WEBVTT - Best of Season Two: Part 2 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.880 Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:05.400 Adami's Studios. 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:13.840 A few months ago, my good friend Lorne Michaels texted 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.599 me to say that Tina Fay was coming to London 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.640 to star in the movie. He knew I would love 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.160 her from the first meeting. It became a friendship formed 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.320 with food. Tina arrived at our house with a beautiful 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.720 box of chocolates for me, as brought up to do 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.480 by her mother, and I brought home a River Cafe 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.520 Lemon tart for her. The first dinner, I made slow 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:38.280 cooked tomato pasta. She ate two portions and then we 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.480 played cards. Did I think baby? 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:41.960 It was three? 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:46.519 I'm actually, you know, being polite. Of course, millions of 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.560 us have shared food with Tina Fay in thirty Rock, 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.600 which he wrote and starred in, and even her name 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:56.640 Liz Lemon was food related. Sandwiches never to be shared, 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.560 hard cheese eaten at midnight, advice given to John McEnroe. 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.080 I'm where to buy the best cupcakes in New York City. 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.080 Her obsession with hot dogs resulting in a food warning 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.399 from the street vendor, a snl, A brandy husband devouring 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.640 a cake. While discussing riots and weekend update and who 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:18.520 could forget the cafeteria scene in the movie, She wrote, mean, girls, Well, 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.160 you've just been in the River Cafe kitchen. What was 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:21.560 it like? 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:25.160 Oh my god, it's the most beautiful dance happening in 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:27.200 the kitchen, everyone working so perfectly. 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.760 I'm Sean Winnowen and I'm the executed chef at the 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.400 River Cafe. Today we're making tomato tellier renni with Tina Fee. 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:40.720 So we're going to make a tegler Reni with the 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.440 slow cup tomato, sauce and butter. Which is probably one 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:50.040 of Route's secrets is adding the butter to it. 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:50.480 Aha. 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:51.480 Now we know. 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.520 We love about a half a cup of butter, you know, 0:01:55.720 --> 0:02:04.720 one person portion. Oh it's not it, yeah, only because 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:06.400 we can't court right into my mouth here. 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:06.760 At the station. 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:12.200 It's gorgeously Michael marry a non human entity. 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:13.560 I would marry this. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:17.239 Plus thank you for joining for that. 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.640 Thank you you're here doing. 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.519 I'm acting in a movie called A Haunting in Venice, 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.560 directed by Sir Keneth Branna. It's when Agatha Christie inspired 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.440 murder mystery and it's been very fun to be here 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.400 shooting in an ensemble with some really great actors Michelle 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:39.200 Yo and Jamie Dornan and Kamilka Tan and Kelly Riley. 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.400 And it's just been fun to be basically on the 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.960 Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World. I've just been inside 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.360 that ride for three months because we're on this set 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.160 that's like a spooky old Venetian palazzo in the dark 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:54.320 all day, every day for three months. 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.640 Is the culture of filming in Britain in Europe in 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.560 London very different? And back to food, fo is it 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.320 a different food culture that it is a little different. 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.840 Our lunch is our hours are very civilized here. We 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.519 stopped every day at six on the dot, which at home, 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:13.200 depending on who you're working for, you could drift into 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.399 eight o'clock, ten o'clock, one am, you could work really late. 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:17.119 Yeah, we s done. 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:19.639 Our lunch is very short. It's only half an hour, 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:21.480 which was sort of we weren't used to it at first, 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:23.079 but none I grew to really like it because then 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.720 you don't kind of lose momentum. Usually you come back 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.080 from Americans that you come back from lunch a little 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.880 sleepy and you have to get a coffee. But this 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:32.880 was a half hour lunch and then back in and 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.640 just everyone offering you tea, constantly drinking so much tea, 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:41.000 which is nice tea and digestives. 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:42.640 Is there a food scene in it? 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:44.600 I didn't get to do any on camera eating. 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:46.840 Oh that's shame. 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:49.880 There was a nice thing on set, which was again 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.880 because food is the only way to communicate with people. 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.360 Because the cast we're all from different places, we started 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.800 kind of sharing our favorite unique snacks from our countries, 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.840 which started because somehow it was Halloween when I first 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.720 got here, and I was talking about candy corn, and 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:09.240 of course no one here knew what that was, and 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:11.000 so I had a friend bring me a couple bags 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.360 of candy corn to share, and we started taking a poll. 