WEBVTT - Ambassador Jane Hartley 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.000 You are listening to Ruthie's Table four. 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:07.080 In partnership with Montclair, Jane Hardley was the American ambassador 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:10.440 to France and Monaco and now to the Court of 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:14.600 Saint James. She has the qualities necessary for the role 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:20.919 in abundance, leadership, resilience, duty. I know the qualities she 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:25.600 has as a close friend, kindness, empathy, humor and love. 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:31.400 I've witnessed Jane negotiating difficult situations and people impressed by 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:35.479 her curiosity, strength and integrity. She has a courage to 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:39.360 challenge others and, though a diplomat, to say what she thinks. 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.640 In the two years she's been the ambassador to the 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:45.920 Court of Saint James, Jane has had two monarchs, three 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:50.800 prime ministers, four chancellors, and a late stage pandemic. She 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:55.840 works rigorously to be informed. Her husband, Ralph Schlostein, is 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.720 a committed cook and knows almost more about food than 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:04.000 I do, to giving serious attention to serious wines. He 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.520 and a group of friends meet every Monday discovering new restaurants, 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:11.520 and apparently his lifetime ambition is to find the best 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.680 pizza in New York City. I always introduced Jane as 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.679 Ambassador Hartley. But my nickname for her is miss Sparkle. 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.319 I don't think I've ever seen her without sequence on 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:27.920 a sweater, a dress, earrings, or even the shoes she's wearing. Today. 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.360 Jane has just been in the kitchen with Joseph cooking 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.319 a dover sole. Now we're going to get together to 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:39.080 talk about work, duty, family and food. I know she 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.120 will be informed and I know she will sparkle. 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:45.760 Thank you, Ruthie, Thank you. 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:48.600 So what was it like being in the kitchen. I 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.480 don't think I've ever sat at a table. We didn't 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:51.200 order dover soul. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.240 I ordered over sol every time I come, and you 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.720 have by far the best over soul that I've ever had. 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.360 I was asking where he got it from. Of course 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.480 it's it's from the UK. But you do something special 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:06.560 in terms of the cooking and in terms of my capers. 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:08.760 I always ask if you'll add capers, and you do. 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.119 It's unusual because some people want capers off. 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:15.000 Oh yeah, I love capers, but I love but literally, 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:16.600 I said to you when I walked in today. I 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:18.680 come into this restaurant and I feel like I'm home, 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.360 and no matter how hard my day is. And some 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:25.239 days are pretty hard. I see you and I sit 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.519 at that corner table and have my dover soul and 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.560 my usually April sprits Apple spirits. 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.160 But that's what that's what Conversely, we feel when we 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.280 see you coming in at your family, and I think 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:42.000 that it isn't just how you can relate to a restaurant. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.600 Sometimes it is being taken care of, you know. Un Thus, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.280 we always tell the people work for us, you know, 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:48.760 take care well. 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.040 You do it perfectly. I only know one other person 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.560 who's also a friend of yours, because everybody's a friend 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:57.400 of Ruthie's, but Danny Meyer, who's a friend of mine 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.480 from New York, and when he started his restaurants, he 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.919 said what he wanted to provide was service that everybody 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.640 came in and felt that, you know, they were known, 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.280 they were taken care of, and it was home. And 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:11.760 you did that better than anybody. 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.239 Well. Also, you never know how people when they walk 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.560 into a restaurant, how they are feeling. You know, they 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:21.640 may be celebrating something, or they may be grieving over 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:23.799 something sad, or they may just be, as you say, 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.920 had a really tough day. And you do have tough days, yeah, 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.080 you know, yeah, I do have tough days for the 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.359 work you do. You grew up in Connecticut. 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:33.519 I grew up in Connecting western Connecticut. 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.680 Did you have fish? That part of fish? 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:40.560 You know? It's thank god she's no longer with us. 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:42.440 She was a wonderful woman. But my mother was not 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.840 the best cook. Although it was interesting because she cooked 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.120 meat and fish quite well. So she cooked meat rare, 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.600 which is how I like it, and she cooked fish moist. 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.600 Now vegetables unfortunately met their death in her kitchen. 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.280 Was hard to cook. You know, Lord, what did she do? 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:02.400 We don't want to be too bad. 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:05.760 I love my mother. But she cooked once for Ralph, 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.200 my husband, who is the best cook in the family. 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.960 My son may be close so Kate and I not 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.800 so much. But my husband came once to I think 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:19.320 the Thanksgiving dinner and my mother uttered the words, you 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:23.240 can't overcook a vegetable, and I thought Ralph was gonna 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:24.560 fall on the floor. 