Christmas dinner can be a daunting prospect, especially if you are the one left having to stuff the turkey. To make things a little simpler, we enlisted Michelin-star award-winning chef Tom Aikens to share his tips for achieving the perfect christmas dinner. The key, according to Tom, is in the produce.

"You should aim to get the best you can. Make sure you buy a free-range organic turkey from your local butcher and organic vegetables from your local greengrocer or farmers market. Organic produce will make your dish taste better," he says.

As always the second most important thing in any meal preparation is timing. And when it comes to Christmas dinner this has to start on Christmas Eve.

"Aim to prioritise on the night before and try to prep as much as you can in advance," Tom says. "Peel the potatoes and as many of the vegetables as possible and leave them covered in water. The trick is to leave the turkey out of the fridge overnight as this gives the meat a chance to relax and come to room temperature. Keeping the bird at room temperature cuts the cooking time and keeps the meat moist. A common mistake is to over-cook the turkey,"

Apparently, the national average time people cook their turkey is six hours, but Tom assures it really only needs to roast for half that time.

"I recommend that you cook it for 30 minutes per kilo. Start it cooking for the first half hour at 180C and then lower it to 170C for the remainder of the time.

Then comes the task of stuffing your turkey and the best place to start, surprisingly, isn't the most obvious. Tom advises stuffing your bird from the neck as opposed to the cavity as this helps to avoid food poisoning.

"Take out the wishbone and bake on a separate tray so that it dries out ready for making a wish. Stuffing from the neck also allows you to taste it as cooking is in progress and the stuffing remains moist," he says.

"The key to cooking any meat is to let it rest for at least 20 minutes. This allows it to relax and for the juices to go back into the meat, which will make the it tastier. Cook the turkey on a wire rack and place a baking dish beneath it. On the bottom of the dish place the giblets, fresh herbs, shallots and vegetables with a little bit of water."

Tom says the trick to the timing of the vegetables is to cook them as the turkey is roasting rather than wait until the final moments before serving when you are trying to piece everything together. Twenty minutes before you do serve, he says, simply place the cooked vegetables on a tray and place in the oven for heating.

For fail-safe, delicious sprouts "pre-cook them for four minutes in boiling water, refresh in ice-cold water for three-to four minutes, then saute the sprouts with butter, chestnuts and bacon."

Meanwhile, as the turkey roasts, the juices dripping down will begin to make a delicious gravy.

"When you are 3/4 of the way through cooking the turkey, remove the tray from the oven, take out the giblets, then sprinkle a little bit of flour into the juices and stock whilst whisking gently. This will make the gravy thicken.

"I personally think it is nice to make your own homemade cranberry sauce and it really is the easiest thing to do. All you need is fresh or frozen cranberries, mixed spice, orange juice and sugar. It also keeps for a couple of months in the fridge."

And to finish, no roast would be complete without bread sauce which, Tom says, is best made the night before, if for nothing more than it will be one less thing to think about on the actual day.

The whole meal should be washed down with a red wine. Tom recommends a good pinot noir, "but if you are going for a white, try something that is fruity and light, like a sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio.

"If you want a starter to ease you into the meal, I would go for something very naughty like a roast foie gras or a small risotto. Fish is also a good starter, either smoked salmon, scallops or lobster. My best fail safe tip though has to be the cranberry sauce, it's so easy and tastes delicious."

Tom Aikens is the owner of two restaurants, Tom's Kitchen and the Michelin award-winning Tom Aikens, and he is the author of several best-selling cookery books.

For more from Tom Aikens including a video demonstrating how to stuff the Christmas turkey, visit www.visaURLife.co.uk

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