Speaker 1: Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Adamized Studios.
Speaker 2: A year ago, I used every bit of access and
Speaker 2: influence to get tickets to Cabaret for one reason, only
Speaker 2: to see Eddie Redmain, and I went back two times.
Speaker 2: I would have liked to have gone back more. And
Speaker 2: last week, conquering my enormous fear of being afraid, I
Speaker 2: watched him in The Good Nurse and was a bit
Speaker 2: unnerved about just how beautifully he made a mass murderer
Speaker 2: not only empathetic but almost lovable. But I and all
Speaker 2: of us in the River Cafe really know Eddie as
Speaker 2: a great lover of food. Actually, I'm here alone as
Speaker 2: Eddie is in the kitchen with the chefs making pizzas
Speaker 2: a little annoying, as I don't go around acting in
Speaker 2: plays and movies. But how could I possibly mind?
Speaker 3: Hi, I'm Jess and I'm a chef at the River Cafe.
Speaker 3: We've been here for four and a half years, and
Speaker 3: we're making pizzas pizza section, so you want to roll
Speaker 3: it out quite quite.
Speaker 4: Wise, I obviously made the rookie era to begin with,
Speaker 4: putting far too much stuff on top, which is I
Speaker 4: think it's.
Speaker 5: Sort of like Day one exactly. All spledges over in
Speaker 5: a sort of.
Speaker 6: Hi, pizza, that's great, Wow, thank.
Speaker 3: You so much.
Speaker 2: Today Eddie and I are here in the River Cafe
Speaker 2: about to begin our conversation, thank you so much with
Speaker 2: the so nice to see, so nice, so thank you.
Speaker 2: How is it making the pizzas?
Speaker 5: It was? You fulfilled a childhood dream of mine.
Speaker 2: I like childhood dreams. What would that be?
Speaker 5: I mean it was watching Chef.
Speaker 4: As a kid, we didn't really go to restaurants that much,
Speaker 4: but it became a thing when we were sort of
Speaker 4: I think about nine ten years old, that the weekends
Speaker 4: would be playing sport on a Saturday, and then the
Speaker 4: evenings we would go to Pizza Express, watch pizzas be made,
Speaker 4: take them home and watch. That was like sort of
Speaker 4: and so but my parents always said I would sit
Speaker 4: there sort of clutching onto the marble, kind of watching
Speaker 4: the process. Nothing like the pizza that I got to
Speaker 4: make today, But it was extraordinary.
Speaker 5: You fulfill my.
Speaker 2: Lifelong It's very dramatic.
Speaker 4: You're absolutely right, and it's but also the process of
Speaker 4: watching food be made has always been something that I've
Speaker 4: just adored and so open kitchens. You think it's theatrical, Oh,
Speaker 4: maybe it is that. Maybe it is that. And it's
Speaker 4: also kind of organized chaos, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: There's sort of the choreography of it, even just going
Speaker 4: into the kitchen today and hearing about the process of
Speaker 4: the different numbers of some where they which section they're
Speaker 4: in charge of, and how they arrive at they're not
Speaker 4: knowing whether they're going to be on the wood oven
Speaker 4: or making pieces or I love the ordered chaos of it.
Speaker 2: There's also I always say, and there is something about
Speaker 2: the drama of a restaurant that the curtain goes up,
Speaker 2: yeah at twelve thirty, you know, and at that point
Speaker 2: everybody has to have you know, cleaned the carpet or
Speaker 2: grated the cheese or you know, made sure the olive
Speaker 2: oil was on the shelf, and that the menu had
Speaker 2: been written. And I have never acted in a play,
Speaker 2: but I assume that if the actor doesn't know their lines,
Speaker 2: or the stage that hasn't been painted, or the program
Speaker 2: hasn't been printed, that the show doesn't go on.
Speaker 4: And also the feeling of I think I imagine it's
Speaker 4: similar in restaurants, but of when we were doing cabaret,
Speaker 4: for example.
Speaker 5: You have your own weird path of.
