Speaker 1: You're listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair Fisher.
Speaker 1: Stevens and I were recently brought close together by one
Speaker 1: of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Philip Gustin,
Speaker 1: and one of the greatest footballers, David Beckham. A few
Speaker 1: weeks ago, he was in the River Cafe with the
Speaker 1: producers of Beckham, the series he directed for Netflix. We
Speaker 1: agreed to have breakfast at my house. A half hour
Speaker 1: turned into more than an hour as we talked about Gustam,
Speaker 1: architecture we lived in, and food we cooked. We agreed
Speaker 1: we would continue the conversation on Ruthie's Table four when
Speaker 1: I came to New York. So here we are at
Speaker 1: this time in Fisher's house, connected through a love of Beckham, food, film,
Speaker 1: and Gustam and each other. Life is good. So here
Speaker 1: we are. Do you know that we asked you to
Speaker 1: choose a recipe, yes, which is for pumpkin soup. I
Speaker 1: have to say that this soup is amazing because it's
Speaker 1: so thick carneada with a fork. It's just and it
Speaker 1: really is. You'll see it's just pumpkin and you can
Speaker 1: have it with chicken stock or vegetable stock.
Speaker 2: So the pumpkin soup. This one serves six, and we
Speaker 2: start with three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil River
Speaker 2: Cafe olive oil. I prefer plus extra for the crostini
Speaker 2: and for serving fifty grams of unsalted butter. Make it
Speaker 2: organic butter. If you can't, then we use two cloves
Speaker 2: of garlic, peeled and finely chopped. Wash your hands afterwards,
Speaker 2: a small bunch of fresh marsh room leaves. And then
Speaker 2: because it's a British restaurant, we'll say kilograms and grams,
Speaker 2: but one point five kilograms. Yeah, no, it's good. But
Speaker 2: what is one point five kilograms?
Speaker 1: It's about two and a half pounds. Well, two polf
Speaker 1: pounds is a kilo, so be about three pounds.
Speaker 2: Three pounds, so one point five kilograms roughly three pounds
Speaker 2: of pumpkin peeled, seeded, and dice. Two hundred grams of
Speaker 2: new potatoes peeled and cubed, could be we should keep
Speaker 2: them white potatoes, right, new potatoes. Two hundred grams of
Speaker 2: new potatoes, peeled and cubed. Two dried red chilies crumbled.
Speaker 2: I love making a little spice. Love chilies one liter
Speaker 2: of chicken stock or vegetable stock, six slices of chibata bread,
Speaker 2: one garlic clove peeled in half, so not the finely
Speaker 2: chopped but the bread with freshly grated parmesan. Yeah, this
Speaker 2: sounds so good. So you're gonna heat the extra virgin
Speaker 2: olive oil and butter in a sauce pan and gently
Speaker 2: fry the chopped garlic with the Marjorum leaves until soft.
Speaker 2: Add the pumpkin and potatoes and continue to cook for
Speaker 2: a minute. Add the chilies in the season well with
Speaker 2: sea salt and black pepper, not too much salt. Pouring
Speaker 2: enough stock just to cover the pumpkin. Bring to the boil,
Speaker 2: and then turn down the heat and simmer for twenty
Speaker 2: to twenty five minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender,
Speaker 2: adding more stock if necessary to keep the pumpkin covered.
Speaker 2: So you'll have to keep checking.
Speaker 1: On it because you don't want it watery. So you
Speaker 1: want just enough to the pumpkin.
Speaker 2: M Yeah, okay, that's important. Strain about a third of
Speaker 2: the stock from the pumpkin and set it aside. Pour
Speaker 2: the contents of the pan into a food processor and pulse. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know what that is like a magic mix, right,
Speaker 2: and pulse it though, yeah.
Speaker 1: Because you want it thick, really thick. You don't want
Speaker 1: to thin purre.
Speaker 2: No, it's like a great meal. Return to the saucepan
Speaker 2: and add the strained off stock plus any remaining stock.
Speaker 2: Check for seasoning, so if you need a little more salt,
Speaker 2: a little more pepper, you check it out there. The
Speaker 2: soup will be very thick. Then reheat gently for serving.
Speaker 2: By the way, for the crostini. Toast the slices of chibata.
Speaker 2: Then rub with the garlic calves and drizzle over extra
Speaker 2: virgin River Cafe olive oil. You serve the soup with
Speaker 2: Parmesan extra virgin olive oil and the crostini, and the
Speaker 2: addition of two hundred grams of cannellini beans is a
Speaker 2: variation of the soup which I personally recommend if you
Speaker 2: make this omit the chibata crostini. I prefer the cannellini
Speaker 2: beans to the crostini, but that's up to you.
Speaker 1: Beans. And when you read that recipe, it is just
Speaker 1: pure potatoes, pumpkins and some you know.
Speaker 2: Healthy, healthy, and you'll be full and you don't need
Speaker 2: much money.
