WEBVTT - Zoe Saldaña 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.680 You were listening to Ruthie's table for in Partnership with Montclair. 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:08.399 One of Zoe Saldania's mantras in life is feel the 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:11.760 fear and do it anyway. And what hasn't she done? 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:16.240 She dances, she acts, she sings, she speaks several languages, 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.840 and I think she loves to cook. Imagine my surprise 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:25.000 couple of months ago in October, standing outside my office 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.479 laptop and cook books in hand, with a large sign 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.080 on the door saying do not disturb. And the reason 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.040 for this wasn't a meeting with accountants or a broken radiator, 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.440 but the fact that Zoe Saldania was changing into her 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.800 dress for a lunch downstairs to celebrate the release of 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:46.360 her brilliant new movie, Amelia Perez. After lunch, I took 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.560 her hand and walked her to her car, talking about 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:52.800 how to make the perfect rice. A few minutes later, 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.279 we'd agreed to do a podcast together. And since then, 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:58.959 it's been quite a time for Zoe. I've seen her 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:03.200 everywhere on screen and newspapers, magazines and posters, and I'm 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.480 thrilled that last month she won a Golden Globe and 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.640 in February March she's this contender for both abaft add 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.560 an Oscar. A lot has happened, and a lot is 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.760 going to happen. But right now, what's happening is that 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:18.679 Zoe is here with me on a Saturday morning in 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.640 the River Cafe. It's our chance to sit down and 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:26.160 talk about food, food and memories, food and family, no fear, 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:27.959 just happiness and love. 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:30.120 That was so beautiful. 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:34.680 Well, it's true. It was such a quick meeting. It 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.199 was you were here, it was Netflix was giving you lunch. 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:38.920 Do you remember it? 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.640 Yeah? Yeah, And you just reminded me. We were talking 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.119 about rice, about making rice, and we should have cooked 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:47.720 rice today. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.400 We did. We cooked Go to the perfect race. 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:56.520 Tell me it's very simple. We saw tr rice before 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.400 we put the water in. So you put your pot 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.320 on the stove. You wait for it to get nice 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.480 and warm. You add the oil. Sometimes you can add 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.320 the salt over the oil, or you can just wait 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.720 until you put the rice, the washed rice rinsed. You 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.400 put your rinsed rice in it. You saute it for 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.600 at least two to three minutes, make sure that that 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.280 it's just you know, it cooks a little bit, and 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:24.160 then you put the water. So you wait for all 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.480 that water to almost evaporate on very high heat. And 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.800 then when it evaporates, then that's when you close your pot. 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.880 And you then put the fire on simmer for twenty 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.480 eight No lid in there, No, because the water has 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.880 already it's already the rice has already soaked up all 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.800 the water. The rice has expanded. 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:44.720 And it's nice and kind. 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.040 Of fluffy, but it's still very very odd. And then 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.600 you cover it and you allow its own steam to 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.519 cook it all the way into its you know, its 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:57.520 cellular sort of you know component, and then you can 0:02:57.600 --> 0:02:58.399 you can have your rice. 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.600 It's a certain type of rice, so long rain, long grain. 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:06.280 Long grain. We don't necessarily cook with avodio unless we're 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:10.800 making a soup that carries rice like a porridge in it, 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:12.560 and we do. In the Caribbean. We make a lot 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:14.200 of soups. Every island has. 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.840 So dest from the from the rice to the soups. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.560 Well, you we make soups with provisions, which are those 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:27.320 root vegetables from yucca, yeah me jaotia, I don't I 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.880 don't know the names in English, so please forgive me. 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:32.000 And then also with the plantains, some of them can 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:37.520 have plantains and potatoes, and you either choose what kind 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:42.720 of meat. Either it can be beef or pork or chicken. 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:45.400 Sometimes you can also do a fish stew or a 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:50.040 shrimp stewice a hardshell stew, and you cook all of 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:55.440 those things down with really important greens that add so 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:58.160 much flavor. And I think you guys use it a 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.280 lot here in England, the koulantro, it's a coriander, I 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:06.920 believe it's which in Spanish we call it because the 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.840 cilantro that they use in Central and South America is 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.280 the small leaf one that looks really like a four 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.680 leaf clover, and but the ones that we use in 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.920 the Caribbean is the really long leaf that when you 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.040 slap it and you sort of make, you know, you 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.560 open up all of it's like pores, and you put 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.800 it into water or your tea or or broth. It's 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:32.560 the most pungent, you know, smell and fragrance and taste. 