WEBVTT - Stanley Tucci 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:04.120 Welcome to River Cafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:05.400 and Adamized Studios. 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:12.560 There are actors who write, producers who direct, and cooks 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.959 who campaign for social change. Stanley Tucci does all of these. 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:22.240 He writes, cookbooks, creates and hosts a beautiful TV series 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:27.240 about Italy, and acts and directs movies that touch us all. 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.319 Stanley Tucci is respected and admired by every chef in 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:33.680 the River Cafe, especially me. 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:40.600 Oh my gosh, Ruthie, that's so nice. Now can I 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:41.360 leave now? 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:50.159 Okay, Barchi c. 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:56.880 So what we can do is, would you please read 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:58.160 the recipe that you've chosen. 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:10.800 Meze pacari cachoi pepe with langustines. Serve six six hundred 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:17.119 grams medze pacheti pasta, sixty grams unsalted butter, one hundred 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:24.440 and fifty grams pecorino freshly grated, four hundred grams medium languestines, cooked, 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:29.919 peeled and cut into pieces. Cook the pasta in plenty 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:34.360 of water until al dente. When draining the pasta, reserve 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.640 some of the cooking water for the sauce. Melt the 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.600 butter with the pecorino in a large pan over a 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.680 low heat adding some of the pasta water to create 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:47.680 a sauce. Add the languestines to the pecorino sauce with 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.920 black pepper, Add the hot pasta and mix until you 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.640 have a glossy sauce coating the pasta, adding more pasta 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:01.480 water if needed. Serve with extra pecora grated on top. 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.080 And it's also incredibly delicious. I just ate it. 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.680 So of all the recipes and all the cookbooks, and 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.000 you eat here a lot, and you're a cook, what 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:13.760 made you choose this recipes? 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.120 Well, lots of reasons. 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.120 One is that, as you say, you broke a rule, 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.000 which is you don't really put cheese with seafood in Italy. 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:25.280 I love pasta. 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.839 I eat pasta practically every day, sometimes twice a day. 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:34.799 I love languesteine, I love pecorino. Just made sense. It's 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:36.200 a gorgeous recipe. 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:38.040 Very few ingredients, very few ingredients. 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.480 But like most Italian cooking, it's incredibly few ingredients. I 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.240 sometimes feel guilty that I'm using the same thing, but 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.720 then when I look through cookbooks, I'm like, it's still 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.000 the same. It's all the same thing, but the iterations, 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:55.720 you know, the variations are extraordinary. Yeah, So your grandparents 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.239 came from My grandparents came from Columbria both sides. 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:01.399 Were they together before they came or did they meet? 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:05.200 No, No, they met because they came. My mother's mother 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:08.600 was three when she came to America, but her my 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.079 mother's father was in his mid twenties when he came. 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.600 They were about thirteen years apart an age or something 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:16.320 when they got married. I think she was sixteen or 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:21.320 seventeen when she got married. And my dad's father came 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:26.120 over in the early part of the first century and 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.160 his wife I think was maybe already here at that time, 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:32.480 and then they met. 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:32.880 And got married. 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.080 But you know, with the Italians, a lot of town's, 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:40.840 entire towns would basically move to the same area, to 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:43.280 the same area. It's one of the things we talked 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.360 about in the show. We did an episode on London 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:51.320 because there are so many Italians in London, and Angela 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:57.800 Hartnett did the show. She's half Welsh, half Italian or 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:03.480 you know, but her family came from Bardie and over 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.960 eighty percent or ninety percent of the Welsh Italians came 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:07.760 from that one town. 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:09.920 So they would just all move. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.240 And the same in America too, because one guy moves over, 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.960 and then he brings his friend comes over and they're 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:17.840 getting work, and they bring their family over, and. 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:19.000 It just keeps and so. 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:24.320 Growing up with your grandparents, were they involved in the 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:25.200 food that you ate? 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:25.520 Did you? 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.520 We saw them every just about every week, we'd go 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:34.839 to visit them. And my maternal grandparents had this incredible 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.600 garden where they seemed to be able to grow anything 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:38.680 anytime of the year. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:39.840 My grandfather had. 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:43.880 A fig tree, beautiful fig tree. No this was in 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.800 peak skill, but not for peak. They would take the 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.120 fig tree and in the winter they would wrap the 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.320 tree in plastic so that it would endure the winter. 