Speaker 4: Superstitions that you've created over the run of the thing
Speaker 4: that involve for me, because I'm old, having to sort
Speaker 4: of roll out a lot in order that your body
Speaker 4: doesn't break vocally warm up and all that stuff. But
Speaker 4: then also as a group meeting on the circle of
Speaker 4: the stage and warming up together since greeting each other,
Speaker 4: seeing how that everyone's days have been. And at that
Speaker 4: point the space has a kind of fluorescent light on it,
Speaker 4: and then we could hear the audiences coming in, and
Speaker 4: then we all shift out and the lights go down
Speaker 4: and the space takes on this kind of magical potency
Speaker 4: I suppose is that.
Speaker 2: Similar so collaborative. But going back about working and food,
Speaker 2: I'm so intrigued about whether actors and if it's a matine,
Speaker 2: do you have munch.
Speaker 4: Well, generally, what happens with me when I do theater
Speaker 4: is I lose weight because you're firing on adrenaline.
Speaker 5: And the truth is I can't eat.
Speaker 4: Just before a show, It's too soon. So I try
Speaker 4: and eat a really good breakfast. I try and drink
Speaker 4: a shed load of water first thing in the morning,
Speaker 4: which I'm not good at but recently doing cabaret, my
Speaker 4: wonderful singing teacher.
Speaker 5: Said that apparently it takes the six out.
Speaker 4: Your vocal cords are the last things that hydrate, and
Speaker 4: it takes six.
Speaker 5: Hours for the hydration to get through.
Speaker 4: So sort of first thing in the morning, you I
Speaker 4: would sort of come downstairs and down glasses of water.
Speaker 4: But then of course after the show, you're riding on
Speaker 4: adrenaline and it's late and you don't so on matinee
Speaker 4: days you sort of have to force yourself to eat,
Speaker 4: which is yeah, and normally for me it's something kind
Speaker 4: of it could be noodles with prawns or something that light,
Speaker 4: something that's easy. There's a weird thing about our job,
Speaker 4: both in theater and on film that, particularly on film,
Speaker 4: I suppose when you because you wake up very early,
Speaker 4: you can be up at sort of you know, four
Speaker 4: or five or something, and then back late that I
Speaker 4: feel like you turn more into a child in the
Speaker 4: sense that your body clock like straight off to lunch.
Speaker 4: On a film set, quite often you just hit this
Speaker 4: total wall of like you eat and then you can
Speaker 4: completely pass out because and then you sort of wake
Speaker 4: again and you kind of I suppose dose yourself with
Speaker 4: caffeine in order to sort of then put you through.
Speaker 4: But I never feel it when I'm not working, but
Speaker 4: that real feeling of straight after lunch, you're a bit
Speaker 4: like a baby. You sort of go straight to yeah,
Speaker 4: but learning to eat and coffeminate yourself. The odd things
Speaker 4: about film sets and theater is the rhythms of it.
Speaker 4: You know, you can be you can be shooting an
Speaker 4: intense scene on a film set and have done the
Speaker 4: wide shots, and then they'll call lunch, and then you'll
Speaker 4: have your food. You'll have that exhaustion, and then you
Speaker 4: straight off to lunch. You're coming back into the most
Speaker 4: intimate of close ups and you've somehow got a recap
Speaker 4: that energy, and that's beret. So weirdly, food and drink
Speaker 4: does affect all that, and you are having to kind
Speaker 4: of give yourself false energies.
Speaker 7: At moments to push yourself to a place that's kind.
Speaker 2: Of I thought it was a very beautiful scene in
Speaker 2: The Good Nurse that takes place at the very end
Speaker 2: and that diner where you're clearly going into a place
Speaker 2: of eating, a place where you sit down in a
Speaker 2: booth and there's the expectation that you're meeting and you're
Speaker 2: going to have probably something, you know, a meal that
Speaker 2: you're going to have, and then that conversation and it
Speaker 2: was very beautiful. I thought that dynamic of the two
Speaker 2: of you over a couple of you didn't have anything, did.
Speaker 5: You, Yeah, we ordered the food.
Speaker 2: And then that thing that also resonates so much as leaving.
Speaker 2: You know that you walking out of a restaurant is
Speaker 2: quite or a diner or any situation where the expectation
Speaker 2: of a nice meal and then that kind of thing
Speaker 2: of walking out is pretty pretty tough.
