WEBVTT - Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.680 You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair. 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:09.520 When Greta, Gerwig and Noah Boundback wrote to say they 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.200 were moving to London for a year, we decided to 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.120 meet for Sunday lunch in the River Cafe. After that 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:17.680 first lunch we made a date for the following Sunday, 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.599 and after the second one, we agreed to meet for 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.040 the one after that. On the third Sunday, Harold, their 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.920 five year old son, turned to me and said, Ruthie, 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.680 is this the meaning of tradition? And from that moment 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.159 on our Sunday lunches became known between the four of 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:38.000 us as tradition, as in, what time are we meeting 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.720 for tradition? Will you be here next week? 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:41.680 For tradition? 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:47.640 And even that was a delicious tradition. This Sunday, Noah, 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.080 Greta and I are here in the River Cafe to 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:54.480 talk about food and live food and friendship, beautiful movies 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.320 they've made for all of us. And when we're done, 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.400 Harold will join us and I will have lunch. Three 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.080 people I love and adore with all my heart. Now 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:09.840 that's tradition. Oh, that was beautiful When we chose the 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.319 recipe future, and then are all these complicated recipes of 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.280 pastas and risottos and desserts. And I thought that Noah's 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.240 thing is to order steak steak to share. Right, stay 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:22.840 for the steak for the table, and then I put 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.039 in the horse spratish because I know we always order 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:26.040 extra horsetratish. 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.679 I love horse. Yeah, so we do that. 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.880 One hundred grams fresh horse radish. 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:37.920 One tablespoon white wine vinegar, half a lemon, two hundred 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.640 and fifty mililters crem fresh. 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:44.160 Peel and great the horse radish on the fine part 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:45.080 of the cheese grater. 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.400 Then add the vinegar and lemon juice, season with salt 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.120 and pepper, and gently stir in the crim fresh. 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:52.080 Add one more thing. 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.040 Make more of it than you think you'll need, because 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.480 you'll want more. Or if you're me, you will steak 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:03.520 four hundred RIBI steak about six centimeters thick, Sea. 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:05.200 Salt, extra virgin olive oil. 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:07.720 The trick is to have the confidence to leave the 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.400 steaks on the grill for the full cooking time. 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.239 It means they will get those dramatic griddle markings. 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:16.400 It is vital to rest your meat, which makes it 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.600 juicier and more full of flavor. 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.000 About thirty minutes before cooking, remove the steak from the 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.400 refrigerator uncovered and let it come to room temperature. 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.400 Preheat a barbecue or a grill to a high heat. 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.160 Season the steak on both sides with salt and pepper. 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:37.120 Grill the steak on one side for twelve minutes. Turn 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.320 over the steak with tongs and grill for another twelve 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:41.720 minutes on the other side. 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.120 Put the steak on a warm plate, drizzle with oil, 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:47.040 and rest for twenty minutes. 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.640 Slice the steak thickly on the diagonal and serve. 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:52.639 Like rest for twenty minute. Sounds like you take it. 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.880 You take a rest, yeah, but both of you could 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:58.760 rest for twenty ran the steak. 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.760 One thing we talk about, it's the Nora Ephron one 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.080 for the table. When she died, the New York Times 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.080 for her obituary had there was like a list and 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.560 it was things I'll miss and things I won't miss, 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:16.480 and you realize it's things all miss from the world. 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.440 But one of the things is one for the table. 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.320 When you're ordering and you say, and just one for 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.480 the table. One to the table, And I was like, oh, 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:27.680 I will miss one for the table. 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:29.360 That's such a nice concept. 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.280 We'll get it, you know, maybe, yeah, the other world 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:34.280 will have another. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:35.400 One, another one for the table. 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.800 My hope is that it's all the vibe of the 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.120 next one is just one for the table. 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.800 That's the well, that's the thing. And was it defending 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:44.840 defending her life? 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.480 The Albert Brooks movie, you know, where they it's like 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:52.280 they're in a kind of limbo where they're they're judging. Essentially, 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:53.760 it's like to figure out where you're going to go, 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.120 if you're going to go up or down, and they 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:57.840 sort of go to court in a way and have 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:01.520 to defend their lives. But while there it's him, it's 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.080 our Brooks and Meryl Streep. And and while they're there 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.720 they can eat anything they want because there's no consequences. 