Speaker 1: Welcome to River Cafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Adamized Studios.
Speaker 2: I've done so many things that had very tight corsets.
Speaker 2: You can't have lunch, you'd.
Speaker 3: Make you sick.
Speaker 2: When I was doing one hundred and one hundred two Dalmatians,
Speaker 2: I had a corset that made my waist twenty one inches,
Speaker 2: and if it was off by a quarter of an inch,
Speaker 2: you'd literally could faint.
Speaker 3: I'm here with my wonderful friend Glenn Close. Sadly we're
Speaker 3: far apart. She's in Montana, I'm in London, but we're
Speaker 3: both going to go together to Genema in Liguria, where
Speaker 3: this recipe for tagliaatelly with walnuts sauce comes.
Speaker 2: From three hundred grams tagliatelly, two kilos fresh wet walnuts, shelled,
Speaker 2: bitter skins removed, one hundred GM's bread crumbs soaked in milk,
Speaker 2: two garlic cloves peeled, one hundred and fifty milligrams olive oil,
Speaker 2: one hundred grams parmesan grated, four tablespoons fresh basil, seventy
Speaker 2: five grams unsalted butter. This is best made in a
Speaker 2: pestle and mortar pound. The walnuts and garlic until combined
Speaker 2: and season well. Squeeze most of the milk from the
Speaker 2: bread crumbs, then add to the mortar and mix together.
Speaker 2: Pour in the olive oil gradually. Finally add half the
Speaker 2: parmesan and basil. If it is too thick, add more milk.
Speaker 2: Cook the tagliatelly, drain and return to the saucepan. Add
Speaker 2: the softened butter and toss gently. Stir in the sauce
Speaker 2: and serve with the raining parmesan. And my mouth is
Speaker 2: water and.
Speaker 3: It's too so beautiful. Let you read it. It makes
Speaker 3: me want to eat it and cook it right away.
Speaker 3: I love this recipe because it's so regional, comes from Geneva.
Speaker 3: It is totally seasonal, and when you only eat it
Speaker 3: when the walnuts are fresh, which is in the early
Speaker 3: months of autumn, and there's something very delicate and very
Speaker 3: subtle about the taste. Why did you choose this recipe,
Speaker 3: Glenn Well?
Speaker 2: I chose it because I asked my wonderful daughter Annie
Speaker 2: what recipes she would choose from the River Cafe, and
Speaker 2: without hesitation, she said, tagli Itelli with walnut sauce. So
Speaker 2: I chose it because I love my daughter and she
Speaker 2: is a foodie of the first order.
Speaker 3: She is. And did you always cook with her? Did
Speaker 3: you cook together? Was she somebody who loved food from
Speaker 3: the beginning?
Speaker 2: Yes, I have a picture of annual. She barely could
Speaker 2: reach the kitchen counter, and she was. She used to
Speaker 2: come in and say I'm going to cook something, and
Speaker 2: she would just get a bowl and start putting things
Speaker 2: in a bowl, and you'd say, do you want to
Speaker 2: add a little milk or yeah. So she's always had
Speaker 2: a pension for cooking, and I can't say that I have.
Speaker 2: So I am really really overjoyed when she comes and
Speaker 2: visits because I know I'm going to have a spate
Speaker 2: of fabulous meals. And she's very adventurous. She likes to
Speaker 2: try new things.
Speaker 3: When you're growing up, who cooked for you? Wow? What
Speaker 3: was it cooking like in your childhood?
Speaker 2: It was hilarious my early childhood. My mom she would
Speaker 2: open a can of suck atash, which had those mealy
Speaker 2: lima beans. Hated it hated suck attash and corn beef hash.
Speaker 2: I remember she did some wonderful ribs though, but I
Speaker 2: think she just put ketchup and mustard together other and
Speaker 2: put them over. But they were really good. I remember
Speaker 2: that from my childhood, but she would I think she
Speaker 2: was a basic, you know, just a good steak or chicken.
Speaker 2: We had a rooster called Pretzel and he would crow
Speaker 2: during the night, and my brother cut a oil drum
Speaker 2: in half and cleaned it out, and at night, Pretzel
Speaker 2: would be put under the oil drum, but you still
Speaker 2: could hear the worm. Finally, finally, everybody thought it was
Speaker 2: time for Pretzel to be butchered, and he was, and
Speaker 2: he was putt in the freezer. And then I happened
Speaker 2: to be there when they brought Pretzel out and said,
Speaker 2: let's roast Pretzel. He was inedible. You couldn't even get
Speaker 2: a knife into it. My mother was pretzels revenge.
