Celebrity interviews have become pretty food heavy over the past few years. Viral series like Hot Ones, Chicken Shop Date, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, plus podcasts like Off Menu and Table Manners, and even smaller bites like Snack Wars and What I Eat In A Day all show a different side to celebrities than the more formal, suited and booted world of press junkets or late night TV. Seeing how people eat, and what their relationship with food is, makes people vulnerable and relatable in a way they rarely are if they’re just answering questions about their latest movie. Here’s our take on who we’d invite to our celebrity dinner party, based on what we’ve learned over the table so far.
Transcript
Who would you invite to your celebrity dinner party? Celebrity interviews have become pretty food heavy over the past few years. Viral series like Hot Ones, Chicken Shop Date, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, plus podcasts like Off Menu and Table Manners, and even smaller bites like Snack Wars and What I Eat In A Day all show a different side to celebrities than the more formal, suited and booted world of press junkets or late night TV.
And this culinary context is crucial. Seeing how people eat, and what their relationship with food is, makes people vulnerable and relatable in a way they rarely are if they’re just answering questions about their latest movie. These series also show us how important food is, and the different ways eating affects our lives.
Here’s our take on who we’d invite to our celebrity dinner party, based on what we’ve learned over the table so far.
Florence Pugh’s Vogue Mukbang
Florence Pugh loves food. Her father was a chef, and she regularly pops up on Instagram stories dressed down, making dinner, and answering questions from her fans. Many interviews play on this deep love for food that Flo has. She’s been on Hot Ones and Off Menu, she’s made Garlic Crostinis for Vogue and sat down to tea and biscuits with Sky Cinema.
In her hugely viral mukbang video for Vogue, there is a kind of incongruence to seeing someone dressed so glamorously gorging on plate after plate of decadent, but pretty everyday looking dishes. You get the impression that this is the food Florence grew up with, and maybe enjoys the most as a result. The effect of comfort food is that it’s disarming, and maybe makes you regress to a more youthful, perhaps more authentic version of yourself.
Often in celebrity interviews you get the sense that the subjects are either completely on script, giving the same answers to every question that comes their way. Or, they’ve been instructed to create a viral moment to help with whatever they’re promoting. But Flo doesn’t really seem like that here. Ostensibly the interview is to promote her Oscar nomination for Little Women, but you wouldn’t really know, because she’s just enjoying the food that’s put in front of her. And through that enjoyment, we see that despite the awards, the acclaim, the glamor, she’s still the same person she always has been – at least when she’s eating.
Selena Gomez on Hot Ones
If there’s a gold standard of celebrity food interviews, then it’s almost definitely Sean Evans’ Hot Ones series. Vanity Fair’s Natalie Jarvey writes that the hot sauce “broke down guests’ inhibitions and forced them to set aside their talking points.” But beyond that, the very fact that people sign up for something that is more like an endurance marathon than a standard Q&A gives us some idea about the kind of person they are.
Enter: Selena Gomez. What’s so funny about Selena’s interview is that she really doesn’t seem to know what’s coming. Hot Ones was big enough in 2019 to be welcomed onto Jimmy Fallon’s show, but maybe not the cultural kingmaker it is now. And so Selena goes from pretty chill to pretty chaotic, almost surprising herself (she admitted to throwing up in her dressing room after the segment).
With some celebrities we’re so used to seeing the manicured image of them that it’s hard to see beyond that. And with child stars, who we’ve watched grow up through their shows and their albums, this is more pronounced. But here, that image slips in the blink of an eye. The tears come, the panic starts, and any pretense of poise goes out of the window. And we love her for that.
Pedro Pascal on Hot Ones
For Pedro Pascal, the Hot Ones format allows him to embody the Chilean idea of picardia — which roughly translates to foolishness, madness, or roguishness. As Pascal has risen to stardom in recent years, he has been open and proud about his Chilean-ness, donning the flag on SNL and gushing about Chilean food on Snack Wars. But here, he embodies something deeper that speaks to his roots, and maybe is only properly recognised by Chilean audiences. It’s quite common for actors from non-American cultural backgrounds to be asked about their heritage — we’ve just seen it with Florence and her eleven British dishes — but what’s maybe rarer is creating the conditions for them to embody their heritage without having to talk about it.
