Speaker 1: Welcome to River Cafe Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Adami's Studios.
Speaker 2: I'm sitting here in the River Cafe garden with David Beckham.
Speaker 2: He has just cooked an exquisite tagatelly with fresher rolls,
Speaker 2: butter and parmesan. It's a bit much, really, as I
Speaker 2: don't go around scoring free kicks. I know David has
Speaker 2: a lot of friends, a lot of colleagues, and certainly
Speaker 2: a lot of fans, but when he comes to the
Speaker 2: River Cafe, it's with his family, Victoria and their four children,
Speaker 2: always sitting at table one, basking and family, love, sharing
Speaker 2: food and always having his favorite wine, Sassakia.
Speaker 3: Thank you, David, You're welcome. Thank you.
Speaker 2: You were describing cooking as one of the great pleasures
Speaker 2: the other night.
Speaker 4: It's one of my biggest passions, you know, along with wine. Now,
Speaker 4: I love to cook. You know. I was in the
Speaker 4: kitchen the other day cooking for the kids and Victoria
Speaker 4: was like, can I help?
Speaker 3: What can I do?
Speaker 4: And I was like, honestly, sit down, have a vogron tonic, relax,
Speaker 4: be with the kids.
Speaker 3: This is what I love to do.
Speaker 2: And I really relate to that because you kind of far.
Speaker 2: There's a method, isn't there. But it's also creative, and
Speaker 2: it's also you're doing it for your kids who haven't
Speaker 2: seen all day, and there's the anticipation, and I think
Speaker 2: that is something why you probably like to cook and
Speaker 2: I like to cook.
Speaker 4: It's just one of the main reasons why I love
Speaker 4: to cook, because it's why I love lego also, you know,
Speaker 4: because it relaxes me, you know, and I'm forty seven
Speaker 4: years older and I'll still sit there with you on
Speaker 4: my own actually till two, three, four in the morning
Speaker 4: doing lego because actually it relaxes me. And it's the
Speaker 4: same cooking for the kids. I love to cook for
Speaker 4: my parents. I love to cook for my friends. And
Speaker 4: I think that it's obviously come from, you know, my upbringing.
Speaker 2: What was your mother a cook?
Speaker 3: Cooking?
Speaker 4: My mum cooked for me and my sisters every single night,
Speaker 4: and I had hard working parents, working class parents. When
Speaker 4: my dad was out from six in the morning till
Speaker 4: seven in the evening. My mom was a hairdresser and
Speaker 4: still is a hairdresser. She used to spend her evenings
Speaker 4: obviously cooking for me and my sisters, and then at
Speaker 4: about eight or nine, o'clock in the evening, some old
Speaker 4: ladies would arrive and she'd be doing their hair to
Speaker 4: eleven twelve at night. So yes, my mom used to
Speaker 4: cook for us every evening, every Sunday lunch. And my
Speaker 4: grandma was exactly the same as well. So that's really
Speaker 4: my childhood with my grandparents. And my granddad was Jewish,
Speaker 4: so every Saturday when we turn up, my grand would
Speaker 4: have this most amazing chicken noodle soup with the motsameal dumplings.
Speaker 3: So I was brought up That's what I was brought
Speaker 3: up on. And the jelly deals.
Speaker 4: One of the delights of been from the East End
Speaker 4: of London was pie mash and jelly deals and liquor.
Speaker 4: That was what I was really brought up on. It
Speaker 4: was the one treat that I used to go with
Speaker 4: my nan my grandad. We used to go down to
Speaker 4: Chapel Market. There was the most amazing pie and mash
Speaker 4: shop there and we used to sit in there, sawdust
Speaker 4: on the floor, sat on wooden seats and eating our
Speaker 4: pie mash and jelly deals. What was in the pie Actually,
Speaker 4: it's just mince meat. It's just mince meat. The pies
Speaker 4: are the most amazing pastry, and I always get them
Speaker 4: to turn them upside down on my plate. And then
Speaker 4: it's a big dollop of mash. And the mash is
Speaker 4: literally there's no there's hardly any butter in it. It's
Speaker 4: just salt and the potatoes. And then the liquor is
Speaker 4: this most amazing green sauce. It's made with parsley and
Speaker 4: stewed eels, and then I put some spicy vinegar over
Speaker 4: the top, with some a little bit of salt and
Speaker 4: lots of pepper. But the jelly deals are the thing
Speaker 4: that not many people that I know love the jelly deals.
