Speaker 1: Welcome to River Cafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Adami Studios.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's get the show on the road. David Beckham,
Speaker 2: So she's head chef. What are you everything?
Speaker 3: Okay, whatever you want me to do.
Speaker 4: I want a job, Beckham, I would.
Speaker 2: Love to job.
Speaker 3: I need a job.
Speaker 2: Job, you need a job. So I'm here today with
Speaker 2: Sean Winowen, the head chef, and the River Cafe, and
Speaker 2: my friend David Beckham.
Speaker 4: And it's now twenty.
Speaker 2: To six and people are coming in soon. So the
Speaker 2: two of you better get going. What are you going
Speaker 2: to make?
Speaker 4: We are making? Tell me Kelly, you're.
Speaker 2: Happy with that, chef.
Speaker 3: I'm more than happy with that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, David.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's check Vid.
Speaker 4: It's going to cook, okay, Okay, right, give it a
Speaker 4: really good shake, yeah, maake it shaky and a bit
Speaker 4: of parsley.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 4: What do you like cooking at home?
Speaker 2: David?
Speaker 5: What do I like cooking at To be honest, my
Speaker 5: kids are obsessed with Italian food, So the majority of
Speaker 5: the time they get me to make like a raggedy
Speaker 5: because the kids love I.
Speaker 4: Could tell when you're shaking the pane that you weren't
Speaker 4: just in office.
Speaker 3: Quite impressive.
Speaker 2: You made it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we could turn them into quite useful shop.
Speaker 4: And he has done a cooking course, it transpires, La,
Speaker 4: I'm really impressed by that. Actually, So that was good.
Speaker 2: Now it's time to talk. Start beating and we'll talk.
Speaker 3: Can I take you with.
Speaker 2: Me, journey, take it with Okay. We have an open
Speaker 2: kitchen and one of the great pleasures for me is
Speaker 2: being able to see the reaction of people eating, you know,
Speaker 2: whether they love it or they don't love it, whether
Speaker 2: they share it or they don't share it, whether they
Speaker 2: talk about it. You know, it's part of the whole
Speaker 2: joy of eating out.
Speaker 3: And I love open kitchens, you know.
Speaker 6: I like the interaction that you can have with you know,
Speaker 6: what's going on around you, you know. I like to
Speaker 6: see what the chefs are doing. I like to see
Speaker 6: what's being prepared. To be honest, I've been so lucky
Speaker 6: because I lived in Spain for four years, then I
Speaker 6: moved to America. Then I spent eleven months in Italy,
Speaker 6: and then I was back in America, and then I
Speaker 6: moved to Paris for six months. So I had all
Speaker 6: of this kind of education in you know, living in
Speaker 6: different places eating different foods, trying different things. You know,
Speaker 6: when I was living in Paris, I was again Victoria
Speaker 6: and the kids kids would going to school in London,
Speaker 6: so they obviously couldn't live there with me. They'd come
Speaker 6: out of the weekends. So again, one of my favorite
Speaker 6: restaurants in the world is Lammy Luis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, I mean absolutely agree.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 6: Literally I would say it's probably one of my favorite
Speaker 6: restaurants in the world for atmosphere, food, enjoyment, everything about it.
Speaker 6: You know, from the moment I walked in, and you know,
Speaker 6: all the waiters are dressed in those white jackets, and
Speaker 6: whether you're wearing a bomber jacket or whether the most
Speaker 6: elegant lady walks in and the chanelle coat. They take
Speaker 6: your coat off, they fold it up and they throw
Speaker 6: it above the head the on the it's like a
Speaker 6: train carriage. And my record for eating es cargo is
Speaker 6: I've eaten thirty two es cargoes at one dinner.
Speaker 2: To the listener, can I tell you those are big?
Speaker 6: I've had them any They're big, and they come on
Speaker 6: trays of six or nine I think, and they come
Speaker 6: and I was in there for about four hours with
Speaker 6: Victoria once and we had the most amazing wine and
Speaker 6: everything about that restaurant. And I used to go in there,
Speaker 6: and I shouldn't have done, because obviously I was a
Speaker 6: professional athlete, and you know, I tried to watch what
Speaker 6: I eat, but I just made sure I ran harder
Speaker 6: the next day. So I used to go in there
Speaker 6: once a week. They used to let me come in
Speaker 6: the first The service was at seven thirty I think
Speaker 6: it was in the evening. That was. No one was
Speaker 6: there at seven thirty either, So I used to turn
Speaker 6: up at seven and by the time the first people
Speaker 6: were coming through the door around called it to eight o'clock,
Speaker 6: I was walking out. So I used to do that
Speaker 6: once a week. I used to go on my own.
