WEBVTT - Ruthie's Table 4: Emily Maitlis & Jon Sopel 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:04.200 Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:08.600 Adamized Studios. 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:13.600 Food is key to life and to day. More than ever, 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:17.840 journalism is also key to life. Our guests, Emily Maitlis 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.880 and John Sopel, are too brilliant, inspiring journalists who bring 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:26.160 us news, analyze news, present news, helping us determine our 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.280 lives and the choices we make. They are smart, they 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.040 are warm, they are funny, and they tell me they 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:42.440 are always hungry. Emily was lead anchor for the BBC 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.760 presenter of Newsnight and now produces documentaries. John spent four 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.720 decades at the BBC as chief political correspondent and its 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:54.480 North American editor. A year ago they launched The Newsagents, 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.680 which is definitely my favorite podcast, well maybe my second favorite. 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:04.920 These two journalists crave food. This chef craves journalism. They've 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.600 just come from the River Cafe pastry kitchen, having made 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.160 a prune and almond tart, and now we're going to 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.800 sit down talk about food, memories and more. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:16.319 So lovely. 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:26.080 My name's Bella Toobs. 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:28.400 I'm the head pater chef at the River Cafe and 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.160 I'm here with Emily Maitlist and John soapolk. 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.120 Okay, so we're going to make a prune and almond tart. 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:36.520 It's a bit of a how to blue Peter. 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.280 That's a really useful, usually sad thing to do. 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.039 Prune and almond tart, which. 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.520 I had last Friday here and it was sensational. I mean, 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:52.640 normally pair on the rare occasions I overcome here, but 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:53.960 it was incredible. 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.960 I think you've already given yourself away. 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.919 Well so, so you've just made a prune and almond tart. 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.160 But before we talk about that experience and what you did, 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.440 would you like to read the recipe for it. 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:16.440 Prune and almond tart serves fourteen sixteen prunes stoned, three 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.959 hundred grams almonds, finally ground, one el grade tea bag, 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.480 one hundred mills of brandy, three hundred grams of unsalted butter, 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:27.240 three hundred grams cast a sugar, three large eggs, one 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.960 preheated sweet pastry start shell. Pre Heat the oven to 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:32.359 one hundred and fifty degrees. 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.200 Pour enough boiling water over the prunes to cover, then 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:36.520 add the tea bag. 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.200 Leave for one hour. Remove the prunes from the tea, 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:40.959 pour the brandy over them. 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.640 Using an electric mixer. Beat the butter and sugar together 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:46.320 until pale and light. 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.720 Add the ground almonds, Then add the eggs one by one. 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:53.679 Finally, add one hundred mills of the brandy prune juices. 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:57.600 Pour this mixture into the tart shell. Push the prunes 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:02.000 into the mixture, Bake in the preheated oven for forty minutes. 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.079 Cool and remove from the tin. 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:09.520 Brillier. Hi, how about that's a little do it? So 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:11.600 tell me about Meggi and what was it like in 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:12.640 the pastry kitchen. 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:16.960 It was spotlessly clean, It was brilliantly well organized. And 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.280 the smell when you walk in, of the baking of 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.240 the breads of Christini, of everything else that's going on 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.040 in there is just fabulous, and of course the almonds, 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.040 which just smell so rich and sweet. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.840 I was shown a magic trick it actually blew my mind, 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.280 which was instead of pushing the pastry into the tin, 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.160 you grate it on a normal sort of greater and 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.280 you take all the tiny bits and then push them 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.440 sort of gradually around the back, which apparently makes it 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:47.680 finer and shorter and more delicate. And so I'm going 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.680 to take that away and say this is what I learned. 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:51.440 At the river. 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:54.680 As well as it being spotlessly clean, I have never 0:03:54.720 --> 0:04:00.680 seen a greater looking so totally knackered. It has been 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.839 through so much and it looks absolutely oh my god. 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.320 You wouldn't get a penny for that in a jungle sale. 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.360 But it's obviously still doing its job. 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.160 Much times are harder than we're saving up for a 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.840 greater But actually you do get a kind of sentimental 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.120 attachment to certain things that you use in the kitchen. 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:20.440 I don't know if you do, but I'm a spatchelor 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:22.719 girl here is so if somebody gives me the wrong 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.480 kind of spatulor I have favorites in My favorite is 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:27.320 the purple spatulate. 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:29.720 Tell us about the Verbel spatu. 