WEBVTT - Best of Season Three: Part 2 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:04.280 You are listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair. 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:09.240 Food Unlock so many memories, the kitchen you grew up in, 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.680 the first meal you cooked, celebrations with friends and family. 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.720 More than forty guests have joined me at Table four 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:20.159 this season, sharing recipes, cooking together and talking about the 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.840 importance of food in all of our lives. In this episode, 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.320 we will share some of those conversations, hearing from the 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:32.280 actors Stephen Fry and Laura Dern, former footballer Gary Lineker, 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:36.839 and the three star Michelin chef Eric Repair. But first 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.559 Linda Vangelista talking about her memories of working as a 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.480 model in the eighties, her love of cooking, and life 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.879 in Canada with her Italian family. We began with our 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.120 recipe for nyoki with slow cooked tomato sauce. 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.360 It's great to see something in writing, because I learned 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:59.040 to make nyoki with my grandmother, but it was never 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:01.640 written down, and it was a little bit of this 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.560 and this, many eggs depending how big they are, and 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:07.360 some potatoes. 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.399 Yeah, and some potatoes. That's how we learned to I mean, 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:13.080 that's a beautiful way to learn. She did she ever 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.600 write anything down? She couldn't write. Yeah, she didn't know 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:18.639 how to write. She didn't know how to write English. 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:20.280 She didn't know how to write it all. She didn't 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:21.959 know how to write it all. She was a peasant. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:25.319 She was born in Italy, as was my father and 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:27.200 my mother and all my grandparents. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:28.480 And do you speak Italian? 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:33.080 Very badly? I speak it, and my family speaks dialect. 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.160 I know you're friend and proper Italian, but at home 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:40.000 they speak dialect. My parents spoke English to us growing up, 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.440 and only when they were arguing did they speak to 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.399 each other in Italian. So I can tell you where 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.520 to go in Italian, but I can't ask you are 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:50.800 you having a nice. 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:56.280 Day or kind words. My husband, Richard and Zad's father 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.320 had Italian parents, and he had the same thing that 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:03.120 he heard spoken, a very similar story when there was 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.120 an argument, I think. And then when he did learn Italian, 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:08.239 a lot of it came back because he had kind 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:09.040 of grown up for it. 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.160 So this grandmother, she never did learn him to speak English. 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:18.639 And in our neighborhood it was quite Polish, some Ukrainians 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:19.519 and Italians. 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:20.680 Where was it? Where was then? 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:24.880 In Saint Catharine's, Ontario, Canada across the lake from Toronto 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.280 in Niagara Region, right near the border of the United States, 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:34.600 and my grandmother went to Italian mass shopped at the 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.160 Italian store, worked picking fruit on the farm with the 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:43.359 Italian ladies, so she didn't really need to speak English. 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:47.600 I remember how excited they all got that generation when 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.400 Canada went metric. I was about ten years old or so, 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.680 I approximately, and then they understood, oh, this is how 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:59.960 many grams of meat I'm buying, and so they were 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:01.720 very happy when that happened. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.040 When did they leave. The family comes from between Naples 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:06.080 and Rome. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.560 Yes, it's a town called Pinatado in Taramna which is 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.320 near Casino and Monte Casino, where the big battle World 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:21.760 War two took place. And my father would have come over. 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:24.519 And he was born in nineteen forty and I think 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:28.760 he came over nineteen fifty six. And my mother was 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.640 born in forty three and she came over in nineteen fifty. 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:33.840 And the grandmother that you were describing was that your 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:34.440 mother's mother. 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.240 That was my father's mother, but my mother's mother's kind 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:38.760 of the same. 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.840 And they all came they all eventually they were all. 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:46.520 Yes, and they came with the few belongings that they had. 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:54.920 And I have the two handmade hammered copper pots that 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.200 my one grandmother came over with and she would make 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.240 her Sunday you know, to mao sauce in and I 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:07.640 have them. They're like, there are precious belongings. There's no painting, 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.240 there's no paintings. 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.080 Yes, saw Sam is a memory and it is what 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.039 she cooked with, so bringing that with her was part 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:18.840 of her Why did they leave, you. 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:23.440 Know, they left in search of a better life. They 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:27.800 had lost everything. Well, they didn't have anything much. They 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:33.600 worked their land, so it's not like they had vocations and. 