WEBVTT - Es Devlin 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.840 Hmm, are we okay for noise? By the way, it's 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:05.000 Friday night. 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:09.600 It's Friday, Friday night, It's Friday night. We should do 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.840 something that was so fine the night? 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.200 It wasn't that all right? I know? Just to sing? 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:18.200 What did we? We? 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:18.560 Sang? 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:37.320 Still my escape going in June of this year. I'm 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.040 completely unsure about what to do with Damien Hirst's beautiful 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.159 studio space next to the River Cafe, which he was 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.400 giving to us for the memorial for Richard Rogers. My husband, 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.600 a friend, Jonah Freud, introduced me to s Devlin by text. 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.400 A few hours later, I found myself talking to her 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.000 while she put her child to bed at midnight. S 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.960 the design of the set for Beyond his concert, the 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.280 West End production of the Crucible, the fashion show for Youth. 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.880 Saint Laurent had recently finished her radical book in Atlas 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.959 of s Stevlin. At the end of the conversation, she said, 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.679 I'll tell you what, Ruthie, I'm going to Lisbon tomorrow morning. 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.679 Why don't I stop over on the way to the 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:20.080 airport is eight o'clock oka, of course, s I said, 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.840 already exhausted. She arrived at day on the dot we've 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:25.800 had a look at the space. She told me what 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.399 to do and got straight into a taxi to make 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:35.160 the flight. This was s spontaneous, generous, positive, creative, funny 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.000 and very smart. As I write this, S is in 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.520 the restaurant talking to Charles pull and our manager about 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.080 what makes the River Cafe a set a place that 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.560 is active and calm, dark and light, noisy and quiet 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.120 at different times of the day. When it comes back 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:53.720 from all this, we'll talk about food, theater, space, books, 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.360 family and cooking, and most of all, we will talk 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:00.600 about friendship, and we will talk about love. 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:06.120 Thank you, Yes it's beautiful. Don't change a word. 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.040 So you know the drills. And we asked you to 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.840 choose from all the recipes of all the books from 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.799 the last twelve cookbooks. So I'd like ask you why 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.840 you chose this recipe for kanelini bean soup. 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.880 But this is from the first book. And of course 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:26.200 my first encounter when the River Cafe first was open, 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.640 when I was first able to come, which took a 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.920 while to get my table, and then when the book 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:36.000 came out and we were fans, so I wanted to. 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.079 And well back then it. 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.480 Was probably me in France read before I met my 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:45.320 husband Jack. But my husband Jack is an extraordinary cook. 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.399 He makes this canelini bean soup and he makes it 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.800 very specifically with a piece of toast in the bottom. 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:55.440 And he did teach me how to make it. So 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.160 I have made it okay, but more often I have 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:00.000 eaten it and that it didn't make it. 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:01.080 Yeah. 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:11.240 I The recipe canellini bean soup. Serve six two hundred 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:15.519 and fifty grams cooked cannellini beans, a handful of fresh 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.440 sage leaves, two to three garlic cloves, peeled and chopped, 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.560 three tablespoons of olive oil, a bunch of fresh flat 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:29.040 leaf parsley chopped extra virgin olive oil in a large saucepan. 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:31.920 Cook the garlic in the olive oil until soft but 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.400 not brown. Add the parsley, then add beans and stir. 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.040 Put three quarters of the bean mixture into a food 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:43.120 processor with some reserved cooking liquid. Pulse briefly. You do 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.440 not want to pure. Add more of the cooking liquid 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.960 if necessary, but the soup should be thick. Return to 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:55.320 the saucepan and season. Reheat if too thick, add more 0:03:55.360 --> 0:04:00.000 cooking liquid. Serve with generous amount of extra virgin olive oil. 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:02.280 And perhaps some toast. 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:04.960 And I would if I were Jack, I would be 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:06.360 toasting something in the bottom. 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.240 So you have that gorgeous toast and beans and oil. 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.680 So we love threems three ingredients, isn't it? You know, simplicity, 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.960 which I guess is perhaps the way you work it is. 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.279 And also I don't eat meat, so and I, as 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.640 you mentioned, I use quite a lot of energy, so 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:25.320 I have to be quite careful to make sure I 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.800 get a lot of protein without eating meat. And the 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:30.040 beans are amazing for that as well. 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.200 So, going back to the beginning, tell me about growing 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.200 up in the Devlin household. Where were you born? 