Speaker 1: It's not expensive if you're thinking, especially after Halloween, except
Speaker 1: for the olive oil. River Cafe this year is insane.
Speaker 2: Why because because.
Speaker 1: It was so hot this summer. I mean, there's hardly
Speaker 1: going to be any.
Speaker 2: Production of where do you get?
Speaker 1: So we have five estates in Tuscany that we buy
Speaker 1: our wine from, and we buy it for more. But
Speaker 1: they a lot of the wine producers make olive oil
Speaker 1: as well, and so every year we go, we take
Speaker 1: twenty people from if you've worked in the River Cafe
Speaker 1: for like a year, we take you to Tuscany. We
Speaker 1: take it actually all. Then we take another twenty to
Speaker 1: Piermonte and then we go and teach them how they
Speaker 1: make the olive oil.
Speaker 2: Are your wine producers you like the Italian the Tuscan wines?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do well now we used to. You know,
Speaker 1: our whole roots in the River Cafe were Tuscan and
Speaker 1: when we started because Richard's family, my husband's family came
Speaker 1: from Florence and Rose my partner, lived in Lucca. But
Speaker 1: then you know, it was wine that really took us
Speaker 1: to other regions. So we went to Piermonte, and we
Speaker 1: went to the Venito, we went to Pulia. All of
Speaker 1: who make wine, and so it's not just I love
Speaker 1: a tuscan you know I love them? Do you drink wine?
Speaker 2: Yes, quite a bit.
Speaker 3: Maybe's become a big Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm very into Etna. I'm very into Sicilian wines. I've
Speaker 2: been there. I've toured a few vineyards in Sicily. I
Speaker 2: love and I love the natural wines of Sicily. Particularly
Speaker 2: once I started making money, I would just go big
Speaker 2: with food. Wine. I've blown a great portion of my respect.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think it's really interesting that people
Speaker 1: sort of measure their success in what they were able
Speaker 1: to eat. So Beckham, you know, I remember we did
Speaker 1: a podcast with him and he was saying that he
Speaker 1: remembers being able to go to a restaurant and not
Speaker 1: look at the right side of the the page, you know,
Speaker 1: Or that McCartney said that he thought wine was terrible
Speaker 1: because he'd only had cheap wine, never had a good
Speaker 1: bottle of wine until Brian Epstein took him to to eat.
Speaker 1: Was that yeah the case? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Well yeah, And I remember the first one of the
Speaker 2: first proper meals I ever had was my girlfriend took
Speaker 2: me to twenty one for my twenty first birthday, and
Speaker 2: that was fancy. That's that was the begin of like
Speaker 2: wow people, you know. And then my first bottle of
Speaker 2: proper wine because I hated wine too. Was and I
Speaker 2: was doing a play at Williamstown. Arthur Miller's play I
Speaker 2: was playing Arthur Young Arthur Miller is called American Clock.
Speaker 1: It was about Arthur Miller.
Speaker 2: Yeah, by Arthur Miller, about Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was there.
Speaker 2: He was rewriting the play while we were. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was incredible, and he said to me, like, you'll
Speaker 2: get it when the closest kid, you know, didn't give
Speaker 2: me much confidence. But the guy who played my father
Speaker 2: was a guy nam is, a guy named Ron Rifkin
Speaker 2: who's one of my great friends. And he took me
Speaker 2: out and he said, have you ever had read wine?
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, I don't like it. He goes, oh no, oh, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: have you ever tasted it? Do you know what bordeuis?
Speaker 2: Do you know what Burgundy is? Do you know? I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: barol no. He goes, okay, and he and to this
Speaker 2: day he's eighty four. He comes over, I go to
Speaker 2: we drink incredible wine together. Still, so that was when
Speaker 2: I was like twenty two, and then he got me hooked,
Speaker 2: and then I just I'm obsessed now with mostly red
Speaker 2: French Italian the good stuff or yeah, but anyway.
Speaker 1: Do you think back so you were you started acting?
Speaker 1: Did you go to college or acting school? Or did
Speaker 1: you were you ever on your own in a place
Speaker 1: where you had to not eat out but cook for yourself? Oh? Sorry,
Speaker 1: The first question is what was your college? Did you
Speaker 1: go to?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: I after high school?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I dropped out of high school. I started auditioning
Speaker 2: at like fifteen for shows and plays. I got off
Speaker 2: off Broadway, my first stuff when I could still use
Speaker 2: my name before I had to join a union. And
Speaker 2: then I started working as a busboy in two restaurants
Speaker 2: in New York and as a bike messenger and making money,
Speaker 2: like good money, like more money than my mom. And
Speaker 2: then I got my first job at sixteen, had to
Speaker 2: change my name. It was a movie over the summer.
Speaker 2: Didn't pay that much, but I thought I'm gonna make it.
Speaker 2: But no, of course I didn't work again for like
Speaker 2: a year and a half, two years, but I was
Speaker 2: eating out. Yeah, and and and I. While in high school,
Speaker 2: I worked two nights a week. Do you remember a restaurant.
