Speaker 1: You're listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and eighteen, I found myself living in
Speaker 1: Mexico City for four months. My regular world of London work,
Speaker 1: family and friends became irregular as I was unexpectedly thrust
Speaker 1: into a city with new people, new language, and definitely
Speaker 1: new food. Then one day someone suggested we meet at Nido,
Speaker 1: a small restaurant recently opened by Karen Dujonsky and her
Speaker 1: son Eduardo Pleshinsky. From that morning everything changed. I went
Speaker 1: to Niedo almost every day, always to be greeted with
Speaker 1: a strong embrace from Karen, who would then go back
Speaker 1: to her kitchen and cook me the best Mexican food,
Speaker 1: eggs Mexicana and cettos, tortillas, fresh breads, oatmeal, cheese, omelets, avocado.
Speaker 1: Months later, when it was finally time for me to
Speaker 1: return to London, it had switched around. Karen and Nido
Speaker 1: had become my regular world and it was painful to
Speaker 1: leave them. We emailed and sometimes phoned, but it was
Speaker 1: only two days ago that I returned to Nido and
Speaker 1: Karen for breakfast. In four years, so here we are
Speaker 1: today in a studio. Two good friends back in the
Speaker 1: most beautiful city I know.
Speaker 2: Ruthie, thank you so much. Would you like to read? Yes?
Speaker 1: And isn't it good to be together? It is beautiful.
Speaker 1: You always bring tears to my eyes never So you've
Speaker 1: chosen the recipe.
Speaker 2: I've chosen that tlalini with sparagus. So oh, we need
Speaker 2: these five hundred grums of chopped sparagus, four garly clothes, peeled,
Speaker 2: four tablespoons chop mix fresh herbs, one hundred million liters
Speaker 2: of double cream, five hundred grams of unsalted butter, two
Speaker 2: hundred grams of taglarini, one hundred and twenty grams of parmesan.
Speaker 2: Please grate it and this is how you're going to
Speaker 2: do it. Trim and finally chop the sparagus. Bring the
Speaker 2: cream to a boil in a saucepan with a garlic,
Speaker 2: and simmer until the clothes are soft. Hiat the olive
Speaker 2: oil and butter in the saucepan and fry half of
Speaker 2: the chopped sparagus. Add the rest of the cream. Bring
Speaker 2: to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until
Speaker 2: the cream begins to thicken. Cook the pasta. Add the
Speaker 2: sauce half of the parmesan and tossed together, serve with
Speaker 2: remaining parmesan and a lot of love and a lot
Speaker 2: of love.
Speaker 1: A good recipe. And why did you choose it? All
Speaker 1: the recipes in all our books that I asked you
Speaker 1: to choose, why did you choose this one?
Speaker 2: Care I love sparagus, I love herbs. I like when
Speaker 2: pastas are treated simply, and I adore cream and butter.
Speaker 2: So I thought anyone can do it because you can
Speaker 2: find the ingredients everywhere, and it's something that I do
Speaker 2: very often. From your book.
Speaker 1: In England, we have a very short asparagus season. It
Speaker 1: goes from probably mid May till end of July. What
Speaker 1: is there a season in Mexico?
Speaker 2: Apaus, we can find sparagus throughout the year. Yes, usually
Speaker 2: sometimes they come from here and sometimes they come from California,
Speaker 2: So we find that's you know, it's easy because I
Speaker 2: can find sparagus all the year, and also fresh herbs
Speaker 2: in the parmer market that I go every Sunday. They're amazing.
Speaker 2: They come from Bay.
Speaker 1: So let's start at the very beginning, perhaps, which would
Speaker 1: go back to how did your family come to Mexico?
Speaker 1: Because I know, it's a very compelling story. Was it
Speaker 1: your grandmother or your great grandmother?
Speaker 2: My grandmother?
Speaker 1: Tell me about your grandmother.
Speaker 2: So my Austrian grandmother came from Austria escaping the Second
Speaker 2: World War, and my other grandmother came from Poland way
Speaker 2: before the Second World War. So I had two very
Speaker 2: different upbringings, two very different kitchens, and two very different
Speaker 2: environments for cooking. The Viennese one, the Austrian, was super
Speaker 2: sophisticated because she could purchase and she knew about a
Speaker 2: lot of ingredients. So there was dark, but something very interesting. Ruthie,
Speaker 2: the cook at my grandma's, was an amazing Mexican cook.
Speaker 2: So when I was five and six, as soon as
Speaker 2: I went into her house, I ran into the kitchen.
