Speaker 1: You are listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2: Tonight, my friend Elizabeth Saltzman is hosting a dinner in
Speaker 2: the River Cafe for the brilliant designer Nelie l'autan. Elizabeth
Speaker 2: invited me to the dinner, but what's exciting is having
Speaker 2: nearly here all to myself before we go in Nearlie
Speaker 2: is a creative, an entrepreneur who knows how to work
Speaker 2: and also knows how to have a good time. A
Speaker 2: woman with strong values she's held on to since starting
Speaker 2: her own fashion company. She advocates for peace. She supports
Speaker 2: women and working mothers. She's authentic, having spent over thirty
Speaker 2: years refining her sense of style and her sense of self.
Speaker 2: She and I, a chef and a designer, have something
Speaker 2: else in common, believing great design, whether food or fashion,
Speaker 2: is about simplicity, precision, and timelessness. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: about food and architecture, food and politics, food and family,
Speaker 2: food and fashion, and then we get to have dinner too.
Speaker 2: Lucky me, lucky me, Thank you. You were born then
Speaker 2: in Israel.
Speaker 3: She came in nineteen forty seven. My older sister, nineteen,
Speaker 3: was born nineteen forty nine, she has a miscarriage between
Speaker 3: me and my sister. And then I was born in
Speaker 3: nineteen fifty seven. Israel was still I mean, it's constantly
Speaker 3: in conflict and wars, but it was still, you know,
Speaker 3: a small country.
Speaker 4: Everyone knew each other.
Speaker 2: And what did your father do.
Speaker 4: He was a developer, real estate developer.
Speaker 3: He did very well for himself, and we always moved
Speaker 3: into the new house that he built, which most of
Speaker 3: them were facing the Mediterranean, So I basically lived opening
Speaker 3: the window and all I saw was the Mediterranean and
Speaker 3: the horizon. So when I ended up in Crochton, I
Speaker 3: was like, I'm home. It may not be the Mediterranean,
Speaker 3: but I see the water. I was missing that in
Speaker 3: the city. So you grew up there, grew up there.
Speaker 3: Then I went to fashion school in Tel Aviv.
Speaker 2: There's only one fashion schoo wanted to do fashion.
Speaker 4: It was my mom's recommendation.
Speaker 3: I didn't know if I wanted to do an architect
Speaker 3: But then somehow this school opened up and it was
Speaker 3: intrigued me because they it was textile and design and
Speaker 3: just a very general but major in fashion. And I
Speaker 3: did very well in school, and then they actually sent
Speaker 3: me to New York.
Speaker 2: That was the first time you read I there.
Speaker 3: So I went to Europe when I was sixteen, to Florence,
Speaker 3: to Paris, to the Netherlands. It was just like a
Speaker 3: teenage group, you know. We were like traveling the group.
Speaker 4: Boy.
Speaker 3: I mean when I went on that airp my mom
Speaker 3: had to prepare for me a suit because I thought
Speaker 3: I would not be anything but Jackie Owe, who I've
Speaker 3: seen in the papers, and I had to have my
Speaker 3: suit and going up.
Speaker 4: With the steps and so I still walking up. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: I knew exactly what I wanted.
Speaker 2: Did you have fashion magazines?
Speaker 3: So that was the only resource I had was fashion
Speaker 3: magazine that I found at the hairdresser that my mom
Speaker 3: did her hair. There were no fashion magazines in stores,
Speaker 3: so she used to get it from her sister from Paris.
Speaker 3: And that's how I learned about Saint Lauran and all
Speaker 3: these beautiful closes. Late sixties then this is sixties. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so you traveled around. But then you went so
Speaker 3: how did you Who did.
Speaker 2: You stay with when you went to New York?
Speaker 3: Did you just I stayed in the ninety second y
Speaker 3: I got my first job.
Speaker 4: For twenty three years.
Speaker 3: I worked in the fashion industry, and then I opened
Speaker 3: my own.
Speaker 2: You worked for Ralph Florence.
