WEBVTT - Bob Iger

0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:04.120
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to River Cafe Table four, a production of iHeartRadio

0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:05.400
<v Speaker 1>and Adamized Studios.

0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:12.320
<v Speaker 2>I remember turning to you once and you said to me, well, Ruthie,

0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.440
<v Speaker 2>how many people do you employ? And I very proudly said,

0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:20.720
<v Speaker 2>I employ one hundred and ten people. Bob, how many

0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:21.520
<v Speaker 2>do you employ?

0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:21.639
<v Speaker 3>It?

0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:22.720
<v Speaker 2>He said, how many?

0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:24.439
<v Speaker 3>It was like two hundred thousand.

0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:32.400
<v Speaker 2>That's a lot. Say the name Bob Iger to me,

0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.720
<v Speaker 2>and I think of my good friend who cares passionately

0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.240
<v Speaker 2>about what he cooks, the vegetable garden outside his kitchen,

0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:43.000
<v Speaker 2>and what he feeds his children, grandchildren and the people

0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.559
<v Speaker 2>who work with him. Say the name Bob Iger, the

0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:50.199
<v Speaker 2>former CEO and chairman of the board of Disney, and

0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:54.000
<v Speaker 2>everyone will think of the man who acquired Pixar, Lucasfilms,

0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.720
<v Speaker 2>and Marvel, giving the world some of our most loved movies.

0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.680
<v Speaker 2>There is much more Bobby has done for Disney and

0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.319
<v Speaker 2>for us, and this is what we're going to talk

0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.760
<v Speaker 2>about today.

0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.240
<v Speaker 3>That was very involved in the food program at our parks,

0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.200
<v Speaker 3>and not only have we hired a lot of great chefs,

0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.560
<v Speaker 3>but we also have quite a wine program. We believe

0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:22.479
<v Speaker 3>we're the largest buyer in the largest cellar of wine

0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.760
<v Speaker 3>in the world, interestingly enough, which you wouldn't expect to

0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:32.520
<v Speaker 3>hear about Disney. This recipe is for pasta al lemone

0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:37.000
<v Speaker 3>two hundred and fifty grams of spaghetti, the juice of

0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.600
<v Speaker 3>three to four lemons, one hundred and fifty millilters of

0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.400
<v Speaker 3>olive oil, one hundred and fifty grams of parmesan cheese,

0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:49.600
<v Speaker 3>freshly grated, two handfuls of fresh basil leaves picked and chopped,

0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:55.120
<v Speaker 3>and finely grated lemon zest. Cook the spaghetti, then drained

0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:59.520
<v Speaker 3>thoroughly and returned to the saucepan. Meanwhile, whisk the lemon

0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:03.000
<v Speaker 3>juice with the olive oil, then stir in the parmesan.

0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:07.360
<v Speaker 3>It will melt into the mixture, making it thick and creamy.

0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.160
<v Speaker 3>Season and add more or less lemon juice to taste.

0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.560
<v Speaker 3>Add the sauce to the spaghetti and shake the pan

0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.360
<v Speaker 3>so that each strand of the pasta is coated with

0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:21.080
<v Speaker 3>the cheese. Stir in the chopped basil and a generous

0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.400
<v Speaker 3>amount of lemon zest. And there you have it, pasta.

0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:26.720
<v Speaker 3>I'll do my head.

0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.400
<v Speaker 2>Just hear you read it? Taste of summer, doesn't it?

0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.440
<v Speaker 2>You've just woken up. Haven't you this early? There we're

0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.560
<v Speaker 2>in different times, as have you had breakfast?

0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.360
<v Speaker 3>I did have breakfast, Jack, Okay, tell me about your breakfast.

0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.280
<v Speaker 3>I get up at four point fifteen in the morning,

0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:49.000
<v Speaker 3>so by six I'm starved. Yeah, And I'm a creature

0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.560
<v Speaker 3>of habit when it comes to breakfast. I always have

0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:56.760
<v Speaker 3>Greek yogurt and a nice portion of really good granola

0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.480
<v Speaker 3>and a cup of coffee every day of the week,

0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.480
<v Speaker 3>every week of the month, and every month of the year.

