Emma Freud meets Jason Isaacs

Our columnist chats to the actor about making movies, his Jewish heritage and the ‘mutant’ spaghetti bolognese he’s famed for among his family

Jason Isaacs is one of the UK’s busiest movie stars. His films include Green Zone, Peter Pan, and the Harry Potter series. He’s less well known for his cooking – but as our columnist found out, there’s an Italian chef inside him that longs to be acknowledged… by his children.

E: Tell me about this bolognese (on page 120). It’s brilliantly eccentric – how did it evolve?

J: It started when I was a student living in a shared house in Bristol and the only one who cooked. I could entirely indulge my twin desires: first, that every bite must be a sensory overload of riches – sweet, savoury and spicy – and, secondly, that everyone must be left undoing buttons and groaning with equal parts regret and delight. This recipe wins on both those accounts.

E: Do your children enjoy your food?

J: An interesting thing happened in lockdown – my kids won’t let me cook. Anything. They want their mum’s dishes and nothing else. I’m hoping it’s less a vote of no-confidence in me, and more a reflection of their hunger for the familiar during this strange time. It’s been great to have this feature as an excuse to cook this over-garlicky version of bolognese that’s usually eaten for weeks afterwards on toast in our house.

E: What role did food have in your home growing up?