WEBVTT - Trudie Styler 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:04.880 This now is getting very official. 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:16.640 Yeah, you're on the red chair. Have a sea Oh 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.680 my headphones? Yeah? Yeah, get headphones. 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.800 Okay, do I put my hands onto it? 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:32.000 Yes, of course, Okay. I've always lived with and loved 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.639 only connect Im Foster's epigraph in his novel Howard's End 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.479 expressing the moral importance of connections between people, and this 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:43.479 is one of the reasons I'm so happy to have 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:49.199 Trudy Styler, producer, actress, activist, farmer here today, for she 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:53.159 and I are connected. Trudy and I are both passionate 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.680 about the landscape, wine. Trudy has her own vineyard, food 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.360 and history of southern Tuscany where every summer we fill 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.600 our houses with our children, our children's friends, and our 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.679 friend's children, occupying every bed and making space for yet 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.280 another chair around the big table. So here we are. 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.440 Trudy has stories to tell, a recipe for grouse she's chosen, 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.880 and knowledge about all that she produces. Trudy is a 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:23.480 woman I admire, a woman I adore. What a connection. 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:25.280 Hello Ruth, Hello. 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:29.199 Judy, I'm crying. Okay, it's been a long time since 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:29.840 I've seen I. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:33.520 Know you chose of all the recipes in all our books. 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:34.560 The grouse. 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:39.240 Yes, I'm very excited about roast grouse from the River Cafe. 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:43.760 One grouse, plucked and cleaned, and two hundred and fifty 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:50.040 mills of Aliatico di Pulia. So preheat the oven to 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.080 two hundred and thirty s, place the grouse in a 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:57.120 roasting tin, and roast for twenty to thirty minutes. Depending 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.320 on the size and how rare you like your grouse, 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:03.120 we saw them slightly pink. The easiest way to test 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.120 for dumbness is to pull the leg away from the 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:09.760 body at the thigh. Remove from the oven and leave 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.680 the bird to rest for two to three minutes. Remove 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:16.400 and untie the string. Heat the roasting tin over a 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.919 medium high heat. Add the remaining wine and reduce by half. 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.440 Return the bird to the tin and turn to coat 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:29.040 it in the juices. Then serve. This is delicious, served 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.320 with braised gaboloniro. 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.799 Can I introduce Sean. We know and who is the 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.800 executive brilliant chef at the River Cafe, and she knows 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.679 more about grouse than probably either of us or even 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:49.200 a grouse, don't you, Sean, Yes, and everything else. So 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.480 we can talk with Sean as well, what do you 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.720 think that grass? Is it your of the game birds? 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:55.839 Is it your favorite? Sean? 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.280 I think it's when you get them in August September, 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:03.880 before they've become high and really aged. You can they're 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.800 very perfumed and that you can really taste you know, 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.120 what the grouse feed on for example, you know, like 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.400 heathers and little berries, and you can almost imagine the 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:16.960 hills that they've they've eaten off, and you can really 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:17.920 taste it in the flesh. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:18.880 Yeah. 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.640 Well, I can't wait because this really is the bird 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.520 that I have never and I don't ask me why 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:28.280 I've never tasted grouse, but I haven't. So when I 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.799 saw it on the menu, this is for me today. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.480 Yeah brave? Yeah, yeah, it's good. And when you cook it? 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:36.960 Where do you think if you were, if truly wanted 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:38.760 to go home and cook a grass, would you say 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:40.960 to be brave as well? Would you think? 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:45.000 I think in English restaurants or like people cook the 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.560 game very pink, But I think in the way we 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.000 cook at the River Cafe. If you think of dishes 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.400 like a rosta misto in Italy, where things might go 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.440 on an open fire and cook for for longer you 0:03:58.480 --> 0:03:59.960 can cook the meat slightly more. 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:05.080 We also put brisketter and really for just for the juices. 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.920 Today we're doing it with a massive big tomato, like 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:13.440 a Sorrento tomato and a bit of brunello actually, and 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:17.279 cook all that with the grouse. And tomato works with 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.000 the grouse at this time of year, because the grouse 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:19.919 isn't too strong. 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.800 Why does it get more pungent as it goes on India? 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.679 So I think if it's hung so once it's being shot, 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.160 that they'll hang them for a while and they seem 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.520 to get more punchy. And I'm sure that's why they 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.080 would have served them in gentlemen's clubs followed by cigars. 