Speaker 4: There was something about the architecture of that Dina. You know,
Speaker 4: diners force you to kind of sit opposite. There's no
Speaker 4: that and also the director to be, as Lindholms an
Speaker 4: amazing man to set the scene. It's it's a moment
Speaker 4: in the film when these two people who are close
Speaker 4: friends meet and my character has been doing horrendous things
Speaker 4: and this friend knows about it and is wired. So
Speaker 4: it's being is recording the conversation to try and get evidence,
Speaker 4: but hasn't given away that.
Speaker 7: She knows anything. So it's filled with sort.
Speaker 4: Of tension and to beis did this these interesting things?
Speaker 4: For example, giving these gigantic menus. You know that that
Speaker 4: that that that almost stop you from these obstacles to
Speaker 4: the scene, Like he kept having the woman in charge
Speaker 4: of the restaurant come and interrupt the scenes, so adding
Speaker 4: the kind of odd rhythms to a scene that is
Speaker 4: that is filled with angles and edges, I suppose, But no,
Speaker 4: you're right. Restaurants are extraordinary places because they're you know,
Speaker 4: the real man Charles Cullen that I played. I got
Speaker 4: the sense that his relationship with Amy Lockran, which is
Speaker 4: Justic Justtain's character, was always one of friendship. But I
Speaker 4: believe that this was the only time that he began
Speaker 4: to think maybe there was something more. She had invited
Speaker 4: him on a sort of out of work date and
Speaker 4: so he's got slightly dressed up, and that that filled
Speaker 4: that scene potentially. So restaurants can be places of first love,
Speaker 4: or they can be places of breakup, of power negotiations
Speaker 4: of you know, they are.
Speaker 2: People do very private things in a very public space.
Speaker 2: So people get divorced in restaurants and now it's affairs
Speaker 2: and restaurants. They get fired in restaurants, and you know,
Speaker 2: you think of maybe you might want to do that
Speaker 2: at home. You know, in the office, and instead there's
Speaker 2: a safety net I think of knowing that if you're
Speaker 2: firing somebody or announcing an affair. We have had people,
Speaker 2: you know, spilled a glass of boy and very rarely
Speaker 2: or totally yeah, the drama. Well, the best one I've
Speaker 2: said it before is the man who said he called
Speaker 2: up and said that he was going to propose to
Speaker 2: his girlfriend, and we right, will you marry me on
Speaker 2: the cake? So he did, of course marry me, you know,
Speaker 2: you know it. And halfway through the meal he came
Speaker 2: and said, cancel the cake, and so we never knew why,
Speaker 2: you know, but it is that has been No, I
Speaker 2: don't know who he was. It was just like one
Speaker 2: of those I probably wasn't even here that night.
Speaker 5: One of the oddest.
Speaker 2: I have to say. I wish I had more dramatic stories.
Speaker 2: There's I've been asked, you know, I mean, just people.
Speaker 2: Very often people want to bring their own food, you know,
Speaker 2: which is a bit odd. Yeah, exactly, bring that, Yeah,
Speaker 2: bring that, choose fastive. But sometimes people will say can
Speaker 2: I bring somebody gave me a trustful Kenny grade and
Speaker 2: that's fair enough. They want to bring it or basically,
Speaker 2: you know, That's what we were saying before, is we
Speaker 2: just say yes, you know, people want a surprise. They
Speaker 2: want the you know, the proposal moment. They want to
Speaker 2: get down on their knee, or they want we've had
Speaker 2: a surprise party, and we've told I had to see
Speaker 2: somebody in the restaurant and then take them into the room.
Speaker 5: I once tried to hold I tried to hold her
Speaker 5: for Hannah, and.
Speaker 4: She could see it straight on my face, like this
Speaker 4: group of people behind the door or else.
Speaker 2: You call up somebody and say, you know it's your partner,
Speaker 2: so looking forward to seeing your Advan says, I didn't
Speaker 2: know anything about it.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: We we love restaurants and we love that as you
Speaker 2: say that, drama, I'm really pleased that you've chosen a
Speaker 2: recipe from the River Cafe book thirty to read what
Speaker 2: is that?
Speaker 4: The recipe is Rigatoni with cavalonero and new olive oil.
