This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series dives deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for.

Their new movie is a satirization of food media and influencer culture with dramatic flair, inspired by “the intense and strange obsession with food in culture,” explained Early, who wrote, directed, and stars in the film as the titular Maddie. Maddie starts out as a dishwasher at a Los Angeles food content creation studio called Gourmaybe and becomes an influencer when one of the recipe videos she makes at home goes viral. “The central joke is: What if Bon Appétit felt like Showgirls?” said Early. “Rather than try to accurately depict it, I wanted to set it in a toxic workplace with the style and emotional expressiveness of Showgirls: ruthless and inappropriately sexual.” 

The latter comes mostly from Berlant’s character, Deena, a fellow dishwasher at Gourmaybe who not-so-secretly longs for more than best-friendship with Maddie. As Maddie’s star rises thanks to trendy recipes like a smashburger–tortang talong mash-up and halloumi with chili crisp, her relationship with Deena—and her psyche—crumble under the pressure. Although both Early and Berlant are known for comedy, the dramatic side of the film is nuanced and complex as Maddie’s secret of disordered eating is revealed. 

For our first-ever Amused Bouche twosome, Early and Berlant shared their culinary journeys separately and together over a Zoom last month. “We don’t really host together, but we go to each other’s house, and there’s always food,” Berlant shared, and during the call she asked Early to make Momofuku’s bossam for her upcoming birthday party—one of his signature dishes after a memorable Christmas dinner. Compliments over who is the better cook were volleyed frequently, with Early shouting out Berlant’s “effortless” cooking and her penchant for adding “caramelized shallots for instant flavor in a salad,” and Berlant praising Early’s smashburgers and pasta amatriciana.

“Restaurants are a huge part of our relationship,” they both said separately, but Berlant is always in charge of planning meals out. “I’m a very hardcore reservation maker. John has made fun of me many times; the people closest to me know the obsession that I have surrounding reservations. I have a big project coming up this month, and I already have a list of the places that I want to go after. Where are the celebratory meals? That’s everything to me. I don’t understand a better way to mark time with more joy than with food.” Early practically finished her sentence, adding: “We love ceremonies and marking occasions with an unforgettable meal!” 

Now that you have a taste of their friendship, discover the pair’s most delectable dining memories and kitchen disasters in their joint Amused Bouche.

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

Berlant: You know who does that the best? The Fly. I love their chicken. As a California girl, I have farmers in my family and grew up doing farm-to-table. So I’m sorry to say salad, but a caramelized shallot-heavy, mustardy, lemony, salty salad with a really good olive oil and crispy panko breadcrumbs and herbs. I never don’t want that!

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

Early: I have very early memories of my mom teaching me how to boil pasta. Not going much farther than that—just cooking the pasta. And that was so huge! Then I would try to make something in the pan with the pasta, like with canned tomatoes and cheese, but it would get all congealed and weird, and I would be like, “Damn it!” I can’t remember my first successful dish.

Berlant: John makes an amazing amatriciana now! I mostly just assembled snacks. My mom was an amazing cook and cooked every night. I would be in the kitchen with her just watching, observing, and tasting. She wasn’t really teaching and telling me “Now I’m doing this,” but that’s something I want her to do now.

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

Early: I got a rice cooker for the first time, a Zojirushi. I can’t stop talking about it. I’m obsessed with it. I love to chop up spicy lime pickle and mix that into the rice with butter. That combination: heaven on earth!

Berlant: Rice, vegetable, protein forever. People do more than rice in those, like chickpeas and sweet potato. I wanted to get a Zojirushi for John, and then I saw they were so expensive and was like, “I’m not there yet.”

Spicewalla generously sent me some spices, so I’ve been experimenting with them in my turkey chili. I used Aleppo pepper and different chili powders, and sautéed bell peppers really took it over the edge. I made it last week, but I am thawing it now to eat for lunch.

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

Berlant: I need to have a really good cheeseburger and fries. That’s something I crave somewhat regularly. When we were 20 years old, we could get an exceptional cheeseburger for $7 at The Commodore in Williamsburg, which was unheard of, even at that time. An amazing, super peppery burger on a sweet Hawaiian roll with a Hawaiian umbrella stuck in it and thick dill pickles with really good fries. I also love a hot fudge sundae with nuts. 

Early: Kate is obsessed with the concept of a sundae bar, where everyone gets to make their own sundae, but she’s never done it. I grew up with pimento cheese, so whenever I see it in the store, I get it and have it around to snack on with crackers.

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

Early: Our friend Jerome, who is the best cook we know, recommended The New Persian Kitchen by Louisa Shafia, which is so good. There’s an olive oil-poached fish that I would make for us. You put halibut in a thin layer of olive oil with lemon zest and minced garlic and cook it really slowly on the lowest heat possible. Then you put tons of herbs on top and serve with the tahdig.

Berlant: I am a Smitten Kitchen superfan! I approached her [Deb Perelman] at St. Mark’s Market once. She was understandably a little shaken. I was being really intense. I went hard with her recipes; I was doing ambitious shit back then—pizza, St. Louis gooey butter cake, monkey bread. I was doing the most. I was about to break up with my boyfriend, so I was going really hard. I would make unbelievable galettes, tomato tarts, and tahini chocolate ganache. 

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

Early: Last Christmas I took us back to a restaurant we went to in New York at the beginning of our friendship, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, by making their red-eye gravy mayonnaise. It’s the best, and they would serve it with sliced country ham and biscuits. I did it with potato chips and Ibérico ham, and it was incredible. Then recently I tried to make it for a gentleman caller, and I didn’t have a regular blender so I used a hand blender, and it flew everywhere. It was awful!

Berlant: I don’t have anything cinematic and explosive, but my partner is vegan-flexible, and I made them brownies that have black beans in them. I tried this recipe years ago and remembered the brownies being very cakey and delicious. I did something wrong and forgot an ingredient, so there was an absence of sweetness. I basically made a cacao and black bean cake that was dense to the point where I took a slice and was like, “This is inedible. This is not good.” And my partner was freakishly like, “No, I am gonna eat the whole thing!” And they did. But it was very punishing, because the brownies were so bad. 

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

Berlant: Candles and flowers, always.

Early: Kate really taught me about the power of flowers. 

Berlant: My mom also taught me to cut a pint of ice cream into thin slices and put them on plates as individual servings, and it’s so fun—a Helen Berlant special. I have to say, the most explosive dinner John ever made was the fucking bossam. And he made special crazy tofu for my partner, who doesn’t eat pork and lots of sauces. Can we make that for my birthday?

Early: Yes, I’d be honored. With a Sichuan peppercorn smashed cucumber salad!

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

Berlant: In Rome, we had unbelievable luck. We went to every restaurant that everyone said “Good luck—you need to book this three months in advance!” We showed up and got into every single restaurant and only had to wait in line for one: Trattoria Da Enzo. There was ivy hanging down the wall, they were giving everyone wine in line, and all the tables were crammed together. The best thing was the dessert: a custard with little dots of strawberries. I was drunk and speaking in Spanish to the waiter about how good it was. 

Early: I’m scared, Kate. I don’t remember that. We were so full and drunk that whole trip that it all blurs together.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.