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.359 Because Richard, my husband, used to come in and always 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.640 embarrassingly to me, I always say, I'd like a grouse 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.600 to the wage it and I'd like it really well hung, 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:55.200 a well hung grouse, which could have another connotation like okay, 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.040 but he liked it. He liked it. When a friend 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:00.120 of mine once told me that Peter Rice tell me 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.320 that he was sent to grouse and it was over 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.599 the holiday, and so it just sat in the post 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.480 office of some Irish small town and then he went 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.760 home and cooked it and it was just he said 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:12.479 it was the best grouse he's ever had, but just 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:16.200 been probably about to disintegrate it was so old. So 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.320 this recipe for grouse seems to not be something that 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.560 you might have eaten in your childhood, because I know 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.280 that you had a very very different kind of childhood, 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.599 probably from your children's, And so maybe we should go 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.080 back to the very early days. What was it like 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.400 growing up in your family food wise? 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.640 Well, I was born in the Midlands, in the West Midlands, 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:45.040 that little village called Stokebriar, near to a town called Bromsgrove, 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.680 near to the county of Worcestershire, and so we were 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.320 brought up on a council house estate in Worcestershire, where 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.280 sort of being post war I was born in the 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.680 mid fifties, there was still this feeling of people had 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.839 to come serve and preserve. My mum could go to 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:07.400 the butcher's just once a week for the roast on 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.080 the Sunday roast, and then the Sunday roast was made 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.440 to stretch, you know, throughout the week, and she was 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:16.320 very inventive with how she could stretch it. And in fact, 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.800 I became a lover of awful, which I preferred over 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.440 the Sunday roast, just because it was just very flavorful. 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.919 And so we would have liver, liver and onions and 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.560 kidneys that she'd sote with some mushrooms, and then we 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.440 would have do you know what fagots are? Or savory ducks? 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:39.400 Because my mother was from the north, few was about faggots. 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:40.160 What are faggots? 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.960 So fagots were sausage. 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.560 So no, it was using up the rest of the 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:49.800 joint that hadn't been used on the Sunday, so you 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.479 could use cooked meats or if you hadn't gotten enough 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.160 to stretch for three kids in our cades and mom 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.880 and dad, then she would buy some sausages. 0:06:58.800 --> 0:06:59.880 And then raw on you. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.120 Lots of raw onions were used, and I got the 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:07.360 job of being her apprentice to mince everything up. 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:08.280 And then she. 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.600 Would buy a pigs bladder and then the cooked meats 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:16.960 and raw sausage meat with the onions, salt and pepper 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:22.000 wrapped up in the bladder the pigs bladder and into 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:26.520 the oven it went and was utterly delicious the. 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.640 Way to describe her. To take that effort, you know, 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:31.720 to do that. She could have easily made kind of 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.880 cold beef sandwiches or done lots of other things that 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:39.160 they've leftover joint that she actually did that work was 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.080 going to get the pigs bladder and to make the 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:42.480 faggots shows. 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.360 But I think it was really you know, at the time, 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:50.040 living in rural England, you had a butcher who had 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:54.680 every part of the animal and nothing was ever wasted 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:59.560 because you know, now we have you know, so called superfoods. 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:01.560 I live in New York and so oh, let's have 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:06.160 bone broth, you know, But we were having bone broth 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.760 because my mum made stock from big animals bones, and 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:12.960 she would make soups from her stock. 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:15.800 And that was very typical of the time. I think. 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.160 Did you sit down for dinner as a family every night? 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:19.720 Did she work during. 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.880 The day, Yes, she worked at school. She was the 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:24.000 school dinner's lady. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.800 Have you had faggots, yes? Did you ever make them? No? 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.480 But my mum the same had that kind of post 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.800 war kind of do you think with faggots? And I 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:36.440 vaguely remember having gravy on. 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.640 Did she also cook one big roast and then do 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:40.240 that with it? 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:42.160 My mom did? 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:46.960 Yeah, and then in Welsh actually the day Thursday actually 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.040 translates into liver day, and that was the day you 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.680 just have liver. 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:59.640 I love liver, but I like very pale, real liver, really. 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:04.080 Really, but bring on the blood sheep's liver. 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.560 I think would be gun normal for us. 