Speaker 1: Looking out in the River Cafe. I'm always happy to
Speaker 1: see couples having a great time, but I also know
Speaker 1: that every table has a story. A child who just
Speaker 1: received a degree, a colleague at work who might be
Speaker 1: changing jobs, a marriage proposal or a separation. I met
Speaker 1: the couple Carrie Russell and Matthew Reese when they were
Speaker 1: playing a couple Philip and Elizabeth Jennings in my favorite
Speaker 1: TV series, The Americans, and I watched their story through
Speaker 1: thick and Thin for six years. It was there for
Speaker 1: a big moment for me seeing them sitting at a
Speaker 1: table in the River Cafe. They were with my friend,
Speaker 1: Ambassador Jane Hartley, who loves Carrie, playing a sort of
Speaker 1: her in the Diplomat. Today we were here at a
Speaker 1: home in New York City to talk about all this
Speaker 1: and more. You are our first couple, yeah, they I
Speaker 1: know it's true. It'll be fun that way. Yeah, Rogers,
Speaker 1: I have said to you before we put the MIC's on,
Speaker 1: how amazing it is that you came up down downtown.
Speaker 1: Do you like uptown downtown? Did you ever think of
Speaker 1: living uptown?
Speaker 2: I didn't personally know, did you No?
Speaker 3: But we took the train up here together and it's
Speaker 3: just you feel like uptown just feels like you're in
Speaker 3: a movie in a New York.
Speaker 2: New York.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think when people say where should I stay
Speaker 1: in New York? I was as an American, I love
Speaker 1: staying downtown. But then I think, if you're coming to
Speaker 1: New York for the first time, Central Park, the high buildings,
Speaker 1: the density, the avenues, Park Avenue, so New York for
Speaker 1: that first.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree. That hit again when we came
Speaker 2: out of the subway, when your borough is is so
Speaker 2: alien to this, when you kind of go, what in
Speaker 2: New York? I know it sounds stupid. I go, Manhattan
Speaker 2: brings my that magic again? Or you think of the
Speaker 2: movies you're saw growing up. You see the park again
Speaker 2: in a way you haven't seen it, and you just go,
Speaker 2: I'm always I'm always kind of falling in love again
Speaker 2: with this city.
Speaker 3: It's so romantic. Yeah, you know, seeing everyone dressed in
Speaker 3: nice clothes here, yeah, all over no where we live,
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, we're all sweatpants taking our kids
Speaker 3: to school.
Speaker 1: So what we thought, Mike do is start with a recipe.
Speaker 1: And the recipe I understood that you would like to
Speaker 1: read is a lot to do with sage like sage.
Speaker 1: But yes, in.
Speaker 2: Fact, if you could spread butter on say a leaf
Speaker 2: of sage kind of be.
Speaker 1: Already there is that a piece of stage that you've
Speaker 1: plucked from a plant or that you've bought, you grow
Speaker 1: it a little bit.
Speaker 2: We don't. We tried. We work with our children. It's
Speaker 2: like it's like trying to grow something in within a
Speaker 2: family of chimps. Everything is plucked or ripped or or
Speaker 2: torn or destroyed before you go. You're constantly going who
Speaker 2: did this? Who pulled the stage?
Speaker 1: When I take that stage.
Speaker 2: We were growing this. Yeah, so it never never seems
Speaker 2: to last. So we do, we do shamefully. But we
Speaker 2: have a great farmer's market by us which we we
Speaker 2: get a lot of the hoops from. And yees, sage
Speaker 2: and butter is a is a is a heady mix.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a great source of comfort.
Speaker 1: I love butter. We can talk about better later because
Speaker 1: I always say that as Italian chefs, we're supposed to
Speaker 1: and we do love olive oil and that is you know,
Speaker 1: that is the ingredient, you know. And so when people
Speaker 1: say what do you want to have in your in
Speaker 1: your cupboard. I would never say I have kil of
Speaker 1: Italian butter. I'd usually say a bottle of extra Version
Speaker 1: olive oil. But butter is like it is. But I
Speaker 1: think we should just do a podcast called butter.
Speaker 2: Tally Tally with portin a my butchering tally tally. I
Speaker 2: got it right, that's it. With Porcini and sage, will
Speaker 2: begin with.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, is that me?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Three hundred and fifty grand dried taglia.
Speaker 2: Thirty five grands have dried porcini mus.
Speaker 3: Rooms, eight fresh sage leaves finely sliced.
Speaker 2: Or could be sixteen, who knows. Two thousand grams of
Speaker 2: unsulted butter. Oh sorry, one hundred grams of unsalted butter.
Speaker 3: Two garlic cloves peeled and crushed.
Speaker 2: Another family favorite. One dried red chili crumbled like us for.
Speaker 3: Like me, especially today. Yes, I had a little too
Speaker 3: much wine last night. It's rough, a little fragile.
Speaker 1: I'm getting it through a Yeah, maybe you should have
Speaker 1: another classify.
