Holiday Cheer: If you don’t feel like cooking, Mary Eddy’s Kitchen x Lounge offers a four-course Thanksgiving meal 

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The life of a hotel restaurant chef doesn’t change just because it is a holiday. The crew at Mary Eddy’s Kitchen x Lounge at 21c Museum Hotel, 900 W. Main St., shows up to work 364 days a year, taking only Christmas off.

Executive Chef Jason Campbell has designed a special Thanksgiving meal for those in Oklahoma City looking for a replacement for their holiday meal or perhaps something a little different while their traditional dinner is prepared.

Mary Eddy’s offers a special four-course prefix dinner — available for $49 per person — that pays homage to Campbell’s Southern roots in Florida and is available 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 23.

“We’re a big family here, so we want to share that with our guests,” Campbell said. “A lot of people don’t like to cook. There are a lot of people in town, and sometimes it’s too much. We want to take that weight off their shoulders with the menu that we’re going to offer on Thanksgiving.”

Southern dinner

Campbell is combining the flavors of Tennessee and Alabama with the main course: Nashville hot turkey, which is available “not hot” and is served with house-made white bread, pickles and Alabama white sauce.

“Nashville hot chicken is a pretty famous trend right now,” Campbell said. “We’ve got an option for not hot if you don’t want it … [the Alabama white sauce] doesn’t go with hot chicken normally, but it’s nice and refreshing. It’s mayo-based sauce that shouldn’t be considered barbecue sauce because you don’t cook with it. It’s applied after things come off of the grill or out of the smoker.”

The tangy sauce has plenty of black pepper, Key lime juice and herbs de Provence, Campbell said.

The turkey breast will be cut off the bone and brined overnight before it’s cut into cutlets and fried. Guests will also get braised turkey leg meat, which cooks with collard greens that are sweetened with apple cider vinegar and complemented with spicy Calabrian pepper.

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• Mary Eddy’s Kitchen x Lounge offers a four-course Thanksgiving dinner for $49 per person. | Photo 21c Museum Hotels / provided

“It’s all about options; you get the white and dark meat combo,” Campbell said. “We’re going the Southern route with mac and cheese and greens. With my being from Florida, it’s how we grew up eating Thanksgiving.”

The main course is also paired with mac and cheese with sage breadcrumbs and aged cheddar. Macaroni and cheese has been subject of debate on social media. Some people like it to be creamy and saucy while others like it to “cut like a cake.” Campbell is the in former category.

“I like mine a little more saucy,” Campbell said. “The sauce-to-noodle ratio needs to be high so that if you have some sauce leftover, you can drag a biscuit or roll through it. I like a crunchy top.”

The prix-fixe meal begins with an amuse-bouche of a fried oyster served over a deviled egg sauce and spiced with tasso seasoning, a mix traditionally used on ham in southern Louisiana.

It will follow with a choice in salad. The wedge salad features blue cheese vinaigrette, tomatoes, everything spice and salumi bits (the nubs of charcuterie that have been ground and turned into something like a high-end bacon bit). A shaved Brussels sprout salad is topped with warm mustard vinaigrette, apples, turnips and a coddled egg, which is cooked in its shell in a sous-vide.

After the entrée, the dinner ends with an apple hand pie or a flourless chocolate cake. The hand pie is served with cinnamon whipped cream, thyme brittle and sweet cream ice cream. The cake comes with brown sugar ice cream, candied orange and bourbon whipped cream.

“The cake is gluten-free but very delicious,” Campbell said. “I actually enjoy it because it’s like a brownie, kind of fudgy. … The hand pie is like a fried pie. I wanted this menu to be approachable. When people can relate to your food, it makes it that much more fun.”

Selections from the regular Mary Eddy’s menu will be available a la carte on Thanksgiving, including the burger, pasta and roasted items from the hearth.

“I pull ideas from all over the world, and we like to put our own spin [on traditional recipes],” Campbell said. “It could be turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce, which is delicious and has been going on for years, but we want to give guests something that they can’t have anywhere else.”

After the kitchen closes Thanksgiving night, Campbell said the staff will have its own potluck dinner, which he said will include a bake-off with prizes.

“It’s our way to give back to people who had to work overnight and on the holiday,” Campbell said.

Print headline: Holiday reprieve; If you don’t feel like cooking, Mary Eddy’s Kitchen x Lounge offers a four-course meal on Thanksgiving.