When the Cook Quits! : Supermarkets and caterers rescue those daunted by the idea of preparing a holiday meal with all the trimmings.

Some people enjoy holiday cooking. They like to browse through well-stocked supermarket shelves, look forward to fussing over a hot stove and take pride in creating a masterpiece of a meal. Their turkey is invariably golden brown outside and moist inside. Their rolls are baked from scratch; their cranberries never saw the inside of a can.

Then there are the rest of us. Much of the year, we get by on Chinese takeout and delivered pizzas. We venture into a market when we run out of cat food. We never read recipes. Reservations are the only things we make for dinner.

So when the holidays come along, we know what to do: We get invited to someone else’s house.

After a few years of playing guest though, there’s no escaping the fact that it’s our turn to do Christmas. But, oh, how we dread all the shopping and chopping, baking and basting, cooking and cleaning. We can’t be bothered! We don’t have time! And we hate to admit it--but we don’t know how.

Relax. Even die-hard anti-cooks can serve a mouthwatering, heartwarming, positively Norman Rockwellian spread. Plenty of supermarket workers, restaurant chefs and party caterers are eager to prepare all or part of the holiday dinner for those who’d rather not. All we have to do is heat, serve--and wow our guests with our culinary prowess.

Supermarket Service Delis

The neighborhood grocer is the most convenient, and probably the least costly, source for a heat-and-eat holiday dinner with all the trimmings. And since most supermarkets have on-site bakeries, freshly baked pies or cookies can be picked up for dessert.

Such supermarket carryout meals are becoming increasingly well-accepted. In 1992, Gelson’s Markets reported a 34% increase in Christmas dinners ordered from its markets over the previous year, Lucky Stores’ holiday orders quadrupled since 1988, and Hughes Markets prepared a total of about 20,000 holiday dinners at its 51 Southern California stores.

Irving Lander of Van Nuys has purchased a turkey and all the trimmings from Gelson’s for the past two years. “It’s great,” he said. “Everything was delicious. The turkey was just right. Everybody loved it. Why anyone would bother cooking I’ll be damned.”

Menus vary slightly from store chain to chain, but most markets offer a choice of turkey, ham or prime rib. The meals typically include side dishes such as potatoes and gravy, yams, other vegetables, rolls, cranberry relish and salad. A vegetarian meal is available at Mrs. Gooch’s. Prices range from $40 for a turkey dinner for eight to $60 for a prime rib feast for six.

Individual components of the meal are usually prepared by vendors in various locations and delivered a few days in advance to the markets, where they are assembled in boxes, ready to pick up the day before the holiday. Lander wishes that the dinner could be picked up hot and ready to eat rather than cold the day before. “But the reheating didn’t hurt it at all,” he said.

For those who prefer to prepare their own side dishes, but need help with the entree--or vice versa--some stores offer roasted whole turkey, goose, ham and assorted a la carte items.

Caterers

For a traditional holiday meal with gourmet flair, consider a caterer. Catered dinners generally cost twice as much--or more--as their supermarket counterparts, but the meals are prepared from scratch by chefs, rather than anonymous off-site vendors, and the menus are less generic.

For example, Parties to Go, a Northridge catering company, serves turkey and ham dinners along with mashed potatoes, pan gravy, peas, onions and mushrooms, cinnamon-pecan sweet potatoes, apple-walnut stuffing, cranberry-orange relish and orange-almond salad. Plum pudding and pumpkin cheesecake are dessert choices.

In addition to complete meals, most caterers offer an extensive list of a la carte items to mix and match.

Chef Gary Anderson of Cater 2 in Van Nuys cooks up three kinds of stuffing ($10 to $12.75 per 10- to 12-serving pan), four potato dishes ($10 to $13.50 per pan), three vegetables ($11.50 to $13.50 per pan), two cranberry dishes ($5 to $6 per pint), and four pies ($8.25 to $9.25 each). He also prepares whole roast turkey, roast goose, fruited roast duckling and mustard-glazed ham (all $2.50 to $2.75 per pound and carved at no extra charge, if desired).

“We cook what our clients want, so they get a home-cooked meal, better than they can do themselves,” said caterer Janet Howe of City Cuisine in Woodland Hills. “Many people work till 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve, plus take care of children. The last thing they want to think about is cooking for 20 people the next day. Hiring a caterer is a way around the holiday cooking hassle.”

Cindy Calczynski, a North Hills travel consultant, quit holiday cooking two years ago because she was tired of “playing superwoman.” Now she calls on Anderson for her family’s Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

“We are all so busy and I wasn’t in the mood for cooking, but we didn’t want to give up our tradition,” she said. “I am a tough critic, but he does the best turkey I ever tasted. It smelled so good while I was reheating it, my neighbor came over. And his dressing is almost as good as mine.”

