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Speaker 1: Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and

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Speaker 1: adamized Studios.

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Speaker 2: Mel Brooks makes the world laugh. Watch the producers blazing

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Speaker 2: saddles Young Frankenstein. Listen to the two thousand year old Man,

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Speaker 2: or read his autobiography All About Me, and you are

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Speaker 2: guaranteed to find yourself laughing out loud until it hurts.

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Speaker 2: But for me, having known Mel for twenty five years,

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Speaker 2: funny is not the first word I would use to

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Speaker 2: describe this amazing man. Hungry, hungryly, proud. Do you think

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Speaker 2: that's your adjective? You get hungry with you. I get

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Speaker 2: hungry when I see you. We love you there, fiercely,

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Speaker 2: proud of his children and his grandchildren, the first one

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Speaker 2: to pick up a phone to a friend in trouble,

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Speaker 2: refusing an award in opposition to the Iraq War and

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Speaker 2: waiting to accept it from President Obama. Vulnerable after the

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Speaker 2: loss of people he loved. To Mel, food and wine

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Speaker 2: are crucial. Many of his life's happenings have occurred in restaurants,

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Speaker 2: and as for wine, he will tell you himself.

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Speaker 3: Spill it all over the table.

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Speaker 2: I'm trying to take this seriously today. It is home.

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Speaker 2: We are together, lucky me. We're going to talk about

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Speaker 2: wine and family and friends and be prepared to laugh

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Speaker 2: because mel Brooks is funny. So that was a serious introduction.

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Speaker 2: I want to tell you what do you want to

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Speaker 2: tell me.

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Speaker 3: That before we stopped talking, Before I forget, I would

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Speaker 3: like to do my imitation of a cat, because not

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Speaker 3: a lot of people know that I do it. I

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Speaker 3: make ther best cats sound in the world.

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Speaker 2: I just I just need one second to really get

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Speaker 2: myself into this.

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Speaker 3: Okay, here's my work doing the sound of a cat.

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Speaker 3: Wo that is that is a perfect sound. It's hard

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Speaker 3: to do, hard to do. I do it in young Frankenstein.

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Speaker 3: I think it's it's a dart throwing contest and one

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Speaker 3: of the dogs hits a cat and you hear you.

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Speaker 2: Know, did you do the sound? I get there every night?

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Speaker 2: Can you do it again?

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Speaker 3: Wow?

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Speaker 2: That's good? So what's the technique?

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Speaker 3: Technique is to is to squash some air between your

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Speaker 3: cheek and the front of your mouth.

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Speaker 2: As we're talking about cats and fish, maybe about fish.

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Speaker 2: You know cats like to eat fish. We could actually

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Speaker 2: read the recipe.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, my favorite of all the of all of

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Speaker 3: all the things in the book. There's a good picture

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Speaker 3: of it too in your cookbook River Cafe, London.

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Speaker 2: Thirty because that was done for our thirty.

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Speaker 3: Three threeh thirty years. Wow.

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Speaker 2: Do you remember you came to the party?

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Speaker 3: I did? Oh agreed?

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Speaker 2: You and Richard sat there the whole night in the

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Speaker 2: oh yeah, in the restaurant, and everybody just came to

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Speaker 2: your table. Everyone, everybody wanted to see.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't as important as the food on my plate.

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Speaker 2: A lot of food.

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Speaker 3: Paid attention to all he eats, All he eats are supreme.

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Speaker 3: Let me run the rest of Okay dover soul with Marjoram.

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Speaker 3: I don't know what Marjoram is, but I love it. Okay,

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Speaker 3: whatever it is, whatever it is, one bunch of fresh

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Speaker 3: margarine leaves, one whole dover soul, weighing twelve to fourteen ounces,

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Speaker 3: three fifty to four hundred grams, scaled and cleaned. Of course,

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Speaker 3: of course I'm not gonna eat it with the scales on,

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Speaker 3: never and with the stuff inside. No sense. One lemon

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Speaker 3: cut in half. I have lemons, Mayer lemons for my

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Speaker 3: Mayer lemon tree just outside here, and they are golden

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Speaker 3: yellow and running with lemon juice. That is superior to

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Speaker 3: anything in the world. So if I have a dover sole,

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Speaker 3: I'll bring my lemons.