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:10.600 So there's a lot of good eating in that one 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:11.080 as well. 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.840 In cinema, I was trying to think of the great 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:18.680 scenes of movies about you know, there's obviously The Godfather 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:24.000 where he's making good fellows who when they're in prison, 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:28.440 and you probably my time, there was Tom Jones, which 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.920 was Albert and Suside York and do you remember they 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.080 were just eating. It was sex and seduction. And I 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:35.560 was like. 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:40.880 Eryl Flynn in robin Hood. He comes into the Kings 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:42.520 and he thinks, and he takes that. 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:47.880 Big or whatever their leg of something and and he 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:49.920 sits back in the chair and he eats. 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:50.560 It really confidently. 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:52.840 But I remember thinking, I mean, I loved that movie, 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.960 and I loved Robinhood, but I really thought that looked delicious. 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:59.479 That the oh yeah, and then because then he kicked 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:01.800 goes back in the chair when they anyway, it's really good. 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:06.120 When I made Little Women, my producer of Noah's producer 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.400 Amy and Pascal, she loves food in movies like it's 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.599 a thing. We did all this research of the kind 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.760 of food at the time. We had like American cookbooks 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.760 from the nineteenth century. And food was actually a big 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:23.320 part of the Alcotts life because their father, he was 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:28.159 one of the first vegans, and he moved them to 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:33.240 a vegan commune called fruit Lands in Massachusetts. And it 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:38.360 went fine in the eighteen fifties. And it was fine 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.400 in the summer because things grew, and then they basically 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.480 starved in the winter because there was no I mean, 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:46.960 it was like root vegetables and what they could store, 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.480 but it was terrible. Food was a big thing, and 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.479 I just this is one of the movie that I 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.080 was pregnant on. The woman who did all of the 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.359 food styling and made all the things. She would she 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.680 would make all this sample of like this would be 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:04.920 the kind of breads that were around, and this would 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.480 have a nice family, or they'd have like this kind 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.880 of cake. So there's a scene where the Lawrences send 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.159 Christmas to them and the ice cream and the pepper 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.800 and ice cream and anyway. She would make cakes and 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.720 different things for me, ostensibly just to look at to 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.520 say oh, yes or no. And then she realized I 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:26.800 was just so hungry, and she would start giving me cakes. 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:31.200 And then I'd have nineteenth century cakes that I would 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.840 eat all weekend. And I was just gradually getting bigger 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.280 and bigger, and I just wore these big coats, and 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:40.480 no one knew I was pregnant. They thought I just 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:41.400 liked the cakes. 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:44.200 Do you think about it when you make a movie 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.919 where you're going to be and what that will be 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.320 like most of your movies have been shot in California. 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:54.000 Well, no, it was a California, London and Massachusetts. Yeah, 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:59.920 I like having cast and crew dinners before we start, 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:04.680 like long dinners, big dinners. I think one of the 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.080 reasons I love making movies is because it's these communities 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.640 that spring up and there's like a common purpose and 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:15.440 this it's all kind of impossible, and the idea of 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:20.720 like eating with your community, your makeshift temporary group of 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:26.760 mary band, is so great, and you're all doing something 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:32.760 kind of outrageously vulnerable together and it's like, let's all 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:34.600 have a meal, let's all eat together. 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.680 I when you're filming, do you resent having to stop 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:38.280 for lunch? 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.480 Yes, he resents, I don't mind because. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:43.280 I hear I didn't have to. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.400 It's hard to come back equally strong. 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.160 The one version that works, I think, and I got 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.720 this from David Lynch, if you meditate during lunch, it 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.679 gives you a second morning. If you just take twenty 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:01.440 minutes and you meditate during lunch. She says, that's that 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:01.840 was his. 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:04.200 Would you tell that to the crew We're not going 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:04.640 to have lunch. 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:06.880 Could you imagine? 