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Speaker 1: Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and

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Speaker 1: Adami's Studios.

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Speaker 2: For years, I've wanted to sit at his table and

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Speaker 2: talk to Nick Allett, one of our most favorite regulars

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Speaker 2: at the River Cafe, who when he walks in, absolutely

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Speaker 2: lights up the restaurant with his deep voice and his

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Speaker 2: deep warmth. I imagine we would talk about the musicals

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Speaker 2: he's produced, Lay Miss Katz, Carousel, Hamilton, but he's doing now,

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Speaker 2: his political battle to save theaters during the pandemic, and

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Speaker 2: the great love he had for his best friend, the

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Speaker 2: late brilliant restaurant critic Adrian gil and of course about

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Speaker 2: the food he's going to order. But then I remember

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Speaker 2: the line in the classic movie Casablanca when Ingrid Bergmann

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Speaker 2: asked the manager of the Cafe American for Rick, her

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Speaker 2: long ago lover Humphrey Bogart, to join her. Madam. He responds,

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Speaker 2: Rick never sits with the customers, never the same with me.

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Speaker 2: So I say hello and then leave to have whoever

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Speaker 2: it is, be with the person they're dining with. But

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Speaker 2: today Nick all it is not a guest in the

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Speaker 2: River Cafe, but a guest on Ruthie's Table four. And

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Speaker 2: we are here to talk. He's just come from the

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Speaker 2: kitchen where he baked a lemon tart with the pastry chefs.

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Speaker 2: He'll tell us how he made it, and then we

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Speaker 2: will discuss the food he grew up with when he

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Speaker 2: cooks at home, theater and food, food and friendship. I

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Speaker 2: think even Rick would approve and appreciate how lucky I

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Speaker 2: am to have Nick with me a man I adore

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Speaker 2: and for a while online.

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Speaker 3: Ruthie, what a joy to be here, thank you. So

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Speaker 3: I've just come from making the River Cafe lemon tart.

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Speaker 3: So this is how you do it. You take one

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Speaker 3: quantity of sweet pastry baked, then for the filling you

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Speaker 3: take a finely grated zest and juice of seven lemons.

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Speaker 3: And that is quite a sure in itself. If you've

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Speaker 3: got a soux chef in your kitchen, you can do

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Speaker 3: that work for you. That makes life much much better.

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Speaker 3: And indeed I once had Adrian Anthony Gill as my

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Speaker 3: shoe chef grating the lemons for me. Not very well.

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Speaker 3: I hastened to adding three fifty grams of caster sugar,

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Speaker 3: six whole eggs, nine egg yolks, three hundred grams of

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Speaker 3: unsalted butter, which are softened. You preheat the grill to high,

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Speaker 3: and then you make your filling. Put all of the

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Speaker 3: ingredients except the eggs in a large salcepan over a

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Speaker 3: very low heat, stirring until dissolved. Combine the mixture with

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Speaker 3: the eggs, return to the salcepan, and cook on a

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Speaker 3: low heat until thick. That getting it together so it

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Speaker 3: doesn't curdle is a real, real school. You have to

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Speaker 3: do it very, very slowly.

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Speaker 4: My name's got a tubs on the head, Pastry Chepherd

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Speaker 4: there of a cafe, so we're nearly there. So if

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Speaker 4: I had a spoon, it would definitely be coating the

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Speaker 4: back of a spoon. Right now, you can kind of

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Speaker 4: see it round the edge starting to tick again.

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Speaker 3: When it says that and you draw a line through it,

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Speaker 3: should it hold completely.

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Speaker 4: Orders well with this in particular, because we're about to

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Speaker 4: put it under the grill. If you think about it,

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Speaker 4: the grill's going to add a whole another layer of heat,

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Speaker 4: so you don't What you really want to do with

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Speaker 4: the lemon curd before it goes into the tart filling

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Speaker 4: is actually do it slightly under have it quite a

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Speaker 4: have be quite a thin curd, so that again we're

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Speaker 4: very particular about the spots that we get under the grill. Well,

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Speaker 4: you can really tell when something's been overcooked. The spots

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Speaker 4: are absolutely tiny. As with something that's been perfectly cooked.

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Speaker 4: It looks much more like a sort of giraffe print,

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Speaker 4: and you want that kind of beautiful mouffling over the

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Speaker 4: whole thing. We grate the pastry into the tartshell and

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Speaker 4: then we press it around the edges, and then we

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Speaker 4: go around with a knife, and then our trick is

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Speaker 4: we freeze.

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Speaker 2: The top shells.

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Speaker 4: We have a whole stack once it's made, and then

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Speaker 4: we can throw it in the oven without bacon beans

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Speaker 4: and it doesn't side stone shrink, so very much like

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Speaker 4: a pizza. We're just going to slowly rotate. It doesn't

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Speaker 4: matter if there's a slight wobble to it at this point,

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Speaker 4: because it will will eventually settle.

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Speaker 3: What ideally is the temperature you serve.

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Speaker 2: Then if you.

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Speaker 4: Put it in the fridge, the pastry goes sob You

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Speaker 4: want it to be lovely and Chris.

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Speaker 3: How beautiful will there? You go?

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Speaker 2: Choose to eat it for lunch, might be.

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Speaker 3: Or just in one slice. Yeah, I know, It's definitely

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Speaker 3: one of my favorite puddings. Here.

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Speaker 2: As you say that you choose a dessert, do you like.

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Speaker 3: I love cooking. I came to cooking quite late.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 3: Growing up, food was never a big part of my life.

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Speaker 3: I come from an army background. My mother was a

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Speaker 3: very competent cook, but when living on army bases all

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Speaker 3: over the world, in Germany, in Hong Kong and Australia.

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Speaker 3: We didn't live in England until I was in my teens,

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Speaker 3: and really the ingredients that she had available to her

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Speaker 3: were those available from the NAFI, you know, the army store.

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Speaker 2: She wouldn't go into the local Germany.

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Speaker 3: No, you were discouraged basically from leaving the base. This

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Speaker 3: was sort of late fifties, early sixties, so post war

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Speaker 3: there wasn't that much integration still in the NATO bases,

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Speaker 3: more so when we moved to Australia. But again, we

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Speaker 3: had a year or two in Hong Kong when I

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Speaker 3: was quite young, and it tended to be what you

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Speaker 3: could get from the shop that was available. I mean,

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Speaker 3: we never left the bases. I went to school, went

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Speaker 3: to army schools or my friends were local. When I

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Speaker 3: told my friends I'd lived in Germany for I think

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Speaker 3: ten out of the first fifteen years of my life.

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Speaker 3: They said, do you speak fluent German? Not one word.

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Speaker 3: You just didn't integrate. So for her with a bit.

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Speaker 2: Of mature had she had a career at all.

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Speaker 3: She married quite young. She married my father quite young,

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Speaker 3: and actually being an army officer's wife is a career

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Speaker 3: because you're responsible for so much hr and looking after

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Speaker 3: the army officers wives and organizing charity drives and things

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Speaker 3: like that. That was pretty full on.

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Speaker 2: Was your father on the base he.

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Speaker 3: Was, No. He was away a lot of the time.

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Speaker 3: He was away on maneuvers. He was a cavalry officer,

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Speaker 3: which didn't mean he read a halls. It meant he

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Speaker 3: drove tanks and things like that, and he was away

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Speaker 3: a lot for exercises.

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Speaker 2: So did Jim, who cooked in the house.

