WEBVTT - Wolfgang Puck 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.840 Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:05.000 Adamized Studios. 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:12.240 There are very few people who, even if you rarely 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.440 see them, stay close to your heart. For me, it's 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.040 Wolfgang Puck. I'm often and asked who inspired Rose and 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:21.720 I when we opened the River Cafe, and the answer 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.360 is Wolfgang. Before he created Spago, the choice for choosing 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.720 a restaurant was eat delicious food, but be sure to 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:31.560 dress up and be prepared to feel intimidated by the 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:35.120 somier chef or just the atmosphere in the room, or 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.000 eat less well, but go out and have fun in 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:42.400 a lively, exciting, friendly place. With Spago, Wolfgang taught us 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.360 we could do both, and he turned the world upside down. 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.519 He made Pizza's luxurious airport food, delicious, wood ovens for cooking, 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.720 and took chefs out of basement kitchens so diners could 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.800 see them and they could see the diners. Wolfgang is 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.280 legendary for being generous with his knowledge, teaching and spiring 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.920 and mentoring young people who wanted to be like him. 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.440 A few months ago, he came to the River Cafe 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.400 for dinner with his family. To everyone working there, it 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.399 felt like a visit from the gods. For me, it 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.640 was a visit from a man I love, but rarely 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.319 see a man who is close to my heart. 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:18.800 Thank you. 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.880 I have asked everybody who's been on to read a 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.120 recipe from a River Cafe book that they like, but 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.720 I would rather read a recipe from your book. And 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.959 that recipe is for what we call chicken spargo, And 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.240 I think in your cookbook you call it chicken with 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:38.600 garlic and parsley. Do you want to read this recipe? 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.560 All right, go on, let's go with our chicken begarlic 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.280 and parsley. This auntley has been on the many Ospargo 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.560 since we opened. He continues to be one of their favorites. 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:52.360 And we still make it for special people because as 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.640 a souvenir. Really, okay, take two hold chickens about two 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.840 pounds each, two small heads of garlic, separates into clothes 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.600 and peeled quart off, a couple of parsley leaves, salt, 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.960 freshly ground white pepper, two tablespoon of unsalted butter, and 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.960 the juice of large lemon half and bone. The chickens 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.560 leaving the first wing joined intact in a small saucepan 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.040 Plunge the garlic clothes in boiling water for a minute. 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.480 Cut the garlic into paper tin slices, Toss in a 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:26.880 pool with parsley and season stuff. A little of the 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.000 garlic mixture in the pockets underneath the skin of the chicken. 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.160 Pressed and tides. Transfer to a large plate, copper and 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.280 chill until ready to use. Grill the chickens seven to 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:41.119 ten minutes per side, or just until the pinkness disappears. 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.919 Do not overcook. Heat the butter in a sotae pan 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.440 and in it gently soteed the remaining mixture of garlic, 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.600 lemon and parsley. Add lemon juice and season one. 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:55.639 Nice. Nice. Do you remember writing it? 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:57.079 I remember when I bade it. 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:58.120 Were you? Where were you? 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.200 So it was the first cookbook. It was a Mamison cookbook. 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:07.120 The second cookbook was up at Spargo. So I did that, 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:09.800 and I think that was in eighty six or something 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.359 like that when I wrote it. And it was interesting 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.880 because when it came out, I you know, people didn't 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.680 really know me that well. In La Yes, And there 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:25.840 was an agent named Mike Owitz he founded Yeah, And 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.560 so he came with his wife and Michael Eisner and 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:30.920 Jane Eisner. They came for dinner and I think it 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.400 was Judy Oviz's birstay. So gave her a cookbook and 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.600 signed and said happy birthday, Judy. And Mike said, Wolfgang, 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.480 how come I don't know about that? I said, Mike, 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.680 you are a big agent, you represent Paul Newman and 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.760 Barba Streisan. What you're going to know about the cookbook? 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:50.760 And he said, bet did you promote it? I said, well, 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.200 we did some shows like LA in the morning show 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.119 in LA and some radio shows and things like that. 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.120 And he said, you have to promote it nationally and 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:02.800 I said yeah. They tried to my PR person tried 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.400 to get me on Good Morning America or the Today's Show, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.360 and then they said no, no, no, we have Julia Child's. 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:11.520 We don't need you. We don't need another a cook 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.120 on the show. And he said, well, that's crazy. So 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.880 he called up the vice president from ABC. He flew 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:20.680 up out. A few days later, they came to the restaurant. 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:22.919 I cooked the menu for them. I cooked their dinner 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:25.880 for them on a little napkin, on a paper napkin. 