Dinner and a Movie Party: The Holiday

Hanukkah brisket, Christmas fettuccine, and Jude Law at his hottest.

Dec 19, 2024

Until last Wednesday, I had not seen The Holiday, a Christmas to New Year’s romantic comedy directed by kitchen-fetishist Nancy Meyers. The Kate Winslet/Jack Black/Cameron Diaz/Jude Law four-hander flies a bit under the radar compared to Christmas standbys like Home Alone, but the sorta-cult following this has taken on piqued my interest. I invited a bunch of friends over to watch the movie together, and before gathering in front of my TV, I cooked everyone a meal that tied into the movie.

Elle, who has seen this film many times, told me all the important food-related scenes so I could build a menu. (A quick Google search also directed me to some very helpful blog posts from Vice and the aptly titled Food & a Film.) Fitting for a movie set around Christmas and New Year’s, there are a lot of eating scenes throughout. There’s Kate Winslet braising a brisket for Hanukkah. Jack Black enjoying Winslet’s “Christmas fettuccine,” whatever that means, cutting to Cameron Diaz also eating fettuccine on Christmas day because in Nancy Meyers’s universe, that is somehow a tradition. Early in the movie, we see Diaz stress purchase a bunch of cheese and wine. The movie ends with Jude Law pouring everyone a champagne toast to ring in the new year.

This was a fun and easy dinner to put together, so if you’re still figuring out what to make for your own Christmas dinner, it’s not too late to copy my playbook and enjoy some comfort food alongside a comfort movie. (I cannot believe Christmas is in less than a week.) If you need more time, fear not: since the movie ends on New Year’s Eve, hosting a themed dinner party for The Holiday is equally appropriate during those delirious doldrums between the two big holidays.

First, a few words on the film itself. Then, a rundown of everything I made, with links to recipes!

Trading Homes for the Holidays

Who doesn’t love a good comfort movie? Since its release in 2006, The Holiday has taken on a bit of a cult following as a seasonal staple. The parallel plot is very convoluted, involving a cross-continental house swap between two people spurned by their respective lovers, a retired Hollywood screenwriter making peace with his lauded legacy, a super charming Blockbuster date, and a drunken hookup with literal daddy Jude Law. It’s a pretty bizarre movie if you think too hard about it! But Nancy Meyers gives us permission to enjoy watching the film’s stars luxuriate in their gorgeous kitchens and cozy cottages.

It's rare for a romantic comedy to be over two hours, as this movie is, but the longer duration allows Meyers to let certain moments breathe a bit more than we’re used to. It also makes room for subplots like the friendship between Kate Winslet and Eli Wallach’s elderly screenwriter. That’s the kind of stuff that normally would never even make it to the final script. But those scenes between them are the heart of the film, a rare romantic comedy where the more poignant love is one where Winslet, aided by the kindly old man, finds a way to love herself.

They really just don't make ‘em like this anymore, not in Hollywood. Compared to the shoddy cinematography and bare set decoration we have to deal with these days, the craft behind this movie is practically on the level of Spielberg. This film’s cinematographer, Dean Cundey, also shot Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Jurassic Park, which makes him seem a bit overqualified for this kind of thing. But that was par for the course at the time, similar to how Sven Nyqvist (famously Ingmar Bergman’s usual cinematographer) was the DP for Sleepless in Seattle. And the score from Hans Zimmer is delightfully jaunty. Having a budget of $85 million1 helps; these days, you won’t see a romantic comedy getting even half of that!

★★★★½ (no, really)

The The Holiday Holiday Dinner Party

This is a full account of everything I cooked, with some notes for success. I kept this one pretty simple since it was a weeknight dinner party, so I also have some ideas to round this out if you want to make it a thing.

Photo taken from the King Arthur website.

I’m pretty obsessed with this sourdough discard cracker recipe from King Arthur, and based on how quickly they disappear from the table, my friends are too. Excess sourdough is turned into a buttery, herb-spiked chip. Perfect for dipping into hummus, as a cheese delivery vehicle, or just on its own. Infinitely customizable since you can put whatever dried herbs you want; I use this as a way to get rid of the za’atar and thyme that would usually sit in my cabinet for years.

As a tribute to the party for one that Cameron Diaz throws for herself, I served this with a hunk of brie cheese as well as my sourdough bread.

To tide everyone over until the brisket was ready to serve, I opened a couple bottles of sake from Brooklyn Kura. The Occidental sake is a crowd pleaser, and their brand new Lake Effect is the brewer’s first nigori.