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Speaker 3: My mother cooked. It never occurred to me to actually

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Speaker 3: offer to help. I wasn't that interested that family. Myself

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Speaker 3: and two sisters, and you are the I'm the eldest,

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Speaker 3: So our relationship with food was not one of It

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Speaker 3: was not indifference, but it wasn't a key part of

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Speaker 3: my life. I used to years and years and years later,

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Speaker 3: more recently, up until she died, I used to take

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Speaker 3: my mother to really lovely restaurants and she's going down

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Speaker 3: and it's really lovely, but I mean it's awful lot

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Speaker 3: of money. We could be doing better things like going

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Speaker 3: to the theater, and well we can do that as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So would you sit down for family meals every

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Speaker 2: we did after school? You'd come home and sit down

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Speaker 2: to the family suffer.

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Speaker 3: We did by your mother and I would watch I'd

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Speaker 3: watch her, you know, prepare you have to do a

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Speaker 3: lot of entertaining as an army I do. You have

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Speaker 3: to do the other officers wives and visiting offices and

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Speaker 3: things like that. As you move up through the ranks,

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Speaker 3: you then start to get staff. And by the time

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Speaker 3: that my father died in ninety sixty nine, he was

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Speaker 3: a commanding officer at a large base in Dorset and

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Speaker 3: we had I think a permanent chef and two or

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Speaker 3: three other staff.

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Speaker 2: So and then what did that change the food in

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Speaker 2: the house?

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Speaker 3: Not really, it was sort of pretty simple. Staff. The

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Speaker 3: army didn't necessarily engage in Courdunbleau Andtyle sixties. This was

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Speaker 3: late sixties, mid to late sixties on my relationship with food,

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Speaker 3: As I say, it was one of not particular interest.

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Speaker 3: Unfortunately it changed quite radically because my father tragically died

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Speaker 3: in a helicopter crash when I was fifteen, and my

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Speaker 3: younger sister abroad. No he was He was killed in

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Speaker 3: a helicopter, was a passenger being flown to a conference

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Speaker 3: on the other side of England, and to this day

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Speaker 3: no one really knows what happens there was it was

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Speaker 3: raised in the house and there was an investigation, but

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Speaker 3: essentially a lot of helicopters were coming in and the

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Speaker 3: helicopter flying in in front of his when it took off,

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Speaker 3: instead of going out at an angle of forty five degrees,

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Speaker 3: went straight up into the air, straight into his helicopter

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Speaker 3: coming down.

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Speaker 2: And both helicopters were everybody, All.

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Speaker 3: Three, the two pilots and my father were both killed

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Speaker 3: and there was an extraordinary There were two young soldiers

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Speaker 3: watching from a canteen and they saw these I saw

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Speaker 3: the helicopters come down. I was reading about it recently,

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Speaker 3: and they ran. They jumped through the windows of the

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Speaker 3: canteen and ran and tried to pull the bodies out

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Speaker 3: of the helicopters, and they both got very badly burned,

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Speaker 3: and they both got decorations for doing it, but sadly

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Speaker 3: it was too late.

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Speaker 2: It was too late, and you were fifteen. And that

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Speaker 2: did you then leave the military?

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Speaker 3: Well, yes, the army are the army a wonderful family

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Speaker 3: to be part of. It's rather like the theater. Actually

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Speaker 3: is a very close community. But they're also very very practical,

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Speaker 3: and if you lose the commanding officer of a base,

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Speaker 3: of a big base, then you have to replace him

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Speaker 3: quite quickly. So within a couple of weeks of his death,

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Speaker 3: we were dispatched as it were, and picked up and

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Speaker 3: my mother had to find somewhere else to live. They

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Speaker 3: didn't range alternative accommodation. We end up living in a

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Speaker 3: little cottage on a friend's farm nearby.

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Speaker 2: And also did you go to boarding school?

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Speaker 3: I did. I went to boarding school from a quite

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Speaker 3: a young age, and it was traditional to send boys

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Speaker 3: away at eight. But then I had a wonderful break

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Speaker 3: and that we were shipped to Australia. This is obviously

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Speaker 3: while he was still alive, and they gave me the

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Speaker 3: choice of staying in English boarding school or going to Australia.

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Speaker 3: Not our choice to make everything. So I had a

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Speaker 3: wonderful time.

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Speaker 2: In Australia to explore. Were you allowed?

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I was at a weekly boarding place where

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Speaker 3: you could either go home at weekends or stay. But

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Speaker 3: if you stayed, the boys that stayed and I chose

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Speaker 3: to would go on these incredible expeditions up into the

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Speaker 3: mountains and camping in the bush and learning to surf

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Speaker 3: and things like that. It was everything you would expect

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Speaker 3: the Australian outdoor life for a young person to be.

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Speaker 2: I wonder if the Australian boarding schools was any different

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Speaker 2: from British.

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Speaker 3: It was very neat, as you can imagine. We've made

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Speaker 3: a lot of friends there and one of our closest

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Speaker 3: friends was a sheep farmer. So my mother insisted on

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Speaker 3: rescuing a lamb that had lost its mother that they

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Speaker 3: were going to kill, and she said, no, you can't

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Speaker 3: do that. Let me take it home. And we lived

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Speaker 3: in the middle of a little town called Queenscliffe. And

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Speaker 3: the farmer said you can't, you can't die actually if

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Speaker 3: I'm with you. But she did, and we reared it

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Speaker 3: in our garden and it would and it behaved like

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Speaker 3: a dog. My mother would take it shopping with her

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Speaker 3: on the end of a lead and you could hear

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Speaker 3: the local star. Here she comes, here's Mary. He's marry

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Speaker 3: with a little lamb, even though he name is Shirley.

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Speaker 3: So no, no, that was a very joyful, very joyful

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Speaker 3: part of my life.

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Speaker 2: Did you were you fussy about food?

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Speaker 3: I wasn't. Later in life, after my father died, unfortunately,

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Speaker 3: both my sisters contracted anorexianaboza, which was an illness in

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Speaker 3: nineteen sixty nine that nobody.

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Speaker 2: Understood in nineteen ninety nine.

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Speaker 3: But then two girls, twelve and nine, they both they boasted.

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Speaker 3: They never they didn't know people that young who had

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Speaker 3: had it, and they didn't know any two people in

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Speaker 3: the same family. So that was really the only time

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Speaker 3: in my life where food became a threat. Yeah, meal

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Speaker 3: times were a challenge, and I can't imagine it because

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Speaker 3: I'm very greedy and I love food. But my trying

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Speaker 3: to get my sisters to explain, they said, if you

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Speaker 3: imagine putting a bucket of slugs in front of you,

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Speaker 3: that's what it's like. It doesn't matter what it is,

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Speaker 3: whether it's sweet or savory. And of course they've become

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Speaker 3: incredibly cunning and they hide things and they drink lots

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Speaker 3: of water. And I mean how my mother coped. I

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Speaker 3: don't know.

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Speaker 2: That is a food trauma in our life with your

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Speaker 2: father's death, and then reacting with further, well.

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Speaker 3: She dealt with it. She eventually she was told we

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Speaker 3: eventually we find somebody who who had an idea about

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Speaker 3: how to cure it, because we tried everything from faith

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Speaker 3: healers to things called the box, and eventually she found

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Speaker 3: a man in Westminster who said, look, I think I

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Speaker 3: know how to do this, but you cannot have them together.

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Speaker 3: So one child was in one hospital and one was

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Speaker 3: in another, and my mother sort of drove between the two.

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Speaker 3: And her response to try and get me out of

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Speaker 3: that rather toxic atmosphere was basically to send me away

254
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Speaker 3: back to Australia, which is what I did by yourself.

