WEBVTT - Jamie Oliver: Part 2 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.880 Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:05.000 Adam Ii'ze Studios. 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:11.000 Yeah, nice see you, Nice to see you. Are you 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:11.600 working tonight? 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:15.320 No, I'm really sad about cooking and milk apparently. 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.480 If that's okay, I've got a table before. I can't wait. 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.600 Where are you sitting us? I haven't done the table 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:24.840 plan yet, Jamie, but you. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:27.040 Know, tell me where you want to out of the 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:28.920 famous Table four. I think I'm going to be quite 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.560 well behaved today, so you can put me next to Delicate. 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:38.279 Delicate is Yeah, I'm back on the rotor, but as James, 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:39.520 not Jamie. 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.800 Welcome back to Ruthie's Table four. In the last episode, 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.040 we spoke to Jamie Oliver about childhood, moving to London, 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.600 and getting started in television. In this episode, we'll be 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.240 talking about his school Meals campaign, but not before we 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.480 sent him back into the River Cafe kitchen after a 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:04.520 twenty year absence to prepare a River Cafe classic. When 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.479 we said to you, as we say to every guest, 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.120 choose a recipe from one of the books. I was 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.319 really moved when they tell me this morning that you 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:16.160 had chosen pork cooked in milk, and I was wondering 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.800 whether you might tell me why you've chosen that recipe. 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.679 Well, I was lucky enough to be taught it by 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:26.240 you and Rose, and the idea of cooking meat in 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.839 milk it was something that I had never been taught 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.800 anywhere or at college, and I hadn't at that point 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.920 read anywhere. And really it was very simple ingredients. It 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.759 was pork shoulder, which is obviously the cheaper cut of meat, 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.800 and it needs slow cooking and that's the fac yeah, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.319 and the connective tissues and these incredible leafy lemons, but 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:52.200 just the zest sage, garlic and some butter, and that 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:56.520 was really it. And sometimes at Christmas you might say 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:58.600 you can put a little nutmeg in if you wish, and. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:01.960 That's it was the most genius meal. 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.080 And I remember trying it for the first time, and 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.640 I'm sure things slowed down and went in slow motion, 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.080 and it was like this, like the milk that you 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:15.320 pour in you brown you. Yeah, I mean I just 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:17.360 start explaining the recipe, which I'm going to do now, 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:23.880 But the meat was so unctuous and like lipstickingly delicious, 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:29.960 and like the milk split into essentially way and ricotta 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:33.919 sort of, and it was just the most bonkersly beautiful 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:35.680 thing I think I'd ever eaten. 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:40.160 There's actually a recipe that I was taught by Richard's mother, Dada, really, and. 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.359 She actually cooked. She cooked, and she said quite a 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:46.080 lot with milk. 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.640 So she would always finish off some meat dish by 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.400 taking the gravy and then you know, the juices and 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.320 the pan and then adding milk to it and making 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:55.840 this sauce. 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:01.959 So Danny, pork and milk. That's that kind of old 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:03.440 school ritual of the River Cafe. 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:05.480 I think it's one of the first things. 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:08.640 Yeah, Rose and Ruby told me as well. 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.560 It looks like the recipe hasn't changed, right, New season's garlic, 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:18.360 lovely sicilian lemons, zest saved in the garden, salt, pepper, 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:20.880 and pork and milk. 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.919 You know, would you like to read the recipes? Go ahead. 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:29.720 Pork cooked in milk serves eight people. Three kilos of 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:34.440 pork shoulder, two tablespoons of extravergin olive oil, a liter 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:39.120 and a half of full fat milk, fifty grams of butter, 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:45.160 five garlic cloves, peeled and halfed, a small handful of 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:52.840 fresh stage two lemons, rind paired and pith removed. Remove 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:54.680 the rind and most of the fat from the pork 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.680 and season the meat. Heat the olive oil in a 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.480 thick bottom pan, brown the meat, remove it from the pan, 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:05.320 and pour away the fat. 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.280 So we take the shoulder off the bone first round 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.840 it in a little bit of butter, a lot of oil. 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.240 The a nice golden brown color of it. Yeah, and 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.800 then once it's this color, we then chucked in the garlet. 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:22.320 Yeah. 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:27.000 So the the pork is obviously a lovely beautiful three 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.679 range pig, free range and middle white port. If people 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:31.560 wanted to do this at home, you just get a 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:32.920 whole or a half shoulder d. 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.440 Bone skin off. You've left some of the batom. 