Speaker 2: I didn't go to the garden. I didn't want to
Speaker 2: go play with the dogs in the garden or with
Speaker 2: the dolls. I wanted to cook my own eggs. Had
Speaker 2: six years at six, so they had a little wooden
Speaker 2: stool for me to go up, and they would say
Speaker 2: can I cook for you the eggs? And said no, no, no,
Speaker 2: I'll make my own. And since then I do scrumble
Speaker 2: eggs like I did for you.
Speaker 1: Every day. When you talk about your grandmother who escaped
Speaker 1: to come to Mexico, what was her story.
Speaker 2: It was a very hard and painful story. She lived
Speaker 2: in a very close town to Vienna, who was taken.
Speaker 2: You know, they came to get them and kill them all.
Speaker 1: They were a Jewish family.
Speaker 2: He was young. I'm Jewish and my family is Jewish,
Speaker 2: and I'm very proud of our traditions like anybody else
Speaker 2: with their own traditions. So we are a Jewish family.
Speaker 2: And her mom saw a diamond inside a hat and
Speaker 2: she explained to my grandma, when they come together us
Speaker 2: and if they kill all, wear the hat and run away.
Speaker 2: They came. They killed everyone except my grandma and my
Speaker 2: grandma's sister. In fact, my grandma saved the sister from
Speaker 2: a camp. So it was an amazing story because my
Speaker 2: grandma was very hard working, and I take the hard
Speaker 2: working part from her since I was very young. She said,
Speaker 2: you need to work, you need to learn how to
Speaker 2: make a living, because that's the experience that she learned,
Speaker 2: and she wanted to pass it to me.
Speaker 1: Go back to the story of the diamond and the hat.
Speaker 1: But she saw her family being killed.
Speaker 2: She was spared she quickly went and got the hat.
Speaker 2: She got the hat she wore, and she was how
Speaker 2: old she was? Fifteen? She run away into the.
Speaker 1: Woods with the hat and the diamond.
Speaker 2: Because by with the diamond she could save her life
Speaker 2: and get a ticket to go to America.
Speaker 1: So she was coming not to Mexico, but to a marria.
Speaker 2: She went to New York. Yeah, a family member took
Speaker 2: her while she was trying to make a living, and
Speaker 2: she lived in a garbage bin in New York. In
Speaker 2: New York, in a garbage bin for more than six
Speaker 2: months until she could make it, wadering doing housework, anything
Speaker 2: that would give her a living while finding her sister.
Speaker 2: She did find. You know, it's very interesting, Ruthie, because
Speaker 2: my grandma name was Carlotta Charlotte and her sister was Annie,
Speaker 2: and Annie and my grandma taught me how to cook.
Speaker 2: So once they went to New York, they saw an
Speaker 2: opportunity to come to Mexico. And Mexico has been always
Speaker 2: always an amazing place of opportunities. If you work hard
Speaker 2: and you're passionate, there's always opportunities in Mexico. So they
Speaker 2: came to make how old were they then? Okay? So
Speaker 2: my grandma was nineteen or twenty. She was trying to
Speaker 2: find her sister. She didn't save her from the camp,
Speaker 2: from the Holocaust camp, and they came to Mexico and
Speaker 2: the sister started to cook and started to have a
Speaker 2: little restaurant in a Capulco. And my dad had a
Speaker 2: jewelry store and my grandma had a jewelry store in
Speaker 2: a Capulco in the in the coast line of the beach.
Speaker 2: So I worked in the jewelry and in the restaurant
Speaker 2: since I was twelve.
Speaker 1: And your own so that was your grandmother. Your parents
Speaker 1: then were born in Mexico.
Speaker 2: The first generation born in Mexico. I'm the second and
Speaker 2: my children are the third. Yes, so yeah, it's an
Speaker 2: amazing story because on the other side, the Polish side, Yeah,
Speaker 2: they didn't suffer the Holocaust. They just came before to find.
Speaker 1: They decided to camp. Why did they chanse Mexico?
Speaker 2: Do you think there was a good Jewish community and
Speaker 2: a lot of opportunities. So from Poland to Mexico it
Speaker 2: was a great opportunity. So they came to Mexico, the
Speaker 2: Polish and the Austrian and then mom and dad they
Speaker 2: met here. They were born here and my mom Susanna
Speaker 2: and my dad Muses they met here, they married and eating.
Speaker 1: What did they do? Mom?
Speaker 2: An amazing art dealer? Oh yes, amazing art dealer. You know,
Speaker 2: I was very lucky to get to know Medida in
Speaker 2: Suynia and Toledo. So they sat at a table always.
Speaker 2: So there was always cooking, an art, cooking and culture,
Speaker 2: cooking and music, cooking and love.
