Speaker 1: Welcome to River Cafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Adami Studios.
Speaker 2: Sitting here in the River Cafe on a Sunday Monday morning,
Speaker 2: with chefs in the kitchen making ravioli, with hiroles and
Speaker 2: waiters laying tables in the garden, the uncertain world we
Speaker 2: live in feels miles away. The artist and filmmaker Steve
Speaker 2: McQueen does not separate the world of beauty and the
Speaker 2: world of suffering in any of his work political oppression, slavery,
Speaker 2: sexual inequality. Step and I met in nineteen ninety nine
Speaker 2: when he won the Turner Prize for his radical video art,
Speaker 2: and we once had dinner together with President Obama. It
Speaker 2: was clear that the only person President Obama was interested
Speaker 2: in talking to with Steve McQueen, and he didn't want
Speaker 2: to share him with anyone else else. Now, a few
Speaker 2: years later, I finally have Steve McQueen all to myself,
Speaker 2: and being a generous person, we'll share him with you.
Speaker 2: Steve and I share a hero in Paul Robeson. We
Speaker 2: share the same concerns for equality and justice and food,
Speaker 2: and today we're going to talk all about that and more.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Steve, Thank you for inviting me. Tell me
Speaker 2: about growing up in London. You lived with your parents
Speaker 2: in West London and what did you eat?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we grew up. I grew up in the first
Speaker 3: leship of Bush, West London. My relationship with food really
Speaker 3: starts with the market. I was the kid who was
Speaker 3: carrying the bags behind their mother, you know, because basically
Speaker 3: I would have to go with her, because you know,
Speaker 3: I was the sort of vext to bad hands.
Speaker 4: A shopping back home.
Speaker 3: Food was a way of actually getting to know London
Speaker 3: because if someone in I said to my mother this,
Speaker 3: you know, you could get so and so sea based
Speaker 3: in this market for this amount of money, she will
Speaker 3: be there. So people used to talk about where can
Speaker 3: they get particular kind of food and fresh produce yew.
Speaker 2: Where was your mother born?
Speaker 4: My mother was.
Speaker 3: Born in Trinidad, but she grew up in in Grenada,
Speaker 3: and my father was born in Grenada.
Speaker 2: How old were they when they came to London.
Speaker 3: My mother was about fourteen fifteen, I think you're about
Speaker 3: fifteen when she came to London. I think in the
Speaker 3: early sixties, and my father was a little bit older.
Speaker 3: I think maybe it was about twenty one.
Speaker 4: I don't know. When I think he came early sixties too,
Speaker 4: but not not at the same time.
Speaker 2: And so do you think her mother had taken her
Speaker 2: to the market. As you say, the market does introduce
Speaker 2: us to a culture, that introduces us to a city.
Speaker 2: It's the first place I always go when I go
Speaker 2: to any town in any city in any country. But
Speaker 2: tell me more about the smells of the market and
Speaker 2: what it looked like for you and your mother's experience
Speaker 2: of the market.
Speaker 3: Well, in fact, what happened was that a lot of
Speaker 3: joity of people for coming from west in this headline,
Speaker 3: and they grew their own food, you know, and look
Speaker 3: after you know, the animals and so forth and whatnot.
Speaker 3: And fishing was a big part of the culture too,
Speaker 3: because obviously my mother lived on on the coast in
Speaker 3: a place called Stears and was a very big fishing
Speaker 3: spot there, you know, it's called a fishing village. Food
Speaker 3: was very much directly sort of to do with who
Speaker 3: they were. So when they came to London, of course
Speaker 3: looking for good food was very important. And you know,
Speaker 3: we used to go to all kinds of bloody markets
Speaker 3: all over London.
Speaker 4: I so, I said, I met up with it.
Speaker 3: I said, missed my football focus on a sacle because
Speaker 3: I had to go to the market with my mum.
Speaker 4: It was something which I remember.
Speaker 3: There was all different cultures, you know it was didn't
Speaker 3: You had the sort of you know, the Londoners and
Speaker 3: the white Londoners and the Indian, you're the Jewish. You
Speaker 3: had all kinds of people. It was fabulous. It was
Speaker 3: really kind of cool tone.
Speaker 2: When you would come home from the market. What would
Speaker 2: you eat? What would they cook from the market?