Speaker 4: Serves six one kilogram cavalonaro leaves, two garlic cloves peeled,
Speaker 4: two hundred and fifty millimeters of extra virgin olive oil,
Speaker 4: five hundred grams of rigatoni freshly grated parmesan. This pasta
Speaker 4: is the celebration of two ingredients that arrive at the
Speaker 4: same moment in the year, cavaloneero and the first pressed
Speaker 4: peppery extra virgin olive oil. When we started the River
Speaker 4: Cafe in nineteen eighty seven, cavaloneo was nowhere to be found,
Speaker 4: so we brought the seeds back from Italy. Now you
Speaker 4: can find it everywhere, but only by it after the
Speaker 4: first frost, and not after the winter months. Never after
Speaker 4: the winter months. Remove the stalks from the cavalon narrow leaves. Now,
Speaker 4: this is the bit about this recipe I enjoy the most.
Speaker 4: There's something about the texture of cavalon nero that is
Speaker 4: so satisfying. And you can just tear out the stalks,
Speaker 4: or you can get a very sharp knife and just
Speaker 4: kind of in size down the middle, and I love.
Speaker 4: I think that's the part of cooking that I find
Speaker 4: Thera is the sensations of things. Anyway, So you have
Speaker 4: to keep the leaves whole. You blanch them in a
Speaker 4: generous amount of boiling salted water along with the garlic
Speaker 4: cloves for five minutes. You drain, put the blanched cavalon
Speaker 4: nero and the garlic into a food processor and pulse
Speaker 4: chopped to a pure. In the last couple of seconds
Speaker 4: of blending, pour in about two hundred millimeters of extra
Speaker 4: virgin olive oil. This will make a fairly liquid, dark
Speaker 4: green pure. Season well, cook the rigatoni in a generous
Speaker 4: amount of boiling salt of water, and then drain thoroughly.
Speaker 4: Put the pasta in a bowl at the sauce and
Speaker 4: stir until each piece is thickly coated. Pour over the
Speaker 4: remaining extra virgin olive oil, and serve with parmesan. I
Speaker 4: chose this recipe because during lockdown, my wife Hannah is
Speaker 4: a wonderful gardener and had always dreamt of having a
Speaker 4: kitchen garden, and lockdown was one of those occasions when
Speaker 4: we could fully commit to it without the fear of
Speaker 4: travel and other things. And it became this amazing thing
Speaker 4: for me because I generally do the cooking in our
Speaker 4: house and she would just start bringing things to me
Speaker 4: that already in the country. This is in Staffordshire, Yeah,
Speaker 4: and cavalonero was brought in by the armful and I no,
Speaker 4: and I found this recipe and it was so simple.
Speaker 7: So I made vats of the stuff and froze it
Speaker 7: and it's lasted us.
Speaker 2: For good that's good, you know. I think what's interesting
Speaker 2: also is that moment when you actually boiled the garlic
Speaker 2: with the vegetable, you know, so to fry it or
Speaker 2: if you were to chop it. But somehow the fact
Speaker 2: that it's a whole cold garlic, it almost almost makes
Speaker 2: it a bit creamy.
Speaker 4: Doesn't have to do that, Yeah, it does, and it's
Speaker 4: and there's something so odd about throwing garlic clothes into
Speaker 4: and you have to kind of you have to sort
Speaker 4: of scoop them up with your maid.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that you chose this recipe. So, going
Speaker 2: back to the beginning of the Redmon family, did you
Speaker 2: grow up with a feeling that food was to be
Speaker 2: taken seriously or enjoyed or was it something was the
Speaker 2: feeling in your house?
Speaker 5: I grew up.
Speaker 4: My mum is a a wonderful cook. She she learned
Speaker 4: from her mother, and it's very It was vegetable.
Speaker 5: So she had there were three boys.
Speaker 4: I have two brothers and an older half brother and
Speaker 4: half sister. But it was three of us growing up
Speaker 4: at home, and she had a lot on her hands,
Speaker 4: like we were sort of running circles around and quite hyperactive,
Speaker 4: and so the food I remember from my youth was very.
Speaker 5: Traditional British food. It was cottage pies, it was. It
Speaker 5: was also the eighties.
Speaker 2: Was it from a region did she come from the She.
Speaker 5: Actually came from Scotland.
Speaker 4: She grew up in Edinburgh and so all those kind
Speaker 4: of things, like my mom learned from my grandma, who
Speaker 4: still lives in Edinburgh, is.
