Speaker 1: Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Adami's Studios.
Speaker 2: Most nights, Jimmy Fallon and I are hosts. We both
Speaker 2: have a number of people we reach out to. For
Speaker 2: me a hundred and eighty for Jimmy one point eight million.
Speaker 2: I am a pilot of a small plane and Jimmy
Speaker 2: is an astronaut flying to the moon as a chef.
Speaker 2: My hosting is through cooking in the River Cafe. Jimmy sings, dances,
Speaker 2: talks and makes people laugh on the Tonight Show. Over
Speaker 2: thirty five years, I can easily spot a food lover,
Speaker 2: and from the first moment we met, I knew Jimmy
Speaker 2: was one a food lover. Studies the menu asks questions.
Speaker 2: Wants to explore the kitchen, and the people they care
Speaker 2: most about meeting are the chefs. When they're finished eating,
Speaker 2: often they want to start all over again. Curiosity is
Speaker 2: the key for Jimmy to have interviewed thousands of people
Speaker 2: over so many years. You don't just have curiosity, you
Speaker 2: need to be a virtuoso of curiosity. So today, on
Speaker 2: a gray winter day in New York, we're You're sitting
Speaker 2: here at thirty rocks. Two friends to talk about memories, cooking, children,
Speaker 2: and more. A chef and a star, a pilot and
Speaker 2: an astronaut joined by love of food and each other.
Speaker 1: Do I interview you or do you? That's the question.
Speaker 1: That's the hardest thing about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, did you know somebody said the thing about an
Speaker 2: interview with these you can interrupt your guests. So that's
Speaker 2: the hardest thing is they have to listen.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So something My first ever interview I ever did was
Speaker 3: Robert de Niro. He's a great guy, so good. The
Speaker 3: thing about Robert DeNiro is that he doesn't really talk.
Speaker 3: He doesn't really like to talk. Okay, so if you
Speaker 3: ever talked to him, you're like, Robert, I can't believe
Speaker 3: you're here. You're on the show. Welcome, thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Uh're you live in New York?
Speaker 1: Right? And he goes yep, yep, wow, wow, Okay, what's
Speaker 1: the next question? I got the next question? You you
Speaker 1: love Italian food? Right?
Speaker 3: And he goes yepp, Okay, I'm going to another page.
Speaker 3: You could hear the sweat flop sweat forming out my head.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my gosh, he's the nicest guy.
Speaker 3: He just did me a favorite because you couldn't book
Speaker 3: people when I first started, you know, it was a
Speaker 3: brand new show and no one knew that shows me
Speaker 3: a flop or hit. So he did me a solid
Speaker 3: and we've had him back many times. Now he talks now,
Speaker 3: now he slaps across.
Speaker 2: He said that it can be a technique with journalists.
Speaker 2: We once had a journalist doing a profile of Richard
Speaker 2: and he hung around the house for days. He would
Speaker 2: never say anything, and so I would, you know, talk
Speaker 2: talk talk, talk talk, because somebody's got to talk. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we're talking.
Speaker 3: Do you remember when I first kind of came up
Speaker 3: to you at your restaurant and I hopefully didn't attack you.
Speaker 3: But I was such a fan of yours because I
Speaker 3: collect cookbooks. Yeah, and one of my favorite cookbooks is
Speaker 3: River Cafe, the one that's.
Speaker 2: Oh the silver one, yes, yeah, that's easy, yes.
Speaker 1: And it's one of my favorite cookbooks for years. I
Speaker 1: love it.
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh my gosh, were meeting you
Speaker 3: and I'm like I'm at the you know, River Cafe,
Speaker 3: and like show me everything. You're like, well, we have
Speaker 3: a new book, and I go, let me look at
Speaker 3: the new book. And then you're showing me how the
Speaker 3: restaurant has grown, Yes, and I was like, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Before we even get to the food. The restaurant was awesome.
Speaker 2: But that's you. I mean, we remember we talked about
Speaker 2: the time that you know, Jimmy Fallon came in and
Speaker 2: wanted to know everything. As I said, he wanted to
Speaker 2: meet the chefs. You want how do you put what
Speaker 2: wood do you put in that wood of? And then
Speaker 2: we make the pasta? Do you boil it? Because I
Speaker 2: think also that I'd like to ask you questions. So
Speaker 2: how do you do a show? How does a pilot
Speaker 2: you know fireplade? How do you know that the lamb
Speaker 2: comes out the same time as a possible tree?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I want to know why did you choose this
Speaker 1: silverware to go with this?
Speaker 2: You know, I know what we love that. We love
Speaker 2: that curiosity. Do you have you ever worked in a restaurant?
Speaker 1: I never have.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I could do it, to be honest,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I have the patience.
Speaker 2: You might if a chef. You were a chef. Maybe
Speaker 2: you don't have a chef.
Speaker 3: Maybe I could try to do I love to get
Speaker 3: in that cook and I love I loved Yeah, different recipes.
Speaker 3: I'm so I love it. It's a meditation for me.
Speaker 1: Most is it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's a conversation. But for now, should we
Speaker 2: start out with your recipe? Because that is the idea
Speaker 2: that everybody reads a recipe recipe read.
Speaker 3: It's a recipe from the River Cafe Look Book, which is,
Speaker 3: by the way, genius.
Speaker 1: Whoever thought of the idea? I'm assuming it was you.
Speaker 2: Three of us.
