Today Architectural Digest is welcomed by YouTube superstar Liza Koshy as she prepares for a holiday dinner party at home. Inspired by an array of spices, the luxe textures and rich colors of Liza’s kitchen/living room make it the perfect setting to share her favorite holiday memories while cooking a delicious spread inspired by her Western and Eastern roots.Actress Liza Koshy will next star in high-profile film projects including A Family Affair, Players, and My Ex-Friend’s Wedding, and will host Roku’s new home renovation series, Empty Nest Refresh.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Oh my god, you spoiled little brats, I ordered so much.
00:06 Making dinner is exhausting.
00:07 Let's go upstairs and make a drink.
00:08 Oh, hey, I'm saying that really casually, but I'm stoked to be here.
00:24 Thank you so much for coming here too.
00:26 I'm about to start cooking up my holiday dinner.
00:28 Oh, look at that, I'm done.
00:29 Now it's time to make a drink, because that was exhausting.
00:31 Come on this way.
00:33 I mean, before that drink though, we've got to set the mood.
00:36 Trust me, baby, I know how to create the environment, create the experience.
00:40 Oh, I just melted my acrylic nail.
00:44 No, we're good, we're good.
00:45 Tagged on the invoice.
00:46 Allow me to introduce you to this Santa from 1950s that I inherited, unfortunately, from
00:52 my grandmother, passed down to my mother, passed down to her spawn, me.
00:54 For whatever reason though, he does look like Stiep Boucher.
01:00 I don't know why either.
01:01 This haunted me at Christmas time as a kid, and now it haunts me as an adult too.
01:05 Look at those hands.
01:06 Why are they so dirty?
01:07 I don't know where they've been.
01:08 It's so scary.
01:09 Anyways, this is in the corner of my kitchen, and I'll probably need a couple of jump scares
01:14 in cabinets too.
01:15 Stay tuned.
01:16 Come on, let's make that drink.
01:17 What I'm about to whip up is God's drink of choice.
01:25 This is a spiked pumpkin spice dirty chai latte.
01:30 A lot of other people have eggnog.
01:32 We're lactose intalented, so we cannot indulge.
01:34 I'm going to be using almond and oat milk and alcohol, and there's no intolerance to
01:40 that.
01:41 Well, there is mentally, but we just let it happen.
01:42 I got this place because of this gorgeous island.
01:46 Look at this.
01:47 I saved money on a dining table.
01:49 This gorgeous buffet area over here across from the stove just allows me to interact
01:53 with people, have a little cooking show like we're doing right now.
01:56 It's just the best time around, this kitchen island.
01:59 This is our place.
02:00 I love a girlfriend of mine.
02:01 She's the shot head.
02:02 She's the one who created this line all up in my kitchen, but this is brought to you
02:07 by my mom.
02:08 It's signed at the bottom.
02:09 You can see it.
02:10 It was before she was married.
02:11 Those were her initials.
02:12 Jean Carol Hertzler.
02:14 Her middle name is Carol.
02:15 Let me just ... I cannot tell y'all.
02:18 You guys picked a perfect person for this episode.
02:20 I love the holidays.
02:21 I go to sleep every night, and I say, "Alexa, good night, babes.
02:25 Also Alexa, wake me up at 8 a.m. to Christmas music."
02:28 She says, "Got it.
02:30 Waking you up at 8 a.m. to holiday hits on Amazon Music."
02:34 Every morning I wake up, "Feliz Navidad."
02:37 It's the best.
02:38 It's the best.
02:45 I'm really trying to seem as elegant as my home furnishings are, which by the way are
02:49 brought to you by Miss Tyka Pride.
02:51 She really elevated the crap out of my home.
02:53 It's gorgeous.
02:54 She brought such elegance and ambiance and the warmth.
02:57 My kitchen feels like a freaking hug now.
02:59 It really feels like there's so many parts of me and so many parts of her creative brain
03:03 and talent that's infused.
03:04 Anyways, back to this drink.
03:06 Stop.
03:07 I love making this with my family for the holidays.
03:10 This is chai concentrate.
03:11 At home, my dad would never.
03:14 This is banned in our household.
03:15 My dad makes chai from scratch.
03:17 Peppercorns, nutmeg, the whole mix and all.
03:20 Not even the bags.
03:21 No.
03:22 Not allowed in that household.
03:23 Neither are our shoes.
03:24 Who has shoes on and feels guilty?
03:27 No one.
03:28 Nice booties.
03:29 I love being a bartender for the night and welcoming people in with a warm drink and
03:35 a warm hug.
03:36 Wait, we're not done.
03:37 Pow.
03:38 Ta-da.
03:39 Try it.
03:40 Drink it.
03:41 Now that we're feeling our drink, it's time to make something that can soak it up.
03:52 Let's get it.
03:53 Ah, Steve.
03:54 Classic Buscemi.
03:55 I love hosting.