Speaker 4: My grand used to like them stewed. I literally like
Speaker 4: them in the jellatine. So they come up in slices,
Speaker 4: so the earls are cut up, and they come in
Speaker 4: this this plastic pot and I just pour vinegar and
Speaker 4: pepper on it, and I have it at least once
Speaker 4: a week.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: Many people that I talked to talk about the food
Speaker 2: of their parents, but the memory of their grandparents is
Speaker 2: really important to them.
Speaker 4: We used to go there every weekend because my dad's
Speaker 4: parents actually had passed away before we had all grown up,
Speaker 4: so we always used to spend weekends at my man
Speaker 4: and grandad's house.
Speaker 3: So my mom's mom and dad and we.
Speaker 4: Used to turn up at their at their flats in London,
Speaker 4: and the first thing that I would do and I
Speaker 4: walked through the door in my grand's flat would open,
Speaker 4: I'd open the fridge and there she'd have fresh strawberries.
Speaker 4: Every Saturday morning that we turned up, she'd have fresh
Speaker 4: strawberries and a big pot of sugar.
Speaker 2: It's interesting that you talk about that because my husband,
Speaker 2: Richard designed house which was a very strong route from
Speaker 2: the park through the garden, through the courtyard into the
Speaker 2: house and into a garden. But my route, I always
Speaker 2: used to say, was from the courtyard into the house
Speaker 2: and into the fridge. You know, my first stop was
Speaker 2: always at the fridge because again his mother always had
Speaker 2: food for us.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, they had a very They had a very
Speaker 4: small flat, so as you walk in, literally the toilet
Speaker 4: was on your left and just slight a foot further.
Speaker 3: Was the fridge. So you open the fridge.
Speaker 4: And there there was, you know, the most amazing fresh
Speaker 4: strawberries every Saturday morning.
Speaker 3: Every Saturday morning.
Speaker 4: Because my grandfather used to go to work at about
Speaker 4: eleven o'clock in the morning. So what we'd do is
Speaker 4: we'd arrive really early, like nine o'clock. My grand would
Speaker 4: have this thick, freshly cut bread. She'd make the most
Speaker 4: amazing sandwich. I'd sit and watch like the football on
Speaker 4: a Saturday morning before my grand had left, and then
Speaker 4: he'd go to work and then go and watch Spurs play.
Speaker 2: They do.
Speaker 3: He was in the print.
Speaker 4: So he was in the print, and he worked up
Speaker 4: until he was eighty eighty one eighty two. He still
Speaker 4: went to work. And yeah, he's an amazing man. And
Speaker 4: he was a Tottenham fan. So he used to go
Speaker 4: and watch Tottenham in the afternoons. And that's where my
Speaker 4: gran and my mom used to take me down to
Speaker 4: Chapel Market and we used to go and have piemash.
Speaker 2: How old would you have been?
Speaker 3: Oh my god? We went there from.
Speaker 4: As long as I can remember, I mean two three
Speaker 4: years old and up until up until they passed away.
Speaker 2: So's your mother. That's interesting that she worked all day
Speaker 2: and she cooked for you at night, so you sat
Speaker 2: at the table and then worked again. Would she have
Speaker 2: done a weekly shop or would you stop at the
Speaker 2: market or how would she do all that?
Speaker 3: Do you think I mean she'd do.
Speaker 4: She'd probably do a weekly shop shop, I'd say, But
Speaker 4: you know, my mom, like I said, she'd drop us
Speaker 4: to school in the mornings. Then you know, you'd do
Speaker 4: hairdressing throughout the day, pick us up from school, bring
Speaker 4: us home, cook us, you know, whatever we were going
Speaker 4: to eat that evening, which was either she used to
Speaker 4: make the most amazing gammon and chips, which again it's
Speaker 4: one of those things that I still have now. It
Speaker 4: was amazing gammon, fried egg, pineapple from a tin, coleslaw
Speaker 4: and chips, and it was one of my favorite meals
Speaker 4: and she still cooks that for me now. So yeah,
Speaker 4: that was one of the things that I used to love.
Speaker 2: When you left home and you were no longer had
Speaker 2: your mother to cook, but you also you had such
Speaker 2: a love for food and an understanding of the connection
Speaker 2: of food and the importance of sitting at the table.
Speaker 2: What was that like when you left that?
Speaker 4: I was actually quite excited because I left home when
Speaker 4: I was fifteen years old to move up to Manchester
Speaker 4: when I was fifteen w and then I.
Speaker 3: Was in lodgings.
