I spotted the first holiday lights in Beverly Hills the other day. Yes, it’s getting to be the time of year when a meeting planner’s thoughts turn to chestnuts, eggnog and festive desserts. Or, the modern-day iterations of these things, which were on full display when Wolfgang Puck Catering hosted what they dubbed a “holiday tastemaker event” in the heart of Hollywood. The setting was Lombardi House. Built in 1904 and named for Philip and Sylvia Lombardi, vaudeville performers who owned it in the 1940s, the Lombardi House is the oldest historic home still standing in Hollywood. The 6,000- square-foot property sits on a half acre and can be rented for events or retreats (the home sleeps 32).
The tastemaker night featured Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve in different rooms of the house and gardens. The menu for Thanksgiving was tray-passed hors d’oeuvres, including mini turkey burgers with stuffing and cranberry aioli, butternut squash arancini, sweet potato knishes, green bean casserole tarts, turkey tacos and demitasse cups of pumpkin soup. It was an untraditional way to serve a traditional, and completely satisfying, Thanksgiving meal, without the groan-inducing overeating that’s as much of a holiday tradition for most families as pecan pie.
Christmas was built around small plates: chestnut tortellini, honey-glazed braised pork belly on pineapple shortbread and mini tamales stuffed with spiced carnitas in mole sauce. New Year’s Eve was represented by drinks from the Cocktail Academy and a sparkling dessert bar with coconut white cake, almond macarons decorated with silver dust, peanut butter pop rock “fireworks” lollipops and champagne sorbet with vanilla lavender “caviar.” It was all, literally, food for thought—fresh ideas on elegant holiday entertaining.