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.800 We'd give it to the Brits and film their reactions, 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:20.920 and people thought it was disgusting, which I respect. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.000 I love it. 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:24.200 But it was a great conversation starter when we were 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:25.640 all new to each other and we were like kind 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:27.840 of an icebreaker. And then other people started bringing in 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:30.840 a woman waking A Yoshihara is our head of our 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.359 hair and makeup department, and she's Japanese, and so she 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.600 started bringing in Japanese candy and we were trying like 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.560 and some were great, some were disgusting. So she had 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.680 these plump candy that looked like a children's vitamin. I 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.680 apologize to anyone loves these, but she was so amused 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.680 to film each of us trying them, and it's so 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.520 funny that something could be a complete comfort treat to her. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.800 That to my palette was horrible. And same with the 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.479 candy corn. And then some of the Brits started bringing 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.520 it was getting closer to Christmas, and Kelly Ryland brought in. 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:02.880 She said, this is the cheap chocolate that we grew 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.680 up with quality street mixing chocolates. And then Emma Laird 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.839 was bringing different kinds of crisps. And then we kept 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.919 asking Camille Catan, who's French, like you know what's unique? 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:14.279 What kind of weird candy can you bring? And she 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:15.760 was like, I don't know what I can bring. And 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:17.480 then she brought by the way, why am imitating her? 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:22.520 Like she's Salma hiak like that, and then she Camille 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.560 showed up with gorgeous cheese from France for the whole crew. 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.480 She's like, we don't eat garbage. Yeah, so she brought 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:31.920 this like gorgeous, gorgeous cheese. The one thing I used 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.159 to love with it's Saturday Night Live. Saturday was the 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.400 most fun day because it's the day where it's finally 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.440 all happening and you can spend a lot of time 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.560 being worried, and then Saturday you just have to kind 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.120 of go down the slide, you know. And we would 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.640 have these crew lunch dinner. I guess we'd sort of 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.400 rehearse from one pm till about five thirty pm, and 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.119 you'd go down to the NBC cafeteria and have lunch 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.000 with everybody or dinner with everybody. That's one of my 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:58.760 favorite memories of working there. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.200 Actually, when you're producing a film or a theater, do 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.200 you think about what people are going to eat? 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:07.280 I mean I always if I'm producing something, I want 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.520 the food to be good and to be ample. And oftentimes, 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:12.680 if you want to reward the cast and crew, you 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.000 send more food. We send like food trucks, like pizza truck, 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:16.919 coffee truck. 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:18.120 Yeah, the food is. 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.719 In my I believe food is the only reward in life. 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:25.239 In life good I like that, sure money, sure food. 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:26.120 Yeah. 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.240 We still have a wonderful lady who's no longer with 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.520 us from an Angel who was in charge of what's 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.760 called craft services on thirty Rock, which is you have 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:35.880 your meals, you get in like there's a truck, there's 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.880 catering does breakfast and lunch, but all the food that 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:40.880 you just eat in between that all day there would 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:42.560 just be a table in the hallway with food. And 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.719 Angel had so much passion about her job. And she 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.360 was Italian American from Staten Island and she would show 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:50.760 up with these things. Would be like, Angel, what is this? 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.960 She would just bring them these beautiful like whatever, like 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.440 balls of matsarel, these crazy breads, what was that? Like 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:58.360 rolled up art of choke bread and all this stuff. 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.400 It was so much more than what you would normally get, 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.520 like a bowl of apples and some candy. And this 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.039 episode of thirty Rock, there's a whole storyline about the 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:11.400 perfect sandwich. And there's this thing where I'm chasing a 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:15.120 guy that I love through the airport but they want 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:17.280 you don't go through, they want me to take my 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:18.520 sandwich and that take no way. 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.440 Yeah, but first you have to describe that scene. I'm 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:22.960 not going to do it because I think it is 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.040 one of the great scenes and food. 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.480 Thank you, I will say I as an actor, perhaps 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:32.000 my only specialty is on camera eating. I commit to it. 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:36.200 I'm looking great at it. And so this is a 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.720 scene where Liz lemon Is. She's chasing her love interest, 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:41.960 who is played by Jason Sadaikis, who you all may 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.000 know is Ted Lasso, and I'm chasing through the airport 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.360 and I've been also the other part of the stories. 