Speaker 1: Welcome to River Cafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Adami's Studios.
Speaker 2: A few minutes ago, I sat at a table in
Speaker 2: the River Cafe and spoke to Rudy Law, who was
Speaker 2: a waiter here. He told me about growing up with
Speaker 2: a father who cooked for him, his brothers and his sisters,
Speaker 2: who insisted on family dinners, created a nut roast at
Speaker 2: Christmas for his vegetarian siblings and encouraged them all to
Speaker 2: be adventurous in what they ate. Now, I am going
Speaker 2: to sit down with Rudy's father, this wonderful man, Jude Law,
Speaker 2: loved by his son and by me.
Speaker 3: What could be better? Hello?
Speaker 2: Jude?
Speaker 3: Know to have your sons talking so moving.
Speaker 2: I was almost in tears, So before we start, would
Speaker 2: you like to read the rest of that you've chosen?
Speaker 4: Yes. Pair and almond tart serves ten to twelve people.
Speaker 4: Six ripe commis pears, three hundred and fifty grams blanched
Speaker 4: whole almonds, three hundred and fifty grams of unsalted butter softened,
Speaker 4: three hundred and fifty grams of caster sugar, three eggs, peel,
Speaker 4: halve and core. The pears place the pair halves face
Speaker 4: down and in one layer in a prebated sweet pastry base.
Speaker 4: Put the almonds in a food processor and chop until fine.
Speaker 4: Cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer
Speaker 4: until pale and light. Add the almonds, then the eggs
Speaker 4: one by one. Pour this almond mixture over the pears,
Speaker 4: Bake for forty minutes or until the filling is golden brown,
Speaker 4: and set. Leave to cool, and serve with a dollop
Speaker 4: of creme fresh m.
Speaker 3: So we're sitting here with the pair and almond.
Speaker 4: Tare award award.
Speaker 2: It could be a reward. You can have it whenever
Speaker 2: you want. We can stop the conversation to eat. That's
Speaker 2: perfectly possible. I was really pleased that you chose this
Speaker 2: recipe because, in fact, it's a recipe that I ate
Speaker 2: in a restaurant called Benoit in Paris when Richard was
Speaker 2: working there doing the Pompadoo, and we used to go
Speaker 2: there and we used to finish the meal with this
Speaker 2: pear and almond tart. And so it's not an Italian recipe,
Speaker 2: but it's one that means a lot to me. Do
Speaker 2: you know why you chose this recipe?
Speaker 4: It's one of the many things, but certainly one thing
Speaker 4: I always look forward to having wherever I come here.
Speaker 4: And I'm someone who often encourages the other guests that
Speaker 4: I'm meeting with to get other desserts so that we
Speaker 4: can all try, you know, different plates, but this is
Speaker 4: the one I always get.
Speaker 2: It's interesting, isn't it about getting your guests when you
Speaker 2: come to a restaurant to try as you say that
Speaker 2: the A friend of mine told me the other day
Speaker 2: that when he hires somebody, he always brings them to
Speaker 2: the River Cafe, and if they choose squid, he doesn't
Speaker 2: not sure. He wants to hire them test the squid test.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: And he was saying, because there's so many exciting things
Speaker 2: to have. I actually I think I would be impressed
Speaker 2: by somebody who chairs squid. But I like the idea
Speaker 2: that you encourage people to share.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 4: I'm just thinking about it just struck me that, of
Speaker 4: course I often have my initial meetings for jobs at
Speaker 4: restaurants too. Yeah, and so in a weird way, I'm
Speaker 4: being auditioned, and I'm auditioning them usually over food, because
Speaker 4: I suppose food and how you eat and what you
Speaker 4: eat and where you want to feel it is hugely revealing.
Speaker 4: And if you're going to go on a journey together
Speaker 4: creatively or one way, you're going to share insights and emotions,
Speaker 4: you're going to share food.
Speaker 3: And what about in the theater? Do you eat before?
Speaker 2: If you're doing a performance in the evening? Would you
Speaker 2: wait anything afterwards?
