WEBVTT - Edward Enninful 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.720 Welcome to River Cafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:05.680 and Adami Studios. 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:12.400 Come with me into the River Cafe. You see the 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.640 pink wood oven in the distance, the yellow kitchen cocktails 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:20.239 are being made, proshutto is being sliced, and there's the 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.240 quiet buzz for the beginning of an evening food and 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:30.040 friends in a beautiful space. Welcome to River Cafe Table 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:38.720 four with me, Ruthie Rogers. I'm sitting here with Edward 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.000 nfl and you're the editor of Vogue. 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:43.600 Thank you for having me. 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.160 We're looking at the Thames, we're looking at the blue sky, 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.080 and most of all, we're looking at people who've been 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:54.000 not able to come to a restaurant for five months, eating, 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.680 talking and having a wonderful time. And that's what we're 0:00:57.720 --> 0:00:58.200 going to have. 0:00:58.360 --> 0:00:58.720 Edward. 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:06.360 We had your party, welcoming party to London at the 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.440 River Cafe to welcome you here. It was a very 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.920 beautiful party. I remember something about that night, which was 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:15.959 we were talking about whether we could do ravioli as 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.240 a premi and there was a conversation saying, well, you know, 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.240 fashion people don't eat carbs, they won't eat pasta. Nobody's 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.240 going to eat the ravioli. Not only did they eat it, 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:30.120 they had seconds, gongs, and thirds and put on more 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:31.600 ravioli on the plate. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:40.240 It was a really magical even one of my really 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:44.400 much cool evenings of my life because remember the issue 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:44.880 came out. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.800 Tell Us about that, tell Us about the first issue. 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.480 It was a love story really to Great Britain, the 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.680 country that sort of took my family in and took 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.600 me in. And we celebrated everybody from Naomi Campbell to 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.120 Steve McQueen to Cake Moss and we had Adua on 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:01.600 the cover. 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.520 It was a beautiful night. And I think people, you know, again, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.320 over food, over find the food. You wanted to be 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.320 sharing plates, You wanted people to have antipacity. 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.600 People, there's a misconception of fashion people don't eat, But 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:16.480 that's not true. 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:18.680 That's not true, And so what do you feel about 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.880 food and fashion? Is the idea that in order to 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.320 look good and clothes, you have to be thin, or 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:26.600 you have to look elegant, you have to be a 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.240 certain look or models have to look a certain way, 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.440 and that would mean denial of food. It would say, 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.160 in order to look that way, don't eat. Yeah, what's 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:35.600 that strong? 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:40.080 Historically, you know, to be fashionable should eat When you 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:45.280 look at at least my Vogue anyway, it's everybody's welcome, 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.960 you know, all shapes, all sizes or colors. And what 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.000 I love now is three years later when you look 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.560 in all the other magazines, everybody's also welcoming in all 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:00.520 the other magazines. That that strict thing of being able 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:04.120 to be a certain size, being sized zero is the 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.960 perfect that doesn't exist anymore. Even the idea of being 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.679 a model's changed. How you can be short, you can 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:17.320 be covey, you can be you know, you can be disabled. Literally, 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.440 to watch that industry change, for me, it's one of 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:22.920 the great things about you know, doing my job. 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:25.919 Well, do your job, but you made that. You did 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:29.079 it out of empathy and sympathy and knowledge of yourself, 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:31.440 and so I think that you have to take the 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.200 credit for that, you know, in a beautiful way. But 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.720 has it been a struggle to get you make it 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.280 sound rather seamless that this is what's happened another mate, 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:42.960 But it has it been a struggle for stores or 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:44.360 for designers? 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.760 Yeah, I mean designers now know that they've missed out 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:54.680 on a whole market from size forteen to sixty they've 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.840 missed out. Why would you want to miss out on 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.920 a section of a population that can make your business 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.000 even better. So now designers have really sort of like, 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.960 oh my god, they've wisened up. Okay, I just knew 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:13.840 that the world we lived in just wasn't that just 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.680 wasn't that world anymore? You know, you have you have 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.920 to be a certain size or or a certain color 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.880 or yeah, and I love the new generation. 