Thanksgiving dinner is probably the most demanding meal most of us will ever plan. Dishes must be selected, a shopping list composed and guests penciled in, with some of the cooking delegated to them. We think of tables, chairs, serving platters, timing and conversation. As the big day approaches, we face the feat of feast.

It must be a cakewalk, we think, to be a professional chef and not have to worry about pulling together the holiday meal. But chefs are people, too. And when they cook Thanksgiving dinner, almost anything goes. We asked some Pittsburgh chefs about their plans for the holiday.

1400 Smallman St., Strip District. Closed Thanksgiving Day.

Andy Starnes/Post-Gazette

Eric Wallace, executive chef at Lidia's Pittsburgh in the Strip District. Wallace will cook an all-American, all-local dinner at home for Thanksgiving.

On an ordinary day, Executive Chef Eric Wallace cooks Italian at Lidia's Pittsburgh, but on the Big Day, he's going all out American, with an all-local, all-Pennsylvania menu at home.

"Thanksgiving is my Christmas, my favorite holiday," he says the chef, who grew up in a Serbian household. His wife, Nicole, is Syrian and Lebanese, and she grew up with the same Eastern European background. "With no shopping, presents and decorating to get in the way, our Thanksgiving is all about food and family." Joining them will be Lidia's general manager and Eric's good friend Mike Hamwey and his family.

Menu planning and cooking started in August. Mr. Wallace's plan was to stick to food produced within 100 miles, or within three counties. "My work schedule is going to be really busy at the restaurant as the holiday nears," he says. "When I found sweet local carrots and celery last summer, I made the mire poix (a fine dice of carrots, onions and celery) and froze it. The turkey stock is in the freezer, too."

In his Viking professional range at home, he will roast a 17-pound fresh American Heritage turkey from Townline Farms. The flour for the focaccia stuffing and pies comes from Daisy, a certified organic farm in Lancaster. Butter and eggs are from his Amish supplier, Mose Miller. The herbs are from his own garden.

There will be bowls of winter squash soup and platters of Pennsylvania seasonal vegetables -- smashed Chippewa potatoes, glazed root vegetables with local maple syrup glaze and braised brussels sprouts with Bardine's Country Smokehouse bacon and Schramm's Farm apple cider. No cranberries are invited to the feast because he doesn't like them. Instead, he'll serve his bright red, home-canned Hungarian peppers as a relish.

"I buck the whole Norman Rockwell platter presentation. Those turkeys look better than they taste," the chef says. "When my turkey comes out of the oven, it rests 30 to 45 minutes. Then I completely debone it in the kitchen before serving. That way I'm a step ahead on clean-up and there's no rush about the putting-away. After dinner, I start the turkey soup with the carcass, skin, cartilage, leftover fat, drippings that didn't go into gravy and water to cover." The next day, the family always has turkey and dumplings made with this stock.

"My girls, Abby, 7, and Maddy, 5, will cook with me. Early on, it was just me cooking for the family, but now, when I'm home and homework is done, I turn off the television and the girls cook right along with me in the 'bullpen,' our cooking area. It's a U-shaped high bar with lots of counter. They love to be with me because that's where the action is."

In the days before Thanksgiving, the girls will mix the dough to make the bread for the stuffing and help to peel onions and carrots. "The most important part, I tell them, is scooping the goop from the pumpkin because it will be the tureen for the winter squash soup.

"Our youngest daughter is just a few months old, but she will participate in dinner prep, too," he adds. "When Ella was born, Lidia Bastianich told me it's never too early to begin her smell memory, suggesting that I gently break herb leaves under her little nose."

On Thanksgiving, baby Ella will sniff parsley, sage, rosemary, basil and thyme.

730 Penn Ave., Wilkinsburg. Open on T Day.

Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

Jean Gould will have her Jean's Soul Food restaurant open on Thanksgiving to feed the needy and homeless.

On Thanksgiving Day, Jean Gould will open the doors of her Wilkinsburg restaurant to needy and homeless people, serving a full-course holiday meal with all the trimmings. "The meal will be just like it would be at home" Ms. Gould says. "Too many people don't have family or a place to go. This is the third year I've done it. Helping me will be friends and volunteers from my church, Victory Temple on Graham Boulevard." Local businesses who know about the free dinner pitch in. The managers at Subway and the Save-A-Lot, especially, contribute food.

Her guests will have roast turkey, baked ham, fried chicken and roast beef. She'll have at least two stuffings, greens, yams, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, other salads, cornbread, cakes and pies.