Speaker 2: Mario Batally ended up opening a place called Esca in
Speaker 2: the same spot, but it was called Curtain Up forty
Speaker 2: third and Night. It was all right. It was a
Speaker 2: busboy there, and I was a busblay at a very
Speaker 2: groovy kind of hipster upper east Side Singles place called
Speaker 2: Yellow Fingers on sixtieth and third Avenue.
Speaker 1: Do you think about food and one did they?
Speaker 2: Well, no, no, no, no, because I just was. Now
Speaker 2: those places were not those were Hamburger. Those weren't, you know,
Speaker 2: like great places.
Speaker 1: No did a teacher in a restaurant I was at peep.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons I love Americans coming to the
Speaker 1: River Cafe is that most Americans have at one time
Speaker 1: in their life worked in a restaurant. And I think
Speaker 1: that teaches you.
Speaker 2: It gave me such respect for waiters and bus boys.
Speaker 2: Some of the things that I saw in those kitchens,
Speaker 2: you would never ever have that at River Cafe.
Speaker 1: I mean anger and bullying.
Speaker 2: And anger bullying, but also not even that, just the
Speaker 2: way they handled the food. Okay, yeah, but so I think,
Speaker 2: and also that culture of eating out, you know. And
Speaker 2: then I go to school and then you know what
Speaker 2: I said, My senior year in high school, I did
Speaker 2: like two months and I was like, forget it. I'm
Speaker 2: just going to work. My Mom's like, okay, you might
Speaker 2: as well. You're making more money than me. And I
Speaker 2: was auditioning and studying acting very seriously. And then I
Speaker 2: couldn't really get a job. And then there was a
Speaker 2: kid that I knew and through auditioning and in high
Speaker 2: school he went to another high school. Two kids, actually
Speaker 2: one of them is named Matthew Broaderick, and Matthew Broderick
Speaker 2: I bumped into him and he's like, hey, man, I'm
Speaker 2: in this play. It's maybe moving to Broadway and I
Speaker 2: just got a bigger play and I'm leaving. I'll get
Speaker 2: you an audition to replace me. And he got me
Speaker 2: the audition to replace him, and the play was called
Speaker 2: Torch Song Trilogy, and I got the job nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 2: It was in a little theater and Sheridan Square. It
Speaker 2: was kind of a revolutionary gay play by Harvey Firestein.
Speaker 2: And Matthew got me the audition and I got the
Speaker 2: job and that was it. I started working from and
Speaker 2: basically almost since then, I've been working. And then Matthew
Speaker 2: was in a play called Brighton Beach Memoirs that and
Speaker 2: he was going to leave that, and then he got
Speaker 2: me an audition to replace him in that, and then
Speaker 2: I replaced him in that.
Speaker 1: He did, Yeah, he was in the restaurant the other well,
Speaker 1: you know, they're coming.
Speaker 2: To do Plaza this week, and they were there.
Speaker 1: I wasn't there that night, but he they like to eat.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh, I've had some great meals with Matthew.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, as a matter of fact, okay, so this
Speaker 2: is food story. So when I was replacing Matthew and
Speaker 2: Brighton Beach Memrs, Matthew was making money. He was going
Speaker 2: to do Ferris Bueller, right, he was going to go
Speaker 2: do the movie or something, I believe, And he would
Speaker 2: take me out to dinner at this amazing place. I
Speaker 2: don't think it's still there. Maybe it is fifty second
Speaker 2: Street called Gallagher's Steakhouse. Gallagher's Steakhouse was the place the
Speaker 2: sports guys, everybody went in, and he bought me dinner
Speaker 2: a few times. They're big dinner is serious because he
Speaker 2: was making bank, man, you know, and we yeah, we
Speaker 2: used to go and we would drink Martiniz. I think
Speaker 2: I was eighteen. It was illegal, len but who cares now? Food?
Speaker 2: It was so key. And then when you're on Broadway, right,
Speaker 2: you're acting at night, you're done with the show, you
Speaker 2: go to restaurants.
Speaker 1: So that's what I asked. You know, your friend Ray,
Speaker 1: you know other actors you eat before the play? Do
Speaker 1: you eat after the play? Well, we had a couple
Speaker 1: who ate before the play. Yeah. Really, it's a few,
Speaker 1: but most I always meet them. You know, if you
Speaker 1: have a friend in the theater, you meet afterwards and
Speaker 1: then you go out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you don't want to be too, but you
Speaker 2: don't want to be you don't want to go on
Speaker 2: stage with the full stomach.
Speaker 1: You ever had to eat on stage?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Something?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Is that a fake?
Speaker 2: No? No? No, yeah, a little bit, you know, like
Speaker 2: Brighton Beach. Every night we had to pretend to have
Speaker 2: dinner and you know, apple sauce. But you just take
Speaker 2: a couple of bit no, and and and the worst
Speaker 2: is in movies because you have to recreate. You know.
Speaker 2: The thing about Succession?
