The press has turned scraps into something ceremonial. Even budget dinners, the kind you’d normally rush through, take on the gravity of occasion when they emerge golden, oozing, crisp-edged. We kept ...

But after the salon, she emerges with a full, beautiful head of curls. “Our hair designer actually storyboarded Nina’s hair beginning to end in the movie,” said Hudes.

Maybe it’s happiest tucked into a cast-iron skillet, going golden and jammy while the showier types preen in their baskets. Maybe, like all the best underdogs — your second-favorite tote bag, the ...