Director Nancy Meyers spends six months in an editing room fine-tuning her movies—and eating out of plastic containers. “We eat takeout for lunch and dinner six nights a week. I get so sick of it,” says the mastermind behind films like It’s Complicated and Something’s Gotta Give. It’s no surprise then that mealtime is an event when she’s in civilization, including lunches at New York’s ABC Cocina while filming The Intern (in theaters September 25). The only thing she never lacks on set: dessert. “The director’s chair has pockets where you’re supposed to keep your script,” she says, “but I always stash dark chocolate in there.” Meyers dishes on more of her favorite off-set meals below:
My kids think I have a pretty boring diet. I eat a basic Mediterranean diet—it happens to be what I like to eat, besides being very healthy. I have egg whites from veggie-fed eggs for breakfast. Because I eat mostly vegetables, I want the things I eat to eat vegetables, too. I try to put something green in them, like kale. Or white beans. I’ve been a fan of beans for a long time and I try to incorporate them in my diet wherever possible—I don’t eat red meat, so I try to get protein in other ways. I also love avocado on whole grain toast.
Chocolate, 100%. It’s an addiction. I worked with a supervisor on a film once who had to be hypnotized so she wouldn’t eat chocolate. I said, "Why would you deprive yourself of that?" I’d never train myself not to eat chocolate. I do not want to not eat chocolate. When we were filming The Intern in Brooklyn, there were so many fantastic shops with gourmet chocolate. I couldn’t get enough.
I like the one called Salty Dog. It’s by B.T. McElrath. It has crunchy toffee inside and it’s just delicious. Any chocolate with mint I love, too.
I love those, but there’s a Whole Foods version that I have boxes and boxes of in my freezer. Chocolate chip cookies are my all-time favorite. I made some two weeks ago for a party. They were just how I like them: extremely chewy. They’re huge, so I froze them individually before I baked them.
The director’s chair has pockets where you’re supposed to keep your script, but I always stash dark chocolate in there.
There’s a place in Martha’s Vineyard called the Artcliff Diner and they have the best pancakes I’ve ever had in my life. The kind of food you dream about. When I bit into them I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” My friend knows the owner and got us the recipe. The recipe was “and then add more, and then add some more.” Whatever the ingredients were, she added more of. More butter, more milk. That would be breakfast. If I didn’t worry about calories and if I had a private jet, I would have the fish tacos at ABC Cocina in New York for lunch. They’re, honest to god, extraordinary. Their chips and tomatillo sauce are just incredible. Then for dinner I would go to Joël Robuchon and order two orders of the gazpacho with mustard sorbet. That’s all I would eat there. That’s the best single food I’ve ever had in my life.
Very recently I tasted these incredible sandwiches from the Proof Bakery in Atwater Village. They’re on the thinnest, most wonderful baguettes. I easily could have eaten two. That’s my new favorite restaurant in LA.
I’m the kind of person who once I eat something somewhere, I will always order that dish again. That’s the whole reason for returning to a restaurant, I think. To have that amazing meal again. If I go to ABC Cocina again, I don’t want to not have those fish tacos. Maybe I’ll get something in addition, but no way I’m not ordering those.
When you’re making a movie, the first six months of it you’re prepping and shooting but then the second six months you’re in the editing room. Part of the world of the editing room is that you never leave. We eat takeout for lunch and dinner six nights a week. I get so sick of it. When I’m not in the editing room, I just want to eat on a real plate. Or a real fork. At the end of the movie, we all went to Nobu Malibu to celebrate. It’s a beautiful outdoor space. Everybody kept saying, “Look at these real plates! We have actual forks!” There’s something depressing about cartons and plastic.