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Speaker 3: Yeah wow, Oh I was seventeen, you know, I was

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Speaker 3: old enough. I just was just leaving school. I was

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Speaker 3: going on a gap here, but I'd never been away

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Speaker 3: on my own. And the lovely thing about Australia then,

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Speaker 3: and this is sixty nine seventy seventy one, they were

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Speaker 3: getting this sort of hippie genre. Two or three years

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Speaker 3: after the England so I was too young to really

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Speaker 3: book a hippie in the UK, but I was perfectly

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Speaker 3: so I hit the hippie trail Ruthie and I lived well.

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Speaker 3: I lived, I traveled all over, I went to I

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Speaker 3: was there at the creation of this extraordinary center in

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Speaker 3: Australia which is still there. It was a festival that's

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Speaker 3: supposed to start last a week and it's still there

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Speaker 3: forty years later. It's called Nimbin and it's the center

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Speaker 3: of Australia counterculture. It's quite near Barren Bay, which is

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Speaker 3: much more famous. And it was a beautiful, beautiful experience.

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Speaker 3: They painted the whole town in rainbow colors and the

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Speaker 3: locals integrated, and an invasion of Australian hippies, and in

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Speaker 3: fact people from all over the world came.

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Speaker 2: And was music.

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Speaker 3: There was some music, people like Donovan turned up and

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Speaker 3: Dollar Brand, but it was more kind of gathering together

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Speaker 3: of faith. And I joined the Radha Krishna temple for

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Speaker 3: a while. Did you well, only because if you chanted

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Speaker 3: for them, they'd feed you at the end of the day.

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Speaker 2: What did they feed you back of food?

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Speaker 3: No, exactly. It was beautiful sort of sweet rice with

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Speaker 3: coconuts and sweet vegetables, all serving a banana leaf. Then

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Speaker 3: I temporarily joined the Divine Light Mission, which gets for

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Speaker 3: the food, No, not for the food that one, mainly

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Speaker 3: for the girls who were very very girls. But so

286
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Speaker 3: I tried those different things, and very sadly eventually moved on.

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Speaker 3: You know, I could have stayed there probably and remained

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Speaker 3: the rest of my life.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that was what was.

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Speaker 3: That was by now I sort of seventy one. But

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Speaker 3: then for a year I lived almost exclusively on brown

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Speaker 3: rice and vegetables because I was hitchhiking all over the

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Speaker 3: country and through the desert in particular. You had to

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Speaker 3: eat what you could carry because they weren't shops and

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Speaker 3: cafes along the way. And a hippie doctor told me

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Speaker 3: that brown rice was a cure all for everything.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember the macrobiotics. Mac there was a place

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Speaker 2: in London when I came.

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Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, there's something in it. Because I cut

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Speaker 3: my foot on a coral reef, and coral, as you know,

301
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Speaker 3: is organic and it's very very toxic, and my foot

302
00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:25,080
Speaker 3: sold up like a balloon and it started to climb

303
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Speaker 3: up my leg and again we were miles.

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Speaker 2: From a proper doctor that's very dangerous.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and he said, look live on brown rice for

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Speaker 3: a couple of weeks, which I mean didn't cure me,

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Speaker 3: but it seemed to stop spreading anyway. I then found

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Speaker 3: a doctor who gave me a large shot of penicillin

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Speaker 3: the regular food. But now I didn't really eat regularly

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Speaker 3: into a regular food as we would know it until

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Speaker 3: I came back, until I came back to England and

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Speaker 3: went to university.

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Speaker 2: And so you never did you become a vegetarian?

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Speaker 3: Well, I was vegetarian, not out of a choice, certainess,

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Speaker 3: and it didn't really bother me. Again, I wasn't really

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Speaker 3: focused on food, and it wasn't until I dropped out

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Speaker 3: of university with a loud report I shouldn't I shouldn't

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Speaker 3: have gone there in the first place. I went to

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Speaker 3: Exeter left after well, I left after it. I like

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Speaker 3: to say my letter to them resigning cross for theirs

321
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Speaker 3: in the post, saying I think you're better off elsewhere.

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Speaker 3: I think mine hopefully got there a beat before. But

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Speaker 3: they had a theatre on the campus there called the

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Speaker 3: North Theater, and we did a lot of very good

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Speaker 3: work there. I just knocked on the door. No, I

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Speaker 3: never did I acted a lot at school. I went

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Speaker 3: to Charterhouse in English standard public school, and I had

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Speaker 3: a very very inspirational teacher who I remember to this

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Speaker 3: day called David Summerscale, who loved the theater and he

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Speaker 3: directed plays. And I stopped doing anything else. I stopped

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Speaker 3: doing sport, I stopped playing musical instruments. I just wanted

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Speaker 3: to thirteen to eighteen to say. And when I was leaving,

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00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:04,960
Speaker 3: and to this day I can picture the conversation, he

334
00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:07,199
Speaker 3: said to me. Look, just before you go, I'm going

335
00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:10,359
Speaker 3: to ask you something. He said, you want to act,

336
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Speaker 3: don't you? And I said, yes, I do, and he said,

337
00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:17,040
Speaker 3: forgive me, but you're not good enough. Oh wow, bang

338
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,560
Speaker 3: arrow to the heart. But he said, look, you're quite bright,

339
00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:23,200
Speaker 3: you get on with people. There are many other jobs

340
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Speaker 3: in the theater that you could probably do quite well,

341
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,679
Speaker 3: and why don't you give it a go? And it

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00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:31,600
Speaker 3: was the best piece of advice probably I've ever had.

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Speaker 3: I've got lots and lots and lots of actor friends.

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Speaker 3: And of course, no matter how good you are, it's

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00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:40,280
Speaker 3: an insecure profession. And I've been very lucky in the

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Speaker 3: almost fifty years I've worked in the theater, never had

347
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Speaker 3: a day out of work and worked with the most

348
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Speaker 3: extraordinary people, had the most wonderful time. So it was good.

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Speaker 3: It was good and sound advice.

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Speaker 2: How do you see the parallel of restaurants in the theater.

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Speaker 3: First and foremost, I love restaurants because it's an extraordinary

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00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:12,439
Speaker 3: convivial experience. It's about being in large groups of people.

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Speaker 3: I would be hopeless on my own on a desert island.

354
00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:18,879
Speaker 3: I love being in crowds I get at Glastonbury. I

355
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,000
Speaker 3: love football, I love sitting in a theater more than anything,

356
00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:24,320
Speaker 3: and I love being in a big, crowded restaurant. There's

357
00:18:24,359 --> 00:18:27,480
Speaker 3: something chilling about going into a restaurant finding you're the

358
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:29,880
Speaker 3: only person there. And it's the same in the theater.