Speaker 4: So I was in lodgings for about four years, and
Speaker 4: then I bought my first house and Actually I was
Speaker 4: quite excited about it, because, in all honesty, I spent
Speaker 4: a lot of time in the kitchen with my mum,
Speaker 4: you know, helping her with the dinners, and then when
Speaker 4: she would do her hairdressing in the evenings, I used
Speaker 4: to make the cups of tea and bring the biscuits
Speaker 4: or the cake for all my mum's ladies that she
Speaker 4: was doing their hair. So I used to love that
Speaker 4: kind of thing. So getting my own house having to
Speaker 4: cook for myself, actually I was very excited about.
Speaker 2: Did you entertain what did you cook for?
Speaker 3: I would entertain I'd have a few friends around, you know.
Speaker 4: I did like to go out for dinner, but my
Speaker 4: favorite evenings were and still are, you know, cooking for
Speaker 4: the kids, cooking for friends, you know, especially when I
Speaker 4: have when I have like a lot of time, you know.
Speaker 4: Pretty recently, I was in isolation actually for five days
Speaker 4: because I've just been to Italy. So I came back
Speaker 4: and on one of the last days, Victoria's parents had
Speaker 4: a party and I and actually go to it, so
Speaker 4: everyone was out of the house and I actually secretly
Speaker 4: loved it. So I literally had two most amazing cuts
Speaker 4: of meat, and one was a t bone and I
Speaker 4: had some English wagou. I poured one glass of the
Speaker 4: most amazing red wine that I treated myself too, because
Speaker 4: I was on my own, feeling sorry for myself, looking
Speaker 4: forward to watching the football in the afternoon. On my own,
Speaker 4: I set the barbecue up, and I think there's nothing
Speaker 4: better than when you have time to get everything right
Speaker 4: you have, you know, I had a nice tomato and
Speaker 4: onion or shot salad, and I literally had the meat
Speaker 4: and a glass of wine, and it was the most
Speaker 4: amazing meal that I'd had for a long time. So
Speaker 4: those are my perfect afternoons or evenings. It was actually
Speaker 4: quite thick.
Speaker 3: I don't like to brag absolute perfection.
Speaker 4: Well, I've been watching chef Table that more and it
Speaker 4: gave me the idea of obviously doing you know, the
Speaker 4: barbecue in the afternoon. So I've been watching the butcher.
Speaker 4: There was a there's an Italian butcher on the chef's table.
Speaker 3: So I put it on the.
Speaker 4: Grill, cooked it for six or seven minutes either side,
Speaker 4: and it was quite a thick piece, a bit of salt,
Speaker 4: bit of pepper, and I like I like my meat.
Speaker 4: I like it rare medium, a push, but rare more rare,
Speaker 4: and it was. It came out perfect, and it was
Speaker 4: only me in the house, so I ate it.
Speaker 2: I like it when it's when you can if it's
Speaker 2: thick enough, then you can get it really black on
Speaker 2: the outside, so there's that contrast and you think of
Speaker 2: the the strong.
Speaker 3: So that's that's what it was like that day. So
Speaker 3: that was the perfect day.
Speaker 4: And I had a bottle of Italian massetto, so I
Speaker 4: had Cora vanned it and bought a couple of glasses
Speaker 4: for myself.
Speaker 2: Tell me, we've been talking about food, what do you
Speaker 2: feel about wine?
Speaker 4: You know, I'm at the end of the dawn from
Speaker 4: the East end of London, so really I only saw
Speaker 4: my mom and dad drinking either you know, blue Nana or.
Speaker 3: Lambrusco, and that was as good as it really got.
Speaker 4: So then when me and Victoria actually first started dating,
Speaker 4: we used to go to this restaurant in the Midland
Speaker 4: Hotel in Manchester called the French Restaurant, and it was
Speaker 4: very fancy and we used to go in there and
Speaker 4: we used to sit in the corner and we used
Speaker 4: to order the most expensive bottle of champagne and the
Speaker 4: most expensive bottle of wine, not knowing what we were drinking.
Speaker 3: We were just wanting.
Speaker 4: To have a nice night out and know that we
Speaker 4: were drinking something great, even though we had no idea
Speaker 4: what we were drinking. And I think that was my
Speaker 4: first introduction into tasting a grape wine. One of the
Speaker 4: first weddings, remember, I want to say it was either
Speaker 4: a sixty two or sixty seven tour, and that was
Speaker 4: my first introduction into tasting something that I thought was great,
Speaker 4: even though I had no idea whether it was great
Speaker 4: or not, I knew that I was tasting something special.