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.479 It's just it just fits your hand right, It's that's 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.919 the point. There's nothing special about it. It's it's not unique. 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.919 It's just that it's it's become part of it's I 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:43.120 feel like Edwards's hands, but with spatchul it's the extension 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:43.719 of my arm. 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.360 Now do you have kitchen equipment when you've inherited from 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:47.080 your family? 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.600 There was a kitchen knife that has been so sharpened 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.159 that it bows because there's so little of it left. 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.960 And that was my mother's favorite kitchen knife, and she 0:04:58.040 --> 0:04:59.600 had it since she was a girl. 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.479 And I mean, unfortunately, it's kind of it met. 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:05.720 Its end because there was just nothing left of it 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.640 because it had been sharpened so many times over the 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.920 years that it had been filed down. 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:13.800 Have you got it above the fireplace. 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:16.240 Exactly? 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:18.240 Do you have one that was handed down? 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.760 Not? Really, No. I think it's more the practices of 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:26.120 my mum was my big is my big inspiration actually 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.159 in terms of cooking. And it's more the way she 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.320 does things and the way she talks to herself as 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.440 she cooks that I do now and I think I 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:36.640 pass on to my children. 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:38.320 Did you cook with her always? 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:38.520 Yea? 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:41.200 And did she work or did she come home and cook? 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.280 She worked a lot at home, so she did a 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.360 lot of her work at home. And I remember the 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:51.120 rituals actually of her cooking and just how. 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.920 I mean, she was very funny. She was always ahead 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:55.800 of the curve. I say she was. 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:57.760 She's very much alive and we'll be listening to this, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:05:59.880 but she was. I think she was quite ahead of 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:02.200 the curve and the kind of ingredients that she used 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:06.120 and the kind of things that she made, and occasionally 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.839 she'd go into obsessions. So she had an obsession about 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.359 an Indian dessert called gullub Jarman, and she decided she 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.760 had to perfect it, and instead of making it once, 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.520 she made it like every day for about six weeks 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.440 until we were just begging her to stop. But she 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.039 also taught me my sort of Yeah, the recipes that 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.960 I that I've passed down now that I've taken on she. 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.039 Cooked, You have them in her writing? Did she write them? 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.960 She has all her recipes still. And funny you say that, 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:35.960 But I've just done a cookbook for my son. He 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.839 went off to university last year, and I did that 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:40.560 really embarrassing mother thing. 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.280 Where I took pictures of all the dishes. 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.120 That I thought he'd miss, and I wrote all the 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.400 recipes out and I put it all together for him. 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:49.720 And then I saw his room, and of course there's 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.760 like one burner and a mini fridge, and he just 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:54.599 looked at me and is like, I'm never ever going 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.159 to cook any of that stuff in here. 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.480 You know that, don't you know that he will? But 0:06:58.520 --> 0:06:59.000 one day he. 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.120 Will a lot of grand This cook book with grandmother's recipes, 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:03.640 a lot of people do people. 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:05.560 It was always a roller decks a little That's what 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.560 my mum keeps it. And every recipe is like do. 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:09.080 You know what I mean? 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.600 Like a little square thing and it's all in her rising. 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:17.200 Yeah, very similar story. My mother worked and she'd had 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.920 polio as a child and so was left pretty badly 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:21.960 disabled by it. And I used to go and meet 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.560 her from the tube station to carry the shopping home 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.640 because she would bring the shopping home and then she 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.720 would cook the dinner and I think, probably like Emily's mum, 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.880 you know, presentation of it was kind of really important. 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.760 She loved food to look appetizing as well as to 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.880 taste appetizing. So it was fun just doing the pastry 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:42.720 where I was having to put the prunes on the 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.160 tart and to make it look neat, And that was 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:47.200 the sort of thing that I did at home. And 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.600 also my mother loved cooking and loved handing the recipes down, 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.920 and funnily enough, she died about fifteen years ago. My 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:59.480 second cousin sent me on WhatsApp a photo of a 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.560 recipe that my mother had written out for her for passover, 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.200 and there it was, you know, my mum's handwriting, and 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.680 I suddenly got this whatsapped message and all those things 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.880 bring back such memories of childhood and growing up. 