WEBVTT - Austin Butler 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.840 Welcome to Rivercafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:11.120 Adami Studios. 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.880 My favorite line in this conversation is when Austin Butler 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:21.800 refers to his and my relationship as family. Austin arrived 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:26.720 here from filming Baz Luhrmann's movie Elvis, playing Elvis himself. 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.080 London was just out of COVID lockdown and leading an 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.320 immediate tradition. We decided to have dinner at my home 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:40.519 every Sunday night with the same small group of friends. 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.879 Austin would turn up early and cook with me, and 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.800 this is what we did every Sunday for thirty nine weeks. 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:54.520 Austin is a brilliant actor, a beautiful singer, a poet, 0:00:54.960 --> 0:01:05.520 and a true friend. And Austin is my family. So Austin, 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.120 you and I are here in the River Cafe to 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.679 talk about food, our memories, travel and a lot more. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.280 But maybe we should just start with Australia. 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.199 I was in Australia for a year and a half 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.840 film I was making Elvis with Basil Hrman. 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:25.880 Did he have food on set? Did you sit down 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:26.400 to meals? 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:28.319 Yeah? Well we did this thing. 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.280 It's I'm realizing it's a very European sort of thing 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.040 where you have these rolling lunches, which basically means you 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:37.960 don't have a lunch break. You eat while you're filming. 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:39.880 And I actually kind of like it because it keeps 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:54.520 the momentum of filming. And so while we were filming 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.040 a lot of times it was just I was eating 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:06.200 for it was like gasoline was eating for for energy. 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.240 I just galloped making the most of this thing black hand. 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:16.320 And then when we wrapped, Bas and I were at 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:18.840 his house and there was a small group of us, 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.440 and it was the night that we wrapped, it was 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:22.880 it was the first time that he and I both 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:23.840 sort of were able to. 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:25.799 Go, ah, we did it. 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.320 You know, we've been working on this for I've been 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:30.840 attach for about two and a half years at that point, 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.400 maybe three years. He'd been doing this for long or 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.600 five or eight years or something. And we we just 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.840 we danced until the sun came up. We just yeah, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:42.640 well we had a little group there, but we we 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:44.880 just put on vinyl records and we just danced and 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.080 we ate oysters and. 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.200 We just we just lived life. 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.200 It was like this feeling of letting our hair down 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:55.480 and and then the sun started to come up and uh, 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.800 and Bas looked out and he lived across the street 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.840 from the sea, and he said, should we go swim 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:03.600 in the ocean right now? And this is the night 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.240 that we wrapped the film, and so we both we 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:08.959 were like, yeah, let's do it. So we ran across 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.200 the street and we jumped in the ocean and it's 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.440 like five in the morning now, and we swam in 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.960 the ocean, and so the sun's rising and I was 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:21.400 gonna not go that night as well, and I said, 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:22.920 I said, pass, I can't believe I was gonna go 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.960 to sleep tonight. And he started singing nessa dorma and 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:29.720 he goes, no sleep tonight, No sleep tonight, and he 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.720 starts singing this opera and I hadn't really heard that song, 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:34.480 and he was telling me the story of the opera 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:36.240 and then he said, I'll play it for you when 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.240 we get back to the shore. And he went back 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:40.680 to the shore, and I kind of took a second 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:42.920 from myself in the ocean where it's just me. I 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:44.960 just watched the sun rise and I sort of processed 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.120 all that we had done. And you don't know the 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.560 final outcome of a film. You hope that you did 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.040 everything you possibly could, and you gave every bit of 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:56.840 your soul, but you don't know how it's going to 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.120 be received. But at that moment, I just kind of 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.880 processed all that you had, the work that we had done, 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.760 and the joy and the love that we put into. 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:06.200 It, and I sort of had that moment. 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:08.400 And then as I sort of slowly walked back to shore, 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.080 I look at Baz and he's holding a speaker above 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.080 his head like John Cusack can say anything, and he's 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:18.760 playing Nessador, the Pavaroti version, and it's blaring at like 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.400 five point thirty in the morning now on the beaches 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.760 of the Gold Coast. It was so magical and cinematic. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.520 And then we made breakfast. 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:29.360 What was that we made? 