Speaker 1: Welcome to River Cafe Table for a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Adami's Studios. I will tell you something
Speaker 1: about Stella McCartney. She's been coming to eat for twenty
Speaker 1: years in the River Cafe, and ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: the time it has been with Alistair and her children.
Speaker 1: When not them, then with her sister Mary, or brother James,
Speaker 1: or her father, and the best times when they are
Speaker 1: all here together. Stella's mother, Linda, was like her daughter,
Speaker 1: a woman with conviction, imagination and passion, A pioneering chef.
Speaker 1: I wish I had known her. Stella is a fashion
Speaker 1: designer with ethics, a spokesperson for sustainability, a supporter of
Speaker 1: young designers, an entrepreneur who takes on risks for a cause.
Speaker 1: Will talk about food and memories of childhood, ethical eating,
Speaker 1: cooking and more, and then we'll go into the restaurant
Speaker 1: and have a late dinner with her four children, her husband,
Speaker 1: and her sister ah Ruthie. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: So you're going to read the recipe for I'm going
Speaker 1: to read the recipe for chickpea and fennel fara, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it in my sexiest accent. Okay.
Speaker 1: So this recipe serves six to eight people, and for
Speaker 1: it you will need okay, if you got your notepad
Speaker 1: and your pencils or your devices, depending on how young
Speaker 1: and relevant you are. Okay. First of all, you need
Speaker 1: three hundred grams of Italian chicklee flower, one liter of
Speaker 1: warm water, a hundred million liters of extra virgin olive
Speaker 1: oil plus extra for the pan, one teaspoon of sea salt,
Speaker 1: and two tablespoons of fennel seats or chopped fresh sage
Speaker 1: or rosemary leaves, depending on the season. I would say
Speaker 1: you put the water in a large bowl and sift
Speaker 1: over the flour whisk to combine, and then add the
Speaker 1: extra virgin olive oil and salt. Cover and leave in
Speaker 1: a warm place for at least two hours. This is
Speaker 1: the time that you can preheat your oven two fifty
Speaker 1: degrees celsius. Then you skim the foam from the top
Speaker 1: of the batter. You pour enough olive oil into a
Speaker 1: faranata pan to generously coat the bottom, and add in
Speaker 1: the batter. It should be about one to two centimeters deep.
Speaker 1: Top with fennel seeds or herbs and black pepper. You
Speaker 1: bake it for twenty to thirty minutes, or until the
Speaker 1: surface has bubbled and has become crisp, and you serve warm,
Speaker 1: just like your heart, Like your heart. Fat is a
Speaker 1: street food of Liguria. It's a pancake. It's thin, it's vegan,
Speaker 1: it's delicious, debu headed and if I've had it, I'm
Speaker 1: know I've had it here, and I love it because
Speaker 1: it's always it's really simple but really has amazing flavor.
Speaker 1: I think I always remember the rosemary. That's kind of
Speaker 1: how I've had it here, and I love that it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's finger food, and everyone can just get
Speaker 1: stuck in, so everyone just kind of goes for it
Speaker 1: and grabs it as soon as it's available. And then
Speaker 1: if you're too slow, you're too late, and you don't
Speaker 1: get any it's gone, and then we make you another one,
Speaker 1: and then we order another one, and then we're full
Speaker 1: by the time the main course comes. You know, we
Speaker 1: have a special stellar menu. When we have a menu
Speaker 1: for you, you do I remember that. Actually, I really
Speaker 1: felt like I had finally arrived when I turned up
Speaker 1: and you had your little vegetarian vegan menu for me.