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.560 Suff So that's how I grew up, just making stews 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:38.160 of all type soups. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.120 But but they vary from the winter soups to the 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:42.880 summer soups. 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:45.600 We'll make soup on the hottest day of summer, and 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.440 it's always summer in the Caribbean, and but it's it 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.320 cools you off as you're having something that's really hot 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:54.800 or sometimes spicy. And the Medican Republic we're not really 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.800 known for eating spicy spicy food. You can, but it's 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.680 not something that is in name in our culture like 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.960 it would be, for instance, in Mexico. But we do 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:07.719 a lot of soups, and when you're having your soup 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:10.560 on a very hot day, it just compels you to 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:12.600 cool off, you know. It's like having a hot team 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:14.279 and I just love it. 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.719 So it must have been quite in many ways your 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:21.000 early childhood, which you were born in. 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.880 I was born New Jersey, Pa Sake, New Jersey, and 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.720 I lived in New York because my family has been 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.000 in New York since nineteen since the nineteen sixties, and 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:33.680 I lived there until I was ten, and then when 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.839 my father unexpectedly just tragically died in a car accident 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.040 at he's thirty eight, it was still a kid. Then 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.640 we all fly and we move to you know, where 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.200 they're from in Dominican Republic, which is where I'm from, 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.200 you know, at the root of my origin. And it 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:55.000 was beautiful Dominican Republic and the Caribbean. Puerto Rico and 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.160 Dominican Republic used to be places that we used to 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:03.039 go to during the Christmas holiday summers. Of course we did, yes, 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.279 we and we spoke Spanish at the house. But you 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.720 speak English already at school, so you're I'm very much 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:12.239 a one generation child in New York where you coach 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:14.560 switch automatically and you don't even know what that means, 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.599 and you eat rice and beans with your grandparents today. 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.520 Did your grandparents live with you it is New York? Yes, yes, 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:22.840 both sets? 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:24.400 Or yes both sets? 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:26.520 Did they go back with you when you when you 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:28.359 went back? Yes, we used to. 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:32.480 Well, growing up, I used to travel mainly with my grandparents. 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.960 And that's you know, in our culture. I guess that 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.599 was their version of giving, like my parents a break. 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.760 So for two weeks, you know, they would fly with 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.400 us ahead, you know, two weeks in advance, we would 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.200 sort of take take it all in from from the 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:52.479 gaze of your grandparents, of your no nos, your your abuelos, 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.200 and then your parents would arrive with a great tan. 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:59.720 They probably would go somewhere and reconnect, and and two 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.880 weeks later that we were all together. We would spend 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.279 the whole summer in Dominican Republic. 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:07.680 A lot of people that I talked to from especially 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:12.160 from different cultures, different family groups, talk a lot about 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.760 their grandparents, almost more about their grandparents cooking than their parents. 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.160 And as a mother, and now I'm a grandparent, I 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.560 was saying last night at dinner that I really noticed 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.320 the difference in the way that I cook for my 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.440 children and the way I cook for my grandchildren. When 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.640 you're cooking for your children, very often you're just trying 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.920 to get food on the table because you've worked all day, 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.560 or you know you're going out that night, or you 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.440 want to see them. But they are more important things 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.640 to do than to perhaps spend hours cooking for them. 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.000 But when you're a grandchild, there's so much you just 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:44.840 want to bring, the culture. You want to cook the 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.440 food that they'll remember. It's part of the memory. 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:49.880 Did you feel that with your Oh my god, absolutely, 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:51.960 what you're saying just makes me want to cry. I 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.080 just there is just so much love that my grandmother 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:59.440 put in every dish that she was made. My grandmother 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:03.920 was born in Dominican Republic in nineteen thirty five under 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:09.200 the dictatorship of Trujillo dictator that that was in power 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.680 for over thirty years. She was born and she was 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:17.640 raised under this dictatorship, got married, had her daughter, my mom, 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:21.400 and then in nineteen sixty one, after the assassination of 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:27.160 this tyrant, they were granting passages, visas, work visas to Dominicans, 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:30.600 and my grandmother was, I guess, in the first or 