Crafting
Holiday Feasts with
Heart

Childhood Memories
Nicolas Legret, Executive Chef

I grew up in Saint-Victor-de-Buthon, a small village in France’s Le Perche region with just 500 residents, and each year, as soon as summer ended, my family and I would start planning for the holidays. Oven-roasted turkey was the centerpiece of our Christmas Eve feast, a tradition that would come to life in a different way for me, years later.

My mother cooked everything and the family helped, each in our own way. From around the age of ten, I became much more aware of the ingredients (especially the locally sourced ones), of the preparation of each dish, and of the many steps involved in creating this family celebration.

Those early days, and time spent watching the care spent preparing the most special meal of the year, surely influenced the way I think about menus, from concept to plating and everything in between. I think holiday menus in particular evoke a certain nostalgia that comes through on the plate.

As I realized my dream of becoming a chef, I went on to work in professional kitchens, in a series of progressively more senior roles. And it was during this journey in the U.S. that I first cooked an entire holiday meal by myself. It was for Thanksgiving, and it was memorable, a perfect blend of my professional experience with the traditions of my new chosen home and my fondest childhood culinary memories – including those of the oven-roasted turkey my family enjoyed each Christmas Eve.

Of course, there was a learning curve with elements of the holiday, like the buffet-style approach in the U.S. which is quite different from France, where everything was plated.

Today, as Executive Chef at The Hay-Adams, I develop all the menus used throughout the hotel, in our restaurant and bar, our in-room dining, and for private events. Planning the menus for our Festive Traditions, a series of feasts on special occasions throughout the year, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother’s Day, and others, takes me back to those early days in our family kitchen.

In the Washington, DC area and greater mid-Atlantic region, we enjoy an abundance of fresh, local ingredients. Although the products themselves are different from the ones we enjoyed in Saint-Victor-de-Buthon, they’re richly varied throughout the year, which makes for exceptional menu inspiration. In France, eating only seasonal ingredients is the norm, with most people visiting a bi-weekly market for fresh produce and other specialties like wine, cognac, and cheese. So, we look for opportunities whenever possible to use local ingredients at The Hay-Adams. The more we do that, the more natural it feels to me.

I’ve lived in the U.S. for many years and it’s my home now, but Saint-Victor-de-Buthon will always have my heart. I try to honor traditions from the U.S. for Christmas, while also bringing in some inspiration from my family’s traditions. That’s why you’ll always find turkey on the menu not only for our Thanksgiving Day brunch, but also for our Christmas brunch, here at The Hay-Adams. And you’ll also find a Yule Log, which in France, of course, is called a Bûche de Noël. It symbolizes a family’s gathering, over the rich offering of a tree, at one of the happiest times of the year.