Food Talks: 6 Questions with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

You may have watched all six seasons of Game of Thrones, but you still don't know how Nikolaj Coster-Waldau likes his pasta!

In the Food Talks series, we interview celebrities on their favorite Italian restaurants, wines, recipes… Because Hollywood people love Italian food just like anyone else!

In his last role in the movie Shot Caller, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays a successful businessman who goes to prison after killing his best friend in a fatal car accident. There, in order to survive the American prison system, he becomes Money, a member of the white supremacist prison gang, We met him at the London Hotel in West Hollywood for coffe and a chitchat.

Six Things You Didn’t Know about Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

1. Prison food is bad. “Yeah, I mean it’s cheap, it’s all about cost, it’ll keep you alive for sure but it’s not great and I don’t think anyone expects it to be great. There’s one scene where we got this tray, a real tray, with everyday prison food on it…and it looked like crappy airplane food”.
2. The food in GoT, is great! “Absolutely. The first season was one of the most amazing, there was a big feast in the pilot, we were at Winterfell, and the table was filled with food, and every dish was made by this lady who had medieval recipes and everything was edible, it was the most amazing thing. We had pheasants, ducks, entire pigs, wild boars, chicken, steaks, fish…They haven’t done that since because I’m sure it was way too expensive, but you could eat everything. Or maybe because they were afraid we would not fit into our costume?”.
3. I love to cook. “I’ll eat anything. I cook, I do some great lamb, fish, roasts. I make frikadeller, Danish meatballs, very close to Italian polpette for my daughters, Philippa and Safina.
 I like to cook good food because I was raised by a single mom, and in the kitchen she was terrible …but she loved me very much!”.
4. If want a bowl of pasta… “I’ll go to an Iitalian restaurant! Love Dan Tana, kind of an old-school-Italian-Vegas restaurant! I love their surf&turf. I don’t cook pasta that much but I can make a pretty good brisket on the BBQ. I roast it outdoor, I try to keep the temperature low enough so I can leave it in for 3 hours, it’s all about the temperature. You wrap it in tinfoil with Italian herbs and garlic. Delicious!”.
5. One of my favorite restaurants is… “Noma, two Michelin star restaurant run by chef René Redzepi in Copenhagen. I love the Pickled and Smoked Quail’s Egg, two steaming quail eggs on a bed of straw. They are warm and explode in your mouth with sweet, runny yolk.”
6. Always in my fridge. “Lots of vegetables, various milks, yogurt, juices, smoked salmon, sausages, some butter, eggs”.

Cover photo courtesy of HBO. All rights reserved.