Speaker 3: I worked for Ralph in the nineties late nineties. Then
Speaker 3: from Ralph I moved to Nautica. Ralph was my best experience,
Speaker 3: Like if I ever, Ralph was the only design driven
Speaker 3: company out of all the companies that I worked for.
Speaker 3: He hes still is, you know, I think so unique
Speaker 3: in his approach to women and dressing and women a
Speaker 3: woman and consistency, perseverance and not being strayed by no trends,
Speaker 3: just consistency, and I think I pretty much followed that.
Speaker 2: You know, Graydon Carter, he was the I was just
Speaker 2: with him this weekend in France and he was talking
Speaker 2: a lot about Ralph.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Lf is really.
Speaker 4: Very unique, I think, from a marketing.
Speaker 3: Genius to just being so consistent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and tell me about starting a business, because both
Speaker 2: of us, I think, have actually started our own businesses.
Speaker 2: I did it with my partner. I was thirty eight
Speaker 2: and Rose was ten years older, and we started the
Speaker 2: River Cafe with nothing and with a very simple idea.
Speaker 2: But reading about what you did, you also started. Yeah,
Speaker 2: did you do it on your own with a friend
Speaker 2: or so?
Speaker 4: I actually worked at Nautika at the time.
Speaker 3: And then one day David Chu, the founder of Nautica, nonchalantly, like,
Speaker 3: without any preparation, said to me, Hey, if you ever
Speaker 3: want to start your own business, I'll financially back you up.
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, really, but that means.
Speaker 2: That God, I mean, if he went to you to
Speaker 2: say that, he must have Yeah, you know, let's go here. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So we started it to get.
Speaker 3: And then a couple of weeks later he kind of
Speaker 3: regretted the idea because he decided that he wants to
Speaker 3: move to China, and so he left and I continued
Speaker 3: it on my own, without having the means, without having
Speaker 3: the financial without having a business plan, with a lot
Speaker 3: of drive and confidence and a very simple idea.
Speaker 2: What was the idea?
Speaker 3: So by then I was designing for twenty three years,
Speaker 3: and I realized that at every company, whether it's clothing, food, music,
Speaker 3: there is always few things that drive the business at
Speaker 3: the end of the day. If you design a collection,
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, there'll be five pieces
Speaker 3: to drive the sales.
Speaker 4: I'm sure it's the same thing in the kitchen.
Speaker 3: So I said, I'm smart enough to figure out those
Speaker 3: five pieces. Why should I design two hundred. Let me
Speaker 3: just art with these five pieces, and that's it. They
Speaker 3: were actually one of those items till today is my
Speaker 3: best selling item. It's called the Sean pen Yes and
Speaker 3: everyone owns it in five colors, and it's ridiculous because
Speaker 3: it was right on Bingo. It all started with my
Speaker 3: ex husband flight suit. My husband was a pilot in
Speaker 3: the Israeli Air Force. I looked at the flight suit.
Speaker 3: I actually any labor with I want her her at
Speaker 3: the ninety second y and someone asked her, what do
Speaker 3: you recommend to a young photographer, and she said, look
Speaker 3: around yourself and find objects that are right near you.
Speaker 3: She was talking about how she started. She photographed her dad,
Speaker 3: and so I looked around. I found my husband's zoomsuit,
Speaker 3: the flight suit, and I dissected it and basically created
Speaker 3: a pant out of it and a jacket out of it.
Speaker 4: Five items. That's it.
Speaker 3: I did it in a very special technique which I
Speaker 3: actually make the garments and when it's done, I dip
Speaker 3: it into color. So from a business perspective, it's a
Speaker 3: very smart thing to do because one of the problems
Speaker 3: that you come across in fashion, and it's the same
Speaker 3: in food the life shave is very short, so in
Speaker 3: close when you make clothes, you know it doesn't get
Speaker 3: bad food. But people just want the newest thing, so
Speaker 3: you can't stay with too much inventory. So by dipping
Speaker 3: it by demand, I never have leftovers. I basically always
Speaker 3: cut and sew in deep by demand. That was great
Speaker 3: till I opened my own shops, because when I was
Speaker 3: basically answering other people's orders, I could do. But once
Speaker 3: I had to plan for my own retail stores exchange.