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.240 She worked every day, did she was? She worked, She. 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.760 Did various jobs coming home, and it just it was interesting. 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:37.360 I don't think cooking was important to her in terms 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.000 of feeding the family. My father, I think, was not 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.560 a gourmetl though he was very interesting. He insisted on 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.720 meat rare. So anytime we'd go out to dinner, and 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:49.800 usually on Sunday evenings. 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:52.839 Do you remember the restaurant? Were they the same restaurant 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:54.200 or would you go to differ reson? 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:56.440 I think it was called White Fence Inn. It was 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.000 up in Litchfield County. The one thing I remember more 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.160 than anything else, though, is I have a twin brother 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.240 who I'm very close to. It's just the two of 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.320 us is riding around in a car and it was 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.279 long before ways and Google maps and things and them 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.760 being lost and my brother saying in the backseat, can't 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:17.800 we just go anywhere? We're hungry? 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.800 And your father would insist on the meat being rare. 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.000 Yeah, meat being rare. And sometimes the drink first, never 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.240 wine with the meals. So that was interesting that taste 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:34.840 I developed later cocktails A cocktail first, yeah, cocktail first. Yeah. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.200 So more about growing up, So your mom worked, your 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.960 father worked, and you would have you know, would you 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:42.479 and your brother sit down to dinner and your parents 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.200 every night, which you have a family meal pretty. 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:47.919 Much, but we ate very quickly. My brother played a 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:50.160 lot of sports, but it was wonderful, and that the 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:52.920 other thing I remember from growing up, and it's it's 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:57.000 what Ralph is doing now, which is after I participated 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:00.520 in various athletics and this was mainly swimming. After our 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.600 swim meets, my father would take the whole team out 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.599 to pizza. And I still remember the name of the pizza. 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:11.560 Zachary's an odd name for Waterbury. This was in Waterbury. Yeah. 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.360 Yeah, so you grew up with a at the table, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:20.080 you know, what were your parents in discussion about politics 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.880 or duty or being a citizen and giving something back. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:25.000 Was that imbued with it? 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:30.279 Yeah, it really was. I mean we always talked about politics, 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.480 and my whole family had been in it kind of indirectly. 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.120 My sister in law now my sister in law currently 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.279 is in the state Senate and she was deputy speaker 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.240 in Connecticut, Connecticut. So we always we always had discussions 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.120 about politics. Yes, that was something and I think I 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.919 was very young when President Kennedy was president. But you know, 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.800 the whole concept of ask not what you could do 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:56.880 what your country asked, what you can do for your 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.000 country as opposed to what your country can do for you. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.000 Didn't get that exactly right, but that whole that whole 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:09.880 value of in my parents, especially my father frankly, that 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.640 we were lucky, lucky to grow up in America, we 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:14.840 were lucky to be there, that there was such a 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.280 thing as the American dream, and because we were lucky, 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:19.520 we also had a responsibility to give him something. 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.679 I can remember. I think where I was when Kennedy 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.560 was shot. You in school, because I was in a classroom. 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.560 I was in a classroom too, my I you know, 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.480 I think everybody remembers. I was in a classroom also, 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:34.200 and all the children had to leave schools. So my 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.520 father came to get us in his car, and I 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.640 remember driving home and my father was crying. 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.960 He was crying. In my school. I was at a 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:47.960 sort of what they call a central school. So we 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.040 all bussed in from Yea because it was in the countryside. Yeah, 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.520 and it came over the loudspeaker, you know, that we 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.080 were the buses would be outside. We were all going home. 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.000 Seven They told us we were going did they tell you? 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.440 But then no, they didn't even tell us that. They 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.040 just said you're all going home. So I never heard. 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.520 And in the car my father was just crying. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.480 And finally, and did he participate in politic was he was. 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:18.160 He participated, He was more participated indirectly. I think he did. 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:20.320 He did run for senate once in Connecticut. 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:21.280 Well that's a big deal. 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.480 Well you state senate? What might still he lost? 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:25.720 Yeah? Still? 