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, we can talk about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The thing about Succession is that there was a
Speaker 2: lot of scenes where you're supposed to be eating, but
Speaker 2: nobody's ever eating because you can't recreate the position and
Speaker 2: how much is there. Because of the way we shoot
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 1: You'd have to have the same thing and the same
Speaker 1: take the.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and because of the way we shot in big
Speaker 2: giant chunks, it was impossible. And people noticed. There's like
Speaker 2: a whole website about why do nobody Why does nobody eat?
Speaker 2: On Succession? Like literally that people notice that.
Speaker 1: But because a lot of the drama takes place in
Speaker 1: tables or in you know, in cocktail parties.
Speaker 4: Or I like that because there's always a sense of
Speaker 4: the tension about being sitting down to eat but not
Speaker 4: eating because there was so much drama happening. I think
Speaker 4: that's also quite you know, lots of people talk about
Speaker 4: actually sitting down to the table is a very kind
Speaker 4: of positive experience but can also be a very challenging experience,
Speaker 4: and that's what Succession really challenging.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I never because my character never sits
Speaker 2: still so and I'm never invited to the table to eat.
Speaker 2: I'm always just told what to do. But sadly, but
Speaker 2: that was good for my I didn't have to worry
Speaker 2: about the food on the plate.
Speaker 1: But did they feed you all the actors? Because that's
Speaker 1: another thing isn't it what you feed? Yeah, I talked
Speaker 1: to Wes. You know, Wes's dream would be not to
Speaker 1: stop for lunch.
Speaker 2: You know, he told, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: That's it?
Speaker 2: That's what you don't stop for lunch. Wes and Succession
Speaker 2: and now you know, I'm working on Guy Ritchie movie.
Speaker 2: All these productions we do French hours, so there's no
Speaker 2: real break for lunch. You work through lunch French hours.
Speaker 2: You only work ten hour days, right like in the
Speaker 2: old you know, in many days, my early days of
Speaker 2: making movies, you shoot fourteen hour days, but that would
Speaker 2: include like an hour where you all sit and eat.
Speaker 2: Succession post COVID found it much more manageable and you
Speaker 2: get much more done if you don't break. But they'll
Speaker 2: hand you like a box, and in the box is
Speaker 2: just crap. Wes is different because like on Asteroid City,
Speaker 2: if we were working, you know, all the good news
Speaker 2: about being on a Wes movie is that you're usually
Speaker 2: a smaller part, so you only work like four hour days,
Speaker 2: so then you can go and have a big lunch.
Speaker 2: But if you're working a ten hour day with West
Speaker 2: or an eight hour day with Wes, they have like
Speaker 2: on Asteroid city we were in Spain, and yeah, it
Speaker 2: would be a carton, but the food was it was
Speaker 2: much not to knock successions catering, but much better on
Speaker 2: a west On West's movies than.
Speaker 1: Do you think that's a European versus that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's European. I think Jeremy Dawson and
Speaker 2: Wes they like food. Jeremy is the producer, but yeah,
Speaker 2: they are. It is better. It's just it's fun. I
Speaker 2: love hanging out with but that the social experience experience
Speaker 2: after work, sitting at a table with everybody talking and
Speaker 2: eating and it's really nice. Nice, it's like a family.
Speaker 2: Well especially the last one. We were quarantined together and
Speaker 2: we weren't even allowed to go into Madrid, which is
Speaker 2: you know, we had to stay in Chin Chong and
Speaker 2: there's not much to do in Chin Chung. So but
Speaker 2: but but the food is good and yeah, and I've
Speaker 2: had great meals with Wes.
Speaker 1: But what about when you were directing your decision? Isn't
Speaker 1: it to say what I'm going to do about?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So my my feature that I last did in
Speaker 2: New Orleans, which is right before COVID, we actually tried
Speaker 2: an experiment with a healthy catering company, but it didn't
Speaker 2: work out. No, I loved it, but the crew, you know,
Speaker 2: we we were shooting in Louisiana and they, yeah, they
Speaker 2: liked their meat, their pigs.
Speaker 1: It's very male about men who want It's a lot
Speaker 1: of men.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's not only men, but but even the
Speaker 2: women they wanted they wanted substances. But so that didn't
Speaker 2: go great. But I also my last thing I directed
Speaker 2: for APP this pilot, Dear Edward. I did the West
Speaker 2: French hours and uh, the food wasn't great either, but
Speaker 2: we you know, the days are shorter and the crew
Speaker 2: gets to go home earlier, but we don't break fully
Speaker 2: for lunch, but you get your box of lunch and
Speaker 2: then you break for twenty minutes and then we go.
Speaker 2: But it makes the day a lot faster.
Speaker 4: Can I ask a question, Yeah, I just not that
Speaker 4: many successful actors end up being successful directors. Well motivated
Speaker 4: that word enable that.
