Who wouldn’t want praise from the pickiest guests as they devour your holiday feast? But c’mon—you don’t have the time or energy to labour over every morsel on the menu. Below, some of the city’s chefs offer tips on how to jazz up each part of the holiday meal—minus the sweat.

Canapes

Chris Bisaro, executive chef at Brix Restaurant, suggests making dips and spreads in advance or choosing ones that are supereasy to mix together just before serving. His go-to is a tuna tartare made with chopped fresh raw tuna, chopped green onion, and Japanese mayo. Get imaginative by, for example, adding minced jalapeños for heat, or radish or celery for crunch. Other ideas are a dip consisting of mashed smoked trout, chopped chives, and mascarpone; bruschetta using chopped tomatoes, chopped roasted red peppers, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil; and baguette slices topped with mushrooms sautéed in brandy and cream. While you can go all-star and make your own chips or crostini, Bisaro says to use plain salted Ruffles. Besides bread, he says endive leaves can also be a good blank canvas for other ingredients, like a spread of blue cheese and chopped nuts.

Turkey

The turkey doesn’t have to cause anxiety. During a phone interview, Tret Jordan, chef at Homer St. Café and Bar, says the secret to a more tender and tasty turkey is as simple as splurging a bit (it’ll be worth it) on a fresh and local one from your neighbourhood butcher. As well, to make the meat extra flavourful and juicy, he suggests brining your turkey for several days prior to cooking with your preferred combo of spices and herbs (such as cinnamon sticks, star anise, orange peel and slices, garlic, sage, rosemary, coriander, or mustard seeds). The turkey will take on the flavour of the brine, so all you need to add before roasting is good olive oil, kosher salt, and black pepper. And to save oven time, Jordan recommends: “If you have a larger group, get two smaller turkeys. It cuts down on the cooking time, and your bird won’t dry out as much.” Alternatively, he says to consider removing the legs and cooking them separately, since the rest of the bird will roast in almost half the time.

Side Dishes

During a phone chat with the Straight, ABODE chef Tannis Smith recalls her mother agonizing over the laborious process of making the stuffing Smith adored. (“For dessert, I wanted stuffing! That drove my mom nuts,” she says.) To cut down on the work, Smith suggests preparing the stuffing in advance or coming up with a dish that’s similar but less taxing. For example, Smith makes a savoury bread pudding with mushrooms, fresh sage and rosemary, and chopped walnuts that can be prepared ahead of time and popped in the oven after the turkey comes out. For other sides, Smith advises moving away from complicated veggie dishes and going for something that can be whipped up at lightning speed. (She loves dusting cauliflower with rice flour, deep-frying it, and tossing it in Parmesan.) She also suggests incorporating prepared foods—for example, stuffing Portobello mushroom caps with red pepper hummus and goat cheese and roasting them once the turkey comes out for a substantial vegetarian side dish.

Dessert

Of course, you need to end with a sweet flourish. Over the phone, Catherine Introligator, co-owner of French Made Baking, says that premade dessert components can save time, and with the right presentation you can still wow your guests. She suggests serving a layered dessert in cocktail glasses or Mason jars—depending on whether you want to be elegant or rustic—but making only one of the layers yourself. You could, for example, follow a recipe for panna cotta and buy the other layers, such as caramel sauce, mini marshmallows, shortbread cookies, and fruit purée. Introligator’s other decadent tip is to buy cream-puff pastry shells from a pâtisserie. When it’s time for dessert, fill them with vanilla ice cream, drizzle with chocolate sauce, and sprinkle toasted sliced almonds or chopped hazelnuts on top. “Two to three per person, smothered in chocolate, are really amazing and impressive,” she says. And without the usual stress of the holiday meal, they’ll taste that much better.