I always thought that chefs and bakers were separate, at least professionally. Do a lot of chefs also do the baking for their restaurant? I thought they hired someone to do that for them.

Josie (Kim Shaw) is a chef in Los Angeles. She heads home for the holidays to help her mother, Shannon (Cynthia Gibb), open a bistro at the family bed & breakfast. Tanner (Clayton James) is a food critic who Josie blames for the failure of her bakery. He decides to spend the holidays at the Shannon’s B&B, which causes Josie a lot of stress.

While Christmas on the Menu isn’t completely confusing, I spent a lot of time wondering why characters did certain things. There is the chef vs baker issue. Josie talks about how one reviewer said her chicken skins were delicious…meaning she’s a chef…but then she talks about how she owned a bakery that failed and she’s in charge of the desserts at her mother’s bistro…means she’s a baker. Granted, I don’t know a whole lot about the world of bakeries and restaurants but I didn’t think that the restaurant’s chef was also doing the baking. That seems like a lot of work for one person.

In addition, there’s the choice of food reviewers. Shannon invites a couple of food reviewers to sample the new menu. One of the people she invites is kosher but then she proceeds to serve a bunch of non-kosher food. They did end up making a special kosher meal for that reviewer. It is just a little weird to invite someone for a particular meal and a particular reason then offer them food they don’t eat. Maybe it was supposed to highlight that the bistro is willing to offer specialized meals for people but literally no one else was there besides the reviewers.

Once again, Lifetime gave us a movie that is simply OK. This movie does have an actual villain, which makes it slightly more interesting. Josie and Tanner do have a bit of banter that makes their relationship a little more believable. You can go ahead and watch Christmas on the Menu. You’ll at least learn not to take whatever food you want out of a B&B’s refrigerator. You should ask permission first.