Speaker 3: And what about that part from being in the kitchen
Speaker 3: and big home? What about restaurants? Do you like restaurants
Speaker 3: pre covid, Yeah, pre covid.
Speaker 2: I love going to restaurants. I love sitting down knowing
Speaker 2: that you're going to get a wonderful meal. But I
Speaker 2: think for me, the most important thing about a restaurant
Speaker 2: is its atmosphere and who you actually are there with.
Speaker 2: The last time I was in the River Cafe was
Speaker 2: with Jonathan Price and Kate his wife, and you were
Speaker 2: there and you came and sat and you were busy around,
Speaker 2: but we were celebrating the end of filming the Wife.
Speaker 2: But it was such a spectacular time because you feel
Speaker 2: so embraced by the whole atmosphere. And also then, of course,
Speaker 2: there's nothing more wonderful and brings people together than when
Speaker 2: a gorgeous plate of food is put in front of you.
Speaker 3: It's always interested in me the way that you can
Speaker 3: see that people come sometimes to a restaurant and they
Speaker 3: are a bit damaged, or they're a bit tender, they're
Speaker 3: a bit tired, or they're a bit sad, or they're
Speaker 3: very happy, or they're celebrating. There's a lot going on.
Speaker 3: And I also think that's why perhaps actors really do
Speaker 3: like restaurants, because there is a theatrical atmosphere. Do you
Speaker 3: think of a restaurant.
Speaker 2: Very much so? And I think as an actor, there's
Speaker 2: something wonderful about knowing the people in a place and
Speaker 2: coming in and you literally feel like you're going into
Speaker 2: another version of home. And I think that's also important.
Speaker 2: But it's interesting that you say that because I was
Speaker 2: recently in California and I was staying in Pasadena at
Speaker 2: a very lovely hotel one evening when I went with
Speaker 2: my book and get a little bit of dinner. Across
Speaker 2: from me at a two table was a couple and
Speaker 2: the guy was sobbing, Oh, I mean sobbing out loud,
Speaker 2: and I almost I wanted to go and say, I'm
Speaker 2: so sorry, you bet you know. A woman was holding
Speaker 2: his hand and it went on for quite a while,
Speaker 2: and then he would pull himself together and start laughing.
Speaker 2: And I thought, of course, my actors imagina thought, what
Speaker 2: has happened?
Speaker 3: What is that situation?
Speaker 2: But I found it fascinating that that much emotion was being,
Speaker 2: you know, let out in a very public place. As
Speaker 2: far as observing how people eat, I one of my
Speaker 2: my ex partners, I remember, I remember the day when
Speaker 2: I actually noticed how he chewed, and he chewed like
Speaker 2: buzz bunny, like really fast, and it was like it
Speaker 2: would be a scene out of a comedy that I
Speaker 2: just stared and I thought, I can't believe that I'm
Speaker 2: with somebody who eats like that. And it was so
Speaker 2: funny and so distinctive that when I was in Mars
Speaker 2: Attacks and playing the first lady to Nicholson's President, and
Speaker 2: we're eating TV dinners in front of the TV. I
Speaker 2: chew like a total I totally took how my ex
Speaker 2: chewed because it was it was astonishing.
Speaker 3: I get it, I really. I have a friend that
Speaker 3: left her husband because the way he buttered bread. She
Speaker 3: just couldn't believe that he was so many of these.
Speaker 3: She said, they were making garlic bread and he was, oh,
Speaker 3: he was so he was so stingy about everything in life.
Speaker 3: And then she just saw him put no, you know,
Speaker 3: the smallest amount of butter on a piece of bread,
Speaker 3: and she thought, that's it. You know, it's a bit
Speaker 3: like you and the chewing. I cannot this is it.
Speaker 3: I just can't do this.
Speaker 2: This is it. It kind of was a this is
Speaker 2: it moment for me.
Speaker 3: Back to Annie and you do you eat out together?
Speaker 3: You know, now that she's older and she's married, and
Speaker 3: you're not maybe cooking together making pancakes for her? Do
Speaker 3: you share a lot of food together? Do you eat
Speaker 3: out or does she cook for you?
Speaker 2: She does, And the thing that amazes me is how
Speaker 2: much she loves it, how much she takes time in
Speaker 2: getting the right ingredients. And I think the help she
Speaker 2: likes the most is the cleanup. You know, she doesn't
Speaker 2: like people hovering. It's really a process for her that
Speaker 2: I think is psychological as well as practical. I think
Speaker 2: she finds real solace and she has told me that
Speaker 2: it's a place that helps her with anxiety. You just
Speaker 2: get in the kitchen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's comforting, and it's a connection, isn't it It is?
