Speaker 1: You're listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 1: If you're in politics, being outgoing, engaging and caring is
Speaker 1: part of the job. And these the words often used
Speaker 1: to describe the Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy and
Speaker 1: first Lady Tammy Murphy. But having been close to Phil
Speaker 1: and Tammy for as long as I have, I know
Speaker 1: this is truly who they are. In two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: Phil was the finance chair for the Democratic National Committee,
Speaker 1: and as Americans abroad, we supported the presidential campaign for
Speaker 1: Barack Obama. Phil and Tammy worked day and night, traveling
Speaker 1: to London so often we thought they lived there. Our
Speaker 1: conversations then were always about society and politics, the sense
Speaker 1: of public service that runs so deeply in them. Their eyes, though,
Speaker 1: really lit up when we discussed their four children. Today
Speaker 1: we're having this conversation in the Governor's office in New Jersey,
Speaker 1: the state he is deeply committed to, out of and loves,
Speaker 1: And these are actually the very same words I would
Speaker 1: use to describe how I feel about Phil and Tammy Murphy.
Speaker 1: Committed proud, two people I love, very special you true.
Speaker 1: So the recipe that you chose was the chocolate Nemesis.
Speaker 1: I have to say it has been taken once by
Speaker 1: Ray Fines no pressure, but we would love to do
Speaker 1: it again and love you to read it. One if
Speaker 1: you could read the ingredients and one the method, or
Speaker 1: you can both read together, however you want to divide it.
Speaker 2: If I read the ingredients, the best part. That's why
Speaker 2: we pick.
Speaker 3: That's why I picked.
Speaker 4: Chocolatesis importantly you love chocolate Nemesis, the best chocolate cake ever?
Speaker 1: Yes? Do you agree?
Speaker 2: Liked percent?
Speaker 1: Are your chocolate lover?
Speaker 4: Not as much as missus, she's insane. So it serves
Speaker 4: ten to twelve Is that a pound and a half? Yes,
Speaker 4: it is a bitter chocolate in small pieces.
Speaker 1: Ten eggs and eggs that's a big cake.
Speaker 5: If it's a big cake, one pound of sugar and
Speaker 5: one pound of unsalted butter over the tammy, simple and all.
Speaker 3: The ingredients that I love to eat.
Speaker 6: Okay, So preheat the oven to three hundred and twenty
Speaker 6: five degrees fahrenheit. Line a twelve by two inch cake
Speaker 6: tin with wax paper, then grease and flour it.
Speaker 3: Beat the eggs with of the sugar.
Speaker 6: Until the volume quadruples. This will take at least ten minutes.
Speaker 6: Heat the remaining sugar in a small pan with eight
Speaker 6: fluid ounces of water until the sugar has dissolved to
Speaker 6: a syrup. Add the chocolate and butter.
Speaker 3: Stir.
Speaker 6: Then pour the syrup to the eggs and continue to
Speaker 6: beat until combined. Pour into the cake tin and place
Speaker 6: in a band marie of hot water. Bake in thirty
Speaker 6: minutes or until set. Test by placing the flat of
Speaker 6: your hand gently on the surface. Delicious, served with crem fresh.
Speaker 2: That's so good.
Speaker 1: All the things we can't eat, well you can so
Speaker 1: tell me about the Nemesis. Why did you choose it?
Speaker 6: Just because it has almost all of the taboo items.
Speaker 6: I love a pound of butter, you know, ten eggs,
Speaker 6: a pound of sugar, and of course chocolate.
Speaker 4: Okay, so I have to inject. When Tammy was a child,
Speaker 4: yes before we met, would sneak into her refrigerate, her
Speaker 4: parents refrigerator, pull out bars of butter and eat the butter.
Speaker 6: There were teeth barks in all the butter, and it
Speaker 6: was always me. I love butter, particularly salty butter.
Speaker 1: Oh you like it salted like salty? Good butter? In
Speaker 1: New Jersey, do they make butter here.
Speaker 6: We actually we are the garden State, so we actually
Speaker 6: do have some incredible farms here. We have some regenerative
Speaker 6: farming that goes on and in fact, we always try
Speaker 6: and find a gift that's typical New Jersey to send
Speaker 6: all of our friends for the holidays.
Speaker 4: Also, this is in a different lane, but we we've
Speaker 4: just we've got an exploding winery, distillery, breweries industry here.
Speaker 1: What is the wine? Like?
Speaker 2: Wine is good?
Speaker 4: Surprisingly good when you first hear wine from New Jersey people,
Speaker 4: so say, wait a minute, that doesn't sound right, but
Speaker 4: very very good. Stands up well, good value for money.
Speaker 6: There's one wine that there was a blind taste test
Speaker 6: in Chicago before, something called the Governor's Cup where you
Speaker 6: give out these awards for wine.
Speaker 1: What is a Governor's Cup.