Speaker 3: But in any event, it was very smart, little, clean,
Speaker 3: tight concept that financially allowed me to invest very little
Speaker 3: and to grow.
Speaker 4: The company organically.
Speaker 3: I started from there, and then I started to add
Speaker 3: things pieces to it and categories to it. By now
Speaker 3: we have bags, swim where, Men's, Women's Way beyond those
Speaker 3: five pieces. But I think it's a smart thing to
Speaker 3: do to start with something.
Speaker 4: That you really feel believe in.
Speaker 3: And the proof is that that piece is still my
Speaker 3: number one selling pants, so I know, yes, I knew
Speaker 3: what I was doing.
Speaker 2: I always when chef's leave and I say they're going
Speaker 2: to start their own restaurant, what advice do I have?
Speaker 2: And I always for me, I like to start small
Speaker 2: and grow. That's what we did. Whether it's the you know,
Speaker 2: the restaurant, whether it's doing parties for the people, whether
Speaker 2: it's starting a little cafe, it's all been part of
Speaker 2: a process. I never had, Oh, I have an idea,
Speaker 2: let's do that. You know, it's always my husband used
Speaker 2: to say that he's an architect. He used to say,
Speaker 2: I never had an idea. It's not about an idea.
Speaker 2: It's about you know, you you know we you know,
Speaker 2: we make an almond tart in the winter with pairs,
Speaker 2: but then in the summer were making the strawberries. You know,
Speaker 2: it kind of it just grows.
Speaker 3: I think design I always tell this to my designers,
Speaker 3: but also to more of the business side of things.
Speaker 4: Design is a process. Yeah, cooking is a process. A process,
Speaker 4: you know. I start with something and then it evolves.
Speaker 3: And then people say, but it's it's you know, when
Speaker 3: when you have people involving your business and they start
Speaker 3: to start, you get your sketches early on, and they said,
Speaker 3: but wait, this is what you did, but why are
Speaker 3: you here? I said, because it's a process. I only
Speaker 3: know when I start, I don't know where I end.
Speaker 3: And I think it's it's hard for people who are
Speaker 3: not creative to understand that the design it's a living thing.
Speaker 4: And or when you're.
Speaker 3: Ready to say okay, I'm done, by the way, you
Speaker 3: never you never stop because it just I always say
Speaker 3: that my collection is one collection that I started the
Speaker 3: two thousand and three and it just keeps growing and evolving.
Speaker 3: And that's why it's a play on the same theme.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: It's like, how do you take a white shirt and
Speaker 3: make it better and better and better? How do you
Speaker 3: take you know, any element that in your wardrobe, a
Speaker 3: pea coat, and how do you make it better and
Speaker 3: better and better? And it's so great to know that
Speaker 3: you can make it actually better.
Speaker 2: Imagine a state bottled olive oil chosen and bottled for
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Speaker 2: subscription is available for six or twelve months, with each
Speaker 2: oil chosen personally by our head chefs and varying with
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Speaker 2: care for them with the gift. Visit our website shop
Speaker 2: the Rivercafe dot co dot uk to place your order.
Speaker 2: Now zucchini that you're having tonight is an antipasity, So
Speaker 2: I thought that would be something that you might like
Speaker 2: to listen to. Read.
Speaker 4: Zucchini three four lati twelve small zucchini, trimmed, three tablespoon
Speaker 4: olive oil, two garlic cloves, one twenty five milligram of
Speaker 4: boiling water. That's interesting.
Speaker 3: I didn't know a handful of fresh mint or basil
Speaker 3: leaves roughly chopped.
Speaker 4: I'm going to make this.
Speaker 3: Cut each zucchini at angle into three to four slices.
Speaker 3: Hit the olive oil in a large frying pan at
Speaker 3: the garlic, then zucchini, and cook slowly for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 3: So you put the garlic and then immediately the zucchini,
Speaker 3: pour in the boiling water and steer scraping up the
Speaker 3: mixture that will have formed on the bottom of the pan.
