For Issue Four of Life & Thyme Magazine, The Winter Issue, we asked ourselves a question: What if this holiday, we could cook for some of the chefs that feed us all year long?

Answering that hypothetical evolved into a full-blown holiday potluck, complete with offerings from some of Los Angeles’ most accomplished culinarians, hosted at the home of Union Restaurant’s Chef Bruce Kalman. The menu was made up of items from each guests’ holiday memories—from Chris Oh’s sukiyaki to a beef stracotto from Kalman’s kitchen, sides and snacks from David LeFevre and Nick Shipp, cookies from Duff Goldman and a hulking take on apple pie from Hedy Goldsmith. L&T’s founder, Antonio Diaz made his mother’s posole, and I contributed some Italian cookies from my grandmother’s canon.

Turns out, cooking for and with chefs isn’t a whole lot different than doing it with our own families. We overcrowded the kitchen despite the fact that there was plenty of space elsewhere, we cracked jokes and we debated the usual hot-button issues (Shake Shack or In n Out?), we passed around plates and shared dish-washing duties. And like any good holiday meal, we all ate way too much, but still somehow found room for dessert.

Because what we learned in posing this challenge to ourselves is that regardless of experience level or setting, there’s one great and universal truth––that at the end of the day, we all just want to eat pie straight outta the pan.