Renowned chef Curtis Stone and his wife, actress Lindsay Price-Stone, meld their respective talents into the recipe for “In the Spirit with Lindsay & Curtis,” streaming on QVC+ and HSN+.
The holiday-themed six-episode series features celebrity guests Joel McHale and his wife Sarah Williams, Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth, Kelly Hu, Jenna Fischer, Sheryl Underwood and Phil Rosenthal sharing their families’ traditional holiday celebrations with Curtis and Lindsay — who create festive dishes (Curtis) and decorations (Lindsay).
“I think the thing about the holidays is that they’re so personal for everyone; we all have our own quirks and family traditions that make us feel good,” Curtis Stone, 47, told The Post in a joint interview with Lindsay. “Normally you’re with your own family and don’t get a chance to experience other people’s traditions.
“The idea for the show was to reach out to a handful of friends and say, ‘What do you do for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas Eve, etc. what are your traditions?’ Lindsay’s got this incredible eye for detail when it comes to design and style; she always makes the room or table look fantastic,” he said. “And I obviously know my way around the kitchen.”
They shot the series (in October) in a real home, and not in a studio, to lend it a warmer feel. “It wasn’t our home; we wanted to do it [there] but had so much going on that week with our kids still at school so we couldn’t quite break away,” Curtis said. “We found this really pretty house here in LA and we took it over for 10 days or so.”
Lindsay, 46, said that Fischer, with whom she co-starred for two seasons on ABC’s “Splitting Up Together,” was a perfect choice for the series.
“She’s the least Hollywood ‘Hollywood actress’ you ever met,” she said. “We’re dear friends. She’s just a cozy person; she bakes sourdough [bread], she likes hand-crafted gifts and she and her sister always exchange presents on Christmas Eve … but they’re only allowed to get each other things hand-made from local artisans.
“I was like, ‘OK, we need to have her on the show because she’s just so perfect for this kind of series about what you do in your home and for your traditions [on the holidays].’”
Lindsay and Curtis met with their guests prior to shooting their respective episodes.
“Curtis and I would either sit down with or talk via a Zoom call with all of our guests and say, ‘Tell us about [your holiday experiences], which was an opportunity for us to listen to their stories,” she said. “Kelly Hu, for instance, is from Hawaii and her New Year’s Day is about multi-Asian cultures in Hawaii … and we got to swap ideas about how we would celebrate in our families as second-generation Asian Americans. Curtis listened to everything Kelly said and talked about what he was going to make. I made paper cranes for the table and intention books for recipes and travel plans.
“It was fun to watch Curtis interpret Jenna’s Melba toast and sausage and cheese; he decided to turn that into a raclette,” Lindsay said. “We made it all about our guests. Our only goal was for us to show people what we actually do in our real lives, in our homes — how we entertain and have that organic feel.”
Stone, a Michelin-starred chef, said there were a few dishes that were new to him.
“There were some classics, of course, but some dishes I’ve never done before,” he said. “We had Phil Rosenthal on and he said, ‘I don’t want to do Hanukkah food — I want to do an Aussie/Hanukkah mashup … so I got kind of creative with that one. I know brisket is big [on Hanukkah] and I thought lamb, so we did a really slow-cook lamb shoulder but spiced it with a similar sort of spice you use on brisket — we made a pastrami spice and roasted carrots with that, as well, and Phil was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is something special.’”
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