Speaker 3: It's where the governor.
Speaker 4: Basically best wine through blind testing and we do it
Speaker 4: at the Governor's mansion.
Speaker 2: It's very cool. We do it for wine and beer, right.
Speaker 3: Craft beer, Yeah, the Governor's Yes, Governor's.
Speaker 2: Cup is wine. I figure what we call the craft beer.
Speaker 6: It's also for not spirits but liqueurs like the curse.
Speaker 6: But in a blind taste testing in Chicago, one of
Speaker 6: the wines in New Jersey beat out every other wine,
Speaker 6: French wines, Californian wines, So that was a big deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is there a part of the state where
Speaker 1: the grapes grow. Is there one? Is it like Napo
Speaker 1: or you know where you have a region.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is interesting. We are the fourth smallest state
Speaker 4: in the country. Geographically we're the eleventh largest population, so
Speaker 4: we are far and away the most densely populated state.
Speaker 4: So space is a challenge in New Jersey. It turns
Speaker 4: out the wineries are located largely in rural areas, but
Speaker 4: really up and down the state. When we first got
Speaker 4: into office, at least I thought they were all in
Speaker 4: the southern southern part of the state. It turns out
Speaker 4: there up and down, but obviously in rural settings.
Speaker 1: Not a great state, someone told me yesterday. Because I've
Speaker 1: been studying New Jersey. I love that. And to talk
Speaker 1: of densely populated and also the most it has the
Speaker 1: most diversity, it does, and that's in term. Well we
Speaker 1: could start talking about food right there, because if you
Speaker 1: have a diverse population, you have diverse food. Tell me
Speaker 1: about you know, the different people who live here, from
Speaker 1: different cultures, from and how that it's expressed in their
Speaker 1: food and restaurants.
Speaker 4: How about if I start with the cultures and you
Speaker 4: give me the un and the restaurants. We are, by
Speaker 4: many measures, the most diverse American state. We have one
Speaker 4: of the top South Asian populations, Indian, Pakistani in particular,
Speaker 4: the Latino populations. We're in the top three of any
Speaker 4: of the sub categories Colombia, Ecuadorian, Mexican, et cetera, booming
Speaker 4: Korean population and Asian population generally.
Speaker 2: And then you've got the.
Speaker 4: Populations that have been here for a long time, the Irish,
Speaker 4: the Germans, the Poles, Italians, the Italians without question, without question,
Speaker 4: and then to your very fair point, big Arab community,
Speaker 4: so one of the largest Arab communities in the in
Speaker 4: the United States, one of the biggest and most consequential
Speaker 4: African Americamerican populations, and that all of that has huge
Speaker 4: impact on the state in so many respects. But certainly
Speaker 4: per our discussion food, how would you in well food?
Speaker 6: I think one of the things about all of the
Speaker 6: different cultures being here is that because we're so small,
Speaker 6: you can go to pockets and find incredible restaurants and.
Speaker 3: Cantenas and.
Speaker 6: The very typical food of a different culture.
Speaker 3: So you go. We talk all the time about the
Speaker 3: fact that we have some.
Speaker 6: Of the deepest benches where people are living right on
Speaker 6: top of each other, where you have no choice but
Speaker 6: to experience someone else's culture and cuisine. In New Jersey though,
Speaker 6: the corn, the tomatoes, the blueberries, the raspberries, the cranberry bogs.
Speaker 6: I mean, we have the best food you can find.
Speaker 6: And the summers here are amazing with everything that's available
Speaker 6: really exciting.
Speaker 1: And so you have these farms, you have people different
Speaker 1: cultures of eating. Is food a important part of would
Speaker 1: you say? The diversity as well?
Speaker 2: Lots of diners. We're going to a diner later on.
Speaker 1: What do we eat in the diner?
Speaker 2: What are we going to We're gonna go to the
Speaker 2: Tops diner.
Speaker 6: Yeah, lunch is usually for me a Greek salad, minestadions.
Speaker 3: But they have everything. I mean, it depends if you're
Speaker 3: having a nail or ham.
Speaker 4: Or depends on what part of the state. That's a
Speaker 4: good question. But they have diners are like almost a
Speaker 4: unique Jersey thing.
Speaker 2: This is a feature.
Speaker 1: Tell me yesterday I was with you know, we have
Speaker 1: a new ambassador Jane Hardley and Ralph. So I was
Speaker 1: with Ralph last night and he was saying that the
Speaker 1: best pizzas from Jersey City. Do you know this place?
Speaker 4: Well, we know, we know that New Jersey has the
Speaker 4: best pizzas anywhere and the best bagels.
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't.
Speaker 4: And we compete aggressively against New York City and Connecticut
Speaker 4: for both of those titles.
Speaker 1: I like this being a food competition.