Speaker 3: Who until all the water has been observed and zucchini
Speaker 3: are soft at the mint of basil and seasoned with
Speaker 3: sea salt and black pepper. Delicious as an antipacity with
Speaker 3: prosciutto deparma or mozzarella.
Speaker 4: Wow, by the way, zucchini, I don't know if you're
Speaker 4: familiar with it. So my mom used to grate zucchini
Speaker 4: and then she soted it. No, she sotted with dial
Speaker 4: still yeah. Yeah, and then she would serve it with
Speaker 4: a little bit of sour cream like I've never seen
Speaker 4: anything like that anywhere, but it was delicious.
Speaker 2: Did she grate it and then get the water out?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so that is meal, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then she would also state and then throw some
Speaker 3: eggs over it like she did a lot of zucchini
Speaker 3: wild recipes that are not in any I.
Speaker 2: Didn't know that he was very Hungarian. I guess I
Speaker 2: should know.
Speaker 3: That I grew up with Eastern European cookine. Mom is
Speaker 3: the Hungarian one. I think in your end it.
Speaker 2: Was my father's, your father's family.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so I have very much of a zucchini
Speaker 3: part of the.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was it was your It was your grandmother.
Speaker 2: Do you remember your grandmother?
Speaker 3: You know I didn't because they were Holocaust survivors, So
Speaker 3: they're the only one that came. My father's Russian, my
Speaker 3: mom Hungarian, same combination. They immigrated to Israel after the war.
Speaker 3: They came on the boat. They were dropped in Haifa.
Speaker 3: They grabbed the first driver that they could grab. They
Speaker 3: didn't have any money and one little suitcase and landed
Speaker 3: on my uncle who lived on the dunes on the
Speaker 3: beach of Nethania, which is a town twenty minutes from
Speaker 3: Tel Aviv north, and they just landed here we are.
Speaker 3: They didn't have money, so he had to pay for
Speaker 3: the driver and then they stayed there and then, you know,
Speaker 3: little by little, my dad did very well for himself.
Speaker 2: So your mother and father met in Hungary.
Speaker 3: They met in Austria in a refugee camp. So my
Speaker 3: mom escaped Hungary as the you know, Hungary was the
Speaker 3: last country for the German to invade, and so the
Speaker 3: German came from one sign and the Russian from the other,
Speaker 3: and they were like kind of they the Jews in
Speaker 3: Hungary were killed literally in weeks, and so they were
Speaker 3: able to escape to Austria to an unra refugee camp.
Speaker 3: My dad escaped from Russia. He was studying law in Sorbonne,
Speaker 3: and when the war studied, he went back home to Russia.
Speaker 4: And studying law at Yeah, and then.
Speaker 3: He went to Russia and then realized that that's not
Speaker 3: he didn't have parents. His mom passed away when he
Speaker 3: was five. That passed away right then, So he started
Speaker 3: to move towards Austria. I knew that he had a
Speaker 3: brother in Israel, so he was trying to get there.
Speaker 3: Met my mom two weeks later, got married and moved,
Speaker 3: so she didn't even know him.
Speaker 4: She knew him for two weeks.
Speaker 2: And yeah, when you think that, you know what she
Speaker 2: went through and then to get iry foreign country. Have
Speaker 2: many children, you.
Speaker 3: So me and my sister who's eight years older than me.
Speaker 3: So she was born nineteen forty one and I was born.
Speaker 4: Eight years later. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, it's been basically the story of the establishment of Israel.
Speaker 4: You know my parents.
Speaker 2: What the age did she leave Hungary?
Speaker 4: She was twenty two, twenty three.
Speaker 2: So she really had that.
Speaker 4: She had a little recipe she brought with her.
Speaker 3: I do, but it's in Hungarian and I can read it,
Speaker 3: but I do keep it.
Speaker 2: She can translated. I always say that I remember them
Speaker 2: all with John. Quite a few of them have had
Speaker 2: books from their mothers when they went to university, from
Speaker 2: their grandmothers, and I think that having those recipe books
Speaker 2: is really, you know, part of the history, part of
Speaker 2: the tradition. Tell me more about the book.
