Christmas Drinks Board With Truffle Chips and Macadamias

Method

1. Open the jar of olives half an hour before anyone arrives and leave them out of the fridge. Cold dulls them, and 30 minutes at room temperature is the difference between a bowl of olives and a bowl of nothing much.
2. Drain the olives properly, then tip them into a small bowl and scatter the rosemary leaves over the top. Keep the lemon wedges beside them rather than in them.
3. Set the bowls out in a loose line at the end of the bench where drinks are being poured, not in the middle of the table. People will not walk back to the table once they have a glass.
4. Tip the macadamias and the spiced nuts into separate bowls. Do not mix them. Rosemary and chilli spread through a mixed bowl within ten minutes, and then everything tastes the same.
5. Add the empty bowl for pits at the near end and the napkins beside it. Both are always forgotten and both are the reason a bench stays clean.
6. Open the chip canister last, at the moment the first drink is poured, and tip in half. Truffle aroma leaves an open bowl faster than the chips leave the table.
7. Hold the pretzels back for the last 15 minutes, once people have had a drink and are waiting to be called to the table. Sweet at the start kills the appetite for lunch.
8. Refill in halves rather than topping bowls up to the brim. A half full bowl says take some; a full bowl says this is a display.
9. Reseal the canister and the pouches when you clear, and put them back in the cupboard. Anything unopened goes back on the shelf for New Year.

Questions we get asked

What snacks go with champagne?

Dry, salty and a little fatty. Hand cooked potato chips, salted macadamias, olives and hard cheese all work, because acidity and bubbles cut through salt and fat, and the salt sends you back to the glass. Keep anything sweet until the end; sugar makes a dry sparkling taste sour. Enjoy responsibly, and put out the same board for the people drinking soda or a non alcoholic sparkling.

What do you serve with drinks before Christmas lunch?

Small, dry, cold and finger sized. Nothing hot, nothing that needs a plate, and not much of it. Lunch is the event and the drinks hour is the wait; three or four bowls of good salty things for 45 minutes is the right amount. If the day runs long, add a second nut rather than a new course.

How much do you need for a drinks board?

About 70g of nibbles a head for a 45 minute drinks hour. For eight people that is one 150g canister of chips, 150g of macadamias, a 110g packet of spiced nuts, a 185g jar of olives, and half a box of pretzels. Add half again if the drinks hour is likely to become two, which at Christmas it usually does.

Every bowl here comes from the same corner of the shop: the gourmet snacking range, where the chips sit with the rest of the Hunter's Gourmet range and the nuts and olives are all $7.95 to $14.95 a packet. Swap the pretzels for Kangaroo Island honey popcorn if the table skews younger. If the board is going to someone else's house, our Christmas hampers arrive packed by hand and ready to hand over. Shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100, and orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched from Geelong the same day.