Speaker 2: Well. I to be honest, I would do these movies
Speaker 2: as an actor and then I would see them and
Speaker 2: I would be like, God, this is not very good,
Speaker 2: not all of them. But I can do this. I
Speaker 2: want to do this because the script was great or
Speaker 2: I mean I mean, there were other directors that I
Speaker 2: worked with where I would be like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: they're so good. I want to learn. So it was
Speaker 2: a combination. I kind of liked watching certain directors direct Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. And to be honest, like waiting for
Speaker 2: the job as an actor and just being an actor,
Speaker 2: it becomes all about you and how you look and
Speaker 2: you you you you as opposed to make you know,
Speaker 2: being a character in a painting. I wanted to paint
Speaker 2: the painting and uh, but I love acting and I
Speaker 2: like bouncing back and forth as much as I possibly can.
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,
Speaker 1: Linden Napkins, kitchen ware, tote bags with our signatures, glasses
Speaker 1: from Venice, chocolates from Turin. You can find us right
Speaker 1: next door to the River Cafe in London or online
Speaker 1: at shop Therivercafe dot co dot uk. So Fisher, here
Speaker 1: we are in your beautiful house with your beautiful photographs.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Brooklyn, Fort Green, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to tell me about Fort Green, Brooklyn? Where are we?
Speaker 2: Well, it's an interesting neighborhood. I played on my high
Speaker 2: school softball team in the late seven and we played
Speaker 2: like four blocks away at a park called Fort Green Park,
Speaker 2: and on two occasions, after once winning and once losing,
Speaker 2: I was mugged after the game by local neighborhood kids.
Speaker 2: When we saw this house, many many many moons later,
Speaker 2: that was for sale, we were about to have our
Speaker 2: first child, Lexi Bloom and Eye. I first was a
Speaker 2: bit hesitant, but the neighborhood had changed quite a bit.
Speaker 2: And as we were looking at the house, we opened
Speaker 2: the door in the back porch and I'm looking at
Speaker 2: it and there's a woman on the on the porch
Speaker 2: next door chairs fish eye is that yell? And I'm
Speaker 2: like Rosie, and she goes, are you are you going
Speaker 2: to buy the house? That's a terrible impersonation of Rosie Perez,
Speaker 2: But Rosie Perez is my next door neighbor, and he's like,
Speaker 2: the neighborhood's changed. You love it. I've been here forever.
Speaker 2: That's the worst, Rosie Press. I'm just my accent's back.
Speaker 2: But anyway, so here we are, and uh, the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And did you live in Manhattan before?
Speaker 2: I actually had moved to Brooklyn in two thousand and
Speaker 2: five after thirty plus years in Manhattan. But I will
Speaker 2: say my my neighborhood. And it's too bad. You know,
Speaker 2: we can't go to dinner tonight because there are like
Speaker 2: seven great restaurants now on decalb Avenue, which is near
Speaker 2: you know, around the corner, and it has become restaurant road. Well,
Speaker 2: the most the kind of landmark place. The first one
Speaker 2: that's or the oldest one is called Romans and it's
Speaker 2: an it's a they changed the menu every night. It's great.
Speaker 2: And now there's Evelina's, there's miss Ada's, there's Sailors that
Speaker 2: just opened. Woman who was the chef for The Pig
Speaker 2: with Me, well, April for years, so April.
Speaker 1: H and I just got a message from her saying, hey,
Speaker 1: with you, I'm opening a restaurant in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's around the corner.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh we have to go.
Speaker 2: So it's become right, and it's become really a spotted Pig,
Speaker 2: that's the place. So anyway, yeah, it's it's becoming this
Speaker 2: this neighborhood.
Speaker 4: It's tiny neighborhood, was it, No, it's just hipster.
Speaker 2: I think it's more of a hipster thing. But no,
Speaker 2: this neighborhood is very it's everything. It's a combination of everything.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm cool enough to live.
Speaker 2: Yes you are. No, No, it's not cool anymore. We've
Speaker 2: we've probably.
Speaker 1: Screwed the what's cool like another part of Brooklyn because.
Speaker 2: Well, Williamsburg is and Bushwick. I guess Bushwick is where
Speaker 2: all the hipsters are now. You know, it's just keeps moving.
Speaker 2: But I like to spend many days like today, I
Speaker 2: won't go into Manhattan. Many days I don't go into Manhattan.
Speaker 1: You know when did you drive to.
Speaker 2: I Well, I bicycle a lot electric bily. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's nice. I had a vespa for years now, yeah, using,
Speaker 2: I know, that's why I got rid of it.
Speaker 1: I like, so you grew up near here.
Speaker 2: My mother was. We moved here with her to make
Speaker 2: it as a painter from Chicago. You're born in Chicago,
Speaker 2: born in Chicago, and she was a painter in thee Well,
Speaker 2: she started in the seventies, the seventies. She had a
Speaker 2: first loft in seventy one seventy two. Do you know
Speaker 2: a painter named Marylyn Minter. She's made it pretty big.
