Speaker 1: Ruthie's Table four is now a book. Paul McCartney, Michael
Speaker 1: ka Kamala Harris, David Beckham, Tina fey Elton John and
Speaker 1: many more. It's full of stories, beautifully designed, and a
Speaker 1: celebration of the way food connects us all. It's available
Speaker 1: now wherever you buy your books. Ruthie's Table four brought
Speaker 1: to you by Sky and Montclair. I know from a
Speaker 1: very early age, going with you to Italy, you were
Speaker 1: really interested in the vineyard, in the vineyard. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know that vineyards were part of you know, exploration for you,
Speaker 1: getting to know people who made wine, how they made
Speaker 1: the wine, whether it was in Greek Island or whether
Speaker 1: it was in Chianti or whether it was in Piamonte.
Speaker 1: That your interest in wine came from the very from
Speaker 1: the from the grape. So would you like to talk
Speaker 1: about what your relationship with wine.
Speaker 2: I mean for me when you make a tajin, I
Speaker 2: find it really fascinating because you can't stir it in
Speaker 2: a way that for me, it's very different from Italian
Speaker 2: So you have to you have to imagine all the
Speaker 2: different layers and you're going to put it in the
Speaker 2: fire for four hours and how those layers are going
Speaker 2: to be interacted during the time, and wine is kind
Speaker 2: of like that. You need to imagine all the things
Speaker 2: that's going to happen to that wine when you pick it.
Speaker 2: How ripe the grapes are, Are you going to let
Speaker 2: them stay on there? Are you going to allow the
Speaker 2: skin to kind of to stay on a little bit,
Speaker 2: what it's going to sit in and all the way
Speaker 2: through them. The wine takes memories from those moments. But
Speaker 2: maybe the most important is the soil that it's grown in.
Speaker 2: And I think we see in this. You know, it's
Speaker 2: amazing what world wine is doing. But for me in
Speaker 2: Australia and in California, we had these really rich soil
Speaker 2: and I think the grape's going to a bit lazy.
Speaker 2: It's like, God, this is really easy to grow. And
Speaker 2: so you know, I'm just going to see here and
Speaker 2: sure I can be high alcohol and I can be round,
Speaker 2: and I can get many points, but there's no tension,
Speaker 2: there's no there's no fight. You know, when you're on
Speaker 2: a volcano, particularly like Lapama, which is erupted, and you
Speaker 2: have an incredible wine making there called Victoria, you have
Speaker 2: these these grapes that are growing against all odds. You know,
Speaker 2: they're they're fighting through the volcanic soil and the volcanic
Speaker 2: ash to make their foundations, and they're really working hard.
Speaker 2: And when the grape comes out and it's been got
Speaker 2: trade winds blowing on it, it's this incredible grape that
Speaker 2: has fought through all of this. And then you kind
Speaker 2: of put it in, you know, in glass rather than oak,
Speaker 2: so you're kind of really holding on to the to
Speaker 2: the to the flavors, and you know, you this one
Speaker 2: woman runs around these twenty different parcels. She has no employers.
Speaker 2: She's kind of her backgrounder is art history, and she's
Speaker 2: in Lapama, that's kind of one of the smallest Canary islands.
Speaker 2: Like Legs the Anchor and these these kind of ancient
Speaker 2: these ancient breaks also very very old old roots, and
Speaker 2: the whole influence of the of the volcanic soil makes
Speaker 2: it's very very mineral wines. I mean like in Etna
Speaker 2: there's Envenette who do really interesting wine on the other islands.
Speaker 2: But also it's what the wine's put in. I mean,
Speaker 2: oak makes our wine very rich. But let's you know,
Speaker 2: we go back to the Romans and they're putting in
Speaker 2: terra cotta, and you know, it's like the way you
Speaker 2: put clay against plastic and it looks like plastic. When
Speaker 2: you put the wine in the terra cotta, it takes
Speaker 2: on this very matte influences. And so you get these
Speaker 2: you know, I like wines which I like, I don't
Speaker 2: like the really heavy and I love Spanish wine. The
Speaker 2: modern wine I find the old rocket can be a
Speaker 2: little bit too heavy. Piermonti is fantastic for the for
Speaker 2: the for the reds.
Speaker 1: And so when you go to cook and you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're spending this time in the market thinking about how
Speaker 1: you're going to cook a whole fish, how are you
Speaker 1: going to you know, make the vegetables in a certain way.
Speaker 1: Are you thinking at that point of the wine that
Speaker 1: you're going.
Speaker 2: To be drinking? Definitely, I'm thinking, you know, and I
Speaker 2: think how you know, to have a volcanic red with
Speaker 2: a turb it's fantastic because it kind of that it's
Speaker 2: very very savory insult. You've all the sea, the salt
Speaker 2: from the sea blowing onto the grapes, and this kind
Speaker 2: of slightly salty, savory light red wine really cuts perfectly
Speaker 2: with this with that kind of mulsified fats that you
Speaker 2: have in the turbots.
Speaker 1: I know that when you're coming into the River caf
Speaker 1: you really take great care of the wine that you're
Speaker 1: going to have with your food. When you come to
Speaker 1: our house, go downstairs, and you really come up and say, Ruthie,
Speaker 1: this is what we should be drinking tonight. This wine
Speaker 1: is something that will make the food taste different, and
Speaker 1: you know the food will take the wine.
Speaker 2: Also. I think it's interesting the stress when you're cooking
Speaker 2: for certain people and how that's you know, how that
Speaker 2: affects you.
Speaker 1: Do you think cooking is a performance? Does it matter
Speaker 1: to you very much how the audience reacts to what
Speaker 1: you're for me?
Speaker 2: Cooking is, yeah, definitely a part of performance, but it's
Speaker 2: a kind of an It's a way of expressing your love,
Speaker 2: I think to the people that you're cooking for or
Speaker 2: to an extent, and I cook behind a counter and
Speaker 2: I put food out as I'm cooking, and then someone
Speaker 2: might be peeling peas or doing doing something on the
Speaker 2: on the other side. But that energy that is going
Speaker 2: into it, the energy of the room, completely defies how
Speaker 2: the food comes out. I think to an extent, and
Speaker 2: if there's there's this kind of very positive spirit and
Speaker 2: the food comes out much more, you know, perfectly to
Speaker 2: an extent. And sometimes you can get nervous, and when
Speaker 2: you get nervous, then your kind of sixth sense goes
Speaker 2: goes out. And I think partly because have been dyslexic,
Speaker 2: I can lie in bed and you know, melt. I
Speaker 2: melt colors together and look at things, but also very
Speaker 2: much foods and smells and tastes and think about how
Speaker 2: things might go together or the things that I want
Speaker 2: to try or to do, and the kind of chemistry
Speaker 2: of these different fish fats or you know with some
Speaker 2: Thai fish oil or these kind of emulsifications and how
Speaker 2: they they go for me. That's you know, thinking of
Speaker 2: you know, spend the last two days preparing for this.
Speaker 2: The opportunity just to be thinking about food, I find it,
Speaker 2: you know. Yes, I had a big design meeting and
Speaker 2: I found myself bicycling and just thinking about food, and
Speaker 2: I stop. You need to be thinking about design