Speaker 3: It is matching art pieces with food on these photos.
Speaker 3: When I was a kid, I remember my grandma used
Speaker 3: to do a lot of babysitting for me, and I
Speaker 3: would go over and she had one cookbook. It was
Speaker 3: a Betty Crocker cookbook. Yeah, and the pictures are so great.
Speaker 3: It was like a cherry pie and it wasn't like
Speaker 3: we were making them. But I would just look at
Speaker 3: the book and flip through the pages and look at
Speaker 3: all the awesome photos. And that was for a kid,
Speaker 3: that was like my favorite book to read. So I
Speaker 3: think this is brilliant. I monitored to read the recipe.
Speaker 2: Now, okay, well what are you reading right?
Speaker 3: This is for lemon ice cream, which sounds to intimidating.
Speaker 2: No, but it's the shortest recipes here we go.
Speaker 3: Finally, grated zest of one and juice of three lemons.
Speaker 1: I can do that.
Speaker 3: One cup castor in pentzes, super fine sugar, a half
Speaker 3: a teaspoon of sea salt, teeny little bit.
Speaker 2: The sea salt we use is what they call molden salt,
Speaker 2: which you can flake with your hands. It's a bit
Speaker 2: salt together, fancy flaky salt.
Speaker 3: Yes, and then you have fifteen ounces scant two cups
Speaker 3: double heavy cream. What a scant?
Speaker 2: Scat means almost What did you say said? Scat means smooth?
Speaker 1: You're not measured.
Speaker 2: It's like a scant, you say, you know, it's like
Speaker 2: a little.
Speaker 3: Pinch, like a pinch of two cups. That's a big pinch.
Speaker 3: Two cups of double heavy cream.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: That's the ingredients, lemons, sugar, salt and cream exactly. Okay,
Speaker 3: you need a lemon squeezer, you need a grater, you
Speaker 3: need a scale, if you want measuring cups, measuring spoons, bowl, spoon,
Speaker 3: freezer proof container.
Speaker 1: Let's what you have to do here.
Speaker 3: This is the only ice cream we know that doesn't
Speaker 3: have to be churned. What, yes, be sure to wash
Speaker 3: the lemons, roll the lemons before you squeeze them to
Speaker 3: get the maximum juice.
Speaker 1: I do that, by the way. I'm a gen and tonic,
Speaker 1: so I take my lime and.
Speaker 2: Roll it limes particulate.
Speaker 3: Now the juice out there, Yes, you need it. Nothing
Speaker 3: worse than like a pulpy dry lime. Roll the lemons
Speaker 3: before you get that maximum juice. In a bowl, mix
Speaker 3: the lemons, zest and juice, sugar and salt with the spoon. Slowly,
Speaker 3: slowly add the cream, carefully mixing with the spoon. It
Speaker 3: will immediately thicken. Put the ice cream mixture in a
Speaker 3: one liter one quart freezer proof container and freeze for
Speaker 3: two hours to harden.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: That is it what I mean, honestly, it is because
Speaker 2: of the lemon and the creep. Basically you're eating cream
Speaker 2: and a spoon. It's delicious.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm doing.
Speaker 2: This tonight with kids.
Speaker 1: The kids love it, fantastic. I just want to say
Speaker 1: I love the colors on us.
Speaker 2: You know, my husband did an airport in Madrid called
Speaker 2: Barakas Airport. Have you ever been to Madrid? And every
Speaker 2: he loved color, and so every beam is a different color.
Speaker 2: It's like the rainbow and it just takes it so
Speaker 2: we thought, how do you follow those photographs? You know,
Speaker 2: you follow them with color. Color Every single page is
Speaker 2: a different color. So it just makes it a bit even.
Speaker 3: You think about that when you do not only your
Speaker 3: cookbooks but your restaurant everything.
Speaker 2: I think, I think, you know, I think color. I
Speaker 2: look like you were saying lighting. I trained as a
Speaker 2: graphic designer. So even the food. While you put food
Speaker 2: on the plate, not in that fancy arty way.
Speaker 1: With a little squeege you.
Speaker 2: Are that kind of thing. We don't do that. But
Speaker 2: if you're going to put a piece of sea bass
Speaker 2: on the plate, and you're going to put a lemon
Speaker 2: on the plate, and you're going to put some spinach
Speaker 2: or cannellini beans or whatever, baked tomatoes, you really think
Speaker 2: about how you play that. And it's very interesting to
Speaker 2: see the way young chess plate.
Speaker 1: You know, do you reactions when the plate comes to.
Speaker 2: The always yeah, I mean I try, you know, because
Speaker 2: you know, we have an open kitchen, so to you know,
Speaker 2: it's a live performance. It's like you when you get
Speaker 2: up there and you have your audience, and of course
Speaker 2: we don't get applause and we go get booze. What
Speaker 2: I always look for is to see if they share,
Speaker 2: so then you can see the reaction. You know, they go.
Speaker 2: If you can do this on audio, Yeah, how do
Speaker 2: you make it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? If you tuning in, they're not.
Speaker 2: What's going on exactly?
Speaker 1: Money. Welcome back to.
Speaker 2: So we could go back to the grandparents in the yard.
Speaker 2: Living with your grandparents. Tell me about your grandmother.
Speaker 3: She was Norwegian and Irish and she was my mom's
Speaker 3: mom and she lived with us.
