Lisa Ann Walter is breaking down which meals she absolutely cannot live without.
“It’s gonna end with chocolate cake,” the Abbott Elementary star, 60, exclusively says in the latest issue of Us Weekly of her favorite comfort meal while promoting her partnership with Centrum Menopause Support. “I like all cakes, I’m not a cake [hater.]”
Walter jokes that while she despises coconut most of the time, if it’s involved with a cake she won’t turn it away. However, her ideal cake is a chocolate — and the kind of frosting doesn’t matter to her one bit.
“But chocolate cake, chocolate frosting or white frosting, that is my comfort go-to favorite dessert,” she gushes.
In addition to cake, Walter is also an avid lover of barbeque and Italian cuisine as she loves to “cook anything.” Like her character on Abbott Elementary, Melissa Schemmenti, Walter knows how to make a mean pasta. There’s one specific dish that she made for one of the ABC series producers, who considers himself a major foodie, that swept him off his feet.
“I [hosted] a couple of big dinners for all of the cast and everybody came over and Randall [Einhorn] was there on the second one, I think,” she recalls. “I made this dish called Macaroni Pesarese.”
Walter explains that the pasta calls for Occhi di Lupo — which means wolf eye — but you can get by with rigatoni. The recipe calls for minced turkey, minced prosciutto, onion and brown mushrooms with olive oil and “a bit of butter” that is cooked together in white wine to make sauce. The pasta is stuffed with the mixture and layered with gruyere cheese, cream and butter over each layer.
“I can’t even tell you how much Randall loved it so much [that] I gave him the recipe,” she tells Us. “He lost it and he called me from his house and he said ‘I have to make that pasta dish that you made please gimme the recipe right now.’ So I told it to him on the phone. Hopefully, he didn’t lose that one.”
Walter’s passion for cooking started at a young age as she began preparing meals for her family at age 13 since her childhood consisted of “pizza and hot dogs.”
“Baby I’m Gen X, we did our own upbringing,” she jokes. “We raised our own selves.”
Now, Walter’s palette has evolved as she opts for a decaf Americano and egg whites or oatmeal in the morning. When the actress doesn’t feel like preparing a home-cooked meal, Walter enjoys getting pho from the spot Let Pho in Sherman Oaks, California.
In addition to being a bonafide foodie, Walter also advocates for spreading awareness about menopause. She has teamed up with Centrum to launch the training video, Hot Conversations with Centrum, to teach a lesson on the condition.
“This is an avenue for women or for men — really for all people — to go to when they have confusion about menopause, symptoms and to destigmatize it. It is basically a place to go and discuss it so that we’re not acting like it’s some kind of hidden, shady and dark secretive thing that we’re not allowed to talk about,” Walter explains. “It takes the guessing out of it.”
Hot Conversations with Centrum dropped in July and it provides information about menopause while fostering understanding and encouraging support.
“Everybody’s circumstances and symptoms are different. Places like Hot Conversations allow you to go and talk about it,” she tells Us. “I think women are more aware because it’s being talked about a little bit more.”
For more on Walter, pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, which now includes 12 additional pages, on stands now.
With reporting by Travis Cronin