Speaker 3: So I actually used to watch her where she was cooking,
Speaker 3: so it's all in my head. I can't read her book,
Speaker 3: but I can imagine what's in it. I'm sure there
Speaker 3: is more than what I remember, but I remember it
Speaker 3: was pretty much a routine, like she didn't experiment much.
Speaker 3: She cooked the classic dishes. And then we had a
Speaker 3: grandma in our building. She was a Romanian, and she
Speaker 3: taught her a lot of bakery, you know, like baking goods.
Speaker 3: So she experimented all these cakes, which one of them
Speaker 3: might carry. And I think they're actually giving the recipe
Speaker 3: of that cookie tonight. It's almond crescents cookies that she
Speaker 3: used to make. I just added some lemon to it
Speaker 3: and so I twisted it a bit, and then I
Speaker 3: pretty much I do the stuffed peppers from her recipes,
Speaker 3: ground meat with rice, cuman or a lot. She used
Speaker 3: to do a lot of paprika. And she was basically
Speaker 3: cooking most of the time. My dad was busy from
Speaker 3: six to eight, but he would come in at twelve
Speaker 3: to eat the main meal, and I would come back
Speaker 3: from school at two, So literally from twelve to three
Speaker 3: she was basically serving food. She very happy, Yeah, she
Speaker 3: was very happy. I mean she loved being in a
Speaker 3: country that she felt free.
Speaker 4: She was very disappointed.
Speaker 3: You know, living her home land, you know, in such consequences,
Speaker 3: and she kept reminding us, you know, what is it
Speaker 3: to be in your own place?
Speaker 2: Did she have a kosher house? No?
Speaker 3: Most Eastern European Jews that came after the war lost
Speaker 3: their religious faith because of the Holocaust, and we're not observing.
Speaker 3: So actually as a child, I've never been to a synagogue.
Speaker 3: They were completely secular liberal that.
Speaker 2: She brought the food with her.
Speaker 3: She brought the food with her, and food is I
Speaker 3: teach my daughters. You know, I think there's something about
Speaker 3: if there's no religious there is food. I think that's
Speaker 3: something to hand from one generation to the other.
Speaker 2: And I think it has said because when I when
Speaker 2: we talk to people, it's very many many people who
Speaker 2: we talk with remember the food of their grandmother. Yes,
Speaker 2: maybe sometimes more than their mother. And I'm very touched
Speaker 2: by the idea of this book that your mother had
Speaker 2: and did she make it for you or did she
Speaker 2: make it for yourself?
Speaker 3: So she that was herself for herself I made. Now
Speaker 3: I'm actually in the process of me and my daughter,
Speaker 3: we're writing the same book. She writes it in English
Speaker 3: and I write it in Hebrew.
Speaker 4: And none of my kids.
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 3: So it's just all the recipes that I ended up
Speaker 3: doing because I've collected so many. So, as I said,
Speaker 3: born with my mom cooking mostly Hungarian. My dad injected
Speaker 3: his did he cook? He didn't cook. He made a
Speaker 3: delicious salad.
Speaker 4: That was his thing. And then you have to tell
Speaker 4: him how delicious it.
Speaker 3: Is because when he was done so and.
Speaker 4: If you didn't tell him, it was the most delicious thing.
Speaker 2: But you know, there is that that's the reason why
Speaker 2: you doing. Yeah, I totally advertized with your father. I'm
Speaker 2: sitting we have an open kitchen, and I watch people
Speaker 2: in their handed a plate, you know, and you could
Speaker 2: see the response or you can see them look at
Speaker 2: each other or you see them you know, joying it
Speaker 2: or giving some or not enjoying it. You know, but
Speaker 2: the response to through is very very important.
Speaker 3: There's something cooking that it's the language of love, you know.
Speaker 3: It's a way of extending of giving. And I find myself,
Speaker 3: you know, over the weekend mostly cooking and baking. So
Speaker 3: it's my husband. My husband is the best. So David
Speaker 3: is a musician and he loves cooking very good musician,
Speaker 3: is very well known actually, and he grew from the
Speaker 3: age twelve to eighteen in Madrid, so his vocabulary his.
