Starters, sides, buffets and cheese for the Christmas menu

Christmas food in hospitality is rarely just one menu.

There might be a three-course festive lunch in the restaurant, a private party in another room, drinks and buffet food in the evening and a full Sunday service to get through the next day.

For chefs, that means Christmas ordering is about much more than getting the turkey right.

The Jolly Foods 2026 festive range has been put together to cover far more of the menu, with starters, seafood, buffet food, cheeses and the smaller essentials sitting alongside the core meat range.

Start with something festive

A good starter sets the tone, and at Christmas there is often room for something a little more traditional or a little more special.

For 2026, Jolly Foods is supplying Duck & Orange Pâté and Luxury Brixworth Pâté, both familiar choices for festive menus and easy to work into your own style of presentation.

There is also a strong seafood selection, including Luxury North Atlantic Prawns, Bronze Prawns, Crayfish in Brine, Smoked Salmon Sides, Fresh Salmon Sides and Fresh Scottish King Scallops with roe on.

That gives chefs plenty of flexibility, from a simple smoked salmon starter to prawns, crayfish or scallops for menus that need to feel a little more premium.

Camembert is also included in the festive range, another useful option for starters and sharing dishes during the colder months.

The point is not to dictate what goes on the plate. Chefs already know what works in their kitchen. It is about making sure the right ingredients are there to work with.

The side dishes that make it Christmas

There are certain things diners simply expect to see in December.

Pigs in blankets are an obvious one, but the wider sausage and bacon range also gives kitchens scope across stuffing, sides, buffets and breakfast service.

The Christmas brochure includes chipolata and cocktail sausages, pork sausage meat, sage and onion gluten-free sausage meat and smoked streaky bacon, alongside two different pigs in blankets options.

Then come the smaller ingredients that end up appearing across half the menu: cranberry sauce, sage and onion stuffing mix, duck fat, horseradish and English mustard.

None of these are complicated products, but having them available alongside your meat order can make festive ordering much easier to manage.

Christmas parties need a different kind of menu

Not every festive booking wants a sit-down dinner.

Work parties, private events, drinks receptions and informal gatherings often call for food that can be shared, served in smaller portions or built into a buffet.

For those bookings, our cooked meat and buffet range includes Gala Pie, Ascot Pie, Scotch Eggs and Oxford Sausage Rolls.

They sit comfortably alongside cold meats, cheeses and other buffet dishes, giving kitchens another way to cater for groups without having to turn every Christmas booking into a full three-course service.

That flexibility can become particularly useful later in December, when one kitchen might be handling several very different types of booking in the same day.

And then there is the cheese…

For plenty of guests, Christmas is not finished until the cheese arrives.

This year’s Jolly Foods range includes Long Clawson Stilton, Oxford Blue, French Brie, Keens Cheddar, Goat Log and Cerne Abbas Extra Mature Cheddar.

It is a good mix of blue, soft and mature cheeses, giving chefs enough variety to put together a proper cheeseboard without overloading it.

There are also Stag Savoury Crackers in the sundries range, along with portioned Netherend Farm salted butter, both useful additions when you are ordering for larger Christmas services.

One supplier – one festive menu

This is really where the Jolly Foods Christmas range comes into its own.

We are not simply supplying the roasting joint. We can help with the starters, the pigs in blankets, the buffet food, the cheese and many of the extras that sit around them.

For busy hospitality teams, that means fewer suppliers to chase and more of the Christmas order coming through one trusted point of contact.

And because December rarely goes entirely to plan, the Jolly Foods team is also there when quantities change or you need help filling a last-minute gap. The festive brochure specifically recognises changing numbers, increased demand and late orders as part of Christmas trading.

That combination of quality produce, a wide festive range and reliable delivery is what Jolly Foods is there to provide throughout the busiest part of the year.

If you are building your Christmas menus now, speak to the team about your 2026 festive requirements.