Speaker 6: Bill has this Twitter account for the state, and the
Speaker 6: state competes in like lobs comments out there, like you know,
Speaker 6: talking about where certain food groups were created and who
Speaker 6: has the best pizza, and it's a constant battle going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's fo Last.
Speaker 1: Night they were really into the they have a pizza club,
Speaker 1: you know. Ralph and for people who were at this
Speaker 1: dinner was talking about they go out every once a
Speaker 1: month to find the best pizza. So they were very
Speaker 1: impressed by Jersey City. So going back to the beginning
Speaker 1: and talking about you rating your parents' fridge for the butter,
Speaker 1: what was it like growing We'll talk about both of you,
Speaker 1: but what was growing up in your house food wise?
Speaker 6: Well, first of all, you may or may not remember,
Speaker 6: my mother was British.
Speaker 3: She was an excellent cook when she chose to be.
Speaker 6: She also had an incredible sweet tooth, so we always
Speaker 6: had lots of sweets around for sure. But you know,
Speaker 6: I think back about those days. I'm the youngest of
Speaker 6: five and when everyone used to go away. You know,
Speaker 6: when I be the youngest, people were gone, they were
Speaker 6: gone to college wherever they were. And so a major
Speaker 6: period of my life I spent having the highlight of
Speaker 6: the week being to go to the grocery store with
Speaker 6: my mother and go to the frozen food section and
Speaker 6: pick out my TV dinner TV dinners for each night.
Speaker 3: So it would be the week for the week we would.
Speaker 6: Go and pick out the TV dinners because we were
Speaker 6: You said she was a good cook.
Speaker 3: She was an excellent cook, but she chose to But
Speaker 3: it was so easy, you know.
Speaker 6: And also when we go from cooking for seven to
Speaker 6: cooking for two or three, it kind of takes a
Speaker 6: little bit.
Speaker 3: Of the joiney out of it.
Speaker 2: Can we ask it?
Speaker 4: I don't want to take baton here, but can you
Speaker 4: tell us your favorite TV dinner that animates all of us? No?
Speaker 6: No, no, So I would come home from school and
Speaker 6: sit down and eat. No, this is no joke, probably
Speaker 6: a box of pop tarts, a box a box of
Speaker 6: pop tarts, and then after I finished my box of
Speaker 6: pop Tarts several hours later, we would I would tuck
Speaker 6: into my TV.
Speaker 1: Dinner and then you tuck into the butter, right, the arazy,
Speaker 1: healthy person having.
Speaker 4: So we hadn't thought about this, even though we've known
Speaker 4: each other for thirty seven years and when we're going
Speaker 4: out for thirty we hadn't had this conversation untill earlier
Speaker 4: today because we said, what are we going to say
Speaker 4: to Ruthie about food? We had a remarkably similar upbringing
Speaker 4: on the food front. I was the youngest of four dinners,
Speaker 4: not TV dinners but chef boy r D and a cane.
Speaker 1: How many were you?
Speaker 4: I'm youngest of four and similar to Tam, older siblings
Speaker 4: were significantly older. So for most of my formative years
Speaker 4: it was me and my mom and.
Speaker 2: Dad and uh.
Speaker 4: But on the flip side of that, I don't know
Speaker 4: if you agree with this, It made as we grew
Speaker 4: up and grew older our appreciation for really good food
Speaker 4: River Cafe, the great Italians.
Speaker 1: I think of you as great eaters.
Speaker 2: Yeah we are, but I think it.
Speaker 1: The other way. But also did both did either or
Speaker 1: both of your mother's work. Did they have jobs to
Speaker 1: do during the day.
Speaker 6: My mom helped my father in his business, but she
Speaker 6: was a a in the garden all day long.
Speaker 1: Yes, vegetables or flowers.
Speaker 6: Mostly flowers, mostly flowers. But she would work in the garden.
Speaker 6: By the way, I don't want to to misstate my
Speaker 6: mother was an excellent cook, but she just when she
Speaker 6: had to decide that she wanted to do it fair enough.
Speaker 1: What did she cook when she cooked?
Speaker 6: She used to cook literally a crown roast, she'd cook,
Speaker 6: she'd cook burgers, she'd cook chili, she'd cook you know,
Speaker 6: white fit I mean anything, anything and everything, sweets, lots
Speaker 6: of sweets, lots of cheesecakes, lots of lots of pastries.
Speaker 3: She used to make a lot of cookies.
Speaker 6: And a lot of her recipes have been handed down,
Speaker 6: so we all still have that little book.
Speaker 1: I do so many people, you know, I've interviewed now
Speaker 1: something like I think we're on we're on a hundred episode.
Speaker 1: We've probably this is one hundred and four. But so
Speaker 1: many people do talk about the handed down recipe book
Speaker 1: that they haven't And the other thing that I've noticed
Speaker 1: a lot is that people very often talk about their
Speaker 1: grandmothers almost more than their mothers. Interesting, and did you
Speaker 1: well before we go to grandmother's, what was your family
Speaker 1: like cooking?