Speaker 4: You have to, I have to eat before, but you
Speaker 4: also then have to time it so that you've got
Speaker 4: a couple of hours to digest it. Probably. I had
Speaker 4: a lovely ritual when I was doing Hamlet. I would
Speaker 4: arrive at the Windows, which is right next to Chiky's.
Speaker 4: I'd get there a couple of hours before and they
Speaker 4: were very sweet. They'd let me go in even though
Speaker 4: they weren't always open, and have a little piece of fish,
Speaker 4: so it was kind of clean protein, maybe a salad,
Speaker 4: and then I can have a little sleep, wake up
Speaker 4: and warm up and then do the plant. I did
Speaker 4: that for aly seven.
Speaker 3: Months and a great Hamlet.
Speaker 4: It was thank you?
Speaker 2: And would you go out after because when some of
Speaker 2: my friends who are in the other week the idea
Speaker 2: that you go out afterwards?
Speaker 3: Yes? Did you like that? Do you like How do
Speaker 3: you feel the end of performance?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 4: Initially, initially especially in that show, I had this ridiculous
Speaker 4: rule that no, you know, I can't get it's going
Speaker 4: to be exhausted. I can't get caught up in that.
Speaker 4: I'm going to go home every night really early. I
Speaker 4: think that lasted about a week, and then it was like,
Speaker 4: let's go out and great wine and eat great food
Speaker 4: and celebrate because you're on a wonderful sort of high.
Speaker 4: And it feels also it's such a lovely part of
Speaker 4: the place. Sharing then what your friends or family have
Speaker 4: thought if they come and see you. And then there's
Speaker 4: a surprise too. Someone suddenly comes and you're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I haven't seen you in years, thank you for coming.
Speaker 4: And part of the ritual of production is to eat
Speaker 4: together afterwards or as a company.
Speaker 3: Would you go out with other actors or was it
Speaker 3: usually always yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: There is sometimes a comparison between the drama of a
Speaker 2: restaurant and the drama of the theater. Theater everywhere, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that I can work a night and have a
Speaker 2: packed restaurant. But at the end of that performance you
Speaker 2: think either it didn't quite work with the audience. I
Speaker 2: could just feel there was not the mood. And I
Speaker 2: used to come home to REGI and say, oh, I
Speaker 2: said it's over. I'm giving up. I don't know what
Speaker 2: I did, but tonight didn't work, or you'd come on
Speaker 2: this incredible high of say that was a night to
Speaker 2: remember and.
Speaker 4: That anticipation of it. The doors are open is happening
Speaker 4: and you can't go back. Then yeah, we're open, and
Speaker 4: we close for another four hour. You know, it's it's
Speaker 4: the same in a way in theater. Absolutely, the curtain
Speaker 4: goes up, you're on.
Speaker 3: You're on.
Speaker 4: That reliance on each other to be a sort of
Speaker 4: smooth operation is keys absolutely at the heart of it,
Speaker 4: isn't it. And it becomes like trust and it becomes
Speaker 4: it becomes you have a great trust and you in others.
Speaker 4: And I think also you find out about yourself in
Speaker 4: that environment because you really are having to be in
Speaker 4: a team and or what kind of a team player am? I?
Speaker 2: Rudy tell me that your mother was a really good cook,
Speaker 2: is a really good cook, and so did you grow
Speaker 2: up with good food?
Speaker 4: I grew up with pretty good food. My mum cooked
Speaker 4: with a lot of love. She grew up in Lancashire
Speaker 4: and was the sort of sixties generation who ran away,
Speaker 4: so she didn't actually run away. She moved to London
Speaker 4: as a student and embraced the sort of swinging sixties
Speaker 4: and was very much someone curious in exploring new possibilities,
Speaker 4: and so yeah, I think that was reflected in the
Speaker 4: food she then cooked us when we me and my
Speaker 4: sister came along.
Speaker 2: One of the thing that I've also noticed in these
Speaker 2: conversations is how many people remember the food of their grandparents,
Speaker 2: almost more than their parents. And I was wandering Lancashire.
Speaker 2: Is that where Lancashire hot part comes from?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Did you have that?
Speaker 4: Not that I remember, but you're I think you're so
Speaker 4: right about the influence of grandparents' food. My grandma's food
Speaker 4: was fantastic, very hearty.