0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:04.679
<v Speaker 2>I do think you have a routine. That sort of

0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:06.880
<v Speaker 2>lack of decision, you know, you wake up and let

0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.520
<v Speaker 2>you know that's what you're going to have, is quite

0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:11.680
<v Speaker 2>in a way comforting, isn't it that you just know

0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:14.240
<v Speaker 2>your days beginning in the same way. But I think

0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.040
<v Speaker 2>of you was such an inventions eater and a curious eater.

0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:20.320
<v Speaker 2>Did you going back to the beginning, begin at the beginning,

0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:22.639
<v Speaker 2>What was it like growing up in your house? Did

0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:23.600
<v Speaker 2>your parents cook?

0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:28.560
<v Speaker 3>Well? Interestingly enough, I live with my maternal grandmother and

0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.320
<v Speaker 3>my parents. My maternal grandmother lived with us, and she

0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:36.520
<v Speaker 3>was from the Old Country. Which country she was from Poland?

0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.920
<v Speaker 3>But she was a nice Jewish grandmother, so her go

0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.440
<v Speaker 3>to meals that are the most memorable were a pot

0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:50.000
<v Speaker 3>roast and stuffed cabbage were the two big ones. And

0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.360
<v Speaker 3>she liked to make mats of ball soup as well.

0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:58.160
<v Speaker 3>But she also made a mean apple pie. Interestingly, my mother,

0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.400
<v Speaker 3>who picked up some of her cooking abilities, was not

0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.240
<v Speaker 3>very adventuresome. And you know, in the nineteen fifties in

0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:09.000
<v Speaker 3>the United States, what was available was actually quite limited.

0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.520
<v Speaker 3>We didn't have access to great fresh produce, at least

0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.200
<v Speaker 3>not in New York and supermarkets even the big chains

0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.920
<v Speaker 3>didn't have great produce sections. I don't think you'd ever

0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.280
<v Speaker 3>get fresh basil, for instance, And so a lot of

0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:26.120
<v Speaker 3>what we ate were canned foods, canned peas and carrots

0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:31.719
<v Speaker 3>and canned green beans and what like. But adventurous cooking

0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.120
<v Speaker 3>was not my mother's middle name. She made some good desserts,

0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:36.000
<v Speaker 3>but that was about it.

0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:39.039
<v Speaker 2>Do you think that as an immigrant you bring the

0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:41.000
<v Speaker 2>food of your country, because a lot of people I've

0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.279
<v Speaker 2>spoken to, whether it's David Adjay talking about growing up

0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.320
<v Speaker 2>as a Ghanian in London, bringing that culture to the

0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.080
<v Speaker 2>society that you've moved in, which might be alien, might

0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.120
<v Speaker 2>be frightening, might be anything that the food that you

0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:56.320
<v Speaker 2>have is part of what you bring with you as

0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:57.000
<v Speaker 2>an immigrant.

0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:59.800
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely, I think you know you bring you know, a

0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:03.440
<v Speaker 3>good thick Eastern European accent and in a number of recipes.

0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. So did she do the cooking in your house?

0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.839
<v Speaker 3>She shared the cooking with my mother, Yes, but but

0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:11.599
<v Speaker 3>cooked often.

0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.080
<v Speaker 2>And would you all sit down to a meal together?

0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:15.440
<v Speaker 2>Was that a big deal?

0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.039
<v Speaker 3>We did. She died when I was sixteen, but she

0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.039
<v Speaker 3>lived with me, you know, up until then, and she

0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.279
<v Speaker 3>was always part of our family meals. Yes.

0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.640
<v Speaker 2>What about your father? Did he cook? No?

0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.120
<v Speaker 3>My father wasn't much of a cook, although I remember

0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.920
<v Speaker 3>him making scrambled eggs from me on occasion in the morning.