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.080 I was born in Kingston Hospital in Kingston upon Thames, 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:43.360 not too far from here, proper suburbia, proper suburbia in 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:47.280 the western suburbs of London. And then my parents went 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.760 on a romantic weekend break to Rye in East Sussex, 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.479 and they bought a house on a whim on a 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.200 cobbled street called Mermaid Street which used to descend into 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:01.120 the sea. And the house had been lived in by 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.960 Conrad Aiken the poet and his daughter Joan Akin, the author. 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:08.720 So in my mind, the house spoke. There was a 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:14.400 model city, model town of Rye next to the house, 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.800 and we used to visit it every weekend because my 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.560 mother and father were so excited to invite their friends 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.000 to see the place they loved, so they would take 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.280 them to the model, which was a sone Lumier and 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.279 it told stories. So each house told a story, including 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.400 my house. So I was only six years old, so 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:39.000 in my head something made me think that objects could speak, 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.920 houses could speak the way that I think bean speak 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.159 and food speaks. So that was me growing up. And 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:47.760 my mother was a teacher. 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:48.640 What did she do. 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.640 She taught special needs children, dyslexic children. At that time, 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:54.680 she had taught lots of things, but she was teaching 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:59.400 dyslexic kids. And my dad was a journalist specializing in education. 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.560 They were both fascinated with education, actually, But my mom 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.480 prepared all the food. My dad could make scrambled eggs 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.760 on toast, that was really it. I'm worried that I 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.360 might be like my father was slightly known for only 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.520 cooking one thing. Okay, because I don't get very much. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:17.719 That's fine, what is your one thing? 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.240 Well, I do make cheese and tomatoes, on toast quite well, 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.599 if it's good toast, and I sometimes put red pepper. 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.080 I'm trying to use the vegan cheese. 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:30.760 Are you vegan and vegetarian? 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:32.920 Now I'm vegetarian, but I'm just trying to be as 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.160 smart as possible with the ingredients. But yeah, my mum 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:37.440 was in the kitchen. She was trying to manage everything. 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:39.880 There were four kids, four and she taught all day 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.440 and then he came home and cooked. Yeah, would you 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.520 sit down, all of you to do Yeah, every year. 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:46.960 But it was quite a lot of you know, back 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.640 then in the eighties and late seventies, quite a lot 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:54.200 of potato waffles, the freezer, whatever she had time for. 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.839 Then she got a slow cooker and she realized that 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.320 before she went to work, she could put all the 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:01.400 ingredients big meaty stews she could put. 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:02.080 She would do a. 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.440 White one or a brown one, and she put all 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.719 the ingredients of the chicken or whatever it was in there. 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.720 In the morning, she'd go out do her whole day teaching, 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.520 and then we would come home from school. The idea 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:15.560 was that the big stew would be there for us 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.160 to eat, and that worked well, no, because we liked 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.640 the potato waffles, so we would just go to the 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.520 freezer and get poor mam so she gave up after 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:26.000 that a bit. 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.000 So your father would come back. Would he work in London? 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:32.880 Yeah, we only saw him at the weekend because he 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:34.880 would stay up in London to get to Rye at 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.760 the time, it's quite a track, so he would come 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.280 back at the weekends. So my mum was really holding 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.560 the four and we we all did a lot of things. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.800 There was music lessons orchestra. We had a little yellow 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.840 citron Diane that we had to park facing downhill on 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.440 Mermaid Street, otherwise it wouldn't start if it was facing 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.080 uphill because then if it if it didn't start, you. 0:07:58.080 --> 0:07:59.200 Could just roll it down. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:01.720 She would put hot water bottles on it in the 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.280 winter to stop the points freezing. She had a little 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:07.640 plastic like a bonnet that you put on to stop 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:09.680 your hair getting wet. In the shower. She put one 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.200 of those over the whole car, a big bonnet to 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:14.960 stop it getting wet. But we would go to the 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.520 beach after school in the summer every day, to camber 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.800 Sands or to Winchelsea and we would My food memory 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:24.760 of that time I was sitting usually crappy weather, in 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:29.960 the wind and unwrapping foil crusty little pastries, and then 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.360 the sand, the grit of the sand would get in them, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.200 and she would make these little pastry chicken pies. So 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:37.120 I remember the chicken in the sand. They were kind 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:38.959 of tasty with a bit of sand in them. 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:41.920 So you grew up in this house with four children, 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.960 where are you in the list of number two? Number two? 