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:08.720 To have lambs. 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.040 Yes, lambs liver was the sort of the po one, yes, 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:13.880 and pigs. 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:15.560 Pigs liver was the cheapest one. 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:19.000 Lambs liver was actually very tasty tho, yeah, very yes 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:19.560 and bigger. 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:20.240 Yeah. 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:22.360 But also I have to say that before you know, 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:24.839 it was just that if you look at Italian food, 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.479 you know, the food of Tuscany, and one to particularly, 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.760 you'll make a miniestrone on a you know one day, 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.320 and then you'll make rebalta and then you know you'll 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:36.680 have tomatoes, and then you make you know, using the 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:41.319 bread as a way of extending the food again, no waste, 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.559 you know, everything is always used, was it? You're only 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:45.920 your mother who cooked? 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.560 We all, I mean, we were three girls in my 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.120 family and dad worked in a lamp shade factory and 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:56.600 he was also the school caretaker, and I was also 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.760 co opted to help him, which was always much more 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.000 fun than helping mom sort of like because I got 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.680 the washing up jobs, but with Dad I got to 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.760 change into my overalls and sweep the playground with him. 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:15.080 And in the summer we were given permission from the 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.719 headmistress to go into the orchard which was part of 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:23.760 our playing ground fields and was full of plums and apples, 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.320 and we would put the ladders up against the trees 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.960 and we would take home literally boxes of apples, and 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.160 as we both rode bikes, we'd have to sort of 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.680 do copious journeys to get the apples back. So we'd 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:40.080 wrap up the apples in newspaper or brown paper. It's 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.120 usually newspapers. We had the Daily Express every day, so 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.640 we had piles of Daily Express papers and they would 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.000 all go under my bed. So under my bed I 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:55.240 would have throughout the winter my little pals piles of 0:10:55.400 --> 0:11:00.280 our apples. There's smell, and yes, yes I did like 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.440 an apple. And then we would sort of start to 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.520 use them through the winter bit by bit. But still 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:09.360 by March they were going strong. 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:11.440 Why wouldn't they go off? 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.600 Having them in a dark place. They didn't go off, 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.120 but they did get a bit wrinkled, but it didn't 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:23.440 stop being able to make, you know, baked apples, and 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.880 she made so many apples. She made toffee apples for 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:32.040 Walls Road when Yeah, in November, November fifth, Bonfire night, 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.439 she made all the kids in our street toffee apples 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:41.600 from the the purloined with permission apples that were under 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:42.080 my bed. 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:45.880 We used to get sent out BlackBerry picking with a 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.840 big tupple thing and my mom would be like, you 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.560 can't come home till it's full, and then she'd make 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:57.600 obviously chutney jam and then apple crumble apple pie. Because 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.160 you've got your in your We've got the. 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.400 Suet, haven't you, Rucy? 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.280 Yes, I don't know. Have you come across the Torah 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:10.680 suet in your No. 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.600 I grew up in upstate New York. You have to remember, 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:19.320 truly arrived in the River Cafe with a basket, a 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:23.199 beautiful basket. And I would like you to tell Sean 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.120 and I what's in this basket? 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:30.920 Yes, so Rucy. This it's called the original, a Torah 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:36.720 shredded beef suet for fluffy dumplings, pastries, puddings and pies. 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:38.559 And we're going to throw up. Yeah, but that's right, 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:43.240 that's a classic. I love it so this. 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:47.199 This is my appointment to his majesty, And actually. 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.040 I really like the packaging, if I'm allowed to say that, 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.160 because it does look of its time, didn't it beautiful? 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.280 So fluffy dumplings were one of the first things that 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.720 my mum taught me to make, and they couldn't be 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.040 simpler to make because it's three ingredients. It's a tora 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:03.600 beef suit, which is lard. Really, it's sort of like 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.880 made from a cow. They've shredded it for you. 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:08.480 It doesn't have to be refrigerated. 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:10.480 You just this is no I just keep it in 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:15.280 the pantry. And so you have say, eight ounces of 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.880 a tora suit, eight ounces of self raising flower, pinch 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.520 of salt water, combine the lot, and then as your 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:28.240 chicken casserole or chicken stew is bubbling away nicely, you 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.600 put them in at the last twenty minutes, and so 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.280 the gravies go into the dumplings, but the dumplings are 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.760 rising because of the self raising flower. They actually sort 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.640 of like provided much needed carbs for kids in the 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:46.280 growing up late fifties sixties, So if you couldn't afford 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.520 potatoes at the time, this was a very sort. 