Speaker 1: She was she lived in our back.
Speaker 2: Yard, in the back I had to tell you that.
Speaker 2: I was with my seven year old granddaughter. We're going
Speaker 2: down the street and I said, you know, I used
Speaker 2: to live on the street. And she went, oh, poor you.
Speaker 2: And I said why, I said, that's a really nice
Speaker 2: street to live on. She said that you had to
Speaker 2: live on the street.
Speaker 1: No, no, I'm sorry. They didn't live in my backyard.
Speaker 2: Your poor grandmother was in the bag.
Speaker 1: We fed them so they were well fed.
Speaker 3: But they were in a little cottage in our backyard,
Speaker 3: but shared our address, so they were basically our neighbors,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: So they helped raise me.
Speaker 3: Actually, so I go over there and there really is
Speaker 3: no good Irish cuisine. Unfortunately, I could say that as
Speaker 3: an Irish person. That's why you never you never see
Speaker 3: an Irish cookbook because everything is boiled. Tatoes boil, boil it,
Speaker 3: owed me a boilet toilet?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what you got there?
Speaker 3: Cabbage boil it, boil it with the with the corn beef. Okay,
Speaker 3: this is the worst cook So that's why you never
Speaker 3: see that. So but so we kind of tried to
Speaker 3: steal from other CUIs means. We had Italian neighbors that
Speaker 3: were great Polish neighbors, and then my grandmother Norwegian, so
Speaker 3: we had a lot of like meatball type of things.
Speaker 3: My grandmother would always be you know, she had that
Speaker 3: rule if you drop it on the floor, not only
Speaker 3: is the five second rule, you're allowed to eat it,
Speaker 3: but Jimmy would eat it.
Speaker 1: She would feed me whatever fell on the floor. I
Speaker 1: would I got all the scraps. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But I loved it, and I loved the way she cooked.
Speaker 3: And I just washed her hands and my mom too.
Speaker 3: They always had like something on them. My mom always
Speaker 3: had like hamburger meat or something like that. She would
Speaker 3: answered the phone with something on her hand and then
Speaker 3: hang up and I go, Mom, you gotta wash.
Speaker 1: I can't pick up the phone.
Speaker 2: After you if you keep it on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, O, my god, it's disgusting.
Speaker 2: Living with your grandparents is quite something, though, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Because you have the cooking is shared.
Speaker 3: It's very family style cooking. We always ate how many
Speaker 3: of you.
Speaker 1: It was me and my sister. That's it.
Speaker 3: I had one sister, my mom and dad, and yeah,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: She stayed home to raise this.
Speaker 3: So there was a lot of a lot of my
Speaker 3: mom cookingtuff like that and always experimenting and trying stuff.
Speaker 2: Did she experiment?
Speaker 1: Also? She would also lie to us too a lot.
Speaker 3: I mean she said, like, we had a meal every year,
Speaker 3: almost every day of my life called pasta pasta.
Speaker 2: That's isn't that a song?
Speaker 1: It's your like a big pizza smo.
Speaker 3: When your mom lies to you, says it's passive, but
Speaker 3: it's not because it's not.
Speaker 1: It wasn't.
Speaker 3: She was, so is it kind of it's an Italian
Speaker 3: soup and it wasn't When I was growing up. It
Speaker 3: was basically like macaroni noodles, ground beef and pasta and
Speaker 3: beans and garlic, garlic powder, and.
Speaker 2: So what did she lie about?
Speaker 1: I loved it?
Speaker 3: Well, that's not that's not what passive pastaool is a
Speaker 3: soup very like so, but we did stand soup.
Speaker 1: It was like a really chunky soup.
Speaker 3: There was no there's no liquid dry almost it was
Speaker 3: actually almost like I don't call it gruel.
Speaker 1: I had to name it for her. That was her thing.
Speaker 1: And then I remember she was like she has.
Speaker 3: A very like kind of new yawky voice, like, Jimmy,
Speaker 3: do you want to grilled cheese?
Speaker 1: I got, thanks, Mom.
Speaker 3: And I knew that she made it because I would
Speaker 3: hear scraping the burnt off the toes before she gave
Speaker 3: it to me. She always burned my girl cheese. But
Speaker 3: she's hilarious. My mom and my dad were.
Speaker 2: Did your father cook?
Speaker 1: I don't remember him cooking, not.
Speaker 2: Even like kind of man things like barbecues.
Speaker 1: I mean barbecue.
Speaker 3: He would arrange the briquettes, you know, and like that
Speaker 3: like it was a big masterful thing, like really that
Speaker 3: it's just a pile pile always the barbecue.
Speaker 2: Yeah. What was the kitchen like? Was that out in
Speaker 2: the yard as well? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Open space in our house? Yeah, we lived, you know.
Speaker 3: Our kitchen was where we have the parties and everyone
Speaker 3: would always drink there.
Speaker 2: Big house was tiny country.
Speaker 1: House but our kitchen was red and red and blue.
Speaker 3: It was like, oh man, I lived there basically, I
Speaker 3: mean every big event was in the kitchen. Birthday parties,
Speaker 3: hanging out after school with my friends, we'd all just
Speaker 3: go in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: We'd hang out with my parents. We'd drink with my
Speaker 1: parents and hang with them.
Speaker 3: And the music was in there. We'd always listen to music.
Speaker 3: My dad always loved do wop music and yeah, like
Speaker 3: like bo do doo doo do. So we were listening
Speaker 3: to dou wop music. And he served in Vietnam. He
Speaker 3: was in the navy.
Speaker 2: What so, how long was her wife for?
Speaker 3: He was gone for I mean just before he had me,
Speaker 3: but it was three years, I want to say, on
Speaker 3: the ship. But he loved do wop and he would
Speaker 3: always play these real to real tapes of him in
Speaker 3: this group singing on the ship and they'd sing all
Speaker 3: like glory, they sing all.
Speaker 1: These songs, and I go, oh cool.
Speaker 3: And when I got older, I watched these movies about
Speaker 3: you know, Vietnam war or something, and they never played
Speaker 3: do wop music. They would play Jimi Hendrix. They would
Speaker 3: play you know something that I go, they're missing the
Speaker 3: everyone's listening. Turns out my dad was just a nerd.
Speaker 3: I think I know more do wop songs than I
Speaker 3: do modern songs. But I remember he had me as
Speaker 3: a kid climb up. We lived in upstate New York,
Speaker 3: and you had me climb up into the house and
Speaker 3: put wires all over in the attic just we can
Speaker 3: get reception of this radio station, w CBS FM in Brooklyn,
Speaker 3: New York. It was probably terrible for me and Gloria
Speaker 3: with all the radiation from those wires.
Speaker 2: But did you have meals? Family meals around the table?
Speaker 2: Would you sit down in that beautiful kitchen of yours?
Speaker 1: We would sit in the living room.
Speaker 2: Do you have did you have a dining room?
Speaker 3: We had a dining room that would use on Thanksgiving,
Speaker 3: in Easter, I think, yeah, you know, basically only the
Speaker 3: only times we went to church we would use that room.
Speaker 3: But you know the kind of big events, you know,
Speaker 3: we would have in the dining room. But are most
Speaker 3: of the time we had dinner together every night, watching.
Speaker 2: TV, watching TV.
Speaker 3: And we'd had those TVs tables, Yes, those pulled up
Speaker 3: TV tables, and they're cheap metal things and click them
Speaker 3: together and set it up and everyone make a dish
Speaker 3: and then come out and you eat together and watch TV.
Speaker 3: You watch Barney Miller or whatever.
Speaker 2: Would you do homework?
Speaker 3: Then I do homework and then yeah, and they watched
Speaker 3: TV the rest of the night, we do the dishes
Speaker 3: or whatthing like that.
Speaker 2: But sounds kind of nice.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Sounds nice.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 3: I loved hanging out with family and eating and talking
Speaker 3: with Like again, my mom just loved food and just
Speaker 3: always there was always something cooking somewhere, either her or
Speaker 3: my grandmother. Just again, sloppy hands things everywhere, sauce is
Speaker 3: being made. It was good and like just yeah, I
Speaker 3: think and experiment again, trying different things. And I would
Speaker 3: always try to do something every Thanksgiving, Like I go,
Speaker 3: I'm making Brais fennel this year.
Speaker 2: Did you I tried? Did you make fennel? You grew
Speaker 2: up in Solgerties? Yes, I grew up in Woodstock. What
Speaker 2: about it?
Speaker 1: What are you talking about?
Speaker 2: What'stock girl? No?
Speaker 3: I went to your cool You went to hone your
Speaker 3: I'm sorry high all the cool kids went to your
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: The school there ei there was a choice where we
Speaker 2: could have maybe gone to Sogerty's or gone to to
Speaker 2: you imagine to your was great, but it was like
Speaker 2: a forty five minute ride from Stock. But we used
Speaker 2: to go to the movies in Sogers on Sunday, Sunday night,
Speaker 2: no way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was my first movie theater. So everything that
Speaker 3: I used to I went to summer school. I should
Speaker 3: say it like I'm proud of it. But I went
Speaker 3: to summer school in Woodstock.
Speaker 2: And what's what's the elementary school.
Speaker 1: Right by the on the green, right on the green,
Speaker 1: so you know.
Speaker 2: That golf course. Yes, that's where my father we lived
Speaker 2: on Chestnut Road.
Speaker 1: What what was the place that there were? All the
Speaker 1: bands used to cliff?
Speaker 2: I used to go to the bird cliff. There was
Speaker 2: up on the mountain. You mean that the outside Maverick.
Speaker 2: There was Maverick.
Speaker 1: It was like a bar almost. It was a good
Speaker 1: bar like r. E. M. Was your there.
Speaker 2: And when I went you know, I'm pretty old. So
Speaker 2: when I went there, there was just after Dylan because
Speaker 2: when my parents went there, it was an artist calling me.
Speaker 2: You remember that. When you come into Woodstock from Soberties,
Speaker 2: there's the Art Students League, like Phil Gustin was there,
Speaker 2: a lot of great artists were there and then Bob Grossman,
Speaker 2: you're interviewing me. By the way it happened.
Speaker 1: See, it just happens. So this is what it is.
Speaker 1: It ends up. I knew I was going to do it.
Speaker 1: I got you.
Speaker 2: I'm only supposed to talk about food, So I didn't
Speaker 2: eat Dylan in a.
Speaker 1: In a bar just when he got in the motorcycle accident.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he got the motorcycle accident of in wood Stock.
Speaker 3: My mom, I went toole bringing back to food I
Speaker 3: went to when I got started live and started to
Speaker 3: get famous. I would go home to say to, you know,
Speaker 3: my parents, and she always wanted to go out to
Speaker 3: eat and show me off, you know, but I wanted
Speaker 3: to eat homemade cooking. You know. I don't want to
Speaker 3: go out every night. I live in New York City.
Speaker 3: So but she's like, let's let's go out. I go,
Speaker 3: all right, let's go out.
Speaker 1: I go. We don't make a big gest I'm not
Speaker 1: going to make a big deal. I go.
Speaker 3: I know sometimes you do, and just like, don't I
Speaker 3: want to? I just want to go, and you know,
Speaker 3: all right, let's just go. So we went to Woodstock.
Speaker 3: It's a great restaurant in there. We walk in, they
Speaker 3: sit us at this one table.
Speaker 1: And she goes, I don't know if I like this table.
Speaker 1: I go, don't start, don't start, you start. She goes,
Speaker 1: I'm not starting. I'm not starting anything. I order.
Speaker 3: You're raising your voice. So let's just have fun. Let's
Speaker 3: have a good time. Don't make a big deal. Great,
Speaker 3: so we get drinks. She orders, what are you gonna.
Speaker 1: She goes, I'm gonna have the lamb the lamb chops.
Speaker 1: You're great, I ordered, my dad ordered. Her.
Speaker 3: Sitting there, the food comes, hers doesn't come, so she's like,
Speaker 3: where's my lamb chops? Don't make it. Don't make a
Speaker 3: big deal. You promised it.
Speaker 1: She goes, I'm not. I'm just I'm not making beats.
Speaker 1: You know what.
Speaker 3: I'm just not gonna eat. I go, that's a big deal.
Speaker 3: That's a big deal. Now what are you doing? So
Speaker 3: when the lamb chops come, you're not going to eat
Speaker 3: the food? She I'm not gonna eat it. I go,
Speaker 3: this is exactly what I'm talking about. This is making it.
Speaker 3: She was, Oh, look it's coming now. So it comes.
Speaker 3: Now she's met. She with I'll eat that bitch, and
Speaker 3: she's cutting it all mad and angry, and she takes
Speaker 3: her first bye and my kiddy, she goes, I go,
Speaker 3: you're kidding me?
Speaker 1: Are you choking?
Speaker 3: She's like, my dad puts his finger down my mother's
Speaker 3: throat and she's going like, and he's doing gagging her trying.
Speaker 1: Woman runs from down the rest of she goes, I'm
Speaker 1: a nurse. I'm a nurse, knocks over, stops like banging
Speaker 1: in and knocking into everything. The table's getting knocked over.
Speaker 3: Going over to my mom and she grabs my mother,
Speaker 3: and my mom made these noises I'd never heard it
Speaker 3: make before. Not She's going, oh, oh oh, and then
Speaker 3: a ball of lamb flies out of her mouth and
Speaker 3: hits the wall. She sits down, she's crying, and my
Speaker 3: dad says thank you.
Speaker 1: And I looked at my mom. I go, this is
Speaker 1: not making a big deal.
Speaker 3: That's exactly what I asked you.
Speaker 2: Your mother was right, she did she didn't have eaten.
Speaker 1: Looking back at that, ladies, your own business, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Did you eat? But did you read out? In restaurants?
Speaker 2: Was the family occasions to go out to restaurants.
Speaker 3: A big deal growing up because we didn't have that
Speaker 3: much money, so Pizza Hut was a big deal. Pizza
Speaker 3: Hut would have indoor seating and it was like a
Speaker 3: big deal. They used to give you the sizzling pan
Speaker 3: of pizza special handling, it was so hot. And there
Speaker 3: was a video game table you could play pac Man
Speaker 3: and Caterpillar, so me and my sister.
Speaker 1: Would play pac Man while we were waiting for the pizza.
Speaker 3: There was a salad bar, I mean remember salad bars.
Speaker 2: Of course that was big, it was, And so going
Speaker 2: to the Pizza Hut was for an occasion that was
Speaker 2: would it be somebody birthday or somebody's on a versio, if.
Speaker 3: Someone did good on a test or you and pizza
Speaker 3: is a big deal. And then there was another place
Speaker 3: called the Ground Round that was like a new restaurant.
Speaker 3: It was in a mall in Kingston and we used
Speaker 3: to go there and there was a guy named the
Speaker 3: balloon Man who's a creepy guy, a weird mustache, and
Speaker 3: he used to wear a cape and a T shirt
Speaker 3: that said the Balloon Man and he would go up
Speaker 3: to little kids like how old are you? You know,
Speaker 3: he was definitely a little scary. He probably drove a van,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, And so I go how
Speaker 3: old are you? And then you let the air out
Speaker 3: of the balloon and you do all these tricks and
Speaker 3: he's like, are you married yet?
Speaker 1: Oh my god. And so we try to dodge the
Speaker 1: balloon man while we go in.
Speaker 2: What age would that be, I'd say that that.
Speaker 3: Was my teenage years. I'd probably say thirteen. Or we're
Speaker 3: going to the mall. We loved hanging out the mall,
Speaker 3: which Amazon has made sure that there are no malls anymore.
Speaker 1: But it was fun hanging out the mall.
Speaker 2: And when you started going to restaurants, was there a
Speaker 2: revelation when you went to a restaurant you didn't have
Speaker 2: the salad bar or the ballue. Yeah.
Speaker 1: My first revelation was when I had to pay for
Speaker 1: my food. Yeah, and I'll never forget it.
Speaker 3: I did stand up at this place, something Harbor, and
Speaker 3: I was by myself and I did stand up. I
Speaker 3: was probably eighteen, barely driving. I drove myself to this
Speaker 3: gig and did the gig and you get paid, you
Speaker 3: know whatever, it is fifty bucks And I got paid.
Speaker 3: And after the gig I did well, and the owner said, Jimmy,
Speaker 3: you did really well.
Speaker 1: That was great.
Speaker 3: I want to give you a little bonus, and gave
Speaker 3: me another fifty bucks. It's one hundred dollars. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: the best thing in my best day of my life.
Speaker 3: So I go, oh my gosh, I'm going to go
Speaker 3: buy something. And so across from where I was staying
Speaker 3: at this tiny, you know, comedian's condo. They usually have
Speaker 3: a condominium where the comedians live and say that you
Speaker 3: live with the other comedians.
Speaker 1: Very weird.
Speaker 3: But I went across the street to this diner and
Speaker 3: they had pumpkin pancakes. I had never had pumpkin pancakes,
Speaker 3: and I go, I like to have that, you know,
Speaker 3: looked at the menu as special, and they brought it,
Speaker 3: and I knew I was paying for my own money.
Speaker 3: And it just tastes like the I think every tasted
Speaker 3: in my life. I'll never forget it. Anytime I see
Speaker 3: pumpkins bice latte and I make jokes about it, or pumpkin.
Speaker 1: Anything, I go, I always think of those pumpkin pancakes.
Speaker 1: And that was like a game changing for me.
Speaker 2: Like, but that is food and memory, isn't it. I mean,
Speaker 2: you can remember that feeling.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it.
Speaker 2: You didn't tell me about the stand up or about
Speaker 2: the place. You talk about the food and you're not alone.
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of these interviews are with people
Speaker 2: who were not entitled, whether it's Michael Caine after the
Speaker 2: war living in a little, tiny hot or Paul McCartney
Speaker 2: said that he remembers the first time he was able
Speaker 2: to buy himself good food to eat. That was a
Speaker 2: big moment. That was one of the reasons I used
Speaker 2: to saw his success almost his success in terms of
Speaker 2: what food he could eat. I thought that was interesting
Speaker 2: when I.
Speaker 3: Used to play the improv in Los Angeles. You know,
Speaker 3: I do a bunch of comedy clothes, but whenever I
Speaker 3: played the improv, my mom would love it because.
Speaker 1: They fed you as well. They paid you seven dollars,
Speaker 1: but they fed you anything on the menu, so my mom.
Speaker 1: I would call my mom.
Speaker 3: She's like, you tell Bud Friedman that thank him for
Speaker 3: feeding my baby.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy you're doing the improv, you know. She
Speaker 1: was always so proud.
Speaker 3: I remember my first Saturday night that I got to
Speaker 3: perform at the Improv, which is a big deal. I'm
Speaker 3: waiting to go on Brand New and Jerry Seinfeld walks in,
Speaker 3: sits down and go and this is the peak of Seinfeld,
Speaker 3: and I go.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: I went out to a payphone and I called my
Speaker 3: mom to collect because I had no money. I called
Speaker 3: her collect and she goes like, I go, mom, Jerry Seinfeld.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. She goes, is he gonna do stand up?
Speaker 3: I go, I don't think he's gonna do anything. He's
Speaker 3: just here eating right now. And I was like, it
Speaker 3: was so wild.
Speaker 1: So I go in. She goes, only I have fun.
Speaker 1: It was so exciting.
Speaker 3: So I go in and this is Saturday night, It's
Speaker 3: a big deal, and of course he decides to go on.
Speaker 1: So Jerry Seinfeld goes on. He does all of his bits,
Speaker 1: like what's the new?
Speaker 3: Is his whole giant thing standing ovation crushes It's the
Speaker 3: best stand up you've ever seen.
Speaker 1: And then they go all right, who's next? Is Bob
Speaker 1: some of it?
Speaker 3: And Bob goes, I'm not gonna fallow Seinfel and they
Speaker 3: are who's uh, where's Kevin?
Speaker 1: Is you gonna call it?
Speaker 3: Kevin's like I'm following Jerry side felt. They all right,
Speaker 3: who is Who's Jimmy Fallon? And I was like, that's me.
Speaker 3: He's like, all right, kid, you're up. So they introduced me.
Speaker 3: I was had to follow Jerry Seinfeld on my first
Speaker 3: Saturday night at the Improv, and it worked out because
Speaker 3: I didn't impression him.
Speaker 2: Jerry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I had like a doll and I said, like.
Speaker 2: Had you always thought of doing that anyway? Or you
Speaker 2: just had I just.
Speaker 1: Didn't think about it.
Speaker 3: Yes, since you was there, I'm like, how did I
Speaker 3: follow this? But I had to follow him. But I
Speaker 3: love the Improv because you see.
Speaker 1: It to eat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they gave you the food.
Speaker 1: They gave me food.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was there to be chicken fingers or whatever
Speaker 3: it was, but I remember it was something, but that's
Speaker 3: chicken tans.
Speaker 2: And when did you go to your first real restaurant
Speaker 2: where you felt that you were that you could afford
Speaker 2: to eat?
Speaker 1: Was that that was the problem.
Speaker 3: Sarent Live? I think ye, Sarah Live. I started going
Speaker 3: out with Lorn. He would take the cast out. So
Speaker 3: then you kind of go, oh, this is what restaurants
Speaker 3: are like, this is what I have to dress like
Speaker 3: and understand the whole thing and appreciate all of it.
Speaker 3: And I I remember going to like some fancy restaurants
Speaker 3: and like per se.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I know, big deal.
Speaker 3: That's intimidating my wife at the time. We were dating
Speaker 3: and she was living in LA and she moved. She
Speaker 3: came to New York to visit, and she was I
Speaker 3: was going to ask her to marry me. I was
Speaker 3: going to propose and surprise her in Gramercy Park. And
Speaker 3: she came and I already asked her dad for permissions. She
Speaker 3: came and I go, hi, honey.
Speaker 1: She goes, Hi. She goes, I have a surprise for you.
Speaker 3: And then in my head, I'm like, hope it doesn't
Speaker 3: mess with my surprise because I have a real surprise. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I have a ring waiting for you. So she goes,
Speaker 3: I got us reservations at per Se. I go, oh,
Speaker 3: my gosh, that's the place I'm dying to go to.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's Michelin Star. It's unbelievable. So I go, okay,
Speaker 3: I'll do it.
Speaker 1: I'll do it. After in my head, I go with
Speaker 1: this show cut to fourteen courses later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fourteen those.
Speaker 1: I was wasting. I was out of my mind drunk.
Speaker 3: I was like, I didn't even know that the last
Speaker 3: two courses were I'm like, this is a and I
Speaker 3: was eating the apkin. I mean, I was just terrible.
Speaker 3: I was just a disaster. So when I get home,
Speaker 3: I can't ask her to marry me. Now I'm a mess,
Speaker 3: and I call my brother in law now and I go,
Speaker 3: He goes, do you do it? I go, I didn't.
Speaker 3: I went to per Se. He's like, why don't you
Speaker 3: do it at per Se. I'm like, I thought in
Speaker 3: my head, like what if per Se closes? And now
Speaker 3: it becomes like a I don't know, a strip joint
Speaker 3: or something, or a laser tag place.
Speaker 1: I don't want to tell my kids.
Speaker 3: That's where I asked her mom to marry me in
Speaker 3: the strip club, you know, so you never know.
Speaker 2: I's so forward, thank you, thank you. I have to
Speaker 2: say that is very kind of future class.
Speaker 1: So then I didn't ask.
Speaker 2: You for a park. There was no chance of that.
Speaker 3: He goes, go to the bar, go to moll. He's
Speaker 3: go to the bar right now and ask him. I go, okay,
Speaker 3: hold on, I go, honey, do you want to And
Speaker 3: she's in ja Do you want to have another drink?
Speaker 3: She goes, you want another? You want another drink? Do
Speaker 3: you have a problem. I'm like, I'm not going to
Speaker 3: start off my marriage like this. So I passed out.
Speaker 2: Why did you do it?
Speaker 1: I waited six months.
Speaker 2: Six months? Oh really, she said, people.
Speaker 1: I didn't know you could hear someone roll their eyes
Speaker 1: over there over the radio.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is. That is six months.
Speaker 1: It's a long time.
Speaker 3: So anyways, I ended up getting married with my wife.
Speaker 1: I go to the doc and I said, don't.
Speaker 3: Cry, because I'm very emotional person, just let her cry
Speaker 3: first if you're going to cry, because.
Speaker 1: It's a big deal. I have the ring in my
Speaker 1: pocket where my bathing suit.
Speaker 3: I took out the ring and as soon as I
Speaker 3: got down on one knee, I totally started crying. And
Speaker 3: I was like, when two people love each other, when
Speaker 3: two people.
Speaker 1: She thought I was having a stroke. She's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god. Okay, but yeah, did you your wedding?
Speaker 2: Did you have a wedding with food?
Speaker 1: We had a whole weekend of food. So we want
Speaker 1: to make where did you get married? Ready for this?
Speaker 2: No? No, okay, let's see us of cool Niagara Falls, cooler,
Speaker 2: cooler than Niagara Falls at around decks, bigger, bigger than
Speaker 2: they ad around Canada.
Speaker 1: No bigger than Canada.
Speaker 2: Lord is from Lauren Laura Canada. Forget what Canada? Necker Island, Oh,
Speaker 2: Necker Island. How did we get up there, then Necker.
Speaker 1: Island, somethinking big, just think of anything?
Speaker 2: Oh, I thought it was Richard Branson's place, right, yes,
Speaker 2: Like what were we doing? You said up Oh you
Speaker 2: didn't mean upstate?
Speaker 1: Money wise?
Speaker 3: I'm how expensive? And when can you get Richard Branson?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 3: I went to his spot and it was the best
Speaker 3: he hasn't island. It is so fun that they had
Speaker 3: sushi chefs in the pool.
Speaker 2: Wo.
Speaker 3: We were the most boring people to ever stay at
Speaker 3: Richard Branson's island. He's so fun and he's like, fallins,
Speaker 3: good morning.
Speaker 1: Would you like to go race and the submarines? You really? No? Thanks,
Speaker 1: We're happy in the pool. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Would you like to fight each other and you know
Speaker 3: with the blow torches and you go or whatever?
Speaker 1: I go. No, we're good, Richard. Thank you very much
Speaker 1: for these are really do you want to sit line? Oh?