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.040 a couple of waves of Dominicans that arrived in New 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.120 York in the night in nineteen sixty one and would 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:42.440 later then, you know, populate that uptown region of Manhattan 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:47.040 that would which is now known as Washington Heights, which 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.720 is basically you know, it's all very much the biggest 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:54.160 Dominican diaspora outside of the Dominican Republic is in Washington 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.760 Heights in Manhattan. And my grandmother was one of those 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.960 I would say, first arrivors, you know, and worked. She 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.880 was a seamstress and she worked for in factories and 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:11.240 for some fashion houses throughout you know, those first two 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:16.360 decades of her life there. My mother must have been 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.360 my mom was born in fifty six, so she must 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.240 have been five when my grandmother arrived in New York. 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.040 But my mother stayed behind with her grandparents with my 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.920 grandmother's parents in Santo Domingo, and then in the summer 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:31.440 she would go to New York and spend it with 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:35.000 my grandmother until she was fourteen, And at that age 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.520 that's when my grandmother then moved my mom and her 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.880 parents to New York. By the time I was born 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.319 and we were living in New York, my great grandparents 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.240 had already sort of flown and moved back and retired 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.199 in the Dominican Republic. But they would always visit. So 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.640 I remember every time they would visit, like every three months. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:54.839 We were a family that was always on a plane 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.360 and still today, I've always been on a plane and 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.840 they would open up the suitcases and they would bring 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.240 Dominican Republic like their plantains and their their cheese. It's 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.000 like we have a version of like a hallum cheese 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.960 that you fry. That is the most delicious thing. Why 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:15.319 that cheese, It's just it's just called you know, and 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:17.560 they call it Kisofrito. I don't know if it's called 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.800 something else, but they would bring it the blocks of it, 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.640 and the moment she would open that suitcase and that 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.960 cheese would pop out, she was immediately slicing it and 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:30.079 throwing it in a hot, sizzling pan. And and then 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.240 the salami you know, there was there was this this company, 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.120 and Dominican Republic is still there. It's one of the 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:39.240 biggest salami companies. We eat a lot of salami, but 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.080 we fry our salami. We don't really we don't really 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.360 eat it, like as I said, charcouterie, like you know, 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.760 cold and stuff, we can, but not this particular salami. 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:51.200 This one is free. This one is fried, and and 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.920 we would just eat that as a snack. And then 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.080 the plantains, where you know, I think I think we've 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:01.719 inherited the eating of plantains from our Africans of origins. 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.760 And you boil the plantains and you mash them with 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:08.079 butter and salt, and and you eat them and they 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:09.840 make it into like a paste. And it's called like 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:11.960 a mangoo, which I know that in Africa and certain 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.160 countries they call it like a fou fool, right, but 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.320 we call it mangool. And you put them the fried 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.640 salami and the fried cheese, and you grill some pic 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:26.480 is over it, and we just all the smell ine. 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:27.480 Let's do it. 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:28.559 Let's do it. 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.079 But the smell of that and our kitchen meant that that, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:36.800 you know, Abulita from Dominican Republic was in town. And 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.040 we would for the whole two weeks that she was 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.480 visiting with us, my great grandmother, we knew that we 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.440 were going to eat well. And she would sometimes go 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:48.360 to the markets, certain markets in Queens or she would 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:50.800 she would venture out and sometimes go out there down 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.680 downtown to Manhattan or go to Brooklyn, and she would 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.400 buy the coconuts, like really good coconuts that they would 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.760 bring from the Caribbean. What would she do with coconut desserts, desserts, 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:03.160 all types of macaroons, and she would make like these 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:07.040 biscuits that we call cocon and she would make those, 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.040 or she would grab a spoon, a very big spoon 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.400 on My grandmother, my great grandmother, was a you know, 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.880 she was just like a like a very simple woman 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.720 and there was nothing she could do that, you know, 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.520 and she would scrape the coconut sort of meat out 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:24.679 of the coconut and it would it would kind of 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.200 curl up. She would scrape it and she would curl 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:28.880 it up, and then she she would put it on 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:33.840 a pan with sugar and baking soda and vanilla, and 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:35.640 she would let that cook down and then it would 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:38.319 dry up, and then she would divide in these little 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:42.079 like rolls that it was ours so. 