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:28.480 He signed a contract with ABC, so I do once 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.520 a month's Good Morning America. So and from then on 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:32.320 I was on TV. 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.440 That's the beginning. Yeah, you mentioned Julia child Did you 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:36.039 ever meet her? 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:38.800 I met Julio Childs many times. She was a very 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.320 good friend of mine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, No. I really 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.480 loved her and she was really funny. And I told 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:48.080 her that story about you know, we did a symposium 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.880 or something, and she said, you're wolfing. And since you 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:52.719 own nowadays, don't bot me anymore? 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:55.400 What did you do on the what did you. 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:57.680 I made the most complete created thing. We had a 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:01.200 producer on Good Morning America, Sonya Slvi right, an English lady, 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:06.880 and she was very good friends with Julia, and she 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.320 actually didn't want me to feel on the show or 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.320 she wanted Julia. No, she wasn't very happy. And I 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.000 made crazy things like I made. I showed people how 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.000 to make a simple chocolate to play. But you have 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.600 to time it just perfectly, because you don't have your 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.440 life life on TV. You only have five minutes, so 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:25.920 you have to put it in the open at the 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.680 right time and then hopefully, you know everything goes well, 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:31.599 you take it out and it looks good and then 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:33.760 the segment day is overst. 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.359 Julia dropped famously dropped the chicken on the floor. But 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:38.680 did you have disasters or was it pretty? 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.640 You know, I never really had bad things happened. I 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:44.599 just was so nervous. At that time. They had David 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.080 Houtman was the host, you know, and he was like 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.160 six foot five dolls and talked what you're gonna cook 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.440 for me today? And that's not the irre shaken. I 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:58.560 was nervous seeing all the cameras. I was already old. Yeah, 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:01.040 I had already Spargo was opening my serities. 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:02.640 Yeah, yeah, that's young. 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.880 That's young today for me, everything is yeah. 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.840 Yeah. So going back to youth and young, tell me 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:10.919 about your family. Did you grow up with good food? 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.200 You know, it's very interesting. My mother was a chef, 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.120 a professional chef, but she didn't own a restaurant. She 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.919 worked for a small hotel on a beautiful lake in Krinthia, 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.000 which is the southern part of Austria next to Italian Slovenia. 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.760 And so she was a good cook. And my stepfather 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.400 was a coal miner and totally crazy and alcoholic and everything, 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:34.720 and my mother was like an angel. I don't know 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.320 how the young and the younger together, but it's impossible 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.200 and so I went to school, and then the summer 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.159 I went to see my mother on the lake there 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.000 and helped her in the kitchen sometimes. And then I 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:48.560 went swimming, and I picked up tennisports. There was a 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:50.920 little tennis club next to the hotel, and I made 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.640 a little money. And then when I was fourteen, I 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:59.280 had to decide what to do, because you're the school finished. 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:03.240 At fourteen, I was finished with school and we didn't 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.359 have the money to go to Vienna to study. I 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.320 actually wanted to be an architect, did you Yeah, But 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:12.360 then we didn't have the money to go. So then 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:16.560 my mother found me a job as an apprentice in Phila. 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:17.920 Can I just ask you about your father. 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:22.360 My father actually was very wealthy. My mother was working 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.160 for a doctor in a small town. But for a 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.280 small town, he had the Mercedes like after the war, 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:31.560 you know, in nineteen forty eight, forty nine fifty. So 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.880 his mother, my father's mother, told him he cannot marry 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.920 my mother because my mother came from a poor background. 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:42.360 My grandmother was working in the fields for a farmer, 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.840 you know. So he didn't marry her. 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:46.000 Oh, he never married her. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.560 I never married her. So my mother then went back 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:51.920 started to work in restaurants, and I was saying, and 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.040 I was a little kid. My grandmother was taking care 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.640 of me. So then my stepfather. 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.200 As I got I didn't let you be not Yeah. 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:04.920 Yeah. My stepfather said cooking is not a profession for men. 