Speaker 1: And I think it goes to show how long I've
Speaker 1: been coming here because I don't think it was in
Speaker 1: the days where you didn't have separate menus for vegetarians
Speaker 1: or plant based and I remember feeling so special that
Speaker 1: you've printed out one for me, and I would always
Speaker 1: take them home because I was like, oh, these are
Speaker 1: really good menu ideas and as menu for Stella. And
Speaker 1: you have a farm where you grow vegetables and herbs,
Speaker 1: and tell me, since we were on rosemary in sage
Speaker 1: and fennel seats, tell me about your farm. Well, I
Speaker 1: just came it's Monday, and I just came back from
Speaker 1: the farm last night. And it's funny. I grew up
Speaker 1: on an organic farm and now I have one of
Speaker 1: my own, and it was always the vegetable patch that
Speaker 1: was just kind of the most exciting place to be.
Speaker 1: And I think it's such an incredible blessing and gift
Speaker 1: to actually grow up seeing the kind of the seasons
Speaker 1: in that way and understanding when a lettist is coming
Speaker 1: into season, or when you know when the cabbages and
Speaker 1: the beet roots and just kind of knowing when those
Speaker 1: things are coming into season is kind of I find
Speaker 1: it to be a great gift of knowledge. Actually tell
Speaker 1: me about growing up. Then tell me about the farm
Speaker 1: that you exposure to rosemary and fennel and sage and
Speaker 1: your mother taking you through that. Was it your mom
Speaker 1: or was it both of them? Or it was both
Speaker 1: of them? I think probably a bit more mom. But
Speaker 1: it's because the very early years were actually in Scotland,
Speaker 1: and so we had a tiny little vegetable patch there
Speaker 1: and I remember we'd always get into trouble because me
Speaker 1: and Mary would go down and pick There were always
Speaker 1: like sugar snaps and carrots and we would always kind
Speaker 1: of nick them and eat them before you could yield
Speaker 1: any kind of crop off it um. And then when
Speaker 1: we got a bit older, we got the farm in
Speaker 1: East Sussex and then we had like a proper vegetable patch. Well,
Speaker 1: it's very touching that you say that you and your
Speaker 1: sister would go and get a sugar snappy and a
Speaker 1: carrot as rather the way somebody might take sweets from
Speaker 1: the sweet club, and you know that you actually went
Speaker 1: to the and also we had horses, so we had
Speaker 1: you know, were always with horses, so it would always
Speaker 1: be right Willie the carrot and the carrot heads for
Speaker 1: the for the horses. You'd always have this journey between
Speaker 1: picking it the soil, the smell that you know, you're
Speaker 1: dirty fingernails, that kind of adventure to go out and
Speaker 1: have that process, and then you take it up and
Speaker 1: give the you know, the carrot heads to the horse,
Speaker 1: and that would be like horse slobbery all over your hands,
Speaker 1: and like so many different smells as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've on creating perfumes, and it's so interesting how smell
Speaker 1: has really been inspired by food for a lot of
Speaker 1: the things that I've created. I mean, I for example,
Speaker 1: one thing, when you're a vegetarian, there's so a few
Speaker 1: moments of kind of extravagance, whereas with meat is so
Speaker 1: associated with kind of well cost or you know, there's
Speaker 1: such a kind of different kind of relationship. And when
Speaker 1: you're a vegetarian, it's literally only truffle season that you're like, right, okay,
Speaker 1: this is like oh, this is this moment. And so
Speaker 1: I did a perfume with truffle in it because I
Speaker 1: just always found that smell. It was so it kind
Speaker 1: of reminded me always of a time of year, and
Speaker 1: just everything associated with it seems so kind of sexy
Speaker 1: and mysterious and incredible. So I think food and smell
Speaker 1: is interesting. Well, when you look at you know, caracter,
Speaker 1: you look at an onion, you look at a piece
Speaker 1: the spinach, it moves you and you look at the color.