Speaker 2: So Maryland and my mother shared a space we lived
Speaker 2: in a loft and my mom was dating an actor,
Speaker 2: well a matre d but he was trying to be
Speaker 2: an actor and she ended up, Yeah, she ended up
Speaker 2: working as the co check at his restaurant. The restaurant, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was called Charlie's. It was a very famous theater restaurant.
Speaker 2: Forty now it was called Sam's, or it's called Sam
Speaker 2: still there. And we had trouble paying the payments. So
Speaker 2: the acting school that he studied in rented the loft
Speaker 2: and built a stage in our living room in the
Speaker 2: meatpacking So I'd come home and there'd be acting class
Speaker 2: in my house, which is how I got into business,
Speaker 2: because I had a stage in our living room.
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, so she was painting or working, she
Speaker 1: was painting. What did you eat do you remember as.
Speaker 2: A kid, Well, so I have crazy stories.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the food you ate?
Speaker 2: Yeah? The food wasn't much. It wasn't much exciting. I
Speaker 2: remember when we moved to New York. What was so
Speaker 2: exciting was the food because my mom's boyfriend took us
Speaker 2: to Chinatown and then she'd show up with a bushel
Speaker 2: of blue crabs and we'd boil the crabs and eating
Speaker 2: all these exotic foods, Vietnamese foe. I remember discovering that
Speaker 2: at thirteen years old, and I remember, you know, spicy
Speaker 2: chicken wings and just all kinds of eating out, eating out, no, no,
Speaker 2: no cooking, very few, very little cooking at home in
Speaker 2: my house and a lot of it. Because the other
Speaker 2: thing about New York, even though we lived in the
Speaker 2: meatpacking there weren't many restaurants there. There were opportunities to
Speaker 2: grab food pizza right, the pizza slices and all that.
Speaker 2: And then my mother working at night. And when I
Speaker 2: was fifteen and sixteen, we moved to child No. My
Speaker 2: sisters ended up moving back to Chicago with my dad
Speaker 2: because the life was too crazy. I stayed with my
Speaker 2: mom in New York and her boyfriend. And then so
Speaker 2: you ate out, Yeah, I ate out a lot my
Speaker 2: whole high school years.
Speaker 1: You get to choose the restaurant.
Speaker 2: It was about a financial decision too sometimes, like you
Speaker 2: know what was cheap right, a lot of Chinese. I
Speaker 2: got to be so friendly with a Chinese restaurant on
Speaker 2: sixth Avenue in sixteenth Street, that Gin's Kitchen that I
Speaker 2: actually ate with the family two nights a week with
Speaker 2: the lazy Susan and yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It different when you ate with them much yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was much of the food, well, the food
Speaker 2: was the quantity of food and the selection of food
Speaker 2: was I couldn't handle someone what they were eating. There
Speaker 2: were things that I couldn't recognize, But then there was
Speaker 2: some great stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Did you go back to visit your father in Chicago?
Speaker 4: And was that for different that freezy experience difference?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Then I became a snob, to be honest, I
Speaker 2: became a snop because I had experienced these incredible delicacies
Speaker 2: or and and by the way, you can eat brilliantly,
Speaker 2: especially in New York in the seventies and eighties, for nothing.
Speaker 2: Is that my daughter?
Speaker 1: Who is that?
Speaker 2: Come in? Tell me what what are you having for
Speaker 2: dinner tonight?
Speaker 3: Pasta meat boys and some zoutinly very good?
Speaker 1: Have you eaten it already? Or if you just.
Speaker 2: What do I cook? What's my specialty pasta Sundays? What?
Speaker 2: What is the only thing I really make? Well?
Speaker 1: Pancake?
Speaker 2: So how good are my pancakes? Very?
Speaker 1: Very what's good about are they? Are they thick pancakes?
Speaker 2: I have to say I am in the worst cook
Speaker 2: except for pancakes and pasta dishes, right.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you. Yeah. Do you know why your mom
Speaker 1: named you Fisher?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Because that wasn't my real name. Okay, my real name.
Speaker 2: What was my real name, Stephen Fisher? Yes, when you joined,
Speaker 2: when you joined the Actors' Union, that.
Speaker 1: Was already somewhere named Stephen. Do you know that happened
Speaker 1: to Michael Caine? He said that he was called Michael
Speaker 1: something else and he called possession. He said, there's already
Speaker 1: somebody named Michael something else. He's offered apart and they
Speaker 1: said we need a last name.
Speaker 5: We did.
Speaker 1: The last name is sitting. He says he was sitting
Speaker 1: in Leicester Square, or standing in Leicester Square the phone booth,
Speaker 1: and he looked up and the Caine Mutiny was playing
Speaker 1: in the cinema.
Speaker 2: And that's how he spells it.
Speaker 1: And that's why I became Michael Caine. You're thinking of,
Speaker 1: you know Lawrence of Arabia called bikel Arabia or something.
Speaker 2: Well, I was actually there used to be a sign
Speaker 2: for years in Brooklyn and it said Fisher Dash Stevens Paints.
