Fresh content is on the way from HBO Max’s unscripted celebrity cooking series Selena + Chef. According to recent press release, the series is getting a Friendsgiving special that arrives exclusively on the premium streaming service on November 19. The final batch of episodes from season one arrived at the end of August. HBO Max surprised everyone with the teaser for the Friendsgiving special, which you can watch below.
Per the press release, the special will feature actress and pop singer Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place, Spring Breakers) preparing classic Thanksgiving dishes with South Asian twist, as coached over video-chat by Indian chef Aarti Sequeira, who won The Next Food Network Star in 2010. Sequeira’s own show Aarti Party featured a similar concept where she put an Indian spin on standard Western dishes. It was based on her 2009 web series and ran for three seasons. Sequeira returned to the web series format in the spring of 2020 with Community Table on YouTube.
Selena + Chef got its initial series order back in May, as reported by People. Gomez had allegedly been spending more time making her own meals indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic and found joy in the simple act of cooking. A March 30 Instagram post featured the image of Gomez preparing several dishes herself, with caption that recommended the Tiny Kitchen account, wherein Tastemade contributor Kate Murdoch prepares edible doll-sized dishes.
“I think I’ve been asked hundreds of times in interviews if I had another career, what would I do and I’ve answered that it would be fun to be a chef,” Gomez explained to The Hollywood Reporter. The first season of Selena + Chef saw the pop starlet receiving remote, on-the-spot culinary training from the expert likes of The Chef Show co-host Roy “Papi” Choi, wellness writer Candice Kumai and Tanya Holland, host of Tanya’s Kitchen Table on OWN, among others.
The Selena + Chef Friendsgiving special premieres on HBO Max on November 19.