Amanda Peet on Going Gluten-Free...Until She's a Couple of Drinks In

Sounds like you have a complicated relationship with going gluten-free.

We live in Belfast every summer because my husband [David Benioff] runs Game of Thrones, and this summer I noticed a lot of gluten-free options. It made me really depressed. I was like, The world is really going to pot.'"

Have you tried other fad diets?

There was that whole low-fat thing when I was younger. If you taste it now, anything low-fat doesn't taste right. It tastes like chemicals.

Is there any other food trend you won't get on board with?

I have daughters, so I try not to have that calorie-counting mentality. I try not to expose them to that because I think girls should just play sports and not think about food until as late as possible.

Are you trying to make sure they're open-minded with food?

My kids are awesome. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but they're pretty adventurous. They always have been. We thought it might help if they pretty much ate whatever was for dinner when they were babies. Frankie was my first, and she's actually the best eater. She'll eat shrimp eyeballs and squid—pretty much anything. We just always say what my mother would say: [in an imposing voice] "This is not a restaurant! Whatever's for dinner is what's for dinner!"

What's one dish of your mothers you really didn't want to eat?

Well I was fairly easy. My sister was a little tougher. We lived in London when we were growing up, and every Sunday we'd try a restaurant from a different country. We'd go to a Vietnamese restaurant one week, then a Thai restaurant, then an Ethiopian. And I'd show off just to beat my sister. I guess it became a competitive thing.

You mentioned wine and martinis before. How do you take your martinis, and what's your favorite kind of wine?

I like my martinis very dirty and very cold. I like a sauvignon dlanc, dry.

Have you always been into wine?

No. It's part of my midlife crisis. I never understood people who have a drink at the end of the day. I thought it was really weird and incredibly unhealthy; now I think it's fantastic.

What are your strengths in the kitchen?

I make a really good three-hour Bolognese with pork, beef, and veal, and it cooks in milk and wine. Then the tomatoes go in and it cooks for three hours. I make a pretty good roast chicken, too, although my husband David makes a really good beer roast chicken that rivals mine for sure. I'll make things that are new, from a recipe. He doesn't really look at recipes.

Did either of you cook anything to impress the other person early on in your relationship?

Well I was too scared to cook for him in the beginning. It took me five years or something before I'd really try and present something as dinner. Because he loves food so much, I was really scared. So in the beginning, he mostly cooked for our first baby. It was when we started to be in Belfast and he would be busy with filming that I'd take over that part of our family. But it was really scary for me in the beginning because I was so embarrassed even though I had been married to him [for five years].