Mila Kunis on Everything I Eat in a Day
Harper’s Bazaar’s Everything I Eat In A Day series is fascinating because we see how food fits into the incredibly busy lives that successful artists have. When you’re always on the clock, can you even make time for good food?
What’s so interesting about Mila Kunis’ take on the format is how similar it feels to the life of any working Mom. It’s centered around convenience. And sometimes, it’s about relying on other people to think about food for you — outsourcing whatever you possibly can because you just don’t have time for everything.
There’s also a low level of frivolity to Mila’s video that’s kinda refreshing. We’re able to see how, when you have a family, suddenly your approach to food has to change because you now have to provide for your kid. And what’s funny is how honest Mila is about that — the challenge of it, but also kinda the silliness of it too. It really feels like she’s got the balance right — between maintaining a good relationship with food, but not worrying too much about it, and not having it take up too much of her time. Which brings us to…
Gwyneth Paltrow on Everything I Eat in a Day
The lifestyle influencer of lifestyle influencers, it’s maybe no surprise that Gwyneth Paltrow’s take on this series is…a little extra. Spoonfuls of coconut oil to start the day, Goop branded vitamin-c supplements for the gym, expensive green smoothies, protein bars. You kinda just wanna tell her to let loose! But – in the opposite way from Mila’s – there’s something reassuring about this window into Gwyneth’s lifestyle too, precisely because it’s not how normal people eat. Some of what she’s doing may be healthier…but it doesn’t always look that much fun or truly enviable.
This kind of extreme micro-management of vitamins and probiotics and daily habits comes from having lots of time and money, and also living with the pressure of looking a certain way — which, undoubtedly, Gwyneth does have to live with, both as a Hollywood star and as a CEO whose company is all about women wanting to emulate her. Perhaps it’s hard to have a joyful relationship with food when you do live under that pressure.
Gordon Ramsay’s TikTok Reviews (And Uncle Roger’s Too)
Meanwhile, what is online food culture like through the eyes of a chef? Gordon Ramsay savaged the quality of his hot ones wings, and spat out sweets on Snack Wars. But at the same time, he works to demystify a lot of cheffy techniques, and behind all the bluster and abuse…he just does want people to eat well.
And you do get this impression from his TikToks. Because of Ramsay’s reputation, it feels like there’s this desire among people on the internet to get hazed by him. But watching online food culture through the eyes of someone for whom food is his job really opens our eyes to how odd food culture is. The bizarre flavor combinations that will obviously never taste good. The gigantic portions and extreme levels of heat. The techniques that seem tailor-made not to whet your appetite, but just to get views online.
Really this is a million miles away from how food media started. It used to be purely aspirational and instructive. But the other thing it did was make “experts” out of people who, in truth, probably aren’t experts. Uncle Roger’s TikTok’s too help explode some of those myths. If Gordon is out here shining a light on the things we know look ridiculous, then Uncle Roger is casting a side-eye at things that, to the untrained eye, probably don’t look all that bad. If you listen to the two of them, you’re probably safe to be on the straight and narrow.
It’s sometimes hard to learn who celebrities really are through the typical interview format. But food is the great leveler. It can tell you a lot about who someone is, without them really having to say all that much.
So this new era of celebrity interviews has really shown us a new side to people, allowed them to relax, to open up, and to get us to meet the real them. Truthfully, we’d love to have all these stars over for dinner…even Gwyneth!
Sources
Green Rioja, Romina A. “Why Pedro Pascal Being Unabashedly Chilean Matters.” Radical History Review, 8 Mar. 2023,
https://www.radicalhistoryreview.org/abusablepast/why-pedro-pascal-being-unabashedly-chilean-matters
Harmata, Claudia. “Selena Gomez Cries During ‘Hot Ones’ Segment with Jimmy Fallon: ‘I’m Gonna Regret This’.” People, Meredith Corporation, 12 June 2019, https://people.com/music/selena-gomez-cries-during-jimmy-fallon-hot-ones/
Jarvey, Natalie. “How Hot Ones Turned Spicy Chicken Wings Into Celebrity Interview Gold.” Vanity Fair, Condé Nast, 1 Nov. 2022, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/10/how-hot-ones-turned-spicy-chicken-wings-into-celebrity-interview-gold