In a typical winter holiday season, Sebastopol’s star chef and prolific food journalist Michele Anna Jordan used to celebrate with her two daughters, gifts and bûche de noël, or yule log cake. In more recent years, she delighted in hosting Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas morning breakfast for friends.
“I love Christmas breakfast,” she said, recalling the café au lait and beignets, or cinnamon coffee cake and sometimes a blend of blood orange and cara cara juice. “But sometimes I’ll do a polenta bar. I’ll make creamy crock pot polenta overnight, and then I’ll do a choice of maybe 20 toppings.”
Jordan won’t be driving out to the coast on the morning of Christmas Eve to pick up live crab for dinner — usually paired with sparkling wine and a Russian River Valley pinot noir — this year, but there will be twinkle of human connection for a modest number of locals on an otherwise cold and lonesome holiday during a pandemic.
The idea to prepare Christmas dinners for people finding themselves alone this year came to Jordan when she realized it had been some time since she’d last cooked for the community, at the start of Sonoma County’s shelter-in-place order in spring. She said the former manager of Sebastopol’s farmers market, Paula Downing, encouraged her to provide for people.
“And I would just do abundant feasts that I hoped would last a couple meals,” she said, while Downing made the deliveries. Months of other projects went by until she thought, “‘Gosh, what am I going to do on Christmas? You know, it’ll just be another day,’” she said. “Then I thought, wait a minute. Everyone’s in this position.”
The chef and food writer of over 24 cookbooks took to her public Facebook recently and asked if anyone would be interested in either Christmas breakfast or Christmas dinner, and the requests and referrals from friends came rolling in. Jordan said she’s prepared to make meals for less than 30 people spending the day solitary or as an isolated pair.
“Now I’m working on the menu,” she said. “Certain things just don’t travel well, so I’m working on a menu that will be easily transportable and easy for people to reheat whenever they want to eat and I’m making it abundant enough that it’s good for at least two meals.”
Jordan said she’s considering clam chowder or turkey barley soup, alongside a farro salad of chickpeas, celery, red onion, cilantro, italian parsley and perhaps toasted pecans, with a lemon or yuzu vinaigrette and pomegranate seeds for the seasonal touch.
Meanwhile, she’s narrowed down the main course to three possibilities: game hens stuffed with sage polenta, roasted turkey thigh over sourdough stuffing or a maitake mushroom strudel with a goat cheese dough crust. Jordan said she will probably choose two main dishes, with likely pear gingerbread for dessert.
“And even though everyone says they hate kale, I think I’m going to do dinosaur kale with garlic, lemon, shallots and red pepper flakes. It’s really delicious and no one will realize they’re eating kale because it’s just so good,” she said.
One woman recovering from heart surgery will receive a delivery, while another requested Christmas dinner for her ex-husband undergoing chemotherapy, according to Jordan. She said she’ll make stops in west county on Christmas morning while two friends bring the feast to Santa Rosa, placing the boxed meals on the porch.
“This is pay what you want, pay what you can, don’t pay anything if you have no money, tip me if you want. That’s all, it’s my gift,” she said, adding a number of friends offered to donate for her expenses.
“And I’m going to include some little things. I’m going to include fresh satsuma tangerines, I was thinking I’m going to put a little candle in each one,” she said. “I’m going to cut some olive branches and just tie it up with a nice ribbon.”
Otherwise, Jordan said she will be alone on Christmas, too. The chef said she’s “pretty religious” about limiting contact and following health protocols.
“I always wear a mask if I’m out … no one comes in my house, and the only reasons I go out are to shop for essentials,” she said.
Shortly after, Jordan hollered to a friend dropping off lemons. “I could use five lemons a day,” she said, planning to use them for the farro salad and the possible addition of a spaghetti squash.
“The thing I miss most, other than seeing my daughters and my grandson and hugging them and stuff — I really miss cooking for people. I really miss that. My social life is to a very large degree having people over for dinner. That’s how I get to make new friends, I get to know people, that’s how I introduce people,” Jordan said.
“It makes me very happy. I find it very calming — leave me alone, I’m making risotto,” she said, hushing her dachshund with somewhat of a catchphrase. “I don’t have another care in the world,” she continued.
It had been a bleak 2020 for Jordan before the virus emerged. She said, “Before COVID hit, I had something like 15 friends die. All I was doing was going to memorial services.”
Jordan said the “season of loss,” from friends she went to school with to local legends Kathleen Weber of Della Fattoria, attorney Steve Turer and Susan Swartz, esteemed journalist from The Press Democrat, began with Evelyn Cheatham that prior November.
Jordan described the late chef, social justice activist and Worth Our Weight apprenticeship café owner as one of her dearest friends, who for 25 years composed Christmas feasts across three days for folks in need.
“And then starting at about 9 a.m. on Christmas morning would be a long line of cars. And sometimes I cooked for her and sometimes I delivered, and we’d get these amazing things to drop off. It was enough food for a week,” she said.
“This is like a little, tiny, mini version of that,” Jordan said. “I still can’t believe she’s gone. So in a way, this is what Evelyn would do.”
While she prepares to serve less than 30 individuals as the sole cook, Jordan said those interested in a Christmas dinner delivery can text her at 707-326-3770 or contact her through her Facebook profile as Michele Anna Jordan.