Speaker 3: Oh, if you get dashing, you know, spinage? You know again,
Speaker 3: you know you cook? I mean my my my favorite
Speaker 3: was like a nice stewed chicken. I'm not a special thing,
Speaker 3: I'm roty, just you know, Oh my god, what was it?
Speaker 3: A beautiful It's like a nice stew fish. And I
Speaker 3: just to love.
Speaker 4: What was this? This one thing I used to not
Speaker 4: very much was a vegetable? What was it? It was?
Speaker 4: I love? I love?
Speaker 3: It was all kinds of exotic stuff. I mean I
Speaker 3: say exotic because it was familiar to me. But my friends,
Speaker 3: my white first and what was that was this?
Speaker 4: Was this? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Who cooked in the house.
Speaker 4: My mother cooked, my father cooked. My father was a
Speaker 4: good cook too.
Speaker 3: He took pride in the Christmas ham.
Speaker 4: That was his job.
Speaker 3: There was a particular way of cooking that came from
Speaker 3: because his uncle was a butcher in the West Indies,
Speaker 3: So there was a particular way of cooking the ham.
Speaker 3: I can't even prescribe it now, but it's close, all
Speaker 3: into indented in all everywhere.
Speaker 4: It was almost like sort of a ror movie marblous. Yeah,
Speaker 4: great cooks, great cooks.
Speaker 2: Did you cook with them? Was it a family affair?
Speaker 2: Would you all cook together?
Speaker 3: I mean I loved being with my mother in the
Speaker 3: kitchen because somehow I love to help out. I love
Speaker 3: to sort of be I don't know, I love to
Speaker 3: love that. So I can't say that I'm a great cook,
Speaker 3: but I was a very good shoe chef, a bit
Speaker 3: of a neat and tidy person.
Speaker 2: Would they entertain? Would friends come over? Did was there
Speaker 2: that feeling.
Speaker 4: When people did come over? It was?
Speaker 3: It was a lot of family and and what I
Speaker 3: think most of the things I used to do when
Speaker 3: the people's come up with them would just listen because
Speaker 3: there was always boys that would come out that my
Speaker 3: parents will never talk to us about, of course, but
Speaker 3: always because adults will talk to adults, So therefore and
Speaker 3: find out about sort of how what was going on
Speaker 3: or when.
Speaker 2: You left this very comforting family meals where you were
Speaker 2: cooked for and you ate together. What was that like
Speaker 2: when you left home? Where did you live?
Speaker 3: I was actually nearing you, guys. Actually I was in Fulham.
Speaker 3: I was just around the corner from me. I was
Speaker 3: with his girlfriend and she was great. She was a
Speaker 3: very important girlfriend of mine.
Speaker 4: Your name was a Nuke.
Speaker 3: She was a Swiss. And then she had discovered this restaurant,
Speaker 3: this place called Malati, the Indonesian place and so, which
Speaker 3: was delicious. It was gorgeous. And that was my first
Speaker 3: restaurant and.
Speaker 2: She that was your first restaurant.
Speaker 4: I think that was one of my first restaurants. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I was. I think I was about nineteen years old.
Speaker 2: And after that the restaurants become part of your social life.
Speaker 2: Did you love restaurants?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: I mean, what's great about I mean now, I suppose
Speaker 3: in London it wasn't so when when I was growing up,
Speaker 3: we didn't have that was the world, I think. And
Speaker 3: to be introduced to the world through food and of
Speaker 3: course good company, that's always the main ingredient for going
Speaker 3: to a restaurant. So that was wonderful and then we
Speaker 3: got to know. So we've got a lot of restaurants
Speaker 3: and so we got to know I remember during that time,
Speaker 3: miss early nineties, early early nineties.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and also in the East then too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what about an arts school? Was that revelation?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I mean, you know, Canon Bitter Cheese, Ladiel and Baget.
Speaker 3: I mean that was that was kind of like interesting
Speaker 3: because again there was an addition to waste in this cheese.
Speaker 4: I mean no cheese. I was crappy cheese.
Speaker 3: You know, can imagine a sort of a big block
Speaker 3: of something which they called cheese. But getting to them
Speaker 3: cheese was interesting during my time at Foundation at Chelsea.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a kind of interesting life change, isn't
Speaker 2: it between this going to the market with your mother
Speaker 2: and carrying the bag and coming home and cooking and
Speaker 2: then sitting and down and eating and then having independence
Speaker 2: and having to fend for yourself and discover life out there.
Speaker 2: Did you go home? Would you return home for the
Speaker 2: home cooked meal?
