WEBVTT - Ruthie's Table 4: Stella McCartney 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.320 Welcome to River Cafe Table for a production of I 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.840 Heart Radio and Adami's Studios. I will tell you something 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:12.240 about Stella McCartney. She's been coming to eat for twenty 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.640 years in the River Cafe, and ninety nine percent of 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:20.079 the time it has been with Alistair and her children. 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.800 When not them, then with her sister Mary, or brother James, 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.400 or her father, and the best times when they are 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:34.120 all here together. Stella's mother, Linda, was like her daughter, 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:40.479 a woman with conviction, imagination and passion, A pioneering chef. 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.880 I wish I had known her. Stella is a fashion 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:50.080 designer with ethics, a spokesperson for sustainability, a supporter of 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.680 young designers, an entrepreneur who takes on risks for a cause. 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:59.320 Will talk about food and memories of childhood, ethical eating, 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.920 cooking and more, and then we'll go into the restaurant 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.800 and have a late dinner with her four children, her husband, 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.959 and her sister ah Ruthie. Thank you for having me. 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.280 So you're going to read the recipe for I'm going 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.440 to read the recipe for chickpea and fennel fara, and 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.760 I'm going to do it in my sexiest accent. Okay. 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:29.000 So this recipe serves six to eight people, and for 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:31.160 it you will need okay, if you got your notepad 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.440 and your pencils or your devices, depending on how young 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.240 and relevant you are. Okay. First of all, you need 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:43.120 three hundred grams of Italian chicklee flower, one liter of 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:47.080 warm water, a hundred million liters of extra virgin olive 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:51.400 oil plus extra for the pan, one teaspoon of sea salt, 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.840 and two tablespoons of fennel seats or chopped fresh sage 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.720 or rosemary leaves, depending on the season. I would say 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.040 you put the water in a large bowl and sift 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.720 over the flour whisk to combine, and then add the 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.360 extra virgin olive oil and salt. Cover and leave in 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.640 a warm place for at least two hours. This is 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.840 the time that you can preheat your oven two fifty 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:21.800 degrees celsius. Then you skim the foam from the top 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.920 of the batter. You pour enough olive oil into a 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.760 faranata pan to generously coat the bottom, and add in 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.720 the batter. It should be about one to two centimeters deep. 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.320 Top with fennel seeds or herbs and black pepper. You 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.640 bake it for twenty to thirty minutes, or until the 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:45.120 surface has bubbled and has become crisp, and you serve warm, 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:50.400 just like your heart, Like your heart. Fat is a 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:56.040 street food of Liguria. It's a pancake. It's thin, it's vegan, 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.920 it's delicious, debu headed and if I've had it, I'm 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.760 know I've had it here, and I love it because 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.600 it's always it's really simple but really has amazing flavor. 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.560 I think I always remember the rosemary. That's kind of 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:11.960 how I've had it here, and I love that it's 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:14.720 you know, it's finger food, and everyone can just get 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:16.960 stuck in, so everyone just kind of goes for it 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.079 and grabs it as soon as it's available. And then 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:23.200 if you're too slow, you're too late, and you don't 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:25.560 get any it's gone, and then we make you another one, 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:27.480 and then we order another one, and then we're full 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.600 by the time the main course comes. You know, we 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:34.400 have a special stellar menu. When we have a menu 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.040 for you, you do I remember that. Actually, I really 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.800 felt like I had finally arrived when I turned up 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.280 and you had your little vegetarian vegan menu for me. 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.000 And I think it goes to show how long I've 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:48.480 been coming here because I don't think it was in 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.400 the days where you didn't have separate menus for vegetarians 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.320 or plant based and I remember feeling so special that 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.800 you've printed out one for me, and I would always 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:58.360 take them home because I was like, oh, these are 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.280 really good menu ideas and as menu for Stella. And 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.720 you have a farm where you grow vegetables and herbs, 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.680 and tell me, since we were on rosemary in sage 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.040 and fennel seats, tell me about your farm. Well, I 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.320 just came it's Monday, and I just came back from 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.120 the farm last night. And it's funny. I grew up 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:17.719 on an organic farm and now I have one of 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.159 my own, and it was always the vegetable patch that 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.359 was just kind of the most exciting place to be. 