When it comes to holiday movies, we consider ourselves very well versed in them. Watching hundreds (and yes, there are hundreds) every years has given us a lot of insight, but the thing that we didn’t have on our bingo cards this year was a Food Network holiday movie. It just wasn’t something we saw coming.
But it’s definitely something that works.
Vanessa Marano stars in the film, One Delicious Christmas, about a restaurant and inn owner, so hires a hot shot chef to come in and shake up the Christmas menu, so she can secure some funding from a hot shot mogul. It’s different than things that we’ve seen Marano in before, but something we’d love to see more from her in the future.
Marano was approached to do the movie, which she considered flattering. She agreed to do the movie because, “it’s a Christmas movie. It’s very much in the format of how we all watch these Christmas movies that come out every year. The romance of it all, the comedy of it all. With it streaming on Discovery Plus and having Food Network as a partner, food became like this really organic piece of the movie that, I don’t know about you but I so associate food with Christmas. It’s such a part of the celebration experience for me.”
Food is definitely a big part of the equation for us when it comes to Christmas. We grew up with a lot of rich traditions that revolved around food. And in the movie food is a big part of Abby’s life.
She’s hesitant to change the menu at her restaurant, because it is steeped in a comfort and tradition. In Marano‘s real life, the holidays celebrations are about, “Recipes that my dad makes, baking with my mother, that’s just a part of the holidays to me. That’s something that I really cherish and I loved that it was such a vivid part of this movie and it was something that I was like, okay, this is something that we see done every year that people love, but done in a different way, featuring something that is nostalgic for all of us, which is Christmas food.”
In the movie, Abby has a hard time with change. She doesn’t like to not be in control. Control is the only thing that she has and feels comfort in. So we had to wonder, why does Abby want a business partner? She can’t delegate easily. She can’t let go of responsibility. We had to wonder is her need to remain in control and her inability to delegate was who she was or the fear of letting her parents down?
Marano said, “I think that is the juxtaposition of being a female in charge. It is just like if I let go of the race, this whole thing will fall apart at any means. Part of that absolutely is it’s a family business. She does not want to be the reason it goes under. What I do really like about this movie is it isn’t like, “Oh, we have to do this by Christmas. Otherwise, it’s in financial ruin.” It’s not going to be in financial ruin but Abby knows if she keeps going the way she’s going, she will not have a life and she will not be able to handle it.”
She continued, “She’s able to admit the bigger part of the bigger picture, but in the meantime, she can’t let go of the little things. I think we’ve all been in that position where your judgment is so clouded by something so obvious because of fear. That’s what it is. It’s actually you don’t need to get rid of the bigger piece of this just because it’s somebody who has a big name and it’s flashy and you feel you could trust that person.”
We couldn’t disagree with that. Marano made perfect sense. She finished up her answer by saying, “Sometimes it’s better to trust the people around you who may not have the name value but have been with you. I think it’s so important to delegate to people who you trust. Oftentimes, we don’t do that because we’re not seeing them on a level that’s different than how we’ve been seeing them our entire lives.”
One Delicious Christmas is streaming now on Discovery+.