"I'll also serve my famous Million Dollar Pie," she says. "I demonstrated it on KDKA's Pittsburgh Today and until now, have never served it in the restaurant. The recipe originated with my mother." Her mother lives in Florida, where she is a weekday volunteer cook for a senior center and weekend cook for a large hunting camp.

"This is soul food, down-home cooking, and it's all about the seasonings and the heart that goes into it," says Ms. Gould. "I don't use recipes. My cooking is all about the dashes. I can't measure, I dash. Then I taste."

She has been cooking since she was a child, standing on a chair in the kitchen beside her mother. When her parents were working, it was her job to cook for the family, making use of the vegetables they grew in their garden. "Growing up, I'd see my mother cooking when nobody was even there. 'Mama,' I'd say, 'why are you making all that food?' And she'd say, 'I'm cooking in case somebody stops by.' "

Ms. Gould has been cooking professionally for about 20 years, and began her own cooking business about 10 years ago. Her first restaurant was on Wood Street in Wilkinsburg. Her menu stars, both then and now, include fried chicken and ribs, catfish fillets, fried cabbage and peach and apple cobbler.

"I want people to come to eat my food," she says. "I'll stay open until all the food's gone."

5846 Forbes Ave., 2nd floor, Squirrel Hill. Closed on T Day (as is their Silk Elephant, 1712 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill).

Andy Starnes/Post-Gazette

Executive Chef Norraset Nareedokmai with his wife, Eileen at their restaurant, The Silk Elephant, Squirrel Hill. They will combine their Thai and American foodways on Thanksgiving.

There must be a name for holidays when families with different cultures and traditions celebrate together. For Nor and Eileen Nareedokmai, let's call it Extreme Thanksgiving. He is from Thailand; she grew up in Latrobe. This year their immediate and extended families will be together, and both sides will contribute favorite dishes.

The couple own Silk Elephant and Bangkok Balcony, both in Squirrel Hill.

Talk about hands across the seas. When he was studying for his MBA at Duquesne University, she, having finished grad school at Pitt, was teaching at Duquesne. They had passed each other on campus several times. One evening, her car wouldn't start. He thought he'd be a gentleman and offer her a ride. "He was driving a powder-blue Camaro," she remembers. "I figured he had to be a harmless person." A mutual friend happened to be passing by just then and vouched for him.

"So Eileen gets in, and then my car wouldn't start," he says, laughing. They soon sorted things out, married a few years later, and they've been laughing ever since. Their son, Nolen, is 10 years old.

Both restaurants are open on Christmas, but closed on Thanksgiving, so the dual family dinner will be held in the dining room at Silk Elephant with about 30 guests.

"My mother is a New Englander, and some of her family comes from Quebec. She will make Grandma Conway's Canadian white fruitcake," says Mrs. Nareedokmai. "Mom's buying fresh turkey from Pounds turkey farm. She'll roast it and bring plain bread stuffing, potatoes, bread and fruit salad. My sister will bring pumpkin bread, and my sister-in-law from D.C. will bring cranberry-orange-walnut relish. All the vegetables will be cooked New England-style, steamed and plain -- beans, squash, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes and parsnips."

Her husband will have lots of help in the kitchen, including Noi, who is also Thai. Noi is married to Eileen's brother Jack. (The couple met at Bangkok Balcony.) Mr. Nareedokmai's father may also be recruited into action, as well as his son, Nolen, who likes to do prep work.

"I'll make two, maybe three renditions of turkey," says Mr. Nareedokmai. "I'll do turkey stuffed with garlic-basil rice, topped with savory garlic soy sauce gravy and garnished with crispy basil. I'll serve that with a side of sauteed watercress with yellow bean sauce. I'll make tangy Thai turkey salad. It's very herby and citrusy, with tastes of lemongrass and galangal. And I want to make roast turkey roulade with brown rice, served with pumpkin curry sauce." As a palate cleanser, he plans to make lime-lemongrass sorbet. Dessert is stewed pumpkin braised in sweet coconut milk and served over gingerbread.

With so many flavors ricocheting around, he will serve a rose wine. "If it doesn't quite match anything, nobody will notice," he says. "They will be too busy eating, talking and watching the dancing."

What?

"Bangkok Balcony participates in a cultural exchange program," he says. "In Pittsburgh now are four persons from Thailand, all bachelor of fine arts graduates. They have 15- to 18-month visas to be here and give dance and musical performances at the restaurant. ... They, as well as the chefs and kitchen staffs of both restaurants, are all invited to Thanksgiving dinner."