Speaker 1: And where were your grandmothers did they did they live
Speaker 1: near your house?
Speaker 2: Very close? Polanco and Polanca, both in Polanco and I
Speaker 2: could work and the Vienna's grandma. When I was very little,
Speaker 2: I put a little food store outside the house with
Speaker 2: little soapasitos and the supositos were one sent So since
Speaker 2: very young I was cooking and feeding people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, were you ever trained or did you just know?
Speaker 2: I'm not supernatural? Like when I was very young, I
Speaker 2: could smell and know what I wanted to put into
Speaker 2: the dishes. I love spices and herbs and products and
Speaker 2: markets and the people who do it, you know, and
Speaker 2: very passionate about it.
Speaker 1: And who taught what? Was it your grandparents and the
Speaker 1: Mexican chef that you had cooking for you. The Mexican
Speaker 1: cook that you had in the kitchen, who actually Corney,
Speaker 1: who was Corny Corney, was a very important.
Speaker 2: Figure in my life because my grandma taught her cook
Speaker 2: while she worked. She was a silversmith, so while she
Speaker 2: work a lot, the cook cook a lot, and she
Speaker 2: was taught by my grandma. Was very tough and she
Speaker 2: and Connie was very soft, and she was very sweet,
Speaker 2: and she was an amazing cook. So she was very
Speaker 2: patient with me because she took care of my mom
Speaker 2: when she was pregnant in me when I was born.
Speaker 1: When I interviewed Alfonso Couran, the other Mexican that I
Speaker 1: had on the podcast, he talked very much, and of
Speaker 1: course he made a movie Roma about the role of
Speaker 1: the domestic help in Mexican families, and it's a very
Speaker 1: unique role I think that you had. He said a
Speaker 1: very interesting thing. He said, when Americans made money and
Speaker 1: had greater wealth, they would buy bigger things. They would
Speaker 1: have a bigger kitchen, they would have a bigger car,
Speaker 1: they would have a bigger house, they would have maybe
Speaker 1: two cars. In Mexico and also I think perhaps in Italy,
Speaker 1: maybe in Spain. His opinion was that when people had
Speaker 1: greater wealth. They kept the house the same, the kitchen
Speaker 1: the same. Is very simple. That they had more domestic staff,
Speaker 1: They had more people to work for them, and those
Speaker 1: people became very, very important in the family.
Speaker 2: Do you agree they become your family, They become your
Speaker 2: chosen family. In fact, I have somebody that helps me
Speaker 2: at home and my children for over thirty years, Ruthie.
Speaker 2: So the same with Connie. So Connie became my mom's
Speaker 2: mom because my mom's mom was always working, and Connie
Speaker 2: was the one feeding the kids and taking care of
Speaker 2: their calls and their temperature and their you know, and
Speaker 2: she became almost like my grandma.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I was always in Cornie's kitchen and then on
Speaker 2: my Bobber's kitchen. My Jewish Yewish, you know, very interesting Jewish,
Speaker 2: but very different.
Speaker 1: And so you had the Mexican food when your family.
Speaker 1: Tell me about life in your household. Your mother was working,
Speaker 1: your father was working, and you had one sister. What's
Speaker 1: the four girls? Four girls? Okay, so we four and
Speaker 1: so what would you'd go to school? And what was
Speaker 1: life like at home? So mum worked and ground my work.
Speaker 2: So at home you would wake up in the morning,
Speaker 2: go to school, come back and have an amazing Mexican meal.
Speaker 1: Dinner.
Speaker 2: It was lunchtime. It was two thirty two three, right,
Speaker 2: So dinner in Mexico was light. Lunch is heavy.
Speaker 1: When I lived here, that was one of the things
Speaker 1: I learned, really was that you had well, we had
Speaker 1: big breakfast at Niedo. Then we would have I would
Speaker 1: be in the hospital with my husband, and then we
Speaker 1: would meet for lunch at about four or possibly five,
Speaker 1: have a delicious whatever it was called lunch or early dinner,
Speaker 1: and then that was it. You'd have a piece of
Speaker 1: fruit at ten o'clock or a glass of mescal or
Speaker 1: tequila and then go to bed. So I thought it
Speaker 1: was a beautiful way to eat if you could do
Speaker 1: that and work.
Speaker 2: You know, I like because you go to bed very light.
Speaker 2: You have a slice of papaya or watermelon or melon.
Speaker 2: It's very light. But since we have a Mexican food,
Speaker 2: you know, you know, Ruthie, you know the rice and
Speaker 2: the fideo and the moorland and chiladas, and that's what
Speaker 2: we ate at home. And then a little bit of baking,
Speaker 2: which was Austrian or.