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:27.040 I mean you're aren't they the new generator? Yes? 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:33.400 Yeah, you know, so welcoming and so so open. So 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.560 you know, the industry's changed, and it's not perfect, but 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:38.760 at least they're now you know what happened last summer, 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.440 you know, black lives matter, and so now you know, 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:46.200 companies are now realizing because they have to hire people 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.400 from diverse backgrounds behind the scenes and not just so 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:55.839 to watch. It's changed slowly. It's quite great. You know, 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.360 conversations about have been had now never would have been 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.800 had ten years ago. We deal with sort of topics 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.360 that real women are passionate about. 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:10.560 Because you grew up in Ghana, So tell me about 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:11.480 the food of Ghana. 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.880 What do you spent my first sort of eleven twelve 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:20.440 twelve years in Ghana, and I remember everything being spicy. 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:26.440 I remember everything being peppery. I remember, you know, lots 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:31.760 of sort of carbohydrates and lots of soups, lots of garne. 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:37.600 Soups are very different because you need actual meat in them, 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:42.280 so like a chicken soup or a lamb soup. You know, 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:47.280 I remember just literally cheering through bones and skin, and 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:49.719 that's really comforting for me. 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:52.559 Yeah, I think food. You know, we always talk about 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.920 food being a connection, food being delicious, food being adventurous 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.240 and exciting, but it is comfort and it's and the 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.920 memories that you have. Who would your mother, would your 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:03.800 mother cook for you? 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:07.480 My mother didn't cook so much what my grandmother did, 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.839 so growing up in Ghana, my grandmother would always cook, 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:13.360 and she would always cook in these huge I think 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:15.560 that's why I love going to restaurants. She would always 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.960 cook in these huge pots, and she'd never cook for 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:24.400 just a family. It would be aunts popping in, uncle's 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.279 popping in. There's something about Ghana the minute food is 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:28.720 ready to go, all of a sudden, your aunts and 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.680 uncles are pet out of nowhere. So food for me 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.160 became sort of a way of socializing as a very 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.719 very shy kid. And to this day, you know, going 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.960 out coming to the river cafe just just fills me 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:42.560 with I don't know, happiness. 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:44.159 Really, did your grandmother live with you? 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.120 She lived with us, and then we moved to England. 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.320 She didn't live with us when we moved to England, 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:51.680 but when we got to England, my brother took over 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.880 cooking duties. And again, you know, it was always sort 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.479 of fairy meatium. 0:06:58.640 --> 0:06:59.799 And your mother didn't cook. 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.119 She was a seamstress. She was busy working, just busy 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.960 making club. I mean, pretty much what I do now. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:13.880 She just worked all the time. My brother would cook 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:15.880 sometimes and my sisters would take time. 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:18.760 What about your father never cooked? 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.720 I never. I don't cook either. Somehow I missed the 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.880 cooking Jean. But I can really eat. 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.320 So I was. If you have the eating Jean very often, 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:35.680 if you have the eating Gean, then you do need 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.680 to learn to cook, because sometimes if you don't have 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:43.160 somebody to cook for you, you're in restaurants. You do, Yeah, 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:44.680 that's why you love restaurants. 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:47.400 Food is love and love is food. 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:53.000 Did you grow up in the city. 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:55.080 I grew up in love with Grove West London. 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.120 Yeah, what about Gona. 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.920 We grew up in the military base called Burma Camp. 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:02.680 Was your father in the military, So it. 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.080 Was really weird growing up in Africa but not really 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:08.800 living in the city, but living in a military base 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.120 because my dad was in the army. So it was 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:15.640 kind of a surreal kind of upbringing. Yeah, and then 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:20.640 we moved to London and we lived first we lived 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.120 in sort of Victoria for a few months or was 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.400 it the Chelsea Barracks. Then we moved to Lubwick Grove 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:30.280 and that's when life really begun. Oh my god, Jamaican 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.079 food rise and peace check in. 