Heston vs Jamie: The battle over your Christmas lunch

Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver have a lot in common. Both are sharp tongued Britts with global empires to rival Oprah Winfrey and both have aligned themselves with Australian supermarket giants creating their own version of the Christmas feast.

So with the battle heating up over your Christmas lunch which celebrity chef, Heston for Coles or Jamie Oliver for Woolworths, has the festive goods for pleasing your family and budget?

To help you decide our thrifty elves hit the local supermarkets to find out how much a TV chef endorsed Christmas feast will set you back.

Here’s our Christmas Shopping List (catering for 6 guests):

Source: mozo.com.au. Note: Weight of products differed slightly so some prices were multiplied to provide a more like for like comparison.

Heston vs Jamie head to head Christmas lunch results

In our celebrity chef-off the Heston for Coles trolley came out a cheaper option by $16, thanks largely to the Hidden Orange Christmas Pudding at just $18, compared to Jamie's Christmas Spiced Chocolate Sponge Puddings at $36 for a similar quantity. However, Jamie was a better budget choice for chicken wings at $7.53, compared to Heston’s at $13.

While the results showed there isn’t a huge gap in the total price of each TV chef Christmas meal, our elves found plenty of thrifty ways to save on your feast. Here are their top tips:

1. Mix and match between Heston and Jamie. By opting for the cheapest product for each option in the tables above, AKA Heston's cheaper pudding and Jamie's more affordable chicken wings you could end up paying just $99.52, compared to $106 for sticking strictly to Heston and $122 with Jamie.

2. Don’t overindulge. Do you really need both Jamie’s Brilliant Brownie, as well as his spiced chocolate sponge pudding for your dessert? Choose one and save your waistline and wallet.

3. Splurge on one chef-endorsed product. Unsurprisingly, the traditional turkey made the biggest dent at the checkout. So put a cheaper non branded turkey in your trolley and splurge on Jamie's Spiced Peach Chutney instead.

4. Choose non-celebrity-branded products. Tighten those santa pants by forgoing TV chef endorsed products completely. Our elves found that you could pay just $46 for the same products as listed on the tables above by simply choosing non-celebrity-branded products at Coles.

5. Use unit pricing. Always check how many grams or kilograms you’re getting for your coin because the cheaper option may be more expensive if it has less content.

6. DIY. While packaged Christmas foods mean less work in the kitchen think about how much money you could save by simply buying the ingredients yourself and following Heston and Jamie’s recipe cook books to create the ultimate festive feast for your loved ones.

7. Make a Christmas grocery list and stick to it. If you choose to have ham for your Christmas lunch, don’t get tempted to splash out on shrimps for the barbie once you’re at the supermarket.

8. Shop online. You may find the exact same products are cheaper online, so visit the Coles and Woolworth's websites to save on staple items. You have over three weeks till Christmas, so now’s the perfect time to stock up!

9. Don’t be a wine snob. You know the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Well Aldi are a great example of this with its budget wines impressing the judges at the Sydney International Wine Competition last week.

10. Use your rewards points. If you’ve built up a juicy pile of rewards points when doing the weekly grocery shop, now’s the time to cash in for Christmas.

Have we missed any thrifty ways to save on your Christmas lunch? Share with us below!