.
Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky who publishes the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter.
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