If you’re trapped inside with a significant other, by now you’ve wrangled over everything from dish duty to the way in which he insists on putting hot sauce on everything but cereal. If you’re single, you’re probably diving for the last remaining frozen pizza in the grocery store, and giving the stink eye to careless teens who come within six feet of you in the freezer aisle. You’re not alone. These stories, curated with the online food and cooking community Food52 and introduced by Robert Sean Leonard, deal with just these sorts of culinary combat. In J. Robert Lennon’s “Breadman,” artisanal bread threatens a marriage. Kyle MacLachlan is the incredulous spouse. And Joan Allen performs an excerpt from Nora Ephron’s novel Heartburn, a slice of infidelity in which there are consequences—and pie.
ACTORS & ARTISTS
Joan Allen began her New York career off-Broadway in a production of And a Nightingale Sang. Her Broadway credits include Burn This, for which she received a Tony Award for Best Actress, The Heidi Chronicles, Impressionism, and The Waverly Gallery. She is an original member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she has appeared in more than 25 productions, including Balm in Gilead and The Wheel. Allen is a three-time Academy Award nominee, receiving Best Supporting Actress nominations for Nixon and The Crucible, and a Best Actress nomination for The Contender. Additional film credits include Pleasantville, Face/Off, The Notebook, The Ice Storm, The Upside of Anger, The Bourne Identity series, and Room. On television, she is known for her portrayal of Georgia O’Keefe in the 2009 biopic of the same name, and she has had recurring roles in Luck, The Killing, The Family, and forthcoming, Lisey’s Story.
Nora Ephron (1941 - 2012) was the author of six essay collections, including I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, a New York Times bestseller; I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections; and the novel Heartburn. She received Academy Award nominations for best original screenplay for When Harry Met Sally..., Silkwood, and Sleepless in Seattle, which she also directed. Additional films include You’ve Got Mail and Julie & Julia, and the plays Love, Loss, and What I Wore, with Delia Ephron; and Lucky Guy, for which she received a posthumous Tony Award nomination. Ephron is the subject of the documentary Everything Is Copy.
J. Robert Lennon is the author of eight novels, including Mailman, Familiar, and Broken River, and the story collections Pieces for the Left Hand and See You in Paradise. His stories have been featured in The Paris Review, Granta, Harper’s, Playboy, Electric Literature, and The New Yorker, among other publications, and in anthologies including Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. Lennon teaches creative writing at Cornell University. He is also a musician and composer.
Robert Sean Leonard won a Tony Award for his performance in The Invention of Love and earned nominations for his work in Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Candida. He has also appeared on Broadway in The Speed of Darkness, Arcadia, The Iceman Cometh, The Music Man, Sunday in the Park with George, and At Home at the Zoo, among other roles both on and off-Broadway. His film credits include Dead Poets Society, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Swing Kids, Much Ado About Nothing, The Age of Innocence, In the Gloaming, The Last Days of Disco, The Killer, Tape, and A Painted House. His television credits include featured roles on House, Falling Skies, the miniseries The Hot Zone, and The Good Doctor.
Kyle MacLachlan is best known for his leading role as Special Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, for which he won a Golden Globe Award, as well as its prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and the 2017 limited series revival. His film and television credits include Dune, Blue Velvet, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, The Good Wife, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Inside Out, Portlandia, Giant Little Ones, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, High Flying Bird, Tesla, and Carol’s Second Act. He will appear in the forthcoming film Fonzo and the television series Atlantic Crossing. MacLachlan is also a winemaker, producing in the Walla Walla region of Washington State under the label Pursued by Bear.