Speaker 4: So at that point, obviously I was still you know,
Speaker 4: a professional player, so I never really I was never
Speaker 4: a big drinker. I used to have a glass of
Speaker 4: wine or you know, every now and again, but I
Speaker 4: never really drank throughout my career. But then I really
Speaker 4: started loving wine when we first moved to LA and
Speaker 4: we used to go to Napa Valley a lot, and
Speaker 4: I used to sit with people like Bill Harlan or
Speaker 4: An Colgan, and I think that there's nothing better than
Speaker 4: actually sitting at a table with someone that knows what
Speaker 4: they're talking about and what they're drinking, and what they're
Speaker 4: smelling and what they're tasting annoyingly.
Speaker 3: Victoria is very good on that. It is annoying.
Speaker 2: Actually, she can say this wine tastes of cigarette smoke.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's exactly what she can say. And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it really does. And I'm like, I don't taste that,
Speaker 4: but no, but annoyingly. She's very good at that, and
Speaker 4: she'll never admit it. She'll always say, well, David's the expert.
Speaker 4: Then then you know, all of a sudden she'll come
Speaker 4: out with all that smell that tastes a little bit smoky,
Speaker 4: and you know.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but you know I love wine.
Speaker 2: Does it matter to you if you order a wine
Speaker 2: that you might not be happy with that?
Speaker 3: Do you know what I have? How does it make
Speaker 3: me feel? Actually?
Speaker 4: I think it can make or break an evening in
Speaker 4: my I really do think it does. Even though you
Speaker 4: know that you're going to get great food in the
Speaker 4: restaurant wherever you are. For me, if I have picked
Speaker 4: the wrong wine, wrong glass of wine, or the wrong
Speaker 4: bottle of wine, I wouldn't say it ruins my evening,
Speaker 4: but yeah, it does ruin my evening. And I get
Speaker 4: quite emotional about food and wine, you know, when I
Speaker 4: when I'm eating some think great. I want everyone to
Speaker 4: try it, you know, And that's unfortunately I'm married to
Speaker 4: someone that has eaten the same thing for the last
Speaker 4: twenty five years since since I've met Victoria. She only
Speaker 4: eats you know, grilled fish, steam, vegetables. She will very
Speaker 4: rarely deviate away from there. The only time that she's
Speaker 4: ever probably shared something that's been on my plate was
Speaker 4: actually when she was pregnant with Harper, do you remember,
Speaker 4: And it was the most amazing thing. It was one
Speaker 4: of my favorite evenings. I can't remember what it was,
Speaker 4: but I know that she's not eating it.
Speaker 2: Since the River Cafe Cafe are all day space and
Speaker 2: just steps away from the restaurant is now open in
Speaker 2: the morning an Italian breakfast with cognetti, ciambella and cristada
Speaker 2: from my pastry kitchen. In the afternoon, ice creamed coops
Speaker 2: in River Cafe classic desserts. We have sharing plates Alumi Missti, Mozzarella, Brisqueto,
Speaker 2: red and yellow peppers, Vitello, tonado and more. Come in
Speaker 2: the evening for cocktails with our resident pianist in the bar.
Speaker 2: No need to book see you here.
Speaker 4: To be honest, I've been so lucky because in a way.
Speaker 4: When I left Manchester and I had to leave Manchester United,
Speaker 4: I was obviously devastated at the time, but it's really
Speaker 4: really educated me in living in different countries, eating different foods,
Speaker 4: trying different things. And when I was playing in Italy
Speaker 4: for eleven months, I was on loan at AC Milan,
Speaker 4: so I'd train in the morning and in the afternoon.
Speaker 4: I decided to take a culinary course in Italian cuisine
Speaker 4: and I absolutely loved it.
Speaker 3: So I did that private lesson or was it in
Speaker 3: a class.
Speaker 4: I had a few private lessons and then it was
Speaker 4: in a class, but everybody was very you know, focused
Speaker 4: on what they were all doing, so they weren't even
Speaker 4: bothered that I was. Obviously at the time it's a
Speaker 4: big deal to be playing for an Italian team. Yes,
Speaker 4: so I did the culinary course because my kid's favorite
Speaker 4: food is Italian. So I wanted to perfect making the
Speaker 4: perfect ragu. I wanted to perfect doing the perfect risotto.
Speaker 4: I always had it in my head that doing a risotto.