Speaker 1: Polish, and so you sit down to dinner, everybody ate together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they would come from work and at three
Speaker 2: everybody was sitting at the table. We had an amazing
Speaker 2: Mexican during the week, and then Sunday was a little
Speaker 2: bit more sophisticated and for Shabba, dinner was always at
Speaker 2: my Polish Grandma, and at sha dinner was very Jewish.
Speaker 2: They filled the fish, mudzables, you know, roasted chicken all that.
Speaker 2: And on Sunday we had a very delicious, amazing lunch
Speaker 2: at my Viennese Grandma, which was dark and then potato
Speaker 2: dumplings filled with apricot in sach and linzert and butter cookies.
Speaker 2: It was all about butter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and better easy to get in Mexico is amazing butter, yeah, interesting,
Speaker 1: amazing butter.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I buy it from a special very small ranch,
Speaker 2: or sometimes I get it from where it comes to bit,
Speaker 2: which is France or Denmark, but produce in Mexico, if
Speaker 2: you know where, we're very lucky. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that there's such an incredible food awareness in
Speaker 1: Mexico City, and I think it can be anything from
Speaker 1: your own restaurants to what you're doing to contram Mar,
Speaker 1: which we went to today, which has probably two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty people in one room and having wonderful you know,
Speaker 1: fish brought to you by waiters who just say yes
Speaker 1: to everything. You know, there's just a wonderful atmosphere to
Speaker 1: a bar that I went to the first night I
Speaker 1: got here, and you had to open what looked like
Speaker 1: a kind of refrigerator door to get downstairs to have
Speaker 1: a thing. It was like prohivision. But it feels on fire.
Speaker 1: The Mexican food scene without being with you know, not
Speaker 1: being fashionable. There's a culture of food here that I'm
Speaker 1: so amazed by and moved by.
Speaker 2: It is so important for us. It is so important
Speaker 2: as family together, as friends together, as couples together. So
Speaker 2: fort is a huge part for where are you going
Speaker 2: for breakfast? What are you doing for lunch? Where are
Speaker 2: you having dinner? It's part of our life. You know,
Speaker 2: it's big because I find that you stop your day
Speaker 2: for those moments and you connect with people in those moments.
Speaker 1: And did you go to restaurants with your family or
Speaker 1: so you did, so you'd have those danielsynth thing and
Speaker 1: then you'd go Friday night Shabad, And then when would.
Speaker 2: You go to Saturday when we're young on Saturday? Have
Speaker 2: you been to that movie. Now it's a very typical
Speaker 2: fish Spanish restaurant in the city center. You have to go.
Speaker 2: It's a classic, okay, So from lobster to big shrimp
Speaker 2: to little clams, and it's a very old, beautiful dining room.
Speaker 2: I'll take you next, Nubio. We went to the Nubio,
Speaker 2: We went to La Lanna, We went to Chamselice, which
Speaker 2: was like an amazing restaurant. Food was an eaties a
Speaker 2: huge part of our lives. I have four sisters, So
Speaker 2: wherefore we cook big time?
Speaker 1: And is it regional? I know it is regional, so
Speaker 1: I know the answer to that question. So if you're
Speaker 1: in the Yucutan, you'll be eating something very different than
Speaker 1: you would have perhaps in you know, on the Pacific coast.
Speaker 1: And if you're on the Pacific coast, you'll have something
Speaker 1: that's quite different from you know, Mexico City or then
Speaker 1: the Boa, California, Wahaka. So the regionality of food is
Speaker 1: very important in Mexico, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Such a It is because who is from Wahaca is
Speaker 2: very proud from their products and the way they cook
Speaker 2: their chillis. If you go to Puebla, you have a
Speaker 2: certain kind of molley, But if you go to Wahaka,
Speaker 2: you have another morley. Tell me about the two Malays,
Speaker 2: you know, they're so different, So listen. In Puebla sweeter.
Speaker 2: In Wahaca is hotter, spicier. And I was just in
Speaker 2: Merida in Casasquila doing an amazing pop up, and I
Speaker 2: went to these amazing markets, Ruthie, I cannot even tell
Speaker 2: you what I found, Like a La masorca.
Speaker 1: That's the corn cob.
Speaker 2: It's burned inside the ground and it's burnt and it's
Speaker 2: brown and it's smoky. And I did pick of thee
Speaker 2: with it, and mal is with it, and you can
Speaker 2: do pastory with it. Then it's very regional.
Speaker 1: Can you just tell everyone what malay is.