Speaker 4: Yes? I used to love going home for food.
Speaker 3: My goodness, I said, oh, oh, my goodness, I used
Speaker 3: to love it. It's just it's just a sort of yeah,
Speaker 3: it was difficult because at first it was how do
Speaker 3: I cook?
Speaker 4: What do I cook? I was on the phone to
Speaker 4: my mom, Mom, how do I do this? Mom? I
Speaker 4: do this? My Mom, I do that.
Speaker 3: So a lot of calls about me and sort of
Speaker 3: soups and things like that, and how do I season
Speaker 3: them because I can't. For granted, I said to be
Speaker 3: the shoe chep, but I wasn't really looking. It wasn't
Speaker 3: really studying. Yeah, so a lot of phone calls.
Speaker 5: Basically back round, Welcome back to River Cafe, Table four.
Speaker 2: In each episode, my guest reads a recipe they have
Speaker 2: chosen from one of our cookbooks. We chose spinach and peas,
Speaker 2: So would you like to go for it and tell
Speaker 2: the world how to make it?
Speaker 3: One kilogram fresh peas in their pods, extra virgin olive oil,
Speaker 3: one garlic cloth peel and diced, one dried red chili crumbled,
Speaker 3: one canogram of spinach, washed tough stalks, Removed.
Speaker 2: The piece and blanche them in plenty of boiling water.
Speaker 2: In Italy, no one ever cooks vegetables.
Speaker 4: Absolutely only past it.
Speaker 3: So rather than blanching these peas, boil them so that
Speaker 3: they almost melt together with spinach and the olive oil.
Speaker 2: Gorgeous. So now Steve, here we are and we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about the series that has just been on
Speaker 2: television that we've all watched and been so moved by.
Speaker 2: Small acts. You tell the story of a local restaurant
Speaker 2: constantly harassed by the police. Is that a memory or
Speaker 2: is that? Can you tell me about the restaurant, the
Speaker 2: politics and the series.
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 3: Well, the Mangrove Restaurant was a restaurant run by Frank
Speaker 3: Krischlow in Lambergrove on All Saints Road, and he opened
Speaker 3: a restaurant in nineteen sixty eight and it was a
Speaker 3: sort of home away from home restaurant. You can imagine,
Speaker 3: as I said before, other people on the sort of
Speaker 3: the taste of home and had a vibrancy of having
Speaker 3: sort of like many people wanted to sort of come
Speaker 3: to a place to eat and to sort of commune
Speaker 3: with each other. So it was a place of refuge
Speaker 3: in it in a way. You know, the vibe, the
Speaker 3: vibes that came out of there, and it was just
Speaker 3: one of those places which became very infectious if people
Speaker 3: wanted to go. It was it was it was something
Speaker 3: which was which was which was on the scene and
Speaker 3: unfortunately the police and the authorities that be obviously didn't
Speaker 3: like what was happening at this place because again it
Speaker 3: was you know, it was people from the Western Ears,
Speaker 3: it was working class people, it was the thinkers, it
Speaker 3: was sort of activists were coming there and also the
Speaker 3: whole eploy.
Speaker 4: So all these people.
Speaker 3: Coming to this spot and talking over food, having ideas,
Speaker 3: and obviously that was something which the authorities didn't like,
Speaker 3: and therefore they tried to disrupt disrupted as much as
Speaker 3: they could. You know, it was a case of the
Speaker 3: people not wanting certain ideas having a foothold in UK,
Speaker 3: and they thought that the Mangrove was a place where
Speaker 3: those ideas could sort of take root.
Speaker 2: There's something about doing that kind of discussion as well
Speaker 2: over food. And one of the things that I see
Speaker 2: in the restaurant is that somehow being out of your house,
Speaker 2: being away from your domestic life, being looked after, gives
Speaker 2: you the chance to really focus on a conversation. Do
Speaker 2: you find that in a restaurant.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, And there's a sense of, I don't know
Speaker 3: what is it purpose, you're there, you're present, there's another
Speaker 3: person there and present, but also actually just a listen.
Speaker 4: It's just a case.
Speaker 3: Of being in an environment where you are you know,
Speaker 3: you feel comfortable in order to say things and listen.