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.320 And I think it's such an incredible blessing and gift 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.240 to actually grow up seeing the kind of the seasons 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.239 in that way and understanding when a lettist is coming 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:36.440 into season, or when you know when the cabbages and 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.640 the beet roots and just kind of knowing when those 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.120 things are coming into season is kind of I find 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.080 it to be a great gift of knowledge. Actually tell 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.719 me about growing up. Then tell me about the farm 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:52.599 that you exposure to rosemary and fennel and sage and 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.200 your mother taking you through that. Was it your mom 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.239 or was it both of them? Or it was both 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:59.240 of them? I think probably a bit more mom. But 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.680 it's because the very early years were actually in Scotland, 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:05.760 and so we had a tiny little vegetable patch there 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:08.440 and I remember we'd always get into trouble because me 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.080 and Mary would go down and pick There were always 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.400 like sugar snaps and carrots and we would always kind 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.520 of nick them and eat them before you could yield 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.120 any kind of crop off it um. And then when 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.039 we got a bit older, we got the farm in 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.760 East Sussex and then we had like a proper vegetable patch. Well, 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:25.960 it's very touching that you say that you and your 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.679 sister would go and get a sugar snappy and a 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.600 carrot as rather the way somebody might take sweets from 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:33.880 the sweet club, and you know that you actually went 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.320 to the and also we had horses, so we had 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.279 you know, were always with horses, so it would always 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.000 be right Willie the carrot and the carrot heads for 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.960 the for the horses. You'd always have this journey between 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.080 picking it the soil, the smell that you know, you're 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.240 dirty fingernails, that kind of adventure to go out and 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.240 have that process, and then you take it up and 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.000 give the you know, the carrot heads to the horse, 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.320 and that would be like horse slobbery all over your hands, 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.600 and like so many different smells as well. I mean, 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.720 I've on creating perfumes, and it's so interesting how smell 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.359 has really been inspired by food for a lot of 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.039 the things that I've created. I mean, I for example, 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.679 one thing, when you're a vegetarian, there's so a few 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.440 moments of kind of extravagance, whereas with meat is so 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.360 associated with kind of well cost or you know, there's 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.040 such a kind of different kind of relationship. And when 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.640 you're a vegetarian, it's literally only truffle season that you're like, right, okay, 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.640 this is like oh, this is this moment. And so 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.560 I did a perfume with truffle in it because I 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:34.800 just always found that smell. It was so it kind 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.479 of reminded me always of a time of year, and 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.600 just everything associated with it seems so kind of sexy 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:46.159 and mysterious and incredible. So I think food and smell 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.080 is interesting. Well, when you look at you know, caracter, 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.480 you look at an onion, you look at a piece 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.120 the spinach, it moves you and you look at the color. 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:56.680 But when you get a truffle, you choose it by 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.120 the smell. You just take that. You open the are 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:01.480 and you put it on the table here and we 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:05.200 put them out and then you smell them. Literally, it's 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:11.440 like a precious diamond. Four children are working mother and 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:16.720 working father. Far what was meal time like in the 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:22.280 McCartney Eastman household. It was always together. Actually we always 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.200 ate together as far as I can remember, and it 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:27.400 was always either in the kitchen or in the living 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.360 room on the sofa in your lap. It was just 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.680 always what brought us together, you know. I think you 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.560 will have heard that many times during your podcast. It 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.160 was the place and the moment where we all reunited 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.560 and kind of you know, connected again from whatever we 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.120 were doing in the day. Also, you know, like we 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:46.720 do a lot of road trips. When I was young, 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:48.520 we got up to Scotland in the car, so we'd 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:50.840 have like a car based sandwiches and kind of big 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.800 sandwich family, but more my American side because also in 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.680 those days, like a British sandwich was butter on a 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.400 piece of white bread and a sliced cheese and very 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.560 like layered with like lettuce and pickles and mayo, and 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.120 you know, so we'd kind of have different moments for food. 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:11.480 I would say, it's also so interesting how food has 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.600 evolved over the years now because I think being half American, 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.280 I always got my mom always really new and loved food. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.920 So we always grew up with extra virgin olive oil. 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.400 But when I read out your Fantanata recipe, it's like 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.840 extra virgin olivel now is kind of known and a given, 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.440 but I remember, you know, it didn't exist when I 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:34.000 was younger, So I find that really fascinating. Also, traveling 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.440 a lot as a child, we had access to all 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.480 these different cuisines. And then you know, we grew up 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.120 a lot in Arizona, and so we had a lot 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.640 of Mexican food growing up, and sweet corn and you know, 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.280 in Long Island and stuff. Interesting. I think that corn. 