Speaker 2: Maybe probably probably only way way.
Speaker 3: Four tablespoons double cream.
Speaker 2: And the zest and juice of one lemon. Do we
Speaker 2: continue on to go away?
Speaker 1: I've been nice to know how to make it.
Speaker 2: No, then you just get all that stuff. Yes, how
Speaker 2: you make it's your problem. Good luck.
Speaker 1: Expect me to write a book and tell you how
Speaker 1: to do something.
Speaker 2: It's really rude like me to tell you to live
Speaker 2: your lives. Yes, happy hunting.
Speaker 3: Soak the mushrooms in hot water for twenty minutes. Oh see,
Speaker 3: that's why you're magic.
Speaker 2: Yes, you see. Then drain the porcini, keeping the liquid
Speaker 2: and roughly chop strain the liquid through a sieve lined
Speaker 2: with kitchen paper to remove the grit.
Speaker 3: Melt the butter in a thick bottomed pan. Add the garlic, sage,
Speaker 3: and chili and fry gently until the garlic is soft.
Speaker 3: Add the porcini and stir to combine. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: this is so good.
Speaker 2: This is working already.
Speaker 3: This is what I need.
Speaker 1: Is all I need?
Speaker 2: Yes, cook for fifteen minutes. When the porcini is soft,
Speaker 2: stir in the cream, lemon, zest and juice, and season.
Speaker 3: Cook the tagliae in boiling salted water until aldente.
Speaker 2: Then drain, add to the sauce, toss well, pour wine,
Speaker 2: drink and enjoy.
Speaker 1: Good And so tell me about cooking. And do you
Speaker 1: make tagutailey? Do you make a little pasta with the kids.
Speaker 2: Well, pasta is the absolute staple of our house, the
Speaker 2: absolute staple, as I'm sure it is for many people
Speaker 2: with young children. However, I've been out for some beautiful
Speaker 2: dinners with Carien and she's come home and then made
Speaker 2: a bowl of pasta with butter and stage and I,
Speaker 2: with great genuine wonderment, go way, way way, and how
Speaker 2: sometimes you do come home hungry?
Speaker 3: Thanks. Yeah, I love the food when I eat it.
Speaker 3: And then if we've stayed up, if miraculously I've made
Speaker 3: it awake beyond nine pm, which is difficult for me
Speaker 3: by ten thirty.
Speaker 1: Any More, food, did you discover early on the food
Speaker 1: that you ate affected the way you acted? So that
Speaker 1: would you find that if you're doing a scene that
Speaker 1: you would want to be not full of food or
Speaker 1: you wanted to eat you know? And also if you ask,
Speaker 1: this is a load of many questions directors. They never
Speaker 1: want to stop food.
Speaker 2: I just want to stop and thinking that there was
Speaker 2: one French director when I worked in France. There's one
Speaker 2: French director I worked with who is just a true gastro.
Speaker 2: What's the word I'm looking for? Yeah, he was like
Speaker 2: he was like no, he sit down for one hour,
Speaker 2: one hour half, we have a nice launch, and he goes,
Speaker 2: it's not like America where you get one plate and
Speaker 2: you put sushi on it and a burger and salad,
Speaker 2: French fries and you put all mess on one plate.
Speaker 2: This terrible one thing. Yes, And then so we went
Speaker 2: into this beautiful tent. There's there's long trestle tables with
Speaker 2: white linen, classes wine on that. I was like this
Speaker 2: first day, I was like, oh my god, where am I?
Speaker 2: And we all sat down and I'm next to the
Speaker 2: director and I said, I said, I said, do we choose?
Speaker 2: Is there a menu? Because no, they will come and
Speaker 2: put it in front of you, and it's sort of
Speaker 2: like this sort of yeah, this sort of you know,
Speaker 2: duck liver put down in front of us. And I went,
Speaker 2: but what if you're a vegetarian? And he took a
Speaker 2: second and just went, sorry, that was was.
Speaker 1: That the one? I mean? But normally what happens, Well.
Speaker 3: I think we can both confirm that I mostly donuts.
Speaker 2: Donut fiend she can inhale them not so much anymore.
Speaker 3: But when we were doing The Americans, we were shooting
Speaker 3: that here in New York and often in winter outside
Speaker 3: night and I would inhale donut.
Speaker 2: I became your kind of true comfort and seemingly engine fuels.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure that was really good for my health.
Speaker 1: Can we as we mentioned it? You know my obsession Americans? No, really,
Speaker 1: I have to say, you know, I've loved them all.
Speaker 1: I you know what people said to Richard, when do
Speaker 1: you have time to watch so much? But you know
Speaker 1: it wasn't but we watched a lot. But for me,
Speaker 1: it is the pinnacle. It just was. It was about family,
Speaker 1: It was about marriage, it was about secrecy, it was
Speaker 1: about loyalty. But I think that there were so many
Speaker 1: aspects of the American and so that was just stunning, beautful.