Speaker 4: Making a risotto was difficult. Actually it turns out not
Speaker 4: to be that difficult. So why did they teach you
Speaker 4: about making Obviously the stock is really most important and
Speaker 4: literally you're stood there for twenty minutes kind of making
Speaker 4: sure that you're keeping an eye and everything that's not
Speaker 4: going too dry, that it's not going it's not got
Speaker 4: too much liquid in it. And then obviously the ending
Speaker 4: is the part where every think comes together with the parmesan,
Speaker 4: you know, So that I just loved that time because
Speaker 4: I got to perfect the perfect well I think it's
Speaker 4: the perfect ragu, making fresh pasta from scratch, and obviously
Speaker 4: the risotto. So that was one of the things that
Speaker 4: I loved about living in Italy, you know, And it's
Speaker 4: the one thing that I love about Italians and the
Speaker 4: Italian food and the culture because for a start, it's
Speaker 4: all about family. It's all about food and the wine,
Speaker 4: of course, but whether you go into a small cafe
Speaker 4: on the side of the street or you're in the
Speaker 4: middle of Tuscany with an old Italian mama making the
Speaker 4: most amazing pasta, everything that I ate and I have
Speaker 4: always eaten in Italy has always been astonishing.
Speaker 2: Everything I would say when you say that it's family,
Speaker 2: I always tell the story that I was once in
Speaker 2: a room in a house with Richard and with his
Speaker 2: family in Tuscany. I heard this huge argument going on
Speaker 2: downstairs in Italian, and I thought, oh, no, you know
Speaker 2: what's going on. So I kind of made my way
Speaker 2: downstairs and there were two sisters and they were in
Speaker 2: the kitchen and they were having this unbelievable argument about
Speaker 2: whether or not with a papa pomodoro, which is a
Speaker 2: bread soup of just bread and tomatoes. One wanted to
Speaker 2: add a bit of water at the end and the
Speaker 2: other one didn't.
Speaker 3: And you know, so.
Speaker 2: It's not even village to village, family to family, region
Speaker 2: to region. It can be sister to sister. You know
Speaker 2: that there's the right way to do it. And they
Speaker 2: care so much.
Speaker 4: They care so much, and even when they're not arguing,
Speaker 4: it sounds like they're arguing because they're so passionate about it.
Speaker 2: I hope we'll cook together more.
Speaker 4: And they loved having you in the kitchen.
Speaker 2: Kitchen, Yeah, we'll plan that. Okay, let's get this on
Speaker 2: the road, shall David Beckham? So she's head chef, what
Speaker 2: are you everything?
Speaker 3: Okay, whatever you want to do.
Speaker 2: I want a job, it was Beckham.
Speaker 3: I would love it.
Speaker 4: Job. I need a job, job, you need a job.
Speaker 2: So I'm here today with Sean wowing the head chef
Speaker 2: the River Cafe and my friend David Beckham. And it's
Speaker 2: now twenty to six and people are coming in soon,
Speaker 2: so the two of you.
Speaker 4: Better get going.
Speaker 3: What are you going to make?
Speaker 4: We are making Telly? Telly, you're happy with that, chef.
Speaker 3: I'm more than happy with that, yeah, David. Okay, David,
Speaker 3: it's going to cook.
Speaker 2: Okay. Oh yeah, give it a really good shape, yeah,
Speaker 2: shake it, shakey, got it go and.
Speaker 3: A bit of parsley.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: What do you like cook at home?
Speaker 2: David?
Speaker 4: What do I like cooking at home? To be honest,
Speaker 4: my kids are obsessed with Italian food, so the majority
Speaker 4: of the time they get me to make like a
Speaker 4: raggedy because the kids love I can tell.
Speaker 2: When you're shaking the pane that you work just in office.
Speaker 3: Quite impressive, you made it? Yeah, yes, I think we
Speaker 3: could turn them into quite useful shop. And it has
Speaker 3: done a cooking course.
Speaker 2: It transpires collapse.
Speaker 3: I'm really impressed by that.
Speaker 2: Actually, So that was good. Now it's time talk. Stop
Speaker 2: beating and we'll talk.
Speaker 3: Can I take you with me?
Speaker 2: You finish journey, we'll take it with us.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 2: We have an open kitchen and one of the great
Speaker 2: pleasures for me is being able to see the reaction
Speaker 2: of people eating now, whether they love it or they
Speaker 2: don't love it, whether they share it or they don't
Speaker 2: share it, whether they talk about it. You know, it's
Speaker 2: part of the whole joy of eating out.
Speaker 3: And I love open kitchens, you know.
Speaker 4: I like the interaction that you can have with you know,
Speaker 4: what's going on around you.
Speaker 3: You know, I like to see what.
Speaker 4: The chefs are doing. I like to see what's being prepared.
Speaker 4: To be honest, I've been so lucky because I lived
Speaker 4: in Spain for four years, then I moved to America.