Speaker 2: And also I've talked to various people in business and
Speaker 2: in film and creating movies or making deals. I mean
Speaker 2: when I always quote is Michael Caine who said that
Speaker 2: he never did a deal for a movie in America
Speaker 2: that didn't take place in a restaurant. And he said
Speaker 2: that was very Hollywood. Do you work in restaurants? Do
Speaker 2: you'd like to meet people that you're going to work
Speaker 2: with in a restaurant?
Speaker 4: First, I love it. That doesn't happen often.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's sort of it's a classy
Speaker 3: way to do anything, isn't it. And also I love
Speaker 3: it because growing up in the art world. What was
Speaker 3: wonderful about growing up in the art world is that
Speaker 3: artists never paid for dinners, never because.
Speaker 4: You're the artist. And it was amazing.
Speaker 3: In fact, I think that's how I grew up in
Speaker 3: food in an interesting way. It was through the art world.
Speaker 3: It's completely different to the film world. I mean, you
Speaker 3: know the fact that you you know, you might get
Speaker 3: crappy sang which you're you're you're lucky.
Speaker 4: But in the art world, it was always the best wines.
Speaker 4: It was always the best.
Speaker 3: Food, you know, if it was an opening or even
Speaker 3: a meeting, it was always the best restaurant.
Speaker 4: And that was a huge education. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about making movies and the movies you've made,
Speaker 2: and of course here we are talking about food and
Speaker 2: eat and the joy of being taken care of through food.
Speaker 2: And then I think of the movie that you know,
Speaker 2: was so earth shattering, which was Hunger, And so we're
Speaker 2: talking about a movie called Hunger and the state of
Speaker 2: hunger and somebody put their principles and politics above comfort
Speaker 2: and as a political act actually starved themselves. So what
Speaker 2: was it like making a movie that was the absence
Speaker 2: of food as a political statement?
Speaker 4: He I mean, for me, it was again its food
Speaker 4: is interesting thing.
Speaker 3: I related to that in a way, that of being
Speaker 3: a child in the way that you know, the often
Speaker 3: don'tly power a child has is frailing to eat his
Speaker 3: or her mother saying you're not leaving the table until
Speaker 3: you finish that plate, and the child sort of you know,
Speaker 3: refusing to eat, and then you're sent off the bed,
Speaker 3: you know. And it's interesting because you know what the
Speaker 3: clothes you wear that as a as a child of
Speaker 3: a certain age, what time you go to bed, what
Speaker 3: food you eat is chosen by your parents, and the
Speaker 3: whole idea that this child, the power this child has
Speaker 3: is to refrain to eat. That was my relationship in
Speaker 3: some ways to Bobby Sands and hunger strike, that the
Speaker 3: power that person had was to refrain to eat.
Speaker 4: Ever since it was a child.
Speaker 3: I remembered asking my mom when I saw this image
Speaker 3: of Bobby's Sands on on television with a number benderneath
Speaker 3: his image, and asking my mother, what's what's what is that?
Speaker 3: How old this person is? Because no, that how many
Speaker 3: days this person has been a hunger strike. So there
Speaker 3: was an immediate relationship with the story and it was yeah,
Speaker 3: it was It was difficult, but I think Michael Fans
Speaker 3: been there, you know why cass as Bobby Sands was
Speaker 3: tremendous and that was a bond up you know we
Speaker 3: have to this day. It was a real kind of
Speaker 3: a labor of love and not what.
Speaker 2: Other food scenes in your movies In twelve Years a Slave,
Speaker 2: there's a scene, isn't there at the dinner table.
Speaker 4: I seem to remember, Yeah, there's lots of I think
Speaker 4: there's lots of food in my films.
Speaker 3: I mean you can see after that is shame the
Speaker 3: two characters Brandon any sort of a possible girlfriend or
Speaker 3: at this dinner table, and this waiter annoying way to
Speaker 3: comes in every five seconds to interrupt them. I remember
Speaker 3: that from having lots of dinners in New York and
Speaker 3: every five seconds and what becomes in the middle of
Speaker 3: something was getting bigger.
Speaker 4: You know how conversations are. They had to get to
Speaker 4: that point.
Speaker 3: You know, it's always it was commercial buddy breaks every
Speaker 3: five seconds. You have to start from scratch every five minutes.
Speaker 3: So it didn't make for a good eating experience. So
Speaker 3: I put that in the movie.