359
00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:32,600
Speaker 3: You know, if you have anything less than the full house,

360
00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:36,080
Speaker 3: you feel that you haven't really succeeded. And the other

361
00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:39,439
Speaker 3: I would say the big similarity is that by and large,

362
00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:44,360
Speaker 3: with small variations, you're serving the same thing every night,

363
00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:46,280
Speaker 3: and we are doing the same thing in terms of

364
00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:49,240
Speaker 3: presenting a play or a musical, but the audience react

365
00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:51,880
Speaker 3: in different ways, and you'll get a night when it's

366
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,680
Speaker 3: absolutely buzzing and jumping, and then for some reason you'll

367
00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:57,760
Speaker 3: get another night were you think they're not getting this,

368
00:18:58,040 --> 00:18:59,920
Speaker 3: they're not. And it may be the same with the

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00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,119
Speaker 3: crowd of people where you've got someone who's tired or

370
00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,119
Speaker 3: picky or didn't like this, or you know, was dragged

371
00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:07,800
Speaker 3: out to a restaurant by their other half who they

372
00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:10,240
Speaker 3: didn't really want to go, and you can sense the vibe,

373
00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,600
Speaker 3: which is why you know the difference between what you

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00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:17,000
Speaker 3: do and what I do is you're there nearly every

375
00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:19,879
Speaker 3: night and you're working in the room. I mean, you know,

376
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:22,919
Speaker 3: we are our great mutual friend Jeremy King. You know,

377
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:25,959
Speaker 3: watching him work in his restaurants is an art, and

378
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,800
Speaker 3: watching you, as you say, you can't spend too long

379
00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:30,960
Speaker 3: at each table, but you spend just enough time to

380
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:33,720
Speaker 3: sprinkle a little bit of fairy dust. Whereas we can't

381
00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:36,480
Speaker 3: actually do that. I can't walk through my audience going

382
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:39,120
Speaker 3: come on, cheer up, this is a really good bit

383
00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:42,680
Speaker 3: coming up. But what you can do is you can

384
00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:45,639
Speaker 3: go backstage at the mental and go, hey, guys, you

385
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:47,320
Speaker 3: know you need some kick some butt here. You've got

386
00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:48,680
Speaker 3: to raise your game a little bit.

387
00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:50,200
Speaker 2: And you can and you do that.

388
00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:52,760
Speaker 3: All you have to do because I mean the very

389
00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:56,439
Speaker 3: very big difference between now and when I start in

390
00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:59,200
Speaker 3: the theater is the length of run for successful shows.

391
00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:02,879
Speaker 3: I mean I came into London. That's really when my

392
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:06,080
Speaker 3: career properly started. I'd run small regional theaters in the

393
00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:10,560
Speaker 3: seventies in Liverpool and Northampton and places, but I happened

394
00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:13,040
Speaker 3: luckily enough to come to London in nineteen eighty one

395
00:20:13,119 --> 00:20:15,840
Speaker 3: when Kat started, and that was the beginning of the

396
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:20,480
Speaker 3: extraordinary eighties decade where so much change was enacted. It was,

397
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:23,760
Speaker 3: you know, love or hate Margaret Thatcher. There was massive

398
00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:27,080
Speaker 3: change that came out of that, and culturally it was

399
00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:28,520
Speaker 3: a really exciting time, you.

400
00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:30,960
Speaker 2: Know it was. And for restaurants, yeah, yeah, no, exact

401
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,239
Speaker 2: same time exactly. This is going on. Jereby started the

402
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:35,040
Speaker 2: IVY and.

403
00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:38,879
Speaker 3: My first real experience of being a regular anywhere was

404
00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:41,359
Speaker 3: when Jeremy was matred at Joe Allen.

405
00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:43,520
Speaker 2: Actually he said that to me this morning, that he

406
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:45,960
Speaker 2: met you at Joel What year was that that?

407
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:47,080
Speaker 3: There was nineteen eighty one.

408
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,200
Speaker 2: And did you when you say regularly were.

409
00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:52,119
Speaker 3: Well, we would go. Well, the thing is, you know,

410
00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:54,920
Speaker 3: you're working in the theater. Your social life doesn't really

411
00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:57,879
Speaker 3: start until the end of the curtain. So at about

412
00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:01,280
Speaker 3: ten thirty, every single life a trot down to Joe Allen's.

413
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:03,560
Speaker 2: I asked that the actors. I asked that a very

414
00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:07,359
Speaker 2: You know, the actors, when do they before the theater,

415
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:10,560
Speaker 2: during the theater, after the theater? And of course some

416
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:14,119
Speaker 2: people Emily blunt ate the whole time. Yeah, she was

417
00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:17,160
Speaker 2: really adorable. She would say that she'd have a hamburger before,

418
00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:19,520
Speaker 2: then something in the intermission, and something at the end.

419
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,560
Speaker 2: Judy Dench, everybody had a different way. She'd have a snack.

420
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,320
Speaker 2: But most of the people that I know in theater

421
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:28,040
Speaker 2: are friends of mine who in a place. They meet

422
00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:30,440
Speaker 2: me after the play and we'll go out and need

423
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:31,840
Speaker 2: Is that right? Why is that?

424
00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:35,359
Speaker 3: It's? I think really because they are then suddenly off duty,

425
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:38,560
Speaker 3: they can relax. You can't help but keep your performance

426
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:41,080
Speaker 3: in the back of your head beforehand. You know what's

427
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:42,240
Speaker 3: going to happen to night. Am I going to be

428
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:44,399
Speaker 3: all right? Looking after yourself? You know, you need to

429
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:48,119
Speaker 3: really look after yourself. I always remember Jonathan Price is

430
00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:51,439
Speaker 3: a very good friend. When he stopped temporarily being a

431
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:53,720
Speaker 3: great classical actor and became a musical actor when he

432
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 3: did Miss Sagon for US, and he did Desert Island

433
00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:58,520
Speaker 3: discs and he talked to Sue Lawley and she said,

434
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,359
Speaker 3: tell me, what's the difference between being a classical actor

435
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 3: and a musical actor. And he said, rashly, being a

436
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,480
Speaker 3: musical actor is a doddle compared to being a classical actor.

437
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:10,879
Speaker 3: And the following week he lost his voice, and he

438
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,919
Speaker 3: lost his voice for quite a long time, and he

439
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,159
Speaker 3: said it was the most incredible lesson to learn that

440
00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:19,040
Speaker 3: as a singer, you really have to look after yourself.

441
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:21,240
Speaker 3: And I watched him because he's done a lot of

442
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:24,480
Speaker 3: shows for us and talking to people like Martine McCutcheon

443
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 3: and things like that, and he said, look, you have

444
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:31,399
Speaker 3: to learn that your voice is you know, it's responsible

445
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:33,840
Speaker 3: for everything as far as the audience is concerned. And

446
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:36,159
Speaker 3: therefore you don't talk. You know, you wake up in

447
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,640
Speaker 3: the morning, you do not talk to anyone until lunchtime.

448
00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:41,200
Speaker 2: And so that goes back to eating and about food,

449
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:43,320
Speaker 2: about how you take care of your body. Is that

450
00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:45,880
Speaker 2: what you're saying an actor.

451
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 3: So well, the thing is acting, by and large, is

452
00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:52,200
Speaker 3: a very physical thing. I mean, we've talked about singers

453
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 3: looking after their voices, dancers looking out for their bodies.

454
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,840
Speaker 3: I mean I noticed through the year that I was

455
00:22:57,359 --> 00:22:59,680
Speaker 3: the theater manager at the New London where Cats was on,

456
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 3: be in there every night watching And there were three

457
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,920
Speaker 3: artists in that one year who worked out for an

458
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:12,159
Speaker 3: hour before every single performance an hour. One was Wayne Sleep,

459
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:15,439
Speaker 3: the other was Bonnie Langford, and the third was a

460
00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:17,800
Speaker 3: very very beautiful girl who went to America and became

461
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:20,640
Speaker 3: a big star call for Nola Hughes. And they were

462
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 3: the only three who rigorously worked out. They were the

463
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:28,000
Speaker 3: only three who did not miss a performance. It's a real,

464
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 3: real responsibility. But going back to Joe Allenson afterwards, of course,

465
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,159
Speaker 3: Jeremy then went on and you know, as we all

466
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:38,080
Speaker 3: started to do a bit better, you.

467
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:40,680
Speaker 2: Would go there, what would be your day?

