12 Chefs of Christmas, day 8 - Dan Merriman
As part of The Staff Canteen’s 12 Chefs of Christmas, we’re unwrapping how chefs across the UK bring festive flavour and cheer to their kitchens.
For MasterChef: The Professionals winner Dan Merriman, Christmas is all about relaxing at home with family. That feeling sits somewhere between full-tilt kitchen chaos and the kind of family nostalgia that starts with a chocolate yule log and ends with his granddad singing Christmas songs with a whisky in hand.
He said: “It’s my favourite time of the year, it’s my favourite season. To me, Christmas isn’t a day, it’s a feeling.”
Like most chefs, Dan has spent more Christmases on the pass than round the table.
Asked what December service feels like, he laughed: “Carnage."
Now self-employed and focusing on private dining, this year feels different again. There is no big brigade party at the end of service, no staff bar to roll into. Instead, when the last booking is cooked for and cleared down, the celebration is simple.
He said: “I just eat as much chocolate cake as I can, to be honest with you. I don’t drink, I’m not a drinker, I’m a taster… but I love cake and I love food and I love chocolate yule log. That’s my celebration – just a fat lot of food.”
Dan is not the kind of chef who sits down in September to design a 'Christmas menu'. For him, cooking seasonally means December automatically feels festive.
He explained: “If you cook seasonally, you always associate roasted, honey roasted parsnips and carrots with Christmas Day. You just do, I don’t think I do something purposely to go, ‘oh yeah, that’s Christmassy’. I think it just naturally comes anyway.”
Signature memories
Growing up, his mum bought the same frozen Black Forest gateau every year.
He added: “Every single Christmas, without fail, she bought one of them frozen Black Forest gâteaux… She always had one of them on the table at Christmas."
That association is so strong that he genuinely 'can’t do Christmas without a Black Forest gateau' somewhere in the mix.
Christmas at home: granddad, BBC One and chocolate at 9am
What he pictures is his granddad on the sofa with a neat half glass of whisky, BBC One on in the background, everyone picking at chocolate far too early in the day. “To me, Christmas is my granddad’s there, my mum’s there, my brothers are there, we’re opening presents, we’re eating chocolate yule log at
nine o’clock in the morning, my granddad’s taking the turkey out at three o’clock in the morning and I’m waking up with him. That’s Christmas.”
"Christmas isn’t a day, it’s a feeling. Just because it’s the 25th of December… to me it can happen on the twenty-sixth. It’s whatever I’m doing.”
Part of that feeling is how people soften. “People are generally a lot more forgiving at Christmas,” he says. “Things can reignite friendships and stuff like that… people are just a lot more warm.”
Looking back at the year – and ahead to 2026
Professionally, one moment towers over the rest of his year: cooking at The Goring. “I’ve got the Goring with Dan Merriman menu framed at home. I felt like royalty. You’ve got to remember, I’m a kid, born and bred council estate… so to be able to experience luxury like that, you can’t dream it.”
Next year, though, his biggest goal has nothing to do with white tablecloths.
Dan explained: “I want to take my son away, I want to take my son away to North Wales where I used to live… give him a bit of a holiday, show him my roots. Work’s going to be great, I’ve got some really cool projects coming up, but the thing that really makes me happy is him.”
Quick-fire festive questions 🎄
Sprouts – yes or no?
“Yeah, but you have to fire them off with bacon.” (For Dan sprouts and smoked bacon are the council-estate cousin of sprouts with pancetta)
What dish or ingredient defines the season for you?
"Cherries, every time. Those frozen Black Forest gâteaux from my childhood. If there is no Black Forest on the table, it just does not feel like Christmas."
What’s the one ingredient you couldn’t run Christmas without?
"Again, it comes back to that Black Forest gateau."
Favourite festive drink?
"Honestly, a cherry coke."
Dream Christmas dinner guest to cook for?
Snoop Dogg, he just seems like a vibe or Kevin Hart. To have Christmas dinner with them, that would be great.”
What is your best/worst Christmas kitchen story?
“I’ve literally watched a pot wash pour the Christmas Day gravy stock straight down the sink. I stopped them before they got rid of all of it, but honestly… that was a day.”
Three words that sum up Christmas for you?
"Chaotic and memorable."
Written by Abi Kinsella
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12 Chefs of Christmas, day 8 - Dan Merriman