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:49.440 I've been trying to get the team stirs the union 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:51.400 drivers to tell me where they get these great sandwiches. 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.040 So I've got my special sandwich. And the security guard 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.120 at the airport says, you have to leave the sandwich behind, 0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:00.440 you can't take it through, and I say no, women 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:02.000 can have it all. And I'm going to eat this 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.280 sandwich in one bite before I go through security. And 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.800 I'm still going to catch the man. And so it 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.880 came down to Angel, this woman who did our craft service. 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:12.960 I said, Angel, this is a special assignment for you. 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.239 I need you to make me the perfect sandwich. Normally 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.240 it would have been the props department, but I said, Angel, 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.960 You're going to make the sandwich and and I need 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:22.760 it to be I need to be able to eat 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.040 it in one bite. So she went to these bakers 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.160 that she knew in Staten Island and had them custom 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.280 make I don't know what it was, the softest, still 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.360 a chest bread. And when I tell you that sandwich, 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:38.040 I can remember to this day. That sandwich was so delicious. 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.440 It was an Italian sub so it had like some 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.640 salami and some what I would call gabba ghoul, some cheese. 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.360 It wasn't a fake sandwich. And I ate it in 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:52.720 one take, and I remembered saying they were like, we 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:54.520 got it, and I was like, did we? Because if 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.199 you need me to do it again, I am willing 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:59.040 because it was so good. 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.840 But it goes to angel because the bread. 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.160 Like melted in my mouth. 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.920 One of the most delicious things was very simple. We 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:18.719 lived at five stories up in this tenement and my 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.679 mother would throw in it, throw down in a brown 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:27.120 paper bag, a kaiser roll smeared with a lot of 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:33.680 butter and almost a whole tomato sliced and salted that 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:35.800 and it was the most delicious thing. You'd catch it, 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:39.760 and I'd always catch it. But one time I missed 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:40.920 it and splat. 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:45.920 Mel Brooks makes the world laugh. Watch the producers blazing 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:50.720 saddles Young Frankenstein. Listen to the two thousand year old man, 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.679 or read his autobiography All About Me, and you are 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.080 guaranteed to find yourself laughing out loud. But for me, 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.080 having known Mel for twenty five years, funny is not 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.520 the first word I would use to describe this amazing man. 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:11.040 Hungry, hungry. Before I forget, I would like to do 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:17.800 my imitation of a cat. That is that is a 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.640 perfect sound. It's hard to do, hard to do. I 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.840 do it in Young Frankenstein. I think it's it's a 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:28.000 dart throwing contest and one of the dots hits a cat. 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:28.800 Wow. 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:35.920 Let's begin at the beginning, earliest food memories. What do 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.960 you remember from you know, your early days. Did your 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:39.560 mother cook? 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:39.880 Yeah? 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:44.960 My mother, okay, it was it was a standard Williamsburg, 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:51.800 Brooklyn Jewish tenement food. So breakfast in the winter was 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:57.040 always a hot cereal, cream of wheat or Rallston which 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:01.200 was a kind of barige brown barridge, and then in 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.839 the summer corn flakes, rice krispies or wheaties. 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:06.920 What year would that have been? How old would you 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:08.280 I would. 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.439 That would be thirty five, I'd be around nine That's 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:15.640 when I went my uncle Joe, shortest jew on earth, 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.320 how short he was a character about four to four. 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:24.240 And when when a taxi, a big checker taxi cab 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:28.000 rolled down the streets of Brooklyn, and there was no driver, 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.760 that was Joe. There was no driver. It was so 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.679 short it get just about peer over the you know. Anyway, 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:41.559 Joe took me because his friend Al was the doorman 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:46.240 of the Alvin Theater on fifty second Street, and running 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:51.480 at that same theater was Cold Porters Anything Goes. I 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.560 had never seen a Broadway show. I was nine years old, 0:11:55.400 --> 0:12:01.880 and Uncle Joe took me to see Anything Goes. I 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.160 was stunned. I was. I couldn't believe it, even though 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:07.120 we were in the second balcony, was far away from 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.920 the stage as you can get ethel Merman was too loud, 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:11.800 No MIC's. 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:16.920 She was just anything Goes? Did she say the mother? 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:17.320 Yeah? 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.000 Yeah, the woman. It's on a ship, isn't it. 