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.240 But yeah, yeah, but my family was always a little 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.400 bit involved. Yeah. And my mother's family hit on the 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:37.120 newspaper until until it went bankrupt. What that pack up 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:39.360 the paper went out of business? 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:41.400 Was your mother's family? Yeah? 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.839 It was the Waterbury Democrat ran out run out of 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:46.280 town by the Weterbury Republican. 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:48.280 Were they for. 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:51.560 Two papers because you couldn't support two papers in one town? 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:54.400 That's interesting there was one called Democrat and actually one 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:55.079 was called Yeah. 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:56.240 Yeah. 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:58.199 Well that tells you about bias in the press. 0:08:58.320 --> 0:08:59.640 Yeah, yeah, it does. 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:02.839 And so when you when you left, when you went 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:05.480 to college, did you have that sense that this is 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:07.680 what you wanted to pursue or did that come later? 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.440 It's interesting. I kind of I kind of knew. I 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.320 consider myself lucky because I remember when my children were 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.560 growing up. I always sort of had this passion saying 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.280 to my kids, find your passion, until I realized that 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:22.320 was really the wrong thing to say to young people, 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.800 because many times you find your passion when you're forty fifty, 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.040 however old you are, you find your passion, and it 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:30.880 shouldn't be a burden for young people. 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:34.320 I think there's something about finding your passion. I was 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:38.920 just listening to Scotty, but we had the passion. Yeah, 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.960 he was saying, if you don't find the passion in 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.800 your work, then find the passion in your family or 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.560 something else. Ye say, exactly is what will give me 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.959 the ability to have the time when you have. 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.520 A passion a different listen. In my life, I've worked 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.000 in the public sector, I've worked in the private sector. 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.520 My passion is the private Is the public safe, because 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:02.920 I think that's where you can make a difference. But 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.880 I've certainly worked in the private sector, which is much 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.880 easier when you have a family. And I also moved 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.280 to New York after the White House, so you know, 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.080 it's a balance. Life. Life is a journey. 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.200 Yeah. But he went straight from college to Washington. 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.199 I did. I went. I was very lucky. I was 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.560 going to go to law school, but I didn't because 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.320 I've got an opportunity very very early, which is sort 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:28.640 of through luck and being in the right place. And 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.040 there was a legendary man. His name was Robert Strauss, 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:33.400 Bob Strauss. She probably knew me. 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:33.640 He was. 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.599 He ran the Democratic Party. He was later ambassador to 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.480 Russia USTR. He did so many different things. But I 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:44.200 had been doing some work on fiscal economic issues on 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.800 the Hill budget priorities, and somehow was introduced to him 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.440 because a lot of the budget fiscal stuff had to 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.280 do with cities, urban policy and revenue sharing things like that. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.680 So I got to know him, and I was introduced 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:00.240 to him, and I got a big job at the 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:02.760 Democratic headquarters at the DNC. 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.040 They called so was a Carter White House. 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.760 It was right before the Carter And I do remember 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:09.520 when I was interviewed for this job, because it was 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:12.480 quite a big job. They asked me how old I was, 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.960 and I remember wearing a black dress and glasses to 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.320 the interview. So they said how old are you? And 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.880 I said about thirty. Now, if anybody I interviewed every 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.760 said about thirty, I would roll. I was twenty four. 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.360 I worked there and I had a lot of visibility 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:30.719 because you were. I was working with a lot of 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.120 the big city mayors at the time. In urban policy 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:34.520 was one of the key issues that she did. 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.000 It was huge housing in urban development. 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.920 Yeah, well, yeah, I went there first, and then I 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.000 went to the White House for a legendary woman who 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:46.679 was at the White House. Her name was Anne Wexler, 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.160 and she controlled, She controlled the White House, and she 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.480 controlled so much in that city. Stew Eyes Instead always 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.880 said to me once, if Anne had come eighteen months earlier, 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:03.559 Carter would have won the election. But she came maybe, 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.040 I don't know, maybe eighteen months in and I came 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:06.640 right after that. 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:17.880 The River Cafe is excited. We're opening the River Cafe Cafe. 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.360 Come for a morning Briochian cappuccino, a plate of seasonal 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.959 antipasty on the terrace, or an ice cream or a 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.800 paratibo in the sun. We can't wait to open, and 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:41.480 we cannot wait to welcome you. Do you remember having 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.400 left college and having set up on your own? Do 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.600 you remember working what you ate? Do you remember food 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:50.959 at that time? Would you grab something? Would you go? 