Speaker 3: It is comforting and our connection was we met in
Speaker 3: Mexico and I was saying, how we how many meals
Speaker 3: we shared in Mexico and going to Contramard and sitting
Speaker 3: there for hours with our friends, Yes, and going to
Speaker 3: that breakfast place and having breakfast and having margerite. Oh,
Speaker 3: isn't that that beautiful.
Speaker 2: Conchiman That was God, what a great place. I just
Speaker 2: I think a fine Mexican cuisine is, besides Italian, my
Speaker 2: favorite food ever. You know, if you if you have
Speaker 2: a beautifully cooked chicken with one of those dark molet sauces,
Speaker 2: it's just exquisite. The ingredients that they put in is
Speaker 2: so beautifully subtle and deep. You know, it's you know,
Speaker 2: I put salt and pepper and lowery sauce and oi
Speaker 2: roast chicken. You know, it's like but it's again, it
Speaker 2: informs you because probably you're getting stimulated in your taste
Speaker 2: buds in different places, and it actually becomes almost, you
Speaker 2: know what kind of a physical experience. It's it's it's
Speaker 2: profound when you're when you sit down to a beautifully
Speaker 2: cooked meal with complex ingredients. And the breakfasts, certainly in
Speaker 2: Zikatella is the avocado, the wonderful fresh fruit, and also
Speaker 2: the eggs are just to me. My favorite was that
Speaker 2: moment of breakfast and you could hear the ocean pounding,
Speaker 2: and it's just that it's I really miss it.
Speaker 3: I really want to go back. Oh we will, we
Speaker 3: have to go. We were in Mexico. I think the
Speaker 3: most recent time we were in Mexico together. It was
Speaker 3: your birthday and I remember we were in this incredibly beautiful,
Speaker 3: rather remote place and Chris Terrio, your friend, and I
Speaker 3: thought we had to catch you a birthday cake, and
Speaker 3: we walked down the beach. We came to this little village.
Speaker 3: We thought, we're going to find this really wonderful Mexican
Speaker 3: birthday cake for you, and in fact we went into
Speaker 3: this kind of pastry shop and they had those kind
Speaker 3: of terrible looking slightly plastic birthday cakes that were kind
Speaker 3: of full of sugar and kind of probably fake icing,
Speaker 3: but we was all we could get, and so we
Speaker 3: bought it, and we came back and we brought it
Speaker 3: out to you for your birthday, and it turned out
Speaker 3: to be like the most delicious thing that we'd ever had.
Speaker 3: Do you remember it was so shocked that here we
Speaker 3: were in Mexico being this kind of who knows what cake,
Speaker 3: and it was so good. I think the three of
Speaker 3: us finished up the whole birthday.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In France, when I did Dangerous Liaisons, they have French hours,
Speaker 2: which you don't have a break and you go and
Speaker 2: get something when they're doing a setup or something. But
Speaker 2: then they had a dining room trailer with tables with
Speaker 2: white table claws and wine on the tables, like what.
Speaker 2: And then of course you have caterers and you have
Speaker 2: the craft service table where everybody goes and snacks. And
Speaker 2: that really depends on how much money the production has,
Speaker 2: is what the quality of that is. But I just
Speaker 2: I did a film up in Canada on January and
Speaker 2: they had a lot of really healthy food that was
Speaker 2: really nice to have because you can just gain weight.
Speaker 3: I was thinking about big chill and the memories. There's
Speaker 3: so many memories from The Big Chill, but a lot
Speaker 3: of The Big Chill, it seems to me in my
Speaker 3: memory because I haven't watched it for a while. Takes
Speaker 3: place in the kitchen, doesn't it, sitting on the table.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of food in that movie. What was
Speaker 3: it like making that movie? And the food and the topping?
Speaker 3: I can't remember what we ate.
Speaker 2: I do remember because it was my second movie and
Speaker 2: I was shown what the pattern of my china would be.
Speaker 3: You must say, oh, I would never have that.
Speaker 2: I would never have that, And I got all upset,
Speaker 2: and then Larry Casten was very you know, said yeah that,
Speaker 2: thank you, you know, blah blah blah. Then of course
Speaker 2: when you see the movie, there's no way that any
Speaker 2: would ever notice the pattern on the china. So I
Speaker 2: realized how gracious Larry Casten was. I think in The
Speaker 2: Big Chill, wasn't there a bit about throwing spaghetti against
Speaker 2: the refrigerator? So if it was, but yeah, I think
Speaker 2: there's something that promotes conversation when you're sitting around a table,
Speaker 2: and that movie is all about conversation, and you know,
Speaker 2: in life, we all end up in the kitchen. So
Speaker 2: I think it was very true to life that a
Speaker 2: lot of the scenes take place in the kitchen.