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.520 We looked in the refrigerator and thought, okay, what can 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.200 we make? Because he and I both had been working 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.360 so hard. And there's this thing about filming where you're 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.919 there's so many responsibilities that other people end up almost 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:44.800 treating you like you're a child. In many areas, they 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:47.640 walk you to the bathroom. You know, if I said 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:49.159 i'm when I go to the trailer, they walk me 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.200 there and to make sure I don't get lost, they 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:53.480 treat you like you can't do anything, and they bring 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.000 you your food, and so you're very spoiled in many ways. 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:01.359 But there's something so relieving about that moment when you 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:05.040 were finally able to do something for yourself. And so 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.280 he and I that was our moment. We opened the 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.160 refrigerator and we saw that, okay, we got eggs, we 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.520 got asparagus, we got some spinach there, we got some tomatoes, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.200 we got some parmesan cheese. 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:15.760 What can we do? And so we kind of just 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:16.640 made this breakfast. 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.840 And there's this loaf of bread, and so we cut 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:21.760 off bits of this bread and we toasted it and 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.600 just made this delicious meal. And that's one of the 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:28.039 most glorious memories of my life. Was like after we 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.680 finished this thing that was so terrifying and daunting, and 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.440 that we gave it everything we could and then then 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.520 we just sat there and as the morning sun sort 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:38.320 of laid down on us and ate that breakfast and 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:39.160 it was so glorious. 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.799 It's it's about memory, isn't it. It's about the time. 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:47.000 And what about Tarantina? He was he interested in food? 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.960 Yeah, Yeah, remember one night we were we were doing 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.800 night shoots and it was about three in the morning. 0:05:54.560 --> 0:06:00.839 He had this amazing crepe maker come and make crapes 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.479 and we were eating these amazing crepes and he said, 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.120 he said, Austin, you know, my thing is I want 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.919 to give everybody such a good experience on this job 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.640 that their next job sucks. 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:16.200 And it was such a wonderful thing. 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:20.159 So every every night there would be some new food 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.839 thing that he would he would organize, so you just 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.159 had this thing to look forward to. And and the 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:27.880 other thing that he did was after every hundred rolls 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.200 of film, which I believe it or not, this was 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.919 the first time I had shot anything on film, because 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:38.080 everything since I grew up was on digital essentially with 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.839 every person that I had worked with, and so that 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:43.080 was really special just hearing the sound of the film 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:44.720 going through the camera when you're sitting in the car. 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.400 But everye hundred rolls of film, you'd throw a party 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.360 and it would have a theme. So he'd have, you know, 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.039 Groppo would come out and so everybody and they'd be 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.280 singing these songs, and or Margarita's would come out and 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.919 need to have a mariachi band or so every hundred dollars, 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.120 whether it be ten in the morning or you know, 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:05.200 three in the morning. 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.400 It was something to look forward to. 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.720 I think that does actually give people a kind of 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.040 commitment to the person you're working for. You know that 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:15.320 they're taking care of you, know, they're thinking about you, 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.120 They're recognizing that you're working hard and that you want 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:24.560 to give them something back. It's a lot, doesn't it. Yeah, 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:28.400 when you lived by yourself, you once told me that 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.520 you chose a house in Los Angeles because it had 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:32.679 a pizza oven. 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.160 Oh that was Yeah. 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.640 There's this beautiful house that had belonged to Gary Oldman 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:44.000 before and he had built a pizza oven. And I 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:48.400 became obsessed with learning how to make the perfect fire 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.560 and this pizza oven, the specific type of wood and 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:53.160 exactly how to lay it. And I got one of 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:56.440 those laser temperature gauges so I could make it a 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.000 thousand degrees and learn how to make the pizza sauce 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.720 and the dough and everything. And it was actually Christmas 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.080 that I made the most pizzas I think, And the 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.680 first couple kind of came out rough and then and 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.480 then started to get really into the zone of it. 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.960 And it was amazing to me how you how fast. 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:14.800 You could cook a pizza. 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:18.280 Yeah, in that heat thirty seconds. For forty five seconds, 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:19.480 you can cook a whole pizza. 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:20.520 Yeah. 