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.480 And it's on the ship very good? Yeah. And Victim 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.920 Moore was was the gangster the gang Yeah. 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:27.440 Yeah. 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.440 It was so good. At the end, I nearly clapped 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.360 my hands over. I just couldn't stop clapping and screaming 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.720 and shouting. And then I got back an Uncle Joe's camp. 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.439 I said to him, Uncle John, I'm not going in 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:43.160 the garment center. Everybody at three sixty five South third Street, 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:51.160 between on Hooper and Use, three sixty five South third Street, 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.400 everybody in that building worked in the garment center. They 0:12:55.400 --> 0:13:01.080 were shipping clerks, they were cutters, they were designers, they 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:05.360 were salesmen. They everybody I think on the street, these 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:09.480 sixty one, three sixty three through sixty five, these tenements, 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:11.960 everybody in the garment set. And I screamed at my 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:16.560 uncle Joe, Uncle Joe, I'm not I'm not going into 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.400 the garments that I'm not. I'm gonna go into the 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.760 show business. I loved it. I loved it, you know. 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.000 And it changed, but it did, and I did. And 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:27.080 because he take. 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.760 You to food, but do you take you out to eat? 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:32.960 I always went to the theater as a kid. And 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.040 then there was the meal afterwards, lunch, before it was 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:36.520 a day out. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.480 We had some favorites that Uncle Joe would take us to, 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:45.920 where one was called Gallagher Steakhouse. They had like half 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.160 a cow in the window. I always had these half 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:53.560 cows in the window you know, hanging gallaghers and the 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.199 and the steak was incredible. And sometimes you go to 0:13:57.440 --> 0:13:59.560 Jack Dempsey's restaurant. 0:13:59.120 --> 0:13:59.760 And what was that? 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.600 And it was great, but you know it was it 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:06.400 was all meat, it was There never any fish in 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:09.320 a restaurant. Yeah, And I never liked fish. I don't 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.719 think I ever liked fish until I was seventy or 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:13.680 eighty and I went to the River Cafe. 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.720 And so really you never ate fish. 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:18.000 I hardly ever ate fish as But. 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.600 It's interesting to me that you you describe a kind 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:24.600 of modest home life in terms of going your food, 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.320 but but you went out to restaurants. 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:33.760 So what's while a lot of Jewish restaurants were called 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.720 dairy restaurants and they serve stuff like blinches with sour 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:42.720 cream and old dairy. You never mixed meat and dairy 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:44.520 with something some religious nonsense. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:46.200 Did your grandmother cook for you? 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:47.080 My grandmother cook? 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.920 What did she cooks? Which grandmother? Your mother's mother's mother. 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:51.960 I never knew, you never knew your father's. 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.400 No, No, my father's grandmother. I did know. She did 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.920 say to her meals best olden meals in Bensonhurst where 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.920 they lived in a big one family. 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:02.800 Did they come with their first generation? 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.440 Yeah, no, they were. They were European. 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:10.280 Yeah, and so do you think your grandparents brought their 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:12.360 food with them, the food culture. 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:18.080 They cooked the same stuff. Mostly it was chicken, chicken 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:19.120 and chicken soup. 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.360 And uh, briscuit. 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:26.120 Yeah, they made brisket. Absolutely, they made brisket and brown potatoes. 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:30.160 Do you know my grandparents came, They were They came 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:34.520 from Hungary and Russia. And my father remembers my grandmother 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.960 having in the lower East side a carp swimming in 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.840 the bathtub that they would make it filter fish out of. 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:43.120 So can you imagine having aok They would bring it 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:44.400 a live fish. 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.840 Live fish. We would get a live fish. My brother 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.920 Bernie and I were usually one week. We loved and 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:54.880 we called them already, and we fed them bread crumbs 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.280 and we chased them around the bathtub. And then it 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:03.600 was unspeakable. I can't even describe it. Irving, my older 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.160 oldest brothers Irving and Lenny, held us back. We were screaming, 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.560 don't kill him, and my mother would say we gotta eat, 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.960 we gotta eat supper, and she'd kill audience, serve him. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:19.040 It was and we would cry and we ate him. 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:20.680 And then would you get another carp and kill that. 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.280 We got another carp It's so interesting that they had 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.440 live fish swimming in the back in Yeah. 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.240 They it's amazing that you had to say. 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.960 My brother Michael, who you know, just wrote I have 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.120 found that something my father had written about his memories 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.120 of food and just living in the Lower east Side. 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:40.560 But you weren't in the Lower east Side. 