WEBVTT - Ruthie's Table 4: Lily Allen 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.320 Welcome to River Cafe Table for a production of I 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:11.640 Heart Radio and Adam I Studios. If food and life 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.920 have a close connection, then so does Lily Allen and 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:20.640 The River Cafe. Both born and raised in Hammersmith, West London, 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.560 Lily in May nineteen eighty five and The River Cafe 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:30.080 eighteen months later in September nineteen eighty seven. We both 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.040 have had our shares of ups and downs as we 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.240 came of age, but as creatives, I like to think 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.519 that we both share a common commitment to being honest 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.159 and straight about what we believe in and the values 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.080 we hold. Lily really does tell it as it is, 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.000 and that's what we're going to do to day. Talk 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:55.240 about food, food and memories, food and family, food and love. Hi, 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.520 Hi Danny, would you like to read your recipe? I'd 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:07.000 love to. I have chosen fig and cannellini salad. You'll 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:12.039 need twelve ripe figs, two hundred miles of extra virgin 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.479 olive oil, one bunch of fresh green basil, one bunch 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:20.760 of fresh purple basil, one bunch of fresh mint, a 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:26.520 selection of salad leaves, including rockets of cooked cannellini beans, 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.640 and the juice of one lemon. Slice the figs and 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.400 spread out on a large plate. Season and drizzle over 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:38.319 half of the extra virgin olive oil. Warm the cannellini 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:42.560 beans in their cooking liquid. Drain and season in a 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.960 large bowl. Combine the figs and warm cannellini beans, stirring well. 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.880 Gently toss through the herbs and leaves. Add lemon juice 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.920 and extra virgin olive oil. Why did you choose, of 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.000 all the recipes of the River Cafe books, this this recipe. 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:02.360 I love a bean salad, and figs are possibly my 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.280 favorite fruit. Usually I have figs with sort of cheese 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.960 or something else about both the things that delicious. And 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:14.400 you're very good at putting delicious things together. And we'll 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.280 do it tonight because you're staying out for dinner. We'll 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.480 make this for you tonight. But you do cook. I 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.440 was really into cooking when I was a teenager. That's 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:26.040 sort of thirteen. I actually went and did a called 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:30.720 on Blur of course in Marlabone, remember asking for like 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:35.080 a set of Sabatia nights my thirteenth birthday. It's funny 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:37.840 because it's really one of those things that you have 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.440 to keep up in order to, you know, it's it's 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.440 like muscle memory. And I definitely have, you know, like 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:47.280 a handful of recipes that have sort of stuck with me. 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:49.200 But I remember when I when at the beginning of 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.079 my career, when I'd go off on tour for sort 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.720 of two years at a time, I'd come back and 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.239 I'd forget how to make a spaghetti bolonnaise, and it 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:59.280 would really freak me out. Actually, you know, because when 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:01.639 you're on tour, you just don't have access to a kitchen. 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.520 You know, you're in a tour bus or in hotel rooms, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:07.480 so there's just no way that you would ever be 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.880 able to get anywhere nearer chopping board and fresh vegetables. 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.079 But yeah, I love cooking and you love eating. I 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.960 love eating. I've never been times when you know that 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.959 your music describes when you've been on the edge, you're down. 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:28.400 Do you find that when you're kind of emotionally vulnerable 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.120 that you don't need or you know, I'm an eater 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.520 when I when I'm sad. Yeah, yeah, but I think 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:38.800 you know, I have one in my family is emotional eaters. 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:44.240 We all sort of reach for, usually carbohydrates feeling low. 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:48.280 There's this thing that my mom makes, which you will 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:52.640 think is horrendous, but it's like the thing that I 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.000 want her to come over and drop off of my 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.640 house when I'm feeling really depressed. Which is called cheese pie, 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.200 and it's but it's used to make it when she 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.960 was living in her student accommodation when I was a baby. 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.560 But it's a casserole dish with two tins of tin 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.760 spaghetti within the tomato sauce, with a layer of cheesy 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.400 mashed potato on top and then put in the oven. 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.120 I didn't know what you were going to say, but 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.360 I really didn't think you were going to say getting 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:28.760 covered by vershed potatoes. It's really really gross, but I 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.039 love it it, just like, yeah, it makes me feel 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.560 really really protected and comported by my mom's sort of 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:38.760 stodgy eighties cooking. And so tell me about growing up 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.280 in the Allen household. What was the food like? Did 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.320 you Yeah, did your mom cook her your dad or 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.560 my mom cooked a lot? Yeah, she was. She kind 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:49.960 of cooked, you know, kids like stodgy food. And then 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:52.559 I guess, as well, Yeah, we've got a little bit older, 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:54.680 we had sort of more variation. There's always lots of 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.920 entertaining going on on the weekends and Sunday roasts and yeah, 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.760 dinner party. I imagine it's where I sort of it 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.880 learn a lot about food, seeing your parents entertaining and 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:10.200 seeing the food quite different hearing the voices the adult conversation. 