0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.440
<v Speaker 3>And he liked to make a good Jewish deli sandwich,

0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.120
<v Speaker 3>you know, he'd buy meat from the local deli and

0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:43.120
<v Speaker 3>Cancot great sandwiches. But beyond that, no, he loved a

0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:47.080
<v Speaker 3>good hot dog Nathan's hot Dogs. Nathan's was the famous

0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:51.200
<v Speaker 3>Coney Island hot dog emporium, and he loved that. But

0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:53.560
<v Speaker 3>he wasn't much of a cook. He was a trumpet player,

0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.560
<v Speaker 3>not a cook. Would he perform, yes, he played occasionally

0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:00.480
<v Speaker 3>in the house. He had sort of lost his lip

0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.080
<v Speaker 3>by the time I was born. He had played some

0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.200
<v Speaker 3>professional trumpet in his day, but he took me to

0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.200
<v Speaker 3>jazz concerts. I grew up listening to jazz and some

0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.479
<v Speaker 3>great jazz players. I saw Louis Armstrong play, I saw

0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:17.160
<v Speaker 3>Duke Ellington, for instance, and that was a great influence

0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.080
<v Speaker 3>on my life. And music is a true love of

0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.760
<v Speaker 3>my life thanks to him. And his trumpet still sits

0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:24.159
<v Speaker 3>in my office at home, does it.

0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So you grew up with this, which I think

0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:32.479
<v Speaker 2>a lot of American as you say, Americans in the fifties.

0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:35.160
<v Speaker 2>So did you find food yourself when you went to

0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:36.279
<v Speaker 2>college or when you went.

0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.359
<v Speaker 3>To Interestingly enough, it started with a cookbook. My father

0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.120
<v Speaker 3>collected a lot of books, and for some reason we

0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.839
<v Speaker 3>had a Life magazine book Food and included the great

0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:52.200
<v Speaker 3>restaurants of the world in it at the time and

0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.480
<v Speaker 3>some recipes. And I decided to impress a college girlfriend

0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.160
<v Speaker 3>by cooking some Italian food for her, and I actually

0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:05.000
<v Speaker 3>loved it. And then when I went into New York

0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.800
<v Speaker 3>to begin work after college, I started cooking for myself

0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.960
<v Speaker 3>quite avidly, and I ended up taking a cooking class,

0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.600
<v Speaker 3>a number of lessons with a French woman of I

0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:20.560
<v Speaker 3>think Egyptian descent, and it was a Mediterranean cooking class,

0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.920
<v Speaker 3>and I fell in love with cooking. And then I

0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.640
<v Speaker 3>ended up in jobs working for ABC Sports that took

0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.000
<v Speaker 3>me around the world and that's when I first got

0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.000
<v Speaker 3>truly introduced to the world's food.

0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:37.720
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that exposure again, going to different cultures and saying it.

0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:39.800
<v Speaker 2>But back to the girlfriend, I want to go back

0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:41.760
<v Speaker 2>to that girl. Did cooking an Italian meal?

0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:42.080
<v Speaker 3>Firs?

0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:43.600
<v Speaker 2>Did that work?

0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:48.120
<v Speaker 3>Yes? By the way, I think it was rather basic.

0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:50.040
<v Speaker 2>Do you remember what you cooked?

0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:55.040
<v Speaker 3>Yes? It was. It was a pasta with vegetables, very basic.

0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.240
<v Speaker 3>But I made my own. I guess it was a

0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.320
<v Speaker 3>light tomato sauce. I remember making my own also for

0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:02.960
<v Speaker 3>the first time in impressing myself. But I think I

0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:08.480
<v Speaker 3>kind of used cooking as a means of presenting myself

0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:13.680
<v Speaker 3>as an attractive date to folks. I remember actually when

0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.200
<v Speaker 3>I met Willow, and I remember telling her that I cooked.

0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.080
<v Speaker 3>She said, you cook, and her eyes lit up. Suddenly.

0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.120
<v Speaker 3>I was far more attractive once you discovered that exactly.

0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:24.920
<v Speaker 2>And then when you started traveling, what was that like?

0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.040
<v Speaker 2>Where would you travel to when you were working? Then

0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:27.640
<v Speaker 2>you were explited.

0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:30.360
<v Speaker 3>I quite an amazing experience because I started working for

0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.680
<v Speaker 3>ABC Sports when I was twenty four years old and

0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.160
<v Speaker 3>I worked there for thirteen years, and I worked on

0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.280
<v Speaker 3>a program called Wide World of Sports, which covered sporting

0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:44.959
<v Speaker 3>events all over the world in rather exotic places as well,

0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.560
<v Speaker 3>including you know, visiting Beijing in the late seventies, and

0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:53.640
<v Speaker 3>South Africa, and certainly all over Europe, but also Central

0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.920
<v Speaker 3>and Eastern Europe and then the then Soviet Bloc countries

0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.280
<v Speaker 3>as well, and Latin America. So it was almost no

0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.240
<v Speaker 3>place that I didn't visit. It was quite it was

0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:06.280
<v Speaker 3>quite amazing. And we lived well when we traveled, and

0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.920
<v Speaker 3>that's we ate well. And so you know, I remember

0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.520
<v Speaker 3>going to Tyvon in Paris, which I think business going

0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.160
<v Speaker 3>to by the way, but it was the thing to do.