Speaker 6: I didn't care that I was on my own. I
Speaker 6: just didn't drink the wine. But I just sat there
Speaker 6: and I ate the most amazing food.
Speaker 2: I love it, and the pond feed, the.
Speaker 6: Bread and everything about it's just unbelievable. Crim fresh at
Speaker 6: the end, that tub of crem fresh air and they
Speaker 6: just dollop it on the plate.
Speaker 3: And the small strawberries.
Speaker 2: One of the high points of my career is, you know,
Speaker 2: the headwaiter, they're the one with the black hair. It's
Speaker 2: not called Louis. I can't remember his name. And he
Speaker 2: came to the River Cafe with his family, with his
Speaker 2: wife and his children, and it was really it was
Speaker 2: such a moving experience for me to have them there.
Speaker 2: So you actually had the experience of living in Milan
Speaker 2: in my marriage and Madrid.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I lived in Madrid when I first moved to Spain.
Speaker 6: I was twenty seven years old and I lived there
Speaker 6: for four years, and I became really obsessed by wherever
Speaker 6: I would live in the world. I decided in my head, Okay,
Speaker 6: this is where I'm going to be for the rest
Speaker 6: of my life, because I had to look at it
Speaker 6: like that, because I wanted to throw myself into the culture,
Speaker 6: into the language, into the food, into everything that I
Speaker 6: was doing in that country. Spain was a big you know, food,
Speaker 6: kind of family, kind of culture, you know I have.
Speaker 6: For a start, I couldn't believe how long the lunches
Speaker 6: went on for. You know, we'd start lunch at two
Speaker 6: and still we sat there at seven, and then they'd
Speaker 6: go for a sleep, and then we'd come back and
Speaker 6: have dinner at eleven, and I'd be like falling asleep
Speaker 6: at dinner. But I loved everything about Spain, you know,
Speaker 6: from the ham on to the Loma to you know,
Speaker 6: to everything that I ate in Spain. I lovedbz. It's
Speaker 6: like the it's the barnacles and you put them in
Speaker 6: hot boiling water only for it not for long, yeah,
Speaker 6: and then you kind of twist the end off and
Speaker 6: it's like it's very chewy but very salty. So they're
Speaker 6: called buthebes and yeah, they're they're barnacles and they're very
Speaker 6: difficult to to get. Literally, the guys tie theirselves onto
Speaker 6: the side out of these rocks. They then wait for
Speaker 6: the waves to go out. They go down get them
Speaker 6: and then come back up before the wave comes in.
Speaker 6: So it's quite dangerous. And still now every time that
Speaker 6: I go to Spain, every time that I go to Madrid,
Speaker 6: I always come back with a leg of ham on.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Always.
Speaker 6: It goes in the middle of the kitchen Ireland and
Speaker 6: every time that the kids walk past, they slice the
Speaker 6: piece off.
Speaker 2: So yeah, But how was it being an athlete with
Speaker 2: a discipline? How did you marry your passion for food
Speaker 2: with the discipline of having to be absolutely fit for
Speaker 2: a game? Did food affect you. Did you eat a cera?
Speaker 3: To be honest, I was lucky.
Speaker 6: Food never really affected me, but I did, you know,
Speaker 6: as much as I am sat here saying, you know,
Speaker 6: the cram fresh, the escal go, the you know, everything
Speaker 6: that I've talked about, I still try to eat in
Speaker 6: the most healthy wow, because obviously being an athlete, I
Speaker 6: have to eat in the right way. But then I
Speaker 6: think the dietary requirements now for athletes, especially in football,
Speaker 6: have totally changed over the last twenty years. When I
Speaker 6: first joined Manchester United, you know, the canteen was all
Speaker 6: about having steaking chips and beans and then you'd have
Speaker 6: a jam roly poly or you'd have a slice of
Speaker 6: chocolate cake. No like after training so you'd have a
Speaker 6: slice of chocolate cake with chocolate custard.
Speaker 3: But now it's totally different, you know. Now it's totally different.
Speaker 6: Now, Well, it depends where you play, what manager you
Speaker 6: know you're playing under. You know, there were certain managers
Speaker 6: that would only want us to eat boiled chicken, which disgusting,
Speaker 6: but that's that's how they felt that we should be eating.
Speaker 6: You know, no ketch up, you know, and then you
Speaker 6: have the opposite. When I was living in Milan. I
Speaker 6: was kind of thinking, how am I going to be
Speaker 6: fitness wise because I'm going to be eating a lot
Speaker 6: of pasta, a lot of olive oil, a lot of
Speaker 6: you know whatever. But it was actually one of the
Speaker 6: fittest that I'd ever been in when I was playing
Speaker 6: in Milan, because I think the produce is so clean,
Speaker 6: it's so good. The quality of it was just incredible.