Speaker 1: And there were meal times it was a domestic setting.
Speaker 1: There was the times when the kids would go next
Speaker 1: door and eat something or be at a table. Was
Speaker 1: your feeling about that?
Speaker 2: There was definitely thought, a lot of thought, possibly more
Speaker 2: by the writers about when when it seemed when it
Speaker 2: was meant to be presented as an excess, that that
Speaker 2: Philip Elizabeth might go or Elizabeth possibly I won't speak
Speaker 2: on your behalf might go my you know, might be
Speaker 2: post or repelled by it, by the indulgence of it,
Speaker 2: or the excess of it. There was actually an episode
Speaker 2: I directed when Martha is being relocated to you know,
Speaker 2: one of the characters being relocated to Moscow for helping
Speaker 2: the kdub And it was a very brief moment, but
Speaker 2: I just I just put in this moment where she's
Speaker 2: eating peanut butter on toast and wondering kind of yes,
Speaker 2: what her life will be, And it was kind of
Speaker 2: one of those things I just kind of planted in
Speaker 2: as to the just as the choice that we have
Speaker 2: in comparison to what may have happened. I mean, the
Speaker 2: meal times were always always kind of pandemonium because it
Speaker 2: was always when the set fell apart, do you know
Speaker 2: what I mean? Because you're in that one concentrated day
Speaker 2: for so long, everyon goes a little crazy. Everyone is
Speaker 2: trying to figure out how to eat without eating.
Speaker 3: Because you shoot obviously that scene that is you know,
Speaker 3: five minutes, you have to shoot it over four six
Speaker 3: hours because you have to shoot everyone's coverage of it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, And what about now when you're in
Speaker 1: the Diplomat.
Speaker 3: Well, one of the fun things about The Diplomat is
Speaker 3: the writer who I just I love so much, Debora Khan,
Speaker 3: who created the show, and she puts it in very specifically.
Speaker 3: She wants the character to eat like really messy, like
Speaker 3: just constantly be like shoving like food in her face
Speaker 3: and like eat really messy, like a you know, have
Speaker 3: no manners and like a dude, which I think is
Speaker 3: really fun, but it gross. It's gross too because you
Speaker 3: have to continually eat.
Speaker 2: I know, I do. I appreciate that. On The Diplomat
Speaker 2: you do eat. We always I think a lot of
Speaker 2: actors always talk about people those actors who do eat
Speaker 2: on screen and those who can see kind of nibbling
Speaker 2: on cucumber. And I'm always I'm always, I'm always on this.
Speaker 2: I'm always on this. So I remember Noah Emeric and
Speaker 2: I had this one scene in The Americans when we
Speaker 2: ate pizza, and I directed at the time, said, listen,
Speaker 2: I really want to see you eat. And we really
Speaker 2: to map it out, like the length of the scene,
Speaker 2: how long you'll shoot coverage wise when and we ate
Speaker 2: it goes, I want to see you swallow the pizza.
Speaker 2: I don't want chewing. And then we cut away and
Speaker 2: then spit bucket and we were like, okay, we'll go
Speaker 2: for it. And I had I was sweating. I had
Speaker 2: so much dough in my stomach. At the end, I
Speaker 2: was like, I don't I don't feel well. I don't
Speaker 2: feel well.
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, linen, napkins,
Speaker 1: kitchen ware, tote bags with our signatures, glasses from Venice,
Speaker 1: chocolates from Turin. You can find us right next door
Speaker 1: to the River Cafe in London or online at Shopthrivercafe
Speaker 1: dot co dot uk. So growing up and we can
Speaker 1: figure this out if one of you wants to go first,
Speaker 1: so you can talk to each other about because I
Speaker 1: assume you didn't grow up together, but you grab maybe
Speaker 1: you did. You met in the hospital, little beds. Okay,
Speaker 1: that was it, So you sort of started out with milk.
Speaker 1: But what was it like in mobile to carry? What
Speaker 1: was it like in your household?
Speaker 3: My mom wasn't the best cook or anything like that,
Speaker 3: but what she was great at was you know, my
Speaker 3: dad traveled a lot, so it was he was just
Speaker 3: like a suit for like a car company, so he
Speaker 3: would get in the car and drive multiple places. And
Speaker 3: it was my mom and three kids, four nights a week,
Speaker 3: and even though she wasn't such a great cook, what
Speaker 3: she was was just you know, like, do you want
Speaker 3: pancakes tonight? Eating pancakes tonight. There were no rules and
Speaker 3: there weren't that the magic of that was really nice
Speaker 3: to grow up with. That being said, I really noticed
Speaker 3: when there was good cooking that you know, a friend's
Speaker 3: house or something, and no disrespect to my mom at all.
Speaker 3: But I loved mothers who really spent time, and I
Speaker 3: remember watching them cook and the way, we know, loving
Speaker 3: that whole feeling. And then as I grew up, I
Speaker 3: guess I, oh, both my grandmothers were great cooks.