Speaker 4: Mom, I don't think.
Speaker 3: I think she cooked, but he wasn't really much influenced
Speaker 3: by it. So really the years in Spain is what
Speaker 3: influenced him. So he does everything on the plantcha everything
Speaker 3: is very very quick, so he brought that into the
Speaker 3: world of us. So we basically go into the kitchen
Speaker 3: together and cook together. But we both, you know, very
Speaker 3: much influenced by Israel, so that whole spices come from
Speaker 3: that region, and then we mix it with the Hungarian
Speaker 3: and the Spanish and the whole thing is amazing. The
Speaker 3: difference between David and I need to know what I'm cooking,
Speaker 3: I need to prepare for it, I need to make
Speaker 3: sure that everything is there. David just goes into the
Speaker 3: kitchen and whatever he finds, it just throws boom boom boom,
Speaker 3: and it's delicious and he remembers haste. So like if
Speaker 3: you would go to a restaurant and I like something,
Speaker 3: he said, Okay, there is this in it, this and
Speaker 3: that and this and that, and then he'll try to
Speaker 3: make it. So he's naturally very talented in cooking.
Speaker 2: With your children, you how did you bring them up?
Speaker 2: Did you all sit down to dinner as a family
Speaker 2: or did you all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now the kids are out of the home. You know,
Speaker 3: our kids are anywhere from twenty nine to forty. And
Speaker 3: we don't cook during the week eat out. There's two
Speaker 3: restaurants that we.
Speaker 4: Religiously go to.
Speaker 3: We go to Bar Pity at least three times a week.
Speaker 3: We basically just crossed everybody's line and just walk in
Speaker 3: and sit in our chair and table and all they own,
Speaker 3: because it's just super convenient.
Speaker 4: It's right there.
Speaker 3: We live right next door, so that's it. We don't
Speaker 3: want to know about any other restaurant. We don't care
Speaker 3: about any other restaurant. And then on the weekend we cook,
Speaker 3: so we stop at Citarella. We buy the fish, the meat.
Speaker 3: David makes the best steak ever as he basically put
Speaker 3: it on the plancha with a lot of butter butter. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and then he actually somehow pours the butter on the steak,
Speaker 3: so it's like if you didn't have enough butter, there
Speaker 3: comes more butter.
Speaker 2: I empathize. I love butter relicious.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I've never had and I didn't eat
Speaker 3: meat from age eighteen till I met David. From till
Speaker 3: I met David, which was in my forties, yea, And
Speaker 3: all we needed to do is one steak which I
Speaker 3: tasted and that was the end. Now I eat steak
Speaker 3: almost at least once a week.
Speaker 2: An open kitchen in the River Cafe means we as
Speaker 2: chefs are able to talk to our guests dining in
Speaker 2: the restaurant, and now we're bringing that same ethos to
Speaker 2: our podcast, a question and answer episode with me and
Speaker 2: our two executive chefs. Send a voice note with your
Speaker 2: question to Questions at Rivercafe dot co dot uk and
Speaker 2: you might just be our next great guest. On Ruthie's
Speaker 2: Table four, what do you feel about the other side
Speaker 2: of fashion, which is to make a new collection every season,
Speaker 2: to make an enormous amount of choice. I am exhausted
Speaker 2: by choice, whether it's an and a supermarket or a
Speaker 2: and when I go to buy clothes, you know, when
Speaker 2: you're confronted with an array of options, it's very I
Speaker 2: also it's unsustainable, isn't it?
Speaker 4: One hundred percent?
Speaker 3: I think that we are in a certain cycle that
Speaker 3: I think since COVID, I think this industry is trying
Speaker 3: to break to break through. But it's not happening for
Speaker 3: some reason. It's not sustainable it. You know, I have
Speaker 3: a very different It was a poet, a very big
Speaker 3: poet in Israel, and he kept asking me why.
Speaker 4: I don't understand. Why do you have to do four collection?