Speaker 6: So over the years, it's definitely changed for sportsmen. You know,
Speaker 6: I've been lucky that I could kind of eat whatever
Speaker 6: I wanted, but I've always been careful knowing that I
Speaker 6: can't have a glass of wine four days before a
Speaker 6: game because I don't want it to affect anything that
Speaker 6: I'm doing at the weekends, even though it was only
Speaker 6: a glass, you know, So I'd always be very disciplined
Speaker 6: on that.
Speaker 2: And do you think that athletes now are much very
Speaker 2: I think that that's part of the culture now.
Speaker 6: I think if you start it early enough, then it
Speaker 6: becomes part of your life and part of your culture.
Speaker 6: It's what we try and do with our kids, you know.
Speaker 6: We try to educate them that, you know, if they
Speaker 6: eat the right things and drink the right things and
Speaker 6: look after theirselves now, you know, at such a young age.
Speaker 6: Then they'll continue it through through their lives. And I
Speaker 6: think it's an important part of life.
Speaker 2: It's education, isn't it. And I guess I could ask
Speaker 2: you a question of George best goodn't I about One
Speaker 2: of my great memories of the park was at Parkinson
Speaker 2: and the two of you there, and I think, you know,
Speaker 2: I probably fell in love with you that night because
Speaker 2: you were so respectful and so generous to him that
Speaker 2: you know, I think there was a point in the interview.
Speaker 2: I don't even know when that was, but Richard and
Speaker 2: I watched where Parkinson asked you a question and you said,
Speaker 2: I'm in the presence of you know, this man, and
Speaker 2: I think we should let him talk. And that was very,
Speaker 2: very moving to me. But he wasn't really taken care of, was.
Speaker 3: He in the way?
Speaker 6: But I think that he was part of a culture,
Speaker 6: you know, and I was part of really the start
Speaker 6: of my career, and a culture that was totally different
Speaker 6: to what is right now these days, you know. But
Speaker 6: you know, George was the most amazing player, the most
Speaker 6: amazing talent, and the most amazing person and as well,
Speaker 6: you know, I think that I was. I felt so
Speaker 6: honored to even be sat, you know, on the same
Speaker 6: sofa next to him in his presence, and he's such
Speaker 6: a special person. He was, you know, he was one
Speaker 6: of my dad's heroes. My dad was always a Bubby
Speaker 6: Chilton fan, but obviously George Best.
Speaker 3: You know, he's a Manster United fan.
Speaker 6: At the end of the day, my dad, so having
Speaker 6: me on the same program as George Best probably was
Speaker 6: one of the highlights of my dad. One of my
Speaker 6: most favorite restaurants is he's in Clyn, New York, and
Speaker 6: it's this old pizza place that's been there for a
Speaker 6: long time called Luki's, and it's run by Mark and
Speaker 6: he owns he owns Lucali's and it's just simple, simple pizzas.
Speaker 6: He doesn't sell any alcohol in there. So you turn
Speaker 6: up and he brings these amazing muscles out, amazing clams.
Speaker 6: He makes this spicy rigatoni, and then he brings the pies,
Speaker 6: they call him pies. And I always take like a
Speaker 6: great bottle of wine because I love eating pizza with
Speaker 6: great wine. I do like to go to fancy places
Speaker 6: from time to time, but I'm more about the family style,
Speaker 6: you know, sitting there great atmosphere. You know, it doesn't,
Speaker 6: like I said, it doesn't have to be fancy, doesn't
Speaker 6: have to be the most expensive meal in the world,
Speaker 6: doesn't have to be the most amazing bottle of wine
Speaker 6: in the world. Just has to be good people around
Speaker 6: the table, good food, and you know, atmosphere is important.
Speaker 2: That's it. When we thought when we opened the River Cafe,
Speaker 2: there was this feeling in the eighties that you either
Speaker 2: had the choice of eating really, really well but being
Speaker 2: terrified that you were dressed well enough that you might
Speaker 2: be late, that you might insult the chef, that you
Speaker 2: didn't know the wine, the so may make you feel stupid,
Speaker 2: but you would have a good meal, or you could
Speaker 2: go to the local and have a fantastic atmosphere but
Speaker 2: maybe not the greatest food. And it wasn't just Rose
Speaker 2: and myself. There was Alice Walters, and there was Roly
Speaker 2: Lee and Wolfgang Puck, and there was a whole generation
Speaker 2: that said, why can't we do both? You know, I
Speaker 2: don't want a dress code in my restaurant, but I
Speaker 2: want to serve really good food. And I don't want
Speaker 2: an intimidating wine waiter, but I want to have really
Speaker 2: great wine. You know that you could have both, and
Speaker 2: that you can have fun and have the drama and
Speaker 2: eat really well.