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.800 And the mother who worked, a father who was absent, 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.480 and you had a meal every night that you would 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.280 sit around the table and would you all talk about 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:58.000 what you've done during the day, just eat and then 0:08:58.040 --> 0:08:58.720 do the homework. 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:04.120 Was noisy, very noisy, and kind of My brothers went 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:05.599 to boarding school for a while. I think it was 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:07.920 all too much, probably for my mum to manage four 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:09.920 kids at once, so they went off for a bit 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:12.120 and they would come back in the holidays and it 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.959 was very, very noisy, and there were friends over, and yeah, 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:17.720 it was food and noise and talking. 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.440 And at lunch, would you take your lunch to school? 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.040 Did you get lunch school food? 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:28.440 School food? Yes? Oh yes, oh yes. School food was 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.040 horrible rice puddings that were all skinny, and you had 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.439 to eat it all. It was a local school called 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.880 Frieda kardam in Rye Primary School, and then we moved 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:39.640 to Kent to go to a school called Cranbrook School, 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.640 which was a grammar school. They had a little cafeteria 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:45.679 that you would choose your food, but we just did 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:47.320 eat the potato waffles. 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.360 And came back to the I'm afraid it's such a 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.480 shame because I've never seen a potato. I guess I 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.400 have to go through the British education system had a potato. 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.040 Yes, I mean, in fairness to my mum, the the 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.839 fact that you know, we were annoying children who liked 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.400 processed food was not her fault. She's a fantastic cook. 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.800 She makes great big themed I mean, she would make 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:14.160 ridiculously crazy birthday cakes, theatrical, perhaps extraordinarily the I mean. 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.320 My mum's a great artist, as is my dad. They 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:18.720 didn't pursue art as her career, but all of our 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.280 birthdays were always it would be a themed mermaid cake 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.880 with mermaid biscuits. I am I'm pretty terrible because I 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.360 do when I eat a meal, and I've been served 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:32.080 the most beautiful meals in my life by my husband 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.160 and others, But I tend to eat the conversation. Yeah, 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:39.040 the food tastes of the thought. That's fine, that's a story. 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.400 That's a story of food. And I think food can 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.400 be a story. And I think you know, what you 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:47.840 eat is so much obviously more than what's going in 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.959 your mouth. And the lighting. I am obsessed with what 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.720 the light is. I can't if I walk into a restaurant, 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:55.400 the light is where I will probably go up to 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:57.600 the person's say, can I just dim this switch here? 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.480 So what is the lighting that you like? Low? Low? 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.079 Or outside and being in the like just now, we 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:09.120 were sitting outside your beautiful piazza. So either natural light 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.760 or the light of the fire. Yeah, by the fire, 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:12.760 the food by a fire. 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:13.839 Yeah. 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:17.600 I'm Charles Pullan, executive director of the River Cafe, and 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.680 we are sitting on the table one oh six on 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.920 the terrace outside on a Friday afternoon, and I'm about 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.839 to talk with es Devlyn. Very exciting. We want to 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.559 get her take on the feel and the energy and 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.319 the design of the River Cafe. So rather than one 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:35.760 of her sets that we do all over the world, 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:37.400 be rather interesting just for us to hear what your 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.240 take is on the space that we use. As people 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.839 arrived through the front door, their first view as they 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.839 look left down the length of the very long dining 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:47.960 room is that it's the big pink word oven than 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:51.239 the fire in there flickering away, which has a wonderful 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.439 purpose of shrinking the room in a way and making 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.400 it feel cozy and make it feel much more intimate 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.000 despite the facts it is a very long, large dining room. 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.320 It's such a such a sort of hackneyed old reference, 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.160 the fact that there is so much in common with 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.880 the theater and the restaurant world. But it's a truism 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.199 because there are so many parallels with how you gear up, 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.800 you rehearse your audition, but then there's the energy that 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.439 just before service, just before the curtains up, and then 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:23.160 you all jump into your roles. And so we've always 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.959 talked about the staff and the food and all that 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:27.800 side of things. But from your point of view, it 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.360 might be interesting to hear how the kind of design 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.280 of the dining room itself comes into play. 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:38.160 I think the comparison between the performative aspects of the 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:42.600 delivery of food and the physical aspects of being backstage 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.040 and front stage are clear. I don't find them hackneyed. 