Courteney Cox has one Courteney Cox dinner party rule she will not compromise on: you do not run out of food. Speaking at COQODAQ in New York City, where she was celebrating a new partnership between her home-care brand and the restaurant, Cox admitted the prospect of an empty platter sends her into a quiet panic. ‘I get panicked,’ she said, while conceding she has never actually let it happen.
The event marked the launch of a month-long collaboration between Cox’s brand Homecourt and COQODAQ, founded by Simon Kim. For the duration of the partnership, the restaurant’s already well-known handwashing station is stocked with Homecourt soaps, giving diners a chance to try the products on arrival and, as Cox put it, after the fried chicken damage is done.
The Logic Behind the Collaboration
On paper, a hand soap brand teaming up with a fried chicken restaurant raises eyebrows. In practice, the pairing has an internal logic both Cox and Kim were quick to articulate. Kim built COQODAQ around giving something as familiar as fried chicken the full caviar-and-Champagne treatment. Cox has built Homecourt around making everyday household rituals feel a little more considered. Both, essentially, are in the business of upgrading the familiar.
That shared philosophy opened a natural conversation about some of the most famous fictional food in television history. Asked which of the iconic dishes from Friends she would hand Kim to reimagine for the COQODAQ menu, Rachel’s trifle, the cheesecakes from the ‘Cheesecake Bandit’ episode, or Ross’s Moist Maker, Cox did not take long to rule one out. ‘Don’t make the trifle,’ she said immediately.
The Moist Maker was another matter. Cox had just eaten the restaurant’s Waldorf kale salad and was struck by how juicy the poached chicken was. ‘Oh my God, it was so good,’ she said. She decided Kim had already solved the central challenge of Ross’s gravy-soaked Thanksgiving sandwich, moisture. Kim, taking the cue, imagined a Thanksgiving turkey nugget served with gravy for dipping and a touch of cranberry sauce. Cox’s response was direct: ‘I love it. I’m coming here for Thanksgiving. Can you make it?’
The Courteney Cox Dinner Party Rule in Practice
Away from the restaurant, Cox’s approach to hosting at home is considerably more relaxed than the character she played across ten seasons of Friends might suggest. Good music, good food and great drinks matter far more to her than a perfectly arranged table. She admits she feels a small pang of envy when she sees the elaborate tablescapes some of her friends put together, but her priority is making guests feel comfortable, not constructing a show.
Music, though, is a different matter. Cox uses it deliberately to ease any awkwardness when guests first arrive, and she found a kindred spirit in Kim on that point. At COQODAQ, Kim runs a system that gradually increases the beats per minute as the evening progresses. His broader philosophy, that ‘how you do anything is how you do everything,’ landed well enough with Cox that she asked for it written down as a new life motto.
At home, Cox cooks roughly four nights a week. She wants the kitchen to smell of garlic and olive oil, with good wine, mojitos and skinny margaritas within reach. On long workdays, she keeps things practical: a construction she calls an ‘Alabama roll,’ built from iceberg lettuce wrapped around thinly sliced turkey or chicken, avocado, tomato, salt, pepper, a little cheese, and sometimes corn chips.
Where the Instinct Comes From
Both Cox and Kim traced their instincts around food and hospitality back to their mothers. Cox’s was straightforward about it: ‘My mom wasn’t necessarily a great chef by any means, but what she made when she made it was delicious.’ Kim’s account was similar in feeling, though he framed it differently. Growing up, he assumed every mother cooked the way his did, before realising hers brought a particular intention to it, ‘to make people happy through food, not necessarily serve to nourish.’ The line he drew from that is the one that seems to run through everything at COQODAQ: ‘I learned that food is a vehicle to make people happy.’
The Homecourt collaboration at COQODAQ runs for one month, giving diners at the restaurant a chance to encounter the brand at the handwashing station, before and after the fried chicken arrives.