Hosts of even very small gatherings will probably find caterers willing to serve as few as two people. For an additional fee, caterers will provide rented china, silverware, serving platters and table linens. They will even send someone over to help serve the meal and clean up after dinner (about $35 an hour).

“It all depends on how much work the host does not want to do,” Anderson said.

As with the supermarket deli meals, most catered holiday dinners must be reheated before serving.

“Most people prefer to pick up the meal cold and reheat it because they like the smell of turkey in the oven,” said Carolyn Baer, a saleswoman for Parties to Go. “Then all they have to do is set the table and--if they are trying to pass the dinner off as homemade--transfer the food onto their own serving pieces.”

Restaurants

For small holiday gatherings of just a few people, a caterer may be overkill, and a supermarket meal may seem too boring. Several San Fernando Valley restaurants come to the rescue.

The five Chef’s Take-Out eateries in the Valley serve one of the best holiday bargains around. At $6.25 each, the individual meals include turkey, ham or roast beef, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, salad and roll. The restaurant is known for its whole or carved roast turkeys (about $30 to $40, serving 10 to 25), whole smoked hams ($55 serving 12) and prime rib ($45 to $85, serving nine to 18), and roast beef ($70, serving 36). The restaurant is closed Christmas Day, but food can be picked up the day before and reheated.

“This is real food,” Chef’s Take-Out owner Tom Hanson Jr. said. “So many people today get pressed and formed turkey, which is like balsa wood. When they eat real turkey, they remember what their mothers and grandmothers made 30 years ago.”

Cafe Cordiale in Sherman Oaks is on the other end of the price spectrum with an extravagant takeout feast for $25 per person. The restaurant’s traditional Victorian Christmas Eve dinners (the restaurant is closed Christmas Day) include a choice of baked salmon, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding or roast duckling, stuffing, potatoes and vegetables. Each meal comes with wassail (mulled ale), soup or salad, dessert (plum pudding, sherry trifle or bread pudding) and an English Christmas cracker, which snaps open to reveal a small gift and party hat.

Unlike most restaurants, Truly Yours, in Tarzana and Northridge, is open Christmas Day. Owner and chef Chris Adlesh prepares dozens of turkey and prime rib dinners, including soup, salad, stuffing or mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, vegetables, and apple or pumpkin pie. The price per meal is $13.95. Truly Yours accepts takeout orders until Christmas morning. That means even the worst procrastinators and most reluctant cooks can serve a delicious holiday dinner. Just put on a pot of coffee, set the table and wait for the compliments. And when guests ask for your secret stuffing recipe, just smile.

Ordering Up a Feast

Here’s a sampling of places to turn when the crowd is coming over during the holidays:

Supermarkets

What: Turkey, ham or prime rib dinners. Some markets also prepare duck and goose, and Mrs. Gooch’s offers a vegetarian meal. Meals typically include potatoes, gravy, yams, other vegetables, rolls, cranberry relish and salad.

When: Place orders 48 to 72 hours in advance. Meals must be picked up a day or so ahead of time and reheated.

Price: About $40 to $60 for six to eight people. Pavilions offers home delivery for an additional charge of $10 to $15.

Call: The service deli of your favorite supermarket.

Caterers

What: Gourmet holiday dinners and a variety of a la carte items, from whole birds to pan gravy to plum pudding.

When: Place orders two days to one week (or more) in advance. Meals must be picked up or delivered a day ahead of time and reheated.

Price: About $12 to $30 per complete meal, depending on the caterer you select and what you order. Some caterers include free home delivery. China, silverware, chafing dishes and table linens may be rented for an additional fee.

Call: Caterers specializing in holiday meals include Cater 2 in Van Nuys, (818) 994-3213; City Cuisine in Woodland Hills, (818) 224-3728, and Parties to Go in Northridge, (818) 772-0374.

Restaurants

What: Meals as varied as the restaurants’ menus.

When: Many restaurants accept orders the same day, but prefer advance notice. Most close Christmas, so meals must be picked up ahead of time and reheated. For those who don’t even want to bother reheating, consider a hot and ready-to-eat takeout meal from Truly Yours restaurant, open 365 days a year.

Price: $6 to $25 per person, depending on the establishment.

Call: Restaurants serving “to go” holiday dinners include Cafe Cordiale in Sherman Oaks (818) 789-1985; Chef’s Takeout in Burbank (818) 845-0953, Granada Hills (818) 366-6471, North Hollywood (818) 762-1592, Reseda (818) 343-3625 and Van Nuys (818) 782-9955, and Truly Yours in Northridge (818) 993-4714 and Tarzana (818) 996-3131.