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.800 No, I'll go meditate. But actually it's funny if you 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:13.040 say I'm going to go meditate for twenty minutes. Actually 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.760 it kind of I think. I mean David Lynch says this, 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:21.600 but people kind of say, oh, in a way, they're like, well, 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:26.200 maybe I should do that, Like just or whether it's 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.400 formal meditation or not, but like almost a chance to 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.520 recharge a little bit and to allow yourself to go 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.520 inside before you have to keep making decisions. But I 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.079 think on film sets, when you're making decisions, when it's 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.360 all going well, it doesn't feel like decisions. It feels 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:45.640 like it's all kind of coming together, and it's just 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.800 you're not torn between two things. You're like, well, obviously 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.960 it's the red hat. When when it's going badly, you're like, 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:55.160 I don't know what hat it is. But when it's 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.880 going well, it's like everything kind of just follows. 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:02.079 There's a great story of Tom's Stoppard and Mike Nichols 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:04.480 on the set of the I mean on the They 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.720 were doing the play The Real Thing in the eighties, 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:13.199 and Stoppard visited the rehearsals and while they were talking, 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:18.760 somebody held up to chairs to Mike, and Mike just offhanded, 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:20.840 just looked quickly and pointed at one and then just 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.960 kept talking. And then Stoppard said, I see, I could 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:27.959 never do what you do because I look they look 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.960 almost exactly the same to me, like you knew exactly 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.280 which one you wanted, And Mike said, I had no 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.520 idea which chair. I just have to look decisive, so 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:38.800 they think I'm in charge. He's like, I can always 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:44.079 change my mind later, which is also directing. 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:47.719 Yeah, that's directing, that's you know, yeah, I think it's 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.560 But I also find on movies sets I revert to 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:54.960 really juvenile food habits. 0:09:55.720 --> 0:10:02.360 I eat Cheetos in sort of like astonishing quantities Cheetos 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.359 and diet coat. But I think mine connects to childhood, 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.760 and there's some part of in a way dioretic movies 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:10.800 out of childhood. 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:12.360 So you want things, I. 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:14.360 Think it puts it well. 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:16.800 I do think what I do do is put things 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.400 of mine in the movie. So I have a relationship 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.920 with I mean some movies. It's even the squid in 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.040 the Whale might he you know, Jeff was wearing my 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.439 dad's clothes, but that that was very direct. 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.680 Even on something like Barbie, which is like, well Barbie existed, 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.160 is like even the version of because Barbie Barbie's been 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:38.679 around since nineteen fifty nine, that logo has gone through 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.800 a few different versions and now Barbie is a corporation 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.160 is back around to the original nineteen fifty nine script version. 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.360 But the Barbie from my childhood, which was the Barbie 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:52.200 from is like the big bubble letters bubbleloaters, and I 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.160 just I remember there was like a moment when I 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.360 had to decide, what is the barbie I want to do? 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:58.120 And I'm going to ask mattl if we can use 0:10:58.160 --> 0:10:59.840 this barbie for the movie. I was like, I want 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:02.440 the one that meant something to me, the one that 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:04.760 when I went to Toys r Us and looked at 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.800 the barbies it was and it's personal to me. I 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.559 also think it's a good logo, that big bubble letter one. 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.360 But I also was like, it's nothing if not, if 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.440 it's not personal, what does it matter. It could be 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.440 made by anyone. It was like, this was mine. I 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:22.800 was born in eighty three. These were the barbies I saw. 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:25.160 This is what I'm interested in. 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.040 Imagine Estate bottled olive oil chosen and bottled for the 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:39.520 River Cafe, arriving at your door every month. Our subscription 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:43.280 is available for six or twelve months, with each oil 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:47.280 chosen personally by our head chefs and varying with each delivery. 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.680 It's a perfect way to bring some River Cafe flavor 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.719 into your home or to show someone you really care 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.440 for them with the gift. Visit our website shop the 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:06.640 Rivercafe dot co UK to place your order. Now, Oh, 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.440 here's our pizza. This is a good tradition. 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.720 Okay, we have lots for everybody. There's lots of pizza here. 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:21.280 Oh my godness, looks so good. My dad was the 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.040 cook in our family. He's still a good cook. 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.280 He actually comes to one tradition we still have as 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.560 my parents come to New York Everythan's Giving and they 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:37.200 cook the whole thing, and it's very stressful for them, 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.280 but they do it, and we gather the ingredients and 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.319 he makes this stuffing once a year, which is the 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.959 Julia Child stuffing, and it's really good and it has 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.120 olives in it and it's delicious. 