Speaker 1: Grandmothers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny because they're very different. They were raised
Speaker 3: in completely different places, but they both made an incredible
Speaker 3: homemade chicken doodle soup, so that I definitely remember. My
Speaker 3: dad's mom was a bit more of the kind of
Speaker 3: elaborate meals than there were rules, and people dressed nice,
Speaker 3: and I remember, you know, just kind of more fabulous
Speaker 3: people coming over to dinner parties and things like that, which.
Speaker 1: Was all there as fair.
Speaker 3: And they both the grandmothers ended up living in California,
Speaker 3: so we would you know, drive town say I'm sort
Speaker 3: of kind of near each other as they retired.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you always said you can always remember you remember
Speaker 2: the clink of ice, because cocktails were always big.
Speaker 3: You know, like the tumblers like and ladies wearing like
Speaker 3: nice slacks with painted nails. My mom was a little
Speaker 3: bit more of a hippie and so that was also
Speaker 3: kind of exotic to me.
Speaker 1: Would you sit down to you add to your brothers sisters.
Speaker 3: I'm the middle, so I have an older brother and
Speaker 3: a younger sister.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so with meal times, even though you might
Speaker 1: have pancakes or something, yeah, kind of that's our was
Speaker 1: it always expected that you would sit down.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We always ate together and it was a really easy,
Speaker 3: not stressful, you know, really kind of loving and fun
Speaker 3: and imaginative time. She was a really good mom in
Speaker 3: that way. And yeah, we all ate together, and our
Speaker 3: family we really make a point. Yeah, maybe even though
Speaker 3: our teenager doesn't always love it. We eat really early,
Speaker 3: like six thirty six, and I like that. Everyone comes home,
Speaker 3: you have to eat and you can do anything after,
Speaker 3: but we all sit together. And yes, I mean.
Speaker 1: When you said that you envied the kids that you
Speaker 1: liked going to my son, I have to tell you
Speaker 1: once called me up. He went to the American school
Speaker 1: and he called me up. He said, Mom, can you
Speaker 1: come over to Tedwood Square, which is a square right
Speaker 1: around the corner from where we live, to my friend's house.
Speaker 1: And I said why and he said, well, I just
Speaker 1: like to show you what a good mother's fridge looks like.
Speaker 2: First of all, I don't know how to unpie clous
Speaker 2: statement because saying that to you.
Speaker 1: Exactly because if you opened our fridge, you see, you'd
Speaker 1: see a piece of parme, see some beans that have
Speaker 1: been cooked, and then you know those American.
Speaker 2: Yes double double.
Speaker 1: These people had that, and there was just you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't go, So I don't know because would I go, No,
Speaker 1: good mother. I like the idea of your grandmother. And
Speaker 1: the cocktails. I think cocktails are really that is a
Speaker 1: cultural phenom, don't you think, Matthew? Eventually did you have
Speaker 1: cocktails and whales?
Speaker 2: Not so much cocktails. The staples I think for my
Speaker 2: parents were sherry. There was always a kickoff. Was always
Speaker 2: a sherry and then and then wine with the meal. Yes,
Speaker 2: or it was either a shabby kickoff or a gin
Speaker 2: and tonic kickoff.
Speaker 1: Was just for a dinner party. That was entertaining.
Speaker 2: Yeah, shatis were usually Sundays and then sort of you know,
Speaker 2: the gen tonics were usually kind of for dinner parties
Speaker 2: or sometimes Sundays also. But but my day or to
Speaker 2: use it, well, actually any any any day and ending
Speaker 2: in a why but my mother, my mother did look,
Speaker 2: she loved to cook and there's a good cook and
Speaker 2: love to entertain as well. So we did, you know,
Speaker 2: we certainly grew up with that being instilled that we Saturday,
Speaker 2: you know, everyone sat on the table and and and
Speaker 2: I know I've become the stickler in our house about
Speaker 2: table etiquette, about the table. I mean, but we're down
Speaker 2: to basics at this point. We're like, maybe to.
Speaker 1: Use a fork.
Speaker 2: That's a big one. That's a big one. Yes, we
Speaker 2: have to.
Speaker 1: This is scary if I come to dinner to.
Speaker 2: Oh, good grief, yes, my god. Yeah, there's a spoon
Speaker 2: for knuckles. But ilse still have to do no nothing,
Speaker 2: nothing crazy. I'm a little too crazy about the holding
Speaker 2: of knife and fork.
Speaker 1: That is another cultural difference.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, My big thing is it's not a pen.
Speaker 2: I'm like, it's not are you writing with that knife?
Speaker 2: It's not a pen?
Speaker 1: And then Americans put their knife down.
Speaker 2: Yes, when they eat and then so the far more selective,
Speaker 2: which is why, which is why meals take hours? Yes, lord,
Speaker 2: can we mind dying the dessert?
Speaker 1: Okay, So back to the etiquette at the at the house.