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.960 I mean, so that exposure, it's very It's interesting how 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.240 people leave there. You know, we've talked to lots of 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.120 people in these conversations who say that they had the 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.040 home cooking for the first you know, the student years 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.920 are growing up, their memories of their parents and then 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:53.600 and then there was a kind of explosion of food 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:57.360 and adventure and trying, trying. But did you before we 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.920 leave Ghana, did you bring Ghanian food with you? What 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:02.880 was that the food that you still ate when you 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.000 came with you to a foreign country. How old were 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:09.400 you when your game twelve. Oh you were twelve, But. 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.080 I remember I always say I felt as if I 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:15.439 lived in two countries. I mean, if anybody who's been 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.319 an immigrant will let you know, we'll attest to this. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:22.199 You're literally you're at home and you're eating the flavors 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.360 of Ghana and you're having things like fool food and 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:29.560 what it's like a dough gana. It's sort of made 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.280 out of a lot of pop so like you know, 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:37.600 corn start into pup with soups, so you're having that, 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.640 and then the many you leave your house, you're in 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:46.000 England where you have sausage road and you have chips 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:51.000 and you have pork pie. So I just love this duality. 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:55.760 Is really the person I am today is made from 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.319 that duality in every aspect of mine. And it started 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.439 with food gone I felt, you know, at home, I 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.959 was eating garate food. I felt garner, you know, parents 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:08.040 speaking Ghanaian. And then the midune I left the house, 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.040 I would be in England with food that I loved, 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.720 comfort food. So yeah, my life's just been like that. 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.800 And would you bring friends home to experience? 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.320 Bring friends home? But Garan food is quite specific. You 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:27.600 either take to it or you don't and friends will 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:29.520 coming to They always love jello rice. I don't if 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:31.600 you know what jelo of rice is. It's this famous. 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.760 It's almost like a tomato rice. And there's a competition 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.400 between Garnians and Nigerians. It's for thee wars who makes 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.640 the best. So friends will come and they don't eat that. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.880 But it's so it's rice with tomato, did you say. 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:49.080 With tomatoes and spices and so in the colors sort 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.680 of orange like an orange color. But it's very famous. 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.160 And what's the Nigerian version. 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.640 Nigerians think this tastes better than ghani, especially whole war's 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.600 going on about it. I would have said that. 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.760 And I have to have a little rice off. 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:10.120 And I remember a lot of ockry and everything, and 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:14.400 I never had I never ate salads growing up. Every 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:18.160 kind of you know, ganem vegetable was always cooked, you know, 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:22.480 cooked and stirred and beaten to an end of his life. 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.320 So eating salads was always. 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.400 But would you go to the market, would there be markets? 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.880 Would you get your mother every Saturday? Will take me 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.640 to Brixton Market. They had a sort of big African. Yeah, 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.720 you could buy meat, you could buy you know, fish, 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.960 you could buy clothes, and every weekend was spent with 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.040 my mom. We were very close in Brixton, and I 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.720 remember just Bob Marley, the music of Bob Marley and 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:54.640 Peter Touch that really made up my early teenage years. 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.040 But and then my mom will be looking through the meats, 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.080 essentially trying to find the best cuts and the best. 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.160 I think that, as you say, every immigrant. My family 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:07.520 came from Eastern Europe, you know, to the United States, 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.800 to New York, and they cooked the food of their country. 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.680 And food is culture. It's it tells you the story. 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.360 When you arrive in a country and you go to 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:28.840 the market, it tells you about the culture. Welcome back 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:33.280 to River Cafe, Table four. In each episode, my guest 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.520 reads a recipe they've chosen from one of our cookbooks. 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.640 I'm going to read the recipe for the veal shin 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:47.720 slow cooked with birollo and sage. Serves eight people. You 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:53.040 need two veal shins, extra virgin olive oil, a bunch 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:59.600 of fresh sage, four bay leaves, four garlic clothes peeled, 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:05.040 one bottle of burrollo, three hundred and fifty grams peeled 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:10.480 plump tomatoes drained of their juices very important. The longer 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:17.839 this cooks, the better. You need to preheat your oven 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:22.600 to two hundred degrees centigrade. Heat an oven proof pot. 