[Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP. Lasagna photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt] [Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP. Lasagna photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

For the first episode of the new season of Special Sauce I invited on a very special guest: the brilliant, original, and always thoughtful Adam Driver. We talked about his unusual path to an acting career, which took him through the Marines. His time in the armed services had a profound influence on his life and work, which he talks about in poignant detail. And we talked about Arts in the Armed Forces, the extraordinary non-profit he and his wife, Joanne Tucker, founded. The organization puts on performances of monologues and music for military personnel and their families both domestically and all around the world.

Adam and I spoke about a range of other topics, including how he managed to lose 50 pounds for his role in Martin Scorsese's "Silence," and how he has taken up cooking—he admits to not being very good at it—on his infrequent breaks. I also got the opportunity to ask about the dinner Kenji had recently cooked for Adam and Joanne:

Ed: And is it true, he told me this, that you had a bowl of cereal after the dinner of fish tacos while Kenji did the dishes?

Adam: That's probably true yeah, which is...I hope it wasn't an insult, I just eat a lot of food.

Ed: No, he didn't take it as an insult because I think he asked your wife and she said, "He does that frequently."

Adam: Yeah. All the time. Just eat a dinner, then eat a dinner after the dinner because it's usually not enough.

Ed: Does it matter what the second dinner is? Is it usually cereal?

Adam: I think yeah, just whatever's in the house.

Ed: Got it. So cereal's easy.

Adam: Yeah, cereal's ... and plus I'm not a very good cook. It's something I'm been working on the past couple months, but it's like that Jerry Seinfeld thing that he says about cereal, where you feel like you're eating and drinking at the same time. The multi-tasking of it, it's so easy. You know?

Adam Driver is funny, smart, thoughtful, and loves to eat and cook. In short, he's the perfect Special Sauce guest, as you'll find out when you check out Part 1 of his visit to the Special Sauce studios.

Special Sauce is available on iTunes, Google Play Music, Soundcloud, Player FM, and Stitcher. You can also find the archive of all our episodes here on Serious Eats and on this RSS feed.

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