By Frank D. Quattrone
Ticket Editor

When it comes to Thanksgiving — or any time, come to think of it — there are only three things on Chef Jim Coleman’s “list.” In order, they are Family, Football and Food.

Well, don’t be surprised. Just because the executive chef of Coleman Restaurant at Normandy Farm has been hosting “A Chef’s Table” every week on National Public Radio and has been producing the “Flavors of America” TV series for an equal number of years — and writes a weekly column for the Philadelphia Daily News (also called “A Chef’s Table”) and has authored four cookbooks, that doesn’t mean he can’t find time for his family.

A strapping native of Dallas, Texas (don’t worry, Jim — we love you anyway), Chef Coleman is also a fanatical football fan. And you know what he does for a living — and it’s been a mighty distinguished career, by anyone’s reckoning.

So what does one do on Thanksgiving, when the biggest meal of the year and the largest family gathering coincide with the almost nonstop carnival of professional and college footballers vying for supremacy (as well as your precious time)?

You do what Chef Coleman does — or any other responsible chef. You prepare as much of the meal as possible before company arrives. That means the day or the night before. You don’t wait until Thanksgiving Day to put the meal together. All that does is heighten your anxiety as friends and family converge to talk, “help out” in the kitchen and begin squabbling over which game to watch.

For Jim Coleman, it’s all fun — if you follow a few simple steps. And that’s precisely what he plans to talk about as he presents a Thanksgiving Cooking Demonstration this Friday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. in the community rooms at Upper Dublin Public Library.

The former executive chef at the five-diamond Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia as well as the Great Wall Hotel in Beijing, China, promises that his presentation will be informative and a lot of fun.

“I don’t know about anybody else,” he said in a telephone interview Oct. 31, “but I plan to enjoy myself. I always do. I’ll try to show how easy it is to prepare such a big meal. It really shouldn’t be a hassle. As long as you realize you have to do a lot of things Wednesday night, you’ll get the meal done with a minimum of effort.

“For me and my family, the night before Thanksgiving is pizza night,” he laughed. “That’s when you should prepare the stuffing. The stuffing, like any other kind of bread, is a non-conductor of heat, so you have to keep basting it with the natural juices of the turkey.”

Chef Coleman recommends cooking the turkey at a temperature of 375 degrees to keep it from being overcooked. Once the turkey is ready, he advises, “Be sure to let it rest for 25 to 30 minutes to let the flavors settle. The turkey absorbs the natural moisture. The cells naturally relax, and you end up with a tender, juicy turkey.

“It’s really not all that difficult,” he said. “Most people don’t realize that it’s just like roasting a chicken, which they do all the time.”

At his demonstration, Chef Coleman will show the audience how to prepare three dishes that should make this year’s Thanksgiving dinner one to remember. The first will be Acorn Squash with Honey & Cinnamon. The chef says that whenever he makes this soup in fall or winter, he thinks of his children — Katie, now 24, and Jimmy, 19, both of whom will be home for the holiday.

“My children love baked acorn squash,” he said, “almost as much as the touch football game we play in the yard before dinner, with me and Katie lining up against Jimmy and my wife, Candace. I should be back from Normandy Farm by 7:30, and we’ll still have time for a game before we sit down to dinner.

“Because we prepare on Wednesday night — that’s when we brine the turkey — all we need to do on Thanksgiving is finish it off.”

His restaurant at Normandy Farm, for the record, will present two dinner options for those who would rather not eat at home on the big day. The Coleman Thanksgiving Menu is a seated dinner — either a three-course prix fixe meal or a la carte selections — that will be served in Coleman Restaurant. The Thanksgiving Buffet — at $34.95 for adults and $15.95 for children 9 and under — will be served in both ballrooms. Check the restaurant’s Web site (www.normandyfarm.com) for more details.

At the library this Friday, using portable burners, Chef Coleman will also demonstrate how to make Apricot and Herb Stuffing (see accompanying recipe) and Pumpkin Crème Brulee. For the latter, the chef says there’s no reason to fear using pumpkin in the recipe, as it’s a stabilizer and will help create an unforgettable taste.

For anyone who has never attended a cooking class or demonstration given by Chef Coleman, be prepared to laugh your head off, for the chef is a world-class raconteur who loves to spice the practical tips and techniques with generous tales of cooking experiences past.

He shared one with me that had me laughing so hard that my wife came in to see what the ruckus was all about.

It was the first Thanksgiving he and Candace had shared with his wife’s late mother, who had lost her husband some time before. Candace thought that it would be cool if her husband would prepare the meal for her mom, using his own set of carving knives and recipes presented in the recently-shuttered Gourmet magazine.

After all, marrying a chef in those days (some 25 years ago) was not exactly a ticket to a lucrative or stable lifestyle. So the chef agreed and they flew from Dallas to San Antonio with Coleman’s knives in the luggage — which, by some curious quirk of fate, never arrived — the whole time of their visit!

Not only had he no suitable knives to prepare the big bird, but the recipe in Gourmet “was totally ridiculous,” he exclaimed. “The first step was how to bone a whole turkey! It was so complicated that it would discourage anyone from making that meal! I also had no other clothing than the suit I was wearing, so I asked Candace’s mother.

“Well, she brought out one of her husband’s bathrobes, so there I was, carving this turkey with a butter knife in this bathrobe and holding an antenna in my other hand because her TV wasn’t working properly and I really wanted to watch this football game. Man, it wasn’t the best Thanksgiving I ever spent!”

Whenever Chef Coleman comes to town, expect to learn a lot. Expect to laugh a lot. And be prepared to meet one of the most decent human beings on the face of this earth.

“I love doing charitable causes,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a bad cause, and I just can’t say no.”

This one, hosted by The Friends of Upper Dublin Public Library, will benefit the library’s extensive programs for adults and children. For more information, visit www.upperdublinlibrary.org.

Chef Jim Coleman’s

Thanksgiving Cooking

Demonstration

will take place

at Upper Dublin

Public Library,

805 Loch Alsh Ave.,

Fort Washington, PA 19034,

Friday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m.

Members: $15;

nonmembers, $20.

Info: 215-628-8744 or

www.upperdublinlibrary.org.

For more info on Chef Coleman

& Normandy Farm,

1431 Morris Road,

Blue Bell, PA 19422

215-616-8300 or

www.normandyfarm.com.