Your time and money are extremely valuable. This is especially true during the holidays. I often feel like a chicken running around with my head cut off with all the things the holidays have me managing. A new study by Uswitch has analyzed the Christmas recipes of top celebrity chefs to discover whose recipes will cost you the most time and money on the 25th of December.
In the study, recipes of iconic items that make up a Christmas dinner were analyzed to determine the cost and time of each. According to Uswitch, Nigella Lawson has been putting home cooks to the test for the longest. Her festive feast takes 41.5 hours (2,490 minutes) which is over 1.7 days, meaning preparations must start on the 23rd! Her ‘spiced and super juicy turkey,’ which had a cameo appearance in Gavin and Stacey, requires being soaked in a bucket of infused water for up to two days before roasting. Her Christmas pudding also requires a lot of your time as the fruits need to be soaked in alcohol and it has a steaming time of eight hours.
Heston Blumenthal is second on the list of the most time-consuming celebrity Christmas chefs with a total creation time of 35.5 hours (2,130 minutes) with his turkey recipe alone taking 13.5 hours (810 minutes) to perfect! Third place goes to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, famed for his earthy, back-to-basics food, whose Christmas Day meal takes 34.9 hours (2,099 minutes) to complete. Delia Smith and Gordon Ramsay also make up the top five requiring 31.8 hours (1,910 minutes) and 31.6 hours (1,895 minutes) respectively.
Top 15 Most Time-Consuming Celebrity Chef Christmas Day Recipes
| Celebrity Chef | Minutes | Hours | |
| 1 | Nigella Lawson | 2490 | 41.5 |
| 2 | Heston Blumenthal | 2130 | 35.5 |
| 3 | Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall | 2099 | 34.9 |
| 4 | Delia Smith | 1910 | 31.8 |
| 5 | Gordon Ramsay | 1895 | 31.6 |
| 6 | Tom Kerridge | 1850 | 30.8 |
| 7 | Yotam Ottolenghi | 1660 | 27.7 |
| 8 | James Martin | 1545 | 25.6 |
| 9 | Martha Stewart | 1517 | 25.3 |
| 10 | Mary Berry | 1470 | 24.5 |
| 11 | Jamie Oliver | 1440 | 24 |
| 12 | Hairy Bikers | 1388 | 23.1 |
| 13 | Phil Vickery | 1070 | 17.8 |
| 14 | Rachael Ray | 935 | 15.6 |
| 15 | Chrissy Teigen | 835 | 13.9 |
The company also used food cost calculators from major online supermarkets to compare the cost of different recipes, revealing Yotam Ottolenghi’s Christmas meal to be the most costly. Counting in at $44.02 per person, his recipe costs a grand total of $264.13; for those who follow Ottolenghi on social media, it will come as no surprise that his recipes utilize unusual ingredients to give classic recipes the wow factor. One of his cheapest items can be recreated for just $2.07 per person: his ‘crispy roasted potatoes with lemon, garlic, and sage’.
Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall comes in second with a recipe that costs $241.03, or $40.17 per person, and third with Chrissy Teigen’s recipe costing $37.97 per person for a total of $227.79. Good luck if you choose to make any of their recipes this holiday season!
Top 15 Most Expensive Celebrity Chef Recipes
| Celebrity Chef | Cost Per Person USD | Cost for 6 people | |
| 1 | Yotam Ottolenghi | 44.02 | 264.13 |
| 2 | Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall | 40.17 | 241.03 |
| 3 | Chrissy Teigen | 37.97 | 227.79 |
| 4 | Heston Blumenthal | 37.85 | 227.11 |
| 5 | Gordon Ramsay | 34.34 | 206.04 |
| 6 | The Hairy Bikers | 33.06 | 198.34 |
| 7 | Phil Vickery | 30.69 | 184.15 |
| 8 | Tom Kerridge | 30.04 | 180.23 |