03:56 My favorite part though is just like making my home a home away from home for other people
04:05 visiting it.
04:06 It's just fun.
04:07 It's just fun to share space and share food and share a plate.
04:09 Those brie balls are actually inspired by my aunt.
04:12 Every Christmas she creates this gorgeous puff pastry brie stuffed with apricot or fig
04:17 or some kind of fruit preserves.
04:20 And as a kid I was just like, "She's a genius.
04:22 How did she come up with this?"
04:23 Come to realize when I started celebrating holidays in others' homes, everybody and their
04:26 mother makes this recipe.
04:28 So I decided to make it bite-sized so we're not all just taking our grubby little drunken
04:31 little fingers and sticking it into the brie.
04:34 Everybody can have their own personal little brie.
04:37 I have a 19-year-old recipe that I've been making since I was like seven or eight years
04:43 old in my grandmother's kitchen.
04:45 So where I started, I really wanted to impress my grandmother, Gammie.
04:49 We used to pluck blueberries and make recipes together.
04:52 It was the best time at Christmas time.
04:53 And I think that's why I have such...
04:55 Oh, I didn't expect this to get emotional either.
04:59 Hold up.
05:00 She really instilled hosting and generosity and the joy of Christmas into me and my sisters.
05:06 And so every Christmas time, we really feel aligned with her spirit and her spirit fills
05:09 the room too.
05:10 So it's just an overall just such a joyous holiday for us to reminisce on and create
05:16 new memories about.
05:18 So let's pop these puppies in the air fryer.
05:21 What I'm about to whip up is harissa date chicken with yogurt and dill.
05:32 So freaking good.
05:33 I'm just going to pour these shallots in.
05:35 Ow!
05:36 When I cook naked, I'm covered in scabs because oil pops all over my little body and then
05:43 I pick them off later.
05:44 It's a super interactive experience for myself.
05:46 You hungry?
05:47 I know.
05:48 This is a year-round situation that I'm creating here.
05:50 It's gorgeous and perfect for the holidays because it's a really colorful dish.
05:53 We've got the purples, we've got the dark auburns, we've got this gorgeous pop of orange.
05:57 Oh, anyways, get on over here.
06:00 We've got to spice this up.
06:02 For this situation, this is actually a gorgeous piece that my sister brought home for me recently
06:07 on her most recent trip to Kerala, India, which is my roots, baby.
06:10 My family, my dad's side is my fatherland.
06:13 It's from Kerala, India.
06:15 So I'm Malayali background and what I love to do during the holidays is celebrate my
06:19 western and eastern sides.
06:20 And I love to infuse my dishes just like we did with that dirty chai, like obviously a
06:25 western latte.
06:26 It celebrates myself and my mixed kid background on a plate or in a cup.
06:31 And so I love doing that to any dish.
06:32 I love integrating a little piece of me into what's on your plate.
06:37 So what we have here is a little bit of cumin and paprika and black pepper and Himalayan
06:41 salts.
06:42 Like I might have used that chai concentrate earlier and that's how you can tell I'm half
06:45 white, but I don't measure and that's how you can tell I'm brown.
06:47 Let's go.
06:48 Thank God.
06:49 Hell yeah.
06:50 I'm broke.
06:51 My fragile little wrist.
06:52 Okay, let me turn this.
06:53 I'm going to wash my hands.
06:54 Ah!
06:55 Yeah, okay.
06:58 This is an imported good from Houston, Texas.
07:11 My mom has thousands of these in her home.
07:15 What's that over there?
07:16 Look, it's more small houses and small people.
07:18 Small people, little people, little conga line of tiny village people.
07:24 This is all over my mom's home.
07:26 She takes so much pride and joy in all these tiny little details.
07:29 All the like, the freaking Kleenex covering boxes, holiday themed.
07:34 And since we're over here, this is actually some artwork that my mother painted.
07:39 Fun fact about it is that it's a gorgeous Native American woman who's sitting and meditating,
07:44 which is something my mom taught me.
07:45 She's a yoga teacher and in her spare time, she works at a nonprofit, holds babies at
07:48 a hospital and teaches yoga for the elderly.
07:52 What in the heaven sent human being?
07:53 I know, that's my mom.
07:55 She has the original at home, but I turned it into like a bunch of gift cards and I sent
07:59 it out to the family.
08:00 She missed like a section of her hair, but then she decided to just let go and let God.
08:05 She said it's perfect and it's imperfections.
08:08 I buy things year round for my family and then I stuff them into my kitchen cupboards.
08:12 It's stuffed down there with stocking stuffers.
08:14 That way I'm just like done by the time it's Christmas.
08:16 My dad though, he buys everything the night before.
08:19 He goes to the mall, takes advantage of all the sales.
08:22 Also as a family, speaking of the night before Christmas, it's chaos.
08:26 We are all rapping, we're blasting music, we're drinking.