Speaker 1: We have to sit down at the table and use
Speaker 1: our knife and fork.
Speaker 2: Correctly, and then and then and then and then you know,
Speaker 2: then went into then went to the second phase, which
Speaker 2: is conversation, which can you please can you please ask
Speaker 2: a sibling a question?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, Joe Biden, I interviewed his sister and
Speaker 1: she talked about meal times at the Biden household, and
Speaker 1: everybody had to go around the table and talk about
Speaker 1: their day.
Speaker 2: And I'm with them.
Speaker 1: There we are, and he became President of the States.
Speaker 1: Of course, this could also end up with somebody who
Speaker 1: just dreads meals.
Speaker 2: You know, that's my hope for the children.
Speaker 3: I think I think we're succeeding.
Speaker 2: Then I think we've succeeded. I think I think we've
Speaker 2: nailed it. Yeah, So the we've set aside money for
Speaker 2: their therapy so they can say we used to dreaded
Speaker 2: times were it was it was positive.
Speaker 3: River especially by the time we come around to him, Well,
Speaker 3: how was your day?
Speaker 2: Yeah, just like it's like, what's the minimum I can
Speaker 2: say that, get me away from this table as quickly
Speaker 2: and get.
Speaker 1: It done as quickly as quickly so the meal time.
Speaker 1: So you so growing up you had they but actually
Speaker 1: it's interesting that you had wine your parents. Was that
Speaker 1: only for entertaining or.
Speaker 2: No, they have wine? Did have mine themselves?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they enjoyed wine. I mean the culmination of the
Speaker 2: week was always the Sunday roast and that was everything
Speaker 2: kind of everything. You know, we'd go into the dining
Speaker 2: room for that, do you know what I mean? And
Speaker 2: it was always Where did you grow up in Cardiff
Speaker 2: and Wales? Was that like my parents were teachers and
Speaker 2: then my father became a principal of.
Speaker 3: A Welsh speaking school.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so, and you know, I think the Welsh,
Speaker 2: like a lot of the Celtcer, kind of very culturally
Speaker 2: minded in order to kind of keep their own culture alive.
Speaker 2: So culture was a big element in the house. Music
Speaker 2: was big.
Speaker 1: You say it was a Welsh speaking school. Did they
Speaker 1: speak anything other than most in.
Speaker 2: The school nor English? Lessons were in English, but that
Speaker 2: was it. Everything else is taught in the medium.
Speaker 1: Of Welsh and had you spoken of before you went Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I learned English.
Speaker 2: I remember, I remember, I remember learning English like there
Speaker 2: was this new phenomenon my you know. It was like
Speaker 2: we used to call it yes, no language, because it's
Speaker 2: all I could say for a while, and I was like,
Speaker 2: why are we learning this language? What's this?
Speaker 1: And do your children?
Speaker 2: I speak only Welsh to our youngest Sam, and he's
Speaker 2: entering into his the beginnings of the rebellion. When he's
Speaker 2: now saying no, no, no, just say it in mama's language,
Speaker 2: when you know the greater complexities are coming in. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to explain to him what insurance is in Welsh?
Speaker 2: Wait what what? Just say in mom's language. No.
Speaker 3: He he knows everything you're saying, and in his accent
Speaker 3: is exactly right. But he likes to answer in English.
Speaker 1: He's in school. I was. I lived in Paris and
Speaker 1: a friend of mine had six children American in Paris,
Speaker 1: married into this very very ground French family, and she said,
Speaker 1: I have to speak to my children in my language,
Speaker 1: you know, because speaking to your children is complex enough.
Speaker 1: Of course, then if you're trying to think about the
Speaker 1: past or the future, chance or whatever it is, you,
Speaker 1: But do you feel more comfortable in Welsh?
Speaker 2: I do, and it wasn't It wasn't a particularly conscious choice.
Speaker 2: It was just something I did absolutely instinctively when he
Speaker 2: was born. But then I speak to dogs in Welsh
Speaker 2: as well, so I don't know what that tells you.
Speaker 1: I want to tell me about Welsh food very sores
Speaker 1: an identity as much as language. With the food, there.
Speaker 2: Is there is in that way that I think the
Speaker 2: Irish and the Scots have, which is very much a
Speaker 2: peasant culture, that off cuts are primarily everything you do
Speaker 2: and the big, the great dish in Whales is we
Speaker 2: call it cowl, which is a lamb's neck soup, so
Speaker 2: it's lamb's neck and then usually potatoes, leaks, carrots.
Speaker 1: How do you make it?
Speaker 2: Very very simply. Everything is basically boiled with milk and salt,
Speaker 2: and that's kind of milk. Yeah, a little bit of milk.
Speaker 3: I remember the milk milk going.
Speaker 2: Not not a huge amount. Well maybe I've mis misremembered that,
Speaker 2: but no, I'm pretty yeah, dash kind of a dash
Speaker 2: of milk and then yeah, you kind of you you,
Speaker 2: you know, fry up the onion and the leaks. First,
Speaker 2: the carrots, boiled the potatoes a bit, and then fry
Speaker 2: up the lamb's neck and then add it all together
Speaker 2: and boil it up.