Speaker 1: But when you get a truffle, you choose it by
Speaker 1: the smell. You just take that. You open the are
Speaker 1: and you put it on the table here and we
Speaker 1: put them out and then you smell them. Literally, it's
Speaker 1: like a precious diamond. Four children are working mother and
Speaker 1: working father. Far what was meal time like in the
Speaker 1: McCartney Eastman household. It was always together. Actually we always
Speaker 1: ate together as far as I can remember, and it
Speaker 1: was always either in the kitchen or in the living
Speaker 1: room on the sofa in your lap. It was just
Speaker 1: always what brought us together, you know. I think you
Speaker 1: will have heard that many times during your podcast. It
Speaker 1: was the place and the moment where we all reunited
Speaker 1: and kind of you know, connected again from whatever we
Speaker 1: were doing in the day. Also, you know, like we
Speaker 1: do a lot of road trips. When I was young,
Speaker 1: we got up to Scotland in the car, so we'd
Speaker 1: have like a car based sandwiches and kind of big
Speaker 1: sandwich family, but more my American side because also in
Speaker 1: those days, like a British sandwich was butter on a
Speaker 1: piece of white bread and a sliced cheese and very
Speaker 1: like layered with like lettuce and pickles and mayo, and
Speaker 1: you know, so we'd kind of have different moments for food.
Speaker 1: I would say, it's also so interesting how food has
Speaker 1: evolved over the years now because I think being half American,
Speaker 1: I always got my mom always really new and loved food.
Speaker 1: So we always grew up with extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 1: But when I read out your Fantanata recipe, it's like
Speaker 1: extra virgin olivel now is kind of known and a given,
Speaker 1: but I remember, you know, it didn't exist when I
Speaker 1: was younger, So I find that really fascinating. Also, traveling
Speaker 1: a lot as a child, we had access to all
Speaker 1: these different cuisines. And then you know, we grew up
Speaker 1: a lot in Arizona, and so we had a lot
Speaker 1: of Mexican food growing up, and sweet corn and you know,
Speaker 1: in Long Island and stuff. Interesting. I think that corn.
Speaker 1: I always say that I grew up in Love State,
Speaker 1: New York. And if we were having coin for lunch
Speaker 1: in the morning, and if we're having a coin for dinner,
Speaker 1: we bought it in the afternoon. It was that and media,
Speaker 1: and my mom used to have it raw. She loved
Speaker 1: it so much. She would just have it and she'd
Speaker 1: just be like, oh, you wouldn't even boil it, you know,
Speaker 1: like she'd never put butter on it or salt, nothing,
Speaker 1: she'd just have it. She came from a really interesting family.
Speaker 1: Tell me about them. So basically, and it's interesting, you know,
Speaker 1: they came from the Ukraine actually and sort of you know,
Speaker 1: through Russia to the United States. So I was also
Speaker 1: kind of exposed to bashed and things like that and
Speaker 1: cole slaw and pickles, you know, that was that was
Speaker 1: something that didn't exist here too. And my grandfather Lee
Speaker 1: became a lawyer. He was a lawyer and sort of
Speaker 1: really did very well for himself, but he was an
Speaker 1: entertainment lawyer. He loved creatives. He basically represented all of
Speaker 1: the abstract expressionists. So he represented to Kooning and Rothclow
Speaker 1: and Kline and Motherwell and Albers and you know, all
Speaker 1: of these incredible artists. So she was exposed to you know,
Speaker 1: extraordinary crea native talent, and then she was so brilliant
Speaker 1: she kind of rebelled and went to the u of
Speaker 1: A and was just like everyone's too kind of fancy
Speaker 1: in Harvard and Yale and Smith and it was all
Speaker 1: a bit too much for her. And then she became
Speaker 1: a photographer and she just it was amazing. She did
Speaker 1: Hendrix sheticed reading Aretha Franklin, the Moms and the papas
Speaker 1: she did, I mean, you know, amazing musicians. And then
Speaker 1: met Dad and the rest is kind of history. But
Speaker 1: she was very just a real kind of just a beautiful,
Speaker 1: pure soul. And I think you know, the two of
Speaker 1: them meeting and him surrendering into that relationship meant that
Speaker 1: we as a family went into self isolation at a
Speaker 1: very early age, and thus went up to Scotland and
Speaker 1: it was just kind of the six of us in
Speaker 1: the shed. The experience that you talk about food being
Speaker 1: that connection of food being the act of love, food
Speaker 1: being the act of education is very moving. And then
Speaker 1: when you left that environment, when you how old are
Speaker 1: you when you left home? And where did you go? Well?