0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:21.040
<v Speaker 3>And I remember the hotel to Perry in Monte Carlo

0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:24.640
<v Speaker 3>and trying to remember where I would be. Oh, I

0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.480
<v Speaker 3>remember there was a grill at the Connaught.

0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.680
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yeah, London.

0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:34.079
<v Speaker 3>I remember having a steak there the grill at the hotel.

0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:35.280
<v Speaker 2>Cannon And did you keep cooking?

0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:38.920
<v Speaker 3>I cooked really until I became CEO of Disney, which

0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:41.679
<v Speaker 3>was in two thousand and five, and I and time

0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.400
<v Speaker 3>management became a little bit more challenging, much to my

0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.520
<v Speaker 3>wife's chagrin, but it's one of the things that I

0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.160
<v Speaker 3>look forward to doing, having the time to cook more.

0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.520
<v Speaker 3>And I love shopping for food too. I love going

0:09:54.520 --> 0:10:00.160
<v Speaker 3>to farmers' markets and discovering new things and tasting. I've

0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:02.839
<v Speaker 3>got guts to pick up a book and pick out

0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.480
<v Speaker 3>a recipe, you know, I'm trying to remember. I've cooked

0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.600
<v Speaker 3>from a few River Cafe books a few times.

0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.640
<v Speaker 2>Do you find it relaxing after working to cook?

0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:22.880
<v Speaker 3>Yes, I find it relaxing, incredibly therapeutic. And I must

0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.760
<v Speaker 3>have a glass of red wine open to sit from.

0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.079
<v Speaker 3>And I like to listen to music, and I don't

0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.920
<v Speaker 3>like intrusions. I like to take over the kitchen.

0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.680
<v Speaker 2>I get that. So it's a long way from the

0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:36.880
<v Speaker 2>cans of vegetables that you.

0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:38.559
<v Speaker 3>Did.

0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.959
<v Speaker 2>Your mother and father. Were they part of that explosion

0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:42.760
<v Speaker 2>of food for you? Did you cook for them when

0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:43.520
<v Speaker 2>they came to visit.

0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:45.520
<v Speaker 3>I did cook for them. I tried to be a

0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.240
<v Speaker 3>positive influence on them in terms of healthier eating, but

0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:53.160
<v Speaker 3>I failed at that. It's interesting because my dad and

0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:57.040
<v Speaker 3>mom both had heard conditions and bypass surgery in their

0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:01.240
<v Speaker 3>fifty at early fifties, and I could never quite understand how,

0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.080
<v Speaker 3>somehow I know that didn't change their diet afterwards. My father,

0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.559
<v Speaker 3>I think, used to taunt me. We'd go to restaurants.

0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.320
<v Speaker 3>If I took them to an Italian restaurant and I

0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:20.480
<v Speaker 3>ordered the grilled salmon rocket, he would order spaghetti bolonnets,

0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:22.959
<v Speaker 3>and then when the bread would come, he would wonder

0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:24.840
<v Speaker 3>why there was olive oil and not butter.

0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:28.880
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, generational, But do you think about when you eat.

0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.800
<v Speaker 3>I'm a very healthy eater, mostly a Mediterranean diet, high

0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:37.920
<v Speaker 3>in seafood and low in carbs, although I allow myself

0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:40.880
<v Speaker 3>a good bowl of pasta every once in a while.

0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.520
<v Speaker 3>And a passion of mine is pizza. I've been trying

0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.240
<v Speaker 3>to hone my pizza making skills. We have a nice

0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.040
<v Speaker 3>pizza oven at the house, and so I've spent some

0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:50.800
<v Speaker 3>time doing that.

0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.840
<v Speaker 2>When you traveled, when you traveled for Disney later on,

0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.840
<v Speaker 2>what was that like? Did people really try to give

0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.680
<v Speaker 2>you their culture through food? Yes?

