interview with cressida bonas, actress

My go-to recipe when I have to cook for other people would be spaghetti Bolognese.

I grate the carrots. I used to just chop them until my older sister said I should grate them and I think it’s much nicer. I sometimes put peas in it and marmite and red wine and Worcester sauce.

I really don’t like really fancy food. You know, when you go to a dinner or someones’ house and they make a real song and dance about it, I think “Oh, just give me pizza.” Which is really boring but I just like really simple food and I think that’s because that’s what I was brought up on.

I sometimes cook a roast chicken with roast potatoes and carrots, but the roast potatoes I have to cut really small because I don’t like big roast potatoes. I put one red onion and one white in the chicken and then make a gravy with all the juices. I make it quite thick - I don’t like very thin gravy.

If I can’t be bothered to cook, I’ll make scrambled eggs on toast with avocado. Sometimes bacon. That’s what we used to have a lot when we were younger and I feel like what you’re brought up on dictates your habits later in life. I know some people who ate everything and they were given loads of fish and as a family we never were. We were given shepherd’s pie, chicken pie, fish pie, fish fingers. I think because there were 5 of us, it was all made in bulk. Spaghetti Bolognese is the easiest thing in the world for 5 children! As I got older and other things came my way, I didn’t want to eat it because I wasn’t used to it. It’s taught me to, when I have children, get them to eat different things and experiment because, actually, I think maybe you miss out.

I still always look at the kid’s menu.

My friends tease me, “Cress, there are chicken nuggets on the menu!”. A running joke with my friends is what I’m going to eat at a restaurant. “If there’s a kid’s menu, then fine, Cress will eat that.”

I don’t really know who taught me how to cook. Embarrassingly, it was when I went to university that I was taught how to make some things. A cake - I think I’m actually better at puddings. I can make an apple crumble, I love sugar - I’ve got a sweet tooth. There’s this fridge chocolate biscuit cake where I use 70% dark chocolate, golden syrup, digestive biscuits. You mix it all together in a tin and then put it in the fridge to set it. Apple crumble, I put so much sugar in - probably too much sugar. My step-mum is also a great cook and she has taught me too. She’s from New Zealand, so she’s a real homemaker.

I was talking to someone the other day who said they had cooking lessons every week at school, and we just never had that. At some point I want to go and do a cooking course because I think when you have a family, which I definitely want one day, and a home, if you can really cook and bake it’s such a lovely thing to be able to do for your family. Some of my friends say “I’m going home this weekend, I can’t wait to have my mum’s food.” and I’d love to be like that one day. My kids knowing they were coming home to delicious food that I’ve made. I think there’s something really lovely about that. Also, to be able to cook healthy food is really important.

I go to friends houses and they’re all such good cooks and they make it look so easy. Stirring, mixing, and chatting, and then they’re like “Ready!” and it comes out and I think “How did you do that?” and it looks so unstressful. If I’m cooking a roast chicken, I can’t be chatting!

I really want to make my friend, Georgia, a birthday cake. She loves the ocean, so I want to make her a mermaid cake. I’ve been you-tubing. It might take a couple of go’s because I’ve never done that before. My sister is actually really good at it, because she’s an artist I think she just naturally has that flair. For her children, she brings out these incredible cakes for her children every year.

My last meal would probably be breakfast. I think a full English. My favourite meal of the day is breakfast, so if I had to choose my last meal it would probably be that. With coffee. I love that time, especially on the weekend, with your boyfriend or whoever, where you just have that time in the morning - I’m not really a lunch person.

I do also love pizza.

I was actually going to say pizza, but I thought “Can I say pizza? I don’t know if I can say pizza as my last meal.”, but truthfully, it could be pizza… I love Homeslice in Shoreditch. It’s such a good concept because there are no plates and you buy by the slice.

I went to Bocca di Lupo the other day, which was really nice. But I don’t really go out to restaurants in London that much.. If I do, I’ll go to a pizza place or Byron or Honest Burger - I go there all the time. My favourite cuisine is Italian, because pizza. And I love pasta.

I also recently realised that I’m gluten intolerant.

I’ve ignored it for now and I’m just working out how to go about doing that. I was just not feeling not great, very heavy and tired, bloated, so I went and had some tests and they said I shouldn’t eat wheat. This is quite a recent thing, so I’m just slowly trying to do it. I was staying at a friend’s house a week ago, and his mum is gluten intolerant and she made this amazing cake that was gluten free. She put it on the table and I thought “I’m going to hate this because it’s got nothing i it that I like in it.” and I honestly couldn’t believe how good it was.

I love that the whole time I’ve been talking about pizza and pasta and burgers and then I’m like “By the way I shouldn’t eat gluten.”.

I tried a gluten free pizza the other day from Franco Manca... It’s just not the same.

I hate sushi. I really wish I did like it - it feels like quite an antisocial thing not to like. There are actually so many things I don’t like! Swede. It reminds me of school. Coriander. Parsnips. Cauliflower. Anything too fussy or too posh. Mushrooms! I don’t get them at all. Game.

For breakfast today I had some cereal which is really boring for me because I love breakfast!