Speaker 4: Similar to Tammy's, Similar to Tammy's And again I think
Speaker 4: you started to say this, and I think you're absolutely right,
Speaker 4: and they're unlike Tammy's mom, there wasn't a really outstanding
Speaker 4: cook in our family. My dad actually is probably the closest,
Speaker 4: and he was more of a shortness.
Speaker 2: He called himself a short order cook.
Speaker 1: This is his career. What did this job?
Speaker 4: Oh, he did a whole bunch of things. He didn't
Speaker 4: get out of high school, so he did a whole
Speaker 4: He was a paid Paul bearer, He worked in a warehouse,
Speaker 4: He ran a liquor store where Murphy's. After all, we
Speaker 4: have to drop the liquor in there. So he did
Speaker 4: a bunch of things over the years. But I think
Speaker 4: when you have that sort of relationship to food, this
Speaker 4: is one guy's opinion, growing up you go one of
Speaker 4: two ways. When you grow up, you sort of stay
Speaker 4: in that lane, or you start tasting really good food
Speaker 4: and you explode and just welcome everything. And I think
Speaker 4: we've all as you know, we've lived around the world.
Speaker 4: Tammy lived in London, we lived together in Germany, in Asia,
Speaker 4: now in the most diverse state in America. Once we
Speaker 4: crossed the rubicon into sort of seeing and tasting and
Speaker 4: feeling what really good food was, we never looked back.
Speaker 4: And Tammy's a great cook. Really, I can see.
Speaker 1: I was so flattered because I came in and this
Speaker 1: is audio, so it's not visual. But if it was visual,
Speaker 1: I would show the cookbook that you brought in with
Speaker 1: the recipe for the nemesis for little tabs through the book,
Speaker 1: which a well worn cookbook is a treasure. Really, it's
Speaker 1: it's very nice for me to see that meant a lot.
Speaker 3: I need to bring up the show it to you coveted,
Speaker 3: very very nice.
Speaker 1: But when you were growing up, did you have meals
Speaker 1: as a family together? Would you down?
Speaker 4: And we have very few because I was so young
Speaker 4: relative to my siblings, and my dad and mom worked
Speaker 4: different schedules, so I more often than not had dinner
Speaker 4: A friend would come over and my mom would cook something,
Speaker 4: or one of my closest friends was an Italian first
Speaker 4: generation dad and an Italian American wife, and they were
Speaker 4: really good cooks. So I would try to get to
Speaker 4: Sammy Chicaloni's as often as I could, because I knew
Speaker 4: I did remember, Yeah, mostly pasta, homemade pasta and homemade sauces.
Speaker 1: They were first generation Italian.
Speaker 4: The dad was and the mom was Italian American, really
Speaker 4: really good.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the pastas?
Speaker 4: I remember Bolanese was the one sauce that jumps out
Speaker 4: in my memory really good, and I think it was
Speaker 4: largely spaghetti. How you this was through high school, So
Speaker 4: this is middle school in high school, so seventeen or eighteen,
Speaker 4: from probably nine or ten up through there.
Speaker 1: When you had all your when your siblings came home,
Speaker 1: was that then that would be an occasion for doing peas? Okay,
Speaker 1: so what would you what would your mom mate?
Speaker 6: She would make, she would there would be for Joe
Speaker 6: to be filled, so there would be you know, everybody
Speaker 6: had kind of their own options as to what they
Speaker 6: what they could go for. But she used to make
Speaker 6: whatever the favorite food is for whoever was going to appear.
Speaker 1: So, but conversation a big part of the meal was
Speaker 1: was there a lot of talk? Yes, yeah, yes, and.
Speaker 4: You've got at least your sister. Robin continues to be
Speaker 4: an outstanding.
Speaker 3: Cook, right, Susan was a great cook, and your.
Speaker 2: Late sister Susan.
Speaker 4: And so when I got involved in Tammy's family, so
Speaker 4: this is now thirty years ago, in nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 4: We met in eighty seven. Didn't go out in a
Speaker 4: date till ninety four. I still don't understand that, but
Speaker 4: for another podcast. But when I got in the family,
Speaker 4: your siblings really were picking up the mantle.
Speaker 2: Of hosting Thanksgiving, our.
Speaker 1: Christmas holidays, religious holidays. Did you have religious holidays? We
Speaker 1: were both your parents.
Speaker 6: My father was Jewish and my mother was Church of England,
Speaker 6: so we used to celebrate some of each. We were
Speaker 6: kind of the Hodgepodge, so we would go over and
Speaker 6: spend Friday night dinners with my father's family, grandmother. And
Speaker 6: I was thinking about when you just said this, and
Speaker 6: I remember going in. All you could smell was was
Speaker 6: parsley partially partially should be making MutS of all soup
Speaker 6: and all those those great, those great yummy tastes. And
Speaker 6: but but we used to celebrate it all, you know,
Speaker 6: Christmas pudding for Christmas.