0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.280
<v Speaker 3>First of all, it was always a priority of mine

0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:06.520
<v Speaker 3>when I visited a city to find a good restaurant,

0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.959
<v Speaker 3>and over time, because I visited a number of cities

0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.040
<v Speaker 3>often for instance Shanghai, I visited Shanghai over forty times.

0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.520
<v Speaker 3>I always made it a point to have a nice

0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.680
<v Speaker 3>meal out and I typically like to do it with

0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.720
<v Speaker 3>a small group of people and enjoy a good bottle

0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.760
<v Speaker 3>of wine. And it was my way of relaxing when

0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:31.480
<v Speaker 3>I traveled and not being on just literally being able

0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.240
<v Speaker 3>to kick back a bit and enjoy a good meal.

0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:36.160
<v Speaker 3>And I love the food of the world, and so

0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.720
<v Speaker 3>it was always on my itinerary, and often I would

0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:42.640
<v Speaker 3>go back to ones that I'd fallen in love with,

0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.079
<v Speaker 3>obviously River Cafe being at the top of the list.

0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:47.440
<v Speaker 2>I always say, when we go to a city, you know,

0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.360
<v Speaker 2>we try and find the market, because I think a

0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.000
<v Speaker 2>market tells you also about the culture. You know, if

0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.880
<v Speaker 2>you go to the rialto it's noisy in this fish.

0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:59.120
<v Speaker 2>You go to a small market in Nice, it's about

0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.760
<v Speaker 2>you know, the piece of basil and small bunches of salad.

0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.520
<v Speaker 2>And I think markets tell you and restaurants tell you.

0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:11.000
<v Speaker 2>Food really tells the story of a culture, doesn't it.

0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.160
<v Speaker 3>Yes, by the way, the market and Nissa it was

0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:16.600
<v Speaker 3>course a lea, I can't remember the name of it. Yeah,

0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.480
<v Speaker 3>it goes on for blocks and blocks. I remember, I

0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.480
<v Speaker 3>remember seeing more olives than I'd ever seen.

0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:22.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, exactly.

0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.120
<v Speaker 3>That's a wonderful market. There are a few in Paris

0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:26.880
<v Speaker 3>too that I like and would visit.

0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:28.680
<v Speaker 2>What about the markets in La?

0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:33.480
<v Speaker 3>There are farmers' markets. Willow visits regularly. But we also

0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.640
<v Speaker 3>we have property in La that has allowed us to

0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:39.520
<v Speaker 3>plant quite a nice sized.

0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:40.520
<v Speaker 2>Garden, that's right.

0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.160
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and we grow a lot of citrus. We have

0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:48.280
<v Speaker 3>great lemons, including Meyer lemon and oranges of all sorts.

0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.959
<v Speaker 3>But we also have a thriving garden and frequently vegetables

0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:54.880
<v Speaker 3>from our own garden, which is fun.

0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.520
<v Speaker 2>And what about when you're on the boat do you

0:13:58.559 --> 0:13:59.360
<v Speaker 2>put on the boat?

0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.800
<v Speaker 3>We're on our boat. I do no cooking. We have

0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.240
<v Speaker 3>a great chef and she spoiled us, but we are

0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:10.200
<v Speaker 3>always interested in her shopping and provisioning, which she enjoys

0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:12.720
<v Speaker 3>a lot, and at times joined her to go to

0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:17.040
<v Speaker 3>a local market, which is fun, or to find great seafood,

0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.400
<v Speaker 3>you know, find. We were in Croatia this summer in

0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.880
<v Speaker 3>a town called Corchula, flying the streets looking for a

0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.040
<v Speaker 3>great fish, for instance. That's always fun too.

0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.480
<v Speaker 2>Tell them about wine. Did you study wine?