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.560 So I cooked pizzas for my whole family, and such 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.240 a great experience just getting to feed them and the 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.280 special thing of all kind of being around the fire. 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.360 And we had this table out there and. 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.120 It sort of looked like the Secret Garden as well 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.360 in this backyard. And cooked all these pizzas, and then 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.760 I started getting into other things. 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:41.280 I thought, what else can I cook it this fire? 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.160 And there's a restaurant in la called Pace that is 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:49.520 in Laurel Canyon that makes this salmon on a cedar plank, 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:51.800 and so I thought, I want to learn how to 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.040 make that. And so I ended up getting these cedar 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.320 planks and soaking them in water and putting the salmon 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.240 on top and seasoning it and sticking it in the. 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:02.000 Wood fire or whatever. It came out so incredibly. 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.679 This is something solitary. When I talked to Michael Caine, 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:09.040 he said that he'd love to write a book ye 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.960 back to Garden. And he liked to cook because doing 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.240 a movie, you are surrounded by hundreds of people surrounded 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.560 whatever you're doing you just describe being walked to the 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.800 bathroom or trying to find your trail. There's always someone around. 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.000 And then he chose three solitary things that you can 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.160 do on your own. Yea, So it sounds like maybe 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.560 that cooking was something that you could do without. 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:33.439 Absolutely it makes you feel so. 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.960 Sufficient, Yeah, and also giving giving back that you want 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:38.360 to feed. 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:46.200 Absolutely, it becomes my love language in a way. I 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.079 cook so much for the people around me. I'll look 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.000 into their eyes when they're eating it and try to 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.120 see if they love it as much as they say they. 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:55.680 Do, and I'll try to figure out ways of making 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:56.080 it better. 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.280 And it sounds the way you're talking about it like 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:00.000 a performance. 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:00.960 Yeah. 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.840 Do you think there are parallels between acting or performing 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.160 or singing and cooking looking into people's eyes and seeing 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.599 how they are responding to your performance. 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:28.560 Absolutely grilled white peaches with amoretto. Serve six six ripe 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:33.360 white peaches, one vanilla pod, two tablespoons cast of sugar, 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.840 one hundred and twenty milli liters amoretto, preheat of into 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.280 one hundred and ninety degrees celsius heat a grilled pan 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.200 until very hot. Cut each peach in half and remove 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:49.680 the stone. Place the peach halves cut side down on 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:54.400 the hot pan and grill until slightly charred. Remove from 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:58.680 the pan and place face up on an oven proof dish. 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.920 Slice the vanilla pod odd lengthways and put with the 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:07.680 sugar into a mortar pound until the vanilla pod is 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.800 broken up and combined with the sugar. Scatter the vanilla 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.640 sugar over the peaches and pour over half of the amaretto. 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.760 Bake for ten minutes or until the peaches are soft. 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.760 Add the remaining amaretto, and serve hot or cold with 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:25.160 a spoonful of crim fresh. 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:26.560 Thank you. 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:28.840 That sounds delicious. 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:36.080 Austin amaretto and Italian liqueur peaches grilled. Is that anything 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.920 to do with any food you grew up with in California? 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:44.760 Yeah? So I was born in Anaheim, right near Disneyland, 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.440 and we used to have these. We used to have 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:51.199 trees in the backyard that it wasn't We didn't have peaches, 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.960 but we had grapefruit trees, and we had an orange 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.160 tree in the backyard. And so like the smell of 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.240 fresh fruit. I remember my picking it and us having 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:06.120 this fresh fruit, and the kitchen and these lemons and grapefruit, 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.720 and so that's that's sort of what that made me think. 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.000 Of, did your mom? Was she a good cook? 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:14.600 She was a great cook, and especially as the years 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:18.720 went on, I remember eating a lot of fish sticks 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.040 and you know, the things that you'd get in the 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:25.560 freezer aisle, and little corn dogs that she would make, 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:30.160 because when I was born, she wanted to be a 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.400 stay at home mom, and she was a dental high 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:38.440 genist at the time, and then she ended up starting 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:40.520 daycare out of the house, and so she would watch 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.600 the children of the mothers who taught at the school 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:45.599 right right around the corner that I eventually went to 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.960 elementary school there, and so so we always had little 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.320 children in the house, and so she had to make 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.320 these meals that were really quick and easy. So as 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.560 a kid, I just remember eating those and tuna fish 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:02.240 sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly sand and so nothing 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.080 really gourmet at all. And then as the years went on, 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.640 she became vegetarian, and then she became vegan, and then 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:13.720 she got really into making special things with portobello mushrooms 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:15.559 and bell peppers. 