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:51.280 I always say that I grew up in Love State, 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.840 New York. And if we were having coin for lunch 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.559 in the morning, and if we're having a coin for dinner, 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.839 we bought it in the afternoon. It was that and media, 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:03.080 and my mom used to have it raw. She loved 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.120 it so much. She would just have it and she'd 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.480 just be like, oh, you wouldn't even boil it, you know, 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:09.880 like she'd never put butter on it or salt, nothing, 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.400 she'd just have it. She came from a really interesting family. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:18.000 Tell me about them. So basically, and it's interesting, you know, 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.160 they came from the Ukraine actually and sort of you know, 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:25.480 through Russia to the United States. So I was also 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.400 kind of exposed to bashed and things like that and 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:30.760 cole slaw and pickles, you know, that was that was 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:35.520 something that didn't exist here too. And my grandfather Lee 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.920 became a lawyer. He was a lawyer and sort of 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:41.280 really did very well for himself, but he was an 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:46.240 entertainment lawyer. He loved creatives. He basically represented all of 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.240 the abstract expressionists. So he represented to Kooning and Rothclow 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.400 and Kline and Motherwell and Albers and you know, all 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:58.320 of these incredible artists. So she was exposed to you know, 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:03.320 extraordinary crea native talent, and then she was so brilliant 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:05.320 she kind of rebelled and went to the u of 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.120 A and was just like everyone's too kind of fancy 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.240 in Harvard and Yale and Smith and it was all 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:12.760 a bit too much for her. And then she became 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.280 a photographer and she just it was amazing. She did 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:20.760 Hendrix sheticed reading Aretha Franklin, the Moms and the papas 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:24.880 she did, I mean, you know, amazing musicians. And then 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:26.720 met Dad and the rest is kind of history. But 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:31.280 she was very just a real kind of just a beautiful, 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.320 pure soul. And I think you know, the two of 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.240 them meeting and him surrendering into that relationship meant that 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.320 we as a family went into self isolation at a 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.280 very early age, and thus went up to Scotland and 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:44.720 it was just kind of the six of us in 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:57.400 the shed. The experience that you talk about food being 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.840 that connection of food being the act of love, food 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.040 being the act of education is very moving. And then 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.880 when you left that environment, when you how old are 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.280 you when you left home? And where did you go? Well? 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.640 I kind of left home to go to college, to 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:14.720 go to St. Martin's, So I got into St. Martin's 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.520 to study fashion design when whatever age that is really 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.240 early twenties and um. I came to live in London, 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.640 and I was lucky that I knew how to cook, 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.360 you know. I think watching mom meant that I was 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.480 a little ahead and that I could always cook. But 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.160 I remember having my first kind of dinner party when 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:33.120 I got a bit older, and it was with Naomi 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.920 Campbell and Donna Tellibis Archie and it was so funny 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:37.800 because I had them to my house and I made 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:41.160 globe artichokes and this was good twenty odd years ago. 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.080 And my mom would always boil a globe artichoke and 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.480 she made this amazing dip with olive oil and kind 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:48.960 of lemon juice and all these sort of you know brags, 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.840 amino acid Maggie that was like a source called Maggie, 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.880 like all these kind of there's a dense kind of space. Yeah, 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.000 but used to get a liquid. And so I made 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:58.640 this globe bar to choke and this source. And I 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:00.439 remember they came around They're like what's this and how 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.520 to eat it? And I was like, wait a minute, 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:04.360 like you're done. A tellib thought you you should know 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:06.640 how to eat, like, you know, and I was so surprised. 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:09.640 And it's funny that whole kind of you know, how 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:14.839 do you take vegetarian food into being dinner party kind 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.280 of you know, worthy, when you've got people around you 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.400 want them to come and go, oh, that was asparagus season. 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.280 It wasn't that delicious. And I think that that you 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.760 kind of already got to be a little bit more 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.560 heightened on your offering when you're coming in as vegetarian. 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.120 When I talked to your father, he talked about being 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.280 a vegetarian at a time when being a vegetarian wasn't 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.840 that sexy, It wasn't interesting. It was a bit of 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.959 a It was rebellion, but a kind of certainly moral 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.760 rebellion that made you feel humorless. And I told him 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.600 the story about going to Cranks with Richard, and I 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:53.600 just met him, and I was all over him, kissing 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:56.120 him and hugging him, and and this woman was giving 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.920 me really disapproval looks, and she came over to the 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.640 table and she said, I think what you're doing is terrible, 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:04.640 but that you're doing it in a vegetarian restaurant makes 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.920 it even worse, as if you couldn't have sex and vegetables. 