Speaker 1: Do you take the beat off the neck? Does it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, yeah yeah, with some time and salt.
Speaker 1: What else do you the.
Speaker 2: The other big one was seaweed or you know, lava bread,
Speaker 2: which is a triple cooked seaweed and that is usually
Speaker 2: made into a patty with kind of oatmeal and then
Speaker 2: fried in bacon. Fat.
Speaker 1: Fast has nothing to do with bread, lava bread, No.
Speaker 2: It's basically more like a kind of looks more like
Speaker 2: a hamburger paddy and and and then is eaten with
Speaker 2: kind of cockles. So you know, the majority of the
Speaker 2: country is by the sea, so enormous kind of again
Speaker 2: peasant influenced. Where can they scavenge from from the shoreline.
Speaker 1: But you had the Sunday rose that was always big,
Speaker 1: and that was would that be lamb?
Speaker 2: A lot of lamb My father's family predominantly, A huge
Speaker 2: number of them are sheep farmers. Yeah, so a lot
Speaker 2: of lamb is eaten. It was lamb and beef. Those
Speaker 2: are the big favorites. And then you know, we were
Speaker 2: always obsessed with Yorkshire pudding which I've which I've terrified
Speaker 2: carry with because but your Yorks puddings are challenged.
Speaker 3: Fantastic, isn't it.
Speaker 2: The kids love the kids obsessed. Yeah, yeah, they call
Speaker 2: them those bread things.
Speaker 1: And did you go to restaurants?
Speaker 3: I didn't go. I mean that I don't think we
Speaker 3: had the money for that and I did not go.
Speaker 3: So it was all in my kind of twenties starting
Speaker 3: to go to restaurants and our kids come with us
Speaker 3: to restaurants.
Speaker 2: Restaurants for me growing up very special.
Speaker 1: Is it like in Cardiff?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know it was. It was. There was
Speaker 2: a there was a great seafood game there, there was,
Speaker 2: but there were especial occasions birthdays, Mother's Day we always
Speaker 2: went out. And then yeah there was like you know,
Speaker 2: when when we finished big, big exams, there was this
Speaker 2: one place I think it's still going called the Walnut
Speaker 2: Tree in Abergaven.
Speaker 1: I remember the Walnut Tree was really what was his name?
Speaker 1: Do you remember? I under time, Yes, because I think
Speaker 1: he started a bit before before Rose and I did
Speaker 1: the River Cafes. It must have been in the early eighties,
Speaker 1: said he did.
Speaker 2: The Walnut It was because my parents, my parents said
Speaker 2: when we finished at eighteen, the big you know a
Speaker 2: level that the walnut tree was where we were allowed
Speaker 2: to go, and that was for me like that, the
Speaker 2: dizzy and height.
Speaker 3: What did you what did you eat?
Speaker 2: What did they used to do? This incredible seafood platter there?
Speaker 2: And the first time I met my older sister, she know,
Speaker 2: she finished exams, we took her there and I saw
Speaker 2: the seafood platter, was like, what is that? So when
Speaker 2: I went, that's what I ordered again.
Speaker 3: Because it just seems so fancy.
Speaker 2: It was. It was something incredible. It was like a.
Speaker 1: If you like listening to Ruthie's Table four, would you
Speaker 1: please make sure to rate and review the podcast on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Thank you. So you sort of grew up
Speaker 1: in these houses which were that you sat down for
Speaker 1: a meal, you were cooked for sometimes you had a
Speaker 1: cocktail and your grandmother and did that. And then and
Speaker 1: then you particularly I think you started pretty young being
Speaker 1: away from home. What did you do? Yeah, I think,
Speaker 1: so what was that story of kind of being taken
Speaker 1: away from this or it's hard to separate it from
Speaker 1: the comfort of.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I guess I was.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I started working about when I was about fifteen, pretty young.
Speaker 3: I my life. I love everything that I have been
Speaker 3: able to do because of this strange circus upbringing that
Speaker 3: I've had. But there was a point when I was
Speaker 3: doing a television show in my young twenties called Felicity
Speaker 3: and working crazy long hours, and I had at that
Speaker 3: point real like romantic nostalgia heartache for regular things like
Speaker 3: family and dinners, like really basic normal stuff, girlfriends and
Speaker 3: birthday parties. And because I was working at such a
Speaker 3: pace for so long that I think the wonderful thing
Speaker 3: about our lives now is, you know, we work really hard,
Speaker 3: crazy long hours till three in the morning or whatever
Speaker 3: while we're shooting a show or a movie or whatever,
Speaker 3: and it's this uphill sprint, but then it affords us
Speaker 3: six months off where I get to do nothing but
Speaker 3: do laundry and organized birthday parties and walk kids to
Speaker 3: school and cook bad dinners.