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:50.959 Of cheap fare, but you. 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.880 Make that, yeah, yeah, let them put them in soup, 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.200 in stews and soups, and yes, it's a And of 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.520 course I live in New York too now, so I 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.600 have chicken soup and mulcible I know. I mean, I 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.040 was going to say that, I'm sure every culture has 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:09.960 their dumpling. Chinese food has dumplings, and Jewish food that 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.760 I grew up with. My grandmother always made mats of ale, 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.680 so mars is that cracker, and there would be chicken 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:20.240 soup and mulcibles. These are probably better have you cooked 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:20.640 with sup? 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.440 I mean that is really familiar to me as well. 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:27.440 My mum and my grandma used to make dumplings. It 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:32.040 was such the most delicious thing, really. Yeah, but it 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.680 does sort of slightly explain. It's just pure saturated fat, 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.320 isn't it. Like nowadays they probably have a health warning 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.760 on them, like too many dumps. 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:49.440 And eight hundred and sixteen calories in one hundred grams 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.480 of this. So yeah, they're so yummy. 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.600 Yeah, but then you could use that to make pudding 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:55.280 as well, can't you. 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:55.920 So you can make. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:14:58.640 Puddings. 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.840 They're good, and so grow up food was it was 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.920 clearly important there was a value to sitting down and 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:05.520 having a meal. 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.240 Yeah, I don't think my mom had it in her 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:12.520 to open cans of things and make pies. I mean 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:17.120 Stingh talks about his mum making frey bentoss pies from 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.720 cans of beef cubes and then making a pastry case, 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:26.160 you know, and that's pretty inventive. But my mother was 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.960 just what she'd say, it was a scratch cook. She 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.240 would begin with the stock, and she'd begin at the 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:35.400 beginning and then and the end of it was that 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.520 we would sit down, even in a council house, with 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:44.080 an embroidered tablecloth that she'd embroidered, and sit together. 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:45.840 It was important to her. 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:49.600 Did you ever go to a restaurant? No, you'd never 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:50.600 been in a restaurant. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:56.640 No. We went to a restaurant once with my nana 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:01.640 that works cook grandmother, and she brought us to sort 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.360 of was like a Lion's tea house in Cheshire and 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:06.680 that was the first, my first memory of being in 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:12.520 a restaurant six seven something like that. And I saw 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.600 somebody eating or looked like a plate of worms to me, 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:22.560 and it was they were these long, long strands and 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:27.800 it was red and I could not believe my eyes. 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.840 It's like, are they eating worms with all that red sauce? 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.800 Is that the worm's blood? And I think back to 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:43.240 that image spaghetti, Yes it was spaghetti, and declaring I'll 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.240 never eat that in my life, only to now sort 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:51.360 of like spaghetti. Ili olio pepperoncino is actually my favorite 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:54.680 thing and it served every day in our house in 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.160 Italy because I just love it so much I could 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.000 I could eat it all day long. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:06.120 And you said that you had an accident you had 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:12.520 to get through, which has sounded very scary and very disabling. 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.080 I was only two and a half, so i'd toddled 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:20.320 out of the house. My mum was bathing my younger sister, 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:25.800 and I went down the stairs and the little girl 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:28.880 from over the street had called me to see if 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:30.879 I could if I could come over to her place, 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.480 and did I want to have a sweet tea? So 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:38.240 I said, oh yes, And she was only about five herself, 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:41.200 I think, and she took me over to their house. 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:43.720 She got me a suite, and I think her mother 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.160 thought that I was going to be escorted back to. 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.119 Our house and I wasn't. 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:54.160 So I was crossing the road and a fifteen year 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:59.920 old kid had jumped into a baker's van. The baker 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:06.000 was delivering his bread, and the kid had jumped into 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:12.760 this lovely big van and knocked it from neutral into 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.560 first and took the hand break off, and the truck 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:21.800 started to The van started to roll down the hill 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.320 the same time that I was on the ground, and 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:30.280 luckily the wheels missed me, Otherwise I wouldn't be telling 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.800 the story now. But the exhaust pipe caught me at 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:37.120 the back of my head and dragged me along the street. 