468
00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:45,680
Speaker 3: I would well, until I really settled into London, because

469
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 3: I in the Provinces, you tend to do everything and

470
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,639
Speaker 3: you're responsible for everything. I would never do less than

471
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 3: a twelve or fourteen hour day in the Provinces. So

472
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,680
Speaker 3: I started to do this in London until people said, look,

473
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:58,320
Speaker 3: this is crazy. You need to actually start coming in

474
00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:02,159
Speaker 3: a bit later. So I had a nice little flat

475
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:06,240
Speaker 3: in Kensington and I'd walk in and my day would

476
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 3: be talking to the theater staff, getting to know, you know,

477
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,440
Speaker 3: looking at the theater bookings. This was the early days

478
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 3: of theater bookings where everything was manual. You know, we

479
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 3: didn't take credit cards, we didn't do phone bookings. It

480
00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:21,160
Speaker 3: was all checks or cash, and you know, you talk

481
00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 3: to the box office. Cues for these big hits would

482
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 3: go to snake around the block for hours. People would

483
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,199
Speaker 3: would queue. It was an extraordinary time and we were

484
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:31,840
Speaker 3: all learning on our feet then. And then, of course

485
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,720
Speaker 3: there was a lot of corruption in ticket selling because

486
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 3: ticket tabs would buy tickets and resell them at huge

487
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,800
Speaker 3: prices and double cell so you'd have the very difficult

488
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,679
Speaker 3: task every night of actually facing up to people and going, look,

489
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,480
Speaker 3: I'm terribly sorry, but your tickets are either forgeries or

490
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 3: they've been double booked, you know, and this is for

491
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:51,720
Speaker 3: a show that they may have waited a year to see.

492
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:54,960
Speaker 3: But I mean, that time was incredible because you know,

493
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 3: I was a boyfriend the Provinces, nearly in the army,

494
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:00,159
Speaker 3: and every single person I'd ever wanted to meet my

495
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 3: life was coming through Cats, whether it be the entire

496
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:05,719
Speaker 3: orld family. I mean, I watched Charles and Diana dancing

497
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:08,600
Speaker 3: around my office just after they were married, you know,

498
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 3: and watching her drop into this perfect split. He said,

499
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:14,199
Speaker 3: you know, how do these dancers do that? She'd let

500
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 3: me share you, darling, literally dropped into a perfect split.

501
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 2: But the thing about the restaurants and the theater food

502
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:26,400
Speaker 2: there is that they're both extreme. Think it's extremely collaborative jobs.

503
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:28,640
Speaker 2: So if you don't chop the par so, you can't

504
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:31,879
Speaker 2: make the sauce, And if you don't probably paint the set,

505
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,359
Speaker 2: you can't you know, put on the play. If you

506
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,919
Speaker 2: don't remember your lines, your fellow actors, you know, have

507
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 2: a problem. Do you think there is a collaboration.

508
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:43,040
Speaker 3: I think there's a very, very relarity. It's absolutely right.

509
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 3: I mean, theater is an enormously collaborative venture. And the

510
00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:48,520
Speaker 3: great thing is, you know, you go and see a

511
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 3: big musical at say the theater Aldery Lane. When we

512
00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:54,720
Speaker 3: did Miss Saigon, there were two hundred people involved in

513
00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 3: getting that show on, whether it be the lady selling

514
00:25:57,520 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 3: the ice creams, the backstage us share, the person pulling

515
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,680
Speaker 3: the ropes, the actors, the lighting technicians are SIGND technicians,

516
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 3: and then you know, going all the way back to

517
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,520
Speaker 3: the creators of the show be the authors. And in

518
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:10,919
Speaker 3: musicals it's even more so because you have an added

519
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 3: layer of responsibility. You have orchestrators, you have members of

520
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 3: the band, you have choreographers, you have assistant choreographers, armies

521
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,200
Speaker 3: and people who look after it, all of whom are

522
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 3: working to that specific moment, which is curtain up at

523
00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:24,399
Speaker 3: seven thirty.

524
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, curtain up at seven thirty. That's we have a

525
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,439
Speaker 2: curtain up at seventh. Theory and the flooras and you

526
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 2: know Hoover and the as I said, the chef's aprins and.

527
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,159
Speaker 3: You get into a huddle beforehand, get into the huddle.

528
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:37,880
Speaker 2: Then we go through and then and then the same

529
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,720
Speaker 2: and then nobody eats before you know, you just don't

530
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:42,399
Speaker 2: really want to eat. If you're about to cook, you

531
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,400
Speaker 2: have a drink. But then, did you do work in restaurants,

532
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:47,199
Speaker 2: would it always be kind of at the end of

533
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,680
Speaker 2: the meal you'd just go and relax, or would you

534
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 2: with Cameron or your other colleagues.

535
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,639
Speaker 3: And it was very well, you were always you were

536
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 3: sort of always on the job. As you know, I mean,

537
00:26:57,560 --> 00:26:59,920
Speaker 3: theater is the theater is full of gossip when exchanging

538
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,520
Speaker 3: information and stuff, and you know, in the days before

539
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,919
Speaker 3: social media, happy days before social media. That's how you

540
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,400
Speaker 3: got your information. And you walk into someone like Joe

541
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 3: Allen's and there'd be you know, Wayne Sleep on a

542
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 3: table over there, and there'd be Trevor Nunn with the

543
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:15,159
Speaker 3: Royal Shakespeare Company, and there would be someone from the

544
00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 3: National Theater, and there would be as always Princess Margaret

545
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 3: in the corner, and so you'd move from the table

546
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 3: hopping that went on. It was sort of became rather

547
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 3: a joke. And Jeremy had that wonderful pianist. He'd sit

548
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 3: there and you know, you would suddenly notice seamlessly as

549
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 3: you walked in, you walked in down those steps into

550
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:36,120
Speaker 3: that famous seller and he'd see you coming and very

551
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,680
Speaker 3: sudden he realized he's playing someone from Cats or The

552
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,720
Speaker 3: Miss or one of those teens that that you did.

553
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,679
Speaker 3: So yes, I mean restaurants were always the good button.

554
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:48,760
Speaker 2: What what about another cities? When you were on Broadway?

555
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,199
Speaker 2: Would you go to Sardis? I grew up thinking that

556
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,159
Speaker 2: the theater district, wass wasn't it was?

557
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:58,640
Speaker 3: And that's where you traditionally had your first night parties.

558
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,400
Speaker 3: So our first that I opened over there was Cats

559
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 3: and we had a massive first night party in I

560
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 3: can't remember the hotel, but I always remember they had

561
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:11,360
Speaker 3: police forces in the foyer of the theater and they

562
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 3: had trucks outside with ice full of champagne, and everyone

563
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 3: who came out. It was the most extraordinary thing. We

564
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:18,640
Speaker 3: then did Oliver on a slightly smaller scale and went

565
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:23,119
Speaker 3: to Sardi's and had a traditional Broadway opening at Sardi's,

566
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 3: and I took the director across the room to meet

567
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 3: our producer and wonderful uncle James Niedlando recently died, and

568
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 3: I said, come on, we should go and chat to Jimmy,

569
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 3: our producer. And as we got there, an aid of

570
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 3: Jimmy's came over, leaned over and said, the New York

571
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 3: Times is out. It's a load of shit.

572
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's.

573
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 3: Like everyone got up and left. Apart from the Brits.

574
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 3: We were all sitting there going what just happened? What

575
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 3: just happened? And indeed The New York Times was out

576
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 3: and it was a terrible review.

577
00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:57,479
Speaker 2: It's about to say, you must have known it's going

578
00:28:57,520 --> 00:28:57,960
Speaker 2: to be a hit.