08:29 The next morning we wake up, we're exhausted, we're hideous, but dad wants a picture right
08:34 next to the Christmas tree, so we look crusty as all hell and we take our family photo and
08:38 then we rip into the presents that we just wrapped eight hours before.
08:43 It's my favorite holiday tradition and I'm definitely going to force my kids to do it
08:47 too.
08:48 I don't have any sense of time.
08:51 Has it been six minutes?
08:52 No.
08:53 Now while this all reduces, I know big cooking words, while this all reduces, I'm going to
08:57 go change into my stunning little holiday dress in order to properly host everybody
09:02 for the holidays.
09:03 Alexa, set timer for 10 minutes.
09:06 I can't not speak to her in an accent.
09:09 Voice of God.
09:12 I love taking credit for other people's work.
09:16 Oh wait, I'm suddenly in a dress.
09:18 Whoa, what a transition.
09:20 See I was a little too much of an attainable beauty before.
09:22 I like to be untouchable by the time my guests arrive.
09:25 I literally am.
09:26 I'm built like a box, naturally.
09:27 God made me that way and this dress kind of emphasizes it.
09:31 I know, it's gorgeous right?
09:32 Stop.
09:33 In the back.
09:34 Thank you.
09:35 No one's there.
09:37 What this is though, I'm kind of doing an inversion of what we traditionally do during
09:40 the holidays.
09:41 We tend to make like a large Indian entree and have a bunch of Indian sides too, but
09:45 I'm making more of like a western entree dish with my chicken.
09:49 This is from Bollywood Cafe.
09:51 It's delightful, delicious.
09:52 Come on over here.
09:54 These pre-balls lost their youth.
09:55 They're a little flat, a little deflated now.
09:57 Still just as yummy, still gorgeous, still beautiful.
09:59 Chicken.
10:00 Did I make this?
10:01 It's so impressive, look at that.
10:02 Look at all the colors.
10:03 I'm doing this in velvet.
10:04 Gorgeous.
10:05 Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.
10:06 Thank you.
10:07 Traditionally, we usually have a whole buffet set up and everybody pitches in.
10:21 It's a big old potluck of sorts.
10:23 People pick a dish, we have an Excel spreadsheet going and I typically make a mashed potato
10:27 recipe.
10:28 It's the 19 year old recipe.
10:29 The secret to it is cream of course, but everybody pops a pill and we're fine, we're fine.
10:34 And then you choose a spot somewhere in the living room, you get comfy, cozy, get the
10:38 conversation going and eat up and eat good.
10:43 Everything looks good, but does it taste good is the question for me to answer.
10:47 I'm just going to take a little bit.
10:48 No one's going to notice.
10:49 Who's going to know?
10:50 Who's going to know?
10:51 No one's going to know.
10:53 All gorgeous.
10:54 Here, I want to show the rest of my house.
10:55 Come over here into this corner of my living room.
10:57 Is that a good transition?
11:00 Only allow during the holidays that you can eat in your living room.
11:12 Otherwise you get an uddy.
11:15 An uddy is a spanking.
11:16 You got to make the perfect bite, right?
11:18 Just the visual of me sitting in full glam, cutting up chicken titty in the corner of
11:23 my living room with candles behind me.
11:26 Glorious!
11:27 This is what life is all about.
11:28 Who turned down my chewing sounds?
11:33 It tastes like Christmas, but it wouldn't taste this good if I wasn't surrounded by
11:37 the glorious gorgeousness that is this home.
11:40 I asked taika pride visuals.com for an elegant spice cabinet aesthetic.
11:46 So you've got your cumin, you've got your paprika.
11:49 It's 50 shades of brown in here, but everything just feels so warm and cozy and inviting.
11:57 There's so many places to sit and pop a squat and even the rug is cozy enough to lay down
12:01 on the ground.
12:02 She really killed that.
12:03 I haven't had a living plant in my home ever.
12:05 Kill everything a touch.
12:06 That's my responsibility now.
12:07 Great.
12:08 Perfect.
12:09 I feel like a ruckus is about to ensue.
12:11 I am definitely getting everybody drunk as I possibly can and caffeinated.
12:14 Everybody's going to be full.
12:15 We're going to play some games.
12:16 I'm excited for a really fun night ahead.
12:20 Because my gammy and my pop-up poured that love of Christmas and love of the holidays
12:25 and love of hosting and family and friends and storytelling into me.
12:28 I do feel like it is my duty and my responsibility to carry that torch.
12:33 They raised me with the moral foundation that I have to continue spreading light and joy
12:38 into the world.
12:39 And I'm so grateful that they did because the whole point is to leave it a better place
12:42 than you found it.
12:43 And if you leave my home happier than you came in, then that's my honor.
12:48 That's my joy.
12:49 And that is a very solid Christmas indeed.
12:52 Those are my guests.
12:53 I got to get the door.
12:54 Bye!
12:55 Steve!
12:56 Get in here, bitch!
13:01 (laughing)