An American chef living in Sweden hosted a Friendsgiving feast for over 16 people for the 2nd year in a row. Here's how she does it.
TikTok: @cecilia.tolone, Cecilia Tolone
- A chef documented her experience preparing an elaborate Thanksgiving-themed meal for her friends.
- Cecilia Tolone posted insights into her extensive party planning and prep on TikTok.
- Tolone said it was her "Superbowl" and something she thinks about "literally all year long."
An American TikToker returned for a second year with a viral series documenting the intense preparation behind her Thanksgiving feast for a large party of friends in Europe.
In November 2022, pastry chef Cecilia Tolone, who has over 130,000 followers on TikTok where she regularly shares cooking tutorials, posted a video where she introduced herself as an American living in Sweden who was set to host a Friendsgiving meal for 16 people.
Tolone went on to detail the immense preparation that went into the event, from sourcing and preparing the food to laying the table, culminating in the feast itself. The seven videos racked up over 8.6 million combined views.
This year, Tolone came back with an even grander plan: a Friendsgiving meal for 18 people.
On November 13, Tolone posted a video where she shared a spreadsheet of her latest game plan, which featured an extensive menu of dishes in one column — including a pumpkin tart, gratin potatoes, and turkey — and a lengthy series of tasks assigned to specific days of the week. It all led up to the final meal, which was scheduled to take place on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
The plan for Monday was to focus on cleaning and prepping her apartment, as well as shopping for a few items she needed before her main grocery order arrived the next day. Tuesday and Wednesday were to be spent preparing dishes that would keep well, such as the dessert dough, cranberry sauce, and chicken stock. Thursday and Friday were "major prep days," she said, and involved the bulk of the preparation for most of the dishes, as well as setting the table and collecting a 17-pound turkey which she said in the comments cost her $150. On Saturday, the final dishes would be cooked.
Tolone said she would likely have to adapt and move things around as both her stress and exhaustion levels, and the number of guests, were likely to fluctuate. But according to subsequent videos in which she documented each day, she largely stuck to the plan.
In a follow-up TikTok, Tolone responded directly to a comment that asked if her guests were helping pay for the food. She explained she had asked her guests to chip in $10 each just to cover the cost of the turkey, but she was paying for the rest herself. She would also supply alcohol, but had asked people to bring drinks they particularly liked too. She said she anticipated backlash online for asking this of her guests, but clarified this was socially acceptable in Sweden.
The comments appeared to unanimously agree that it was a totally fair request, especially considering how much work she was putting into hosting the meal.
She added she had been hosting this party every year for over a decade, with the last two taking part in Sweden. She declined offers from her friends to help "because this is very traditional food for me and I like to do all the cooking," she said.
On the fifth and final day of prep, Tolone filmed the final steps, including cooking some of the desserts and pie fillings. In a voiceover, she said the Friendsgiving party was "my Superbowl" and something she thinks about "literally all year long."
Tolone also filmed the day of the meal itself, and narrated clips that showed her taking care of the final steps as guests started to arrive in a voiceover she said she recorded in the shower while the party was already in full swing.
At the end of the video, Tolone hurriedly said she had to go and enjoy her party, leaving viewers to marvel at everything she had achieved in the previous days. Her 2023 Friendsgiving series has so far amassed over 6 million views.
"My brain can't even comprehend the amount of food you have to make. It all looks fantastic though!" one viewer wrote in a popular comment.
In response to another viewer's comment, Tolone assured her followers that she would be sharing footage of the final event as soon as she'd recovered.
"I'll be a doing a video of the party, but I lost my voice so it's gonna have to wait," she wrote. It seems the event was a roaring success.