Speaker 3: But what is it like being as a political you know,
Speaker 3: my most socially conscious, political involved activist friend. Do you
Speaker 3: feel that way about food? I mean and farming? Are
Speaker 3: you you know you're in that? I mean?
Speaker 2: Doesn't it all come down to soil? This valley, the
Speaker 2: Gallatin Valley, it's just vast and spectacular and it has
Speaker 2: some of the best soil in North America, But it
Speaker 2: also has sprawl. And all I can think of is
Speaker 2: we're building over some of the best soil that could
Speaker 2: be feeding people. The least there should be is a
Speaker 2: tax for developers who are taking away the ability for
Speaker 2: protos to be grown on this invaluable soil. Annie wants
Speaker 2: to develop a garden out on our property, and we
Speaker 2: have a wonderful, wonderful place for that, and she wants
Speaker 2: to eventually find students with the Agricultural Department, you know,
Speaker 2: to use whatever in whatever way we can to develop things.
Speaker 2: She loves the Stone Barn thing, the things that they're
Speaker 2: doing in Stone Barn, where they're they're developing vegetables that
Speaker 2: have very a wonderful flavor, but they take less water.
Speaker 2: Things like that I think are going to be crucial
Speaker 2: as you know, our population keeps expanding and our water
Speaker 2: supply keeps diminishing. I think, especially in a place like this,
Speaker 2: we're always afraid of fire. Now in the summers, it's
Speaker 2: just a way of life. Now you have to think
Speaker 2: of of water, and you have to think what's the
Speaker 2: best way to produce food. And I can't say I'm
Speaker 2: deep into that. I think there are people here that
Speaker 2: are and I can learn from them. But yeah, it's
Speaker 2: definitely an issue that's not, you know, obviously not here,
Speaker 2: it's worldwide. Populations are shifting because of food supply and
Speaker 2: depleted soils.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's well, we hope we have no history
Speaker 3: happen as an American in London, but as an American
Speaker 3: in America, we do have a government now since the
Speaker 3: Department of Agriculture and our President and the internalfess are
Speaker 3: all really thinking much more than that. I think that
Speaker 3: way everyone has to know and wants to sustainability.
Speaker 2: Oh god, it's it's a profound relief because the heads
Speaker 2: of all those departments were formerly people who had worked
Speaker 2: to dismantle them at terrible cost for future generations, terrible cost.
Speaker 2: You know, I have no words for what I feel
Speaker 2: about people who don't think of their children and grandchildren
Speaker 2: as they're raping. Yeah, yeah, our natural resources. It's yeah, shameful.
Speaker 3: So we think about our as you say, our children
Speaker 3: and our grandchildren, and you think about your daughter, and
Speaker 3: you talk about you know, you're in Montana and London
Speaker 3: and so food is food is a connection, but it
Speaker 3: also is a comfort. So I try to end each
Speaker 3: conversation with the question, the food is a comfort? Do
Speaker 3: have one comfort food? Do you have a comfort food
Speaker 3: that you would go to when you need that?
Speaker 2: My unhealthy comfort food would be coffee, ice cream and oreos.
Speaker 2: I've had a passion for oreos ever since I was.
Speaker 3: Tin Do you separate them? To take the top?
Speaker 2: You have to, I everybody has there there way of
Speaker 2: eating oreos. I very carefully try to take off the
Speaker 2: top with my bottom teeth. You know, you feel like
Speaker 2: you've accomplished it if the top comes off in one piece,
Speaker 2: and then I scrape the lard out with my back
Speaker 2: and I placed the chocolate wafers on my tongue as
Speaker 2: if I was, you know, taking communion.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have I have to say we have many
Speaker 3: things in common, but I eat an oreo and exactly
Speaker 3: the same way. That's exactly so there you are exactly
Speaker 3: Thank you. We'll see each other very soon this holiday season.
Speaker 5: If you can't come to the River Cafe, the River
Speaker 5: Cafe will come to you. Our beautiful gift boxes are
Speaker 5: full of ingredients we cook with and design objects we
Speaker 5: have in our homes. River Cafe olive oil, Tuscan chocolates,
Speaker 5: Venetian glasses of Florentine, Christmas cake made in our pastry kitchen,
Speaker 5: and more. We ship them everywhere. To find out more
Speaker 5: or to place your order, visit shop Therivercafe dot co
Speaker 5: dot uk.
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