0:04:55.760 --> 0:05:00.480 When I talk to people about who've immigrated from another country, 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.680 they often talk more about the food of their grandparents 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.520 than their parents, because that's my experience as well, coming 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.640 from a Jewish immigrant family from Russia and Hungary. My grandparents, 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.200 I really remember their food. I don't think they really 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.840 mastered English much less the cooking of the United States, 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.960 where my mother, you know, adapted, and probably we as 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:29.760 children rejected anything but American food. And I think when 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.120 you talk to people, it's interesting how the grandmother features 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.760 is that or did your mother and father still have 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:38.440 a very strong sense of Italy. 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.960 Oh, yes, very much so. I mean they didn't speak Italian. 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:45.839 My father could speak a bit of Italian and they 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.360 could understand dialect, and because that's what you know, both 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:56.880 their parents spoke. But my mother swears to this day, 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.400 and my father told me that he goes your mother 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:01.039 couldn't cook. I met her and I was like, what 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.719 are you talking about this? I don't believe that story. 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.200 He said, no, Stanley, it actually is true. And my 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:10.400 mother admits it that her mother was a brilliant cook. Obviously, 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.840 my mother had this innate talent as well, and her 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.559 cooking today, still today is some of the best food 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:19.240 I've ever had. She's at my house now. 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:19.520 I know. 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:21.240 It's really disappointed, I know. 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.240 I mean, I can't say I was disappointed to see you, 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:26.960 because I was disappointed that I didn't see them. 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:28.040 You want to see my parents. 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.120 I love meeting parents. I love meeting the parents. 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.279 They're really great and they're really extraordinary. Like my mom 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.880 made a thing the other day that was just you know. 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.840 What she bess charged, Yeah, just what does she do? 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:48.360 She little boiling of it and then a little bit 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.600 of fresh tomato olive oil and a hint of garlic. 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.000 It was just one of the greatest things I've ever eaten. 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:57.560 And I said, well, how did you do that? I 0:06:58.080 --> 0:06:59.280 try to do that, I can't do it. 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:02.800 I was born in Upstate, New York and you were 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.160 born not far away. My family were not a time 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.800 yours were. But the food that we grew up with 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:13.640 thinking was as we knew it was Italian food. Would 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.160 you say that was radically changed from when you actually 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:16.880 went to Italy? 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.960 And you know, yeah, I mean because I grew up 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.240 eating my family food because they were from Italy, So yeah, 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:28.120 there were, without question, there were similarities. But when I 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.800 would go to friends' houses and have what they thought 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:37.880 was Italian food, it was horrifying. I mean it was 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:42.640 just bad, you know, because the ingredients were lousy and 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:43.920 they didn't really understand it. 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.240 Yeah, for us, and I, you know, I grew up 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.520 with meatballs and spaghetti and an egg plot parmesana and 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.680 you know, and it just was heavy and it was rich, 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:56.560 and it was that version of it. 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.080 A lot of that Italian American food came out of 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:07.840 of suddenly having access to large amounts of meat, having 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:16.400 access to more so more was added, right, More sauce 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:18.960 was added because the Italians don't put a lot of 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.920 sauce really on pasta use a minimal amount for the 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:28.000 most part, whereas in America things are loaded with sauce 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.960 or loaded with cheese, or loaded with meat. And it 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:33.640 was about, you know, it was a land of plenty. 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.760 And also I think they were, you know, catering to 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.520 American tastes. 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:41.559 When did you. 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.440 Start eating in restaurants? Do you remember when that kind 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:45.080 of happened? 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:45.880 Yeah? 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.520 I started eating in restaurants when I no longer had 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:50.400 to work in them. 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:51.480 Yeah, do you know what I mean? 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.840 As an actor, it's kind of what you did to 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:59.679 make money, But working in them gave me a tremendous 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.280 ciation for them. And then finally when I had a 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:05.559 little bit of money and I could start going to restaurants, 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.960 I really got excited about it because I all knew 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.200 what was going on behind the scenes, and that was 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:15.440 sort of part of the genesis A Big Night, which 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.200 was it's almost thirty years ago now, that movie. I 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:23.960 wanted to write a story about the struggle between commerce 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:28.320 and art, but you can't really do that with a 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:33.880 painter because that is literally like watching paint dry, but 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.640 you could use the chef as artist. And also I 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:43.319 like the idea of not the idea the actuality that 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.880 you have off stage and you have on stage in 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.280 a restaurant just like the theater. 