Speaker 2: Yes, moley. It's a very thick sauce made with chili nuts,
Speaker 2: tons of spices from cinnamon to chocolate.
Speaker 1: Does all malet have chocolate and it.
Speaker 2: Not in Wahaca. Yes, a ton in Pevla. Less in Pevla,
Speaker 2: more sugar, in Wahaca, more chocolate. And then in Wohaca
Speaker 2: you can find more than twenty thirty forty kinds of moley,
Speaker 2: like colorado mariito nero for for pork, for chicken for
Speaker 2: Waholote molay. It's a huge thing. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: You love it? And do you cook a certain type?
Speaker 1: Do you make all different Puebla? Yeah, I like it
Speaker 1: mole sweeter.
Speaker 2: And I went to Puebla like two three months ago
Speaker 2: and I got some beautiful pastes from it and I
Speaker 2: just seas in it. And I do it with chicken
Speaker 2: and white rice and tortillas for my kids, with an
Speaker 2: amazing avocado and tomato salad with a cilantro dressing, and
Speaker 2: it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting because as an American, my vision of
Speaker 1: what Mexican food was it was so different from the reality.
Speaker 1: It's so refined, it's so subtle and light and about
Speaker 1: the ingredients. The markets have the markets changed in the
Speaker 1: last many years.
Speaker 2: No, there real ones. No, you know, if I go
Speaker 2: to El Mercado in Wohaka and Elmergo Central and Ohaga
Speaker 2: La Central de Bastos, Ruthie, it's the same. It's beautiful
Speaker 2: because it has we make sure we keep it the same.
Speaker 2: So if we go to the old markets and the
Speaker 2: original markets. Yes, if you go to the neighborhoods, maybe
Speaker 2: they come and they want to paint a little bit
Speaker 2: and they take the charm of it. But I was
Speaker 2: in Meridia and I went to three markets, and I
Speaker 2: went to the original market and these one market was
Speaker 2: It took me back one hundred and fifty years ago
Speaker 2: in what way, the way that people dress, the way
Speaker 2: that people talk, the ingredients they had, the way they
Speaker 2: display it, the freshness. It was the same ass one
Speaker 2: hundred years ago. So we keep them. We want to
Speaker 2: keep the tradition. We want to keep We want to
Speaker 2: keep it that way.
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: linen napkins, kitchen were toat 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. We grew up
Speaker 1: in this family that loved food, love to eat to other,
Speaker 1: loved art, loved culture, obviously loved you. What age were
Speaker 1: you when you actually left home this beautiful home.
Speaker 2: Life twenty to get married.
Speaker 1: You were married at age twenty, very.
Speaker 2: Young, super young. I was very in love with love. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I married super young and I cooked that home,
Speaker 2: but I never thought I was going to have a restaurant.
Speaker 1: And did you have children very soon?
Speaker 2: Yes, at twenty five, I had Michelle, then Carlos and
Speaker 2: then and you cooked for them every single day.
Speaker 1: Did you have help at doing that?
Speaker 2: In Mexico?
Speaker 1: It's and again you cooked Italian and Mexican, Mexican food
Speaker 1: and the food of the Jewish culture a lot lot.
Speaker 1: Did you have a job did you have as a
Speaker 1: graphic designer?
Speaker 2: I started graphic design and I always wanted to work
Speaker 2: all the time. I was like a carrier woman, a
Speaker 2: professional woman. So I said, I have three kids, going
Speaker 2: to have a restaurant. I want to be a full
Speaker 2: time mom. So I had a very big kitchen with
Speaker 2: a big range and a big oven, and I said,
Speaker 2: I can have supper clubs. So on Tuesdays I gave
Speaker 2: classes in the morning for twenty people and they were
Speaker 2: always very liked because it was about comfort food with
Speaker 2: a twist. And then at night I had supper clothes.
Speaker 2: We moved to Vancouver. I lived in Vancouver for twelve
Speaker 2: years with three children. With three children, and it was
Speaker 2: huge to work from six o'clock in the morning to
Speaker 2: three when I picked them up and then prepare for
Speaker 2: supper clubs on Thursdays.
Speaker 1: So you came back from Vancouver to Mexico yesterday.
Speaker 2: I came back with Eduardo and I started to work
Speaker 2: for a guy that had twelve restaurants and he needed
Speaker 2: somebody that he can really rely on. And then one
Speaker 2: day my kids sat with me and I said, Mom, enough,
Speaker 2: I think you need to do your restaurant. And I
Speaker 2: said what And I said, Mom, do your dream die
Speaker 2: without your dream? And I said no.
Speaker 1: So you started with did you have an investment? How
Speaker 1: did you start?