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:44.600 Here here. 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.040 And she was a feisty lady. By the time I 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:49.360 was born, she was already great grandma. So she was 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.600 just like very feisty, like a really really gritty woman, 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.560 you know, and she would grab everything with her hand 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.640 like she would she would. There was one story though, 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.880 that the biggest your shock for us, you know, when 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:08.320 we moved to a Dominican republic was just yeah, was 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.920 just how closely we lived with nature. You know, Like 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:14.720 she had her garden in the back, so she would 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.240 get all her herbs and fruits and everything from her 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.400 backyard and she would come in and this was It's 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:21.880 kind of like when you gave me the tour in 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.120 your kitchen, there wasn't a written menu. She would make 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.600 the meatballs from scratch, you know. She would grind the meat. 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:30.360 She had her grinder. I remember, like, oh, the grinder's out, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:32.640 and she would like it was like a transformer. It 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:34.679 came like a lego piece. She would like put it 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.560 all together, screw it up her and just put the 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.000 salami and the meat. She would the rabbi by by 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.280 the cheese and she would just grind that. And then 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:46.320 I would sit there and she would come on rush 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:48.960 your hands and she would put like oil on my hands. 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:50.600 And then we would make meatballs. And I was like, 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.720 oh my god. And then you try these meatballs and 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.400 they were just I haven't had a meatball like like hers. 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.440 You should make it. Yeah, well, you remember, is I 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:04.880 have a different I have a Hungarian grandmother. The story 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.800 is that she traveled with her rolling pin. That whatever 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.360 she came to visit, she'd come out just one hundred 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:12.520 miles from New York and she'd bring the rolling pin. 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.480 And the famous story in our family was that she 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:19.280 came to see her first grandson. My mother's my older brother, 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:21.720 and she came. It's quite a long trip and she 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.280 got to the door and they said, would you like 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.320 to come and see your grandson? And she said, let's 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:34.200 eat first, priorities. But what we're talking really about is, 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:36.320 you know, to see your face light up, to see 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.840 your memories, to feel and hear you. Is that food 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:40.800 is so important? 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.320 You know? Is that we're going to ask her to 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.240 make this? Yeah, that salted codfish. 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:46.600 You know. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.720 She would also meant like like a curd melk dessert 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.320 that was so good. And I think that the moment 0:14:54.400 --> 0:15:00.320 my great grandmother passed away, I stopped eating dessert because 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:02.720 the only I don't I have a savory tooth. I 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:06.800 don't have a sweet tooth, as you know, but only 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:08.920 for hers, I would eat any any desserts that she 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.840 would make. And then she got sick with Alzheimer's when 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:18.480 I was sixteen, and she sort of slipped away from 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.800 us mentally quite quite rapidly. And then we took care 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:26.280 of her for eleven years. And I just remember looking 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.240 at her, like when I was like nineteen or twenty, 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.720 It's like, I'm never going to try anything your hands 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.960 ever made. And that was I remember. I cried a 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:38.640 lot when that sort of like realizes that. And she's 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:40.160 right in front of me, and I was just painting 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.840 her nails, you know, just a distractor, and I just 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:44.240 looked at her and I was like, it's over. 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:46.920 But she was an artist, you know. She was what 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:52.240 you're talking about is an illusionist, like Moses creativity going 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.920 in there, you know. And now probably maybe if she'd 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.000 been at a different time, she might have been a chef, 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.000 you know, she might given the pleasure that she came 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.880 to you as a grandmother, as you know, one of 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.320 the women in the kitchen right now. I had no 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.680 option to say, well, actually, this is what I love 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.840 in my work, and I'm like, this is what I'm 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.400 going to create. I always think that cooking is a 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.080 bit like art, you know, except art last forever. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:15.920 It does. 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.040 Somebody eats that lemon tart you've worked hours over and 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:20.960 it's gone. You know it's they're your. 