Speaker 6: I think that's what's so special about here, in all honesty,
Speaker 6: you know, I think the atmosphere, you know, you're you're
Speaker 6: going to always eat great, the menu is constantly changing.
Speaker 6: You're not intimidated. Whereas you know, I suppose in the
Speaker 6: early days, where I wasn't used to going to great
Speaker 6: restaurants or eating great food or drinking great wine, I
Speaker 6: suppose there was a certain part of me that felt intimidated.
Speaker 6: But this is a place where you walk in and
Speaker 6: there's not one part of you that feels worried about
Speaker 6: ordering a bottle of wine or order in a glass
Speaker 6: of right wine or ordering the wrong wine, or you know,
Speaker 6: it's special.
Speaker 2: I know what I want the people who work for me,
Speaker 2: or how I want them to eat, and how I
Speaker 2: want to make them come to work in an environment
Speaker 2: where they can look out a window, where they can
Speaker 2: feel that there rest, you know, in the end, where
Speaker 2: they want to come to work. Do you feel that
Speaker 2: that is a responsibility to people who are.
Speaker 6: In management, without doubt, you know, I think that I've
Speaker 6: been lucky over the years to have been part of
Speaker 6: some great teams, you know, obviously with the teams that
Speaker 6: I've played for, playing for my country, representing my country,
Speaker 6: I've been very lucky to be around great management, great teams,
Speaker 6: great support, you know, with my family and my friends.
Speaker 6: And now I have my own team within my own office.
Speaker 6: And I want them to be as happy, you know,
Speaker 6: as they are at.
Speaker 3: Home and when they come to work.
Speaker 6: I think that's a really important part of running a business.
Speaker 6: And I tried to do the same as Victoria tries
Speaker 6: to do the same with the kids as well. You know,
Speaker 6: we want them to be happy, we want them to
Speaker 6: be healthy.
Speaker 2: Do they cook with you?
Speaker 3: They do?
Speaker 6: They do, Actually, Brooklyn Brooklyn actually loves cooking. He posts
Speaker 6: a lot of the moment about things that he's making,
Speaker 6: things that he's creating.
Speaker 3: But all the kids actually love it, you know.
Speaker 6: And I think in the last eighteen months, with all
Speaker 6: the lockdown and everything that has been happening, you know,
Speaker 6: whether we were baking and wherever we were, you know,
Speaker 6: creating herb gardens, Me and Harper you know, built our
Speaker 6: own herb garden, you know, with whether it was a
Speaker 6: rocket and we had some mint and we had some rosemary,
Speaker 6: So we'd kind of created that, and actually we got
Speaker 6: very excited when we saw it all come together. And
Speaker 6: then you know, every time that Nana has a gin
Speaker 6: and tonic, you know, Harper goes out into the herb garden,
Speaker 6: she cuts some rosemary off and puts rosemary into the glass.
Speaker 6: So it's we had a little bit of fun with that.
Speaker 2: We've you know, talked about so much about food as
Speaker 2: love as food as a connection. But I suppose before
Speaker 2: we say goodbye and I go, what would be David Beckham,
Speaker 2: You're a comfort food?
Speaker 6: After me talking about all of this great food that
Speaker 6: I taste and all of these great restaurants that I
Speaker 6: go to, you know what my comfort food would be?
Speaker 3: A packet of sort of vinegar discos. Ah good, I
Speaker 3: think that's what it would be.
Speaker 6: Maybe a toasty made in the brevel toaster with baked beans.
Speaker 2: Think about that?
Speaker 3: Is that so the.
Speaker 6: Brevel toaster that you So I put the bread in
Speaker 6: a little bit of butter on the outside actually so
Speaker 6: it doesn't stick, and then I put the baked beans
Speaker 6: in brevel toaster for about four or five minutes, open
Speaker 6: it up, and it's so that actually that in a
Speaker 6: packet of discos, no cheese discos.
Speaker 3: After all this great food that we'll talk.
Speaker 2: That's the comfort, isn't you know? Comfort is I'm more
Speaker 2: of a crisp man than makes you feel like, oh,
Speaker 2: thank you David. It is wonderful.
Speaker 3: Thank you, You're welcome. Love you too.
Speaker 2: To visit the online Shark with the River Cafe, go
Speaker 2: to Shup the River Cafe dog Co UK.
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