LOS ANGELES — Thanksgiving dinner gatherings will likely be smaller this year in accordance with CDC and county guidelines. Californians may not want to cook or clean for fewer people, so many are choosing to let the professionals do it for them.

Christian Truong, chef de cuisine of the downtown L.A. restaurant Manuela, always shows his love through food, but this year it's extra important.

"We put everything into our food and we just love cooking for everybody," said Truong. "We just want to bring warm comfort into your home."

Since cooking a full feast may not seem very ideal, Truong explained that the staff at Manuela will take care of it all.

"We will make it easy for everybody to just hang out at home, not worry about cooking," he said. "Minimize the prep and the gathering."

Manuela is offering pre-orders of their Thanksgiving meal for two, which features your choice of protein, like the duck breast, and then all of the sides, including homemade cranberries and even Manuela’s famous biscuits. It will be ready to pick up on Thanksgiving Day with no work necessary.

“We are giving you the whole Thanksgiving feast, just scaled down a touch, so you don’t have a massive amount of food at home,” said Truong.

He knows Southern California is changing their traditions this year to stay safe — as is the restaurant. They never offered their in-house Thanksgiving meal to-go before but knew they had to make changes during the pandemic to keep bringing holiday joy through some tasty food.

“Have a great meal and forget about everything, and just enjoy yourself and Thanksgiving,” said Truong.

Manuela joins the ranks of many other Southern California restaurants offering full Thanksgiving meals to-go with pre-orders ahead of Thursday.