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:48.800 I think they're fascinating. When I was here last time, 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:50.880 it was an evening. The weather was a bit like this, 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.480 maybe not so sunny, but we all gathered in bright 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:58.760 clothes in honor of Richard's love of bright colors, all 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.480 around the banks of this piazza, and. 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.840 Of course the river. It's called the River car favor reason. 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:09.560 We are adjacent to this great planetary force that runs 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.959 through our city. So for me, those fundamental forces of 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:18.920 the fire in the bright crimson furnace, and the river 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.679 that's here, this green piazza of grass that's outside, the 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.760 vivid color of the doors everywhere in the toilets, this 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:30.679 beautiful red orange fluorescent color. Right, So, I think all 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:32.920 of those energies are felt even when you're inside. We're 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:35.720 sitting outside now, but I believe they're felt inside as well. 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.760 And of course the color that the idea that when 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.520 you eat, you're not just eating food, you're eating color. 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.200 You're eating light because the way that light reverberates off 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.800 objects to create color. You're eating what you smell, You're 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.440 eating the conversation that you might be having with someone. 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.160 That's what you're eating. That's what you're nourished by. So 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.520 much more than molecules that you need is fuel, right, 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.719 and that's this place has always celebrated that. And of 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.880 course what's beautiful about it in my understanding of the 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.680 etymology of this restaurant and why it's so duly loved, 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:12.760 is because it began as a place of work, didn't 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.640 It began as a canteen to feed those who were 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:17.719 working together to make buildings. 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.760 The paper tape cloth here is absolutely was here so 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.440 that Richard could get out its pens and squibble on 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.120 them and design the next compute, whatever it might have been. 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.320 And I think that's why it feels so rooted in 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.240 this spot. It's here for more reasons than one might think, 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:36.520 even on the surface. Of course, now it's become this 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.760 incredibly sought after place to have some of the finest food, 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.080 with the finest produce, with some of the most successful 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.400 and accessible and readable and beautiful cookbits that have ever 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:52.640 been made. But it started because a team at lunch 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:54.880 time needed to eat in a place where there aren't 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.280 many restaurants. And it started from we always talk about 0:14:57.600 --> 0:14:59.120 in any kind of work of art, what was the 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.360 need it need to be made, and this needed to 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.960 be made, like Ruthie and Richard needed to be together, 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.440 like you know, their need of each other sort of 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.280 resonated through all their friends and the vast kind of 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:14.240 circle of people they've gathered around them, which I really 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:20.200 witnessed when I was here on that the way. 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.640 I understand that you cook for the people that you 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:28.240 work with as any yeah every day. 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.280 Yeah so I don't cook, but I have a cook 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.720 who makes meals every day. And we started that probably 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.880 about seven years ago when we moved to a studio 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.480 that didn't really have an easy way for people to eat. 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.400 But also it was part of balancing our carbon footprint 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:46.760 and it seemed much more sensible. If I have around 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.520 eight to ten people in the studio every day, we 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:53.080 make them vegetarian food. There's no food waste, there's no packaging, 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.360 no one's running around getting bits of things in plastic 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:58.000 boxes or anything. But it was what's something I could do. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:00.920 You know, we still fly. I can diminish it, but 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:03.680 I can't completely get rid of that from my practice 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.200 at the moment. But what I can do is serve 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.960 everyone a really nice vegetarian all eat together. Yeah, we 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:11.720 will stop work. We go around the table in my house, 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.000 there's a garden there. We all sit down and we eat. 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:16.480 We have a wonderful lady called Chia who's cooking for 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:18.840 us at the moment. We had Antonio until she had 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.440 to leave. But that's really important for me that we sit, 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:23.720 we talk to each other, we eat great food. 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:28.360 I think that again, how you combine work food. You 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.960 know that people who need to go out and go 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.800 for a walk to stop the people the idea of 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.120 the business lunch where you go to a restaurant and 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.920 you discuss work, which was an anathemat It rends a 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:42.640 piano Richard's partner. He thought, I remember when they were 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.280 doing the Pompa. It was like either you ate or 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:48.520 you worked. You never would, you know, combine the two, 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:50.600 you know, the idea of enjoying a meal while you 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.880 talked about work, you continue the work of the meal or. 