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:43.800 The Lower east Side, an extension of the Lower east 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:44.800 Side was Williamsburg. 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.400 That was probably one step up, was it. 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:52.000 Well, it was one step up if you put it 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:57.400 next to a section brook called Bronzeville, East New York, 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.440 and that was really where they coldstoves they don't even 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:02.000 have guess. 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:03.480 Yeah, And we. 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:05.560 Had electricity and way, I guess. So we were one 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:18.320 step above Brownsbeil equal to the Lower east Side. 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.760 In September, the River Cafe will be thirty six years old, 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.360 and one of the great joys of having a restaurant 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.560 for so long is watching the second generation and now 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.280 even a third generation of our early customers grow up. 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.520 Adwa's parents, Charles Boa and Camilla Lowther, have been part 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.520 of the River Cafe family since we opened, and ad 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.119 was gone from being a young child ordering pasta, butter 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.639 and cheese and then playing in the garden space outside 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.439 with her friends to a formidable woman focused on the 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:54.280 political and social issues relevant today. After her own struggles 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:58.920 with mental health and to support young women's wellbeing, she 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.040 founded the organized Girls Talk, providing a safe space for 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:08.040 girls to access resources, share experiences, create community, and feel 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.480 less alone. A place to escape the chaos of. 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:12.120 The every day. 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:13.080 I think a. 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:14.960 Beautiful phrase today. 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:17.679 Ed was just come from the kitchen grilling scallops and 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:21.879 frying zucchini. It's both moving and exciting for me to 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:22.800 have Edward here. 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:25.720 Oh that was so nice. 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.480 Tell me about going to Vogue with Edward, because we did. 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.920 When Edward Nfl became the editor, we did the party here. 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.080 Remember that we had a party for him. I was 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.400 a great party. You were the cover for his first year. 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.560 That was mad, that Vogue party. I remember that like 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:50.200 it was yesterday. I remember I was driving here and I, 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:52.720 you know, Edward, and I still laugh about it now. 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.840 It's like it wasn't naivety. I think it was just this. 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.760 We were just doing something that felt very special to 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.000 both of us. It was like this we were embarking 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.280 on this new journey, and it wasn't necessarily that we were. 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.040 We were completely naive to how the world was going 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.520 to embrace it. You know, not only just people in fashion, 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.000 but worldwide. You know, it really went and viral, do 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:17.399 you know what I mean? 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:17.879 I think? 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.359 And so as we kind of pulled up, I pulled up. 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:22.879 I can't remember who I was in the car with. 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:24.919 Maybe it was like my mom and dad and system. 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.439 We pulled up the Shepherd's Bush roundabout and it was 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.119 projected on Shepherd's Bush round about. 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:32.840 What the hell is going on? 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:34.720 And I looked on my phone and it was just 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.159 like going mad and I actually like broke out into hives. 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:40.440 I was like, oh my god, this is so much. 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:42.920 I don't even know how to deal with this situation. 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.399 I pulled up the River Cafe and Edwin and I 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:46.200 just giggled. 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:48.440 We could not stop laughing. 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:53.360 I think we were both so overwhelmed by what had 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:57.240 happened that we kind of just like could not stop laughing. 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.000 It was mad. It still feels really. 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.840 We all had Ravioli. We had this long discussion before 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:08.480 whether all the Vogue people, the models and the actresses 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:15.400 and the young beauties of today would actually have gluten carbs, cheese, butter, 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:17.960 and whether we would serve it. And we did, and 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:20.520 BO was actually really cool because we said, do you 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.359 want to find out what people want? They get and 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.040 now we're done with that. We're done with you know, 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:27.080 if you have a food preference, We're just going to 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.919 do the menu and what they eat. And everybody had 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.879 ravili and everybody, a lot of people had seconds of 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.639 REVIALI And yet the whole issue at the of being 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.320 a model about your body, talk about being a woman 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.199 in a profession that requires you to be a certain 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:43.320 shape size. 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:49.160 I think I don't remember being worried. I think there 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:52.119 were moments when I was at school where I was 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.600 kind of worried about what I looked like. Sometimes I 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:57.600