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.400 You should be a carpenter, or you should be a mason, 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:09.720 or you should be a mechanic or whatever. Cooking is 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.480 for women. And he said you're good for nothing. Because 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.920 I hated to help him and everything. So I still 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:18.760 remember when I left, which was fifty miles a weight, 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.320 where I was starting my apprenticeship and I was fourteen 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:23.280 years old. I went to the train station with a 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:28.640 little silkcase and then I take the train and as 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:30.400 I was walking out the house, he said, oh, you're 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.280 good for nothing. You're going to be back in a month, 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.840 and then cry for money and everything. I said, I'm never. 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.520 Coming back at age forteen. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.400 At fourteen, yeah, And then I go there. I started 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.000 my apprenticeship and the chef there was as crazy as 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.800 my stepfather. So I went from on to the next 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:50.920 and you know, what do you. 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:52.480 Doing here in the kitchen? 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.400 Here in the kitchens? Yeah, he was drunk all the time. Too, 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.559 and screaming like crazy, throwing think like crazy, like it 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:03.120 happened the old time more than they think. Yeah. And 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.920 so like three or four weeks into my apprenticeship on 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.000 a Sunday, Sunday lunch was always the busy day. And 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.640 I was doing the potatoes and making the mashed potatoes 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.240 that was like my job, and feeling onions and carrots, 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.360 watching the spinach, and we run out of mashed potatoes, 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.280 We run out of potato potatoes. And at the end 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.439 of the service, he's queened like crazy, Oh you good 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:26.400 for not saying, yeah, well, go back home. So he 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.640 told me, okay, you're fired, go back home to your mother. 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.400 And I was saying, I said I cannot go back home, 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.800 but my specially my stepfather. Yeah. So that was probably 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.600 the worst day in my life. So I went on 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:41.079 the thing and I said I'm gonna jump in the 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.079 river and kill myself. And I was fourteen years old. 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:46.160 You know, I did not say I said I cannot 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.000 go back home. So I was standing on the river 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.520 there looking down and said, what will happen if I die? 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.199 You know, what is happening or what is hell or what? 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.319 And it was all these thoughts were going through my head. 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:03.000 And then after a while, I said, you know what, 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.400 I'm just gonna go back to more and see what happened. 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:07.920 So I went back back to the restaurant. Back to 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.360 the restaurant, so I bent. I couldn't sleep all night. 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.040 I went really early to the restaurant. Then the apprentice, 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:15.920 who was it both me, came and saw me there. 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.040 I said, oh, you're back. He was so happy. I said, 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:20.320 I don't have to build potatoes. So he hit me 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.959 down in the vegetable seller and I was peeling potatoes there. 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.080 And after a few weeks the chef comes down and 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.280 sees me and start screaming what you're doing here? He 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.559 said get out of here, and screamed, and that was saying. 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:34.480 And then I said, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.480 And then he called the owner. The owner was a 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.960 little had a little more empathy and sent me to 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.480 They had another small hotel in town, and they said, 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:46.280 maybe he goes over there. And there had they had 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.840 a lady who was the chef, and she said, just 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:53.040 do your job and be quiet and don't do anything 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.679 stupid and everything will be fine. And sure enough, I 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:01.040 stayed there for three years, did my apprenticeship, and after 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:02.280 that I left for France. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.600 When you think of your own children, don't you. We 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.920 think about how we treat a fourteen year old, how 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.200 you treat your children. I saw you the night you 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:11.920 came in with your children. Yeah, and I saw the parenting. 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.040 I saw the love, I saw the kindness, patience, and 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:17.960 then you just think what you had been through. You know, 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.000 it's interesting. We had a young woman who worked for 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.000 a very famous restaurant in London and she said that 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.800 she was once taking soufles out of the oven and 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.200 the chef came over and put a frying pan over 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.320 her head and said, if these soufles don't rise, this 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:34.800 frying pan's going to be on your head. And I said, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.280 what you should have done is put the soufles back 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.160 in the oven, gone got your coat, left the restaurant 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.240 and gone to the police. You should go to the 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.000 police because that is abuse. But you know, somehow, that 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.480 idea that somehow, because everybody's under pressure in a kitchen, 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.199 it's okay, it's not okay. It's old fashioned and it's wrong. 0:11:54.480 --> 0:12:00.040 Yeah, physical wrong, emotional abuse is totally wrong. And I 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.880 think one of the lessons I learned from them. I said, 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.080 I never want to be like my stepfather and I 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:08.920 never want to be like the first chef I worked for, 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.640 because I think they did the opposite. And I said, 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.320 you know, if somebody that makes a mistake, somebody does 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.600 something wrong, I'm going to show them how to do 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:20.200 it right. And sometimes it takes more than once. But 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:22.840 you want to teach people. And I think for me 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.080 that was really an important part. And later on I 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:27.520 opened as cooking school, so I had to teach people. 