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:50.880 Did your dad cooked? Is that seene and squid in 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.120 the wild? Then he says, but I cooked and. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:59.480 Hamburgers, hamburger one time when you were sick. 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:00.680 When you were. 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:04.880 He well, he more post divorce. 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.440 He had a few things that he felt he could handle. 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.600 He made blueberry pancakes with his big He was very 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:16.240 proud of those and he would do like a real cutlet, 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.240 and he would do the pamburgers. 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:20.760 Certainly, isn't it? 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.120 Because I had talked to Matthew Parson. I think he 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:25.679 met him, did you was the ambassador here, and he 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.800 was saying that his father never cooked until they were divorced, 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:33.280 and his cure that forced you, but also in a 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.440 nice way, he wanted to reassure his son that things 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.840 were still kind of oh they weren't the same because 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.720 he cooked, but that there was a safety, you know, 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:44.920 and there was love that he was showing him that 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:47.480 he could cook for them and that was his way 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:48.480 of taking care of them. 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:50.920 Or a friend of mine keeps threatening to do a 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:55.200 Divorced Dad cookbook, which I think is a good idea. 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.720 A meal it was, it's called he called it special meal, 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:00.000 special meal. 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.839 Special put that marriage story. Actually the special. 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:03.640 Meal, special meal. 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:10.560 It's ground it's a potato. It's like a potatoes, ground beef, 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:12.719 onions and peas. 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:16.960 Yeah, like all ground up together, and it would be 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.440 like Dad, which I recreated. 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:23.080 Actually that in the marriage story. I recreated that special meal. 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.280 But I remember eating like we we were with this 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:29.400 friend said, when there was a hurricane in New York 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:31.720 and we ended up walking to Brooklyn because we didn't 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.160 have any power, and he made special meal for all 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:36.720 of us and we like loved it. 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:41.320 We ate so much special meal. It was like but 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:45.760 it was like, it's it's definitely it would be good. 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.640 It would be a featured item in the cookbook. 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.920 I wanted to. There was a point and my life. 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.760 I kept going to magazines when then magazines they were 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.200 all these brides magazines, wedding magazines, and I thought, everybody 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.400 I know is getting divorced. So friend of mine and 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.240 I would do a a magazine called Divorce. And you 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.760 could have like the car column, you know when you 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.920 had to buy a car for you know, sort of 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.800 that let few children, the dating column, the taking your 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.600 kids out to lunch column, the cooking column. 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.440 You know, it could be a sort of nobody ever know. 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:19.440 You could do it with like link links now to 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:21.720 and you know, like and also like things maybe they're 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:22.400 selling off. 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:24.200 Yeah, And also if you knew you were going to 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:26.120 be on the cover of divorce, you might not be 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:31.120 so sad about divorced. Oh. He wanted to call it 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.880 goodbye as opposed to Hello, we have We had this 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.160 whole plan, but you know, it was down to one 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.240 of those projects that never never got se But so eating, 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.360 so you're both your father's cook before we have memories. 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:43.560 My dad was more. 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:46.360 And your mother. 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.960 My mother was more of like a sush. 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:53.480 She would prepare, she would chomp and prepare everything, and 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:54.440 my dad would cook. 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:56.960 She would clean up while you're still eating. 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.040 Well my mom, yeah, no, my mom is like you 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.320 put a glass down and you're like, oh, it's just 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:03.680 it's been washed. 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:04.960 It's like it's done. 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.160 She was like a very like a prep and clean 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.040 up person, and she would do breakfast. But my dad 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:14.440 was better at like making omelets, like you'd do the 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:15.600 flip and everything. 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.160 So it's like men and barbecues. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.440 I always think that that is the kind of thing, 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:22.760 but I think it's probably changed now. But it's a 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.520 lot of work feeding. How many were you and your family? 