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Speaker 2: Okay, well, we get armored lemons from Amalfi, so they're

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Speaker 2: pretty good too.

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Speaker 3: Okay, here we go. Pre eat the oven to four

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Speaker 3: hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit. That's pretty hot. That's pretty hard.

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Speaker 3: Brush a large flat baking sheet with extra virgin olive oil.

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Speaker 3: Scatter half the modorum leaves over the sheet along with

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Speaker 3: some sea salt and black pepper. Place the fish on top,

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Speaker 3: season with sea salt and black pepper. Then scatter the

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Speaker 3: remaining marjoram drizzle. Drizzle generously with olive oil. Okay, that

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Speaker 3: sounds great. Bake for fifteen to twenty minutes. Tests with

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Speaker 3: the point of a sharp knife and certing into the

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Speaker 3: central of the thickest part of the soul. Ah. If cooked,

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Speaker 3: the flesh should come away from the bone. Okay. Squeeze

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Speaker 3: the lemon, either from a malfy or from mel Brooks's

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Speaker 3: lemon tree, over the fish, and serve with any juices

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Speaker 3: from the pans that are left. I like that.

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Speaker 2: Let's begin at the beginning earliest food memories. What do

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Speaker 2: you remember from you know, your early days. Did your

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Speaker 2: mother cook?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, my mother, okay, it was It was a standard Williamsburg,

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Speaker 3: Brooklyn Jewish tenement food. So breakfast in the winter was

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Speaker 3: always a hot cereal, cream of wheat or Ralston which

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Speaker 3: was a kind of Baridge brown borridge, and then in

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Speaker 3: the summer corn flakes, rice krispies or wheaties.

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Speaker 2: What year would that have been? How old would you?

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Speaker 3: I would that would be thirty five, I'd be around nine.

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Speaker 3: That's when I went my uncle Joe, shortest jew on earth.

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Speaker 4: Short he was about four to four when when a taxi,

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Speaker 4: a big checker taxi cab rolled down the streets of

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Speaker 4: Brooklyn and there was no driver.

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Speaker 3: That was there was no driver. It was so short

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Speaker 3: it get just about peer over the you know. Anyway,

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Speaker 3: Joe took me because his friend Al was the doorman

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Speaker 3: of the Alvin Theater on fifty second Street, and running

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Speaker 3: at that same theater was Cold Porters Anything Goes. I

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Speaker 3: had never seen a Broadway show. I was nine years

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Speaker 3: old and Uncle Joe took me to see Anything Goes.

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Speaker 3: I was stunned. I was. I couldn't believe it. Even

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Speaker 3: though we were in the second balcony was far away

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Speaker 3: from the stage as you can get ethel Merman was

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Speaker 3: too loud, No MIC's she was just she.

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Speaker 2: Was anything goes. Did she say the mother? Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: the woman. It's on a ship, isn't it.

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Speaker 3: And it's on a ship? Very good? Yeah. And Victim

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Speaker 3: Moore was the gangster of the gangs.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. It was so good. At the end, I nearly

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Speaker 3: clapped my hands over. I just couldn't stop clapping and

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Speaker 3: screaming and shouting. And then I got back an Uncle

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Speaker 3: Joe's camp. I said to him, Uncle John, I'm not

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Speaker 3: going in the garment center. Everybody at three sixty five

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Speaker 3: South third Street, between on Hooper and Use three sixty

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Speaker 3: five South third Street, everybody in that building worked in

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Speaker 3: the garment center. They were shipping clerks, they were cutters,

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Speaker 3: they were designers, there were salesman and they everybody I

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Speaker 3: think on the street, the sixty one, three sixty three

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Speaker 3: through sixty five, these tenements, everybody in the garments set.

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Speaker 3: And I screamed at my uncle Joe, Uncle Joe, I'm

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Speaker 3: not I'm not going into the garments that I'm not.

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna go into the show business. I loved it.

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Speaker 3: I loved it, you know, and it changed, but it

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Speaker 3: did and I did. And because he take you.

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Speaker 2: To food, what do you take you out to eat?

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Speaker 2: I always went to the theater as a kid, and

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Speaker 2: then there was the meal afterwards, lunch before it was

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Speaker 2: a day out.

