What is the favourite dish that your family would want you to make?

Before I did the movie, I used to be in the kitchen when I had to pass through to go to another room. That was the extent of my work in the kitchen. I mean I CAN cook. My kids are fed… don’t call in the authorities or anything like that… but I cook nothing to the caliber at which Kate can cook in No Reservations.

When I cook I am pretty good at doing a traditional British roast - whether it be a chicken or some meat. I don’t make kid food for the children; they eat what the grown-ups eat.

They have been brought up like that and they are used to it. They sit down at the table, put the napkin where it belongs and we enjoy having sit-down lunches all together.

My husband makes a mean Sunday breakfast…a brunch. And he is brilliant at the barbecue, which I am not allowed to touch. What is it about men and the barbecue! If I lift the barbecue lid he goes…don't touch it, it’s fine!

How does the kitchen and cinema sit together as a metaphor?

I think the metaphor is more the kitchen and movie stars. All of a sudden the phenomenon has happened where chefs are on the front page of magazines, they have their own TV shows, they are writing books and signing autographs. It is like they are the movie stars or rock stars of their world.

Do you think making No Reservations will change your attitude to cooking?

Do you want the truth or do you want me to wax lyrically about how now I am thinking of doing a recipe book like Nigella Lawson… or doing a TV show with Martha Stewart? What it has done though is give me more confidence.

When I am not good at something I tend to throw in the towel, decide I can’t do it, and move on. But I was trained really well for this film; I was in the kitchen for two weeks.

At first I was terrified that I was going to knock things over. But I wanted to make sure that I was completely convincing in the kitchen, that I was in my environment and I could move around taking food orders. I got a lot of confidence doing that.

I have cooked a little bit after the movie and I have much more confidence now because I know that I can do it. I have so many cookbooks, but I only ever look at the pictures!

Had you seen the original German movie Mostly Martha?

I did. When I read the script for No Reservations though, I did not know that there was another movie. When I read the script I put it down and thought… I  have to do this! Then, of course, I thought I would not see the original, but I had to and I fell so much in love with it.

There is an argument about just leaving it like that, but it was not a movie that was widely seen internationally and the story was very German and it just lent itself to be transferred to New York and given a different energy. And I just wanted to play her.

For a long time I had been looking for a character that was different to the ones I have played before… more vulnerable and with a sensitivity… which is me.

Because of the characters I have played there is this ball-busting façade - which is fine of Chicago and Traffic and all that stuff. But I had been looking for a long time.

How long did it take to do the tablecloth trick in No Reservations?

It took hours. For the tablecloth thing I thought that I was never going to be able to do that!
Sometimes you read things in the script and you go - that is never going to happen!

I had tables set up all around the set and when they were changing the camera or moving I would practice with weighted down plastic on the tables. And I’d spill everything and have to apologise. Then when I nailed it - it was great! I wanted everyone to see it.

What about your screen chemistry with Aaron Eckhart?

The one thing you can’t rehearse is chemistry on film. You can have the two best actors in the world, or even husband and wife and yet when you put them together, there is no spark, no nothing. It is one of the things that just comes when you are lucky.

And when you are on set you feel that je ne sais quoi and you are relieved because it is one less thing to worry about.