Speaker 5: One hundred and one years old.
Speaker 4: I remember my grandma makes the greatest bacon sandwich. She did,
Speaker 4: oh she It's streaky bacon fried to a crisp Then
Speaker 4: you use either the softest bap that you can find,
Speaker 4: or the cheapest white bread, but nothing posh about the bread,
Speaker 4: and the freshest, cheapest white bread, and you put the
Speaker 4: bread once you've done the bacon. You put the bread
Speaker 4: onto the frying pan with all those juices and you
Speaker 4: just fry that for a few seconds. That then what
Speaker 4: you have, I smother it in heinz ketchup. I can't
Speaker 4: be dealing with posh ketchup. And then put all the
Speaker 4: bacon in and when it goes into your mouth, fantas
Speaker 4: and salty.
Speaker 2: So back to your mother in the eight digress, what
Speaker 2: did we digress? We could be here for hours but
Speaker 2: go back because I heard you I say something about
Speaker 2: it. It was the eighties.
Speaker 4: So my memory of the like when Mum would go,
Speaker 4: you know, get really stuck in it was things like Vollevon,
Speaker 4: like I love a chicken Volivart and I feel like's.
Speaker 5: Need of resurgence.
Speaker 4: Okay, not puff pastry with creamy sauces and tarogony chicken ey.
Speaker 4: But the thing about Mum that was really influential for
Speaker 4: me is because she had so much going on on.
Speaker 4: She again was quite a It was the most punch
Speaker 4: for the least effort, I suppose.
Speaker 5: And so all the.
Speaker 4: Recipes that I've learnt, you know, from her are they
Speaker 4: sort of got me through being a student. They got
Speaker 4: me through it's through, yeah, and it's interest. It's certainly
Speaker 4: why the cavalonera what appealed because I don't have.
Speaker 2: A huge entertained. Did she make full of.
Speaker 5: Off for her She did.
Speaker 4: She did entertain And again she was like me, she
Speaker 4: has to she has to prep everything in advance, because.
Speaker 2: Did you get involved? Did she get her kids to Yeah?
Speaker 4: I would, I would always, you know, help when I could,
Speaker 4: and then do that thing of company. We lived in
Speaker 4: a very tall, very thin house, and I would do
Speaker 4: that thing of creeping down sitting on the stairs listening
Speaker 4: to her. And again, it was the eighties, so when
Speaker 4: it was like a proper dinner party, everyone properly got
Speaker 4: dressed up.
Speaker 7: And I remember the glamor of that film.
Speaker 2: And you know famously. I'd love the story that your
Speaker 2: brother Charlie, who eats in the River Cafe more often
Speaker 2: he ates in the River Cafe when Harper are down
Speaker 2: the road. Yeah, he telled a very funny story about
Speaker 2: your father and McDonald's.
Speaker 4: Would you like to tell Yeah, there's I don't remember
Speaker 4: being there that there's apocryphals at the story about my
Speaker 4: dad going to McDonald's and asking for a rare hamburger
Speaker 4: which didn't.
Speaker 5: Which didn't didn't exactly didn't go down.
Speaker 2: So well, did you rests? Did you go to a restaurants?
Speaker 5: We did?
Speaker 4: We didn't other than you know, Saturday night before especially,
Speaker 4: but very occasionally.
Speaker 5: I remember once and this was quite a seminole moment.
Speaker 4: Actually, when I was probably about nine or ten, my
Speaker 4: dad decided to take his children just before Christmas to
Speaker 4: have a roast lunch at the Savoy and it was
Speaker 4: going to be a really this was a big, glamorous thing,
Speaker 4: and I don't know if it was something that his
Speaker 4: father had done for him. And I remember going into
Speaker 4: the Savoy and seeing the glamour and the.
Speaker 5: Dance at the theater of it, I suppose. Anyway, we
Speaker 5: were sitting there.
Speaker 4: And we had ordered food, and the soup came and
Speaker 4: I was sort of eating it, but I was being
Speaker 4: sort of fussy, and eventually my mum and mum were saying,
Speaker 4: you know that this is incredibly indulgent, like we were
Speaker 4: in this extraordinary place. Why aren't you eating your soup?
Speaker 4: And I sort of said to her, it's too salty.