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:29.160 Well, it kind of like expanded and contracted because I 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.320 have a brother and sister who were older, so at 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.840 times it was just me, but then at times it 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.600 was all of us plus their friends, and there was 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.880 always some extra person living with us, Like we had 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.480 a woman who was dancing in the Sacramento Ballet who 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:46.720 lived with us for a while, another woman who was 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.040 a teacher at the college who lived with us for 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.400 a while. So my memory of childhood was always it 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:58.320 wasn't just immediate family, It was always like more and 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.520 so there was a lot of. 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:03.480 Cooking for volume. 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:08.400 My mom always had me eat eggs. She was concerned 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.000 that no one was getting enough protein. 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:11.920 And all I wanted. 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:15.320 For breakfast when I was growing up was dry cereal 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.040 with milk, and I wasn't allowed to have it. 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:19.000 What about moosley? 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.360 Were you allowed at if I put it on yogurt 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:23.000 with fruit? 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:23.280 Oh? 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:24.239 I see the protein thing. 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:28.719 Yeah, but she was like, you have protein, so and 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:30.840 I just all I wanted was like a bowl of 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:32.560 plain cheerios with milk. 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:34.960 And then when I finally got to. 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:38.520 College, that's all I ate for a solid year was 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.399 just plain cheerios with milk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:46.119 And I got very ill, like it was bad for me. 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.040 So what was it like in your house? Did your 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.520 mother shop and cook and she all sat down? How 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:51.760 many of you were there in your family? 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:52.280 Brother? 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.000 Well? Yeah, my brother was five and a half years 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.400 younger than me, but we would we would generally all 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.840 sit for dinner the day, talk about the day, and. 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.119 Did your mom work? Did she have a career? 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.800 Well, she was, she taught and then she was a writer, 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.360 but she was not she didn't have a mostly did 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.320 not have a like a job that. 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.520 Took Yeah, so she could kind of plan the dinner. 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:16.000 Yeah. 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:17.160 She's still a good cook. 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:18.679 Yeah, cook right. 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:21.600 And I was always a little bit self conscious about 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:23.760 her cooking because I had friends who I'd go over 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:25.960 there and it was like you'd eat very basic things 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.480 that I craved because we didn't we didn't do. 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:29.920 That at home. 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.000 But like macaronians, Yeah, like macaroni and cheese, and like 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:36.800 a sandwich that had like a double decker or something, 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:38.680 you know, like there'd be those those things that you'd 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:40.240 see pictures and magazines. 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.760 I would I would always would be was like a 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:44.639 whole wheat. 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.400 And yeah and some kind of like something. Yeah exactly. 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.480 So I would go to other places to like people are. 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:56.200 Always usually always better enough. Once called me up, he 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:58.520 went to the American school. I never keep a lot 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:00.560 in my fridge. I don't know if you had fridges 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:02.840 for you, but I've never had any. Once called me 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:04.199 up and he said, can you just come to my 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:08.440 friend's house around the corner and why and he said, well, 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.200 they were American, you know, they'd moved here from whatever, 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.600 and that is I just like to show you what 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.560 a good mother's fridge looks. 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:21.960 Yeah, and I think, yeah. 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:23.879 Did you have a fridge packed with food? 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.960 We didn't have. We had a lot of Oh god, 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:29.200 I just keep eating pizza. 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.480 But okay, I knew I was going to well also 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.200 know and I would say, we have no ability. 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:38.040 We're eaters more. 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:39.920 Yeah, we eat. 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:42.720 Voracious, voracious. 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:45.000 Did you have grandmothers in your lives? 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:49.639 My grandparents both were in southern California during the Depression 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.879 and grew up really poor, and that kind of the 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:57.879 cuisine of that was very much in what they were. 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:03.640 But my grandfather there were like walnut farms, almond farms, 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.960 and he'd come and he'd just bring always these big 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.919 bags of just nutsy you'd have to crack open, and 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.400 you'd sit with him and you would just play cards. 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:15.639 This is what I think when he was divorced, and 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.040 you just sit with Grandpa Ralph play cards and crack 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:22.400 nuts for hours. And he was great. And the agricultural 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:28.600