Holidays with Luann de Lesseps are not the lavish affairs filled with goblets of champagne and heaping bowls of caviar that one might imagine. After all, the Real Housewives of New York star is a former countess who literally wrote a book on upscale entertaining. But when the Connecticut native gathers with her six brothers and sisters for Thanksgiving in her hometown, the lunchtime meal is a decidedly down-to-earth feast. Think fried turkey over filet mignon. “It’s one of my favorite holidays because it’s all about eating and I’m a foodie,” she says. “I can’t eat enough turkey.”
While she leaves the deep-frying of the two birds to her brother Michael, de Lesseps is certainly not afraid to throw on an apron. “I’m the sous chef,” she says. Her typical tasks include making the salad dressing and peeling the potatoes. And, as is family tradition, the whole brood takes a post-prandial walk in the bracing New England air. “We’re on a guilt trip after eating all that food,” she laughs.
But if you're looking to add a little de Lesseps-flair to your holiday table this year, she does have a signature dish: roasted Brussels sprouts studded with crunchy bits of bacon. "Get a Ziploc bag, cut them in half and throw in olive oil, fresh chopped bacon, cinnamon which is for that festive taste, and salt and pepper," she shares. "Roast it for forty-five minutes and it's delicious. And let it marinate in the bag so it gets nice and soft." Traditionally, de Lesseps celebrates Thanksgiving in Cromwell, CT, but this year she’s especially looking forward to her pre-holiday feast held at her home in Sag Harbor right before Thanksgiving. After nearly a year’s renovation, the 19th century Greek Revival home is ready to host the refined dinner parties for which the reality star is known. "I bought the house four years ago now. I found it through a girlfriend of mine who is a broker," she explains. "A couple of margaritas later, we go to the house. It was early fall, and I walk onto the property and say: 'Oh my god, this is exactly what I've been looking for.'"
Working with RLW4 Builders, she added a master bedroom suite, constructed a dormer for her daughter Victoria's bedroom, and put up a new roof and cedar siding, among other fixes. “I wanted to conserve the home and improve it at the same time,” she says of the old whaling captain's house. The result is an inviting, yet refined space, filled with objects from de Lesseps’s travels around the world and family heirlooms, including the oil still life painting hung in the dining room. She also has china from the de Lesseps family, including, she says, a plate from Ferdinand de Lesseps, an architect who had a hand in building the Suez Canal. "It was a plate for him by the French government. There's one with a French quote that says: 'Never pick a woman by candlelight.'" She also frequents Hamptons mainstays like Hildreth’s Home Goods and English Country Home for decorative touches. “When I found the house, it was a blank, white canvas ready to be painted,” she says. “So, I painted it with my life.” Duvets and throws from her bedding line, The Countess Collection, which debuted at Ross Stores in September, are also splashed throughout the home.
The house, which features wide-planked beams and an open layout on the main floor, is perfect for the relaxed atmosphere that de Lesseps likes to cultivate for her guests. A generously sized Restoration Hardware dining room table is situated near the kitchen counters, allowing people to be in the center of the cooking action without being in the way. But it's unusual for de Lesseps to utilize it for a formal dinner party, as the reality star prefers buffets when hosting. “I love people moving around; I hate to seat people,” she says. “It’s nice to have buffets where people can mix and mingle and sit where they want.” According to de Lesseps, preparation is key while hosting during the holidays (or any other time of the year, for that matter) and two things the host should heed: The lists (as in the "guest-list" and the "play-list.")
"You should have a playlist. If it’s an evening event, then make the playlist cocktail-y, more jazz music," she says. "Then you slowly up the beat into dance music, if that’s what’s going to happen." ( If you're looking for suggestions, de Lesseps has music of her own, including the clubby cult-single Money Can't Buy You Class).
As for the guest-list, de Lesseps says there is one invitee who reigns above all others: "your wingman." To de Lesseps, this is someone who can act as a second hostess when she is otherwise occupied, or who is willing to lend a hand in the kitchen without being asked. "She's the second life of the party," she explains. Her top choice? "Dorinda is good at hosting. Dorinda you can plop right in the middle and she's comfortable and happy with that," she says of her Real Housewives of New York cast-mate, Dorinda Medley, who joined the cast on season 7. Meanwhile, while we may not always be able to pick our family, we do get to pick our friends—and can opt not to invite the ones back who "arrive late, are not helpful and get drunk," de Lesseps says succintly, tactfully not naming any names.
With her Hamptons home now complete, de Lesseps can turn her attention to decorating her new penthouse on the Upper West Side (with her divorce finalized from Tom D'Agostino, who she was married to for seven months, she no longer lives in his renovated Upper East Side penthouse which Martha Stewart previously rented). Having just moved in this very month, she’s still in the process of hunting down the perfect pieces of art for her new apartment. However, one element is already in place: a handsome wooden dining table with killer views of the Hudson River that will make the perfect background for de Lesseps's upcoming parties if she returns for another season on the Real Housewives of New York. Especially as after nine seasons as a reality star, she has the on-camera menu nailed. "You want to skip the spaghetti and the salad with very large leaves," she reveals. "Things that are messy. We do a lot of finger foods and things that are easy to eat."
In her Sag Harbor kitchen, Luann de Lesseps shares a Thanksgiving Fete meal styled and prepared by Hamptons Aristocrat (founded by Lexi Ritsch and Louisa Young). The menu—pan roasted feisty acre quail, shaved brussels sprouts and malabar spinach salad, sweet potato gnocchi with parmesan cream and crispy sage, roasted heirloom carrots, and pear meringue pie—is all local and organic. Find out more here.
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