Let Tom Colicchio Save Your Holiday Feast

This is the time of year when home kitchens start filling with mania and/or terror -- but the Top Chefs want you to take a deep breath, make some lists, and work a little smarter this season.

Tom Colicchio and other culinary wizards including Top Chef judge Hugh Acheson, Season 3 winner Hung Hyunh, and Top Chef All Star Tiffany Derry were interviewed by TV Guide about their main cooking tip for the holidays.

So what do they have to say to those of us clutching a wire whisk in one hand and a bottle of Xanax in the other? Tom stresses organization above all else.  He says, "Most home cooks don't understand the idea of prep.  You can get stuff ready two, three, four days in advance...typically if you're organized, when you start cooking, you should never use a knife."

Meanwhile, Hugh suggests bringing festive colors into your cooking. "You want to be in season, so you want to be in the holiday season," he tells TV Guide.  "That shouldn't stop with the colors, of the panoramas of the store windows.  It should continue with the produce you're using and the stuff that you're buying. So fixate on things like greens and Brussels sprouts and navel oranges and grapefruit and use all of that in your cooking." Hey, worst case scenario, your ingredients will make lovely fireplace bunting.

And Hung doesn't mince words. "My cooking tip for the holiday is don't cook drunk, cook what you know and cook what you cooked before, and don't experiment on the holidays, because a lot of people could go hungry."

For more holiday tips, check out Holidays by Bravo.