“It’s so sick and twisted, the like immediate joy,” Vogue’s summer 2026 cover star Gracie Abrams says, after taking a sip of her martini in a new episode of Vogue’s Now Serving video series. The bigger joy comes when the singer remembers that she has leeks in the oven—Corre Larkin’s French braised leeks, to be exact. “I figured comfort drink, comfort dish would be nice to do today,” she explains.

As Abrams chops her ingredients, she explains that comfort meals like this one played an important role during the making of her upcoming album, Daughter from Hell, which is out July 17.

“When tour ended, it was the first time in a long time that I had access to a kitchen again, and that was a big deal because I’ve always loved to cook,” she says. “It just puts me in a meditative state. Comfort meals, as I was in the studio making this record, became very important. It was winter in London, and this was delicious and warm and cozy.”

For Abrams, opening up to writer Brittany Spanos for the cover story meant flexing a muscle she hadn’t used for a while. As she zests a lemon into the pan, she says: “It feels like it’s been a second since I’ve had that hat on, where I’ve like talked about myself or new music,” Abrams says. “I get nervous, I get nervous. I just do. But it’s really easy to talk about what the process of making this album was like because I felt like I was able to be really present for it. We weren’t touring.”

Stirring her sauce, she says that Aaron Dessner, her friend, co-producer, and co-writer, taught her that in making her third album, “a big pivot isn’t always necessary.” Instead, she leaned into her “inherent sound and calling” and mined deeper, drawing inspiration from her childhood. “My feeling about this album is that what it explores is really what it is to be in your 20s,” she shares. “I feel like it encapsulates that in-between time quite well, for me at least.”

While her leeks are cooking, she shakes up one of her favorite drinks: a “filthy” gin martini. “I love an extra dirty gin martini. It makes me feel alive and well,” she muses. After deeming the drink not cloudy enough for her taste, she breaks bartending rules a little and adds more brine to the glass. “I like it to taste like the ocean,” she says.

A few sips later, Abrams triumphantly takes her leeks out of the oven. She tears a piece of sourdough bread, spoons a leek onto it, tastes it, and does a little happy jump-dance. “I’m quite distracted by how delicious this is and want everyone to try it,” she says. Some of the Vogue team give it a taste. The review? “10 out of 10.”

Above, watch Gracie Abrams’s Now Serving video for Vogue, and read the cover story here.

Director: Nina Ljeti
Director Of Photography: Cory Fraiman-Lott
Editor: Katie Wolford

Senior Producer: Bety Dereje
Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg
1st Assistant Camera: Austin Smoak
Gaffer: Jonathan Alvarado
Audio: Mariya Chulichkova
Food Stylist: Jessica Do
Production Assistant: Myles Haywood

Stylist: Spencer Singer
Stylist Assistant: Josh Hickman
Makeup Artist: Mia Jones
Hairstylist: Arbana Dollani

Production Coordinator: Tanía Jones
Production Manager: Kristen Helmick
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors

Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch

Entertainment Director: Sergio Kletnoy
Executive Producer: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Video : Romy van den Broeke
Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri

Florist: Anneka Miller Floral