The popular 2011 winner invites Woman's Day into her home for a sneak preview of her magnificent festive feast, and to chat about her incredible year.
Who wouldn’t be thrilled at the thought of sitting down to lunch on Christmas Day at Kate Bracks’ house? A feast of glazed ham, prawns and Christmas pudding cooked by the MasterChef winner is sure to taste wonderful and keep you satisfied for days. As Kate says, Christmas is about celebration, and any good celebration includes a feast.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what you’re eating – there just has to be lots of it!” Kate, 37, tells Woman’s Day. “We start off with breakfast, I love the nibbles before the lunch, and then a lovely, long lunch until you are so full you can’t eat any more. Then, a couple of hours later, you manage to squeeze in a bit more for dinner!” This is Kate’s first Christmas since taking
out the title of MasterChef earlier this year – and lots has changed for the mum to Erin, 8, Liam, 7, and Maya, 4. “I was a full-time, stay-at-home mum and now I’m working!” laughs Kate, still a little bewildered by her instant fame. “This morning I overheard my kids talking about what a celebrity is, and at the end of the conversation they said, ‘Mum is a celebrity!’”
Cuddled up on the sofa next to her famous mum in their home in Orange, central-west New South Wales, Erin says, “I remember I was at a state carnival this year and I had to wait half an hour while Mummy gave autographs.”To say it’s been a whirlwind year for Kate and her husband Luke, 39, is an understatement. But that doesn’t mean the family’s Christmas traditions are changing. “We have a birthday cake for breakfast, because we want to encourage our kids to remember that Christmas is actually about Jesus’s birthday,” says Kate, whose Christian faith is important to her.
“We have birthday candles and often the kids will help bake the cake the day before. It is the only time of the year they get to eat birthday cake for breakfast!
“We also always have bonbons and Christmas hats, and there is normally some swimming involved,” Kate says, smiling at Erin. “I like the jokes in the bonbons,” Erin says, her eyes lighting up at the thought of popping them. “Last year, we told everyone our jokes around the table and it was so funny.”
See more of Kate and her family, plus get all of her best Christmas Day recipes in this week's Woman's Day, on sale December 19, 2011.
Related video: MasterChef winner.