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.640 Were you suddenly having restaurants to go to in Washington. 0:12:55.440 --> 0:13:00.560 Washington didn't have the restaurants that they do now, but 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:04.480 there was one quite famous restaurant that was on right 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:09.080 above DuPont Circle called Nora's and we got to know 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.560 Nora quite well. And the restaurant was right across from 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.040 where Ralph lived because Ralph was at the White House also, 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:16.880 so we went there all the time. 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:17.920 When did you meet Ralph? 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.079 I'd met him briefly before I went to the White House, 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.480 but then we started working together. So Ralf and I 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:26.640 worked together all the time. And the joke about that 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.240 was that memos to the President were always due on 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.840 Saturday morning, and we were the point people for the 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.360 memos to the President and urban policy. I was the 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:38.920 point for Anne and he was point and then there 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:42.280 was the omb person Office of Management and Budget. But 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.600 we could never agree, so we'd be editing late into 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:47.920 Friday night. And the joke was we broke so many 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.120 dates with other people as they do, we ended up 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:55.000 together from Wes Wayne, Yeah, exactly, couldn't get a date 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.160 because we had to break them because we were working 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:57.920 in midnight. 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.559 Was he as rest and food then? As he is? 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.400 He always loved food. Yeah, he always loved food and 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:06.720 he was always a good cook. 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:08.520 Yeah. So did he cook for you? 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.200 He cooked for me? Yeah, I remember, Well, we did 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.160 go to dinner light a lot because we went to 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.040 this place, Nora's across the street, because we worked so late, 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.280 both of us. But I do remember one time, right 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.440 in the beginning of our relationship, he had been in 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:23.720 France for work for something with the White House, and 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.360 he came back with all these French cheeses. Now, I 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.680 don't think you're supposed to bring French cheese back into 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.080 this country, and he was working at the White House, 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.120 but somehow we put them through. So I went to 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.120 his house and did a tasting of French cheese. 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.280 Did you eat in the canteen in the White House. 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.560 Pretty much every day? It was a wonderful place. Actually, 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:43.640 I went back to the White House just like six 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:45.920 months ago or something and went there again, and one 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.560 of the things I was disappointed is they took out 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:51.080 they had in the White House mess for years and years, 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.000 they had a big round table which was called the 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.320 staff table, so you never had to make a reservation. 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:56.720 You could just go in and sit at this big 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.840 round table when you'd be sitting next to Vice President Mondale. Yeah, 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.040 it was wonderful. It was just a fantastic, fantastic experience. 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.160 So I was very disappointed that they got rid of 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.360 it last year. When I was there, it's no longer there. 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:10.800 Did you go upstairs to the residents that never have 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:12.120 meals with the carters? 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:17.880 I went upstairs to the residents maybe then, but probably 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:19.360 more when President Obama was. 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:21.920 President, And do you remember those meals? 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:27.280 I think it was mainly cocktails. President Obama and President 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.480 Biden care quite a bit about food. They have their 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.600 own they have their own special treats that they like. 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.480 So when President Biden comes to Winfield House, which he 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.560 has four times, I think since I've been here, we 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:41.480 always have to make sure we get ice cream. His 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.280 favorite thing in the world is ice cream. He likes 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.320 chocolate chip, but I think last time we had vanilla, 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:50.720 but he loves ice cream. President Obama came recently, just 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.480 for twenty four hours, and he's very careful about food. 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:59.320 Six almonds for breakfast, right but when he's relaxing, his 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:05.760 favorite thing steak and martini vodka. Straight up, you know 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:07.520 he loves it. So you always want to make them happy. 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:09.640 Work so hard when he's here, so I always get 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.840 ice creamy anything he wants he gets. He deserves all 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.600 of it. And President Obama, I've had dinner with him 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.000 at Martha's finger and stuff. So he always makes the martinis. 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.880 Does it good Martin vodka? If we're going in the 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.800 order you went from Washington and then you were in 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.000 New York with your having your children. Were they all 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:27.840 born in New York? 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:29.080 My children were born in New York. 