0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.520
<v Speaker 3>Yes? Yeah, it started when I worked at ABC, and

0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:35.640
<v Speaker 3>I lived in a building on the west side of

0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:38.680
<v Speaker 3>New York. At the corner of the street that my

0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.080
<v Speaker 3>building was on, there was a wine shop called sixty

0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.360
<v Speaker 3>seven Street Wines and Liquors. And I had time on

0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.600
<v Speaker 3>my hands as a single man in New York, and

0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.560
<v Speaker 3>one of the salesmen took a liking to me and

0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:54.880
<v Speaker 3>taught me a tremendous amount about wine and got me

0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.520
<v Speaker 3>interested in an early age, well before I could afford

0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.880
<v Speaker 3>a good bottle of wine. Years I've collected wine, and

0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.280
<v Speaker 3>I think I probably enjoyed it more than I've collected it,

0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:05.200
<v Speaker 3>but I collected.

0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:06.960
<v Speaker 2>Do you always have wine with food?

0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.600
<v Speaker 3>I very rarely have wine at lunch. I mean it's

0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.240
<v Speaker 3>got to be a very special occasion, although a good

0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.320
<v Speaker 3>glass of rose sitting outdoors at a cafe on the

0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.360
<v Speaker 3>Place de Votes in Paris that's licensed to have a

0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:23.960
<v Speaker 3>glass of wine. But at dinner. It's interesting because I

0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.320
<v Speaker 3>probably had wine maybe three or four times a week

0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:31.440
<v Speaker 3>pre pandemic. It's probably six times a week, since I

0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:33.960
<v Speaker 3>like a good glass of wine right before dinner and

0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:35.080
<v Speaker 3>one had a meal.

0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:46.880
<v Speaker 2>Do you work over a food? Do you go for

0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:47.800
<v Speaker 2>business lunches?

0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:51.880
<v Speaker 3>Somewhat? I probably pre pandemic. Would have two or three

0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.920
<v Speaker 3>business lunches a week, and the other days I eat

0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.160
<v Speaker 3>at my desk and get work done. And I shunned

0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:02.400
<v Speaker 3>business dinners, but that was mostly because I wanted to

0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.240
<v Speaker 3>be home having dinner with my family, and I never

0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.800
<v Speaker 3>believed that a business dinner was a prerequisite for being successful. Yeah,

0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:14.280
<v Speaker 3>but often I found both business lunches and dinners was

0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.680
<v Speaker 3>always an excuse to turn what could have been a

0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:20.040
<v Speaker 3>half hour meeting into it two an half hour meal,

0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.080
<v Speaker 3>and I didn't think that was a very efficient way

0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:24.440
<v Speaker 3>to manage time.

0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.320
<v Speaker 2>It's interesting how people use restaurants. I would say that,

0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.560
<v Speaker 2>you know, very often people do very private things in

0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.720
<v Speaker 2>a very public space, and sometimes people will use restaurants

0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.960
<v Speaker 2>to you know, fire someone, or to hire someone, or

0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:42.160
<v Speaker 2>to have a marital conflict, to see people crying in restaurants.

0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.280
<v Speaker 2>Not very many people crying the River Cafe. But what

0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:46.560
<v Speaker 2>do you look for in a restaurant?

0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:51.320
<v Speaker 3>Food is obviously critical quality of food. I like mood

0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:57.720
<v Speaker 3>or ambiyonce a lot. And you know, thinking about your restaurant,

0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.320
<v Speaker 3>what strikes me is that it takes it's food seriously,

0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.440
<v Speaker 3>very seriously, but it doesn't take itself seriously, so the

0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:11.080
<v Speaker 3>meaning it's not arrogant in any way. It's inviting, which

0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.879
<v Speaker 3>is great. I love that it's also but it has

0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.679
<v Speaker 3>a real professional feel to it too, and it is

0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.480
<v Speaker 3>the kind of place you do want to hang out

0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:25.240
<v Speaker 3>in and not just to enjoy the food, to take

0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:27.600
<v Speaker 3>it all in. And it's also a great crowd, great

0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.840
<v Speaker 3>people watching, and I've also fought it's a nice place

0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:32.560
<v Speaker 3>to have quiet celebrations.

0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:36.200
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, celebrations. The way people are at a restaurant does

0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:38.119
<v Speaker 2>tell you about the person, do you agree.

0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:42.560
<v Speaker 3>How they treat the people who are serving them is

0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:46.600
<v Speaker 3>very telling, and also the degree to which they appreciate

0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:50.000
<v Speaker 3>what they're being served. Yeah, that's very true. By the way,

0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:51.560
<v Speaker 3>I fell in love, I fell in love with my

0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:52.600
<v Speaker 3>wife over dinner.