Speaker 4: Why not too? And I said, what will the people
Speaker 4: do in between? So it's it's you kind of keep
Speaker 4: their jobs going. That's one of the reasons, because trust me,
Speaker 4: I would be so thrilled if I could do two
Speaker 4: collections a year and rest in between, or cooking between,
Speaker 4: or do other things in between, the architectural project in between.
Speaker 4: But you have a team of people that what do
Speaker 4: you do with them?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So I think this is one one obstacle. Uh yeah,
Speaker 3: I think that's more to me, that's what it is.
Speaker 3: Otherwise I would certainly stop it because it's far too
Speaker 3: much clothes. The world doesn't need that much clothes.
Speaker 2: I was interviewed by a woman who we were talking
Speaker 2: about clothes, who was an article for the newspaper about something.
Speaker 2: And I said, I can't remember how he got onto fashion,
Speaker 2: but I said, how often you know? Do you wear
Speaker 2: the same thing?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: And she said once every three weeks and I'm like
Speaker 2: I would have said, every day I try that, I
Speaker 2: just wear you know that. But I guess it's it's
Speaker 2: that concept that if it's so inexpensive, you can just
Speaker 2: buy so many things.
Speaker 3: There's a book that I'm constantly looking at it and
Speaker 3: how I translate it into a fashion concept.
Speaker 4: It's called Sarah's Closet. I don't know if you you
Speaker 4: came across it.
Speaker 3: It's uh was a Holocaust survivor and she was the
Speaker 3: grandma of the person who's actually put the book together.
Speaker 4: And she had a very tight closet.
Speaker 3: Everything was white and it was maybe twenty five pieces
Speaker 3: in her closet.
Speaker 4: That's it done.
Speaker 3: And since all white, there wasn't any room for mistakes.
Speaker 3: There is another believe this was. Was it Georgia O'Keefe
Speaker 3: recently I saw her closet too. I am there's something
Speaker 3: that I want to do about it from a business perspective,
Speaker 3: because I think, you know, one of the things that
Speaker 3: I do is I what I offer is what I
Speaker 3: call ward up foundation, which is really those things that
Speaker 3: you need. And so I always differentiate between what you
Speaker 3: need and what you want. The things that you need
Speaker 3: you probably wear them at least twice a week or
Speaker 3: three times a week or more.
Speaker 4: It's just things you need.
Speaker 3: This is what makes you feel good, this is what
Speaker 3: you comfortable in. The Things that you want, you actually
Speaker 3: don't need. You want them, so that's fine. If you
Speaker 3: have the money and that gives you pleasure and it
Speaker 3: makes you feel good about yourself, go ahead, But you
Speaker 3: don't really need them. So I kind of differentiate my
Speaker 3: collection between the pieces that you need and the pieces
Speaker 3: that you want. And to your point, you know, I
Speaker 3: wish we could just stick to the things that we need.
Speaker 3: And it is fifty percent of my business. It's just
Speaker 3: the same things over and over again and since I started,
Speaker 3: and it's the bread and butter of my business.
Speaker 4: And it never changes and it never goes on sale.
Speaker 4: It's what it is.
Speaker 2: I was married to an architect. He's an architect. I
Speaker 2: often think that I look at our house and I
Speaker 2: realized the other day that we actually have very few closets.
Speaker 2: I've actually very little space for keeping anything really, So
Speaker 2: if you buy something, you throw give something away, you know,
Speaker 2: if you do that. But I think also for women,
Speaker 2: it's you know, you you designed for men as well. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is your thought process.
Speaker 4: It's pretty much the same.
Speaker 3: I actually so when I work for rap I work
Speaker 3: for men for the men's area. So my thoughts about
Speaker 3: culture of dressing is actually coming from men where there's
Speaker 3: not that much access, uh, and it's really coming from
Speaker 3: functionality rather than access. And also when I think when
Speaker 3: a man likes most men, when they like something, they'll
Speaker 3: come back and buy the same thing over and over again. Uh,
Speaker 3: and they kind of depending on it. And I think
Speaker 3: women experiment a little more.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 3: The very first wardrobe foundation that I did is actually
Speaker 3: came from the concept of men of what are the
Speaker 3: pieces that you must have and then and offer it
Speaker 3: in seven colors so you can come back to it.