Speaker 4: My mom was like, Dad, we have bought you this
Speaker 4: extraordinary place.
Speaker 5: You know it's very dope.
Speaker 4: Be ridiculous. Of course it's not too salty. This is
Speaker 4: one of the great restaurants. Anyway, Eventually Mum tasted it
Speaker 4: and she was like, you're absolutely right, it is too salty.
Speaker 4: And so they called over the waiter and the weather
Speaker 4: waiter tasted it, and I was like, I'm so sorry,
Speaker 4: and so the chef, the head chef, came out and
Speaker 4: he took my older brother, James, and.
Speaker 5: I on a tour.
Speaker 4: I apologized and said he had been on the phone
Speaker 4: or something when he had been seasoning, and he took
Speaker 4: us on a tour of the kitchens of the samoy
Speaker 4: and it was like I sort of watched that film
Speaker 4: ratted too, you know. It was it was again being
Speaker 4: low in height and seeing things being flow made, and
Speaker 4: I was completely hypnotized by.
Speaker 2: It, you know. But also you didn't turn to your
Speaker 2: mother say I don't like it, which a lot of
Speaker 2: kids might just say I don't like it. You knew
Speaker 2: that it's too salty.
Speaker 5: Well you were right.
Speaker 4: What's interesting is now later in life, I'm a salt addict.
Speaker 2: But oh yeah, yeah, but still I think that, and
Speaker 2: actually their response it's the same thing I always prefer.
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes people write a letter and they'll say,
Speaker 2: you know, I you know, my fish was overcooked on
Speaker 2: my pasta was undercooked, And you say, why didn't you
Speaker 2: tell us at the time, because of course you want
Speaker 2: that feedback. It doesn't matter if they're right or wrong,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter. You just want them to leave having
Speaker 2: had the best meal we could give them. So I
Speaker 2: think that you said it, and then it's a nice story.
Speaker 2: Then you went to boarding school, didn't you.
Speaker 5: I did.
Speaker 4: I went to well I went to school in London,
Speaker 4: just across from where we are now until I was thirteen,
Speaker 4: and it's why I have whenever I come to the
Speaker 4: River Cafe, I have a mixture of like of joy
Speaker 4: mixed with slight PTSD because it was these towpaths that
Speaker 4: are right next to the River Cafe and on the
Speaker 4: other side that was where we had to run our
Speaker 4: cross country every year. So I've got sort of memories
Speaker 4: of like freezing little legs, sort of having to My
Speaker 4: little brother was very clever and sort of feigned asthma
Speaker 4: in order to sort of get out of it.
Speaker 5: But I didn't have the ingenuity for that.
Speaker 4: So what was the food like boardings for It wasn't
Speaker 4: great now, it wasn't bad, but it was also where
Speaker 4: you had this thing, a sort of tea time where
Speaker 4: you would cook yourselves, and that is where I first
Speaker 4: and because I didn't love the food at school, I
Speaker 4: would start sort of I mean, it was never something adventurous,
Speaker 4: but you learned to do something that you had one
Speaker 4: little hot what's it called the hot pa basically which
Speaker 4: which you share between ten students, and the sort.
Speaker 5: Of one pot pasta became a thing you.
Speaker 2: Could just cook they would let but then and then
Speaker 2: you would have.
Speaker 5: Dinner, and then there would be dinner afterwards.
Speaker 4: But if you kind of sustained yourself, then you perhaps
Speaker 4: didn't have to.
Speaker 2: And so it was just and that the food was
Speaker 2: your brother actually said another he said that the British
Speaker 2: are very good at the British upper class would be
Speaker 2: very good in prison because they've been institutionalized since a
Speaker 2: very young age, you know, and so you get what
Speaker 2: you're you know, taken.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Now it's some yeah, But there were some people that
Speaker 4: were I remember, very adventurous. I remember one one person
Speaker 4: at Eaton who had come back, had been away for
Speaker 4: the weekend, and I was sort of cooking some sort
Speaker 4: of stirring pasta and and he just sort of threw
Speaker 4: a rabbit on a on a sort of on a
Speaker 4: on a frying pan and cooked himself.
Speaker 5: Which I thought was pretty robust.
