Whether he’s exploring local restaurants or reminiscing about childhood snacks, Nicholas Duvernay has a lot to say about food, and he does it with heart. Best known for his roles in White Lotus and Purple Hearts, Duvernay recently partnered with Olipop and took some time to chat about his favorite foodie follows, nostalgic cravings, and the kitchen products he swears by. What followed was a conversation as cozy and candid as your favorite comfort meal.
Spoon University: What’s a recent meal you had that you just can’t stop thinking about? What made it so great?
Nicholas Duvernay: Oh my goodness! Okay. I went to Paris for Paris Fashion Week [a few] weeks ago now. I have no concept of time at the moment. One of my friends introduced me to this restaurant called Babylone Bis. It’s like a Caribbean, Ethiopian mix fusion restaurant. They had this like a full fish, but the fish was good. They had this one sauce, it was like olive oil and fresh cilantro. And then there was a red sauce that was tangy. I’ve never had anything like that in my life, and it’s still my favorite meal to this day. And was really weird cause the place was kind of like in the cut somewhere, like the door wasn’t open. You kind of didn’t even tell it was a restaurant. You had to knock on the door for them to let you in, and they open the door, and they just look at you, and you’re like, “Could I have a table for three?” And they’re like, “Yeah, come on in,” and they’re just like slinging fresh fish. They had great plantains. Also, the chicken was really good. I mean just all around great.
SU: What’s your most visited chain? What do you order?
ND: Recently, I’m super late, but I’ve recently just got introduced to Sweet Green, and I’ve just been obsessed for the last few months just because it’s so simple. It’s just healthy ingredients, ya know? I come from like a Prime, Chipotle background. So like, 2008 Chipotle was the best thing in the world, right? You know, Chipotle’s kind of gone downhill since then, but Sweet Green is kind of that for me right now. You go there and you know exactly what you’re going to get, and it’s gonna be amazing. I usually aim for the salmon, and I’m still in my early kind of like crafting of my own secret menu over there. I’m still messing with a few things, but as of right now, I’m just kind of like bare-bones-ing it.
SU: What’s a local food spot in your town you always recommend to people passing through?
ND: I’m a big fan of Catch. Maybe it’s not local, or I guess it is local, but I think they have the best seafood in L.A. that I’ve tried. It’s pretty commercial, so it’s not like a lowkey local spot, but I always enjoy. They have great sushi. Also great steaks. Just all around, I’ve never had a bad meal there, and I can always — you know, you don’t want to send somebody somewhere and you’re not sure how the food is gonna come out, so Catch is always a solid choice for me.
SU: I love the campaign you’re doing with OLIPOP! What is it about the company that influenced you to work with them?
ND: I’d say health is the biggest part. I think it’s becoming more and more important to find things that are nurturing our bodies. I didn’t grow up always eating the healthiest foods, and as you get older, you kind of have to start watching what you’re eating, how much sugar you’re having, how much fat is in everything, and blah blah blah. You know, and that can get tiresome when you want certain tastes and you want to enjoy certain things, and as you’ve seen from the stories, soda was a big part of my upbringing. Finding a healthy alternative that actually tastes somewhat close to the original is extremely hard to find. I mean there’s very few companies that are doing it at a high level, and OLIPOP has been my favorite, specifically for the Root Beer. I think that the Cream Soda is actually the first flavor I had, which blew my mind away. I love the root beer, but the cream soda is a really close runner-up for me, so not even in just that specific flavor, but overall, their products, I think, they do a really good job with getting close to the real thing.
SU: Is there a specific reason you guys are choosing to recreate the “Got Milk?” campaign?
ND: I think we all love nostalgia, you know. It’s funny nostalgia because it’s like within nostalgia, so it’s like a double dipping in a way. But yeah, I mean, the timelessness of it. It’s also funny because at a point in time, we really were posing like that. You know, that was just what you did. Like the little Macy’s photoshoots or the super corny throwback photoshoots. I think it’s always funny to reinvent the wheel or bring back some old ideas, in a fresh way at least.
SU: Has your time on White Lotus influenced any of your food choices?
ND: Oh yes, being that I was in Thailand for 6 months, I’ve severely cut back on my Thai food consumption since I’ve been home. I think I really just got a fill of everything Thai food I could’ve ever wanted, and so it’s like the best Thai food I’ve ever had. So coming back to the States, it just doesn’t hit quite the same. I’ve started to eat a lot more papaya. The papaya salads, I just kind of crave that flavor now. There’s this one place I do go to. It’s a vegan cafe in Studio City in North Hollywood called H.O.P.E. It’s like a vegan, Thai fusion kind of thing, but they have a papaya salad that I love there.
SU: What are your favorite nostalgic foods?
ND: I always lean towards macaroni and cheese, probably. Just like my grandmother used to make it all the time, again, this is not like a soda story thing, but yeah. My grandmother, every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, or like a special occasion, I would ask my grandmother to make her specific mac and cheese. She just uses different cheeses, green peppers, onions, and she would bake it. And it was just completely different to like where you go to a restaurant or like a buffet and you get your gooey mac n cheese. You know, I just always loved how she would make it. So any time I have a good baked mac n cheese I definitely just think back to my grandmother. And she still makes it, but it just brings me right back to childhood. I’m a mama’s boy, I’m a granny’s boy, and I’m a foodie, so anything with those two combined I got all the stories.