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:29.960 No. And so you got on the train and went 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:31.199 to where did you went to France? 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:33.080 So then I went down the France. I went to 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.920 Dijon first and worked in a restaurant called Trofeizon. I 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.160 told you that I was seventeen. Seventeen, yeah, so said, 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.280 I have a son now seventeen. I said, wow, if 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:43.400 he would go, tell me tomorrow he's going to work 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.920 in Mexico City or somewhere. Let's say, I don't know, 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:48.480 not by yourself. I'm gonna send a shadow for you. 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.920 And so I went to France and then I was 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.360 working there, and after like a year or so, I 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.120 started to speak French. I didn't speak it at the beginning, 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.240 and then we had a party at the restaurant and 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:04.640 it was because we got a star in the gid 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.880 Mischland right and rest had a star. It just got 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.079 a new style. It didn't have one, but got this down. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:12.959 And then I took one of these red books, looked 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.480 through it and I said, oh shit, there it's one star, 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.240 two star, three star restaurant. So I said, I'm not 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:20.440 going back to Austria before. I don't work in at 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:22.400 least in a two star, hopefully in the street star. 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.520 So I wrote to Bocus to tour grow to Las 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.200 sal Or total all these famous three star restaurants. The 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.560 first one who said yes was Raymondally at Boumania in. 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.200 Provence, Abomania. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.440 It's an amazing restaurant. But he was on the hell 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.839 yeah yeah. He was the most amazing personality. Not only 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:44.480 he started cooking when he was like fifty professionals when 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.400 he was fifty years old, but he was so passionate 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.120 about the ingredients. He had a lot of land there too. 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.880 He had six gardeners who bought like the best cabayon melono, 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:58.360 strawberries or peas or green beans. Really small, you know, 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.960 So it was really an amazing experience to have somebody 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.240 at that age. He was already seventy years old, but 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.720 he was so passionate and you know, going back and 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:09.920 forth in the dining room. And then he used to 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:14.520 come into the kitchen with Elizabeth Taylor, and all of 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:17.360 us young guys looked at her and said, oh my god. 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.640 All one time he came in with Barcelo Mastroianni and 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:24.000 Katherine the Nerve, and I said, oh Jesus Christ, I 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.560 want to feel like him. So I stayed there for 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:28.520 two and a half years, and he was the first 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.480 person actually who respected me and says, you know what. 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:35.000 He made me feel good, And I. 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.400 Agreed the idea of the whole thing, of the ingredients 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.720 of the farm, of the taking the melon, the best melon. 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:42.000 I know. 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.000 But I grew up on a farm, yeah, you know, 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.280 in a village with fifty people, with two farmers. Yeah, 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:50.960 with two farmers next to each other. We got the milk, 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.000 like in the morning. I used to go with the can, 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:55.360 go to the farmer. They filled it up and we 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.400 picked it up two hours later. That's how we had 0:14:57.400 --> 0:14:59.280 the milk. We didn't even have a refrigerator. When I 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:01.760 grew up, we didn't have plumbing in our house. So 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:03.880 the water we had the spring outside. You had to 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.400 pump it and get the water, bring it in. If 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.120 we want to take wash ourself, my mother had to 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.520 turn on the stove, put charcoal in it or put 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.720 it in it, heat up the water and then we 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:14.480 washed ours. 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.080 So when you left Bowmania, you went to Paris. What 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:17.600 did you so? 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.080 When I left Moomania, I went to Monaco and worked 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.480 at Lottel de Parine Monaco, this big ground hotel like 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.720 in the old style, you know, like they conser may 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.320 and the onion soup and the vegetable had all people 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.280 perfectly turned and so on. And then I went to 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.160 see mister Tullier and I said, you know, I really 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.920 don't like to work at Lottel the Parine there. Maybe 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.360 he can help me find another job. And he said okay, 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:42.920 and then he said I'm going to Paris. He was 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.440 good friends with the owners of Maxims at that time, 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.200 and then he found me work at Maxims in Paris, 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.400 which was a three star restaurant at that time. 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:56.680 When you went in, what level were you? So? 