Speaker 3: Is this the mother of your mother or your father?
Speaker 4: Well, that's a complicated that's a long story that leads
Speaker 4: off from food. My parents were both adopted, and my
Speaker 4: mom's mum by adoption passed away when she was quite young,
Speaker 4: so her sister, my mum's auntie, became a sort of
Speaker 4: maternal role and that's who I always think of as
Speaker 4: my grandma. He was complicated.
Speaker 3: What did you do with your grandfather?
Speaker 4: He was a plumber, He was a very successful plumber
Speaker 4: in that area, and he would get up every morning
Speaker 4: when we were there and cook everyone breakfast in bed,
Speaker 4: every single.
Speaker 3: Day, in bed and wait for your grandfather.
Speaker 4: Oh no, actually I wouldn't. I'd get up and help
Speaker 4: Uncle Alan, help, I'd help Alan, but everyone else would
Speaker 4: stay in bed and he'd do a tray for everyone.
Speaker 4: Isn't that amazing? I'm thinking back now, that's it's amazing,
Speaker 4: pretty good. And you could order your egg you get
Speaker 4: poached eggs, you can get fried. Yeah, he'd do fried, toast, bacon, coffee, tea. Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 4: Surprised my mum and dad didn't go more often. This
Speaker 4: is in Lancashon, a little town called bake Up, and
Speaker 4: when we would go out to say hello to all
Speaker 4: the aunties, it would start off wonderfully well because you
Speaker 4: get a huge slice of cake. But the problem is
Speaker 4: there were like six or seven aunties and by the
Speaker 4: end of the trip you were eating six or seven
Speaker 4: and you couldn't eat any more cake.
Speaker 3: Cake.
Speaker 4: It was scones, chocolate cakes, all sorts, but lots of cake.
Speaker 2: So can I just say that that would have been
Speaker 2: Rudy's for Rudy a great grandmother and he spoke at
Speaker 2: great grandson today about the the cake.
Speaker 3: When did you leave home?
Speaker 4: I lived? I'm actually very young, seventeen I moved. I
Speaker 4: had to move to Manchester because I'd got a job
Speaker 4: on tell it, I was at school. I was all
Speaker 4: set to sort of carry on my school career and
Speaker 4: I had always wanted to be an actor. And I
Speaker 4: got off at a job and I lived on my own.
Speaker 4: I had my own little flat up in Manchester seventeen
Speaker 4: and had to cook so I could. I sort of
Speaker 4: learned then, but you know, I'd already picked up little
Speaker 4: I used to love making little beef paupets. I'd make
Speaker 4: little beef paupets. I remember my mum taught me chopping onions,
Speaker 4: finding those bit of garlic.
Speaker 3: Do you then start acting and traveling? I did.
Speaker 4: I did, and my love affair with Italy really started.
Speaker 4: I took a play on tour around Italy and I
Speaker 4: was gone for seven or eight months, and we would
Speaker 4: do a little town each day and then pack up
Speaker 4: the set and drive to the next town. And being
Speaker 4: there as a young adult, and being there with a
Speaker 4: group of Italians who were running the tour and knew
Speaker 4: every little tiny restaurant or those wonderful places you can
Speaker 4: eat in Italy, in the little towns where you sit
Speaker 4: with the family and you pay a little bit of
Speaker 4: money and you eat what they eat, but the food
Speaker 4: is spectacular, So you're sort of eating slightly more adventurous
Speaker 4: Italian food than perhaps you would if you were to
Speaker 4: go to a restaurant. And I just fell in love
Speaker 4: with Italy there and then, and I've been going ever
Speaker 4: since quite regularly, and I've been lucky enough to go
Speaker 4: back and work there and make films there, which is
Speaker 4: sometimes has often been some of the happiest experiences of
Speaker 4: my life.
Speaker 2: So what was it like being in Positana? Did you
Speaker 2: stay there when you were doing Ripley?
Speaker 4: Was that we weren't there so long? And my memory
Speaker 4: of Ripley is more on the island of Iskia.
Speaker 3: Oh, I've never been there.