Speaker 2: And you know what I mean. So you know, I.
Speaker 3: Think it informed my real longing for and the importance
Speaker 3: of those family dinners. In my younger twenties, I consistently
Speaker 3: would seek out boyfriends that had that big family and
Speaker 3: those moms who cooked, and I realized, oh, I'm dating
Speaker 3: you for your mom.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, you're you're okay, yeah, yeah, you know I
Speaker 4: want I want that like cozy you know those I
Speaker 4: just think cooking to be a good cook.
Speaker 3: Which I am not. After one kid, I was a
Speaker 3: little bit more involved in it. I would bake a lot,
Speaker 3: do a lot of things. And then now that we
Speaker 3: have three kids, life is really busy and careers and
Speaker 3: I know I'll get back to it. But to be
Speaker 3: a good cook, it's just I just think it's the
Speaker 3: highest art. It's just such a you've got.
Speaker 2: She's got a very good she's being modest, she's got
Speaker 2: a very good baking game. Makes it just gone. And
Speaker 2: every birthday, every birthday, I ask there's only one thing
Speaker 2: I have my birthday, which is a pear cake that
Speaker 2: you make with her. What's the cream cheese frusting? Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a good one, that is That's only only thing
Speaker 2: I asked for every birthday.
Speaker 3: But I'll get back to it. I like, I like
Speaker 3: doing it when I have time.
Speaker 1: When you take the time, When did you leave.
Speaker 2: Home when I was eighteen, you know, going to college
Speaker 2: in London, where did you get I went to the
Speaker 2: Royal Academy to study acting.
Speaker 1: Did you go home when you were living in London? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have such visceral memories of running to Paddington
Speaker 2: and grabbing a four pack of Stellar to our for
Speaker 2: the train. That was what we always what we always did.
Speaker 3: What I need right now? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And the real Yeah, the real treat was always
Speaker 2: say you went back for a weekend or something you
Speaker 2: would like, Mum would do a slightly early Sunday roast
Speaker 2: so you can get you know, the train and one
Speaker 2: of the last trains back to London. But yeah, we
Speaker 2: always headed home for Christmas and all the big holidays.
Speaker 1: Did you have either of you ever work in a restaurant?
Speaker 2: I worked. It wasn't quite I wouldn't call it a restaurant,
Speaker 2: but I was. I was a kitchen porter for for
Speaker 2: a little while, well for a summer, just being shouted
Speaker 2: at as I washed dishes.
Speaker 1: Did you ever I didn't.
Speaker 3: I liked other things, but yeah.
Speaker 2: I played a chef once a. Yeah, who did you play?
Speaker 3: And who trained you?
Speaker 2: It was? No, it was Who's who was the Three
Speaker 2: Mission Stars? Marcus?
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember that, Yes, And I remember when he
Speaker 1: was doing that and.
Speaker 2: I Bradly Bradly Cooper, you know, did a lot with
Speaker 2: a number of different chefs. He was kind of you know,
Speaker 2: filleting grouse and all kinds of stuff. And I remember
Speaker 2: they said to me, and they said, you have this
Speaker 2: scene where you make a French omelet for Bradley and
Speaker 2: then you make an espresso and then you smoke a cigarette.
Speaker 2: And they're like, you'll be fine, You'll be fine, You'll
Speaker 2: be fine. Right, So we had we had all Marcus
Speaker 2: Marcus's people on set, well initially actually have to. So
Speaker 2: they say, we're going to pull you in an hour
Speaker 2: early and we'll show you an hour early. And I
Speaker 2: was like an hour omelet. I was like, surely, I
Speaker 2: put it in a microwave, don't I. This is madness.
Speaker 2: So I'm showing how this how this French omelet is made.
Speaker 2: And there's so much whisky, like you've got to get
Speaker 2: here into this, You've got to get into this. I
Speaker 2: was like, well, that's easy, it's just whisk And I
Speaker 2: tried this thing so many times and for some reason
Speaker 2: it came out looking like a trainer that a dog
Speaker 2: had chewed right, and you could see whoever Marcus is
Speaker 2: kind of one of his suit chefs. Was looking on
Speaker 2: abject horror as the way I was doing this, as
Speaker 2: was the director, like he can't do it. And in
Speaker 2: the end it's not even my hands who make the
Speaker 2: omelet in the movie. It's actually playing the piano. Oh
Speaker 2: my god. It's because and I was so arrogant in
Speaker 2: my in my thinking that was like, oh.
Speaker 1: I can anybody can do it?
Speaker 2: Was it was to me. That's when I was a
Speaker 2: humbling moment.
Speaker 1: Do you go out to restaurants in Brooklyn?
Speaker 3: The good restaurant?
Speaker 1: Do the real scene are.