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.400 So when you would go downstairs and sit at the table, 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:15.680 always sit when someone's that, what what was it like? 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.200 What did that feel like? I was always like, you know, 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.840 fascinated by growing ups. When I was a kid, I 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.040 didn't really have that many friends my own age, and 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.800 I just was desperate to be an adult from quite 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.200 an early age. So I just remember sort of, yeah, 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.280 sitting on you know, my godmother's laugh, you know, pretending 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:40.200 that I liked olives, which I really didn't. Yeah, just 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.159 sort of soaking up all of the conversation, pretending that 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.280 you understand what's what's going on, but not really you know, 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.320 probably concentrating so hard on trying to blend in that 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.240 you're not really doing much with it. The day that 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.680 you stay with many sense of time, we get a 0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:01.159 bed with it. No, my parents, definitely we're not strict 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:04.320 in that in essence, Tell about your mother and father. 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:07.120 What did tell me about their lives. Well. First of all, 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.520 you know, my parents were divorced by the time I 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:11.279 was four, so I don't really have many memories of 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:17.880 them together, although actually I do remember one party that 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.960 they had at our flat in Bloomsbury. I think it 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.159 must have been around Christmas or New Year, and me 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:28.480 and my brother made bagels, toasted bagels and cream cheese, 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:30.240 and then we had like one of those sort of 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.360 drinks trolleys that you could push around in our flat, 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.719 and me and my brother were pushing most made like 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.200 piles what seemed like piles at the time, but we 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.839 were very small, Um yeah, pushing them around the living 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.560 room and trying to charge people for a bagel with 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.359 cream cheese. I don't know if we've got many takers. 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.560 I don't know if people are. That sounds pretty good 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:57.000 to me, and baggers and cream chees anywhere. I mean. Actually, 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:02.000 my my mom, my brother went to boarding school and 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.039 he was eight, and my sister, you know, had a 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.919 quite colorful social life from the age of sort of 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.600 thirteen or fourteen, so she wasn't really around much, so 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.160 I was. There would be quite a lot of times 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.600 when it was just me and my mom and my 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.600 stepdad in our house in Promote Hill, and I remember 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.640 getting taken to dinner parties at other people's houses quite 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.640 a lot um in the week. I remember like I 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:27.680 would be tired and I get to school the next 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:29.320 day and people would be like, are you okay? And 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:34.880 out of clocking the morning listening to grown ups rubbit 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.360 on about nothing. What about when you saw your father 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.360 did he cook for you or did he Yeah, he 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.560 was like a little bit more rustic my dad with 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.080 his food. Like we did a lot of camping and 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:47.320 going to festivals and stuff, so there was always quite 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:49.240 a lot of like cooking on open fires with him, 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.720 and he used to do like this digging hole and 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.840 making like sort of baking meat or barbecuing it like 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.240 in a hole for you know, slow cooking stuff. So yeah, 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.480 that was sort of more more his vibe. But yeah, 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.880 you know, I had, you know, sort of fabulous social 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.880 parents and was taken along for the ride. And so 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.200 if you grew up with the food, when did you 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:15.000 start discovering that they were start discovering food For myself? 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:19.000 I mean like, yeah, going to sort of like social 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:23.040 gatherings with my mom and her friends. My best friend Mikita. 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:27.400 Her mom is Antiguan and so she was always I've 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.720 always been really interested in like world food, and she 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.000 you know, introduced me to sort of Caribbean food and 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.920 I loved all of that growing up. I thought it 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.720 was just the most delicious, you know, sort of baked 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.840 chicken and all of the spices with the rice and 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.920 the peas. And also growing up in West London as well, 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.400 there was always sort of portsbellter market market store food. 