Speaker 2: It was a store and that's when I got the
Speaker 2: idea I'll just reverse it. But my Dad always called
Speaker 2: me fish. Everybody called me fish, so I was always fish.
Speaker 1: Not your sister though.
Speaker 2: No.
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.
Speaker 4: You just directed Beckham, which is just about the biggest
Speaker 4: thing ever happened to Netflix. And Beckham's also a great
Speaker 4: fan of The River Cafe and the friend of Ruthie's.
Speaker 4: How did that come out?
Speaker 2: So? I was on my way to work on Succession
Speaker 2: one day and the phone rang from and it was
Speaker 2: Leonardo DiCaprio's office saying, listen, Leo and David had dinner
Speaker 2: last night and he suggested you to direct his life story.
Speaker 2: Are you interested? And I wasn't, to be honest that interested.
Speaker 1: Did you know about David Beckham?
Speaker 2: No, I knew.
Speaker 1: I don't think very many Americans.
Speaker 2: I know. Yeah, I didn't know about him, you know,
Speaker 2: I think that's I mean. I knew who he was.
Speaker 2: He was famous, I knew he was beautiful. I knew
Speaker 2: he had a beautiful wife. I knew he was a brand.
Speaker 2: And what really scared me was he's a brand and
Speaker 2: he's going to try to brand me, make me do
Speaker 2: a branded content film for him, which I wasn't interested in,
Speaker 2: but I took the meeting on Zoom was during COVID
Speaker 2: and also Succession is written by Jesse Armstrong and Tony
Speaker 2: Roach to Brits and Jesse and Tony I told them
Speaker 2: about this opportunity and they're like, you have to do it.
Speaker 2: David he's a genius. He's a great footballer. And I'm like, really,
Speaker 2: he's that good. They're like, are you you like football?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: I'm like no, I didn't. I got into it a
Speaker 2: little like when David left and they immediately like they
Speaker 2: went on YouTube and showed me like clips of him
Speaker 2: and they're like, you got to you gotta do your
Speaker 2: research man. So that it evolved and it was actually
Speaker 2: over a dinner because I didn't want to say yes
Speaker 2: until I met him. So I was shooting Succession in Italy,
Speaker 2: so I said, Okay, well I'll come and have meet
Speaker 2: you in London and he's like, okay, meet me, meet
Speaker 2: us at Harry's Bar for dinner, and he said, and
Speaker 2: wear a jacket and I'm like, I don't have a jacket.
Speaker 2: He's like, well, get a jacket. So I was in Florence,
Speaker 2: so I got. I bought a shirt. He might even
Speaker 2: been this shirt, I mean the jacket. And I got
Speaker 2: to Harry's Bar and I remember this, I haven't told
Speaker 2: this story, but I walked I walked in to the restaurant.
Speaker 2: It was empty, it was like six o'clock and they go, oh, yes,
Speaker 2: I'm here to see the Beckhams. He's like, oh, yes,
Speaker 2: only David's here so far, So come in. And I
Speaker 2: walk in and there's this ass just like sticking out
Speaker 2: of a table and I'm like, oh, it's David's Oh
Speaker 2: and he like almost it was like a comic moment,
Speaker 2: almost like bumps his head on the table. It was
Speaker 2: so sorry. Victoria just dropped her earrings. I'm just looking
Speaker 2: at them under the table. And then and that's how
Speaker 2: I met him. And then we had this dinner at
Speaker 2: Harry's Bar, which is very fancy, and I was a bit,
Speaker 2: you know, nervous, dressed in this ill fitted you know,
Speaker 2: jacket forty dollars forty year row piece of you know whatever,
Speaker 2: jacket from some store in Florence. Anyway, so we we
Speaker 2: we sit down and immediately. You know, he loves red
Speaker 2: wine and he's like, do you like red one? I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: because you like Bordeaux and I love Bordoze. And he
Speaker 2: he to like a two thousand and four Latur or
Speaker 2: something like that, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: this is going to be fun movie to work on. No,
Speaker 2: I'm kidding, but anyway, so we instantly got to know
Speaker 2: each other and had dinner, and that was what convinced me.
Speaker 2: I can't remember the food isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1: Do you know how important food is to him? I
Speaker 1: mean one of the when we talked when he comes
Speaker 1: to River Cafe, you know when they come, very often
Speaker 1: they come as a family. But he said that his
Speaker 1: idea of a great night was to get rid of
Speaker 1: his family and his kids. And you know, his kids
Speaker 1: and Victoria not get rid of it. They're out and
Speaker 1: he cooks for himself. And when he was in Milan
Speaker 1: he took cooking classes. Right, Yeah, did you get into
Speaker 1: food with him?
Speaker 2: Well, I've seen yeah, so we filmed him cooking. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we film him cooking chicken. But what's your.
Speaker 1: Best Beckham food story? We got a great Beckham food Well.