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.040 You have a mastndering because that's the flavor and it 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.640 helps the crispiness, allows it to go golden brown. It's 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:47.239 probably what like three or three kilos port there. 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.800 Walk shoulder pork shoulders obviously sweet and delicious and needs 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:52.400 longer to cook. 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.320 That is so, and it takes hours and it's just 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.120 people that three three bowlder garlet, three three or four 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.039 volted fresh garlet, or it's gyre garlic. 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.640 Then probably less and This has probably brown for what 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:04.479 half an hour? 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:06.400 Half an hour and a medium to low heat. 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:11.119 It's really dark. The smell as soon as that garlic 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:11.520 goes in. 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.280 It's it's gorgeous. Put the stage in because we want 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:16.920 to put the sage out. It's about a handful of pips, 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.279 a handful of its age lovely. 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:26.160 Heat the milk to below boiling point and set aside. 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.640 Melt the butter in the original pan, Add the garlic 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:35.599 with the sage, and when brown, return the pork to 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:41.080 the pan, add hot milk, bring to the boil, add 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.279 the lemon and reduce the heat. 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:46.600 Beautiful, the beautiful. 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.560 But you've used a speed peeler to take just a 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.160 lovely yellow skin off the Sicilian lemons. 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:56.080 Yeah, that's yeah, five lemons. 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:59.120 And we just use that obviously the flavor the actual 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.800 meat and also helps split the milks it goes in, 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.440 because what happens he is as it reduces the milk 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:06.880 slips and you end up with these lovely furs like ricotto. 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.440 Yeah exactly, and it just has that amazing flavor and 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:10.520 taking the flavor of the pig. 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:12.120 Yeah, absolutely beautiful. 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.720 I always think this this moment's quite because you've got 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.760 the fat from the port, yeah, the fat from the butter, 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:21.960 and then you've got the oils from the lemon skin. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:22.240 Yeah. 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.400 Yeah, it's like this little fridity. 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:26.120 Yeah yeah. 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:28.640 To get the milk in now, yeah, go for it. Right, 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:30.880 We've got some hot milk just before boiling. 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:36.680 Right, And of course that milk is just cleaning the buttom. 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.280 Of the pan, blazing it, and it's getting all those 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.080 lovely caramel life. 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.039 Juice in the pig. What do you reckon? Four hours 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:44.680 at least? 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:50.760 Sometimes that's exciting. 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:52.800 Damn right, damn right. 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:00.280 Place the lid on the pan and simmer slowly for 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:05.280 at least three hours. When the pork is cooked, the 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:09.680 milk will have curdled into brown nuggets. Carefully remove the 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:13.360 meat and serve on a plate and spoon. 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.760 Over the sauce. Delicious. 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:21.040 I remember you teaching me that. And there's a simplicity 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.880 but also a bravery. I think about the cooking that 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:27.760 you've always created here. And you've got this piece of pork, 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.400 and you keep turning it and you want it dark, 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.080 not just because the pork's dark, but so you get 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:36.320 the sticky bits. And I remember what I was going 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:38.760 about to add the milk, maybe when it was lightly 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.040 golden and no, no, no, keep going, And I remember. 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.120 I remember being nervous, no no, no, trust me, trust me. 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:47.640 But that magic when the milk interacts with the zest 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.360 of the lemon, which curdles the milk on purpose. 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:55.000 Of course, the chemistry of cooking is so interesting, isn't it. 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.080 The lemon with the juices and then the milk. 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.440 And it's very it's quite a difficult call thing to 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:03.600 get right, isn't it, because if you put too much 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.280 milk and it never gets that brown kind of crusty 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.560 if you don't put enough milk, and then it kind 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.800 of becomes stuck on the bottom. And then also once 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:16.119 you pour the milk into about three quarters of the pork, 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.200 you know you don't want to touch it. We say, 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.640 don't touch it, don't move it, you know, because let 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.120 it just be patiently. And I think it cooks a 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.520 long time. But I must say, in the new world 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.080 of eating, I haven't had it for a very long time. 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.080 So I was really yeah, it's some something I make 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.959 very often that I was really really pleased to see that. 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:36.600 You chose that. 