My hosting style is relaxed yet considered, easygoing but layered. I like spending hours cooking and taking on projects in which each guest has a task. Last year, I made a terrine, and, the year before, my boyfriend and I collaborated on a beef Wellington. We’ve always talked about making a coulibiac; maybe this will be the year … For me, the holidays are spent in the kitchen and around the dining table, so that’s where I place my focus. Here are a bunch of the items that I love having around.
Lallier Blanc de Blancs is my all-time favorite champagne. I stock up by buying a case for the holidays. I also love to give it to friends. It goes down so easily (almost too easily!), just like water. Holiday water, basically. Serve it in my go-to coupe, which is so wide that it almost seems like a swimming pool of champagne. I also love a white burgundy for the holidays; Jérome Fornerot’s Saint-Aubin Blanc Premier Cru La Chatenière is a nice one to bring to a friend’s house or to offer when people come to mine.
This bistro-style apron, made from a reflective metallic-silver vinyl, is my apron of choice for the holidays. It’s practical but also so fun and festive. Underneath, I’d like to wear Alaïa’s perfect, thick-wool miniskirt, which feels so cozy for winter. Footwear can be difficult when hosting; I feel odd putting on a pair of heels in my own home, so I wear flats, like these Mary Janes, or my usual fallback, a pair of pear-colored suede slippers from Charvet.
Every table needs a tablecloth. This crisp, white cotton-linen one divided by delicate à jour hemstitching is my favorite at the moment. It’s elegant yet not too uptight. These silk bottle slips, meanwhile, make the house feel festive (and, yes, a little over the top!). Mother of pearl spoons are perfect for caviar but also for other things, like ice cream or sorbet, which I love serving over the holidays. There’s something really nice about eating a light and refreshing sorbet after a big, heavy meal.
Cinco Jotas is one of Spain’s oldest jamón producers and my personal favorite. It’s a very indulgent holiday tradition in our house: we usually buy a whole leg of jamón ibérico de bellota in November and eat it over the course of the next couple of months. When cooking, nothing beats a simple, straightforward sheet tray. It’s what’s used in restaurants, and I prefer it to any other vessel for roasting or baking certain things in the oven. I like to buy 12, but if that’s too excessive, you can buy just one or two. After dinner, I encourage guests to sit and have (another) drink; I have a lot of red furniture in my apartment and would love to add these two festive Gio Ponti chairs.
Laila Gohar is an artist, a chef, and a co-founder of Gohar World