Jewish Braised Brisket & Tallow Roasted Potatoes

A couple years ago, I first cooked this Hanukkah staple as part of my annual Oscars dinner party (it represented The Fabelmans). Since Kate Winslet serves this for Eli Wallach and his octogenarian compatriots, I figured so should I.

Daniel Gritzer’s recipe for braised brisket, published in Serious Eats, is thoroughly detailed, but the actual method is super simple. Brown the meat, lightly sauté the aromatics, then stick it all in the oven for a few hours. The most important part, in my mind, is to get the fattiest end of the beef brisket, which is called the point cut or the second cut, depending on who you ask.

I happened to be in Industry City a few days before this dinner, where you can find Ends Meat, my favorite butcher shop. They sent me home with a really beautiful looking hunk of beef. I didn’t trim any of the fat because fat is flavor, but I would advise you to take some of it off because the resulting stew was… very rich.

For the browning step of the recipe: because I do not have a roasting pan, and my oven’s broiler drawer was too narrow to accommodate the entire brisket, I sliced the meat in half and seared it in two separate pans. I also split the veggies between the two pans so that there was enough surface area for moisture to evaporate. Then I piled everything into one dutch oven and proceeded from there.

The result? Super juicy, succulent, and the stewed vegetables absorbed all of the beefy flavor. A bit over 6 pounds of brisket served as the main course for 11 people, and I had leftovers for like 4 lunches. (Keep in mind that there was other food on the table!) The brisket cost me $80 at Ends Meat ($13 a pound), but the quality, and being able to get the portion that I wanted, was worth the dough.

Alongside the brisket, I roasted some gold potatoes, which were tossed in beef tallow before going in the oven. I basically used Kenji’s recipe in Serious Eats. I only cooked two pounds of potatoes, not wanting to make too much. Lesson learned: there is no such thing as too many roasted potatoes.

Brisket Wine Pairings

The braise calls for a cup of red wine, so I busted out a cheap Cab Sauv. Drank the rest of the bottle that night, and it wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t as good as the main pairing for this dish, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Merlot from Argentina produced by Montchenot. Made from grapes harvested in 2007, just a year after The Holiday was released, the deeper oaked flavor worked in tandem with the fatty, semi-sweet braise.

After those two bottles were exhausted, Cole asked me if I’d serve my favorite bottle of wine, and I obliged. COS’s Frappato is one of the wines I always keep in stock.

“Christmas Fettuccine” with Chile Crisp and Spinach

“Shall I make us a little Christmas fettuccine?” asks Kate Winslet. Perhaps we’re not meant to take that at face value, that Christmas fettuccine is an actual tradition. But thanks to The Holiday, it is one now!

I had bookmarked a recipe from the New York Times for Chile Crisp Fettuccine Alfredo with Spinach. The red hues of the chile oil and the wilted green veggie makes it a proper Christmas fettuccine! It’s just as easy to make as the usual alfredo, but spicier and with a bit more fiber. Freshdirect had fresh pasta available, so I used that to make this feel a bit more luxurious.

If I were making this again I would have passed a jar of Lao Gan Ma around the table so people could add a little extra málà to their pasta.

Pies & Ice Cream

Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about dessert, as Keith baked us two pies: pumpkin and sweet potato, and Dan brought homemade cardamom ice cream! Pie is one of the few foods that I just cannot like, no matter what kind nor who made it. But my other friends all said that they were very good. I believe them!

With the meal concluded, the movie began! It was very very fun to watch with a big group. When Jude Law puts his glasses on, none of us could handle it, and my fellow film critics had a good time identifying all the references to classic Hollywood pictures.

Just to recap, here’s everything I made, with links to the recipes:

Other Menu Ideas

If you wanna get fancy with this The Holiday holiday dinner, here’s a few suggestions.

Mulled wine, obviously. Always make more than you think you’ll need. People drink this stuff twice as fast as un-mulled wine. Use something cheap and light, but still drinkable. An inexpensive Côtes du Rhône works wonders.
Champagne or other festive bubbly, to go with all the Christmas and New Year’s toasts in the movie. I actually pretty rarely buy actual champagne, because it’s expensive. Either this blanc des blancs from Delacroix or this Crémant de Limoux wind up in my rotation when I host a party. Is it as good as the real deal? Probably not, but let’s be honest, when we’re at a party, it doesn’t matter that much.
And of course, Christmas cookies! This is honestly something I would probably just buy at the store because I don’t have time to decorate sugar cookies, but it would be a fun group activity.

$135 million in today’s dollars