Speaker 1: I kind of left home to go to college, to
Speaker 1: go to St. Martin's, So I got into St. Martin's
Speaker 1: to study fashion design when whatever age that is really
Speaker 1: early twenties and um. I came to live in London,
Speaker 1: and I was lucky that I knew how to cook,
Speaker 1: you know. I think watching mom meant that I was
Speaker 1: a little ahead and that I could always cook. But
Speaker 1: I remember having my first kind of dinner party when
Speaker 1: I got a bit older, and it was with Naomi
Speaker 1: Campbell and Donna Tellibis Archie and it was so funny
Speaker 1: because I had them to my house and I made
Speaker 1: globe artichokes and this was good twenty odd years ago.
Speaker 1: And my mom would always boil a globe artichoke and
Speaker 1: she made this amazing dip with olive oil and kind
Speaker 1: of lemon juice and all these sort of you know brags,
Speaker 1: amino acid Maggie that was like a source called Maggie,
Speaker 1: like all these kind of there's a dense kind of space. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but used to get a liquid. And so I made
Speaker 1: this globe bar to choke and this source. And I
Speaker 1: remember they came around They're like what's this and how
Speaker 1: to eat it? And I was like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: like you're done. A tellib thought you you should know
Speaker 1: how to eat, like, you know, and I was so surprised.
Speaker 1: And it's funny that whole kind of you know, how
Speaker 1: do you take vegetarian food into being dinner party kind
Speaker 1: of you know, worthy, when you've got people around you
Speaker 1: want them to come and go, oh, that was asparagus season.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that delicious. And I think that that you
Speaker 1: kind of already got to be a little bit more
Speaker 1: heightened on your offering when you're coming in as vegetarian.
Speaker 1: When I talked to your father, he talked about being
Speaker 1: a vegetarian at a time when being a vegetarian wasn't
Speaker 1: that sexy, It wasn't interesting. It was a bit of
Speaker 1: a It was rebellion, but a kind of certainly moral
Speaker 1: rebellion that made you feel humorless. And I told him
Speaker 1: the story about going to Cranks with Richard, and I
Speaker 1: just met him, and I was all over him, kissing
Speaker 1: him and hugging him, and and this woman was giving
Speaker 1: me really disapproval looks, and she came over to the
Speaker 1: table and she said, I think what you're doing is terrible,
Speaker 1: but that you're doing it in a vegetarian restaurant makes
Speaker 1: it even worse, as if you couldn't have sex and vegetables.
Speaker 1: But I said to your father that he has to
Speaker 1: take the credit for changing it that your mother and
Speaker 1: your father, you know, really said you can be rock
Speaker 1: and roll, you can be wild, you can be liberal
Speaker 1: and radical and everything else, and and sexy and have vegetables. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I would definitely, had I have been running cranks, I
Speaker 1: would have let you have the non sexual intercourse on
Speaker 1: the table in front of everyone. Yeah, I mean it definitely.
Speaker 1: Growing up, it was already hard enough coming into a
Speaker 1: room as sort of the child of these legends, but
Speaker 1: then to sort of be at dinner party and be
Speaker 1: served a grilled kind of courgette, it was you know,
Speaker 1: the person next to you would look with horror and
Speaker 1: be like what you eat? Like almost like what's wrong
Speaker 1: with you? And why? You know, if you've got an
Speaker 1: illness that means you can only awful kind of desperate vegetables.
