SINGAPORE — The memory of chestnuts roasting doesn’t seem too out place in my Asian bound recollections of Christmas. Granted, they often involve a pushcart with a wok of hot pebbles and two middle-aged Chinese men hawking little brown paper bags of the seasonal nut. To me at least, chestnuts are not only as Christmassy as turkey and reindeer; they’re far more affable. I’d often recall the same joyous excitement on my mother’s face late one December afternoon a good two decades ago. She had recognised the jingle of the ubiquitous roasted chestnut seller who was parked around the corner (apparently, some used a bell similar to an ice cream cart vender’s chime). Part of her smile gave me a rare glimpse into her beautifully trying childhood. The rest of it spoke for a person who loved her food, her cooking and her family. Truthfully, the memory of good food never strays too far from a celebration of good company.

We asked some of our favourite celebs about their favourite Christmas meals and here’s what they had to say.

Bobby Tonelli: My favourite X’mas meal would be roasted turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce with side of baked yams and homemade bread rolls. And of course, pumpkin pie and home made Italian cookies called pizelle cookies for dessert. This was a traditional meal every year growing up. The memories associated with it make it the best meal of the year. All this, of course, is homemade from scratch.

Yvonne Lim: I was in the States for a holiday about five years ago visiting friends and family. I was at a friend’s place and their family had a huge turkey. And that was my first time eating turkey. It was delicious — home roasted, not the kind you can buy from the restaurant — with cranberry sauce. It was really, really good. The weather was cold; the turkey was well-roasted; everything was just nice, with pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is so delicious! It’s too bad we don’t have it in Singapore! It’s spiced and it’s very different from the pumpkin we get in Singapore. I heard pumpkin isn’t available all year round there, so it was extra special. It was very homely with a very, very festive spirit.

Nat Ho: Turkey. It’s like a giant chicken and I like chicken. Ha!

Adrian Pang: My favourite Christmas meal is tandoori turkey. After years of experimenting with what to do with all that bloody leftover turkey, that recently turned up the winner.

Cynthia Chua, CEO and founder of Spa Esprit Group: My memorable Chrissy dinner was a homecooked roasted, big, fat turkey ballotine, stuffed with ham, chicken and duck. It’s a family secret recipe which makes the meat really tender. To finish off: A kiss under the mistletoe.

Tjin Lee, managing director of Mercury Marketing and Communications: My family celebrates with tandoori turkey from Rang Mahal. It’s an Asian twist on a traditional classic, and our highlight every year! .

Kevin Jonas: My wife makes some incredible cookies, so does my mum. I think that the sweets during Christmas are incredible. I really love all these homemade cookies and home cooking. My mum always makes a Christmas ham which is really nice but now with my wife’s family and especially my wife, we have so much more Italian food. My family’s Italian as well so (we get together) the night before and we do shrimp and the seafood, and it’s really phenomenal.

Marie Choo, founder/director of Alchemy Consultancy: Christmas to me is always about the gathering of friends over a good meal. Christmas is not complete without good friends, turkey, ham and lots of chocolate.

Ronan Keating: I love food so Christmas dinner is the best, I like minced pies and mulled wine. I love cinnamon as a flavour (so) I look forward to those things at Christmas time. I guess as a kid, your mum’s Christmas dinner was always the best. Even if it was terrible, you grow up and think it was the best. My mum’s was always amazing, Christmas dinner around the table as a kid. Magic.

Jean Danker: My fave Christmas meal definitely is the one at home that’s prepared lovingly by my mum every X’mas eve. There’s a devil’s curry, Christmas stew, turkey, lots of gravy, stuffing, sugee cake, fruit cake, ham and pineapple and so much more! And let’s not forget the pineapple tarts, which my parents would order from one of their neighbours, and they’d order one container each for my sister and me to take home!

Hossan Leong: It’ll have to be a nice seafood lunch. Normally I spend Christmas in Australia with the family, and it’s quite warm there. Prawns, oysters, lobsters … it’s nice to spend time with the family. For dinner it’s roast or barbecue. But definitely no siew mais on the barbie. Dim sum for Christmas is not very happening. Can you imagine “xiao long bao roasting on an open fire?” Cannot, right?

Jade Seah: My favourite Christmas meal is home-cooked and enjoyed with family. Gran’s sambal prawns comes out tops as my favourite dish — I love prawns, I love spicy food, and she’s been making this for as long as I can remember. I also look forward to my Godma’s sambal belacan every year — my spice threshold is pretty happening, but still no match for the fire in her mix.

Glenn Ong: My fave Christmas meal is my late grandma’s large chicken stew pie. The pie is a meal on its own. The large pyrex tray is filled with the tastiest chicken stew, the chicken pieces are juicy and tender, then there’s ham, bacon, carrots, potatoes, button mushrooms, spices and some other festive delights all swimming in a thick gravy. All that is then covered with the most fragrant homemade pastry, which is then put in the oven and baked to golden brown perfection.

Alain Passard, chef and owner of the three-star Michelin restaurant L’Arpege: I work very hard during Christmas. But I do have a special dish for the season. In France, we have a traditional Christmas market. Every year before Christmas, I go to these markets because I’m very interested in all the special oranges they have, the foie gras, the truffles and all those products … And I’ll use all these products to invent new dishes for Christmas.

Paul Pairet, chef de cuisine and co-founder of Mr and Mrs Bund Shanghai and inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award winner of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants: It was the first Christmas following my first entry at the hotel school of Toulouse, France. I was young and very young as a chef. That very day at 6am, I started with the market and I bought everything. I wanted to show to the world that the hotel school was the right investment so I tried preparing a 14-course meal. But it turned out to be a nightmare. The kitchen ended up as a war zone; I had used all pot, pans, silverware and crystal that my mum accumulated in a lifetime. I remember her trying desperately to rescue me two hours past midnight — exhausted, in tears, desperate. When Christmas Eve was over, I finally served food to my first audience and they loved it.

Michelle Chong: My favourite X’mas meal is one I had in the US when I was 19. A group of us studying in New England gathered at Brown University for Christmas. One of our ex-classmates from VJC was studying there and she made a nice X’mas dinner of broccoli and abalone mushroom corn soup and chicken rice. It was the best and most touching X’mas meal, and in my mind, the most delicious.

Willin Low, chef/owner of Wild Rocket Group: I was probably 14 and singing carols with my church choir at various households, and this Eurasian family served us buns filled with savoury minced pork. It was incredible. I keep thinking of them whenever I think of Christmas caroling. I wasn’t able to find those buns and was beginning to think it was a figment of my imagination until three years ago — I found them at Mary’s Corner. They are called Pang Soo See and they are super nostalgic for me.

Sam Neill, actor /owner of Two Paddocks vineyard: “I can’t remember much about the food during Christmas as my mother, though a wonderful woman, was a terrible cook. But it doesn’t matter as the whole family is together. I do remember my father making us a special drink — champagne with a shot of brandy and we’d get to drink it at 11am on Christmas morning.

Denise Tan: My fave memories are melded into one — the smells of garlic and broiling meats emanating from the kitchen, mum and dad bickering good-naturedly over the cooking time of the beef, dad pottering and choosing wines. Speaking of which, the first Christmas I got tipsy was when I was five. I giggled, twirled and passed out before midnight!

Additional reporting by Christopher Toh, Serene Lim, Genevieve Loh, May Seah, Phin Wong and Farah Daley