The New England relatives will never be the same.

Note: The Thai Thanksgiving menu will be available at Silk Elephant on Wednesday (not Thursday) through Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend -- with the Thai dancers.

225 Commercial Ave., Aspinwall. Closed on T Day.

Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette

Pastry chef Barbara Ferguson of Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar, Aspinwall. She will host dinner at her Morningside home.

"This is the first year for my husband and me to host Thanksgiving," says Barbara Ferguson, pastry chef at Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar and owner of a chocolate-making business. "We just moved to a big house in Morningside, we have the space and we both have strong family ties." Hubby is Lawrence Bates, a chef, but currently the proprietor of Atria's in Murrysville.

The pastry chef says her family always goes heavy on desserts. "My mom will make her famous pumpkin pie. She always makes enough pie dough to roll out kid-friendly crusty treats sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. I'll make a white chocolate cheesecake with cranberry orange sauce."

All the kids will have jobs -- setting the table, making name cards, pouring water and bussing the table.

The family has a weekly community supported agriculture basket from Penn's Corner. Most of the dinner will come from the goodies in the Thanksgiving week delivery. She'll pick up the rest of her food from the East End Food Co-op. "My sister, Lacey, doesn't like turkey, so someone will bake a ham. I'll roast one big turkey or two smaller ones. One stuffing will be cornbread, sage, onions, celery and savory, using my mom's Canadian recipe." The second stuffing will be made with sausage, nuts, dried fruit and bread.

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows are a must, and so is the green bean casserole with mushroom soup topped with Durkee canned fried onions. "It's hideous," she says. "But we love it. To save face, I'll pan-fry local bacon for fresh brussels sprouts."

225 Commercial Ave., Aspinwall. 412-781-3141. Closed on T Day.

Andy Starnes/Post-Gazette

Matthew Porco, owner/chef of Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar is going to deep-fry a turkey.

You'd think a chef with a drop-dead resume and solid training in classical cooking would make a show-stopper Thanksgiving dinner worthy of a magazine cover. You'd expect Matthew Porco, chef/owner of Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar, to do that.

Wrong. This guy is going to deep-fry a fresh turkey and schlep it to his Aunt Barbara's house, where there had better be canned cranberry sauce with the seam lines intact on the table or else. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's only funny when you know the back story.

Mr. Porco was executive sous chef under Daniel Mosedale at the Pittsburgh Fish Market in the years before 2004. When Mr. Mosedale left for a position out of the country, he insisted that Mr. Porco go to work in New York City to be challenged. He set his eye on Veritas, working with Scott Bryan, the chef's chef lauded by Anthony Bourdain in his book, "Kitchen Confidential." Three times he asked Mr. Bryan for a job, and the answer was, "NO! Everyone starts at the bottom and you are overqualified." Mr. Porco persevered, returned to New York and asked a fourth time. Mr. Bryan hired him.

"I was making $500 a week in Manhattan and having an illegal worker instruct me in cleaning salad greens," Mr. Porco says. "But at the end of the year, I was working all stations and was promoted to chef de cuisine, the one who assumes all the duties when the chef is, say, traveling, doing charity work or any other time he is not at the restaurant. Chef Bryan was a perfectionist, not a showboater or into food tricks. He said what is hard is to put four things on a plate and do it perfectly every time. During the period I was cooking, Veritas got its Michelin star. Hey, it was like a chefs' club in that kitchen. Anthony Bourdain and other chefs, too, would come in and drink beer after service. What a wild time!"

After three years at Veritas, Mr. Porco, who is very close to his dad, Vince, decided to come back to the 'Burgh to be near his family. Then the property became available for Mio, which means "mine" in Italian, in Aspinwall not far from the house where he was born. Mio has been popular from the day it opened.

This chef plans no fancy flourishes on this biggest of all feast days.

"This will be my first deep-fried turkey. I'm psyched," he says. "I'll put the peanut oil in a 4-foot stock pot set over a "candy burner" that heats to 150,000 BTU. I'll cook it at Mio, pull the bird at 158 degrees and let the carry-over heat finish the cooking."

The bird will rest while he makes gravy. Then off to Aunt Barbara's and the traditional food he grew up with. The stuffing will have walnuts, dried cherries and a splash of bourbon. There will be mashed potatoes and yams and pies. And, of course, canned cranberry sauce.