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:34.160 They just. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.200 Went in search of a better life for their children. 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:41.160 In Canada rather than the United States. 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.360 Well, they were heading to the United States, but at 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:46.800 the time they closed their doors and then they were 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.440 not receiving any more immigrants. And somebody in the United 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.320 States found a sponsor for my grandfather in Canada and 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.200 the other one similar story. So yeah, one grandfather was 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.120 a prisoner of war. They were in the war. My 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:06.800 grandfather's My mom was born during the war forty three. 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:07.080 And she spoke Italian. 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:09.200 She speaks proper and dialect. 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.600 She speaks both when do you say dialect, you mean 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.200 the dialect of that region. 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.840 Yeah, and it gets even worse because then, you know, 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.080 it takes on a life of its own in Canada, 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.920 not quite like the way the Americans, they like totally 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.760 butchered the language. And I don't like the way they 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.600 cut off the ends of the words when they say mozzarella. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:36.560 When they say mozzarell, that's Tony Soprano, remember Tony's in 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:41.240 watching the Sopranos. They would always call it mozzarell. Yeah, yeah, 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:46.799 that's and so your mother also, your mother had both 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.479 her mother and her mother in law correct with her. Yeah. 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:52.320 And did they all cook together? 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:53.000 Yeah? 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.680 I think early on they did. And you know, my 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:03.680 mother is because she came over young, she got quite americanized, 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.359 and you know she she you know, she has an 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:11.880 education and she cooks with recipes she but she also 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.440 has all the recipes in her head like what she 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:16.480 grew up making. 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:18.400 Who is the best cook of all of them? Do 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.120 you think me? You good? Okay, We're gonna get to that. 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.640 I like your answer, Okay, So do you want to 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:29.039 read the recipe with tomato sauce ganaki? 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:34.640 I'm joking, Okay, yoki with tomato sauce, served six in 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:35.400 my family. 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:37.520 Three one, yeah, okay? 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:43.720 Two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Two clothes of 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:48.280 garlic finally sliced. I would say a little, you can 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:48.760 add more? 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:50.279 Yeah, okay? Good? 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:56.400 Eight hundred grams of ten peeled plum tomatoes. One kilogram 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.560 of white flowery potatoes. 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.800 Imma will be happy that this is in grams, wouldn't she? Yes, 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:03.360 she would. 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.640 One hundred and thirty grams of double zero flour, one 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:13.680 large egg, lightly beaten, and ten basil leaves interesting. 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:15.720 Heat the olive. 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.360 Oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.920 Add the garlic and cook until soft. Add the tomatoes, 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.840 breaking them up, season well, and cook for thirty minutes 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.880 on low heat. Bring a large saucepan of salted water 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.440 to a boil and add the potatoes and cook until 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:38.600 they are easily pierced with a fork. Drain and peel 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.800 when they are cool enough to handle. Immediately put the 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.440 potatoes through a food milk and then sift the flour 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.240 over them, making a well in the center. Add the 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:55.040 beaten egg using your hands, quickly mixed to form a smooth, 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:59.040 soft dough. Do not overwork the dough or you will 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:03.360 make the nyoki too heavy. Divide the dough into four 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:08.040 using your hands, roll the dough into a sausage and 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:12.000 then cut into pieces. Cook the yoki until they rise 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.760 to the surface. Remove the yaki with a slotted spoon, 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:19.720 and then stir into the tomato sauce. Add the basil 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.600 and if you like grated potamigiano. Now we ran our 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:26.320 yoki along. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.200 A four to get the ridges. You can do that. 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.080 We sometimes do ridges and sometimes we don't. I prefer without, Yeah, 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.280 you prefer without. We were also talking today about yaki. 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.120 I was talken to Joseph Trevelli, one of my chefs. 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.600 He was saying, do you remember Ruthy, how the cook 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.319 in our house in Italy called Giovanna made yaki And 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.400 she said to us, when you form them them was 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.960 like you're doing a book, Like you're making a book 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.360 of the flower and the mixture. Because if you it 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:57.600 is really true that if you handle them too much, 0:08:58.040 --> 0:08:59.840 they do get tough, and so you want to touch 0:08:59.920 --> 0:09:04.320 the flower gets old, it gets overdeveloped, and the idea 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.400 that you want to make them as light and actually 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.599 I also used to say that what we do is 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.480 we'd make the potatoes and add a little bit of 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.120 flower and then put one in and then they'd fall apart. 