Speaker 3: But in terms of materials and language of design, it's
Speaker 3: pretty much the same for me. Yeah, it's very classic,
Speaker 3: understated and a spice of rock and rolling.
Speaker 2: It. We love it. During COVID, you started some well
Speaker 2: I think either Elizabeth or Alison bells and loves I
Speaker 2: did a podcast. Yeah, and she's a great friend and
Speaker 2: loves you.
Speaker 4: She said that you.
Speaker 2: I think she told me little bit you did. During
Speaker 2: COVID you did a food yes.
Speaker 3: So so basically the social media was my outlet to
Speaker 3: the outside. I was in the house morning till night,
Speaker 3: working and at eight o'clock I would drop everything, go
Speaker 3: take a shower, and go to the kitchen, move David
Speaker 3: away because he usually takes over the kitchen, moved him away,
Speaker 3: and start cooking. Every night, I asked him to film me,
Speaker 3: but to film only my hands. I started with my
Speaker 3: mom's and then all the Hungarians started to write me, Oh,
Speaker 3: I'm Hungarian too, and my mom.
Speaker 4: Used to do it this way.
Speaker 3: My mom used to do it that way, and I
Speaker 3: started with that, and then starting to move into exploring
Speaker 3: other things. And basically I'll put down the recipe and
Speaker 3: the process of how I made it and posted and
Speaker 3: gained a whole crowd of women who either not familiar
Speaker 3: with me and just familiar with my food or what
Speaker 3: I've been told that a lot of women it wasn't
Speaker 3: even about the food, that there's something about the way
Speaker 3: my hands managed the food.
Speaker 4: Made them feel calm and comfortable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, spare of now talking. You use the word comfortable.
Speaker 2: And at the end of every podcast, I always ask
Speaker 2: people a question, which is if f is the food
Speaker 2: is about we decide about sharing? Food is about love?
Speaker 4: Love?
Speaker 2: Because you know, the people that we love we want
Speaker 2: to take care of. Food is about hunger and surviving,
Speaker 2: but it's also it is about comfort. And so I say, well,
Speaker 2: if you think about your food and your memories and
Speaker 2: your language and what you like to cook when you
Speaker 2: need comfort, is there a food that you would go to?
Speaker 3: I go straight to my mom, share your mom, straight
Speaker 3: to my mom.
Speaker 2: I love with that.
Speaker 3: I think it just be the stuffed pepper, especially when
Speaker 3: it's it's first of all, it's being cooked for a
Speaker 3: long time, so the preparation takes a long time, and
Speaker 3: then the day after it's even the best and it's
Speaker 3: just the meat and the rice and the tomato sauce
Speaker 3: and the pepper. All the tastes get mixed together. I
Speaker 3: think because she did it a lot, so it kind
Speaker 3: of reminds me of her. It's not so much the
Speaker 3: food itself, but the taste and the smells reminds me
Speaker 3: of her. I think most people's comfort food come from
Speaker 3: their mama or their grandma, and that's so beautiful about
Speaker 3: That's the beauty about food to me, that it holds
Speaker 3: so much more than just food and hunger.
Speaker 4: And I think it's the same thing with clothes.
Speaker 3: By the way, I think clothes is such so beautiful
Speaker 3: by handing, passing on clothes, but people don't tend to do.
Speaker 3: But I think the act for me of making clothes
Speaker 3: is the same thing of cooking.
Speaker 4: You know, I give my love with my with my clothes.
Speaker 3: I realized mostly during COVID and then that I'm not
Speaker 3: even interested in clothes, that the clothes for me is
Speaker 3: a tool to give, to give comfort, to give sense
Speaker 3: of confidence, to give a woman, you know, the jewels
Speaker 3: for her to express herself. It's not about the clothes.
Speaker 3: Everybody can make clothes, everyone can make food. It's the
Speaker 3: love that you put in the pocket that what they
Speaker 3: receive and they respond to it.
Speaker 4: So I think there's something similar.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
Speaker 1: with Montclair