Speaker 4: When I left home, I moved to Burrow and I
Speaker 4: lived there for a decade, right by the market. And
Speaker 4: my mom did this wonderful thing when I was about
Speaker 4: twenty three, I think two, and as a Christmas present
Speaker 4: she bought me this this class and this amazing woman
Speaker 4: took this group of us there was random people for
Speaker 4: different ages, and took us to the market and introduced
Speaker 4: us to the traders and taught us how to spot
Speaker 4: a decent produce versus the stuff that was being flung me.
Speaker 4: And then we went back to her home and this
Speaker 4: assembled group of people were taught. We were talked three
Speaker 4: or four very simple things that totally changed the way.
Speaker 2: I do you remember what they were?
Speaker 4: Attitude or recipes and attitude obviously, Like one of them
Speaker 4: was a olive oil in the pan, a punnet of
Speaker 4: cherry tomatoes, salt and lid on and then fry, then
Speaker 4: squashed them once they get thingy, and at the end
Speaker 4: you can grate in some cheese if want, but I
Speaker 4: never do, and just put in some basil torn basil
Speaker 4: at the end, and then you the cherry tomato skins
Speaker 4: are so sort of fine that they almost disintegrate. And
Speaker 4: I sort of since then have never bought her a
Speaker 4: tomato sauce again. But it was also there was a
Speaker 4: time when I was about six or seven when my
Speaker 4: mum had my mom and dad had an opair. This
Speaker 4: amazing woman called Arianna, and she came. She came from Italy,
Speaker 4: she came and from then on she would when she
Speaker 4: came went back, a friend would come, and so Italian
Speaker 4: food started kind of infusing my life.
Speaker 5: And when I was just between school and.
Speaker 4: University, I went and traveled and in Italy a bit,
Speaker 4: and we went to stay with her, and I remember
Speaker 4: it being this moment when it was all of the
Speaker 4: tomatoes that have been grown by her family, her extended family,
Speaker 4: had all been given to her, and it was that
Speaker 4: time of year when she made pasata basically, and I
Speaker 4: just remember her in the kitchen and I sort of
Speaker 4: helping to kind of grind the tomatoes through and that
Speaker 4: would be bottled off and back and then passed back
Speaker 4: out to the family, and that there was something just
Speaker 4: generous spirited about it.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful thing to watch and as you say,
Speaker 2: a process. So if we've sort of talked about school
Speaker 2: and food and family and food and being young and food,
Speaker 2: and what was it like when you started your career
Speaker 2: working and food, you know, when you were acting.
Speaker 4: I was starting to act and travel quite a lot.
Speaker 4: And travel has been one of the wonderful elements of
Speaker 4: what I do, you know, whether it's to Japan or
Speaker 4: I spent a lot of time in Hungary and Budapest,
Speaker 4: and then in North Carolina I remember, and then Dan
Speaker 4: in Louisiana and having grits and crawfish and sweet corn
Speaker 4: and the simplicity of that.
Speaker 5: And one of the wonderful.
Speaker 4: Things about my job is, particularly when you're filming, you
Speaker 4: were right in these cities and rather than basically it's
Speaker 4: a tourist but you're there to work, but often the
Speaker 4: crew are from there, and so you have this amazing
Speaker 4: thing of having an introduction to cities that means you
Speaker 4: can get quite quickly slightly beneath the surface and get
Speaker 4: told where the sort of great places are. And it
Speaker 4: was then, I suppose that my sort of food taste
Speaker 4: started expanding.
Speaker 2: If you knew you were going to be filming in
Speaker 2: Venice or in Budapest, or would you start thinking about
Speaker 2: restaurants before you went? Would you ask people?
Speaker 4: I'm not good at that, but I know many actors
Speaker 4: that are the greatest of those is Jeremy Strong. Jeremy
Speaker 4: wonderful actor and absolute passionate foodie. And it was great
Speaker 4: when we were making the Trial of Chicago seven. Wherever
Speaker 4: we were, I would just get a sort of email
Speaker 4: from him saying, right I've got a table at this
Speaker 4: place that was on Chefs Table. We shot a bit
Speaker 4: in Chicago and then actually.
Speaker 7: In New Jersey, but we were based in New York.