Speaker 1: And so you would already be apologizing really for your
Speaker 1: life choice. And then when you went in to sort
Speaker 1: of explain it you, I was often met with anger,
Speaker 1: you know, defensiveness, or you were always the brunt of
Speaker 1: a joke. Like every sitcom or comedy you'd watch on Telly,
Speaker 1: it was like, did I'm vegetarian? It was always a joke,
Speaker 1: which is weird because you know, obviously being a fashion
Speaker 1: designer that has shunned fur and leather and feathers and
Speaker 1: never used animal products. That happened to me also obviously
Speaker 1: in my industry, which was even weirder because luxury fashion
Speaker 1: is leather, is crocodiles is fur coats. When I always
Speaker 1: sort of used to come at it saying, I don't
Speaker 1: understand why I'm not like the coolest rebel punk rock
Speaker 1: person in the room, because if you're all using fur
Speaker 1: and you're all using leather, and you're all eating meat,
Speaker 1: then you're the ones that are boring a mainstream I'm
Speaker 1: the one that's like questioning and China like you know,
Speaker 1: push buttons and kind of challenge convention. And has that changed, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it has. It has very much changed. And I think it's,
Speaker 1: you know, largely because people now associate animal agriculture in
Speaker 1: the farming and animals with not only with disease ridden
Speaker 1: you know, hotbeds, which we're you know, looking at today
Speaker 1: with COVID and bird flu and bovine and all you know,
Speaker 1: mad cow and all these things, but also I think
Speaker 1: it's a conversation that young people, the generation of tomorrow
Speaker 1: just you know, most of them have turned most of
Speaker 1: the vegan. It's basically a life choice. How you eat,
Speaker 1: what you wear, how you travel, how you consume. You know,
Speaker 1: kids of tomorrow just have been thank god educated enough
Speaker 1: to see that this is just not necessary. You can
Speaker 1: still eat really, really well, you have great taste, you
Speaker 1: can still have a community around great food, great fashion,
Speaker 1: great you know everything. So but I think it is
Speaker 1: the kids largely, and I think also the connection between
Speaker 1: animal agriculture and the environment has been a big shift
Speaker 1: for people because now they're seeing it. And you know,
Speaker 1: I also think if you give up meat one day
Speaker 1: a week, it's the equivalent to all transport for one week.
Speaker 1: So you just do it one day a week, you know,
Speaker 1: and most people don't eat meat fish every day in
Speaker 1: the week. Now, in a world of science and technology
Speaker 1: and substitutions and ability to create what we want to
Speaker 1: create in a laboratory, what is your feeling about creating
Speaker 1: meat that is not meat? That's a good question. I
Speaker 1: was one of the first people to go to the
Speaker 1: Impossible Burger as well, and that obviously has done incredibly
Speaker 1: well and actually is a great success story for plant
Speaker 1: based food versus conventional meat. And actually when you look
Speaker 1: at the business. That's when I think we have a
Speaker 1: chance at solving the issues because as a business woman,
Speaker 1: you know that the minute that a plant based meat,
Speaker 1: for example, is growing on the Stock Exchange faster than
Speaker 1: a real meat, you know you've got something exciting about
Speaker 1: to happen. So I'm kind of all for it, really,
Speaker 1: I mean I also, I'm a huge fan of a
Speaker 1: film I don't know if you've seen it, called Fantastic Fungi,
Speaker 1: and you must watch it. If you haven't watched it, it
Speaker 1: it will blow your brains. Tell me better. Um, it's
Speaker 1: about mushrooms. I had worked to have been working closely
Speaker 1: with the company in San Francisco, a tech company that
Speaker 1: are growing leather from mushrooms and the mycelium roots. So
Speaker 1: that kind of thing is really fascinating, the crossover between
Speaker 1: food and fashion for me because I'm literally making handbags
Speaker 1: out of mushroom. So those kind of things, I'm all for.
Speaker 1: Technology really trying to be an answer to a lot
Speaker 1: of the problems that we have. You do so much,
Speaker 1: I know you do, and still making yourself feel like
Speaker 1: you have time. That's one of the great gifts as
Speaker 1: a busy person. Makes you feel that you have time.
Speaker 1: Richard taught me that. He said, never say you're busy.