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:51.160 And I love that. 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.959 I love that too. And there were many scenes that 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.120 you stay in my mind forever. But interestingly enough, one 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.960 of my favorites is the very first scene where you 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.000 come out of the out of the front door having 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.400 been inside, and isn't there a pot with plants in it? 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.560 And you move it a centimeter, you know, and I 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.680 just thought, God, that reminds me of me. I mean 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.760 it really, it really did remind me of the way 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.440 that sometimes before service I walk out to the car 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.079 park and then I walk in, you know, just just 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:30.000 to look at the restaurant and just walk through that space, 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:30.480 you know. 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:36.319 I think that's that's really important, the idea of space. 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:43.760 A space is crucial in film. So if you try 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:48.959 to make a food movie and you just show beautiful 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:54.040 shots of food, it's of no consequence if you show 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.400 the thing that makes is we actually look at the 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.959 food in Big Night, it doesn't look very good. What 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.520 makes it work is the people's reaction to the food, 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:10.000 and then the fact that we're seeing them in that space, 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.240 so you know you were married to an architect. 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:14.679 Space is everything. 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:17.960 It's one of the reasons your restaurant works so beautifully, 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:24.200 because the space envelops you but also opens you up. 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:32.760 I'm George. 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:34.000 I'm a chef at the River Cafe. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.440 It's a pleasure to meet you, Stanley. Your show is 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.880 amazing and I've watched it fully twice. We're very lucky 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:43.640 to be able to cook for some amazing people in 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:47.959 this restaurant, and we get tickets come through with people's names. 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:52.160 But probably the most exciting time a ticket came through 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.400 with your name on it was when I had to 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:58.120 make you a artichoke. Judea and I had literally the 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.800 night before watched the episode in which you make them. 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.360 The real episode, the right episode. 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.160 Yeah, and so I fell under a huge amount of pressure. 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:10.760 So I actually got our head chef, Danny over and 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:12.719 and made him do it with me from beginning to end. 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.360 Really. Yeah, absolutely, But I had those that wasn't that 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.440 long ago, No, it was recently, right, Yeah, I just 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:20.120 had them here. 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:22.360 Yeah, it was maybe maybe a month or so ago. 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.040 It was delicious. Oh, thank you, No, it was great. 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:27.800 I'm glad you liked the show. That's really that's great. 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:30.280 You know, obviously you know what you're doing, and the 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.600 fact that you like the show, that you appreciated, that's 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:33.360 that's wonderful. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:34.880 Tell me about the series. 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:39.640 What an idea that I had for a long time. 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.360 I think it's probably about thirteen fifteen years ago that 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.600 I had this idea and that you'd go through every 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:52.400 region and you'd break down that region through the food, 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:58.839 but relate it to or how how does the food 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:03.960 relate to politics, to socioeconomics, to topography, to history, to 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:08.360 art to whatever. And I kept thinking. I wrote some 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.679 notes about it, and then CNN came to me and 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.319 they said, do you have any ideas for a show? 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.679 I gave them three ideas. One was about refugees and 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:24.120 food and there sort of one like I don't think so. 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:30.280 And then one was documented about cancer because my wife died, 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.600 my first wife died of cancer. I had just gone 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:34.800 through cancer treatments. I had so many friends who you know, 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.560 and we know it's basically, you know, an epidemic, you know. 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.520 So those two ideas they didn't care for. And then 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:45.360 I said, well, I have this idea about Italy and 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.040 you know, going through every region and breaking it down 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.920 as I said, and they went, okay, okay, no one 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:56.600 had really done it before that we didn't know. I 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:58.640 think that a lot of people don't know. I think 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.120 a lot of Americans don't know. Italy isn't just pizza 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:05.600 and pasta, and it isn't sunny all the time, and 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.520 not everybody's happy and hugging each other all the time, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:14.040 and not everyone's a mafioso. There are these two sort 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:18.920 of polarities that Americans see, and I wanted to hope, 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.840 I hope to She did dispel those. 