Speaker 2: Shot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just off Naples and next to Caprian Prody, and
Speaker 4: we found this extraordinary restaurant right on the sea, and
Speaker 4: it was almost as if they could sort of fit
Speaker 4: shout of the back window and cook what they caught.
Speaker 4: You know. We just sort of as a crew took
Speaker 4: that over and it became the sort of heart of
Speaker 4: the film really where everyone would congregate there after a
Speaker 4: day's shooting and eat wonderful fresh fish food.
Speaker 2: What about working and acting and eating because you know,
Speaker 2: I know that you're in of course, you're in Budapest hotel.
Speaker 3: And I talked to West who said.
Speaker 2: That he only really he would rather not give his
Speaker 2: anybody any food at all during the day, maybe a
Speaker 2: bowl of soup and give them soup for lunch, but
Speaker 2: then the crew objected to the soup.
Speaker 4: I think I'd agree with Wes on that that the
Speaker 4: problem with lunches when you're filming is that you have
Speaker 4: to take obviously that hour, but then it also takes
Speaker 4: an hour to get everyone back and warmed up, so
Speaker 4: sometimes you lose the momentum. So if you're in the
Speaker 4: middle of a seed and suddenly someone says, right, okay, lunchtime,
Speaker 4: you think, well, we're not going to get really back
Speaker 4: to this for another three hours and you have to
Speaker 4: start again. So I'd rather sometimes just carry on. I mean,
Speaker 4: I also remember, I know that crews, you know, differ,
Speaker 4: don't they, But but I remember working with one actress
Speaker 4: who decided that the food was really unhealthy, and so
Speaker 4: they sort of got it all changed to very gluten
Speaker 4: free and all this, and there was an uprising because
Speaker 4: of course the crew wanted their pie and custard and
Speaker 4: they wanted the hearty stuff to keep them going.
Speaker 2: You talk about your family, You talk about the influence
Speaker 2: of your mother and your grandmother and your aunt, and
Speaker 2: the cakes and Lancashire, and about being an actor and.
Speaker 3: The excitement of eating.
Speaker 2: You have six children and I know four of them,
Speaker 2: you know, and I know that they're great kids. A
Speaker 2: lot of influence of your parents and the way Rudy
Speaker 2: spoke about the love that he had for food and
Speaker 2: for you taking care of him. And he said that
Speaker 2: you cooked, you know, you actually cooked for them, and
Speaker 2: that you insisted on the dinners. And as I said
Speaker 2: in my introduction, there was a Christmas when you made
Speaker 2: the nut roast and you were in here meat eaters.
Speaker 2: And he said, his sister and brother vegetarians, but there
Speaker 2: was that kind of of taking care of each other.
Speaker 3: So what is it like being a father of six children?
Speaker 3: And food?
Speaker 4: It's the element that defines me and brings me the
Speaker 4: most joy and also the most concerned and dramas, but
Speaker 4: makes me feel the most alive and talking about it
Speaker 4: like this now makes sense that, yeah, the center of
Speaker 4: that was the were the meals that we eat together
Speaker 4: as they were growing up as a family, And that
Speaker 4: comes directly from my parents, the importance of that, and
Speaker 4: I think they, yeah, they talk about it. They love
Speaker 4: it too. I mean, you know raph Iris and Rudy, well,
Speaker 4: Rafa and Iris are now they've moved out now and
Speaker 4: they have their own places, but you know, they still
Speaker 4: come back for Sunday lunches or dinners, and I'm so
Speaker 4: pleased that that was at the heart of their childhood.
