Like Sturges, she is versatile (she writes, directs, and produces), has a gift for satire, and is supremely attuned to social trends. But Sturges was working in the great era of classical narrative film, and Ephron is working in a more diversified postmodern era, where cinema, like food, is expected to be increasingly surprising and allusive. As an accomplished cook and food writer, she is well placed not only to make a film about food but also to understand the many and ingenious ways in which food can be used in representation.