0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.200
<v Speaker 2>Did you tell me about it? But that's the story.

0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.119
<v Speaker 3>We had run into one another at an event in

0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:02.359
<v Speaker 3>New York and a variety of complicated circumstances. It took

0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:06.240
<v Speaker 3>us eighteen months to have the first dinner. Eighteen months,

0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:08.280
<v Speaker 3>which is extraordinary.

0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:10.440
<v Speaker 2>That's a lot of patience.

0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:12.919
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but for both of us. And there I was

0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.160
<v Speaker 3>thinking about this woman that I had met eighteen months ago,

0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:17.920
<v Speaker 3>trying to figure out where to take her to dinner,

0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.560
<v Speaker 3>and we went to a restaurant called Allison on Dominic.

0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.360
<v Speaker 3>Dominic is the street in downtown New York, which was

0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:30.000
<v Speaker 3>not only a really good food but quite romantic. And

0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.760
<v Speaker 3>that was our first official date, June thirteenth, nineteen ninety four.

0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.440
<v Speaker 3>We still we celebrate the anniversary of that date more

0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.840
<v Speaker 3>than we celebrate our wedding anniversary. And I mean, she

0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.280
<v Speaker 3>claims that she knew that night over a good meal

0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.040
<v Speaker 3>at Allison on Dominic. I think I probably did too,

0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.840
<v Speaker 3>But it was the beginning of a great romance. And

0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:54.160
<v Speaker 3>now twenty five years.

0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:56.119
<v Speaker 2>Of marriage, is the restaurant still there.

0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.560
<v Speaker 3>No, the restaurant is not there, but we've carried on

0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:07.119
<v Speaker 3>a tradition of having dates since then. I think one

0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.520
<v Speaker 3>of the nicest parts of my life, and there are many,

0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:12.679
<v Speaker 3>is just being able to go out to dinner alone

0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.359
<v Speaker 3>with my wife. If I know that I'm doing that,

0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.960
<v Speaker 3>I look forward to it all week. It's one of

0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:20.919
<v Speaker 3>the things I missed the most out of from the

0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:24.920
<v Speaker 3>pandemic is my dates with my wife's. Occasionally we bring

0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.600
<v Speaker 3>food into the house and tell our son or our

0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.679
<v Speaker 3>sons were going down to We have another building on

0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:38.960
<v Speaker 3>our property to have dinner just to escape. In the

0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:41.919
<v Speaker 3>graduation speech that I just delivered at the University of Texas,

0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.560
<v Speaker 3>which is where our older son graduated, I talked about

0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.960
<v Speaker 3>being bold and getting out there and changing the world,

0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.400
<v Speaker 3>because there's certainly so much that needs changing and fixing.

0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:56.640
<v Speaker 3>But I also talked about embracing life and my equivalent

0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.560
<v Speaker 3>of smelling the roses, which is truly appreciating every moment

0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:04.080
<v Speaker 3>of your life. Life is savoring great pizza. So I

0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.040
<v Speaker 3>put that into my speech because I do love pizza.

0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:09.840
<v Speaker 3>That is my go to comfort food.

0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:14.159
<v Speaker 2>I was just going to ask you tell me about pizza.

0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.719
<v Speaker 3>A good marguerita pizza I don't need. It doesn't need

0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.480
<v Speaker 3>to be fancy. It can be very very basic. But

0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.360
<v Speaker 3>I'd say, if I can only have one meal, that's

0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.080
<v Speaker 3>what it would be. But I talked in the speech

0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:30.399
<v Speaker 3>about savoring the finer things in life, including friendships and

0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.560
<v Speaker 3>relationships of course, but a great piece of pizza.

0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.040
<v Speaker 2>Well on that we can end a really lovely conversation

0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:44.200
<v Speaker 2>about fact of connection and memories our friendship, and let's

0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.240
<v Speaker 2>have more meals together and I'll make you a pizza

0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:53.760
<v Speaker 2>the next time you come to the River Cafe. To

0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:57.320
<v Speaker 2>visit the online shop of the River Cafe. Go to

0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:59.479
<v Speaker 2>shop Therivercafe dot co.

0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:09.240
<v Speaker 1>River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and

0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:14.480
<v Speaker 1>Adamized Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:17.840
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.