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.000 And then you would add a little bit of flower, 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.840 and you would do it so gradually that then you 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.080 would know that you need that amount of flower for 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.640 them not to fall apart, but the least amount makes 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:27.000 them as light as you can. 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.640 And then once you've done them so many times, you 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:31.440 just know. 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.440 So let's go back to the beginning. You grew up 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:40.200 with an Italian grandmother's two, two grandfathers, two your parents. 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.160 What was food like growing up in the Evangelista household. 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:53.559 Well, I complained a lot because we always ate homemade 0:09:54.080 --> 0:10:01.600 food and I wanted to have TV dinner or frozen 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:03.960 meals or something out of a can. 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.160 I wanted to close from Sears roebook. I was really oh, 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:11.520 my clothes were from Cyrus. I did a thing to 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:13.320 my mother, not that we had money, but why can't 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:14.720 we buy clothes out of a catalog? 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:17.880 That sounds so my clothes were from Sears and Woolworth. 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:22.320 So yeah, So it was a lot of homemade food 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.440 and I appreciate that now, but like growing up, you know, 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.920 I wanted the TV dinners with the compartments, you know, 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.400 and the little apple pie in the corner. And but yeah, 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:40.000 my father took us out for dinner every Friday because 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.600 my mother worked late. She was working in retail. But 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:47.120 my father let us choose the restaurant. And by restaurant, 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:52.800 I mean McDonald's or Denny's or the pizzeria or A 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.079 and W you know, fast food. And so that was 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.680 a big deal because we were very spoiled with that. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.160 Yeah, and fresh. 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:09.280 We had homemade pasta Wednesdays and Sundays. We had roast 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.400 beef once a week. We would have steak or barbecue 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:18.480 once a week. My father really spent a lot of money, 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:22.320 I think on food because he didn't have much growing up. 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:26.080 They ate like a chicken or a rabbit once a week. 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:30.000 This is what until he was sixteen, until came to America. Yeah, 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:31.280 until he got. 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:35.120 A good job at General Motors. And the food went 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:36.720 on the table family style. 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.319 How many if you were there, you me and two brothers, 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:40.199 two brothers. 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.680 And he would serve us and he would put like 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.520 this mound on your plate and you had to eat 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.520 it all. And for him, the most important thing was 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.320 you weren't hungry. That you were nourished that you ate. 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.680 Everybody had a garden, and what they produced in these 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:03.480 gardens was unbelievable. Tell me about everything like tomatoes and 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:08.560 cucumbers and peppers and different like ridico and and then 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:10.920 there were the fruit trees, and then there was like basil, 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.520 all the herbs, you name it, onions, and it was 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:15.480 just all there. 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:17.920 And so you had your own garden full of. 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.480 Everybody had the whole backyard was a garden, but shared 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:24.160 what the other one didn't have. And it's not like 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.080 we had a swimming pool or we didn't play in 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.720 our backyards. We played on the street or parking lot. 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:32.880 Did they bring the seeds? Do you think for Italy? 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:33.400 I have? 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.680 The seeds are a whole thing. 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.440 The seeds was like a network and whoever had like 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.559 the best tomatoes that year would do the seeds and 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.200 hand them out. And it's so funny. Now you see 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:48.600 all these heirloom tomatoes and I'm like, but those are 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.480 the tomatoes I grew up with, Like none of them 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:55.840 were nice little round tomatoes. And then the fruit trees. 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.440 And my father he had a green thumb and he 0:12:58.520 --> 0:12:59.360 would graft. 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:01.559 He would do these. 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:05.720 Sensational things like the apricot tree had plums on it 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.719 and the red apple tree had a branch with yellow apples. 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:12.720 And he would graft and it would be it would 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:17.080 just be incredible, and then he would make his gropas. 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:18.839 So do you think that then he would go work 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:21.320 at general motives? Do you think that in his real 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.320 passion would have been to have been a farmer or 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.000 to have done this whole day? Absolutely? Yeah. Well, he 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:27.600 grew up. 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:29.960 He didn't get an education because he had to work 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.200 the land. And I know he had a donkey and 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:37.400 whenever he referred to Italy he referred to it as 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.680 the good old days. I think that would have been 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:43.360 what he would have loved to have done, because he 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:44.640 was so good at it. 