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.800 I went in like a chef the party, and a 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:02.200 year or so is the night chef, so I was 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.080 responsible for the kitchen after from ten thirty to one 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:05.760 in the morning. 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.080 So they kept cooking to one in the morning. 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.840 Because each time when there, I know, when there was 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.560 a show, like at the theater, the opera, they used 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.080 to come twenty thirty people after the opera, you know, 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.880 all dressed perfectly, and have dinner at midnight. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:24.840 Basically, this was in the sixties, was it. 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:38.480 That was in the early seventies, early seventies. A friend 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:40.800 of mine sat, you know, if you want to make money, 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:43.960 you have to go to America. You know, in America 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:47.040 you make a lot of money and this and that, 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.000 and you know, I was always fascinated by the movies, 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.680 by the people writing the Big House and every saying, 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.440 and by John Wayne, the Cowboys and everything, so that 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:58.360 I have to go and see. And then at that 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.400 time it started also with the hip in San Francisco 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:03.280 and everything. I said, I'm want to try to smoke 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.760 some marijuana, and I was saying, and you couldn't find 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.200 it in my village. So I went to America first 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.000 to New York. And I didn't like New York. I said, 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.840 it's nothing like Paris and so forth. And then a 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.920 friend of mine who owned Charles Mason, who owned like Renuis, 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.560 found me a job in Indianapolis. I love auto racing. 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.560 I'm a big fan of Formula one. So when they 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:30.080 said Indianapolis, the five hundred miles of Indianapolis, the most 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:32.960 famous race in the world, and I said, I'm going 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:36.359 to Indianapolis. So I had almost no manuela English a 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.800 little bit. So I took the greyhound pass from New 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.760 York to Indianapolis. It lasted like thirty hours or something 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.800 like that, and I said, shit, that's Indianapolis. It's nothing. 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.320 I imagine it being something like Monocle, maybe on the 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.000 river or something really beautiful, you know. And it was 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.200 flat and a few high rise buildings in the center. 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:58.280 And then I said, where is the race? Where is 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.280 the race? So I went out to speedway and I said, 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.720 oh my god, this is Indianapolis. So I had to 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:04.439 stay there. I had no more money left. 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:05.920 You had a job in a restaurant. 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:07.800 Yeah, I had a job there. I was a chef 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.720 in a French restaurant. I still remember. I told the 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.080 manager from New York on the phone. I said, I'm 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.240 not cooking hamburgers and hot dogs. You didn't have to Yeah, no, 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:17.400 he said, no, no, no, no, we have a nice restaurant. 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:19.840 We make Da Color launch and we make dobar soil 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.399 and stuff like that. So I said, okay, I'm coming. 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.040 So I stayed a year there, got my green cut 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.800 there because nobody immigrates to Indiana and I was the 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:32.159 only one at the immigration And then from there I 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.639 got a job out here in Los Angeles, Yeah, in 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.879 a restaurant downtown from the same company who was running 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:43.480 the restaurant in Indianapolis. Yeah. And then at about six 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:47.920 months later, I met Patrick Deray. He owned ma maysone, 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:50.960 and I started to work there in the morning and 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.880 worked at night downtown in the restaurant called Francois, and 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.160 because I wanted to make money to open my own restaurant. 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.119 And then after a while, Patrick said, oh, why you 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.840 don't come and bee the chef at my Maizon. So 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.960 finally I said, okay. I started there, and I get 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.480 my first paycheck there and I got to the bank, 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:13.239 it bounced. I said, oh my god. You know, I 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.160 had no idea about the business. Pod So I came back. 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:17.800 I said there's no money in the bank, they can 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:19.920 pay me. You know. It wasn't a lot of money. 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.000 A few dred box and then he said, okay, I'll 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.080 make you a partner in the restaurant. So he gave 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.400 me like ten percent of the restaurant. It's like having 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:29.240 ten percent. 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:34.280 Of ye place with the checkpount. That's okay. 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.800 Yeah, So I said, okay. I started to buy food. 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.080 I went to see, for example, the guy who brought 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.800 us the fish. Everything was on cod. You had to 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:45.400 pay them cash when they brought the food. And I said, 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.560 where is your place? So I went downtown to this 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.639 fish place, and I saw, for example, there was a 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.879 famous restaurant called Scandia. Here they used to buy cooked 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.600 lobster for their lobster cocktails. I used to buy the 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:02.280 lobster shelves to make lobster stock, or lost the bisky 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:04.480