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Jason Biggs dishes on the 'shocking' food wife Jenny Mollen craved during her pregnancies

Jason Biggs and Jenny Mollen married in 2008 and say they're still learning to work around one another in the kitchen. (Photo: Getty; designed by Areta Gjicali)
Jason Biggs and Jenny Mollen married in 2008 and say they're still learning to work around one another in the kitchen. (Photo: Getty; designed by Areta Gjicali)

Because food connects us all, Yahoo Life is serving up a heaping plateful of table talk with people who are passionate about what's on their menu in Deglazed, a series about food.

Jason Biggs and Jenny Mollen look like quite the team on social media, but the actors say looks can be deceiving. "We don't work together very well," Mollen tells Yahoo Life. "Jason is 'EE' — that's his nickname — 'expert on everything.' When he is in the kitchen, it needs to be his way."

"He needs to have the refrigerator doors closed and cupboards closed and drawers not opened," she adds, "and I like to have everything open so I can have access to everything at all times."

Biggs claims to know his way around the kitchen. "I'm a good protein and pasta guy," he says. "I'm a good follower of instructions for recipes, but Jenny is great with the veggies. So, we divide and conquer when it comes to a big holiday."

Mollen adds Biggs' attention to detail can be irritating. "I have this green bean recipe with cherry tomatoes," she says. "I found it somewhere and then I taught Jason how to make it and because Jason is more of a rule follower and perfectionist, he ended up making it better than me ... so it enables me to never make it again."

Having grown up in an Italian American household in New Jersey, Biggs says Sunday dinners are a tradition he tries to keep alive. "I make the pasta and homemade sauce and you know, sometimes I'll even whip it out on a Wednesday," he says. "I love Sunday dinners. That's a very fun memory of growing up."

When it comes to pizza, Biggs says Margherita, a pizza variety known for its mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, is the way to go. "For me, you judge a pizza place by its cheese pizza," he says.

But Mollen, who steers clear of dairy, says "it's all about the sauce."

"I need to have a great sauce, some olive oil and maybe some basil," she continues. "I like a good marinara with crushed garlic on top."

Mollen, the healthier eater of the two, did break down and eat McDonald's fries when she was pregnant. Biggs is still in disbelief, calling the event "shocking." When Biggs has a hankering for fast-food, he sticks to his East Coast roots. "For me Shake Shack would be the call," he says. "I lived in L.A. for a long time. People swear by In-N-Out, but it's not my thing. I much prefer Shake Shack."

"It's a very rare, once-every-three-year kind of craving where I want that," adds Biggs, "but then I am messed up for four days. My body is no longer the wonderland it once was, you know? You might not be able to tell that from looking at me, but my innards are a disaster."

Mollen loves grocery shopping, and says she'll opt for heading out in person as opposed to delivery. "I like to eat as I shop," she shares. "I like to open everything before it's washed and just sort of start snacking on it as I go."

"In New York, it's easy to order groceries and have them delivered, but then I'm so mad because the avocado is mush and the berries look like they lived five lives," she continues, "so, I find that I have to go to the grocery store and go through everything. Plus it's great, I just get so much inspiration from the grocery store."

Last year, Mollen released her first cookbook, Dictator Lunches, named after her foodie Instagram account of the same name, where she shares the elaborate lunches she makes for her sons, Sid, 8, and Lazlo, 5. The 43-year-old actress shares that creating these lunches has expanded her kids' palates. "Sid blows my mind," she says. "He's like a super-taster and maybe he just has sensory issues in general, but he will taste the sauce and be like, 'Oh there's ginger in this,' where I have no idea."

"He eats raw fish, he'll do pumpkin soup," she adds, "he'll do Brussels sprouts if I swear that I won't tell anybody."

But Biggs says there's still plenty of room for the foods kids are known to love. "Look at the end of the day, if you ask them their favorite food, they're going to say pizza — they're still kids," he says. "By the way, my favorite food is pizza."

Biggs and Mollen spoke with Yahoo Life as part of their work promoting Babybel, which has launched its first vegan cheese. The two love birds, who married in 2008, have teamed up for the Babybel "First Time" experience to support cheese-lovers as they lose their "V-card" by trying the new vegan cheese.

Biggs says their kids also love the plant-based snack. "They were very excited about these new Babybel plant-based cheeses because we are a Babybel house and they are always snacking on the original," says Biggs. "There are different colors, they'll say, 'Give me a blue one or can we get the red ones?' When we brought green into the equation, they're like, 'What is that? I need to try that.'"

"They love the taste of them, and we're psyched because we can send it to school. There are no nuts, no allergy issues and our little guy has dairy issues," Mollen explains. "I'm all about getting rid of the dairy: That's been my battle cry for a long time, to ban chocolate milk in schools."

Mollen says the new vegan Babybel tastes like mozzarella ... without the dairy. "I couldn't figure out what the base was at first," Biggs agrees, "It's coconut. I am a connoisseur of all this alternative stuff, but I had no idea it was coconut. It tastes like mozzarella, it really does."

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