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.760 Then you season the shins with sea salt and black pepper. 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.600 Add five tablespoons of olive oil and the chintz to 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:35.800 the pot and fry until brown, all over, turning the 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:41.480 shins every few minutes. Add the sage bay and garlic. 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:47.000 Pour in the wine. Put the shins in facing down, 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:53.080 Add the tomatoes and cover with greaseproof paper. Transfer the 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:58.920 pot to the oven. After one hour, turn the shins 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.680 over and reduce the temperature to one hundred and fifty 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:06.360 degrees centigrade. Cover and cook for a further two hours, 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:09.280 based in the shins a couple of times to keep 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:13.520 the meat moist. The veal shins are ready when the 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:17.720 meat falls away from the bone, serve with the marrow 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:18.720 from the bone. 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:25.280 Ah, thank you beautifully read. If all you know the 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.960 recipes that you've cooked from the River of Cafe book, 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.880 and that you've eaten in the River Cafe, I think 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.600 you have had feel a lot. You do have it 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.200 when you come in. But was there something? Was it? 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:40.320 The comfort? What was it that made you choose this 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.680 recipe amongst all the others. 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:47.360 I mean, I find feel very comforting anyway, Like I 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.680 love comfort food, you know, whether it's veal, I'm definitely 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:56.200 a carnival but it reminds me great memories of my 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:02.040 grandmother and my mother sort of, you know, cooking always meats. 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.320 I think that, as you say, every immigrant my family 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.720 came from Eastern Europe, you know, to the United States, 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.920 to New York, and they cooked the food of their country. 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.040 And I think that you bring It's interesting that you 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.080 said it, because you do bring. The food is cultures. 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.080 It tells you the story when you arrive in a 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:24.880 country and you go to the market. It tells you 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.040 about the culture. And you know, as an immigrant, maybe 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.280 particularly first generation, we'll bring it with them. 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.360 We never went to restaurants. There were so many, there 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.160 were six of us. So I remember the first time 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:37.400 I went to a restaurant. I think it must have 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.880 been about sixteen, when I started modeling, and I remember thinking, 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:45.360 oh my god, this is what'd you do here? Being 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:46.240 quite frightened. 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:49.440 But was a restaurant do you remember? Do you remember 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:50.080 the restaurant? 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:55.360 It was in Lubrick Grove definitely. It was a Chinese restaurant. 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.080 It had two seats. It was next to the next 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.320 to the chief stage group to station. I can't remember 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:03.120 the name. It was really famous. It was then about 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.400 thirty years Yeah, and you know, you get a little 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.800 take when you sat. It wasn't probably a proper restaurant, 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:09.680 but you set, you have three tables and you sit 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.640 there and it felt so glamorous. Yeah. 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.240 I think that it's interesting if we look out side 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.080 here and we see the ease at which you know, 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.760 people are sitting in a restaurant where they bring their children. 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.360 And for me as well, it was a special occasion 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.160 going to a restaurant. I lived in Upstate New York. 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.040 You went for somebody's birthday anniversary. And I think it's 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.480 been such a radical change for you know, for for 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.680 us that you see the way restaurants are used, and 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.160 so after that first experience in a restaurant and you 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.240 love it, and that what happened. 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:43.120 I mean I was a modeling so then I thought, 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:47.480 you know, sort of traveling and sort of having new 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:51.240 friends and you know, living with Judy Blame and so 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.440 my whole life changed. But I remember those first few 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:59.640 sort of times that I ate up my house. 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.520 Did you travel to when you were modeling? Where did 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:04.240 you get? Paris? 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:06.920 And the first place I went to was New York 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:12.600 sort of burgers and yeah, oh my god, New York 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:19.640 is so milkshakes and those huge steaks that they have steaks. 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.320 And then I've got to Paris and French cuisine was incredible. 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.680 I always found for cuisine was delicious, but a little 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:29.240 too what's the word for me? 