579
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:02,080
Speaker 3: Well, the audiences were, but at that time the New

580
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 3: York Times had that they could close the show, close

581
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 3: the show, and they did. We battled on, we spent

582
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 3: money on television. Four weeks later we were gone.

583
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 2: Somebody else told me that story about that if you

584
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 2: were at a party, the after party of a play,

585
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 2: waiting for the review, then everybody would just go. It

586
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 2: was it was just they would just you just leap.

587
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 3: It was very very strong. Yeah, because the papers would

588
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 3: hit the streets about halpus leven midnight, you might might

589
00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:31,400
Speaker 3: might get a tip off if the critic was friends

590
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:34,960
Speaker 3: with the publicist. So occasionally, you know, led whispering Cameron's ear,

591
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 3: Lemmy's is going to be okay nowadays that you don't

592
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:41,960
Speaker 3: have that kind of romantic The first night is more

593
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 3: about social media and TV and stuff, and the critics

594
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 3: have all been in the week before. They don't come

595
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,120
Speaker 3: on the first night anymore, And I think, to be honest,

596
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:53,240
Speaker 3: that's the reflection of the fact their role is not

597
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 3: as important as it once. Yeah, you know, I fear

598
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 3: for theater criticism just like I fear for food criticism.

599
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 3: You see, the great restaurant critics are sort of slipping.

600
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 2: Away talking about a restaurant critic talking about a restaurant,

601
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 2: talk about the restaurant critic when we had the dinner

602
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:15,719
Speaker 2: at the River Cafe to celebrate Adrian girl to launch

603
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 2: the bursary.

604
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 3: It was the Sunday Times Prize for an aspiring food

605
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 3: writer and they could write about food or a restaurant

606
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 3: they've had, and it was for someone who never been

607
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 3: published before.

608
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 2: I in my opening little speech, I read the review

609
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 2: that he wrote about the River Cafe, which was pretty

610
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 2: damn very combating first, but then he focused on the Nemesis.

611
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:44,200
Speaker 2: Do you remember that? And how difficult it was to make?

612
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:47,240
Speaker 2: It was so Adrian and we just, you know, we

613
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:50,959
Speaker 2: loved mister and when he came into the restaurant with Nikola,

614
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 2: it was just he was one of a kind and

615
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:55,120
Speaker 2: he was your closest friend.

616
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 3: He was, I think generally was my closest male friend.

617
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 3: We had a pretty difficult beginn because I met him

618
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 3: at a very very smart party and the girl I

619
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 3: was with at the time, who remains a very dear friend,

620
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:10,840
Speaker 3: had misread the invitation and I turned up in full

621
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:15,920
Speaker 3: Venetian puff trousers, puff sleeves, great comedian at lastin.

622
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 2: Mile costume party.

623
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:21,960
Speaker 3: It was for Viennese, not Venetians. Everyone else was entails

624
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 3: and I was on the same table as Adrian, and

625
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:28,080
Speaker 3: I hadn't met him before I knew who he was.

626
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:30,320
Speaker 3: He was going through that rather affected stage of wearing

627
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 3: a monocle, and he looked at me and said, one

628
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 3: of us has got a strange idea of geography, dear,

629
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:38,600
Speaker 3: and I don't think it's meat anyway. I rang him

630
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 3: the next day and said, you're a bastard for making

631
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 3: me feel so uncomfortable. Said let me take it out

632
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 3: to lunch, and we did, and we became very very

633
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 3: good friends, and I loved going out to eat with him.

634
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 2: Like with a food critic, quite daunting.

635
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 3: In the case of Aid. Well, first of all, there

636
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 3: was that thing, of course, he could never go as

637
00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 3: a girl. The bookings were always in the name of

638
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:03,480
Speaker 3: mister Ox, mister Cambridge. Yeah, so you'd arrive and you

639
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 3: say table for for mister Cambridge, and you see the

640
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:09,440
Speaker 3: colored rain from the matre d's cheeks. We'd sit down

641
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:12,040
Speaker 3: and look. He knew enormous. He was, as you know,

642
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:14,560
Speaker 3: a very good cook himself. I mean I used to

643
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,200
Speaker 3: read his cookery column in Tatler and it was hysterical.

644
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 3: He'd go for ham and peace suit, get some ham,

645
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:22,240
Speaker 3: get some peace, cook it, you know, that sort of thing.

646
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 3: But he was a very good He was a very

647
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 3: good cook, and he had enormous respect for restaurants, restauranteurs,

648
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 3: and for particularly for front of house staff. He was

649
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 3: very He admired waiters a lot, but they had to

650
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:38,600
Speaker 3: know their stuff. And why it was daunting was he

651
00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:40,680
Speaker 3: would challenge you just to see how much you knew

652
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 3: if you had been charged a lot of money. So

653
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:47,960
Speaker 3: he'd go, so, tell me about the venison and they'd go, well,

654
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,760
Speaker 3: it's from a deer, sir, yes, yes, I knew that

655
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:56,000
Speaker 3: what part of the deer? And he'd go either way.

656
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:57,959
Speaker 3: It would either go, well, you know, it's a haunch

657
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:00,080
Speaker 3: or bank whatever it is, or they'd go I'll just

658
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 3: go and find out then come back and say, okay,

659
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:06,680
Speaker 3: so tell me where's the deer from and they go, well, Highlands,

660
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 3: new forest. And he was testing them.

661
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:14,800
Speaker 2: I mean, he's really testing testing the restaurant because that's

662
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 2: the job of the exactly. That's one of the things

663
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 2: we do with the River Cafe, the ideas that everyone

664
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 2: participates in the prepping of the food and so if

665
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 2: you are serving not everything, but if you're serving a

666
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 2: sal severity you know, because you chopped the parson, and

667
00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:32,960
Speaker 2: you wash the capers and you clean the anchovies. There's

668
00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:35,959
Speaker 2: a kind of involvement and then the importance of knowing

669
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 2: how something has cooked. So he tested the restaurant.

670
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 3: He tested them, and then, as you know, he could

671
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 3: be absolutely excoriating if he didn't like the food. And

672
00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,520
Speaker 3: I've met a number of restauranteurs since who knew. I

673
00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 3: knew him and said, did you know your friend? You know,

674
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 3: bankrupted me. And because I think he was one of

675
00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:58,520
Speaker 3: the very very few critics who could still had that power.

676
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 3: He was rather like the New York Times, and it's fair, Yeah,

677
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 3: I think so. If you're going to be paying a

678
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,720
Speaker 3: lot of money, then you know your standards should be exacting.

679
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,200
Speaker 3: But when he loved you as he loved you, and

680
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 3: he loved Jeremy, and he loved Andrea at Reva, you know,

681
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:16,480
Speaker 3: he had his favorites, the places he would always go

682
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:16,759
Speaker 3: back to.

683
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:18,399
Speaker 2: Did he tell you what to order?

684
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 3: He would try and make sure we all had something different.