Speaker 3: I mean it was we were all we were all
Speaker 3: by the way.
Speaker 4: As governor since day one, and as ambassador before that,
Speaker 4: from day one. We host a passover sata. Every year
Speaker 4: we do, and so we that's especially knew. We have
Speaker 4: iftar dinners for Ramadan, we have Christmas related and there's
Speaker 4: food and all of them. We have got Hispanic Heritage Month,
Speaker 4: We'll have a huge Hispanic Latino food spread.
Speaker 6: It's fun and we invite and because we are in
Speaker 6: this state and because we want to bring people together
Speaker 6: all the time, we will not just invite Jewish people
Speaker 6: to the satar. We will not just invite you know,
Speaker 6: Hispanic people if we're celebrating.
Speaker 3: You know, Spanish history or Spanish Heritage Month. So we
Speaker 3: always try and mix it up and invite everyone in.
Speaker 6: And it's fun because people have never tasted different foods
Speaker 6: in many instances, so it's great.
Speaker 4: The Sadar is the one that sticks out because we
Speaker 4: actually sit around a table the other ones a big receptions.
Speaker 4: Probably thirty six to thirty eight of us at one table. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a big, kind of a grand table. Reminds us
Speaker 4: of the table that we had when we were in
Speaker 4: Berlin as ambassador, and we deliberately to Tammy's points, that
Speaker 4: table will be filled with obviously Jews, Christians, Muslims will
Speaker 4: have Hindu representation, will sick.
Speaker 2: I mean, we'll have a.
Speaker 4: And invariably the reaction is, hey, we do something similar
Speaker 4: in our religion, or we eat something similar, or it's
Speaker 4: remarkable how people walk away saying, you know it, we're
Speaker 4: actually a lot more like each other after all.
Speaker 6: Well, that's also that that night, it's very special because
Speaker 6: we always have someone who leads the satyr and you
Speaker 6: start explaining what the meaning is of the different foods
Speaker 6: that are on the table.
Speaker 3: So it's all centered around food. With you, you should come
Speaker 3: to one and.
Speaker 1: I would love to food and religion, food and tradition.
Speaker 1: I was in Mexico recently and the night before I left,
Speaker 1: I went to some friend's house and they have I'm
Speaker 1: embarrassed to say, I don't know the Mexican holiday, but
Speaker 1: there is a holiday after Christmas in which it is
Speaker 1: rather like the French pitivier where you find the little
Speaker 1: crown and then you are the queen. But in this one,
Speaker 1: if you find the crown, then you have to host
Speaker 1: another dinner a month later. It's all to do with
Speaker 1: family and tradition and bringing everyone together, which we and
Speaker 1: memory isn't it.
Speaker 3: Where's the crown? Is it in the food?
Speaker 1: It's in the cake circular? Yes?
Speaker 3: Okay, Hm.
Speaker 1: Did you know the River Cafe has a shop. It's
Speaker 1: full of our favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks, linen, napkins,
Speaker 1: kitchen were toad bags with our signatures, glasses from Venice,
Speaker 1: chocolates from Turin. You can find us right next door
Speaker 1: to the River Cafe in London or online at shop
Speaker 1: Therivercafe dot co dot uk. What about your father's You said.
Speaker 2: That my dad would do more than my mom. Brother?
Speaker 2: How about you? Did your dad ever cook barbecue?
Speaker 3: Barbecue?
Speaker 1: It's interesting, isn't it? How the male thing barbecue and
Speaker 1: you cook? Government tell them about the barbecue, tell us
Speaker 1: about your barber. We could just stop, that's okay.
Speaker 4: When we were engaged, I had a in the backyard.
Speaker 4: Was asked by Tammy to go out and get the
Speaker 4: get the We had a weber grill and to get
Speaker 4: the webber. The charcoal fire going and it wasn't going
Speaker 4: to my satisfaction. So I picked up the liquid and
Speaker 4: started spraying it into the embers, and Tammy ran out
Speaker 4: and reminded me that the fire could have come right
Speaker 4: back up.
Speaker 2: And so that was I think that might have been
Speaker 2: the last.
Speaker 3: Time I heard you know what.
Speaker 6: I've actually determined that it was actually very intentionally deliberate.
Speaker 1: Because that's a good way, that's a good But when
Speaker 1: you left your homes when you left to go to college,
Speaker 1: so was that a big change for you in terms
Speaker 1: of exposure to different foods or was it mostly living
Speaker 1: in the dorm and eating and the for me it wasn't.
Speaker 2: The real game changer for me was moving to New York.