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.120 When you left, because you went to work quite at 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.400 an early age, I was eighteen almost nine, Oh you 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.240 were What was that like, leaving this culture of food? 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:54.240 What did you do? How did you eat? I think 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:55.680 I ate really simple. 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.280 I was in New York for about a month or so, 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:00.960 and then they shipped me off off to Paris, who 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:04.360 shipped you off the agency because I wasn't doing so 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:06.319 well in New York. They said, maybe you'll be more 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:12.600 successful at nineteen, and I was first in the Hotel 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.120 sant Andre DA's art, but I got bed bugs there, 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.320 so I went to the Hotel La Louisia and. 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.280 My mom Louisiana. My mom found out our hotel, our 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.480 hotel room in the Louisiana was being used during the day. 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:32.600 I'm not kidding what any once came home and they 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.720 would rent it out during the day. Oh my god. Yeah, 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:37.760 so we left. 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.320 That was an upgrade for me. It was ten dollars 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.040 more a night, and my mom had to approve that. 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.720 And so I would go to the market Arrue la Boussi, 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.160 and I would like get a baguet and a piece 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.800 of breeze and a piece of fruit, and that's how 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:55.600 I would eat on a budget. 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.920 Yeah, we moved into the hotel Descend. You remember that 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:02.400 one that was next door to a big step up. Yeah, 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.880 what year was that, Well, it was in seventy seventy three, 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.880 maybe seventy two there in like eighty forty, Yeah, so 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.000 that was later, so I'm sure, but I remember I 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.160 said it was a pretty rough person. The best story 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.400 I have about the hotel we stayed in, Renzo Piano 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:20.960 came to visit me Richard and his partner. They were 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.840 doing the Pompany Center. I was sick, so I was 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:25.880 in bed. Sorenzo came up and talked to me until 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.760 Richard came back. He was at dinner and we were 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.240 just talking and you know, was sneezing, and then the 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.320 phone rang and it was a concierge and he said, madam, 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.080 your husband is on the way up. And I thought 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:42.280 that was so cool. At the hotel, oh, they were 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.880 mourning me because they thought that I was in bed 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:46.920 with my lover. 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:47.800 That's good. 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:51.640 I thought that was in a cheap hotel. That was 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.240 a pretty good service if I needed it, very good service. 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:10.280 The River Cafe Cafe, our all day space and just 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.240 steps away from the restaurant, is now open. In the 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:18.760 morning an Italian breakfast with cornetti, ciambella and crostada from 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.160 our pastry kitchen. In the afternoon, ice creamed coupes and 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:27.520 River Cafe classic desserts. We have sharing plates Salumi, misti, mozzarella, 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.720 brusquetto red and yellow peppers, Vitello, tonado and more. Come 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.120 in the evening for cocktails with our resident pianist. 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:35.000 In the bar. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:47.440 No need to book. See you here. Laverna Down is 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:50.040 one of the great restaurants of the world, and Eric 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.640 Repair is one of the most admired chefs in the world. 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.280 We sat down together in New York to talk about 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.960 his culinary education and his food memories of his child 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:01.400 in the south of France. 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.800 My two grandmothers inspired me a lot, and my mother 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:07.760 was an amazing, amazing chef. 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.200 I tell me because it was interesting. I always say 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:14.480 that in all these interviews that we've done, the grandmother. 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:19.399 The Italian one, was cooking very Italian soul food. She 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:24.760 was cooking like great Italian, northern Italian food, and I 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.800 loved it. And then my grandmother from Provence was doing 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.280 the same with proven sal food as well, which is 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.080 a little bit similar than Northern Italian, but as some 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:37.040 sort of differences. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:41.199 I did the drive quite recently from Santa Margarita to 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:46.040 Genoa to Nice and suddenly you were in Italy and 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.400 now you're in France, and you know, the farinata which 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:55.720 they do in Italy is the Italian version of the socca, yeah, 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:58.600 which is in Nice. And what else do they cook? 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.240 Like my grandmother in province. 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:05.400 She was from the region of Avignon, so in Avignon, 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:09.359 they're not close to the sea, they are obviously in land, 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:15.520 and she would do like a baby leg of lamb roasted. 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.600 And then my grandmother, the Italian grandmother, wouldn't do that, but. 