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:17.760 Stuffed with gooscous or other things like that. 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.760 So she got a little bit more into it later on, 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.640 But when I was growing up, it wasn't extremely healthy 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:27.040 in the house. It was it was kind of efficient meals. 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:28.920 And she's probably working so hard. 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:29.920 She was working so much. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:31.920 And I mean there was twelve kids in the house 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:36.280 sometimes and yeah, all different ages. And when I was 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:39.600 when I started going to elementary school, we lived around 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:43.080 the corner from that same school, and I would walk 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.199 home every lunch and she'd have a peanut butter and 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:49.520 jelly sandwich waiting for me. And we watched this home 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:54.040 decorating show called Surprise by Design, and then we would 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:55.400 we would come up with things that we were going 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.840 to do around the house, and so we we'd lay 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:02.320 a brick path in the backyard or plant little flowers, 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.360 that sort of thing. We'd get inspired by this show, 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:06.920 and I just remember how excited I was to walk 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.240 home every day and just eat the sandwich that she 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.199 made for me, and how specially that was. 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.040 That's a beautiful memory. Is that of your mother making 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.880 something for you and going home for lunch. That's that's 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:20.280 Would you have dinner as well? Would you all sit 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:21.360 down to dinner or was. 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.640 That Well, my parents divorced when I was seven, and 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.000 a lot of my memories go back to that time 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.400 because it was when sort of the stability of family 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:36.520 split up and my dad moved into this this person 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:40.040 that he worked with, and he moved into their garage 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.760 and they had sort of a converted garage and we 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.000 had a tiny, little miniature fridge and that was that 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.720 was where we kept all our groceries. And we had 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.120 air mattresses that we slept on and we put them 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.680 down at night and then we'd put them up and 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:54.520 we'd put down a table during the day. 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:55.440 And so it. 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.440 Was this one room that was our entire house, and 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:00.880 it was just this old garage, and there was a 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.360 treadmill in the corner that was their old treadmill, and 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:08.280 we would we would make food there, and so we 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.440 shared their kitchen. Better than that, we had sort of 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:15.520 just this one room. And I started cooking as a 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:19.720 kid because with my dad had he had work and 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:21.720 so he would say, hey, I'll pay you two dollars 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.480 if you'd cook dinner tonight. And so as a way 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:26.880 that I could stock up money as a kid was 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:27.720 cooking dinner. 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.479 And there was three staple. 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.200 Things, maybe and one of the main ones that I 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:36.240 remember is burritos. We'd make Dennison's chili bean burritos, which 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.120 this can of beans with some sour cream and cheese, 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.200 and I haven't eaten one of those in years, but 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:45.480 we used to eat that every night. And then a 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.160 special occasion would be getting a five dollars pizza from 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.640 down the road or something like that. So those were 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:53.520 that was like the idea of a fancy meal was 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.120 ordering a pizza out when I was a kid, which 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.120 I think then years later coming to a place like 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.680 like your restaurant here, going to French laundry for the 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.960 first time or something like that was was so felt. 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:08.800 I felt so out of my element in a way 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:11.440 when I first started going to really nice restaurants, because 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:13.840 you know, five dollars sounded like a lot for a 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:15.239 meal when I was a kid. 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:17.480 Would you do the shopping or would he order out? 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:18.040 Would you? 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:20.120 We would always we'd usually get a costco. 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:25.240 As a kid, yeah and yeah, we'd get food and 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:29.000 bulk and then and make meals out of that. And 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:31.600 then at a certain point, I think when I moved 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:36.280 I moved out when I was seventeen, and I started 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.440 wanted to learn how to make food and wanted to 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.840 know how flavors fit together. And I started making some money, 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.040 and so I started trying restaurants in LA and then 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:48.800 I worked in New York for the first time, and 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.680 that was really eye opening because just getting to try 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:57.360 great little Italian restaurants. And I remember going to Roberta's 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:59.960 for the first time, which is this restaurant in Brooklyn. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.000 Had a friend of mine who owned all these restaurants 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:03.800 in LA. He said, this is the restaurant that made 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.760 me want to open a restaurant. And so going to 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.920 Roberta's and and trying there and it feels a lot 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:13.000 like here, where you feel like you're home, you know 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:19.800 you're entering. I realized I have a lot of instability 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:23.160 in my life. There hasn't been a lot of continuity 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.080 in many areas of my life since I was young, 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.439 just because I travel a lot. And even the nature 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.919 of doing a film or a TV show, you you 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.000 sort of make a family of the entire crew and 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:38.080 then it splits up. 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:39.840 And through therapy, I. 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.159 Sort of realized that that was that I was almost 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:47.080 like reliving my childhood of my parents getting divorced. For 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.199 you know, many years of making a family, and then 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:51.720 it splits up, and you make a family and it 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.000 splits up. And so I'd seek out ways of having 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.840 stability and consistency and most of that for me while 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:03.480 on location, whether I was Vancouver, New Zealand, or Australia, 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.199 here in London, or wherever I was, I would I 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:12.159 would find restaurants that became my second home, and I'd 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:13.960 get to the point where I'd go there every day 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.520 and the staff then knew me and I knew them, 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.879 and suddenly it felt like there was there was this 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.840 thing that was separate from my work, that felt like home. 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.399 Even if I've woken up with anxiety, or if i 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.840 feel sad or I feel overwhelmed, I go to a restaurant, 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.679 I think what you've created here is so beautiful because 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:35.679 I feel it here as well. I'll come here with 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:37.879 a book and you know, and I get to see you, 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.040 and I get to read, and I know the people 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.320 who work here, and that goes even deeper because you 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.480 and I have a family relationship. 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.720 Beyond that, I think I always say that in an 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:53.560 irregular world, we do need regular things. And I think 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.840 even if we have, you know your life, you know 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.080 the way you describe. It is very moving and very 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:05.600 honest and a revelation of who you are. But I 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:09.359 think that even if you have a consistency and you 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:13.359 have those foundations and you have that life, it's still 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.000 we seek out. You know. You talk to people about 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.720 the Sunday lunch, people going home for Sunday lunch, or 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:24.199 Friday night supper or Christmas. The Christmas lunch has to 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.840 be the same every year. And so food does mean that, 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.080 doesn't It gives you a sense of stability. And I 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.960 always wanted a restaurant to feel like home, you know, 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.920 that is a place. I'm always amazed that people will 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:39.119 come to a restaurant even if they've had a really 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.120 bad day, you know, or something bad has happened. 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.000 Sometimes we need it on those days the most, Yeah, 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:45.520 that you come. 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:47.280 This morning, I could hardly leave the house. I just 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:51.159 felt anxious for some reason. And then I got myself. 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:52.400 I just said, you know, I just got to get 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:54.800 to the cafe. And once you get there, then suddenly 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.679 there's life around you and it sort of buzzes and 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.919 you feel humanity wash over you, and things that are 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.359 happening outside of your own experience. And then and then 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:07.320 you eat delicious food and that really helps. 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:20.560 Did you eat pizzas in Italy when you went on 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:22.800 that trip? You tell me that you took a road trip. 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:24.880 Yeah, I had a lot of pizza there. 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:26.240 Where did you start? 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:27.520 We took this. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:29.920 One of the best trips I've ever taken was this. 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:35.360 Spent a month just road tripping through Italy. That was 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:40.719 probably four years ago, or was before I was. And 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:46.600 we started in Milan, drove from Milan to the coast 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.560 and went to Porto Fino first, and I'd only ever 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.240 spent maybe a week in Italy before this, and that 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.480 was incredible. And then drove down and went to Chinquitere 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.240 and hiked between the little villages and when through the 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:04.200 vineyards there had pasta, Oh my gosh, the best pesta 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:06.199 pasta besides yours. 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:10.000 Yea, they can make a better one. I'm not competitive. 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:11.400