Speaker 2: The other day he came to New York and he said,
Speaker 2: let's have lunch. And he said, meet me at Luke
Speaker 2: Colly's in Carol Gardens. Probably one of the best, the
Speaker 2: best calzone, best pizza. And I thought, that's weird. Why
Speaker 2: they're not open for lunch. So, you know, it's fifteen
Speaker 2: minute bike ride. I bike over there and it's just
Speaker 2: David Nicola who works with him, and Dave Gardner and
Speaker 2: me and and Mark Lucalli. Just us at a table
Speaker 2: and he made Mark cooked just for us and he
Speaker 2: had We had some serious Yeah. He made this pork
Speaker 2: chops with peppers and onions. It was unbelievable, the pork chops.
Speaker 2: He made pasta fussili with barrata, fresh tomato sauce. He
Speaker 2: made well, he makes these. His pizzas are legendary. What's
Speaker 2: it called, Lullie. You've never been in there? Oh, you
Speaker 2: guys have really on New York restaurants. No, No, you
Speaker 2: have to go. Okay college, Yeah, we have to go.
Speaker 2: And there's only like eight tables.
Speaker 4: Will they close to the restaurant for us.
Speaker 2: They won't close the restaurant for us, but they'll give
Speaker 2: us a table. He'll love you to go into this restaurant.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. So this was Friday and we and
Speaker 2: we had two bottles of barolo, did you Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well that's interesting as well, isn't it about an
Speaker 1: athlete eating? You know, if he was he's now not
Speaker 1: playing football anymore.
Speaker 2: No, but he works out. He works out six to
Speaker 2: seven days a week, like incessantly. So he works out
Speaker 2: so he can eat because he loves to eat, as
Speaker 2: you know, and I love to eat.
Speaker 1: Do you keep wine here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've just just.
Speaker 1: Got downstairs, and you're lucky to have a bottle of.
Speaker 2: I'm going to show you because this Okay, So in
Speaker 2: this house when we moved in, and i'll show you
Speaker 2: the room, there were barrels because they used to make
Speaker 2: wine here. So we have grapevines in the back. It's
Speaker 2: I can't make the wine. Yeah, Brooklyn wine, Brooklyn wine.
Speaker 2: I know, but they're not they're not. I don't know
Speaker 2: how good it is. But yeah, so I don't have
Speaker 2: that many bottles, but I love it.
Speaker 1: So it starting about an hour ago, you said to me,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I have much to say about food.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Oh, but the last thing I'm gonna say, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: shut up about food because now I want to talk
Speaker 2: about food. Now, I know because tief Spain, Spain. I
Speaker 2: just got back for it. Now I hit all the
Speaker 2: great restaurants, restaurants, oh my god, the greatest restaurants. I mean,
Speaker 2: like funky little hole in the wall Taverna's like anyway,
Speaker 2: if you go to Tenner Reef, I'm gonna give you.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna give you the harmone. I mean, I ave out.
Speaker 3: My younger brother is obsessed with you.
Speaker 1: Always think is like a tourist.
Speaker 2: No, because the Brits all go to the South, but
Speaker 2: forget the South, you go to the North. The fish,
Speaker 2: the fish, the mussels, it's oh man.
Speaker 1: That's so good.
Speaker 2: And the wine, the local Canary island wine, and that
Speaker 2: I love Ribrieta. I don't like Ribera. I love red Ribia.
Speaker 2: Oh I love the wine. But I'm not a Rioha drinker.
Speaker 2: I'm a Ribeta drinker anyway. So I just want to
Speaker 2: make that clear. If anyone wants to send me Spanish.
Speaker 1: We got the right one. Okay. Well, so if you're
Speaker 1: you've got to go have the pasta with the.
Speaker 2: Pasta with my son, don't get him on food because
Speaker 2: he eats everything. He's ten years old, He's got the most.
Speaker 2: He tries everything. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if we talk about eating for your kids, and
Speaker 1: we talk about making pancakes, and we talk about eating
Speaker 1: you know, great food with great wine and ten reef
Speaker 1: and wherever you are, you are. We are defined as
Speaker 1: a food person. You may try and run away, but
Speaker 1: you can't hide. So you are. But if you need
Speaker 1: food for comfort, is there something you would go to?
Speaker 2: The thing that comes into my mind is is pasta
Speaker 2: with pesto. Pesto, the basil, the cheese that I'll oil,
Speaker 2: the pine nuts also, I make it. That's the other
Speaker 2: thing I try to make a little bit. But that
Speaker 2: gives me comfort.
Speaker 1: Okay. I hope you don't need comfort because you're a
Speaker 1: great personal Okay.
Speaker 2: I'm going to see you in London, Yes, London.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table for in partnership
Speaker 1: with Montclair.
Speaker 5: Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atamei Studios for iHeartRadio.
Speaker 5: It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.
Speaker 5: This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Speaker 5: Nigel Appleton, our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Speaker 5: Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore and our production coordinator
Speaker 5: is Bella Selini. Thank you to everyone at The River
Speaker 5: Cafe for your help in me in this episode.
Speaker 2: H