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.520 Yeah, I found that. The other thing it's interesting is 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:19.400 how many people talk almost more, maybe not the two 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:23.440 of you, but more about their grandmother's cooking than their mothers. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.120 My grandmother was. She had certain key recipes that she 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.200 would repeat. One was Locktion pudding. I haven't met anyone 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.920 since then that does Locktion pudding, which is literally it's 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.520 like noodles. It's a pasta dessert and it's kind of 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.000 pasta and cream and raisins and more cream. I think 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.679 it's probably the heaviest thing in the entire world, and 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.160 it's got a crispy top. I've literally never seen on 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:59.280 the menu, but it must just be the most. 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.240 So my mother was, I mean, my mother had an 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.840 extraordinary life story. She was illegitimate child in the Northeast 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.000 to a Russian Jewish family and had to escape because 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:05.520 of the shame that had been brought to the family. 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.280 And she ends up in a farming community in East Anglia, 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.360 which you know, which was Protestant, and so she kind 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.160 of grew up making suet pudding and Yorkshire puddings and 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.120 all the rest of the kind of English cookbook if 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.160 you want. When I was going up until I was 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.600 a sort of teenager, you had to be home Friday, 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:25.160 even Friday night, Friday night, can the bread, the wine, 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:26.720 all the rest of it, and then we'd eat non 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.000 kashy food and we just thought that was perfectly normal. 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.839 I mean, my mother would not dream of cooking pork, 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.080 but would have plenty of palmer Ham. 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:38.960 English rose. 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:41.480 Pork wouldn't be anywhere near the table. I don't remember 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.120 her ever doing that, but if it was palmham or prawn, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:44.760 so that would be fo. 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.800 Food and tradition and memories and family and Friday nights. 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:50.880 Did you reject having to stay home on a Friday 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:52.280 night when you could be out partying. 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:54.440 I think by the time I got to sixteen, it 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:56.760 got a bit kind of I'm sorry, I'm going out 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:58.480 and going to the pub, you know. 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.000 Yeah, so I started to bell at that stage. 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.760 But I love the idea of at least one night 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.160 a week, the family coming together and everyone sitting around 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.719 the table. Maybe not always getting on brilliantly, but there 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:10.360 is a kind of sense that this is what we 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:12.120 do as a fact do you do it? 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.480 And now your generation, do you deal with your kids? 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:15.280 Do you deal with yours? 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.040 I mean might have grown up, but when we can, Yes, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.959 we do. I mean normally Sunday evenings actually because everyone's 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.160 got it's either a school day or work day the 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:23.959 next and you just kind of, you know, that's the 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:25.079 I like. 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.720 A Sunday nights. What about you? Yeah, you deal with 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:28.120 your kids? 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.560 We do Friday night. We like the candles, we say, 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:34.880 if the kids are together, you know, And normally it 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.440 involves me being about to cook and Sudday going, oh 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:38.040 it's Friday. 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:39.040 Quick. 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.720 So we do that, not in a big demonstrative way, 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.720 but just in a kind of recognition a few moments 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:47.840 at the beginning of the evening. 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:50.400 Yeah, growing up, did you always sit around the table? 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.840 Yes, we did. I mean it was that was very much. 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:54.679 It was no one had TV. 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.199 Dinners, no grazing. It was kind of. 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.120 You'd sit down at the table together, the four of you. 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.400 And yeah, that was kind of pretty much on school 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:04.280 nights every night. 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:05.000 Yeah. 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.240 Then and to the point where we all everyone had 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.800 a set place. I mean that's how the pecking order 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:13.320 is established. I was the youngest of three sisters. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:14.599 I had the least. 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.200 Comfortable chair sort of squashed into the corner where you 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.120 had to get between the sort of dresser and the 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:21.560 and the and the edge of the table. And I 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:23.840 sort of think of it like that. That was how 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:28.199 you knew your plate, literally knowing your place right, And did. 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.520 You get an easier time than your older sisters. And 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.000 they were resentful because they thought Emily's come along and 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:36.920 we had to do this, but she doesn't. 