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:53.080 My dad had this friend called Vicky who had a 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.640 stalled down in Camden Market where we would go and 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.680 have sort of for laffles every weekend. So I was 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.480 always really interested in trying foods from different parts of 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.440 the world. And then when I started touring as a 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:11.320 recording artist, I just became obsessed with local food from 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:23.120 wherever it was that we were. Whatever is it like, 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.520 going on tour and discovering culture through the food, Well, 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:28.560 I mean it's the sort of habit of mine, which 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.839 is that when I get off stage, I've taken all 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.960 my makeup off, I get on the bus or you know, 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.319 however it is that we're traveling, I'll get my phone 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.000 out and look at the city that we're driving into 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.760 the next morning, and I plan each meal. Yeah, the 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:47.240 first thing I would look for in the morning was 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.719 the best place for coffee and pastries. And then if 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.000 we were in Mexico, then I want to find out 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.959 where the best tackos were for lunch and etcetera, etcetera. 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:59.840 So yeah, that was I will always plan my day 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:02.840 or around food. There's all. You're not the only I mean, 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.760 when I was talking to Jake chillen A, he said 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:08.400 that no matter where he's going on location, wherever he's 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.480 going for a movie, wherever in the world, he spends 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.760 days before deciding where he's going to eat. And what 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:16.760 is it like touring? What is it like when you 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.520 go on It really hard actually do well. I mean 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.760 it's because most places where they're you know, we'll pull 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.040 up outside you know the venue, and that's where we'll 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.560 be based for the day. So and most venues are 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.719 in you know, parts of town where there's no residential 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.480 it's you know, where you can make noise. So yeah, 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.680 people don't usually live there and so therefore there's not 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:42.960 places to eat. So yeah, it's difficult. It's difficult to 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.960 meet and you're obviously relying on what the venue have 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.200 got in for you a lot of the time, So 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.240 you're going to the dressing room and there'll be some 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:55.439 sort of like plate with cheeses and ham have been 0:10:55.720 --> 0:11:00.600 in the sort of sweating it's not the isis and 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:05.800 then crisps and sweets and things like that, maybe fruit sometimes, 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:08.920 but yeah, that's what I I sort of like have 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.720 my sort of routine, which is our order and uber 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.880 and go into town and find somewhere to have coffee 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.080 and then sit and decide what it is I'm going 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:20.600 to do with the rest of my day. You ever 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.280 to spend the day there before the concert at night, 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.000 it depends how far away is from the venue that 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:27.520 you come from the last night. But if you're in 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:30.160 America and you've got like, you know, fourteen hour drive 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.000 before in between shows, then you don't have that much time. 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.080 But if you you know, just a couple of miles 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.160 up the road, then yeah, you might have the whole 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:38.679 day and you can get a couple of good meals. 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:43.199 In do you eat before a show, after a show, 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:48.640 or during a show? Probably I'll eat like a a 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.960 bigger breakfast, I won't have lunch, and then I'll have 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.240 a dinner afterwards. I don't want to really go on 0:11:55.360 --> 0:12:00.800 stage on a full stomach. Not not good idea about 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:03.960 tell me about the player and tell us about the place. 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.520 I'm doing a play called two, which is a sort 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.560 of dinner party play. So what does a dinner party play. 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.280 The whole thing is set over one evening around a table, 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:18.959 and it's all about usually quite small cast like Who's 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.480 afraid of Virginia Wolf and like you know plays. It's 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:27.040 it's definitely a thing um And that's that's what there's 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.400 plans is the food on the table. Yeah, I have 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:36.760 to make an asparagus risotto because so tell me about 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:38.680 that that because we want to bring everything back to 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.080 the food. But what is it? What is it? What 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:42.960 is it? Like, Oh my gosh, you're going to hate 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.880 it because well it's not actually resorted. They were kind 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:50.360 of like have already made as matti rice and then 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.360 I kind of like add stock to it as we're 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.480 you know, doing the first sort of fifteen or twenty minutes, 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:58.400 and then yeah, don't I chopped up asparagus and chuck 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.439 the asparagus in and then I dish it out and 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:05.280 you're talking, well, and my characters, women called Jenny, who's 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.440 a primary school teacher married to a guy called Sam. We're, 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:13.400 you know, having friends over for dinner. Are mid renovation 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.199 house and Jenny my character, is convinced that the house 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:21.640 is being haunted by a ghost, and so she asks 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.680 that the other guests stay up until two two, which 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:26.640 is when the time of night when the ghost comes 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:31.120 along to witness and give their thoughts on what's happening. 