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.120 Usually not normally, we just talk about stuff we want 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:01.640 to talk about. It's not working over lunch. And everyone 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.520 goes out for a walk after lunch because we're near 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.280 Dulwich Park, so people go out, they wander off, they 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.760 get a coffee, they have all break but normally know 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.240 the conversation. Either we're silent. Sometimes sometimes we just need 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:13.800 a break and we will sit there. We're happy in 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.960 each other's company, just eating. We're very happy to say nothing. 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:19.760 Or we just chit chat about any old thing that's 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:21.800 nothing to do with work. Or we invite people to lunch. 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:23.800 A lot of the time there are a lot of 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.800 kids who want to see the studio who might not 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:32.960 otherwise experience what a studio is like. So we're busy, 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.680 but we're always stopping for lunch. So we say come 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.960 to lunch, so they come. They get the vibe. Everyone's 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.520 not panicking because they're not meant to be working. It's 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:43.320 a time for a break. 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.399 And you're quite solitary. 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.000 I love being on my own. I love reading. I 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.360 always draw when I read. I write when I read, 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.840 I draw, I have to underline. I can't read without 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.120 a pen in my hand. I love it on my own, 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:57.920 but I don't spend very much time on my own 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.480 because I have two children out and I have eight 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.560 people in my studio minimum, so I'm rarely on my own, 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:06.360 so I really cherish it when I am. 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.720 Because we were talking the other day about artists and alcohol, 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:13.680 and drinking and going out and being together in the 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:17.080 evening because so many artists are alone during the day 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:19.720 that then when it's sort of over, you want to 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.680 kind of go out to be out. Did you have 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:24.960 that period in your life before you had children you 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:26.800 were working and then partying. 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:28.760 Yeah, I mean I think the time when I moved 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.600 to London, when I was at early teens. You know, 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:33.920 it was magical. My boyfriend at the time was. 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:34.960 Sixteen is young. 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:35.600 I was young. 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:37.560 Well your parents were fine with that. 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.399 And not really no. Yeah, I was kind of determined 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:45.080 in what I wanted to do, and it was music. 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.720 My boyfriend at the time was a record producer and 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:49.399 a sound engineer, so I was with a lot of 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.760 musicians and I spent a lot of time in recording studios, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:57.200 just observing how music is made, how tracks are recorded, 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.400 how music is edited. That was a really formative time 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:05.160 to get under the skin of recording in music. And 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:07.679 then when I was in Bristol, that was probably my 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.480 most party time. That was my hallucinogenic moment. 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:13.760 Tell me about then when you left home. 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.680 I was about sixteen and I fell in love with 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:18.760 a man who was twenty four. I did finish school. 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:20.320 But I spent a lot of time in London. 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.880 Has that a domestic situation? Did you live in a 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:25.840 house and have to cook and shop for yourself? 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:28.680 But we do. You know, we had hardly ever been 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.040 to a restaurant when we didn't go to restaurants ever, 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:32.959 we didn't have the money for kids in a restaurant, 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.080 and restaurants in England at the time, it wasn't the 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.879 same thing that we're talking about. Well, as I was 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.320 growing up in the seventies and eighties, we never went 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:42.880 to a I can remember going to a restaurant. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.000 Once special occasion, or I think it. 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.240 Was because the car broke down and we went and 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.440 it had red walls and the parmesan was off. That's 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.840 all I remember about a restaurant. So the first time 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:54.960 I really remember going to restaurants was when I was 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.720 sixteen and I met my boyfriend and he would take 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.280 me out in London to restaurants and we went to 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:04.600 Mister Wing and we ate duck pancakes. It's an Earl's 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:10.080 Court and Julie's restaurant and those were the rest and 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:11.840 I was like, wow, this is crazy. 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.960 Yeah, so you ate in restaurants and maybe cooked for 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:16.120 yourself or yeah. 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:17.679 Then I did do a bit of cooking, and I 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:19.600 would have been at university when I got your book. 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:23.000 I didn't have any furniture. I had a wooden palette 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.160 on the floor and I put cushions around it. And 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:27.399 I would try and make the River Cafe recipes. That 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:28.760 was when I first got the blue book. 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.879