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:31.720 Too heavy? 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.960 And I loved Italian food. When I discovered Milan mind 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.560 loved Italian food. I loved everything about it. I love 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:39.320 Italian food. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:41.720 Do you see restaurants as places where you work? Do 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:43.280 you work over food? 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:43.920 You? No? 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:45.639 Okay, I like that. 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:51.760 Never for me to put those two together. Root it 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.919 for me? For me workers work, and when I'm in 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:58.440 a restaurant, I just need to have fun, enjoy myself, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.520 not have to worry. So, you know, even going out 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.879 to a restaurants very special for me. I always dress up. 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:08.400 I'm never walking to a restaurant and not dressed up. 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.159 Look you look at you? Look at you dressed up? 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:12.159 So what was that? 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.480 Growing up a dad was like to get on a plane, 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.120 you have to dress up. To go to a restaurant, 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:19.919 you have to dress up, so you never see me 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:20.960 in the restaurant. 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.560 That's nice, that's nice. I mean, I don't mind what 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.320 people wear when they come and and either they can 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.679 come in a pair of you know, jeans and a 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.200 T shirt. But there there are people who and you see, 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:34.199 especially in the evenings, you do see people. And I 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.320 sometimes say that to the waiters. I say, you know, 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.240 people put a lot of effort sometimes to look really 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:42.919 beautiful here, and so we also have to, you know, 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:44.720 the effort that we make. 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:45.520 Nice. 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:47.760 So what do you do when you're on a shoot 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.760 or you're working, you know, you just say, okay, guys, 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:51.960 we'll see you in a couple of hours. 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.159 Do you take a little Yeah, you sit and you 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:57.800 eat and then you go back to I don't I 0:18:57.840 --> 0:18:59.879 don't eat and look at pictures or anything like that. 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.320 I need that moment to It's one of the few 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.880 times in the day that I have to enjoy myself. 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:07.040 You know. 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.280 Do you find that you can go out to lunch 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.560 and to dinner, you might go. You just love it. 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:14.119 When I lived in New York, I lived in New 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.879 York for a while, I would be out lunch, sometimes 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.240 breakfast too. I just love the whole experience of love. 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:24.720 Yeah, I really do. 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:28.160 I really love it. And I love sit looking at people, 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.120 seeing what people are wearing, seeing just people having fun 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.920 and enjoying themselves. It's almost like therapy for me. It's therapeutic. 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:38.919 What did you do during lockdown? And we couldn't go 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:40.120 to the restaurants the. 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:44.879 First few weeks. Alec my partner cooked and he's very healthy, 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.480 sort of sort of salads and sort of meats, and 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:51.480 that was great. And then we discovered banana bread. 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.040 Oh for me, about banana bread. 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:57.560 Went out of the blue. Alex learned how to make 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.639 banana bread and it was such a novelty. We ate 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.080 it every single day for a month and now I 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:09.040 can never look at it ever again. I'm done. Yeah, exactly. 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:13.440 Yeah, you started with the comfort of your grandmother cooking 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.000 for you. And so if I were to ask you 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.760 the question that I asked at the end of every interview, 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.280 which is what is your comfort food? If you were 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.800 feeling like life is tough, I've had a bad day, 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.560 I've had I need I need to eat something. Is 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.159 there a typical food that you would go to that 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:34.600 would you just know if I have this it would 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:40.199 make me feel better? So many Yeah, they can tell 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:42.240 us a few of that. It doesn't have to be one. 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:44.080 It doesn't have to be. 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.560 Something raci of rice and beans and chicken or something 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.560 very just really comfort because my grandmother would make whenever 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:54.520 I wasn't feeling well. 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:59.359 She loved you through probably many ways, but through food. 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:04.840 Food, My memories about just cooking. Yeah, that's all I remember. 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:10.960 It's wonderful to visit the online shop of the River Cafe. 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:15.160 Go to Shoptharrivercafe dot co dot uk. 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.320 River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:27.520 Adamized Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.639 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.