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Speaker 1: Ruthie's Table four presented by Sky fifteen. What was the

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Speaker 1: path of vegetarian? Was there one or did you just

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Speaker 1: how did that happen? Because that's very young to make it.

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Speaker 2: In Ireland at the time, I think there were two vegetarians,

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Speaker 2: but the other one I think he probably died of starvation,

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Speaker 2: so I was left on my own. So, yeah, no,

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Speaker 2: no vegetarians in Ireland in the in the seventies and eighties,

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Speaker 2: that was a tough station, let.

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Speaker 1: Me tell you.

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Speaker 2: But now, of course it's you can have anything you want.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, one day I just stopped liking red meat.

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Speaker 2: And you know, it wasn't squeamishness. I mean, I've I've

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Speaker 2: been to abbaturs, and I've grew up in a farm

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Speaker 2: and had to kill animals and had to you know,

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Speaker 2: I've I've seen you know, I've seen it. Not squeamish

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Speaker 2: at all. Just didn't like the taste of red meat,

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Speaker 2: couldn't process it. And then eventually that that went on

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Speaker 2: too chicken, and then it went on to fish. And

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Speaker 2: then one day I announced at the family table that

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Speaker 2: I was no longer going to eat meat, and my

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Speaker 2: father asked me if I was feeling okay, and I said, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm feeling fine, and he wasn't quite convinced, but in

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Speaker 2: any event, he let me do it. And yeah, since

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Speaker 2: that day, I've never tasted me.

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Speaker 3: I've never had it again.

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Speaker 2: Never.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and did you adapt with the other vegetables. There

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Speaker 1: was a bounty of vegetables and beans and whatever.

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Speaker 2: And as you get older, you get smarter and you

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Speaker 2: realize what you really need and what your body needs

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Speaker 2: and so on and so forth. But that was not

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Speaker 2: my intention when I stopped. I had no idea. I

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Speaker 2: just stopped because I like.

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Speaker 1: We did an interview with Paul McCartney, and of course

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Speaker 1: I would say that he kind of made vegetarian sexy

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Speaker 1: because he and Linda said, you know, rock and roll,

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Speaker 1: but we're not even They became very serious.

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Speaker 3: I was once there was a restaurant called Cranks, which

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Speaker 3: was here. Do you remember that.

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Speaker 1: I remember when I first met Richard, So that must

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Speaker 1: have been in the late sixties.

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Speaker 3: I was here and we went to have lunch. I've

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Speaker 3: never told this story.

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Speaker 1: And we went to have lunch in Cranks, and uh,

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Speaker 1: I was so happy to see him. I was so

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Speaker 1: in love, and you know, my arms were around him

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Speaker 1: and I was sitting on his lap and we were,

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Speaker 1: you know, just having the best, best time. And a

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Speaker 1: woman came over to a table and she said, I've

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Speaker 1: been watching you two, and uh, you know that was

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Speaker 1: a nineteen sh I've been watching you too, and I

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Speaker 1: think what you're doing is appalling. It is so embarrassing

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Speaker 1: and so impolite and so rude.

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Speaker 3: But that you should be doing it in a vegetarian

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Speaker 3: restaurant makes it really bad horror. But that was the

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Speaker 3: symbol of.

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Speaker 1: You know, until till McCartney's, until people start young people

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Speaker 1: started being vegetarian, and it was very much a feeling that.

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Speaker 3: It was not fun to be a vegetarian. You couldn't

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Speaker 3: have a good time, you couldn't you know, eat well.

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Speaker 1: And that I think that has changed so much now

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Speaker 1: it's the opposite. How do you find it now? Other

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Speaker 1: countries that are harder. Somebody told me France is harder.

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Speaker 2: Yea, France is hard because you know when you go there.

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Speaker 2: France and Spain I find are particularly difficult if you're

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Speaker 2: a vegetarian. Yeah, very meat centric.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know Italy I love.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I'm at home, That's why I.

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Speaker 2: Love the River Cafee, and you know, I love Indian food,

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Speaker 2: and tonight we're going for dinner in an Indian restaurant.

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Speaker 2: And you know, but you know, now it doesn't matter,

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Speaker 2: but back then it was.

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Speaker 3: Now I mean, now, vegan now.

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Speaker 2: Hard?

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Speaker 1: Do you take?

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Speaker 3: Facan?

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Speaker 2: Is hard? I like my dairy, I like cheese, yeah,

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Speaker 2: but it's hard, and that's a real commitment. My favorite

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Speaker 2: restaurants in America, I believe it or not, are steakhouses,

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Speaker 2: even though I've been a vegetarian for forty two years,

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Speaker 2: because they have the best vegetables. And I don't know why,

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Speaker 2: but some of my favorite restaurants are actually steakhouses.

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Speaker 3: And what are the vegetables? I have just all different ones, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, they have anything that's going, but always have a

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Speaker 2: big potato.

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Speaker 3: What's the food like at home?

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Speaker 2: I'm very fortunate. My wife is a great cook and

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Speaker 2: her mom, my wife, is Russian, and she came to

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Speaker 2: America in nineteen ninety one, actually on the day of

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Speaker 2: the coup, completely coincidentally, and her parents came the year later,

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Speaker 2: and I knew nothing about Russian food. And I showed

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Speaker 2: up in their apartment in Brooklyn having just met Julia,

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Speaker 2: and I was introduced to you know, pilmeny and perro

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Speaker 2: ghee and you know borsch and you know, some of

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Speaker 2: the most amazing Russian food. And now that's become a

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Speaker 2: part of my wet all kinds of food. But you know,

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Speaker 2: one of my friends, it's Russian Easter coming up very soon,

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Speaker 2: and I can't wait to go and have my mother

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Speaker 2: in law's Russian food because she makes incredible Russian Easter

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Speaker 2: cake and you know all the she paints the eggs

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Speaker 2: by hand. And you know, my kids are now eighteen

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Speaker 2: and fifteen, we still sit there and we isolate who's

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Speaker 2: getting on eggs. We picked them all apart, and we

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Speaker 2: tell stories about why the egg was decorated that way.

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Speaker 2: Of course, as you've proven a thousand times, food brings

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Speaker 2: you a thousand stories. And so Easter in Russia of

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Speaker 2: course is super important. And yeah, so I'm very lucky and.

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Speaker 1: Your daughter and both children are the great kids.

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Speaker 2: And when he was younger, my mother would always sort

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Speaker 2: of pack my luncheon. We used to get up early

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Speaker 2: in the morning because we would milk the cows before

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Speaker 2: we go to school, and you'd go and feed them

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Speaker 2: in the winter in the dark and bring hay, and

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Speaker 2: my father would already be gone to work somewhere else.

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Speaker 2: My mother would probably be milking the cows before she

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Speaker 2: went to another job. And so you'd bring in the cattle,

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Speaker 2: then you'd feed them, then you'd come and have breakfast,

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Speaker 2: and then you'd cycle to the bus to go to school.

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Speaker 2: It's always like sounds like