When The Bear made a Christmas episode, it was an emotionally devastating examination of the ways that mental illness (it’s about trauma) can warp a family into something volatile and hostile. No matter how good the episode’s soundtrack is, the FX on Hulu drama (sorry I’m right about this) delivered a Christmas episode that denied all things warm and cozy. It was one of the most notable episodes of the year.
But what if The Bear Christmas episode was, like, cute and happy? What if they made Carmy and Sydney kiss? What if the Cake Boss Buddy Valastro was in it? These are but some studio notes that Lifetime presents in the form of an upcoming original made-for-TV Christmas rom-com titled, delightfully, Yes, Chef! Christmas. The movie is one of twelve that will debut on this year’s “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” lineup, and you can’t tell us that with a name like that they’re not responding to the viral success of the culinary series.
Yes, Chef! Christmas stars Tia Mowry as Alicia Gellar, “a culinary school instructor who has put both her true career aspirations and personal life on the back burner” (get it???). But when she’s invited to compete in her city’s (Chicago?) annual Kringle Cook Off (Michelin qualifier?) she learns a family secret (dead brother’s drug addiction?) that can “be the big break she needs to become a respected chef like her former boss Bobby (Buddy Valastro)” (I don’t have an additional parenthetical for that detail, it’s perfect). At the competition, she falls for her “fiery chef” culinary mentor, Logan, played by Luke Humphrey, so this really reads like Carmy x Sydney fic. It’s a movie that dares ask, “Will she be accepted by the Kringles if she shares the truth with them?” which dares me to ask, “So it’s called the Kringle Cook Off because it’s run by a family named Kringle and not because it’s on Christmas? Is Chef Kringle Santa? Does Chef Santa say Behind! when he goes down the chimney?”
Yes, Chef! Christmas premieres on Lifetime on Sunday, December 10 at 8 p.m., one night after the premiere of the all-new cowboy Christmas romance A Cowboy Christmas Romance.