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:20.439 She would do. 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:26.000 She would do alsobuco, for instance, my grandmother in Provence 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.159 would do a cocoverain. My grandmother in Italy didn't know 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:34.959 what cocoveraine was. And those were subtle differences, but they 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:40.080 were important. My mother was obsessed with the chefs from 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.840 nouvelle cuisine at the time, so the Michelle Gerard, the 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:50.360 Paul Booquez, that generation. And at home she was cooking 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:55.080 lunch and dinner, those elaborate meals with appetizer, main course 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.919 cheese which she didn't cook, and dessert that were different 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:03.240 from lunch to dinner, on a different pattern of tablecloth, 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.159 different china. It was unbelievable. 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:07.800 Who would she be cooking for. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:12.760 She was cooking for myself, stepfather, and my sister when 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.280 she was old enough to be. 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:18.399 At the table with us, because she's much younger than me. 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.760 She did this every day, every day. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.679 She would well, she was a business lady, so she 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:30.800 was in fashion industry. She was importing the brand Courage Spain, 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:35.600 Spain and n yes, and so she was very busy 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.240 with the business. But she would wake up at five 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:42.080 am to prepare the meal and then she would finish 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:46.639 whatever needs to be finished, all the little details during lunchtime, 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:50.480 and then same thing at night. And sometimes after the 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:55.240 dinner she would start to cook for the like the desserts, 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.400 like if she was doing I don't know about room, 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:04.399 she would start to let the do you know rise 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:04.879 and so on. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:06.200 Yes, I mean it was amazing. 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:07.600 But do you think she would have liked to have 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:08.560 done that as a career. 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:10.879 No, No, she was. 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.639 She wanted to do it because for the art of 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.120 doing it, for the love of doing it, and she 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:18.280 wanted to feed the family. 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:22.280 So you had this incredible life of having food that 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:24.800 was cared you know, it was a priority in her 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.240 day and your stepfather. 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:27.879 And different styles too. 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.000 Did you ever cook with her with my mom. 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:34.720 Later in life, because on the beginning, they allow me 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.520 to watch and eat anything I wanted, but they really 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:40.600 didn't want me to touch anything. They were like, you're 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:42.760 going to mess up the kitchen, don't touch it. So 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:47.919 I was eating and just before I went to culinary school, 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.040 my mom started to allow me to help her in 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:51.520 the kitchen. 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.240 She sounds amazing, and she's still cooking. 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:59.240 She cooks for herself, and she sent me pictures sometimes 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:01.960 and I'm like, oh my god, this is amazing. Like 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:04.760 the other day she did the dog comfee and then 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:06.680 you know she has I don't know, you call it 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:11.360 those little for the for the bone, those little white. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:16.760 White things, yeah yeah, those white yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:19.280 So she still has those kind of details, and I'm like, 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:20.879 oh my god, how can you do that? 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.080 How do you look back at the food of the 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.320 nevelle cuisine, What do you think when you when you 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:27.200 think of that food. 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.719 Well, as you know, nouvelle cuisine at one point became 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.760 really a bad world, and it became a caricature of. 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.320 Big plates and food, and. 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:41.359 I always have this image of like three string beans 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.480 parallel to each other. But novelle cuisine on the beginning 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:47.680 was a revolution. We were coming out of the era 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:53.679 of escoffi. It was a different mindset where the sauce 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.760 was not hiding anymore the flavors, but the sauce was 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:00.400 enhancing the star of the plate, which was what were 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.600 protein mostly or vegetable you decide. And also it was 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:10.440 the first time that chefs were playing their food. Until then, 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.320 the food was on platters and the wails were serving 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.199 the food or the clients were serving themselves from the platter. 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.960 But the first chef to say I'm playing my food 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:26.120 in my plate was the Drug Row. 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:30.159 So you grew up in a house where food was 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:34.400 a priority, where your mother cooked, your grandmother's cooked. Tell 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.200 us when about your journey to becoming a chef, from 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:40.080 being a child that wasn't allowed in the kitchen to 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:43.560 being I think a fifteen year old that started cooking. 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:47.600 What happened at fifteen when you've decided to be well? 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:52.960