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.040 No, My sisters worked out very early that they could 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:44.560 make me run errands for them if they offered to 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.720 time me doing something like can you post this letter, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.560 I'll time you, and I would run all the way 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:52.880 down to the bottom of the road, run all the 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:54.360 way back. My sister would have gone off and done 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:56.600 something completely different that she'd suddenly look at her watch 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:01.520 and go, oh, amazing forty five and I'd be like, wow. 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:04.160 Was that better than last time? So that was how. 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.800 But the seating was very much And then Sunday. Sunday 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:09.600 was a big deal because we had it in the 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.199 dining room and there is a bottle of Coca Cola 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.760 in the table and it was the only time of 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.920 the week we got fizzy drinks, and it was, you know, 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.360 the real iconic Coca Cola bottle, and that was how 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:23.439 you the. 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.040 Other times you ate in the kitchen. The dining room 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:27.800 is a lost. Do you have a dining room in 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:28.240 your house? 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:29.400 We do? 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:30.000 Do you have one? 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.880 We have a dining room that comes from the kitchen. 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.240 So I don't know that I like the idea of 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.160 a Yeah, I don't want a bright red dining room. 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:43.680 That's kind of like right now, have a row about something. 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:45.640 I like the sense of sudden. 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.480 You can also be like regulated to the kitchen, you know, 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.360 so everybody's becomes much more of a performance. 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.760 Did you have Yeah, we had it in the kitchen. 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:56.800 There was a little table, but Friday nights it was 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.320 round the dining room table. It was the you know, 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:01.960 because that was the posh dinner. And we also I 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.440 remember as a kid the Corona man and Corona used 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.040 to come around with bottles of fizzy drinks. It was 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:10.920 like a milk delivery, and the Corona man would do 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.640 deliveries and you could have cherry aid or lemonade or 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.199 soda water. And I just loved the days when we 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.400 could have some cherry aid because that seemed such an 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.640 exotic thing. Well, I grew up in London, but I 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.240 mean my parents were residential social workers, so we lived in. 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.360 This huge commune kind of type place in the East Den. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:31.680 But where my mother grew up was in Essex and 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:32.959 we had the house there and we used to go 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.720 there at weekends and the Corona man would come to 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:39.920 this house in East Anglia, near Colchester and deliver kind 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.600 of off the back of the lorry these different bottles 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:46.040 of Corona fizzy drinks. 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.080 We had one of my grants that had this great 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.840 idea when we were in a hotel in France. He said, 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.600 I'd like to do like the cheese trolley, but ride 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.280 it around Highbury and it's Lindn and just knock up 0:13:57.480 --> 0:13:59.840 people and they can say I have a bit of Camembert, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:01.120 I have a bet of every night. 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:06.240 It's sort of six quite entrepreneurially idea. 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.760 This is taking meals and wheels, very sophisticated level tally where. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.360 I think there's a huge change. I mean, both my 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.440 parents have died now, but you know, so there was 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.840 these silver tea sets which were seen I think in 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.160 the nineteen fifties must have looked so impressive and proper 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:27.880 on the table that who has a solid silver teapot 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.480 or a solid silver hot for the hot water, and 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:33.960 it just there's all of that sort of stuff. 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:35.840 Very formal Cuverry. 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:39.000 I think it's hard. I can't live with and you, 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:43.200 if you're not careful, you inherit. It's rather big, heavy 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.520 sort of service. He ever calls it a dinner service anymore. 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.200 I just want you, just want plates that make you happy. 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:54.160 My plates make me so happy, right, And I don't 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.760 look good, and you know, I got mine from this 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:04.680 amazing potter in France, and it's just bright, beautiful colors 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:06.840 and it just makes me happy to look at it. 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.480 But I don't want anything that is like gold leaf 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:15.680 or edging, or I don't want to intimidate myself or guests. 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.080 Terrified if you break on. We did one with Nancy Pelosi, 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.200 and guess what. She never has had a meal without 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.800 a tablecloth. No, yes, her father, it was the mayor 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.400 of Baltimore. They had a huge family, but she said 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.600 they always had a tablecloth. And I was just thinking 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.880 about that, about the laundry, the ironing, all that goes 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.320 into having a tablecloth. It is nice to have a tablecloth. 