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.320 I tell you what I'd done once and it was 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.360 such a kind of powerful dish, I think, like in 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:47.200 a delicious sense, and unexpected I took the liberty of 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.480 doing it with chicken in a book years later, and 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:53.640 then it went mad in the New York Times and 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.400 they started like redoing it. I'm like, and I think 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:58.559 I even did like a story about it. I said, No, 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.679 that's that's learn how the River Cafe with pork. But 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:03.800 of course it is delicious with chicken. It's not the 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.040 same as pork, but it's still utterly delicious. And of 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:07.959 course people can get chicken so easily. 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:10.680 But if you do a spatchco chicken and you kind 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.640 of get it quite brown, and then just be brave 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:17.000 and halfway through just pour a lot of milk almost 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.320 up to the chicken. Then in a big pan, then 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:24.200 it reduces. Then you scrape up the really nice with 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:24.720 a lemon. 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:25.880 Yeah, delicious, And you. 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:30.199 Would serve it with beautiful polenta, some simple greens and 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:34.600 these chunks of pork and this weird but wonderful kind. 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.320 Of how would you describe it? Like, it's not a gravy, 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:37.880 it's kind. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:41.040 Of a it's almost like it's gone wrong. 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:42.880 Yeah, what you. 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.440 Don't want to happen when you make ice cream, when 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.160 you add the eggs to the milk and then it 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:48.960 can curry. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:51.880 But the story was so clear, wasn't it. It's just 0:09:52.040 --> 0:10:08.400 saved and lemon and garlic. And the only thing I 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:10.280 was nervous about coming in the cab over was reading 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:11.559 this recipe out because I'm like. 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.960 I've worked out ways to blag it, so it looks 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:16.040 like but so. 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.040 Is that just like yeah, yeah, And did they not 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:20.160 realize what there was? 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.680 You had to be literally blind to have any extra 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.000 help in my school, and I was pulled out of 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.120 class into a class which was a very kindly named 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.760 special needs. So imagine eight hundred and eighty boys and 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:35.400 then can I have Jamie please? And mister love it 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.040 and and we'd be pulled out and we'd end up 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:41.160 in literally in the attic of the school, learning how 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.120 to spell the most basic things. But I think it 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.360 was And of course in a boys school you would 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.680 never learn to cook because that's for the girls. 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:49.600 Then I mean like we. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:51.840 Never cooking lessons for the girls. 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.600 Well in the girls schools, yeah, but they certainly you know, 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.920 it was just very chovens Is. And it's funny because 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.040 I left school with this chip on my shoulder about 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.000 like this is not for me, and they're not serving 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.600 every child. And I think I've only literally just brushed 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.920 the last chip off my shoulder, you know. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:15.160 I keep talking about that ad for the Felix Project 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.200 which tonight four hundred thousand children in Britain will have 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.319 the same meal nothing, you know, and that we're living 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:28.040 this time right now where I find it shocking that 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:32.400 we still can't feed our children. We've been looking at 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.920 country's approaches to food and I grew up at a 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.840 time when Lyndon Johnson in the late sixties started the 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.200 head Start program, and it was that you would give 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:45.239 every child in poverty at breakfast. 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:46.400 It was breakfast. 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:48.599 You know, there's a great phrase, no child should be 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.040 disadvantaged by his birth. In fact, a lot of children 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.760 were disadvantaged by the fact that they went to school hungry, 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.559 and so they fed children. They fed children breakfast. You'd 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.200 come to school in any child who needed breakfast would have. 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:03.520 It was a head Start And. 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.080 Studies are years later that the children who were on 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.200 head Start were not taking welfare, so. 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.520 They flourished out, flourished out of it. 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:20.280 And that in fact, investment by society to invest in children. Actually, 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:21.880 if you want to be crass about it, save the 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:22.640 money later on. 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.040 Yeah, I mean there's some sensible countries that invest in it. 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:30.200 And it's funny, like I mean, I know it's a 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.560 name drop. But I saw Tony Blayer last week, just 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.840 a week before, just because it was a moment of 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:38.800 reflection since because he was the one, he was the 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:43.000 first prime minister that found new money invested in equipment 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.480 and training and the money on the plate, and I said, like, Tony, like, 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.120 we've got to go faster on this. And actually his 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.120 position has I mean, he was incredible to support me 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.560 when we did it fifteen sixteen years ago, but he's 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:57.880 he's like, I'm even more on this now than and 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.840 it makes more sense than ever. And because of my position, 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:06.240 I've remained a political but currently at the moment, neither 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.720 of the two big parties have child health on the 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.920 manifesto as something that can be voted for. 