Speaker 2: I started by partnering with the door of my son,
Speaker 2: because we share the same passion in a very deep, deep,
Speaker 2: deep level. And then from day one I put my intention.
Speaker 2: I found that beautiful old building that bottom part of
Speaker 2: the street tree Line street off reforma between a lane.
Speaker 2: I was, this is precious. And then Carlos invested my son,
Speaker 2: and then we saved a lot of money. And then
Speaker 2: I started coming in at three thirty in the morning
Speaker 2: to prep because I thought it was going to be
Speaker 2: a big supper club.
Speaker 1: Rue it's a very hard business to start because when
Speaker 1: we started, you asked about the River Cafe, and when
Speaker 1: we began, we had accountants for my husband's office. We
Speaker 1: had Rosa worked in a restaurant in New York, and
Speaker 1: I had never worked in a restaurant. And you can
Speaker 1: fail so easily, you know, the dream of having a
Speaker 1: small restaurant, We've seen them, you know, come and go
Speaker 1: because you know you don't charge for that cup of coffee,
Speaker 1: You throw away a box of funnel, you forget to
Speaker 1: turn over the fridge on. There's so many ways you
Speaker 1: treat your friends to dinners, and so it takes a
Speaker 1: lot of brigger and a lot of business. And did
Speaker 1: you have doubts whether times when in the beginning you
Speaker 1: thought it might not work to do never think that was.
Speaker 2: A very interesting thing. And I knew from the start
Speaker 2: it was going to be amazing. I knew it was
Speaker 2: going to be successful, but successful because what I was
Speaker 2: offering nobody else did. In Mexico. They brought chains, only
Speaker 2: chains from the States. They never did their own thing.
Speaker 2: And I was doing my own thing with my son.
Speaker 2: And the story was beautiful. It was a mom with
Speaker 2: a son cooking. But I never thought it was going
Speaker 2: to be as hard as when the veggiets are going
Speaker 2: to arrive and they don't arrive when the gas is off,
Speaker 2: because you didn't think about it was one day going
Speaker 2: to be off. When the water doesn't come in, when
Speaker 2: the water doesn't come in, when your help gets sick,
Speaker 2: and then you you know. I remember, for the first
Speaker 2: three years I went in a for the first two years,
Speaker 2: I went in at four o'clock in the morning. But
Speaker 2: I woke up so sure that I wanted to do
Speaker 2: my dream come true. I never saw the hour or
Speaker 2: the time. I just went to bed, went to take
Speaker 2: a shower, put on my apron, and went to needles.
Speaker 2: And it was really hard, but at the same time
Speaker 2: really rewarding because I was doing what I loved in
Speaker 2: a more professional way. I really want to tell people
Speaker 2: to never ever leave their dreams on the back burner,
Speaker 2: and that sometimes it's hard, but it pays off in
Speaker 2: the in the realization of your passion and just keep
Speaker 2: on doing it.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me what it's like to be a
Speaker 1: partner with your son, Well, that's.
Speaker 2: The most interesting question. This is an amazing question me.
Speaker 1: Why don't you can come and join us if you
Speaker 1: want to, EDWARDA, Why don't you come on?
Speaker 2: Come on? Just come?
Speaker 1: I think in many in many fields of work. You
Speaker 1: hear about husbands and wives being partners of working together.
Speaker 1: You hear about brothers working together. I would love to
Speaker 1: know how is it working together as a team with
Speaker 1: mother and son.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I started front of house and I was
Speaker 3: pretty much waitering tables and seeing people and lots of
Speaker 3: different types of things.
Speaker 1: What did you do before? Was this your first restaurant
Speaker 1: you ever worked in?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: I worked with who's the chef of Maximo Bistro in
Speaker 3: Mexico City, and I think that pretty much was like
Speaker 3: my PhD in learning how our restaurant works. I had
Speaker 3: absolutely no restaurant experience elsewhere. I went to school for
Speaker 3: hospitality here in Mexico City, but I actually dropped out
Speaker 3: halfway because school was never something for me. So I
Speaker 3: decided to quit my job at Maximo, and together we
Speaker 3: opened the first restaurant, which is the original one in
Speaker 3: the corner. I mean together. We've opened all of them,
Speaker 3: but it's been that first one was really intense because
Speaker 3: we had very little restaurant experience, and so we learned
Speaker 3: day by day. We learned how to manage a team.
Speaker 3: Day by day, you learn how to create an internal culture.
Speaker 3: You learn how to make your processes more efficient. You
Speaker 3: learn how to optimize the business part to it, which
Speaker 3: is fundamental, because if you don't have a good business,
Speaker 3: then you don't have anything.