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:28.280 And also inform us about the region, the serious regionality. 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.080 I mean, I do think probably in the north of 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.640 France very differently than you read in Provence, and that 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.280 in Greece probably on heedraw you would eat differently than 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.680 in Athen's. But in Italy it's very very regional, fiercely so. 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:42.520 And as I think, I told you the other day 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.200 that we had met somebody who'd never had tomato sauce 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:46.800 until she was fourteen, that's. 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.280 Right, and she lived non Italy. 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:52.160 So the image and I think that's what you've done, 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.840 you know what is your next? 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:59.680 We're going next to Pulia and Calabria, and my parents 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:01.440 are going to come with me to Columbia. 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:02.240 In the film. 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:04.640 Yeah good, yeah, yeah. 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:10.360 And then we do Liguria and Sardinia, and then we 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:15.320 do a feast where everyone comes together, so all the chefs, 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.680 not all the chefs. We take a person from each region. 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:20.040 So how many would that be. 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:21.040 It'll be a. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:25.840 Total of about Well, we'll have done thirteen regions. We're 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.200 not doing all twenty regions. You can't do all twenty regions, 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.320 but we're doing thirteen, so we'll have thirteen different chefs 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:39.360 or cooks come or a Vintnor, two ventnors. So it'll 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.920 be some sort of place that has a substantial kitchen, 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.040 lots of outdoor space. I want to have or build 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:53.240 three different outdoor fires, so somebody can do a goat 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.960 or whatever on a spit, somebody can grill something, and 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.400 somebody can bake something in a wood fire oven, and 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:04.440 then a proper restaurant kitchen, and it'll all be at 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:08.960 one long table and everyone they'll all cook for each other. 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.880 They each have a course and they'll cook each each 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.640 course in essence, so you know, you know, we might 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:20.440 actually do We're going to do probably four different kinds 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.960 of pasta and you the guests can choose what they 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.640 want if there if they want to have all four 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:30.000 of the guests, you know, the guests, they are the guests, 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.560 I see, So they cook for each other. But there 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:35.680 are a few other people that were taking from the 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.840 shows as well, who were who were contributors. 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:40.400 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:44.480 So the idea is that you unite Italy at the table, 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.480 because the whole thing is called searching for Italy. But really, 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.600 in the end, what I realized was that Italy doesn't exist. 0:16:53.560 --> 0:17:00.280 It only exists at the table. That's where Italy is. 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:07.080 Have you done kind of deals in a restaurant? Michael 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:09.560 Caine said that in the old days, you would never 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.440 sign up for a movie unless it was in a restaurant. 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:13.920 I don't know if that exists anymore. 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:17.679 I have had that happen, But no, I think that 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.800 might be a more British thing than an American thing. 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:22.520 Oh here what he was saying, it was Hollywood, it 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.000 was old time home. Oh really, was there a restaurant 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.720 called Chasen's or something? Oh, you would go to and 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.640 you know, but then I asked younger people. They said, no, no, 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:32.600 it's not like to do it on zoom. 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:35.440 I do remember going to Hollywood though the first time, 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.200 you know, it was thirty four, you know, thirty six 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:39.840 years ago, and. 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:42.560 I hated it right away. 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.200 But everyone was going out to lunch all the time, 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.800 but they weren't really eating or drinking. The whole thing 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.480 was weird to me. I was like, well, why are 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:55.520 we at lunch? That's the point Richard. 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.240 Once but we were taken by an architect, Philip Johnson 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.800 to the Four Seasons in New York, and we walked 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:02.919 in and we thought, wow, you saw you know, the 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:07.119 great people of leaders of society and profession, and everybody 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.600 was having cottage. She's a nice tea. It was iced tea, 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:12.560 and Richard ordered a glass of wine and they really 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.920 thought he was an alcoholic. Yeah, it was just not done' 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:16.600 la too. 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.040 Also la people are driving too. Maybe not so much 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.560 anymore with uber and all that, but but yeah, it 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:27.040 just wasn't and it was. I found it just incredibly cold, 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:32.200 and although there are some amazing restaurants, but it wasn't 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:34.720 just not It's. 