If there's a time for honouring traditions, then Christmas must be it. Heavily loaded with nostalgia and sometimes unexplainable significance, those rituals can be the backbone of our festive celebrations, whether we clutch onto them with an iron grip or allow them to evolve as we move through life. While every family has its quirky habits, there are certain traditions some of us in the UK associate with the season of goodwill; scrambled egg and smoked salmon to kick off festivities, perhaps, a pork pie breakfast if you're in the Midlands, turkey for the Christmas centrepiece and a cheese board in front of the evening's telly. But our traditions are shaped by our backgrounds, upbringing and heritage, and, even if they're firmly rooted in childhood, they often adapt as we get older and add newcomers to our clan.

Chefs are no exception; on Christmas Day – assuming they're not behind the restaurant stoves – they'll also be digging out the family stuffing recipe, trying to remember which dessert their niece loved last year and eyeing the leftovers in the evening. This Christmas, in collaboration with MOTH, we were intrigued to hear about chefs' unusual Christmas food rituals. MOTH is eschewing festive eating and drinking norms this year in favour of their cans of espresso martini and, in the same vein, we wanted to hear about the quirky traditions of some of the UK's top culinary talents. Some are influenced by their cultures, while others are novel twists on the classics we know and love.

When I got married to Jack I often had Christmases with his family and they have a great ritual at the end of the night. At 8 o'clock-ish we will have scrambled egg, with smoked trout and salad, and you always think beforehand 'am I going to be able to eat this'? But the answer is yes, yes you will. There’s normally something really good on the TV and we have our scrambled eggs with smoked trout, lots of black pepper, lemon juice and perhaps a little bit of winter salad to help break everything up.

I make a chestnut and sausage meat terrine wrapped in smoky bacon, every year at Christmas without fail. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever tasted; the mandarin gives it just the right amount of tang. It’s the perfect accompaniment to my Christmas dinner, but I often find myself eating it on the sofa after hours. It’s also superb in a sandwich with piccalilli.

For Christmas in Turkey, one of our traditions is making essence balls by pressing cloves into oranges to cover them. To eat, as a substitute for the British tradition of roast turkey, we love to cook slow-roasted lamb shoulder in the oven. We also like to play a game while eating the Danish dessert Risalamande. The cook puts one whole almond inside the batch of rice pudding. When it is served, whoever has the almond in their cup wins the game, and it’s the biggest prize of the night.

My family and I eat a lot of fish on Christmas Day – that’s common for people in Australia. Every year we’d have a Malaysian dish, cooked by my mum – fish head curry. She would get red mullet or snapper from the market, score the whole fish before shallow frying it. Then make a rasam paste and add tamarind, slow-cooked tomatoes and curry leaves, so you have this flavoursome broth. On the side she serves crushed potatoes, which have been cooked with shallot, turmeric, palm sugar, fish sauce, spring onions and chopped chilli, curry leaves and a lot of ghee! Those potatoes are so good for scooping up the broth. We would have with fresh greens cooked with a little bit of sesame oil and plain rice. That’s Christmas to me!

My dad used to stuff a chicken with rice, sultanas and cashew nuts and slather it with Sri Lankan curry powder and butter for Christmas Day. I didn't realise it wasn't traditional until I was about fifteen! It was delicious, and I still cook it sometimes. Now I'll have mince pies for breakfast on Christmas Day, and will stuff a spicy roast chicken with fried rice for our main.

My Christmas tradition has to be a super indulgent breakfast on Christmas morning itself. My wife and I love having scrambled eggs or eggs Royale, but with caviar. I've even taken this tradition into the restaurant; on the last service of the year, our team breakfast meal is eggs Royale, delicious smoked salmon and home-made hollandaise with English muffins and poached eggs. Sometimes, we even top it with caviar. It means a lot to me to be able to bring a tradition I have with my wife into the restaurant, and really celebrate the end of a busy season with my team.

On Christmas Day morning for breakfast we have a proper bacon butty – toasted sourdough bread, seared thick-cut smoked bacon, glazed with Worcestershire sauce in the pan, then brown sauce, topped with marinated tomatoes, crisp gem lettuce and a home-made ranch dressing. An absolute winner! On Boxing Day, using all the leftovers we do my take on a hash – sautéed onions in leftover goose fat, Worcestershire sauce, turkey meat, leftover chestnuts, sprouts, re-crisped roast potatoes, a few dollops of home-made cranberry sauce and a fried egg – that's washed down with a proper bloody Mary.

For me I smile most when I think of Chanmery. Chanmery is a children's festive party drink that allowed us to get involved with the celebrations. The name is a blend of champagne and the merry of Christmas! It was the first time I heard the unique pop sound when a bottle was opened as a child. It is wrapped in a gold foil – I loved its sparkly magic on Christmas Day. Maybe it started my love of champagne – my favourite drink in the world (after sake!). Back then with my family, for some reason we celebrated Christmas on the 25th, which was unusual at the time in Japan. I remember preparing the house for Christmas that day because my parents were always working. We, the children, decorated the Christmas tree and mum cooked the meal. This was very unusual back then, especially as we would always be sure to order a large round Christmas cake from a store that was a huge treat!