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.640 And so, yeah, it's sort of it's a it's an 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:40.720 interesting play. If ghosts exist, why aren't there absolutely loads 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:43.360 of them? How do you mean, why aren't they flooding 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.600 it into our world in their thousands. A minute later, 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.839 it came walking round and round, turned on the light 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:52.959 and the room was empty. It was a dream. I 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.200 wasn't asleep. Don't you believe I should have been here. 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:04.719 We've spoken about tables, the tables that you grew up 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.120 with as a child, coming down and we can close 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.760 their eyes right now, I can and see this child 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.040 coming down to the grown up dinner party, or the 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:17.840 tables that kind of even prepared for yourself in the 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.240 face of not being able to have to cook, to 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.720 have a pearthy meal, finding a table in a town 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.680 where you could have a cappuccino. And so the thought 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:29.880 that you're in a play right now that is centered 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.520 around a table, this is something that you think, that's 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.200 a table, the theme of a table in your life, 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:37.160 and the table is very central to our play. I 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.800 can't go too much into it because it is it's 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:44.040 part of the twist. But yeah, I guess kitchen table 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.040 is central to the sort of family ideal, isn't it. 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.480 And I guess maybe I put a lot of focus 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.120 onto it because I don't feel like that table featured 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:58.280 enough in my childhood. But it's definitely something that is 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.360 important to me. In fact, David and my husband and 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:03.760 I are building a house in New York together at 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.520 the moment, and I'm always talking about this table that 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:11.480 doesn't exist yet, which is you know, very very central 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:13.920 to the to the whole running of the house. I 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:15.680 don't want it to be just a place where food 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:17.680 is prepared. I want it to be where the kids 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:19.640 coming from school and they dump their bags on that 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.360 table and they want to be doing their homework while 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.360 I'm cooking their food. And it feeling like the engine 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.800 room of our lives really and where we communicate and 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:33.360 share ideas together and emotions, talk about what's happened with 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.240 our day and unpack what how we're experiencing the world. 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.200 So yeah, and I guess there there is a little 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.680 bit of that in the play that I'm doing, which 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.960 is set around a table in a kitchen. Well, in 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:48.960 a few minutes, you're going to be sitting around a 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:52.120 table in the River Cafe. And I always associate you 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.600 actually with Table leven, which is a table closest to 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.480 the past. I don't know. I just always used to 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.120 see you there and would come with him with big 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:04.080 groups of people. Do you know you're coming with David? 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:09.200 And yeah, it's like my sort of little secret treat. 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.440 I guess maybe because it's not in town. It always 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.720 feels like a special treat coming to the River Cafe. 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.960 And I live mostly in West London, so it's not 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:22.120 never that far, but it's it's not um although I 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:27.920 did have one birthday party here. Yeah, it's a very 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.880 messy affair. Sorry, I think I behaved quite badly that night. 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:33.680 What happened, But there was a table, that's a table, 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.960 that's a very big table. That room actually just practically 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.520 is a table. Tell me what was that like? That. 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:46.640 I don't know. I think that we were asked never, 0:16:47.440 --> 0:17:01.640 maybe not me or maybe some of my guests. When 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.399 I had my kids and lived in the countryside, food 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:08.000 and entertaining was massive for me. You know, we had 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.479 like a few bedrooms, bare bedrooms, and people would come 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.000 down from London every weekend and I would do, you know, 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.439 massive meals on our big long table in the dining 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.520 room and yeah, so that's a lot. So you did, 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:23.000 you know I did. Yeah. We had a house in Gloucestershire, 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.160 just outside of Stroud, and you know, there's a farmer's 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.159 market there, so I would go to the farmers market 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.399 and buy all of the produce and um, yeah, and 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:35.760 people would come down and it was all very seasonal fair. 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.560 But yeah, I love cooking. I'm doing this play here 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:41.480 at the moment, and I'm actually living at friend's house. 