Speaker 2: What do you eat on a film?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: Do you hate stopping for lunch when you're filming?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: I think it's fantastic. I mean, what was so wonderful
Speaker 3: when I started filmmaking and Hunger and Sharing twelve is
Speaker 3: it's like all the actors and all the crew will
Speaker 3: eat together. We the people in their body trailers in
Speaker 3: that crap, everyone lead together. There's something about communal eating
Speaker 3: and it's about weed. It's such a unifying thing to see,
Speaker 3: you know, the hear and makeup and the camera department,
Speaker 3: and tubing up for food and sitting at the table
Speaker 3: together and talking about the film or talking about things.
Speaker 4: There's a camaraderie.
Speaker 3: It's only time often when you're sort of on set
Speaker 3: together that you had that sort of times, you know,
Speaker 3: when you're sitting together eating and it's fun.
Speaker 4: It's fun. I love it.
Speaker 2: Year three is an exhibition that was at the Tate
Speaker 2: and I went to see it three times because every
Speaker 2: time I went back, I saw something, something different in
Speaker 2: the expression of a child of a teacher. It really
Speaker 2: told the story of the world we live in through
Speaker 2: these photographs. And one of the issues that I think
Speaker 2: is very important is that when we had the lockdown
Speaker 2: a year ago, one of the things we learned that
Speaker 2: when children were denied school, they were also denied food,
Speaker 2: and they were denied food at lunchtime, which might have
Speaker 2: been their only of the day. And the idea that
Speaker 2: we have a society that children depend on having their
Speaker 2: food away from the home because of the poverty in
Speaker 2: the home is appalling and shocking and distressing everything else.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, I mean I had school, did this, which
Speaker 3: I paid for by my mother. That's why even today.
Speaker 3: I like hot meals, love hot lunches, I mean, and
Speaker 3: they were vital.
Speaker 4: They were vital there were children.
Speaker 3: I know for a fact that that was the main
Speaker 3: meal of the day, if not the only meal of
Speaker 3: the day. And this is with our bottle of milk
Speaker 3: in the morning before missus snatcher took it away from us.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, I love school meals in that way. Also,
Speaker 4: just because we are such a good laugh in the canteen,
Speaker 4: you know, I associate food in school with good times
Speaker 4: and I can even remember the smell of it, the
Speaker 4: canteen and the noise and the cutlery banging together, and
Speaker 4: it's so important. You know. Also people have to sort
Speaker 4: of really tip.
Speaker 3: They had to Marcus Rashford and what he did in
Speaker 3: the sense of, you know, getting the government to sort
Speaker 3: of stand down twice about the school mill because you
Speaker 3: know it can This is, you know, if we can't
Speaker 3: look after people we can't afford to eat, then I
Speaker 3: don't know who we are as human beings. That it
Speaker 3: took a footballer to do that is kind of a bit,
Speaker 3: you know. There you go, Everyone has got to step
Speaker 3: up in your own way. I suppose if people aren't
Speaker 3: doing their job properly, that meaning the government. And also
Speaker 3: don't forget this again. It's just one of those things
Speaker 3: I feel that you know, everyone is unfortunately not brought
Speaker 3: into this world equally. But if you just give someone
Speaker 3: the possibility a little bit of a shaft of life,
Speaker 3: one doesn't know where that might lead them to. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: the fact that people actually have a meal in the stomach,
Speaker 3: you know in Britain, Yeah, it's more than important. One
Speaker 3: thing I was very shocked by when I was shooting
Speaker 3: in Chicago, shooting widows was how I didn't see a
Speaker 3: grocery store in a black neighborhood. I didn't see any
Speaker 3: greens in a black neighbor you know, there wasn't a
Speaker 3: green grocer's, but there was always some sort of fast
Speaker 3: food place where people eat.
Speaker 4: So people are losing this sort of heritage of food.
Speaker 3: People are not aware of food and nourishment and possibilities
Speaker 3: within food.
Speaker 4: And food is politics in a way.
Speaker 3: It reverts back to what we were talking about right
Speaker 3: at the beginning of our conversation. It starts with like
Speaker 3: in a way markets because markets, a lot of markets
Speaker 3: are on the threat, a lot of markets have closed.
Speaker 3: So this sense of community, sense of promarderate, a sense
Speaker 3: of sort of love of food and love of each
Speaker 3: other is being sort of erased in the sort of
Speaker 3: you know, working class areas. I mean, you get these markets,
Speaker 3: but they're so they're kind of like posh markets, aren't they.
Speaker 4: They're sort of farmers' markets, they call them.