Speaker 1: Okay told me about that.
Speaker 4: After getting a master's degree, getting hired to on Wall Street.
Speaker 2: Living in New York was the game changer?
Speaker 1: That was it?
Speaker 4: Like, oh, it was just it was like a someone
Speaker 4: opened a door to a beautiful, new, different reality as
Speaker 4: it relates to food, and it got really into some
Speaker 4: really special foods.
Speaker 2: But that was the that was the line for me.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Did people take you out for sort of fine dining?
Speaker 1: Was it was it?
Speaker 4: And ethnically I'd say both, you'd take you'd go out
Speaker 4: to fine dining, typically with a client. Yeah, that was
Speaker 4: as opposed to necessary on my own. But the whole
Speaker 4: waterfront and that was the game changer. For me, and
Speaker 4: then we went over international on that further. What about wine,
Speaker 4: same New York again for me, that's forty odd years ago,
Speaker 4: I guess forty two years ago.
Speaker 2: Up until then, I.
Speaker 1: Was did you have wine in the house very little
Speaker 1: with me?
Speaker 2: Very little beer? Yeah, occasionally a drink.
Speaker 1: So you didn't know that wine was such a yeah?
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 1: When did you kind of become aware of food? Yeah? Well,
Speaker 1: far from the butter.
Speaker 6: I actually think it was more I was more switched
Speaker 6: on when I moved overseas, so.
Speaker 3: Going to London and really focusing.
Speaker 6: I moved to London in ND eighty nine beginning of
Speaker 6: ninety so you were so yeah, and so just you know,
Speaker 6: the pub fair, I mean, just just being able to
Speaker 6: go and experience different things.
Speaker 3: And then living in Germany.
Speaker 6: We lived in Frankfurt the first time, and Frankfort being
Speaker 6: such an international airport, they have an entire cottage industry
Speaker 6: of warehouses where food was coming in from every corner
Speaker 6: of the world. You could get Durian, you could get
Speaker 6: tomatoes when you couldn't get them anywhere else, and they
Speaker 6: were always Remember I used to go to that place.
Speaker 3: I loved it.
Speaker 2: What was it called?
Speaker 4: It was an incredible. To say it was a market
Speaker 4: would be an understatement. Was a massive because Frankfurt is
Speaker 4: the busiest international airport in the world and all this
Speaker 4: cargo comes in and then it goes back out to
Speaker 4: different directions, but they clip a fair amount of it
Speaker 4: off the top and it stays there.
Speaker 1: I was going to say that I do know that
Speaker 1: you met over dinner. Well you met, you had you.
Speaker 1: It's often remarked about your first date being over dinner.
Speaker 1: It was possibly remember where it was and what you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so dinner was at a restaurant. The
Speaker 4: first date was at a restaurant called Manschans in Frankfurt.
Speaker 1: Oh you met, you went out to dinner and.
Speaker 4: Frank But then our first that was a Sunday, and
Speaker 4: then we went out again on Wednesday in London at
Speaker 4: a restaurant called I'm not I'm sure it's out there, Hilaire, Oh.
Speaker 1: Hilaire, I remember.
Speaker 3: It was. It was that we always We also liked
Speaker 3: was the Star of India.
Speaker 1: Star of India, a great restaurant on the Fulham Road. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we got engaged.
Speaker 4: We got the first date to engagement was eighteen days.
Speaker 4: So we got engaged over dinner. In an Italian restaurant
Speaker 4: in Frankfurt.
Speaker 1: Do you remember what you ate? Yes?
Speaker 6: So we we sat it at Table nine, which is
Speaker 6: our table. And they actually created Pizza Murphy Pizza, Pizza
Speaker 6: dea Murphy Pizza and it's it's basically pizza dough with rugola,
Speaker 6: cherry tomatoes, olive oil and really.
Speaker 2: Good main course.
Speaker 4: I can't recall it would have been fish fish because
Speaker 4: they were really good. They did a really good They're
Speaker 4: South Italy guys there, Colbrian, Colabrians.
Speaker 2: They're not you, they're not River Cafe, but they're well.
Speaker 1: I think Southern Italian food is really good.
Speaker 2: It's really it was really good.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting thing though that when we think about
Speaker 1: how I was introduced to Italian food was very much
Speaker 1: in America the meatballs of spaghetti, that's modest, sauce, the cheese,
Speaker 1: and then you go to Italy and actually no, it's
Speaker 1: grilled fish and great herbs and there is I mean,
Speaker 1: both are good, you know.
Speaker 4: But we have that experience in New Jersey all the time,
Speaker 4: contrasting to Italy. We have that conversation a.
Speaker 1: Lot yea yeah, going from getting meeting and have being engaged,
Speaker 1: getting married, having four children, How did they grow up
Speaker 1: in the Murphy family with two parents like yourselves? And
Speaker 1: what was meal time like for you?