685
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:22,799
Speaker 3: He'd go, well, that's a bit boring if we do that,

686
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:25,120
Speaker 3: And then if we did, he then eat off each

687
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 3: of our places. Yeah, yeah, And what was interesting he

688
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 3: would take notes. No, he didn't. He'd never take notes because,

689
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:34,160
Speaker 3: as you knew, he was chronically dyslexic and he couldn't

690
00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 3: spell anything anyway. He would always at the end of

691
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:38,600
Speaker 3: the evening ask for a copy of the menu to

692
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 3: take away, and that was his aide memoir. But we

693
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:44,279
Speaker 3: went to incredible places. I mean, you know, at the

694
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:48,359
Speaker 3: time of the great gastronomic explosion we had, we went

695
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:50,759
Speaker 3: to Heston Rumentals for the first time together and he

696
00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:53,400
Speaker 3: and Heston became very good friends. And we went to

697
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:56,799
Speaker 3: Favigan in Sweden, and we went to all bullies, oh

698
00:34:56,840 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 3: we did, and Noma pop ups and things, and when

699
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:02,000
Speaker 3: it was a real it was exciting going to the

700
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 3: theater internationally, sorry, into a restaurants the same thing, to

701
00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:10,399
Speaker 3: the Oh yeah. He was my regular first night date,

702
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 3: and in fact, quite more often than not he would

703
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 3: either bring Flora, his wonderful daughter, and I'd bring one

704
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:19,080
Speaker 3: of my sons and they too sit together an aide

705
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 3: and I sit together. No, he was exactly he was asked.

706
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 3: In fact, I don't know if anyone knows this. He

707
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:27,759
Speaker 3: was asked to be the Sunday Times theater critic, and

708
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 3: he said no, I can't possibly because I've got far

709
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 3: too many good friends in the theater, and I wouldn't

710
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,160
Speaker 3: have any if because I did read a couple a

711
00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 3: couple of his theater reviews in The Boy they were singers. No,

712
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 3: I miss him. I miss him every day. He was

713
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 3: literally someone I spoke to every day. And what was

714
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:47,000
Speaker 3: extraordinary about him, and you probably know this again, is

715
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:50,800
Speaker 3: is it was only after he died that I realized

716
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,920
Speaker 3: how many people he spoke to and where did he

717
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:55,920
Speaker 3: get the time to do, you know, to do that

718
00:35:56,040 --> 00:36:00,720
Speaker 3: He never ever hung up on me. I've had, let's

719
00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 3: just say, I've had a lot of drama in my

720
00:36:02,239 --> 00:36:04,520
Speaker 3: life over the years, in terms of losing close friends

721
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:07,960
Speaker 3: and losing members of my family and various problems and

722
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,360
Speaker 3: things like that. And I find it really difficult to cry.

723
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:13,480
Speaker 3: But the only thing that I cry like a drain

724
00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:16,920
Speaker 3: is music. Music is my kind of go to emotional release.

725
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:20,480
Speaker 3: It's a wonderfully cathartic thing and it can be a

726
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,320
Speaker 3: beautiful piece of classical music or it can be a

727
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 3: great bit of rock and roll. And I told Bono,

728
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:30,359
Speaker 3: who's a regular clan of yours, I know that for

729
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 3: one reason or another, I don't know why. When my

730
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:34,360
Speaker 3: first son Tom was born thirty five years ago, I

731
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:36,920
Speaker 3: came back at four o'clock in the morning from the hospital,

732
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:40,360
Speaker 3: dizzy and confused, and I pulled myself a large class

733
00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:44,600
Speaker 3: of Scotch and danced to his song bad. So after

734
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:47,560
Speaker 3: that that became a tradition. So I got four sons

735
00:36:47,880 --> 00:37:00,919
Speaker 3: and I danced so bad for every one of them.

736
00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:03,239
Speaker 2: When do you go to Glastonbury? Do you eat?

737
00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you don't eat well. It's very hard to

738
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 3: eat well. I mean interestingly, there's a lovely local restaurant

739
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 3: close to us because I live in the West Country

740
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 3: most of the time in Bruton, called Out the Chapel,

741
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,360
Speaker 3: and Bruton has become a sort of new color in

742
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:22,960
Speaker 3: the West. Sip At the Chapel was the first and

743
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,239
Speaker 3: they had it's just changed hands and they have a

744
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 3: pop up restaurant Glastonbury now and they came close to

745
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 3: getting the sort of chapel experience. But when you're catering

746
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 3: for many hundreds of people, so no, it's not really

747
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:34,680
Speaker 3: about the food.

748
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:35,799
Speaker 2: What about cooking at home?

749
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:38,240
Speaker 3: Cooking at home? I love doing it, Yeah, because.

750
00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 2: You described to me about cooking for your family and

751
00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:42,919
Speaker 2: taking a lot of Asian food.

752
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,960
Speaker 3: Well, yes, I love I mean both the very very

753
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:48,839
Speaker 3: important partners in my life. Neither of them could cook.

754
00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 3: So I sort of cooked to survive and I taught

755
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:55,200
Speaker 3: myself and then rather wonderfully, all four of my children

756
00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:58,719
Speaker 3: have loved cooking. And in fact, my elder son Tom

757
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 3: has just opened his first restaurant. Yeah, it's called Outcrops Social.

758
00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:08,240
Speaker 3: It's a pop up restaurant in one eighty the strand,

759
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:11,759
Speaker 3: is it and it's Thai food, and they're giving him

760
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:14,879
Speaker 3: three months to see if it goes. And I can

761
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:19,000
Speaker 3: say totally objectively, he'said the most incredible reviews and it's delicious.

762
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:20,399
Speaker 2: Let's go. What's it called?

763
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 3: Then, out Crop Social? Yeah, I'll take you down in

764
00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:27,520
Speaker 3: September do.

765
00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:29,239
Speaker 2: That, And so what do you cook it? Out?

766
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:31,840
Speaker 3: So at home? Well, if we're there and it's Sunday

767
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:34,840
Speaker 3: and it's a great sort of traditional Sunday lunch, and

768
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,080
Speaker 3: then we will all do our bits and we all

769
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 3: love quite spicy food. I love cooking Asian food. I

770
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:43,720
Speaker 3: love cooking Indian food in particular. I love grinding spices

771
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 3: and preparing things like that. But it is a lot

772
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:50,200
Speaker 3: of work. But that's why it's good to have all

773
00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 3: your family around you so you can say to someone

774
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:53,080
Speaker 3: that you do.

775
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 2: This the collaboration. Yeah, and do you go out to restaurants?

776
00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:59,480
Speaker 3: Now I don't go out nearly as well. I tend

777
00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 3: to go out probably mill down in the West Country.

778
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:05,960
Speaker 3: And also because as I've sort of moved away from

779
00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:08,760
Speaker 3: actively being involved in the West End on a daily basis,

780
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 3: I'm not there as much. In the evening, still go

781
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 3: and see the theater quite a lot. So I'll go

782
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:14,440
Speaker 3: out to places and.

783
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,240
Speaker 2: You still go after yes, yeah, yeah.

784
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 3: I can't bring myself to really have a big, big

785
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:24,160
Speaker 3: nursery teas we call it at five or stays. But

786
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,440
Speaker 3: you know, again I've got the go to places like

787
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:30,239
Speaker 3: you know, the Ivy Club and things and that will

788
00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:33,880
Speaker 3: stay open and again are very convivial. But I worked

789
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,680
Speaker 3: for many, many years with Camera Macintosh, who was an

790
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:38,880
Speaker 3: absolute food and a brilliant cook as well. He was

791
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 3: someone else who really inspired me to cook, because we

792
00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:44,120
Speaker 3: all would shut the office down in the early days.

793
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:46,480
Speaker 3: You know, cats can run itself and they can run itself.

794
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:48,400
Speaker 3: And we go off to his place in Scotland and

795
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:51,520
Speaker 3: where you have the most incredible produce of seafood and things,

796
00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:53,839
Speaker 3: and we'd all be given a job. And as far

797
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:55,799
Speaker 3: as he's say, it wasn't cooking unless or at least

798
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,400
Speaker 3: twenty people around their lunch table. So people come out

799
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:00,880
Speaker 3: of the hills and so that was fun learned. I

800
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:02,719
Speaker 3: learned a lot at his knee, as it were. So

801
00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:05,879
Speaker 3: we'll always go together. But I mean, no, I mean

802
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:09,399
Speaker 3: the days of the high the high high high end

803
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:12,120
Speaker 3: dining with Adrian, and it'd been fun. I think probably

804
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:13,120
Speaker 3: behind and.