Speaker 4: And yeah, learning to cook vegetarian food because you know,
Speaker 4: I had to respect their choices as veggies. And I
Speaker 4: enjoyed the challenge of it, really and I enjoyed. Gosh,
Speaker 4: it's funny talking about it like this because you realize
Speaker 4: that the words you keep repeating and therefore what's at
Speaker 4: the heart of it. But I enjoyed giving the love
Speaker 4: of it. I enjoyed looking after them. I always say
Speaker 4: this to friends who are expecting children, that you know,
Speaker 4: the satisfaction you get when you're about to go to
Speaker 4: bed and your kids all eaten, they're washed, they're in bed,
Speaker 4: they're safe. It's just such a fantastic feeling. It's a
Speaker 4: greatest sense of satisfaction and contentment that you've got there
Speaker 4: another day and they're all right, you know, they've eaten
Speaker 4: all of that, and that was an important part of
Speaker 4: bringing them up to me. And and the adventurousness I
Speaker 4: suppose because again it reflects I don't know. You know
Speaker 4: people that go, oh, no, I don't like that, and
Speaker 4: you think, well, have you tried it? You know that
Speaker 4: was always that's always the first question to the kids,
Speaker 4: and you think, no, just try it, you know, and
Speaker 4: you see them suddenly thinking, oh, actually.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's an octopus.
Speaker 4: You think, I go and try a little bit.
Speaker 3: It's really good.
Speaker 2: But I think that's that trying it probably then carries
Speaker 2: over to other parts.
Speaker 4: Of absolutely, and I think you get a connection, to say,
Speaker 4: with a country or a nation or a nationality because
Speaker 4: of the food. If you know you like their food,
Speaker 4: you sort of think, oh, yes, why do they cook
Speaker 4: like that? Or what?
Speaker 2: That's interesting?
Speaker 4: You know, it opens your eyes and your heart to culture.
Speaker 4: It's I won't, I won't, I won't steer into politics.
Speaker 4: But what's amazes me about not you know, the idea
Speaker 4: of sort of not embracing immigrants and refugees or but
Speaker 4: you know this, this to me what certainly in London,
Speaker 4: but the heart of this country is the influence of
Speaker 4: other countries. The food and the culture that they bring
Speaker 4: makes this the most fantastic country.
Speaker 2: So if we think that food is so movingly expressed
Speaker 2: by your son and by yourself as food is love,
Speaker 2: the food is a connection, The food is memory, and
Speaker 2: food is parenting, and food is curiosity and part of
Speaker 2: our world that we care for. It's also comfort, isn't it.
Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of what we do and we
Speaker 2: need comfort. So for my last question to do law,
Speaker 2: what would be your comfort food? Not when you're hungry,
Speaker 2: not when you want to cook for somebody else, because
Speaker 2: you're such a giver and you're talking all the time
Speaker 2: about what you can do for everyone and your children,
Speaker 2: what would be your comfort food?
Speaker 3: What would you turn to?
Speaker 4: Well, I have two that spring to mind. The first
Speaker 4: one is ice cream. I love ice cream. I love
Speaker 4: variety of flavors, and I love that you can almost
Speaker 4: have a sort of a conversation with different flavors if
Speaker 4: you get them right. So if you get a little
Speaker 4: lemon and chocolate and then maybe hazel nut. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's a really interesting combination. I'm trying to.
Speaker 3: Three scoops, scoop, hazel, lemon and ice cream.
Speaker 4: Separately.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe even ice cream too. Yeah.
Speaker 4: But then the other thing that comes to my mind,
Speaker 4: and this is an odd one, is nuts. I love nuts.
Speaker 3: But type all types, salted, unsalted, salted. I'm afraid.
Speaker 4: I mean, I realized it's really bad for me. I
Speaker 4: eat a lot of nuts, and yeah, I love them, almonds, peanuts, cashews, maceadamia's,
Speaker 4: brazil nuts.
Speaker 2: I hope you don't need much c because I think
Speaker 2: you are surrounded by love of our friends and your children.
Speaker 2: But comfort is good, and certainly you have been my comfort.
Speaker 2: And it's cold December night.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Jude, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 4: Thank you good oh, thank you. That was lovely.
Speaker 3: This holiday season.
Speaker 2: If you can't come to the River Cafe, the River
Speaker 2: Cafe will come to you. Our beautiful gift boxes are
Speaker 2: full of ingredients we cook with and design objects we
Speaker 2: have in our homes. River Cafe, olive oil, Tuscan chocolates,
Speaker 2: Venetian glasses of Florentine, Christmas cake made in our pastry kitchen,
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Speaker 2: or to place your order, visit shop the Rivercafe dot
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Speaker 1: River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Adamized Studios. For more podcast from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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