Gourmetten (Dutch Tabletop Christmas Grill)

Some dishes belong to a region, and some belong to an evening. Gourmetten belongs to the long Dutch Christmas table, when the windows are black by five, the candles are already low, and the family has decided, very sensibly, that the cook should also be allowed to sit down.

The name already tells you this is a borrowed little luxury, made Dutch by grammar and habit. From French gourmet we made gourmetten, to gourmet, because Dutch can turn nearly anything into a verb if the table requires it. But let me tell you a secret: for all its French collar, the soul of this meal is deeply Dutch. Nobody performs. Everyone cooks one tiny thing, waits, talks, burns a mushroom, forgives the uncle who overfills his pan, and passes the garlic sauce.

This is not old peasant fare, and we shouldn't pretend it is. It is a late-twentieth-century ritual, born with the electric tabletop grill and adopted because it solved a feast-day problem beautifully: abundance without one person disappearing into the kitchen. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. Good meat, small pieces, dry vegetables, a few honest sauces, and enough time. The cooking is half the meal; the waiting is the other half.