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.760 Well, we had no kind of you know which which 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.600 nobody you know, we all had an actual napkin and 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:47.680 a napkin ring ring with your thing. Mine was a 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:48.520 little brown one. 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.880 Guess what in Italy they like in hotels we used 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:53.520 to go, They used to you had the during napkin. 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.760 They can't wash them, don't think we every night, right, 0:15:57.880 --> 0:15:59.880 and then you put them back the door, and then 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.000 you'd have but. 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:02.280 One of them. 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.120 That's the point of the ring, right. It's like a 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:06.840 hanky that you don't change every day. 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.680 My actual rebelliousness when I was a kid growing up, 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:12.800 because I knew it would upset my mother, was to 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.280 put a milk bottle on the table, because you yeah, 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:19.320 from a juck. Goodness. 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:21.120 Even now, when I've got a. 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:22.280 Milk bottle on the table, I think. 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.680 So many rules And what about restaurants. So now in 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.840 the River Cafe, we see kids all the time. We 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.880 see kids at Friday night dinners or Saturday lunches or 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.600 Sunday lunches. We see people bring their children. And when 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.360 I was a kid, we went out for a special occasion, 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.840 you know, we went out for the birthdays or the anniversaries, 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:45.400 and we were told to look at the right hand 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.080 side of the menu, and I don't know, it's obviously 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:51.400 so economic thing. What was going to restaurants like in 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.760 your family when you were growing up, Emily. 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.480 Yeah, much more, much more seldom. Actually, we grew up 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:01.400 in Sheffield and there was amazing restaurant called Fishes, which 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:05.600 is on the edge of Bakewell and it's beautiful. Everything 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.479 about it is exquisite, you know, just the sense of 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.679 arrival and destination and beautiful herbs in the garden. And 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:16.280 I remember that was like very very special occasions. You 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:20.320 had to basically be getting engaged, married or giving birth 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.600 at Fishes, but it did have that sense of absolute occasion. 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.400 Yeah. And do you go out now with your kids 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:31.320 to restaurants? So is it also that way? 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.639 Funny enough, we don't go out that often to restaurants 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.800 with my kids because we do a lot of sort 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.440 of cooking and just eating at home when they're home. 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.160 And I feel like when your kids don't live at home, 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:46.960 they're actually really happy. It's almost turned round. I think 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.359 now that my kids have to fend for themselves. They live, 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.600 you know, one lives at university ones away. They'll be 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.120 doing a lot of kind of like cheap and cheerful 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:59.040 takeaways or whatever. And so actually the treat now is 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.480 to come home and to have home cooked food. Sort 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:02.320 of turned around. 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.240 I think we used to go out for special occasions 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:07.640 and there would be about three or four restaurants in 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.600 London that you know my parents love. 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:11.320 Do you remember them? 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:13.879 Well? One of them actually I now live around the 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.520 corner too. I mean it became my mother's favorite restaurant, 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:22.320 which was a Greek restaurant in Primrose Hill and Liamonia. 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.200 So you know, we used to go there and meet 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:27.359 my mother there, but they were kind of they weren't 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.119 terribly grand, you know, there was nothing overly flash about them. 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.920 They were just good places where good food was served. 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.119 And somebody was saying, you know, the kind of food 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:39.480 that we ate at home that was, you know, was 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.280 much more continental, and so my mother would love. There 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.160 was a delicatessen in Linton that she used to love 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.360 going to on Liverpool Road, which kind of was full 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.760 of it seems so exotic. 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.440 So this is exactly what My dad would come down 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.280 to London for work and we lived in Sheffield and 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:03.480 he would visit Berwick Street. Next street was the first fresh. 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:04.640 Ravioli and amazing. 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:06.879 Yeah, it was a delicatessant and he would bring them 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.320 back to Sheffield and it was like this, Oh my god, 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:10.720 what's dad got from London? 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:12.680 Now, yeah, a big deal. 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:14.920 As both of you have talked a lot about your mother's, 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:16.320 did either of your father to cook? 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:17.720 Fun enough? 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.119 My dad? So, my dad was a lot older. My 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.840 dad was born in nineteen ten, so my dad was 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.159 a lot lot older than my mum. Had grown up 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.000 in the East End of London and had never really 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.720