Speaker 3: My most favorite thing that we did when we were dating,
Speaker 3: and we continue to do even more than sitting in
Speaker 3: a restaurant. I love meeting you. We go to great restaurants,
Speaker 3: but we always sit next to each other at the bar. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I love that. I love going early and you
Speaker 3: can sit closer to somebody and just and we usually
Speaker 3: leave just as it starts getting busy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's the best thing to do.
Speaker 1: It that sounds like things are good, yeah, really good.
Speaker 1: And so the love you have and reminiscing about your memories.
Speaker 1: So there is also food as comfort, so times when
Speaker 1: maybe things are not exactly as you want them. Would
Speaker 1: you turn to a food for comfort? And if you did,
Speaker 1: what would that be? Who wants to go first?
Speaker 3: I would almost always cook something like we're going to cook.
Speaker 3: I mean, you make the joke about when we go
Speaker 3: out really late and I come home at eleven, still
Speaker 3: make that before going to bed, which is just a
Speaker 3: you know, like a really simple pasta with butter and
Speaker 3: whatever I have. I'll even add rosemary to it, but
Speaker 3: stage would be ideal, but whatever. It just kind of
Speaker 3: salt and butter in pasta. That's what feels good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm certainly with you on that pasta. But to me,
Speaker 2: if I'm talking pure comfort, it would it would always
Speaker 2: be that the cow the.
Speaker 1: Super I was going to say, I thought it might
Speaker 1: be that.
Speaker 2: Made just so it's hard lined in that it was
Speaker 2: always the great source of comfort. Either when you is
Speaker 2: to play football, you know, play soccer, and I went
Speaker 2: coming in on a winter's morning when you're so cold,
Speaker 2: and that was always on the stove, and it would
Speaker 2: be with a huge piece of bread that you tea
Speaker 2: and some cheese, and that was that was kind of everything.
Speaker 3: Actually when your mom, before we lived together, your parents
Speaker 3: would come and she would leave and before she would
Speaker 3: walk out of the apartment, everything would be clean, and
Speaker 3: she would leave cow on the stove for you, yes,
Speaker 3: and then she would they would go to the air.
Speaker 2: I would, she would. It was one thing quickly I
Speaker 2: was when I lived in La just before I'd gone
Speaker 2: to Los Angeles, I'd gone to Argentina because there's there's
Speaker 2: a Welsh community in southern Patagonia, and I felt very
Speaker 2: in that very cliched, obvious male way, kind of fell
Speaker 2: in love with Malmon style of cooking and the great
Speaker 2: asado is great, incredible, and I had we kind of
Speaker 2: had a distant We found a distant relative who was
Speaker 2: obsessed with a sad and he taught me how to
Speaker 2: had a cook you know, a whole whole lamb on
Speaker 2: the cross. And when I was in La, every month,
Speaker 2: first in David's day, I would go and buy a
Speaker 2: full lamb and we would we would do it on
Speaker 2: you know, we would do a sada style on the
Speaker 2: cross over like seven hours and have this huge party
Speaker 2: when it was kind of carved up at the end
Speaker 2: of it. That was always a real highlight to me.
Speaker 2: March the first could you do that?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: I like to think that I could.
Speaker 3: I was going to say one thing about you and
Speaker 3: I think is we both have I think we both
Speaker 3: love the bringing everyone together and having really good food.
Speaker 3: But I think there's something in the fun of the
Speaker 3: theater of it as well that we love. You know,
Speaker 3: your friends Jason and Tash are such intuitive, beautiful, creative cooks,
Speaker 3: and it just becomes a whole fun theatrical thing visually
Speaker 3: as well. And you know, we did that thing for
Speaker 3: all of our friends up in the mountains up where
Speaker 3: we had that chef and we said we want to
Speaker 3: do it outside with and everyone came up on the
Speaker 3: mountaintop and I think.
Speaker 1: We both was that here, Yeah, the.
Speaker 2: Whole hot gross.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was really.
Speaker 1: I think food is drama, you know, being in a regiment,
Speaker 1: and also the idea that you know, no matter how
Speaker 1: you're feeling, you.
Speaker 3: Have to act.
Speaker 2: Yes, you have to do it. You have to do it,
Speaker 2: you have no choice. You don't need to do that.
Speaker 1: But mostly I don't have to because I love I
Speaker 1: love being the River Cafe and just see your beast,
Speaker 1: where when are you coming soon?
Speaker 3: Because I'll be back for the diplomat hopefully soon and
Speaker 3: will come always always, always be with I would.
Speaker 2: Okay, you're going to get Sean still with you, very
Speaker 2: very well. I was going to say, ask her about
Speaker 2: the ask about Cowl and sure.
Speaker 1: All our conversation it's really well, you'll meet him, and
Speaker 1: thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you for asking that you fund.
Speaker 2: Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atamei Studios for iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.
Speaker 4: This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Speaker 4: Nigel Appleton.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Speaker 4: Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore, and our production coordinator
Speaker 4: is Bella Cellini.
Speaker 3: Thank you to everyone at The River Cafe for your
Speaker 3: help in making this episode.