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.680 But I said to your father that he has to 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.440 take the credit for changing it that your mother and 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:18.079 your father, you know, really said you can be rock 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:22.160 and roll, you can be wild, you can be liberal 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:26.720 and radical and everything else, and and sexy and have vegetables. Yeah. 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:28.920 I would definitely, had I have been running cranks, I 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.320 would have let you have the non sexual intercourse on 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.440 the table in front of everyone. Yeah, I mean it definitely. 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:37.000 Growing up, it was already hard enough coming into a 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.040 room as sort of the child of these legends, but 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.360 then to sort of be at dinner party and be 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:45.720 served a grilled kind of courgette, it was you know, 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:47.840 the person next to you would look with horror and 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:49.920 be like what you eat? Like almost like what's wrong 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:51.200 with you? And why? You know, if you've got an 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.840 illness that means you can only awful kind of desperate vegetables. 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:58.160 And so you would already be apologizing really for your 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:00.960 life choice. And then when you went in to sort 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.640 of explain it you, I was often met with anger, 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.760 you know, defensiveness, or you were always the brunt of 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.480 a joke. Like every sitcom or comedy you'd watch on Telly, 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.040 it was like, did I'm vegetarian? It was always a joke, 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.840 which is weird because you know, obviously being a fashion 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.080 designer that has shunned fur and leather and feathers and 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.640 never used animal products. That happened to me also obviously 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.800 in my industry, which was even weirder because luxury fashion 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:31.320 is leather, is crocodiles is fur coats. When I always 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:33.040 sort of used to come at it saying, I don't 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.040 understand why I'm not like the coolest rebel punk rock 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.800 person in the room, because if you're all using fur 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.400 and you're all using leather, and you're all eating meat, 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.240 then you're the ones that are boring a mainstream I'm 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.120 the one that's like questioning and China like you know, 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:52.120 push buttons and kind of challenge convention. And has that changed, Yeah, 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:55.480 it has. It has very much changed. And I think it's, 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.400 you know, largely because people now associate animal agriculture in 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.440 the farming and animals with not only with disease ridden 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.080 you know, hotbeds, which we're you know, looking at today 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.720 with COVID and bird flu and bovine and all you know, 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.680 mad cow and all these things, but also I think 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:15.040 it's a conversation that young people, the generation of tomorrow 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.120 just you know, most of them have turned most of 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.600 the vegan. It's basically a life choice. How you eat, 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.800 what you wear, how you travel, how you consume. You know, 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.480 kids of tomorrow just have been thank god educated enough 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.040 to see that this is just not necessary. You can 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:32.960 still eat really, really well, you have great taste, you 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.680 can still have a community around great food, great fashion, 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.920 great you know everything. So but I think it is 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.200 the kids largely, and I think also the connection between 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:47.120 animal agriculture and the environment has been a big shift 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:49.680 for people because now they're seeing it. And you know, 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:51.800 I also think if you give up meat one day 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.520 a week, it's the equivalent to all transport for one week. 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:56.160 So you just do it one day a week, you know, 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.000 and most people don't eat meat fish every day in 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:02.960 the week. Now, in a world of science and technology 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:07.600 and substitutions and ability to create what we want to 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:13.000 create in a laboratory, what is your feeling about creating 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:17.080 meat that is not meat? That's a good question. I 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:18.760 was one of the first people to go to the 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.520 Impossible Burger as well, and that obviously has done incredibly 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:26.040 well and actually is a great success story for plant 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.680 based food versus conventional meat. And actually when you look 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.200 at the business. That's when I think we have a 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.480 chance at solving the issues because as a business woman, 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.760 you know that the minute that a plant based meat, 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.480 for example, is growing on the Stock Exchange faster than 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.120 a real meat, you know you've got something exciting about 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.800 to happen. So I'm kind of all for it, really, 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:49.560 I mean I also, I'm a huge fan of a 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.320 film I don't know if you've seen it, called Fantastic Fungi, 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.160 and you must watch it. If you haven't watched it, it 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.680 it will blow your brains. Tell me better. Um, it's 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:01.480 about mushrooms. I had worked to have been working closely 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.359 with the company in San Francisco, a tech company that 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.520 are growing leather from mushrooms and the mycelium roots. So 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.439 that kind of thing is really fascinating, the crossover between 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.600 food and fashion for me because I'm literally making handbags 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.679 out of mushroom. So those kind of things, I'm all for. 