Speaker 4: Then I spent eleven months in Italy, and then I
Speaker 4: was back in America, and then I moved to Paris
Speaker 4: for six months. So I had all of this kind
Speaker 4: of education in you know, living in different places, eating
Speaker 4: different foods, trying different things.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: When I was living in Paris, I was again Victoria,
Speaker 4: and the kids kids would going to school in London,
Speaker 4: so they obviously couldn't live there with me.
Speaker 3: They'd come out of the weekends.
Speaker 4: So again, one of my favorite restaurants in the world
Speaker 4: is Lammy Luis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, I mean absolutely agree.
Speaker 4: It is literally, I would say it's probably one of
Speaker 4: my favorite restaurants in the world for atmosphere, food, enjoyment,
Speaker 4: everything about it. You know, from the moment I walked in,
Speaker 4: and you know, all the waiters are dressed in those
Speaker 4: white jackets, and whether you're wearing a bomber jacket or
Speaker 4: whether the most elegant lady walks in and the chanelle coat.
Speaker 4: They take your coat off, they fold it up and
Speaker 4: they throw it above the head the on the it's
Speaker 4: like a train carriage. And my record for eating es
Speaker 4: cargo is I've eaten thirty two es cargoes at one dinner.
Speaker 2: To the listener, can I tell you those a big?
Speaker 2: I've had that many times.
Speaker 4: Big And they come on trays of six or nine
Speaker 4: I think, and they come and I was in there
Speaker 4: for about four hours with Victoria once and we had
Speaker 4: the most amazing wine and everything about that restaurant. And
Speaker 4: I used to go in there, and I shouldn't have done,
Speaker 4: because obviously I was a professional athlete, and you know,
Speaker 4: I tried to watch what I eat, but I just
Speaker 4: made sure I ran harder the next day. So I
Speaker 4: used to go in there once a week. They used
Speaker 4: to let me come in the first the service was
Speaker 4: at seven thirty. I think it was in the evening
Speaker 4: that was. No one was there at seven thirty either,
Speaker 4: So I used to turn up at seven, and by
Speaker 4: the time the first people were coming through the door
Speaker 4: around called it to eight o'clock, I was walking out.
Speaker 4: So I used to do that once a week. I
Speaker 4: used to go on my own. I didn't care that
Speaker 4: I was on my own. I just didn't drink the wine,
Speaker 4: but I just sat there and I ate the most
Speaker 4: amazing food.
Speaker 2: I love it, and the pond freed theo used to take.
Speaker 4: The bread and everything about It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Crim Fresh.
Speaker 4: At the end, they bring that tub of crim fresh
Speaker 4: out and they just dollop it on the plate and
Speaker 4: the small strawberries.
Speaker 2: One of the high points of my career. As you know,
Speaker 2: the headway to they're the one with the black hair.
Speaker 2: It's not called Louis, I can't remember his name. And
Speaker 2: he came to the River Cafe with his family, with
Speaker 2: his wife and his children, and it was really such
Speaker 2: It was such a moving experience for me to have
Speaker 2: them there. So you actually had the experience of living
Speaker 2: in Milan in my marriage and Madrid.
Speaker 4: Yees.
Speaker 3: I lived in Madrid. When I first moved to Spain.
Speaker 4: I was twenty seven years old and I lived there
Speaker 4: for four years, and I became really obsessed by wherever
Speaker 4: I would live in the world. I decided in my head, Okay,
Speaker 4: this is where I'm going to be for the rest
Speaker 4: of my life, because I had to look at it
Speaker 4: like that, because I wanted to throw myself into the culture,
Speaker 4: into the language, into the food, into everything that I
Speaker 4: was doing in that country. So Spain was a big
Speaker 4: you know, food kind of family kind of cult, you know,
Speaker 4: I have. For a start, I couldn't believe how long
Speaker 4: the lunches went on for. You know, we'd start lunch
Speaker 4: at two and still we sat there at seven, and
Speaker 4: then they'd go for a sleep, and then we'd come
Speaker 4: back and have dinner at eleven, and I'd be like
Speaker 4: falling asleep at dinner. But I loved everything about Spain,
Speaker 4: you know, from the ham On to the Loma to
Speaker 4: you know, to everything that I ate in Spain. I
Speaker 4: lovedz It's like the it's the barnacles and you put
Speaker 4: them in hot boiling water, only for it not for long, yeah,
Speaker 4: and then you kind of twist the end off and
Speaker 4: it's like it's very chewy, but they're very salty. So
Speaker 4: they're called buth thebz and yeah they're they're barnacles and
Speaker 4: they're very difficult to get. Literally, the guys tie theirselves
Speaker 4: onto the side of these rocks. They then wait for
Speaker 4: the waves to go out. They go down get them
Speaker 4: and then come back up before the wave comes in.