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:41.280 So I sort of like really taking off quite a 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:42.920 lot of the left hand side of my face. 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:44.359 Do you memory of that? 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:47.480 No, don't have a memory of it. What I do 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:48.760 have a memory of. 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.040 Because it must be sort of deep in my cellular 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:57.240 system of being fearful of the road, So yes, being 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.399 I think growing up, you know, kids can be a 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.359 bit cruel to children who look a bit different. And 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:09.720 I did look a bit different as a youngster. You know, 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.959 I had the very livid marks on my face. But 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.359 mom got a job as the school as dinner's lady, 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:18.600 and she's sort of like she was very formidable looking 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.400 at my mom. She was about fifteen and a half 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:24.400 Stone and like nobody was going to mask with Pauline Styler, 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.280 so she protected me from a lot of you know, 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.520 unfair remarks that would being made. 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.640 Did you know The River Cafe has a shop. It's 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.040 full of our favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.880 and then in napkins, kitchen ware, toad bags with our signatures, 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.560 glasses from Venice, chocolates from Turin. You can find us 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.359 right next door to the River Cafe in London or 0:19:52.440 --> 0:20:03.320 online at shop The River Cafe dot curl uk. So 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.440 you grew up in a house that valued food, picking 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.320 apples and with your father it seems like a very close, 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:15.720 you know, childhood with a very severe trauma. What was 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.000 it like when you left home? You know when you 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:19.520 decided to be an actor? 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.040 Right, yeah, I decided to be an actor. Well, things 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.600 weren't so good when I decided to be an actor 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.280 with my dad and me, because he was very fearful 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.120 of you know what is that nobody in Walls Road 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:36.440 has become an actor And it was just an upsetting 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.600 time because I was headstrong seventeen year old who you 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.320 know had been had been to a grammar school and 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.680 had a great education and loved literature and loved everything 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.159 to do with the performing arts. And I think it's 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.840 a way to sort of like express myself too, that 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.520 I felt that all those years of not knowing who 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.880 I was was expressed. 0:20:58.480 --> 0:20:59.560 Through a character. 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:04.960 And so it was very it's a big passion to become, 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.200 to become somebody in the performing arts. 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:11.040 That was his ambition for you. Do you know did 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:12.360 he want you to go to university. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.440 No, he wanted me to have a safe job that 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:21.200 guaranteed a paycheck. And the Harris Brushworks was the paintbrush factory. 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:23.080 That was the closest to us. That he wanted me 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:26.040 to get a job in the typing pool and make 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:32.320 use of my grammar school education by an office job. Yeah, 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:38.919 I've suddenly my life changed profoundly being an actor, the 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:43.000 student actor, going to Bristol, learning the arts, getting a 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:47.480 job sort of like going off to Manchester, so exploring 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:53.800 areas in England and then eventually the Rawal Shakespeare Company 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:57.919 in London. And I had a season at the Warehouse 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:01.360 when it was the don Mar was the RS's. 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.800 Other home other than the Old Witch. 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.400 And then they moved to the Barbicane and put all 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:12.800 the blaze into the barbecane, So you know, the horizons 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:17.840 just being opened and opened and opened with these life experiences, 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:21.200 and then you know, sort of then if we're talking 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:26.520 food and wine, sort of trying new new things. Traveling 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:30.879 to Morocco was a big change of scenery for me 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:35.520 when I was eighteen, hitch hikings through the country with 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:39.439 my boyfriend and staying there for three months. It was 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.520 sort of like an amazing experience of the first time 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:44.960 I'd had Middle Eastern food. 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:47.359 So you know, all these. 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:51.520 Sights and sounds and smells or evocative, aren't they to 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.600 the country's palette and what they are like? And so 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:00.320 you begin to be inclusive in your own diet of 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:05.439 so many different flavors and tastes that you acquire with 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:07.080 the years that go by. 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:10.600 I think it's exposure, isn't it. And I always think 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:14.719 that one of the defining things for our families. You know, 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:19.360 I know that my grandparents were immigrants from Russia and Hungary, 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:23.080 so their vision was very small. So my father and 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:26.040 mother were a product of that and grew and grew. 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:29.920