Speaker 2: We'll start and you come in.
Speaker 4: So unlike it your experience in my experience when most
Speaker 4: of our siblings were gone. Our kids are two years apart,
Speaker 4: so they're twenty six twenty four, for better or for worse.
Speaker 4: We do a lot of meals together and which we
Speaker 4: on the margin really enjoy. And I think our kids,
Speaker 4: I don't think I know this. They are so far
Speaker 4: more advanced in their understanding of food and cuisine at
Speaker 4: their ages than I know I was, probably you, because
Speaker 4: they've lived Our oldest guy has lived both in Asia
Speaker 4: and in Europe. The other three have lived in Europe.
Speaker 4: All four have traveled extensively. They appreciate it at a
Speaker 4: younger age, much more so than I think either of us,
Speaker 4: which as I.
Speaker 6: Don't really have much that we eat, we eat. We
Speaker 6: eat a lot of meals together purposefully, intentionally, and we
Speaker 6: schedule our time fill and I schedule our time such
Speaker 6: that we are able to ensure we have as many
Speaker 6: meals together as possible.
Speaker 2: And we still try to go out to restaurants.
Speaker 4: But that's a little bit harder in the political environment
Speaker 4: and whatnot, but we still try to go out and
Speaker 4: enjoy a whole range of different types of food.
Speaker 1: If you like listening to Ruthie's Table four, would you
Speaker 1: please make sure to rate and review the podcast on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, o, wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Thank you. While we talk about the exposure
Speaker 1: our children have to food, exposure they've had to foreign
Speaker 1: countries and the exposure that they've had to sitting at
Speaker 1: a table or enjoying being a family, we know that
Speaker 1: there are a lot of families who don't have that,
Speaker 1: and I know that you're working very hard for that,
Speaker 1: and I think that I'm in my own small way
Speaker 1: in England working with restauranteurs and chefs about children and hunger,
Speaker 1: adults and hunger, everyone in hunger, and certainly during the lockdown,
Speaker 1: we were exposed to the fact that children who were
Speaker 1: deprived at lunch at school had no food because that
Speaker 1: was their one meal a day. So perhaps you could
Speaker 1: tell me what you're thinking about in New Jersey or
Speaker 1: your political process for people who don't have food access.
Speaker 4: You framed it very well, the gap between those that
Speaker 4: have and those that have not as wide as it's
Speaker 4: ever been. It's been a big agenda for us in
Speaker 4: New Jersey, and in my time as Governor, Tammy's running
Speaker 4: for Senate it's a big piece of her agenda as well.
Speaker 4: Just this week to give you. Having said all that,
Speaker 4: I think New Jersey's probably done more than any other
Speaker 4: state in America to battle food and security generally and
Speaker 4: specifically for our kids. And one example, just this week,
Speaker 4: I signed a law that will provide access for a
Speaker 4: lot more kids to free school lunches and breakfasts than before.
Speaker 4: So we raised the income eligibility, and we also extended
Speaker 4: this not just in our public schools, but to private schools.
Speaker 4: So I'm incredibly proud. That's one step of many we've taken.
Speaker 4: But the gap is not zero. I wish it were,
Speaker 4: it isn't. And one of the observations we made at
Speaker 4: this bill signing was weekends. Long weekends in particular and
Speaker 4: summer are the big exposures because of exactly what you said, Ruthie,
Speaker 4: is that there are many kids in our state, in America,
Speaker 4: probably in the world, where their only hot meals are
Speaker 4: going to be if they get to school and if
Speaker 4: they're not going to school Saturday, Sunday, or like this
Speaker 4: week there was a holiday on Monday, they may not
Speaker 4: have that meal or in the summer. So that to
Speaker 4: my way of thinking, I think Tammy agrees passionately. That's
Speaker 4: sort of the next frontier before us.
Speaker 2: Tim.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I go back to the pandemic.
Speaker 6: I think because I started something called the New Jersey
Speaker 6: Pandemic Relief Fund during the pandemic to help people on
Speaker 6: the ground precisely the topics we're talking about, and food security,
Speaker 6: supporting the food banks, supporting the pantries, with refrigeration, with ppe,
Speaker 6: with all the things that you know, these mom and
Speaker 6: pop organizations had normally just bumbled along and the need went,
Speaker 6: as you know, went through the stratosphere.
Speaker 3: So I think that we learned a lot of lessons.
Speaker 6: I mean, I'm always trying to focus on the silver line,
Speaker 6: and I think out of the pandemic, I think that
Speaker 6: we learned a lot that we're able to now put
Speaker 6: into law, which is what fills.
Speaker 4: Two other quickies. One is we got criticized because we
Speaker 4: waited a couple of days to shut schools down in
Speaker 4: March of twenty twenty, at the beginning of the pandemic.
