Elizabeth Taylor’s Private Chef Shares Her Down-to-Earth Christmas Tradition

Elizabeth Taylor’s former private chef, Neil Zevnik, recently revealed the actress’ surprisingly down-to-earth Christmas tradition.

The professional chef recently spoke with PEOPLE for an extensive interview about his time working for the Hollywood icon throughout the 1990s. During the discussion, Zevnik — who has also cooked for celebs including Jennifer Garner and Charlize Theron — shared that Taylor’s typical holiday season was actually “very, very usual” and all about “family.”

“Tree decorations, and decorating the tree was not farmed out to a company or something,” Zevnik recalled. “That was family, just like all of us.”

He added, “She would join in on that, and then sit there and watch everybody do it — the kids and the grandkids.”

He also revealed that Taylor hosted a grand annual Thanksgiving dinner for family and close friends.

“She liked one great, big table, so we would have a moving company come in and remove all the furniture from the living room and the trophy room next door,” he recalled. “I would create a huge table out of five 8-foot banquet tables to make it a big square, and we would cover it with tablecloths. Then, we would make these very elaborate centerpieces with fabrics, flowers, candles, and tchotchkes even, and then everyone could sit at the same table.”

“It was really special … it was very democratic, because there was no hierarchy. There was no, ‘Who gets to sit at the table with Elizabeth, and who’s at the table furthest away from her?’ Everybody was family. Everybody was together.”

Zevnik also shared that the Hollywood legend was an excellent gift giver — and not just at the holidays.

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“She loved giving gifts, and she loved receiving gifts,” he said. “She was lavish and generous, and it wasn’t just like she said to someone, ‘Go buy something for them.’ She was completely involved in what [the gift] was and the thought that went behind it, and it excited her to give someone a gift that would make them happy.”

He went on to call Taylor, who died of congestive heart failure in 2011 at the age of 79, a “truly extraordinary” person who was distinctly different from her glamorous professional persona when home behind closed doors.

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“I mean, everybody talks about her as a movie star, an icon and a cultural hero for her AIDS work,” he says, “but she was also just a really giving, considerate, thoughtful person, who cared about other people. It was not always about her.”