Speaker 4: So it's quite dangerous. And still now every time that
Speaker 4: I go to Spain, every time that I go to Madrid,
Speaker 4: I always come back with a leg of ham on. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Always.
Speaker 4: It goes in the middle of the kitchen Ireland and
Speaker 4: every time that the kids walk past, they slice a
Speaker 4: 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?
Speaker 3: Did you eat a cera? To be honest, I was lucky.
Speaker 4: Food never really affected me, but I did, you know,
Speaker 4: as much as I am sat here saying, you know,
Speaker 4: the cram fresh, the escargo, everything that I've talked about,
Speaker 4: I still try to eat in the most healthy way
Speaker 4: because obviously being.
Speaker 3: An athlete I have to eat in the right way.
Speaker 4: But then I think the dietary requirements now for athletes,
Speaker 4: especially in football, have totally changed over the last twenty years.
Speaker 4: When I first joined Manchester United, you know, the canteen
Speaker 4: was all about having steaking chips and beans and then
Speaker 4: you'd have a jam roly poly or you'd have a
Speaker 4: slice of chocolate cake. No like after training so you'd
Speaker 4: have a slice of chocolate cake with chocolate custard. But
Speaker 4: now it's totally different. Now it's totally different now. Well,
Speaker 4: it depends where you play, what manager you know you're
Speaker 4: playing under. You know, there were certain managers that would
Speaker 4: only want us to eat boiled chicken, which disgusting, but
Speaker 4: that's that's how they felt that we should be eating,
Speaker 4: you know, no ketch up, you know, and then you
Speaker 4: have the opposite. When I was living in Milan, I
Speaker 4: was kind of thinking, how am I going to be
Speaker 4: fitness wise because I'm going to be eating a lot
Speaker 4: of pasta, a lot of olive oil, a lot of
Speaker 4: you know whatever. But it was actually one of the
Speaker 4: fittest that I'd ever been in when I was playing
Speaker 4: in Milan, because I think the produce is so clean
Speaker 4: it's so good. The quality of it was just incredible.
Speaker 4: So over the years it's definitely changed for sportsmen. You know,
Speaker 4: I've been lucky that I could kind of eat whatever
Speaker 4: I wanted, but I've always been careful knowing that I
Speaker 4: can't have a glass of wine four days before a
Speaker 4: game because I don't want it to affect anything that
Speaker 4: I'm doing at the weekends, even though it was only
Speaker 4: a glass, you know, So I'd always be very disciplined
Speaker 4: on that.
Speaker 2: And do you think that athletes now are much more
Speaker 2: very I think that that's part of the culture now.
Speaker 4: I think if you start it early enough, then it
Speaker 4: becomes part of your life and part of your culture.
Speaker 3: It's what we try and do with our kids, you know.
Speaker 4: We try to educate them that, you know, if they
Speaker 4: eat the right things and drink the right things and
Speaker 4: look after theirselves now, you know, at such a young age,
Speaker 4: then they'll continue it through through their life lives. And
Speaker 4: I 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 your 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 4: But I think that he was part of a culture,
Speaker 4: you know, and I was part of really the start
Speaker 4: of my career, and a culture that was totally different
Speaker 4: to what is right now and these days, you know.
Speaker 4: But you know, George was the most amazing player, the
Speaker 4: most amazing talent, and the most amazing person and as well,
Speaker 4: you know, I think that I was I felt so
Speaker 4: honored to even be sat, yeah, you know, on the
Speaker 4: same sofa next to him, in his presence, and he's
Speaker 4: such a special person. He was, you know, he was
Speaker 4: one of my dad's heroes. My dad was always a
Speaker 4: Bubby Chilton fan, but obviously George best. You know, he's
Speaker 4: a Manster United fan at the end of the day
Speaker 4: my dad, So having me on the same program as
Speaker 4: George Best probably was one of the highlights of my dad.
Speaker 3: One of my most favorite restaurants is.
Speaker 4: He's in Brooklyn, New York, and it's this old pizza
Speaker 4: place that's been there for a long time called Luke Carly's,
Speaker 4: and it's run by Mark and he owns He owns
Speaker 4: lu Carly's and it's just simple, simple pizzas. He doesn't
Speaker 4: sell any alcohol in there. So you turn up and
Speaker 4: he brings these amazing muscles out, amazing clams. He makes
Speaker 4: this spicy rigatoni, and then he brings the pies, they
Speaker 4: call him pies. And I always take like a great
Speaker 4: bottle of wine because I love eating pizza with great wine.