Speaker 4: The reason why we waited we needed to get a
Speaker 4: plan from every school that they had a plan in
Speaker 4: place to get hot meals to kids even if they
Speaker 4: weren't showing up. And the second thing is more recent.
Speaker 4: We just got a report that in New Jersey had
Speaker 4: good news in bad news. Good news is what made
Speaker 4: progress on homelessness, which is a big challenge for us,
Speaker 4: as it is for everyone. But on the flip side
Speaker 4: of that, the pressure, the amount of demand at our
Speaker 4: food banks has gone up dramatically, and so we just
Speaker 4: it's food insecurity is inescapable, and I think it's going
Speaker 4: to require whether you're a senator, a governor, one of
Speaker 4: the world's renowned restauranteurs, it's going to take all of us.
Speaker 1: Could you ever have a policy which gave which it wasn't,
Speaker 1: means tested for every child university?
Speaker 4: Yeah, if we can find the money. The other day
Speaker 4: I was asked that very question. That's something that we
Speaker 4: if we have the money, that's something we want to do,
Speaker 4: probably takes us a while to get there. We are
Speaker 4: pursuing a similar, different topic, but similar trajectory for universal
Speaker 4: pre K, meaning three year olds and four year olds
Speaker 4: to have full day. We've made a lot of progress,
Speaker 4: but we're on a journey. Same with food and security.
Speaker 4: We made progress, but we have ways to.
Speaker 3: Go in universal nurse home visitation now.
Speaker 2: And universal nurse home visitation thanks to this one.
Speaker 6: That is, there's big challenges in the United States with
Speaker 6: maternal deaths. We're fifty six in the world for maternal
Speaker 6: mortality rates. And one of the most dangerous time is
Speaker 6: not when a child is born, but after the child
Speaker 6: is born, because moms are not seen for the first
Speaker 6: six weeks. And of course children babies are seen frequently
Speaker 6: and so and you never know when the mom is seen.
Speaker 6: Is she wearing her Sunday finest, did she take five
Speaker 6: trains and a bus and walk two miles and so? Anyway,
Speaker 6: so we just launched two days ago universal nurse home visitation,
Speaker 6: which means within two weeks of delivering a baby and
Speaker 6: nurse goes into the home, which means they are able
Speaker 6: to see is their food insecurity? Is there are there
Speaker 6: other resource needs that we can propornastic.
Speaker 2: Violence and sadly on the list.
Speaker 1: You know, there's so much we could talk about and
Speaker 1: carry and we'll do part two another time. But in London,
Speaker 1: by the way Inn London, and you were talk about
Speaker 1: food just you know, as a way of communicating, of
Speaker 1: expressing love as being something delicious to eat, to share,
Speaker 1: to take care of people. It's also comfort. And so
Speaker 1: I always end every interview with the question that if
Speaker 1: you think of food as comfort, the food that you
Speaker 1: might reach for, apart from butter, you're never going to
Speaker 1: get that butter.
Speaker 6: But what, Tommy, would your spe I would have to
Speaker 6: say if it's if it's not gonna be a sweet,
Speaker 6: then it's probably cheese.
Speaker 1: Cheese.
Speaker 6: I love a specific cut or any depends what's in
Speaker 6: my refrigerator.
Speaker 2: Okay, Ruthie.
Speaker 4: I would go, particularly in cold weather stew, a nice
Speaker 4: beef stew with vegetables. We had some the other night
Speaker 4: we did, and it was really on a cold winter
Speaker 4: night in particular.
Speaker 2: That gives me a.
Speaker 6: Can I tell you one other thing to entice you
Speaker 6: back to New Jersey, so hopefully we can get you
Speaker 6: back while Phil is still the governor, because one thing
Speaker 6: we do with the Governor's Mansion is we serve as
Speaker 6: many dishes as possible that have Jersey sourced food, and
Speaker 6: we then we then put asterisks on the menu to
Speaker 6: say this is local. This is this is from New
Speaker 6: Jersey and wines and.
Speaker 4: Only Jersey Wines, only Jersey Booze, only Jersey Beer, and
Speaker 4: to the extent we can only Jersey ingredients.
Speaker 1: Well, if I started out by saying that you know
Speaker 1: you're committed, that you're kind, and that you're interested in
Speaker 1: the people who live and work in the state, I
Speaker 1: think that this conversation has shown that. And also if
Speaker 1: I say that I love you, you can see why.
Speaker 1: Thank you, we love you. Thanks Ruthy, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to Ruthie's Table for in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 7: Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atami Studios for iHeartRadio.
Speaker 7: It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.
Speaker 7: This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Speaker 7: Nigel Appleton. Our executive producers are Faye Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Speaker 7: Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore, and our production coordinator
Speaker 7: is Bella Selini. Thank you to everyone at the River
Speaker 7: Cafe for your help in making this episode.
Speaker 6: M mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm