Speaker 1: Welcome to Rivercafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Adami Studios.
Speaker 2: Austin Butler is a winner. He beats me at carts,
Speaker 2: knows how to cook a wild salmon on the grill,
Speaker 2: and when we had a dinner every Sunday night for
Speaker 2: a year when he was filming in London, he always
Speaker 2: arrived with a new book, he was reading, a piece
Speaker 2: of pottery he just made, or a rare bottle of tequila.
Speaker 2: We first recorded this podcast in May twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: but we wanted to play it for you again in
Speaker 2: case you hadn't heard it. It is one of my
Speaker 2: definite favorites, just like Austin. If you like listening to
Speaker 2: Ruthie's Table four, would you please make sure to rate
Speaker 2: and review the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. My favorite
Speaker 2: line in this conversation is when Austin Butler refers to
Speaker 2: his and my relationship as family. Austin arrived here from
Speaker 2: filming Baz Luhrmann's movie Elvis, playing Elvis himself. London was
Speaker 2: just out of COVID lockdown and leading an immediate tradition
Speaker 2: we decided to have dinner at my home every Sunday
Speaker 2: night with the same small group of friends. Austin would
Speaker 2: turn up early and cook with me, and this is
Speaker 2: what we did every Sunday for thirty nine weeks. Austin
Speaker 2: is a brilliant actor, a beautiful singer, a poet, and
Speaker 2: a true friend. And Austin is my family. So Austin,
Speaker 2: you and I are here in the River Cafe to
Speaker 2: talk about food, our memories, travel and a lot more.
Speaker 2: But maybe we should just start with Australia.
Speaker 3: I was in Australia for a year and a half.
Speaker 3: I was making Elvis with Basil Rman.
Speaker 2: Did he have food on set? Did you sit down
Speaker 2: to meals?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Well, we did this thing.
Speaker 3: It's I'm realizing it's a very European sort of thing
Speaker 3: where you have these rolling lunches, which basically means you
Speaker 3: don't have a lunch break. You eat while you're filming.
Speaker 3: And I actually kind of like it because it keeps
Speaker 3: the momentum of filming. And so while we were filming
Speaker 3: a lot of times it was just I was eating
Speaker 3: for It was like gasoline, you know, I was eating
Speaker 3: for energy. I just gathered making the most thing black hand.
Speaker 3: And then when we wrapped, Bas and I were at
Speaker 3: his house and there was a small group of us,
Speaker 3: and it was the night that we wrapped it was
Speaker 3: it was the first time that he and I both
Speaker 3: sort of were able.
Speaker 4: To go, ah, we did it.
Speaker 3: You know, we've been working on this for I've been
Speaker 3: at times for about two and a half years at
Speaker 3: that point, maybe three years. He'd been doing this for
Speaker 3: long or five or eight years or something. And we
Speaker 3: we just we danced until the sun came up. We
Speaker 3: just yeah, well we had a little group there, but
Speaker 3: we we just put on vinyl records and we just danced,
Speaker 3: and we ate oysters and we just we just lived life.
Speaker 3: It was like this feeling of letting our hair down.
Speaker 3: And then the sun started to come up and and
Speaker 3: Bas looked out and he lived across the street from
Speaker 3: the sea, and he said, should we go swim in
Speaker 3: the ocean right now? And this is the night that
Speaker 3: we wrapped the film, and so we both we were like, yeah,
Speaker 3: let's do it. So we ran across the street and
Speaker 3: we jumped in the ocean. And it's like five and
Speaker 3: morning now, and we swam in the ocean, and so
Speaker 3: the sun's rising, and I was gonna not go that
Speaker 3: night as well, and I said, I said, Baz, I
Speaker 3: can't believe I was going to go to sleep tonight.
Speaker 3: And he started singing nessa dorma and he goes, no
Speaker 3: sleep tonight, No sleep tonight, and he starts singing this
Speaker 3: opera and I hadn't really heard that song, and he
Speaker 3: was telling me the story of the opera and then
Speaker 3: he said, I'll play it for you when we get
Speaker 3: back to the shore. And he went back to the
Speaker 3: shore and I kind of took a second from myself
Speaker 3: in the ocean where it's just me. I just watched
Speaker 3: the sun rise, and I sort of processed all that
Speaker 3: we had done. And you don't know the final outcome
Speaker 3: of a film. You hope that you did everything you
Speaker 3: possibly could and you gave every bit of your soul,
Speaker 3: but you don't know how it's going to be received.
Speaker 3: But at that moment, I just kind of processed all
Speaker 3: that we had, the work that we had done, and
Speaker 3: the joy and the love that we'd put into it.
Speaker 4: And I sort of had that moment.
Speaker 3: And then as I sort of slowly walked back the shore,
Speaker 3: I look at Baz and he's holding a speaker above
Speaker 3: his head like John Cusack can say anything.
Speaker 4: And he's playing nessa.
Speaker 3: Daughter, the Pavarieti version, and it's blaring at like five
Speaker 3: point thirty in the morning now on the beaches of
Speaker 3: the Gold Coast. It was so magical and cinematic. And
Speaker 3: then we made breakfast. What was that we made? We
Speaker 3: looked in the refrigerator and thought, okay, what can we make?
Speaker 3: Because he and I both had been working so hard,
Speaker 3: and there's this thing about filming where you're there's so
Speaker 3: many responsibilities that other people end up almost treating you
Speaker 3: like you're a child. In many areas, they walk you
Speaker 3: to the bathroom. You know, if I said i'm when
Speaker 3: I go to the trailer, they walk me there and
Speaker 3: to make sure I don't get lost. They treat you
Speaker 3: like you can't do anything, and they bring you your food,
Speaker 3: and so you're very spoiled in many ways. But there's
Speaker 3: something so relieving about that moment when you're finally able
Speaker 3: to do something for yourself. And and so he and
Speaker 3: I that was our moment. We opened the refrigerator and
Speaker 3: we saw that, Okay, we got eggs, we got asparagus,
Speaker 3: we got some spinach, there, we got some tomatoes, we
Speaker 3: got some farmers and cheese.
Speaker 4: What can we do? And so we kind of just
Speaker 4: made this breakfast.
Speaker 3: And there's this loaf of bread, and so we cut
Speaker 3: off bits of this bread and we toasted it and
Speaker 3: just made this delicious meal. And that's one of the
Speaker 3: most glorious memories of my life. Was like after we
Speaker 3: finished this thing that was so terrifying and daunting, and
Speaker 3: that we gave it everything we could and then then
Speaker 3: we just sat there and as the morning sun sort
Speaker 3: of laid down on us and ate that breakfast, and
Speaker 3: it was so glorious.
Speaker 2: It's it's about memories, isn't it. It's about the time.
Speaker 2: And what about Tarantine? Now? Was he interested in food?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 3: Remember one night we were we were doing night shoots
Speaker 3: and it was about three in the morning. He had
Speaker 3: this amazing crape maker come and make crapes and we.
Speaker 4: Were eating these amazing crapes and.
Speaker 3: He said, he said, Austin, you know, my thing is
Speaker 3: I want to give everybody such a good experience on
Speaker 3: this job that their next job sucks.
Speaker 4: And it was such a wonderful thing.
Speaker 3: So every every night there would be some new food
Speaker 3: thing that he would, he would organize, so you just
Speaker 3: had this thing to look forward to. And and the
Speaker 3: other thing that he did was after every hundred rolls
Speaker 3: of film, which, believe it or not, this was the
Speaker 3: first time I had shot anything on film, because everything
Speaker 3: since I grew up was on digital essentially with every
Speaker 3: person that I had worked with, and so that was
Speaker 3: really special just hearing the sound of the film going
Speaker 3: through the camera when you're sitting in the car. But
Speaker 3: every hundred rolls of film, you'd throw a party and
Speaker 3: it would have a theme. So he'd have you know,
Speaker 3: Groppo would come out and so everybody and they'd be
Speaker 3: singing these songs, and or Margarita's would come out and
Speaker 3: he'd have a mariachi band or so every hundred rolls,
Speaker 3: whether it be ten in the morning or you know,
Speaker 3: three in the morning, it was something to look forward to.
Speaker 2: I think that does actually give people a kind of
Speaker 2: commitment to the person you're working for. You know that
Speaker 2: they're taking care of you, know they're thinking about you,
Speaker 2: they're recognizing that you're working hard and that you want
Speaker 2: to give them something back. It's a lot, doesn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: When you lived by yourself and you once told me
Speaker 2: that you chose a house in Los Angeles because it
Speaker 2: had a pizza oven.
Speaker 4: Oh that was great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's this beautiful house that had belonged to Gary
Speaker 3: Oldman before and he had built a pizza oven. And
Speaker 3: I became obsessed with learning how to make the perfect
Speaker 3: fire and this pizza oven, the specific type of wood
Speaker 3: and exactly how to lay it. And I got one
Speaker 3: of those laser temperature gauges so I could make it
Speaker 3: a thousand degrees and learn how to make the pizza
Speaker 3: sauce and the dough and everything. And it was actually
Speaker 3: Christmas that I made the most pieces, I think, and
Speaker 3: the first couple kind of came out rough and then
Speaker 3: and then started to get really into the zone of it.
Speaker 4: And it was amazing to me.
Speaker 3: How you have I.
Speaker 4: Asked, you could cook a pizza?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that he in that heat thirty seconds for
Speaker 3: forty five seconds, and you can cook a whole pizza.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I cooked pizzas for.
Speaker 3: My whole family, and such a great experience just getting
Speaker 3: to feed them and the special thing of all kind
Speaker 3: of being around the fire and and we had this
Speaker 3: table out there and it sort of looked like the
Speaker 3: Secret Garden as well in his backyard and cooked all
Speaker 3: these pizzas, and then I started getting into other things.
Speaker 4: I thought, what else can I cook it this fire?
Speaker 3: And there's a restaurant in la called Pacha that is
Speaker 3: in Laurel Canyon that makes this salmon on a cedar plank,
Speaker 3: and so I thought, I want to learn how to
Speaker 3: make that.
Speaker 4: And so I ended up getting these.
Speaker 3: Cedar planks and soaking them in water and putting the
Speaker 3: salmon on top and seasoning it and sticking it in
Speaker 3: the wood fire. It came out so incredibly.
Speaker 2: This is something solitary. When I talked to Michael Caine,
Speaker 2: he said that he'd loved to write a book Yeah,
Speaker 2: to a Garden, and he liked to cook because doing
Speaker 2: a movie, you are surrounded by hundreds of people surrounded
Speaker 2: whatever you're doing. You just describe being walked to the
Speaker 2: bathroom or trying to find your trail. There's always someone around.
Speaker 2: And then he chose three solitary things that you can
Speaker 2: do on your own. So it sounds like maybe that
Speaker 2: cooking was something that you could do without.
Speaker 4: Absolutely it makes you feel self sufficient.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and also giving back to the people that you
Speaker 2: want to feed.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it becomes my love language in a way. I
Speaker 3: cook so much for the people around me. I'll look
Speaker 3: into their eyes when they're eating it and try to
Speaker 3: see if they love it as much as they say
Speaker 3: they do, and try to figure out ways of making
Speaker 3: it better.
Speaker 2: And it sounds the way you're talking about it, like
Speaker 2: a performance.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Do you think there are parallels between acting or performing
Speaker 2: or singing and cooking looking into people's eyes and seeing
Speaker 2: how they are responding to your performance.
Speaker 3: Absolutely grilled white peaches with amoretto. Serve six six ripe
Speaker 3: white peaches, one vanilla pod, two tablespoons cast of sugar,
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty milli liters amoretto, preheat of into
Speaker 3: one hundred and ninety degrees celsius. Heat a grill pan
Speaker 3: until very hot. Cut each peach in half and remove
Speaker 3: the stone. Place the peach halves cut side down on
Speaker 3: the hot pan, and grill until slightly charred. Remove from
Speaker 3: the pan and place face up on an oven proof dish.
Speaker 3: Slice the vanilla pod lengthways and put with the sugar
Speaker 3: into a mortar pound until the vanilla pod is broken
Speaker 3: up and combined with the sugar. Scatter the vanilla sugar
Speaker 3: over the peaches and pour over half off of the amaretto.
Speaker 3: Bake for ten minutes or until the peaches are soft,
Speaker 3: had the remaining amaretto, and serve hot or cold with
Speaker 3: a spoonful of crim fresh.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 4: That sounds delicious.
Speaker 2: Austin amaretto and Italian liqueur peaches grilled. Is that anything
Speaker 2: to do with any food you grew up with in California?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So I was born in Anaheim, right near Disneyland, and
Speaker 3: we used to have these We used to have trees
Speaker 3: in the backyard that it wasn't We didn't have peaches,
Speaker 3: but we had grapefruit trees and we had an orange
Speaker 3: tree in the backyard. And so like the smell of
Speaker 3: fresh fruit. I remember my mom picking it and us
Speaker 3: having this fresh fruit and the kitchen and these lemons
Speaker 3: and grapefruit.
Speaker 4: So that's that's sort of what that made me think of.
Speaker 2: Did your mom? Was she a good cook?
Speaker 3: She was a great cook, and especially as the years
Speaker 3: went on, I remember eating a lot of fish sticks
Speaker 3: and you know, the things that you'd get in the
Speaker 3: freezer aisle, and little corn dogs that she would make.
Speaker 3: Because when I was born, she wanted to be a
Speaker 3: stay at home mom, and she was a dental high
Speaker 3: genist at the time, and then she ended up starting
Speaker 3: daycare out of the house, and so she would watch
Speaker 3: the children of the mothers who taught at the school
Speaker 3: right right around the corner that I eventually went to
Speaker 3: elementary school there, and so so we always had little
Speaker 3: children in the house, and so she had to make
Speaker 3: these meals that were really quick and easy. So as
Speaker 3: a kid, I just remember eating those and tuna fish
Speaker 3: sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and so nothing
Speaker 3: really gourmet at all. And then as the years went on,
Speaker 3: she became vegetarian, and then she became vegan, and then
Speaker 3: she got really into making special things with portobello mushrooms
Speaker 3: and bell pepper's stuffed with gooscous or.
Speaker 4: Things like that.
Speaker 3: So she got a little bit more into it later on,
Speaker 3: But when I was growing up, it wasn't extremely healthy
Speaker 3: in the house. It was it was kind of efficient meals, and.
Speaker 2: She's probably working so hard.
Speaker 3: She was working so much, and I mean there was
Speaker 3: twelve kids in the house sometimes and yeah, all different ages.
Speaker 3: And when I was when I started going to elementary school,
Speaker 3: we lived around the corner from that same school, and
Speaker 3: I would walk home every lunch and she'd have a
Speaker 3: peanut butter and jelly sandwich waiting for me, and we
Speaker 3: watched this home decorating show called Surprise by Design, and
Speaker 3: then we would we would come up with things that
Speaker 3: we were going to do around the house, and so
Speaker 3: we we'd lay a brick path in the backyard or
Speaker 3: plant little flowers or that sort of thing. We'd get
Speaker 3: inspired by this show, and I just remember how excited
Speaker 3: I was to walk home every day and just eat
Speaker 3: the sandwich that she made for me, and how specially
Speaker 3: that was.
Speaker 2: It was a beautiful memory of your mother something for
Speaker 2: you and going home for lunch. That's that's Would you
Speaker 2: have dinner as well? Would you all sit down to
Speaker 2: dinner or was that Well?
Speaker 3: My parents divorced on I was seven, and a lot
Speaker 3: of my memories go back to that time because it
Speaker 3: was when sort of the stability of family split up
Speaker 3: and my dad moved into this this person that he
Speaker 3: worked with, He moved into their garage and they had
Speaker 3: sort of a converted garage and we had a tiny
Speaker 3: little miniature fridge and that was that was where we
Speaker 3: kept all our groceries, and we had air mattresses that
Speaker 3: we slept on and we put them down at night,
Speaker 3: and then we put them up and we'd put down
Speaker 3: a table during the day.
Speaker 4: And so it was this one room.
Speaker 3: That was our entire house, and it was just this
Speaker 3: old garage and there was a treadmill in the corner
Speaker 3: that was their old treadmill, and we would we would
Speaker 3: make food there, and so we shared their kitchen betther
Speaker 3: than that. We had sort of just this one room.
Speaker 3: And I started cooking as a kid because with my
Speaker 3: dad had he had work and so he would say, hey,
Speaker 3: I'll pay you two dollars if you'd cook dinner tonight,
Speaker 3: and so as a way that I could stock up
Speaker 3: money as a kid was cooking dinner. And there was
Speaker 3: like three staple things maybe, and one of the main
Speaker 3: ones that I remember is burritos. We'd make Dennison's chili
Speaker 3: bean burritos, which this can of beans with some sour
Speaker 3: cream and cheese, and I haven't eaten one of those
Speaker 3: in years, but we used to eat that every night.
Speaker 3: And then a special occasion would be getting a five
Speaker 3: dollars pizza from down the road or something like that.
Speaker 3: So those were that was like the idea of a
Speaker 3: fancy meal was ordering a pizza out when I was
Speaker 3: a kid, which I think then years later coming to
Speaker 3: a place like like your restaurant here, going to French
Speaker 3: laundry for the first time or something like.
Speaker 4: That, was was so felt.
Speaker 3: I felt so out of my element in a way
Speaker 3: when I first started going to really nice restaurants, because
Speaker 3: you know, five dollars sounded like a lot for me
Speaker 3: when I was a kid.
Speaker 2: Would you do the shopping or would he order out?
Speaker 2: Would you?
Speaker 3: We would always we'd usually get a costco as a kid,
Speaker 3: yeah and yeah, we'd get food and bulk and then
Speaker 3: and make meals out of that. And then at a
Speaker 3: certain point, I think when I moved I moved out
Speaker 3: when I was seventeen, and I started wanted to learn
Speaker 3: how to make food and wanted to know how flavors
Speaker 3: fit together. And I started making some money, and so
Speaker 3: I started trying restaurants in La Or and then I
Speaker 3: worked in New York for the first time, and that
Speaker 3: was really eye opening because you know, just getting to
Speaker 3: try great little Italian restaurants. And I remember going to
Speaker 3: Roberta's for the first time, which is this restaurant in
Speaker 3: Brooklyn and a friend of mine who owned all these
Speaker 3: restaurants in la he said, this is the restaurant that
Speaker 3: made me want to open a restaurant. And uh so,
Speaker 3: going to Roberta's and and trying there and it feels
Speaker 3: a lot like here, where you feel like you're home,
Speaker 3: you know you're and I realized I have a lot of.
Speaker 4: Instability in my life.
Speaker 3: There hasn't been a lot of continuity in many areas
Speaker 3: of my life since I was young, just because I
Speaker 3: travel a lot, and even the nature of doing a
Speaker 3: film or a TV show, you sort of make a
Speaker 3: family of the entire crew and then it splits up.
Speaker 3: And through therapy, I sort of realized that that was
Speaker 3: that I was almost like reliving my childhood of my
Speaker 3: parents getting divorced, for you know, many years of making
Speaker 3: a family and then it splits up, and you make
Speaker 3: a family and it splits up. And so I'd seek
Speaker 3: out ways of having stability and consistency and most of
Speaker 3: that for me while on location, whether I was in
Speaker 3: Vancouver or New Zealand or Australia or here in London
Speaker 3: or wherever I was, I would find restaurants that became
Speaker 3: my second home and I'd get to the point where
Speaker 3: I'd go there every day and the staff then knew
Speaker 3: me and I knew them, and suddenly it felt like
Speaker 3: there was there was this thing that was separate from
Speaker 3: my work, that felt like home.
Speaker 4: Even if I've woken up with.
Speaker 3: Anxiety, or if i feel sad or I feel overwhelmed,
Speaker 3: I go to a restaurant, I think what you've created
Speaker 3: here is so beautiful because I feel it here as well.
Speaker 3: I'll come here with a book and you know, and
Speaker 3: I get to see you, and I get to read,
Speaker 3: and I know the people who work here, and that
Speaker 3: goes even deeper because you and I have a family relationship.
Speaker 2: Beyond that, I think I always say that in an
Speaker 2: irregular world, we do need regular things. And I think
Speaker 2: even if we have you know, your life, you know,
Speaker 2: the way you describe it is very moving and very
Speaker 2: honest and a revelation of who you are. But I
Speaker 2: think that even if you have a consistency and you
Speaker 2: have those foundations and you have that life, it's still
Speaker 2: we seek out. You know, you talk to people about
Speaker 2: the Sunday lunch, people going home for Sunday lunch or
Speaker 2: Friday night supper, or Christmas the Christmas lunch has to
Speaker 2: be the same every year, and so food does mean that,
Speaker 2: doesn't It gives you a sense of stability. And I
Speaker 2: always wanted a restaurant to feel like home. You know.
Speaker 2: That is a place. I'm always amazed that people will
Speaker 2: come to a restaurant even if they've had a really
Speaker 2: bad day, you know, or something bad has happened.
Speaker 4: Sometimes we need it on those days the most.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that you come.
Speaker 4: This morning, I.
Speaker 3: Could hardly leave the house. I just felt anxious for
Speaker 3: some reason. And then I got myself. I just said,
Speaker 3: you know, I just got to get to the cafe.
Speaker 3: And once you get there, then suddenly there's life around
Speaker 3: you and it sort of buzzes and you feel humanity
Speaker 3: wash over you and things that are happening outside of
Speaker 3: your own experience. And then you eat delicious food and
Speaker 3: that really helps.
Speaker 2: Did you eat pizzas in Italy when you went on
Speaker 2: that trip? You tell me that you took a road trip.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had a lot of pizza there.
Speaker 2: Where did you start?
Speaker 4: We took this.
Speaker 3: One of the best trips I've ever taken was this.
Speaker 3: Spent a month just road tripping through Italy. That was
Speaker 3: probably four years ago.
Speaker 4: Or something before. And we started in Milan.
Speaker 3: Drove from Milan to the coast and went to port
Speaker 3: Afino first, and I'd only ever spent maybe a week
Speaker 3: in Italy before this, and that was incredible. And then
Speaker 3: drove down and went to Chink with Tera and hiked
Speaker 3: between the little villages and went through the venues there
Speaker 3: had pasta. Oh my gosh, the best pesta pasta besides yours.
Speaker 2: They can make a better one of mine, I'm not competitive.
Speaker 3: Incredible, and then drove down to tell drove to Florence
Speaker 3: and did that for a couple of days, and drove
Speaker 3: out to this little bed and breakfast in Tuscany. It
Speaker 3: was run by this beautiful Italian woman and her husband,
Speaker 3: and they had two daughters, and one of the daughters
Speaker 3: would play piano in the afternoon and you'd hear it
Speaker 3: reverberating through the vineyard, and so it's just us and
Speaker 3: this family, and she'd bring for catcha up and you'd
Speaker 3: eat it around the pool in the afternoon and then
Speaker 3: and then at night her husband would would One night
Speaker 3: he caught a wild boar, and so then she made
Speaker 3: this wild boar and it was just absolutely divine and
Speaker 3: one of their daughters. Was dating a young man who
Speaker 3: was eighteen years old that he was half Israelian half
Speaker 3: Italian and he told me, he said, you know, I
Speaker 3: am a pilot. And I said, oh, you're a pilot.
Speaker 3: That's that's fantastic. And he said and he said, do
Speaker 3: you know I can fly you if you want me to.
Speaker 3: And I said, wow, yeah, I mean that would be cool.
Speaker 3: But I thought, I'm not trusting our lives in this
Speaker 3: eighteen year old kids' hands, you know. And then the
Speaker 3: next night his mom came to dinner. She was in
Speaker 3: the Israeli Air Force. She said, you know, he's actually
Speaker 3: a very good pilot. I said, you know what, you
Speaker 3: only live once. I mean, where can we go? And
Speaker 3: he said, you know, I can fly you to Elba,
Speaker 3: it's when. And I thought, well, last where Napoleon was exiled,
Speaker 3: and you could go to that little island and that'd
Speaker 3: be really cool. And I said, you know what, let's
Speaker 3: do it. Let's I'll pay for guys, I'll pay for
Speaker 3: the plane, whatever we need. And so we ended up
Speaker 3: we end up getting in the car and he couldn't
Speaker 3: drive a car, but he could fly a plane, and
Speaker 3: so I drive us all It's me and my girlfriend
Speaker 3: at the time, and him and his girlfriend, and we
Speaker 3: drive up to Florence and we end up getting to
Speaker 3: the little like separate private area of the airport and
Speaker 3: we go through security, and then he ends up going
Speaker 3: to a little garage and by hand pulling out a
Speaker 3: little four seat or cessna, see you pictured this skinny
Speaker 3: little Italian. Oh my gosh, he pulls this thing out
Speaker 3: by hand. I'm thinking, oh my god, what are we
Speaker 3: doing here? It felt like riding in a go kart
Speaker 3: or something. And we get into the plane and go
Speaker 3: through all the pre flight checks and then we take
Speaker 3: off and he and then I can't hear him at all.
Speaker 3: It's static in the headphones, and I see panic over
Speaker 3: his face, and we we're in the air now and
Speaker 3: we're flying. I'm thinking, he's the only person that can
Speaker 3: land this plane. And there's panic on his face and
Speaker 3: I can't hear him, and it's static. And then I
Speaker 3: realized that he just couldn't figure out how to switch
Speaker 3: a certain switch, and so we couldn't hear each other.
Speaker 3: And once he figured that out, then peace came upon
Speaker 3: the airplane. And then he told me it's a very
Speaker 3: dangerous landing place in Elba because you have to fly
Speaker 3: in this zigzag shape, and so that's send I'm going.
Speaker 4: To a god.
Speaker 3: We trusted eighteen and we end up zigzagging through the
Speaker 3: mountains of Elba and landing and we got there safely, thankfully,
Speaker 3: and then we clearly. And then we ate pasta with
Speaker 3: him and his girlfriend that day for lunch, and they
Speaker 3: flew back and we stayed and rode around on vespers
Speaker 3: and ate pasta all these different beaches on Elba and
Speaker 3: went to the vineyards that Napoleon used to go to.
Speaker 3: And then he came back three days later and picked
Speaker 3: us up on the plane and we flew back to Florence.
Speaker 4: And that was It was magic.
Speaker 2: So the adventure of travel, the adventure of eating.
Speaker 4: It's like over dinner, you create these adventures.
Speaker 2: You know, the culture of a country is so taken
Speaker 2: through its food, and very often it is this. You know,
Speaker 2: we meet somebody who comes back from a country and
Speaker 2: we don't ask what museum they went to or you know,
Speaker 2: what gallery they saw, what church, what we do, But
Speaker 2: you know this also tells you so much by them saying,
Speaker 2: as you've just described the food that they ate. The
Speaker 2: culture of the dinners or the shooting a boar or
Speaker 2: catching a fish, or it's as exciting as getting on
Speaker 2: a plane. Crazily, I might say, am I somebody you
Speaker 2: don't know? You know, it's all about curiosity and exploring
Speaker 2: and opening ourselves up. And so if we think about
Speaker 2: you know, we've talked about food as memory of the
Speaker 2: food that you've found that sets and traveling and working
Speaker 2: and the food that connects us. All I suppose it
Speaker 2: connects our memories, it connects each other. Is a sense
Speaker 2: of excitement, but it's also a sex of comfort. What
Speaker 2: would be the food you would probably go to for comfort.
Speaker 3: I've been away from home for a long time, and
Speaker 3: as well as the fact that my mother's no longer here.
Speaker 3: She passed away when I was twenty three, and I
Speaker 3: almost hadn't put it into conscious thought. But I often will.
Speaker 3: After a big week or if I'm feeling really overwhelmed,
Speaker 3: I'll make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and that
Speaker 3: becomes my thing. I made one the other day and
Speaker 3: it's just that comfort sensation. Yeah, so that that's one
Speaker 3: of my go to comfort foods for sure.
Speaker 2: I'll see you for cards on Sunday Night partner I'll
Speaker 2: see you. Thank you. To visit the online shop of
Speaker 2: the River Cafe, go to shop Therivercafe dot co dot UK.
Speaker 1: River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and
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