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:17.079 I don't know how you feel, but I don't understand 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.640 why we can't feed every single child, whether a parent 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.200 makes a million dollars or one dollar, you know that 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:27.559 every child And also the idea that Sam Taylor Johnson 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.960 was on and she can remember being put in a 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.960 separate line because she was a child that needed school 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:36.920 lunches to be paid for. And I'm sure I don't 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.599 know how they do it. Now, what is a society 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:40.240 that does that? 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:40.920 You kid? 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.559 I mean it was often a lady of a clipboard 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.200 and a name and a token. But you know now 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:50.760 with technology like the card system, which can be incredibly 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.319 intelligent if the government just allowed it to get organized, 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.120 and that's what happens is little islands of hope. But 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.719 the government never really consolidates genius and spreads genius and 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.720 facilitated genius. So from that little car that gives you 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:04.760 a free school meal that no other kid needs to 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.559 know you're having, you can also ping a text to 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.760 a parent saying they had this for lunch, which means 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.080 you don't have to cook them the same thing for 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:12.000 dinner if that's the case. 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:13.079 Do you know what I mean? There's just loads of 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:14.600 really clever things that can happen. 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:17.400 And how do you qualify for a free lunch? Do 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:18.680 you know that the salary that you. 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.760 Have a household, you have to earn less than seven 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.360 four hundred pounds a year. That's not as a person 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:25.400 that's as a household. 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:28.400 There are households that live on seven thousand pounds a year. 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:29.320 One point two million of them. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.840 Yeah, and then there's a gap between the free school 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.320 lunch kids who are parents that are on universal credit. 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:38.040 So universal credit is complex in the sense that it 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.960 bends and it was invented to be bendy. So you 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.880 could have people on twenty grand per household, which is 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.760 still not loads of money, but the average is about 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:51.320 thirteen to fourteen. So there's about six hundred thousand kids 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.080 that fall into that that don't get a free school lunch, 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.080 that would have a household that earns, you know, sort 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.680 of ten to fourteen thousand pounds a year that can't 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.720 get a free school lunch one hundred and ninety days 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.360 of the year. So you know, every council has a 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:10.440 different price per school lunch. It could be two fifty, 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:12.880 it could be three fifty. But if you've got three 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.880 kids and that sort of money, then that totals up 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.720 per month pretty big, you know. So there's still gaps 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.920 and there's lack of consistency, but also there's been an 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.480 amazing bit of work done just recently independently and they said, 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:30.440 if you just gave everyone a free school lunch over 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:35.040 a twenty year period, Britain would be over forty pounds 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.840 better off. And they look at it very surgically around 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.480 kind of productivity, how you get through school, how much 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:46.960 you would cost the NHS, and conservatively. So what's interesting 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.680 is all the math says, invest in the system, treat 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.320 them all the same. And from a restaurant point of view, 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.960 which is essentially what they are. If you've got a 0:15:56.200 --> 0:16:01.240 school that's fifty percent school lunches, that's struggling, genius cooking 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.480 will happen, but only about seventy percent because the numbers don't. 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:05.240 You can't have. 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.760 Enough people on the line, you can't fix the equipment, 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:09.360 so there is a kind of business. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:09.600 You know. 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:14.360 So free school lunches definitely would make the food better, 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.320 more consistent, and then you know so, but more importantly, 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:22.880 give those young people from poor postcodes, which is essentially 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.160 what it is, give them much more hope and the 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:26.120 ability to thrive. 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.760 Now, because they don't get a free school lunch and 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.400 the parents can't afford, they'll get nothing, they'll have nothing. 