Speaker 1: People used to come up to him at the end
Speaker 1: of a lecture and day, I'd like to show you
Speaker 1: my portfolio. Are you very busy? And I'm not that busy.
Speaker 1: And it's a great quality, but I think you have
Speaker 1: that still. And who cooks at home? It's changed a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, as our kids have gotten older and they're
Speaker 1: all home at different times, and I'm home at different times.
Speaker 1: They kind of just eat when they get home, and
Speaker 1: it's kind of either were like, for example, this weekend,
Speaker 1: I cooked, and I cooked so that they had stuff
Speaker 1: in the wheat. Because also when you've got vegetarian kids
Speaker 1: and they go to school, it's normally pizza pasta. It's
Speaker 1: kind of there's no real protein or health involved. And
Speaker 1: when they're going to play day, it's like, oh, they're
Speaker 1: ter share and give them pastor a tomato sauce. So
Speaker 1: I'm always kind of overcompensating so that the weekends are
Speaker 1: cook for in the week when they get home. So
Speaker 1: I just always do like a big vegetable soup with
Speaker 1: tons of fresh herbs and loads of beans, or like
Speaker 1: you know, I did one with Keen Warren. It this weekend,
Speaker 1: so we've charked about the ingredients we cook with, the
Speaker 1: influences we cook with, and the seasons we're cooking. Do
Speaker 1: you have utensils that you'd particularly like to use? I
Speaker 1: have definitely. I think everyone that cooks has one or
Speaker 1: two utensils in their kitchen that are so over their
Speaker 1: cell by day and they're like knack and chip, but
Speaker 1: you just can't throw them away. But one thing I
Speaker 1: grew up very much with with salad balls. My mom
Speaker 1: made a wicked salad dressing. Again in England, you didn't
Speaker 1: have salads when I was growing up. It was literally
Speaker 1: salad dressing and like a leaf. We never that was
Speaker 1: like the kiss of death in our house. So she
Speaker 1: would always make this incredible salad. I would say salad
Speaker 1: was a big coming together because it would be like
Speaker 1: tossing and you're all eating out of the same bowl
Speaker 1: and the last dish out is the best one because
Speaker 1: it's called the dressing on it. But my mom had
Speaker 1: it was like the sacred thing in the kitchen was
Speaker 1: this big salad bowl one piece of wood, and she
Speaker 1: would never let anybody wash it. So you don't have
Speaker 1: to always just dry it out with some you know,
Speaker 1: dishcloth or with some some paper towel. And for my wedding,
Speaker 1: my aunt Louise, my mother's sister. Sadly my mom had
Speaker 1: passed away, but she got me as my wedding present
Speaker 1: a salad bowl carved out of one piece of wood.
Speaker 1: And so that I would say, would be the kind
Speaker 1: of the house is burning down one of the things
Speaker 1: I would say, And it's I'm exactly same with my kids.
Speaker 1: I'm like, if I see somebody about to wash it
Speaker 1: out with water, I have to run up and tell
Speaker 1: them it's sort of illegal to touch it with water. Well,
Speaker 1: there is that connection for food, isn't it? How your
Speaker 1: children and I think having you know, bringing the kids
Speaker 1: here tonight for dinner, for example, I remember like when
Speaker 1: the first time we brought them here to the River Cafe,
Speaker 1: it was like such a treat. We had to get
Speaker 1: them to a certain age so they'd really kind of acknowledge,
Speaker 1: you know, how special it was. So we come here
Speaker 1: for sort of special occasions, and I think that's good
Speaker 1: as well, to kind of associate food, you know, with
Speaker 1: different occasions in your life. Those are the memories you
Speaker 1: remember the time. Do you remember going out with your
Speaker 1: parents to certain restaurants. It's funny. I had lunch somewhere
Speaker 1: today with a friend that you know, Kate Moss and
Speaker 1: her daughter Lila actually, and we went to a restaurant
Speaker 1: in the Western I hadn't been there for years, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, you remember this restaurant?