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.800 Technology really trying to be an answer to a lot 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:37.120 of the problems that we have. You do so much, 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.280 I know you do, and still making yourself feel like 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.040 you have time. That's one of the great gifts as 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.760 a busy person. Makes you feel that you have time. 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.320 Richard taught me that. He said, never say you're busy. 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:50.159 People used to come up to him at the end 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:51.560 of a lecture and day, I'd like to show you 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.639 my portfolio. Are you very busy? And I'm not that busy. 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.040 And it's a great quality, but I think you have 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.880 that still. And who cooks at home? It's changed a lot, 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.080 you know, as our kids have gotten older and they're 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:06.840 all home at different times, and I'm home at different times. 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.000 They kind of just eat when they get home, and 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.119 it's kind of either were like, for example, this weekend, 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.040 I cooked, and I cooked so that they had stuff 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.600 in the wheat. Because also when you've got vegetarian kids 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.040 and they go to school, it's normally pizza pasta. It's 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.679 kind of there's no real protein or health involved. And 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:24.200 when they're going to play day, it's like, oh, they're 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.040 ter share and give them pastor a tomato sauce. So 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:29.760 I'm always kind of overcompensating so that the weekends are 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:31.800 cook for in the week when they get home. So 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.679 I just always do like a big vegetable soup with 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:36.879 tons of fresh herbs and loads of beans, or like 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:38.879 you know, I did one with Keen Warren. It this weekend, 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.720 so we've charked about the ingredients we cook with, the 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.840 influences we cook with, and the seasons we're cooking. Do 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.840 you have utensils that you'd particularly like to use? I 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:55.240 have definitely. I think everyone that cooks has one or 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.400 two utensils in their kitchen that are so over their 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.000 cell by day and they're like knack and chip, but 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.879 you just can't throw them away. But one thing I 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.440 grew up very much with with salad balls. My mom 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.800 made a wicked salad dressing. Again in England, you didn't 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:11.879 have salads when I was growing up. It was literally 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.720 salad dressing and like a leaf. We never that was 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:17.280 like the kiss of death in our house. So she 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.120 would always make this incredible salad. I would say salad 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:22.320 was a big coming together because it would be like 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.160 tossing and you're all eating out of the same bowl 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.520 and the last dish out is the best one because 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.000 it's called the dressing on it. But my mom had 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:32.560 it was like the sacred thing in the kitchen was 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:36.600 this big salad bowl one piece of wood, and she 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.720 would never let anybody wash it. So you don't have 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:41.800 to always just dry it out with some you know, 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:45.439 dishcloth or with some some paper towel. And for my wedding, 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.760 my aunt Louise, my mother's sister. Sadly my mom had 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:51.080 passed away, but she got me as my wedding present 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:53.280 a salad bowl carved out of one piece of wood. 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:55.520 And so that I would say, would be the kind 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:57.639 of the house is burning down one of the things 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:00.800 I would say, And it's I'm exactly same with my kids. 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.000 I'm like, if I see somebody about to wash it 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.600 out with water, I have to run up and tell 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.600 them it's sort of illegal to touch it with water. Well, 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:13.359 there is that connection for food, isn't it? How your 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.320 children and I think having you know, bringing the kids 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.680 here tonight for dinner, for example, I remember like when 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.080 the first time we brought them here to the River Cafe, 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:22.680 it was like such a treat. We had to get 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.680 them to a certain age so they'd really kind of acknowledge, 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:28.920 you know, how special it was. So we come here 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.720 for sort of special occasions, and I think that's good 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.439 as well, to kind of associate food, you know, with 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.639 different occasions in your life. Those are the memories you 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.360 remember the time. Do you remember going out with your 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:44.040 parents to certain restaurants. It's funny. I had lunch somewhere 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.679 today with a friend that you know, Kate Moss and 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.680 her daughter Lila actually, and we went to a restaurant 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:51.320 in the Western I hadn't been there for years, and 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:53.320 I was like, oh my god, you remember this restaurant? 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:55.800 Can I say the restaurant to Coney's? But do you 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:57.959 remember when I was young? I was explained to them. 0:20:57.960 --> 0:20:59.320 I was like, did you come here when it was 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.080