PERFECT PRIME RIB ROAST

A Prime Rib Roast is almost always our choice for a crowd-pleasing Christmas dinner. Turkey is for Thanksgiving, and we’ve never been a big ham family, so prime rib has been our default choice for years. This year, we’d like to bring you into our home finally to show you how to make the perfect prime rib roast for the holidays—or any special occasion. MY FATHER’S RESTAURANT RECIPE This cooking method originated from my father and has been passed down over the years with some diligent observations and discussion from subsequent generations. To some of the more traditional folks out there, it may sound strange that I learned this recipe from my father and not my mother, but in a Chinese family from my parents’ generation, it was common that Western recipes came from dad and traditional Chinese recipes came from mom. Men were more likely to work in restaurants and hotel kitchens. My father worked as a Roast Cook in Grossinger’s Resort Hotel for a few years before cooking Chinese food at the Holiday Inn, eventually opening his own Chinese restaurant with my mother. This also explains why the girls dubbed our go-to turkey recipe, “Grandpa’s Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey.” He had all the best restaurant secrets! My father would tell me stories about the massive roasting ovens in the resort kitchen and making prime rib for a thousand people on a busy weekend. Every once in a long while, he would bring a small prime rib end cut or two home for the family, and it was delicious! We kids would be so excited on those rare occasions. (We are a food family all around!) I had lots of memories of food that my father would bring home from those kitchens, but prime rib was by far the best.