Speaker 1: You know, how many do you have now?
Speaker 3: Right now we have two cafes and two restaurants.
Speaker 1: So someone listening to this coming from New York or
Speaker 1: Paris or you know, Moscow, who knows, what would you
Speaker 1: recommend them to? How would they come to find you
Speaker 1: in Mexico City? Which one would you?
Speaker 3: Which one? It's if you feel like breakfast or lunch,
Speaker 3: I would say go to the original, which is the
Speaker 3: corner on Dres.
Speaker 1: Street where yesterday yes and I would like to describe
Speaker 1: the restaurant. And I recommend anybody who's listening to this
Speaker 1: that they must come there on their first trip to Mexico.
Speaker 1: Because if going to the market teaches you about the culture,
Speaker 1: going to Nito teaches you about culture. And these beautiful
Speaker 1: shelves with beautiful objects of Mexico on them and a
Speaker 1: mirror on the ceiling, which reflects being inside or outside.
Speaker 1: You try and think where do I want to sit
Speaker 1: outside on the street with their friends walking past, or
Speaker 1: inside where you feel cozier, but always that sense of
Speaker 1: warmth and delicious, delicious food. You can't just have warmth
Speaker 1: and haveiness, you need to have the rigor of having
Speaker 1: delicious food.
Speaker 2: If you like.
Speaker 1: Listening to Ruthie's Table four, would you please make sure
Speaker 1: to rate and review the podcast on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm very impressed with the younger generation of people here
Speaker 1: in your city. When I was here four years ago,
Speaker 1: there were young people really exploring how to make tequila again,
Speaker 1: how to make mescal again, how to make tamali's again.
Speaker 1: You know, going back with from the the parents maybe
Speaker 1: had the farms, the parents maybe had the alcohol. But
Speaker 1: the younger generation were interested in organic They were interested
Speaker 1: in means of production, they were interested in the ethics
Speaker 1: of the workers. And I thought there was very definitely
Speaker 1: a younger generation who are challenging and excited about what
Speaker 1: incredible ingredients you have and land you have in this
Speaker 1: country to produce great food.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Mexico has everything. We have everything, and people here
Speaker 3: are very creative and very driven. I think, so, yeah,
Speaker 3: there's opportunity. I always I have a lot of friends
Speaker 3: that live outside of Mexico. And I always say that
Speaker 3: Mexico is the perfect place to be an entrepreneur and
Speaker 3: to start a business and to create, which is what
Speaker 3: you're saying, because it's a lot easier. People are very nice,
Speaker 3: people help you a lot. You're just like in an
Speaker 3: environment where it's easy to flourish, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And did you find any difficulty in terms of
Speaker 1: the male dominated yes, profession and.
Speaker 2: Especially I have to say Mexico it's a very much
Speaker 2: a driven country. That it's a male driven places where
Speaker 2: where women are your wishes are second or not a priority,
Speaker 2: or your passion or your work is not a priority.
Speaker 2: In fact, it's a very alpha, male dominated world and
Speaker 2: you find it everywhere. So I learned that Mexico sometimes
Speaker 2: is stuff that way. In business. I have to say
Speaker 2: the comfort food that we offer because the other night
Speaker 2: we created the concept, we created the family meals that
Speaker 2: we had since my kids were born is the menu.
Speaker 2: So I was competing with no one really, but it
Speaker 2: is an alpha dominated country.
Speaker 1: Yes, And how did you expand? So you have one?
Speaker 1: You had one needle and twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: And then we opened another one and then the Pandemica
Speaker 2: came and I couldn't stop cooking because number one, I
Speaker 2: need to be creating and creative all the time. And
Speaker 2: I knew that people would need to go out at
Speaker 2: least two breathe and get a little, a little treat.
Speaker 2: And do you know our famous butter milk pancakes. They
Speaker 2: saved us. And that not only saved us, but it
Speaker 2: helped us expand. So we expanded into desserts because baking,
Speaker 2: it's my cooking, it's for sure my passion. But ending
Speaker 2: with a nice dessert routine for me, you cannot have
Speaker 2: a meal without good bread, good butter, good olive bail,
Speaker 2: and good dessert. You agree like it is a tip,
Speaker 2: like it's a cherry on top. So we opened the
Speaker 2: first needle. Then we opened a needle cafe, which is
Speaker 2: all my recipes, my heritage from my tribe, my grandma's,
Speaker 2: my aunts and my sisters, my kids, my loves. And
Speaker 2: then we open another middle because we started to have
Speaker 2: our wedding list, and the wedding list wasn't an hour,
Speaker 2: it was two and there was three hours wait, and
Speaker 2: then we had an opportunity to go around the block.