Speaker 4: I do like to go to fancy places from time
Speaker 4: to time, but I'm more about the family style, you know,
Speaker 4: sitting there, great atmosphere. You know, it doesn't like I said,
Speaker 4: it doesn't have to be fancy, doesn't have to be
Speaker 4: the most expensive meal in the world, doesn't have to
Speaker 4: be the most amazing bottle of wine in the world.
Speaker 4: Just has to be good people around the table, good food,
Speaker 4: 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: terrib 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 summer 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 Waters, and there was Roly
Speaker 2: Lee and Wolfgang Puck, and there's a whole generation that said,
Speaker 2: why can't we do both? You know, I don't want
Speaker 2: a dress code in my restaurant, but I want to
Speaker 2: serve really good food. And I don't want an intimidating
Speaker 2: wine waiter, but I want to have really great wine.
Speaker 2: You know that you could have both, and that you
Speaker 2: can have fun and have the drama and eat really well.
Speaker 4: I think that's what's so special about here, in all honesty,
Speaker 4: you know, I think the atmosphere, you know, you're you're
Speaker 4: you're going to always eat great, thank you. The menu
Speaker 4: is constantly changing you're not intimidated. Whereas you know, I
Speaker 4: suppose in the early days, where I wasn't used to
Speaker 4: going to great restaurants or eating great food or drinking
Speaker 4: great wine, I suppose there was a certain part of.
Speaker 3: Me that felt intimidated.
Speaker 4: But this is a place where you walk in and
Speaker 4: there's not one part of you that feels worried about
Speaker 4: ordering a bottle of wine or order in a glass
Speaker 4: of right wine, or order in the wrong wine, or
Speaker 4: you know, 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 3: In management, without doubt?
Speaker 4: You know, I think that I've been lucky over the
Speaker 4: years to have been part of some great teams, you know,
Speaker 4: obviously with the teams that I've played for, playing for
Speaker 4: my country, representing my country, I've been very lucky to
Speaker 4: be around great management, great teams, great support, you know,
Speaker 4: my family, my friends, and now I have my own
Speaker 4: team within my own office, and I want them to
Speaker 4: be as happy, you know as they are at.
Speaker 3: Home and when they come to work.
Speaker 4: I think that's a really important part of running a business.
Speaker 4: And I tried to do the same as Victoria tries
Speaker 4: to do the same with the kids as well. You know,
Speaker 4: we want them to be happy, We want them to
Speaker 4: be healthy.
Speaker 3: Do they cook with you? They do? They do.
Speaker 4: Actually Brooklyn Brooklyn actually loves cooking. He posts a lot
Speaker 4: of the moment about things that he's making, things that
Speaker 4: he's creating, but all the kids actually love it, you know.
Speaker 4: And I think in the last eighteen months, with all
Speaker 4: the lockdown and everything that has been happening, you know,
Speaker 4: whether we were baking and whether we were you know,
Speaker 4: creating herb gardens.
Speaker 3: Me and Harper, you know, built our.
Speaker 4: Own herb garden, you know, with whether it was a
Speaker 4: rocket and we had some mint and we had some rosemaries,
Speaker 4: so we'd kind of created that and actually we got
Speaker 4: very excited when we saw it all come together. And
Speaker 4: then you know, every time that Nana has a gin
Speaker 4: and tonic, you know, Halfer goes out into the herve garden,
Speaker 4: she cuts some rosemary off and puts rosemary.
Speaker 3: Into the glass. So it's we had a little bit
Speaker 3: 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 4: After me talking about all of this great food that
Speaker 4: I taste and all of these great restaurants that I
Speaker 4: go to, you know what my comfort food would be?
Speaker 4: A packet of sort of vinegar discos.
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 3: I think that's what it would be.
Speaker 4: And maybe a toasty made in the Brevel toaster with
Speaker 4: baked beans. That so the Brevel toaster that you So
Speaker 4: I put the bread in a little bit of butter
Speaker 4: on the outside actually so it doesn't stick, and then
Speaker 4: I put the baked beans in revel toaster for about
Speaker 4: four or five minutes, open it up and it's so
Speaker 4: that actually in a packet of discos, no cheese discos O.
Speaker 4: I know, after all this great food, that's what comfort istah.
Speaker 4: You know, comfort is.
Speaker 2: More of a crisp man that makes you feel like, oh,
Speaker 2: thank you, David, that is wonderful.
Speaker 3: Thank you for You're welcome, Love you too.
Speaker 2: To visit the online Sharp with the River cafe. Go
Speaker 2: to shop the Rivercafe dot co dot UK.
Speaker 1: River Cafe. Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and
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Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
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