Speaker 2: We've had a lot of conversations people who say, mostly
Speaker 2: the directors were just like, really not to stop for
Speaker 2: lunch because it just stops the flow of the filming,
Speaker 2: of the acting, and then actors saying that actually the
Speaker 2: food on set could be terrible you feel about working
Speaker 2: and youto, No.
Speaker 5: It shifts and it changes. I mean definitely.
Speaker 4: When I was starting on British sets, there's this thing
Speaker 4: craft Service, which in the UK is a couple of
Speaker 4: sort of slightly MOULDI digestive biscuits and you know, some
Speaker 4: instant coffee. And I remember when I did my first
Speaker 4: film in America, which was being directed by roberts Niro
Speaker 4: and was a big.
Speaker 2: Shepherd that movie. I love that movie, but it.
Speaker 4: Was a big shock to me now because suddenly you
Speaker 4: arrived and on the streets of Brooklyn it was like
Speaker 4: it was like Borough Market had these sort of gigantic
Speaker 4: piles of bagels and and well, I think it's also
Speaker 4: an American thing. And of course I was completely seduced
Speaker 4: as my children remained. They came to the set of
Speaker 4: The of the Goodness and not quite sure what it
Speaker 4: is I do, But as far as they can see,
Speaker 4: I just work at a sweet shop.
Speaker 2: And we're going to say something about Jessica.
Speaker 4: Well, now, Jessica Chesstain was saying recently what sort of
Speaker 4: tips had she learnt from about being an actor, and
Speaker 4: one of them was that Alpacino had said that careers
Speaker 4: get ended at the craft service table people who become
Speaker 4: too obsessed with the girl's age. But my greatest on
Speaker 4: set food was I made a film many years ago
Speaker 4: called Savage Grace with Julianne Moore, and we shot it
Speaker 4: all in in Barcelona, and even though it was set
Speaker 4: in kind of London and New York and Cadercares, it
Speaker 4: was a sort of low budget movie and Barcelona was
Speaker 4: passing for all of these things.
Speaker 5: But the span cruise, we're just wonderful lunch.
Speaker 4: You suld pot her out and they put a table
Speaker 4: up with a kind of umbrella and that'd be just
Speaker 4: the most exquisite dispatch show in little cups for everyone
Speaker 4: just to sort of start, and then it felt like
Speaker 4: you were living. I mean, I think there was even
Speaker 4: wine on the table, which I think would probably have
Speaker 4: aided my performance.
Speaker 2: Well, I think, you know, investing in good food for
Speaker 2: the people who work for you or that you work with,
Speaker 2: it's so important because we all work better, we all
Speaker 2: are better when we have good food. So I think
Speaker 2: that your mother is coming any minute, you do not
Speaker 2: want to keep her waiting. We always say that, you know,
Speaker 2: we've discussed, you know, food in childhood and food in school,
Speaker 2: and food and acting. I also say that food is comfort.
Speaker 2: If you needed food for comfort, is there something you
Speaker 2: would turn to?
Speaker 5: Can it be any quite specific?
Speaker 2: Can be a you know, ball of cereal, that can
Speaker 2: be anything you want.
Speaker 4: So there was a restaurant in France, in a village
Speaker 4: called Grimau that was an Italian restaurant called Las Spaghetto.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure it's there anymore, but I went there
Speaker 4: as a child and.
Speaker 5: They did a starter called which was well.
Speaker 4: For years, I've been trying to work out how the
Speaker 4: heck they make it, and everyone does their version of
Speaker 4: mozzarella and cut off so that sort of thing. But
Speaker 4: I think it was done with sort of the cheapest mozzarella,
Speaker 4: you know, so of that that really sort of plastically
Speaker 4: stuff with bread crumbs, and it's just a very simple
Speaker 4: uh fried and then and it was and you could
Speaker 4: you had to eat it quickly before it got.
Speaker 5: Before it got it.
Speaker 4: And it remains my comfort. And my brother, my brother James,
Speaker 4: particularly my older brother James, and I would go and
Speaker 4: we would order it for starter.
Speaker 5: For main course.
Speaker 4: It was and so and we tried to ask how
Speaker 4: they made it, and they would never tell us.
Speaker 2: Let's go find that. I said, you were a food lover.
Speaker 2: I did, and we love you. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for today. Well, yeah, where's that. Let's go make another one.
Speaker 2: I'd never tasted your seats.
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