Speaker 2: And I went to a retreat because I love meditation
Speaker 2: and said mom, this place opened up, shall we take it?
Speaker 2: I said, okay, let's go for it. And now we
Speaker 2: open in Polanco. The fourth one, how do you keep
Speaker 2: the control of holiday? Like? They all are very, very
Speaker 2: good like you. I'm there every day. What did it
Speaker 2: Dodo tell you when we pick you up? Tell my
Speaker 2: mom to rest a little bit?
Speaker 1: And I can't.
Speaker 2: I just I mean, she said that you're my mentors.
Speaker 2: So what do you have to say about it? Because
Speaker 2: my passion is to go there, so I try.
Speaker 1: I think we have the best job in the world.
Speaker 1: I always say that, you know, and I say that
Speaker 1: if you you know. Steve Job said, if you, if you,
Speaker 1: if you love your job, you'll never have to work again.
Speaker 1: I don't worry. So it don't work, you know, we don't.
Speaker 1: And do you talk and meet with other chefs, other
Speaker 1: people who are doing what you're doing or is it quite?
Speaker 2: It is interesting that question. I'm not a celebrity chef,
Speaker 2: the you know, I'm just a cook. I'm not a celebrity.
Speaker 2: I never wanted to be a celebrity chef. I'm just
Speaker 2: a simple cook that there to do my dream and
Speaker 2: open up a restaurant and became very successful because of
Speaker 2: the comfort of the food and also the price of
Speaker 2: the food. You know it has to do also, you
Speaker 2: know you can go to Mido many times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you talk about your restaurant or other people's restaurant,
Speaker 1: or your grandmother or your you know, your parents, or
Speaker 1: sitting down meals or the people that you've learned from,
Speaker 1: the word comfort comes up a lot. And I always
Speaker 1: end the podcast by asking people because it's important to me. No,
Speaker 1: And I think it's quite revealing that if we eat
Speaker 1: for hunger, we eat because we're hungry, don't we We
Speaker 1: eat because we want to share with other people. We
Speaker 1: eat because we want to sit down at a table
Speaker 1: with our children, we eat because we want to cook,
Speaker 1: but very often we eat because we need comfort. And
Speaker 1: so if I were to ask you in terms of comfort,
Speaker 1: is there a food that you would turn to?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: And what with that?
Speaker 2: A good mutsiple soup, good maths a good And what
Speaker 2: is this pasola? Borsola? I love? I do it with
Speaker 2: chicken and very big corn that I forget in English
Speaker 2: how it's called. But it's a soup with my kids
Speaker 2: love it and it's a lot of chicken and this
Speaker 2: big corn. Then I put radish and cilantro and lemon
Speaker 2: chillis and they prepare it and it's comforting.
Speaker 1: There's so many chilis and Mexican food. Tell me about chilis.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love passia. What is that? The chili passia.
Speaker 2: It's a dried chile that is very sweet. The chipotlet
Speaker 2: that is very smoky. My favorite is the morita, and
Speaker 2: the morita is very small. It's very tasty, but it
Speaker 2: doesn't burn your tongue, so it makes you just enjoy
Speaker 2: the meal and you eat that fresh or dry dry fresh,
Speaker 2: calapagno and serrano and the rest, which are so many.
Speaker 2: Ruthie Dry.
Speaker 1: I think there's incredible culture to Mexico. I I when
Speaker 1: I was here in twenty eighteen for those four months.
Speaker 1: You know, culture can be you know, going to the
Speaker 1: Anthropological Museum or going to Tomao to the folk museum.
Speaker 1: But it also can be the way you make a bed.
Speaker 1: It can be the way you drive a taxi and
Speaker 1: the cleanliness of your car. It can be the kindness
Speaker 1: to a stranger. It can be showing somebody if they're lost,
Speaker 1: how to walk down the street. I think it's an
Speaker 1: incredibly beautiful culture and the other day when I was
Speaker 1: with some friends and they said I'm going I said,
Speaker 1: I'm going to Mexico for my Christmas holiday. And one
Speaker 1: of them said, well when are you coming back? And
Speaker 1: one of my children said, maybe never.
Speaker 3: I'm surprised. I'm surprised you're not living here. All right.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to Ruthie's Table for in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 3: Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atamei Studios for iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3: It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers, and it's produced by William Lensky.
Speaker 3: This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Speaker 3: Nigel Appleton. Our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Speaker 3: Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore and our production coordinator
Speaker 3: is Bella Cellini. Thank you to everyone at The River
Speaker 3: Cafe for your help in making this episode.