Speaker 1: Can I say the restaurant to Coney's? But do you
Speaker 1: remember when I was young? I was explained to them.
Speaker 1: I was like, did you come here when it was
Speaker 1: Mr Chaco and I might know? And I was like,
Speaker 1: we used to go and it was such a kind
Speaker 1: of it was that that was the equivalent for me
Speaker 1: as a kid, because we come up to London rarely,
Speaker 1: and when we did, it was like, you know, you
Speaker 1: go and Lady Dining was in the corner, or you know,
Speaker 1: still a black was in the corner, and it was
Speaker 1: like that. I always remember going there. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think food is special and restaurants are special, you know
Speaker 1: in our family anyway, Yeah, I think that there is
Speaker 1: a sense of the special occasion. Certainly when I was
Speaker 1: growing up, it was a special occasion. It was a birthday,
Speaker 1: it was an anniversary, it was something. We lived in
Speaker 1: the country, miles away from any place. So how did
Speaker 1: you get into your food. I'm sure everyone's asked you
Speaker 1: this and everyone on your podcast, but I always love
Speaker 1: to cook. But it was from your mother. My mother
Speaker 1: was not a great cook, actually, she was just a
Speaker 1: very She was a librarian and my father was a
Speaker 1: doctor and so they both had jobs. But food was simple,
Speaker 1: but it was good. Apparently I had a Hungarian grandmother
Speaker 1: who was a great cook. And it's interesting when you
Speaker 1: talked about the Eastman's because is it about immigrants who
Speaker 1: come to a country and bring the food with them.
Speaker 1: So I think the first generation on a arrival cook
Speaker 1: the food that they grew up with. They still cook
Speaker 1: the Ukrainian food that you described, or Polish or my
Speaker 1: family Russian, and then perhaps the next generation wants to
Speaker 1: integrate more with the community. But I think it's really
Speaker 1: interesting we then both have similar heritage, and I think
Speaker 1: you're right bringing that food with you, but also making
Speaker 1: the most of your ingredients. I mean you're talking about
Speaker 1: quite similar to British ingredients like the root veget from
Speaker 1: that part of the boys and you know, potatoes essentially,
Speaker 1: and how you make the most of that how you
Speaker 1: bring flavor with what you have, and then how that
Speaker 1: grows into the next community. It's interesting. So food if
Speaker 1: it's an act of love, if it's a memory, and
Speaker 1: I think of your mother and how she cooked for
Speaker 1: you and taught you and and talk to you about
Speaker 1: being careful of the planet and respectful of animals, and
Speaker 1: it also is a comfort. It's a comfort. So if
Speaker 1: I were to ask you, as my last question, Stella McCartney,
Speaker 1: what would be your comfort food? God, what's my comfort food?
Speaker 1: I would say probably pasta, good bowler pasta, probably because
Speaker 1: it's still It's funny. Even with pasta, there are different
Speaker 1: sort of levels of entry. You know, you get any
Speaker 1: kind of dried pasta and that's that, and then you
Speaker 1: do the sauce. But is it, you know, your three
Speaker 1: four hours simmering tomato sauce or is it your quick one?
Speaker 1: Or then is it a homemade rabbit? You know, you
Speaker 1: can get up to a truffle kind of homemade taglia
Speaker 1: telly here, So I would probably have for that last
Speaker 1: option here for the pastor. Okay, well, we can't have
Speaker 1: a truffle pastor because in that season, but let's go
Speaker 1: and eat. Can come back and do that for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you, Stella. I'd thank you for having me. I
Speaker 1: love it. That wasn't too bad. I was scared by
Speaker 1: the way I've done desert and discs. I've done everything,
Speaker 1: and here I am terrified. Food is a connection, it's easy.
Speaker 1: It was nice. It was really nice. Thank you. To
Speaker 1: visit the online shop of The River Cafe, go to
Speaker 1: shop the River Cafe dot co dot UK. River Cafe
Speaker 1: Table four is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Adam I Studios. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.