Speaker 1: Be your dad? Well he gets attacked by alligators. I go, no,
Speaker 1: thanks dadam so I just want to get I want
Speaker 1: to get married with my dad's fine over here. Thank
Speaker 1: you very much, Richard. We were the most boring people.
Speaker 1: We had a blast.
Speaker 2: My famous story is that somebody once ordered a cake
Speaker 2: and they said, would you write will you marry me?
Speaker 2: On the cake. So we made the net chocolate nemesis
Speaker 2: and we wrote will you marry me? And halfway through
Speaker 2: the meal he came up and said, cancel the cake.
Speaker 2: Oh I know, I know, I know, I promise. It's amazing.
Speaker 2: What happened that he canceled the cake? Oh we never
Speaker 2: found out, no way cancel the cake?
Speaker 1: And then who did you give the cake to? He
Speaker 1: got married, very.
Speaker 2: Private things, you know, in public space, so you know
Speaker 2: the idea proposed?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't want to do it there, maybe not?
Speaker 2: Did you do it?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 3: Her family has a summerhouse in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesake.
Speaker 3: It's gorgeous, unbelievably beautiful and means a lot to her.
Speaker 3: You know, this family summerhouse. So I have the ring.
Speaker 3: Everyone knows I'm going to do it, and I go, Okay,
Speaker 3: I go, I'll just have a cocktail with her on
Speaker 3: the dock and I'll do it.
Speaker 2: But it was a cocktail. Remember this is a food program.
Speaker 3: Yes, Gin and Tonic, which I started drinking because of
Speaker 3: going to England. I stayed at a plast call.
Speaker 2: You had your first It was a B and B.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of cool kids would say.
Speaker 3: So I went there and Martin Miller was the owner,
Speaker 3: and so he goes, Jimmy, if you'd pardon the accident, Jimmy,
Speaker 3: if you like to come down to the living room
Speaker 3: before we go out to dinner. We like to have
Speaker 3: all the guests here just have a cocktail. And I
Speaker 3: go but sure, of course it's great. So I went
Speaker 3: down to have a cocktail.
Speaker 1: He's like, you made it. He's like, would you like
Speaker 1: Gin and Tonic? And I go, no, no, thank.
Speaker 3: You, because I was like, I threw up in it
Speaker 3: when I was in high school and I can't even
Speaker 3: near the stuff.
Speaker 1: And I could tell he was upset. And he's like,
Speaker 1: I go to an upset you.
Speaker 3: He goes, no, it's just that you know, we've we've
Speaker 3: got ranked like, you know, ninety nine out of one
Speaker 3: hundred and gin magazine or something. I go, whatever, you
Speaker 3: make me, yeah, some magazine, So I go whatever. But
Speaker 3: he made me a Gin Tonic was the most refreshing,
Speaker 3: best thing I ever had in my life, Martin Miller's gin.
Speaker 3: I still drink it to this day. I made Timberlake
Speaker 3: drinks it because it's the best. I love that and
Speaker 3: still and now my wife drinks it.
Speaker 2: To just two questions. When you go to a city, right,
Speaker 2: can you go to London in Paris or Los Angeles
Speaker 2: or Buenos Aires? Do you think about what you're going
Speaker 2: to eat in that city?
Speaker 1: Always? I do? I do research ahead of time. Yeah.
Speaker 3: If I'm going to DC, I got to go to
Speaker 3: Ben's Chili Bowl, you know London? Yeah, Rivery Cafe always,
Speaker 3: I mean we have to. It's it's if you're anywhere,
Speaker 3: if you.
Speaker 2: Do you ever go to the markets and see what's there,
Speaker 2: because that's a nice way to know a city isn't
Speaker 2: walk to walk around and see what's on sale. So
Speaker 2: I'm going to just say that I love you and
Speaker 2: you are so sweet to do this. And if you
Speaker 2: think about food, I asked this is the question I
Speaker 2: was told in podcast school that you you have one
Speaker 2: question to ask everyone. And so the one question I
Speaker 2: chose is if food is alleviates hunger, and food is communication,
Speaker 2: and food is getting around the table, and food is love.
Speaker 2: It is also comfort and so if you had to
Speaker 2: go to a food when you needed comfort, what would
Speaker 2: that food be? And I can tell you that Jeff
Speaker 2: Goldblums had a bowl of cereal and Brian said a
Speaker 2: bar of chocolate or somebody says pasta. So you can
Speaker 2: think about it. I'm offline now, right, you can just
Speaker 2: think for a minute.
Speaker 3: Comfort for me, there's so many I would My immediately
Speaker 3: thought was pizza.
Speaker 1: It's such a New York American thing to.
Speaker 3: Say, but a slice of pizza is just always there
Speaker 3: for I'd loved it since I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I love it now.
Speaker 3: You know, good pizza, bad pizza doesn't matter to me
Speaker 3: as long as in Gata slice I fall in half
Speaker 3: and I eat it. I usually get it with pepperoni.
Speaker 3: But it's the greatest thing. Yeah, pizza is my comfort food.
Speaker 3: I will run to you pizza.
Speaker 2: That's good to have pizza.
Speaker 1: Let's good.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to Rufie's Table for If you
Speaker 3: enjoyed this episode, please make sure to rate and review
Speaker 3: the podcast on iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever
Speaker 3: you get your podcasts.