Speaker 3: And you know, the food is so expensive, so and
Speaker 3: I can I feel that they're becoming kind of food
Speaker 3: deserts in a way where kids are growing up on
Speaker 3: fast food and not being introduced to sort of love
Speaker 3: food in a way. So that's the which I'm a
Speaker 3: bit sort of concerned about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, food is a connection, and food is a memory,
Speaker 2: and food is giving and sharing, and food is political
Speaker 2: and social, and it's also comfort. It's something that we
Speaker 2: go to and we need comfort. And so I suppose
Speaker 2: Steve McQueen, what would you say is the food you
Speaker 2: would go to if you needed comfort?
Speaker 3: For me, the comfort food that I very much love
Speaker 3: and I appreciate is often the cold day, you know,
Speaker 3: and you come in and it's my mum's chicken soups
Speaker 3: West Indian chicken soup, which has the bones in it
Speaker 3: and stuff, you know, you suck on the bones and
Speaker 3: it's the sort of you know, it's the time, it's
Speaker 3: the garlic. It's all kinds of stuff, you know, the
Speaker 3: sugaret ingredient which you want, you still want, a toom,
Speaker 3: the dumplings, a bit of potatoes, a bit of peas.
Speaker 4: It's wonderful.
Speaker 3: So those are the kind of things I really love. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And I could hear my dad sucking the bones right now. Wonderful,
Speaker 3: you know, having those dinners together on those cold days.
Speaker 3: I remember it was. It was beautiful. It was beautiful,
Speaker 3: and lots of great memories. My dad's not anymore. So
Speaker 3: when I often do think about him, I do think
Speaker 3: about him, and that soup. I do think about him.
Speaker 3: Christmas and the ham, of course, and Christmas. Christmas breakfast
Speaker 3: was a big thing. Hot cocoa.
Speaker 4: My dad would make a bake. A bake is a.
Speaker 3: Kind of a flat bread West Indian flat bread in
Speaker 3: the morning, and oh.
Speaker 4: My god, how can I how can I not say this?
Speaker 4: Fish cakes, my mother's fish cakes.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, my mother's fish cakes on the Christmas morning,
Speaker 3: and she's waiting these little bakes.
Speaker 4: Which was sort of like a like a bread you'll
Speaker 4: fry in oil. Oh my god.
Speaker 3: And even my daughterly when my mom comes up as yours,
Speaker 3: ask Granny please make fish cakes for me because it's
Speaker 3: a West Indian fishcakes such as it's gorgeous and of
Speaker 3: course you know that there's never anything left for me
Speaker 3: when I get home. But you know it's just a
Speaker 3: I think, really, what you've done actually is actually given me.
Speaker 3: I mean facts, what love is rock, not even love
Speaker 3: is rock. That's what the whole of Small Acts was
Speaker 3: based on. The foundation of all of that was based
Speaker 3: on food and memory. Because it's what's so fascinating. I'm
Speaker 3: rambling on it again myself. But the smell is the
Speaker 3: most antaste is the most potent sources of memory, not
Speaker 3: the photographs. Photographs is only tell you so much because
Speaker 3: you know it cuts out what's beyond. The frame is
Speaker 3: not present, it's not visible. When going on wrapping, I'll
Speaker 3: stop myself.
Speaker 2: No doubt it's beautiful, but it is what it does.
Speaker 2: There are people who say I never remembered that until
Speaker 2: we started talking about the food, and that brought back
Speaker 2: the memory. I had somebody whose father had left home
Speaker 2: and he would when he saw his children on the weekends,
Speaker 2: he would suddenly start cooking for them. And he said, oh,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't think I've ever told anybody
Speaker 2: that story. But now I remember my father actually is
Speaker 2: a way of his guilt or his love just started cooking,
Speaker 2: you know. And I think what you just when you
Speaker 2: choose your comfort food, you start thinking about your father
Speaker 2: and your mother, and you think about the memories and
Speaker 2: that it's so potent, isn't it. I thought it would
Speaker 2: be interesting, but what it really brings home over and
Speaker 2: over again is the connection that food has for us
Speaker 2: for memories.
Speaker 4: Yeah, forget about this. I'm telling you, Doug, you've done it, mate,
Speaker 4: smell until you've done it.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, you've done it. It's all to do
Speaker 2: with you. To visit the online shop of The River Cafe,
Speaker 2: go to shop the Rivercafe dot co dot uk.
Speaker 1: River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and
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