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.920 To do, and at the moment there is more lunch 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.440 cooks than ever saying I'm having to illegally give them 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.080 lunches not on the system, and they're teachers paying for 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:47.080 ten or twelve kids a day from some there or 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.200 that some budget they can find, so obviously they can't 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:54.680 visually watch kids not have a meal, and like you say, 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:56.040 it could be the only hot medal of the day 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.000 and that's not an exaggeration. And then, of course, outside 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:00.800 of the one hundred and ninety day school a year, 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.320 there's what we call holiday hunger, which is when you actually, 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:07.960 even in that six to seven weeks summer holiday, if 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.520 you measure public health or children, you can see that 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.240 there's a massive spike of ill health because they don't 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.719 they get stuff, but it's all the wrong stuff. So 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:23.680 that's what Marcus Rashford was working on, which was some 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.880 kind of provision in the holidays for these very vulnerable families. 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.640 What can we do well, I think keeping the story going, 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:33.080 I mean this year one of the tactics where you 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.080 I mean I've been on it constantly since fifteen years ago. 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:38.480 But one of the things we're doing this. 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.399 Year, which I would love you to get involved in 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.520 any way you could, is where actually it's funny when 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:49.399 you're like overwhelmed by a problem, you keep telling the 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.680 story of the problem. And then then this genius idea 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:58.080 about how about we do an annual school food awards 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:02.200 that's amazing with real and real incentives, and how about 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:05.399 we celebrate the best up and coming lunch cook and 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:08.400 the best team and the best primary school, secondary school, 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.400 special school, the best teacher teaching cooking. So we've got 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:14.680 eight different awards this year that we're going to launch, 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.080 and we're doing it with the One Show and actually 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:18.800 the Sun, and we're trying to get as many people 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.320 behind it, but hopefully it will give us an opportunity 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.080 to share what good looks like, because I definitely haven't 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.080 done enough of that in the last fifteen years. 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.560 I've really only focused on the darkness. So that's a 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:30.200 change attack. 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.800 These institutions are incredible, These teachers are amazing, and they 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.320 haven't that you know that. I think I've worked through 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.800 five or six Prime ministers. I've worked through thirteen education 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:46.200 secretaries in fifteen years, sixteen years since school dinners, So 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.520 imagine changing the head chef at the River Cafe that 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.119 many times in that time. I mean, it's I do 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.920 think the institution of school can be something so much 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:57.240 more powerful than it already is. 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.159 People forget it's the biggest restaurant group. 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:06.120 Thirty thousand odd schools, over three thousand secondary schools. It's 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:10.919 nearly five million meals a day, eighty five thousand lunch cooks, 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.000 which are largely women, which are largely parents most of 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.920 the time. So there's an incredible workforce bigger than the 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.560 you know, the military, you know the navy, you know, 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.360 like out there cooking for kids every day. 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.600 If you like listening to Ruthie's Table for would you 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.760 please make sure to rate and review the podcast on 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:39.800 the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:40.560 your podcasts. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:41.760 Thank you. 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:51.119 Well, as a child that dyslexia and working as a 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:55.440 nine year old in the kitchen and knowing that your 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.280 passion for food that was what was did you ever 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:00.480 waiver from wanting to be a chef to everything? 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:02.280 At one point? Maybe I'd like to be a recent 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:04.760 card drive now, I mean, it wasn't like helicopter pilot. 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.280 It's an interesting one because I think there's so much 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:10.240 noise around what are you doing when you leave school? 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:12.600 What you're doing, what you're doing. I knew I could cook, 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:14.800 so I knew I'd never have to be hungry. There's 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.840 always a job, for sure. But like I play with 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.639 a lot of Lego, and I know it's random thing 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.760 to say, but like that was the building blocks of 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.320 not just doing what it tailed you to do. But 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.400 then when it's all destroyed, when you can make something 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.920 through fantasy, which is much more really like what Richard 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.600 would do with architecture, right, And I mean so somehow Lego, 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.240 which was my best friend in cooking, sort of I 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:42.439 don't know, they kind of gave me the confidence to 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:46.040 just know that things were going to be all right. 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:53.160 We've talked about, you know, food as politics and society 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.960 and fairness. We've talked about food in your father's kitchen 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:01.320 doing something I still can't remember with the bottles bottling up. 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.879 And we've talked about food and the River Cafe and 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:08.680 the friends you made and rose and memories and food 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.400