805
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,760
Speaker 2: Working in restaurant. Will you meet people from meetings?

806
00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:21,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, the business lunch is sort of past. Yeah, I

807
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 3: mean in the early days, you know, I'd go off

808
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:25,279
Speaker 3: and meet our advertising agents and it would be you know,

809
00:40:25,719 --> 00:40:27,279
Speaker 3: and he'd sit down and he goes this a two

810
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:30,160
Speaker 3: bottle lunch or one bottle lunch. And now it's I'll

811
00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:33,520
Speaker 3: have a glass lunch, which is a shame in a way,

812
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 3: but probably we get we get more done. I honestly

813
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:41,160
Speaker 3: think it was more fun in the eighties and nineties

814
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:45,600
Speaker 3: for us than it is now because it's much more pressure,

815
00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,600
Speaker 3: the challenges are much more, the margins are much lower.

816
00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:51,280
Speaker 3: The good thing is the way we look after people

817
00:40:51,719 --> 00:40:54,359
Speaker 3: has changed a lot, and you have to do that now,

818
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:57,399
Speaker 3: and as you should, and as we know, the actor

819
00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:00,759
Speaker 3: strikes on at the moment about getting proper regging and

820
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:03,720
Speaker 3: that's going right through society. So the way we behave

821
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:06,960
Speaker 3: has changed. But in terms of that feeling of real

822
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:09,920
Speaker 3: excitement of you know, I can't tell you what it

823
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:13,280
Speaker 3: was like opening they met it on Broadway, or Phantom

824
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:17,000
Speaker 3: on Broadway, and you know Psychone, which was a massively

825
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 3: controversial production because of the casting.

826
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:22,440
Speaker 2: And so I have a letter from you, but I

827
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:26,120
Speaker 2: don't remember where the correspondence, but it says I'll read it.

828
00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:28,400
Speaker 2: I'm going to read your letter that you wrote me,

829
00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:32,080
Speaker 2: Ah Darling. I had an emotional evening last night, the

830
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:35,279
Speaker 2: first night of Carousel. Adrian was one of my few

831
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,839
Speaker 2: friends who really enjoyed musicals, and even though we used

832
00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:41,200
Speaker 2: to warble if I loved you from it, he never

833
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 2: actually seen the show. They announced a revival just as

834
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:46,720
Speaker 2: he got sick, and I made him promise to stay

835
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:48,680
Speaker 2: well enough to come to the first night with me.

836
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 2: Of course that didn't happen, so I kept an empty

837
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,640
Speaker 2: seat next to me. I miss him badly, and we'll

838
00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:57,759
Speaker 2: definitely know when I'm next seeing you. Much loved Nick,

839
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:01,400
Speaker 2: so I was wondering because I thought, you do have

840
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:03,920
Speaker 2: one of the most beautiful speaking voices that I know,

841
00:42:04,600 --> 00:42:07,400
Speaker 2: and I was wondering if you might sing if I

842
00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:11,400
Speaker 2: Loved You, And here's the lyrics. I'll he should we

843
00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:13,880
Speaker 2: have a go and I'll sing it with you a

844
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:17,359
Speaker 2: little bit. You know. I grew up on musical so fa.

845
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:20,279
Speaker 2: I lived in upstate New York. We'd go in the

846
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:23,080
Speaker 2: car and we'd drive down the throughway to New York

847
00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:25,919
Speaker 2: and we would see the big ships, and then we'd

848
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:29,280
Speaker 2: see the SS France, and we'd see in the United States.

849
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:32,160
Speaker 2: Then we would go and have lunch, and then we

850
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:35,720
Speaker 2: would go to musical We'd go to by Fair Lady,

851
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:38,400
Speaker 2: West Side Story. This is I guess I was, you know,

852
00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:41,719
Speaker 2: sort of twelve, and so it was late early sixties,

853
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:45,759
Speaker 2: a late yea early sixties. And then we would go

854
00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:48,360
Speaker 2: to Sam Goodie, a record storage, you know, Sam City,

855
00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:51,799
Speaker 2: and we would buy the record and then we would

856
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:54,880
Speaker 2: drive up back to the country and we'd play the

857
00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:57,080
Speaker 2: record over and over and over again. So I know

858
00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:01,680
Speaker 2: the words basically every musical of that era, and so

859
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:04,600
Speaker 2: I know this song if I Loved You, So shall

860
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:05,560
Speaker 2: we try? It?

861
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 3: Is one of my favorites. I know the first two

862
00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:12,440
Speaker 3: lines to more songs until then, so I'm going to

863
00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:19,720
Speaker 3: cheat and read yeah, absolutely, I love you time and again.

864
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:33,840
Speaker 5: I will try to say, oh, Ruthie, well, I'm gone

865
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:41,560
Speaker 5: wow to Adrian, to.

866
00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:43,280
Speaker 2: Bet, to carousel you and to love. So the singing

867
00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:48,399
Speaker 2: gives you. Singing can give you comfort, and food can

868
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:51,400
Speaker 2: give you comfort. So my very very last question of

869
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:55,480
Speaker 2: talking and listening and singing is to ask you, if

870
00:43:55,520 --> 00:43:59,600
Speaker 2: you have a food that you need not to eat

871
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:02,640
Speaker 2: when you're hungry, but to eat when you need comfort.

872
00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:04,520
Speaker 2: What would that be in the gallat?

873
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:07,279
Speaker 3: If I tell you, you'll be so appalled. No I won't,

874
00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:10,239
Speaker 3: because it was the most delicious thing I've everything. I'm

875
00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:12,879
Speaker 3: going to be down or depressed or hungry or wanna

876
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:16,399
Speaker 3: And it was actually a concocted recipe by a friend

877
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:18,719
Speaker 3: of mine who wrote it in a play and I

878
00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:21,040
Speaker 3: read it I thought, I can't believe he's actually done this,

879
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 3: but I'm going to try and put it together. And

880
00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:29,520
Speaker 3: it's basically toast with peanut butter, very crispy bacon and

881
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:30,759
Speaker 3: cheese melted on top.

882
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:34,720
Speaker 2: I'm that disgusted, I'm interested. It was I think food

883
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:38,799
Speaker 2: because the food that comforts has a story. Well, the

884
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:40,160
Speaker 2: next time you have one, call me.

885
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:43,320
Speaker 3: Okay, well there when we go to my son's restaurant,

886
00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:48,920
Speaker 3: was sneak home. Thank you very much, Thank you, Ruthie,

887
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:49,759
Speaker 3: thank you so much.

888
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:50,200
Speaker 2: Thank you.

889
00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:58,200
Speaker 1: The River Cafe Look Book is now available in bookshops

890
00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:01,720
Speaker 1: and online. It has a for one hundred recipes, beautifully

891
00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:06,640
Speaker 1: illustrated with photographs from the renowned photographer Matthew Donaldson. The

892
00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:10,760
Speaker 1: book has fifty delicious and easy to prepare recipes, including

893
00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:13,880
Speaker 1: a host of River Cafe classics that have been specially

894
00:45:13,880 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 1: adapted for new cooks. The River Cafe Lookbook Recipes for

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00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:26,720
Speaker 1: Cooks of all ages. Ruthie's Table four is a production

896
00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:31,480
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio and Adamized Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

897
00:45:31,719 --> 00:45:35,880
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

898
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:36,880
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.