Kristen Bell: 'Cooking is My Love Language'

When Kristen Bell wants to show her affection for husband Dax Shepard, she heads straight to the kitchen.

“Cooking is my love language,” the actress says in the March issue of Food & Wine. “Sometimes it’s forceful—like, ‘I am going to make a meal for you!'”

But that doesn’t mean Shepard always loves everything that comes out of her oven right back.

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“I don’t get consistent rave reviews on anything I cook other than my chicken, and I don’t eat it, so it’s very ironic,” she says. “But I buy chicken breasts for Dax, and I do it ethically. Mary’s Free Range is pretty much a massage parlor for birds—they might actually get pedicures.”

Though the couple—who welcomed their second daughter together late last year—do agree on one flavor: spicy, especially when it comes to pizza.

“The place we like in L.A. is called Lucifers,” says Bell, 34. “You can order a pie that’s so spicy, you’ll feel it for 48 hours.”

And when they want to fire things up at home, the actress reaches into her collection of hot sauces.

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“The hottest one I have is called Akabanga. It’s made with a yellow chile from Rwanda, and it comes with an eyedropper,” she says. “I use gloves to handle it so I don’t end up in the hospital.”

Is it getting hot in here, or what?

—Ana Calderone, @anacalderone

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