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:37.240 Also quite revealing how person behaves in a restaurant. I 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.600 always used to say in the early days of having 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:43.440 a restaurant that you could tell a lot of Americans 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.600 in the River Cafe had at one time in their 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.160 life worked in a restaurant because they were nice. They 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.280 were just they They are not saying the British weren't nice. 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:55.280 But having worked in a restaurant, it does make you 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:56.879 more tolerant, don't you think you know. 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.440 Without question what it's like. Yeah, you have to know 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.560 how hard that is. Yeah, I think particularly in America too, 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.199 because the pay is so bad and you're relying on 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:11.040 your tips and it's really really hard work. Having worked 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:14.680 as a bus boy and a bartender, and you know. 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:22.520 We think about food and hunger, and it's also mental health, 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:28.080 and it's also physical health. And we in times of pain, 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:32.520 we in times of discomfort. And you refer just now 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:34.360 to the fact that you had cancer and that your 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:39.440 wife died of cancer. How did you see illness and 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:44.800 how did illness affect your attitude or your food for you? 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:49.040 But I think when anybody's sick, even if it's just 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.679 a cold or flu, you instantly say, do let me 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:56.399 make atriction soup. Right, it's the first thing you know 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.199 you do or I'll always say do you do you 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:02.600 want this? Are you feeling hungry? Are you feeling why 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:06.639 does your stomach urt? Do you want this? And sometimes 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:10.520 it's a test too if they go the kid in particular. 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:13.000 Would go no, I don't. I don't want that. 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:15.919 I don't And then you know something's really wrong. You know, 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.399 you go, would you like a chocolate? You know, they go, no, 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.359 I don't want a chocolate. You go, okay, let's go 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.639 to the doctor. Or so you know, but I think 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:29.920 it was you know, in the end, well, Kate went 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.720 through so many different treatments, and you know, going through 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:36.520 chemo and radiation and all that stuff made her very 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:39.600 nauseous and she couldn't eat a lot at times, and 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.679 then she would recover and then cancer would present itself 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:45.120 again and then she'd go through the process again. 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:46.320 It was horrible. 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.720 When I went through mine because it was an oral cancer. 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.399 All the treatment was focused on my mouth, so I 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:58.639 lost everything. You don't only lose your sense of taste. 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:04.359 Your sense taste is destroyed and perverted so that everything 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:10.400 tastes like you know what for months and plus your 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.960 mouth is so compromised and so much pain. You're on 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.359 pain medications and all that stuff, and you have a 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:22.239 feeding tube. You're trying to put protein drinks through your 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.880 feeding tube, which are disgusting and not that you're tasting them, 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:29.360 but they're upsetting your stomach. And then there's morphine you're 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.600 putting through. It's just a it's a nightmare. And for me, 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:36.000 it was a real nightmare because food is everything to me. 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:40.159 It's now how most of my life. And not to 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:43.080 be able to eat properly, not to be able to 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:48.040 everything smelled horrible, tasted horrible, and not to be able 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:49.840 to sit and eat with my friends and drink with 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:52.800 my friends and cook for my family, it was really 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:53.439 really hard. 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.560 And did that come back? Obviously came back, But how 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.360 did it just come back and you embraced. 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:00.840 It or was it slow? It's very slow. 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:07.000 It's still not I'm almost four years out from finishing 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:11.040 my treatments and I still Last night I made lamb chops. 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:12.080 I didn't really eat them. 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.919 I can't really because you lose your saliva, so I 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:18.920 don't have all of my saliva. So if you don't 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.760 have your saliva, it's very hard to break things down. 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:26.920 So I eat a lot of pasta. But that's fine. 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.440 You know, I can eat it, just depends. You definitely 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:35.120 cannot eat spice, even that pepper today on that well, 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:38.200 it was delicious if it were a normal person. But 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:42.639 because my mouth is so hyper sensitive that you know, 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:45.360 I ate it very you have to eat it very slowly, 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:48.080 and you're sort of drinking lots of water with it 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:49.160 and all that sort of stuff. 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:51.320 But that's just the way it is. 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:53.480 I'm probably at the point now where this is about 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:55.560 where I'm going to be. I don't know how much 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:00.920 more I will recover, but it's fine. I can eat 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:05.399 most things. I can drink wine, I can have a 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:06.760 martini slowly. 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:09.920 It's fine. Nicroni Negroni's yet. 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:12.440 Yeah, you know about the nigroni. 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:14.639