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:43.960 My kids are spending the summer with their dad and 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:48.400 my mom's. But when things are a little bit more 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:51.160 normal and we're all living together under one roof, then 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.919 it's I'd make them every weekend without fail. I'd do 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:59.840 a Sunday boast on a Sunday. It's just my mom always, 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.040 you know, she she wasn't quite as militant about it 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.880 as I am. But I I just love a Sunday rost. 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:09.679 I love the ritual of it. I love getting up 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.760 early on a Sunday morning and peeling all my potatoes 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:14.879 and putting them in the fridge to dry out, and 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:17.560 the goose bat and I just love all of the 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.160 different bits. And I just love, you know, so usually 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:23.880 using the seasonal vegetables and you know, the root vegs 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:26.680 in the winter and more salads in the summer. And 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.160 and also I just think it's really important for my kids. 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:34.119 I'm slightly manipulative as well, because I think that they 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.879 will always come back to me on the weekends, because 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.280 if they know that that roast dinner is always going 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.280 to be there at three o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:47.080 they'll always come home. They were the memories of, yeah, 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.800 you're remembering your mother's I think the memory of a 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:54.399 tradition of a Friday night dinner Shabbat or Sunday lunch, 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:58.640 and that is, you know, the tradition. You know, I say, 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:02.639 in an irregular world, we need regular things. You know 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.240 that that Sunday election you always look the same meat? 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:08.520 Is it always We do quite a lot of chicken, 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:12.040 but you know, I do ribs of beef. Sometimes I 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:14.679 do like a pork belly. But I did a twenty 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.680 four hour um pork shoulder as well, which is very 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:20.800 popular in our house. Is that sort of more like 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:26.120 in sort of Chinese spices and stuff starn ese and cinnamon, sugar, curklear, 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.359 the allen you are, you know, it's a ventpicious and 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.120 sid and picky. But yeah, what you're describing is and 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.000 also you know the little thing you said, and he said, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.280 goose fat. So tell me about the goose fat. What 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.200 do we do with a goose fat? Well, my roast potatoes. 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:47.240 I peel them, boil them for about six or seven minutes, 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.280 and then I chucked them in the fridge and let 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.760 the air come out of them. Goose fat, a little 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:56.800 bit of oil into a roasting van until it starts smoking. 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.200 And then I coaked my potatoes in and chuck them 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.840 in for for an hour. Well, the rest of the stuff. 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.280 My mom said, actually that one of the funniest memories 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.439 that she has with me is this is my emotional 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.480 connection to roast inn It's that when I went traveling 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:20.000 around Asia and I must have been eighteen or nineteen, 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:22.960 and I came back and she'd obviously made a roast 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:24.359 inn because that's why I said that I wanted to 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.840 come back for. And we sat around the tables as 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.960 a family, and once we'd finished, my sister went, thanks, Mama, 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.880 was delicious, gravy was amazing, and I just burst into 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:42.760 tears because I had forgotten to put the gravy on. 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.040 So the rose tradition is something that goes back from 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.720 your childhood to yours and then to your children. Yeah, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.240 but I think even my mom's childhood as well, you know, 0:20:57.280 --> 0:20:59.800 I think she was sort of raised on roast inners. 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.959 And I mean maybe it's because in my family, just 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:06.880 the way that things have worked out and my mom being, 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:10.680 you know, a single working mother, and that was possibly 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:12.840 the one time a week that we all did come 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.960 together around a table. You know, there wasn't there wasn't 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:18.320 much of that. I don't really have memories of sitting 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.280 around the table as a family, but I do on Sundays. 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.359 I always asked what is your comfort food? And it 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.800 is very often food that was cooked for as a child. 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:31.680 A friend of mine who I said it was a 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:34.040 peanut butter and jelly sandwich because that's what he had 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:36.800 with his mother when he came home from school every day, 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:39.879 and she died when he was twenty, and that's what 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.239 he wants to eat. So I think there, I think 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:49.679 roast chicken is quite central to everything. It's the center 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:51.760 of my world. Looks like a roast chicken. I think. 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:54.560 So your table is waiting, and I just want to 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.920 thank you so much for doing Thank you. We have 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:05.240 to share a table very soon. Kay. To visit the 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.840 online shop of The River Cafe, go to shop the 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:20.399 River Cafe dot co dot uk. River Cafe Table for 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.240 is a production of I Heart Radio and Adam I Studios. 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.399 For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.639 heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:30.520 your favorite shows.