It's a very merry RICK STEIN CHRISTMAS!

Festive cooking has never been so delicious

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Every celebrity chef has their forté and for British cook Rick Stein, there's nowhere he feels more at home than putting together the annual Christmas spread for his family and friends.

So it's only fitting that he's put out his first-ever festive cookbook, Rick Stein's Christmas - a celebration of Yuletide cheer inspired by his lifelong love of the holiday season and all the indulgent gourmet treats that come with it.

"Winter in the Cotswolds in the '50s and '60s always saw hard frosts and often snow upon snow, but my memories of childhood Christmases there are some of my fondest," recalls the Oxfordshire-born chef, 78.

With three grown sons, Edward, Jack and Charlie, and now his grandkids helping him in the kitchen - "Last Christmas, I carved, while my son Jack plated the meat, gravy, stuffing and sauces," he explains - Rick is passing down his beloved recipes and culinary curiosity to the next generation.

"That's really the point of this book," Rick writes. "I want to share all the things I love about Christmas, starting naturally with all the recipes past and present that make it such a special time of year."

Christmastime in his second homeland, Australia, couldn't be more different than in his native England, with sun, sand, swimming and salads taking the place of snowflakes, roast dinners and mulled wine.

But having lived part-time Down Under with his Aussie wife Sarah and successfully run the iconic Rick Stein at Bannisters restaurants for years, the chef is well accustomed to adapting his menus to fit the location.

"You will find some recipes here that I've previously published, like roast goose and Christmas cake, because they are festive essentials or particularly special to me over Christmas," he says of the diverse cookbook. "But I also want to share my wife Sas' Australian take on Christmas."