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:29.360 Yeah. 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:34.240 They consider themselves total New Yorkers actually, although both of 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:36.480 them went to Dartmouth which is up in New Hampshire, 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:41.080 and Kate, when she came back, applied to business school. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.040 She ap fled to Columbia. And I remember, as a 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.680 mother always worries. I said, shouldn't even been applying more 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.520 than one school? And she said, no, I'm never leaving 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:51.400 New York again. If I don't get in, I don't 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:51.680 kid in. 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.800 Did you find as a working mother that did you 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.520 have help for taking care of child? 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.320 It's nutty. No, it wasn't easy. I mean anybody who says, 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:06.320 even some of my friends at the time would say 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.200 it was easy, and I thought they were probably not 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.360 telling the truth. It's not a bit. It's terrorI it's 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.359 really hard. It's really really hard. And you know, I 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:16.959 think the kids that not that they suffered, but there 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:18.600 wasn't a lot of cooking in the house, Ralph and 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:20.879 I would come back. We'd be exhausted and tired. And 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.080 one time a friend of ours was a journalist for 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.480 he'd been at the Western Post and Time, and he 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:30.119 was writing a book about young people with children and 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.840 how difficult it was, and Kate was actually in the book. 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.240 One of her lines was when the doorbell rings, Kate 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.760 would say dinner, because we got take out every night. 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.160 I have one of my children. Once when I started 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.760 the River Cafe and he went to the American School, Yeah, 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:48.800 and he came. He called me up and he was 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.760 out a playdate around the corner and he said, Mom, 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:53.800 can you just come come over pick me up? And 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:55.440 I thought about the ground the corner. He said, no, 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:57.720 just come pick me up. And he wanted me to 0:17:57.800 --> 0:17:59.520 see what a good mother's fridge look like. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:05.560 That's so funny, this is a good mother. 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:07.200 And it was that, you know. 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:12.359 It was one of those double door fridges, filled vegetables 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:13.840 and all the things. And I said, I have a. 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:15.600 Good mother and I have a good fridge. It just 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.679 doesn't have sixteen thousand different types of I was. 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.280 Ab I was a good very good and what I 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.359 did well, but I didn't have a good fridge, fridge 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:27.239 they were. It all worked out very well. I love 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:31.800 my children and they're terrific adults. Terrific you said them, 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.240 terrific people. Even though they may have gotten rafts take out? 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:37.120 Did they did? 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.520 He was, you know, during the week, it was so hard. 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.159 We both worked and we were both exhausted, so we 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:45.200 didn't really cook during the week, but he did cook 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.440 Friday nights usually we'd have dinner with the kids, and 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:50.080 they got into this one thing. At one point, I 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:51.719 was like, do we have to have it again? They 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.480 loved steak and chicken fajitas, so we had steak and 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:57.920 chicken fajitas every Friday n them. 0:18:58.400 --> 0:18:59.160 Would he make them? 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:00.879 Make them? You'd make them? 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.760 Because now he's such a passionate cook, isn't it. Yeah, 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:06.440 that happened later, think. 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.359 Well, I think he always it's just time, you know. 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.399 And even now he mainly cooks some weekends. But he 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:16.280 loves he loves food, and he has a great feel 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:22.080 for it, whereas I'm much more in I'm sort of 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.359 I'm a perfectionist by nature, even cooking, and I think 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:27.440 it makes me less good at cook I have to 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.960 follow a recipe to write the exact what it says, 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.359 and roughness has a feel for it. You didn't have 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:34.080 to follow anything. 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:35.760 What was it like going to Paris. 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:40.200 We had a couple of favorite places in Paris, but 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:44.480 one thing I remember that is of more serious, having 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.159 to do with food. When I was in Paris, I 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:49.520 was there during the worst of terrorism, so I got 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:53.520 there right before Charlie Hebdo. It was Isis terrorism during 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.320 the time when I was there in Isis terrorist attacks 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.919 and Bodaclan was the huge attack at the music van. 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.560 You called Bataclan, but there were like three different attacks. 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.200 Huge numbers of people were killed. It was in November, 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.440 right before Thanksgiving. I'll never forget that night because Charlie 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:13.920 Hebdo had happened, which was a terror, which was a 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.280 you know, a terrorist act and a terrible thing, but 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:22.359 it appeared more targeted, where this just shook the city, 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:26.520 shook the country, shook the world because it was done 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:29.080