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:25.640 Grandmother, my great grandmother, your great grandmother hand make You 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.960 can make those memories last forever. You have to pass 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:32.760 it down. I have a picture of my grandmother in 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.640 my kitchen. She's the first person I see and the 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.560 last I say. Good not too And by keeping her 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:42.800 picture of her, we are keeping her alive. Because my 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:46.080 sons they won't have the experience that I had with 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:48.960 my grandmother and my great grandmother. They lost their great 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:53.240 grandmother really young. So it's in the stories I do 0:16:53.400 --> 0:17:00.000 tell them. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.160 Imagine a state bottled olive oil, chosen and bottled for 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:07.080 the River Cafe, arriving at your door every month. 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And was it also that you found that 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:50.199 by eating and discovering food, but also by dancing that 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.399 you were able to yea, you know, the tragedy of 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:57.800 your father's life, the difficulty of living in a foreign country. 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:00.000 How did dance affect you? 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:06.280 Well, the foreign aspect of Dominican Republic sort of dissipated 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.480 within the first couple of years because we are innately 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:17.000 where our families come from. That's just undeniable. Dance became 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.080 on a really important time in my life because trying 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.600 to fit in and find my placement right when you're 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.680 going into your early teenage years in terms of who 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.159 am I, what am I? Why am I? And so 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.200 going through all of that when it comes to discovering 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:40.960 your identity while mourning the death of a very big 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:43.320 figure in your life. The biggest figure in your life 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:47.240 was your ten Oh, my dad was My dad was incredible. 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:52.439 He played the guitar, he played the accordion. He was 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:57.360 a very naturally curious person, very smart for business, danced 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:00.479 very well. He and my mom they could have been arguing, 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.000 but they would just get up and kind of like 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.400 not face each other and still like like dance at 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:08.880 all the birthday parties. And You're like, how could they 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.760 do that? Like we're like sitting under a table just 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:18.280 like marveling at just the polar you know, opposites of 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:23.000 emotions that are being displayed in this beautiful, passionate dance 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:26.040 that they're doing, which is mad anger salsa, and and 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.760 they're just not looking at each other. And she would 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.840 be like by by his left shoulder, like smoking her cigarette, 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.480 like do do do do do dude, and he if 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:36.680 he would turn to face her, she would do do 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.080 do do do do do do? And you now I 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.640 know that I'm like that night must have been banging 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:44.720 for them, because you know that they were making love 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:48.760 while they were Dad saying still and my dad. My 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:50.680 dad was the was the one that taught my mom 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.520 how to cook. Because my mom growing up as a 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.359 single child with her grandparents while her mom was working 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.720 in New York. My mom had everything made for her. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.040 She was spoiled by her grandparents. They gave her everything. 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.920 She wore the best little outfits because my great grandmother, 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:09.959 my mother and my grandmother were both seamstresses, so they 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.600 would make everything from scratch, and she just had the 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:14.840 best little outfits. So by the time she met my dad, 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.479 she couldn't even boil an egg. And my dad was 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:22.960 this could have been a chef. Oh my god. He 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:26.320 would make just he would grill fish, he would grill meats, 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.520 he would make the best beans, the best desserts. He knew. 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.679 He was a baker, like just like a very self 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:37.119 made kind of guy, you know. And even though they 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.480 had different upbringings, my dad was just a lot more 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:45.080 self sufficient and more independent than my mom. And my 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.520 mom then you know, he taught her. So everything, everything 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.560 that she does for us, it always comes with the 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:53.320 memory of like, no, your dad used to make this 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:55.120 in the middle of the night when I was pregnant 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:56.480 with you guys, and blah blah blah blah blah. And 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.119 so I at least I lived with the memories that 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.520 she has been able to share with us, you know, 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.000 because when you're ten, you remember just ten years. You 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.359 documented ten years, and that's enough to me for me 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:13.199 to last a lifetime. He was really on top of 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:18.520 just hygiene and preparation, and with his Serio Valente jeans 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.840 and his Calvin Klin like sweater. And my mom still 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:23.560 remembers that. So I know I wasn't making it up, 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.240 and I wasn't making this all fantastical, like she was like, No, 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.480 that's the man that smelled the best I've ever met. 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:30.960 Anybody dance with him. 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:34.160 I was down on his feet. I come from a family, 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.760 and I do know this that it is a cultural thing. 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:41.480