Anton Mosimann: Giving a new twist to an old traditional recipe

Anton Mosimann’s Christmas pud was a ‘butcher’s special’

It started with a chance meeting between Swiss celebrity chef Anton Mosimann and an old friend, Hans Baumann, who used to be manager of the iconic Swiss Centre Restaurants that formed part of the now-demolished Swiss Centre in London’s Leicester Square.

Their conversation turned to preparations for Christmas, and Hans Baumann, now managing director of one of Britain’s leading mail order companies, Scottish beef lamb and game specialists Donald Russell, told how he was about to introduce a completely new line – of old fashioned fruit crumbles.

Anton recalled his own creation of a Christmas pudding many years ago, which had won every media taste challenge when it was first launched.

Could he make it again for the Donald Russell catalogue? He could, but this time he would do it differently.

As with all the old classic Mosimann recipes, he would change the ratio of ingredients, making it lighter and healthier to suit modern tastes.

But, with only weeks before the Christmas rush period, could it be done it time to meet the demands of a modern mail order campaign?

New product development normally takes months of preparation, from planning, tasting, producing, packaging, labelling and shelf life considerations to marketing.

Recalled Stefan Kôlsch of Donald Russell: “it was an exciting and fast process. But we managed it – just in time.”

Anton Mosimann recommends two different sauces to go with his Christmas pudding:

Brandy sauce: Whisk together four egg yokes, 50g (2oz) icing sugar and 30ml (2 tbsp) white wine in a bowl over a pan of boiling water until thick and smooth. Whisk 30ml (2 tbsp) of warm brandy into the mixture and serve at once.

Yoghurt sauce: Mix 200g (8oz) low fat Greek yoghurt with 75ml (5 tbsp) of skimmed milk. Add the juice of half a lemon, together with a pinch of cinnamon and 30ml (2 tbsp) of honey and serve cold.