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Speaker 3: We had some favorites that Uncle Joe would take us to,

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Speaker 3: where one was called Gallagher Steakhouse. They had like half

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Speaker 3: a cow in the window. I always had these half

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Speaker 3: cows in the window, you know, hanging gallaghers. Yeah, and

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Speaker 3: the and the steak was incredible. And sometimes you go

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Speaker 3: to Jack Dempsey's restaurant.

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Speaker 2: And what was that?

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Speaker 3: And that was great, but you know, it was it

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Speaker 3: was all meat. It was. There never any fish in

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Speaker 3: a restaurant. Yeah, And I never liked fish. I don't

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Speaker 3: think I ever liked fish until I was seventy or

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Speaker 3: eighty and I went to the River Cafe.

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Speaker 2: And so really you never ate fish.

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Speaker 3: I hardly ever ate fish as.

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Speaker 2: But it's interesting to me that you you describe a

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Speaker 2: kind of modest home life in terms of doing your food,

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Speaker 2: but you went out to restaurants.

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Speaker 5: So a lot of Jewish restaurants were called dairy restaurants,

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Speaker 5: and they serve stuff like blinches with sour cream and

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Speaker 5: old dairy.

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Speaker 3: You never mixed meat and dairy with something some religious nonsense.

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Speaker 2: Did your grandmother cook for you?

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Speaker 3: My grandmother cook?

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Speaker 2: What did she cook? Olsh grandmother? Your mother's mother's mother.

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Speaker 2: I never knew, you never knew your father's.

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Speaker 3: No, no, my father's grandmother, I didn't know. She did

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Speaker 3: say to her meals best over meals in Bensonhurst where

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Speaker 3: they lived in a big one family had.

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Speaker 2: Did they come their first generation?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no, they were. They were European.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so do you think your grandparents brought their

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Speaker 2: food with them the food.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, culture they cooked the same stuff. Mostly it was chicken,

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Speaker 3: chicken and chicken soup.

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Speaker 2: And uh briscuit.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they made brisket. Absolutely, they made brisket and brown potatoes.

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Speaker 2: Do you know my grandparents came? They were They came

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Speaker 2: from Hungary and Russia. And my father remembers my grandmother

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Speaker 2: having in the Lower East Side a carp swimming in

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Speaker 2: the bathtub that they would make it filter fish out of.

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Speaker 2: So do you imagine having a look, they would bring

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Speaker 2: it a live fish.

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Speaker 3: Live fish.

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Speaker 2: We would get a live fish.

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Speaker 3: My brother Bernie and I were usually one week we

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Speaker 3: loved and we called them alreaty and we fed them

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Speaker 3: bread crumbs and we chased them around the bathtub. And

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Speaker 3: then it was unspeakable. I can't even describe it.

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Speaker 2: Killing Irving.

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Speaker 3: My older oldest brothers Irving and Lenny held us back.

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Speaker 3: We were screaming, don't kill him. And my mother would

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Speaker 3: say we got to eat, we gotta eat supper, and

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Speaker 3: she'd kill audience, serve him, it was and we would

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Speaker 3: cry and but we ate.

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Speaker 2: Him and then would you get another carp and kill that?

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Speaker 2: We got another carp It's so interesting that they had

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Speaker 2: live fish swimming in the back in the Yeah, they did.

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Speaker 3: It's amazing that you had to say.

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Speaker 2: My brother Michael, who you know, just wrote I have

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Speaker 2: found that something my father had written about his memories

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Speaker 2: of food and just living in the Lower east Side.

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Speaker 2: But you weren't in the Lower east Side.

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Speaker 3: The Lower east Side, an extension of the Lower east

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Speaker 3: Side was Williamsburg.

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Speaker 2: That was probably one step up, was it.

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Speaker 3: Well, it was one step up if you put it

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Speaker 3: next to a section of Brooklyn called Bronzeville, East New York.

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Speaker 3: And that was really where they had coal stoves. They

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Speaker 3: didn't even have gas. Yeah, and we had electricity and

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Speaker 3: we had guess so we were one step of Brownsbilt

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Speaker 3: equal to the lower east Side. And let me tell

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Speaker 3: you that my mother used to make every once in

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Speaker 3: a while on a Sunday night, she would make spaghetti.

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Speaker 3: She would buy a box of Muller's noodles.

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Speaker 2: They were flat, flat noodles.

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Speaker 3: And she cooked them until they were dead.

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Speaker 2: They'd be really soft.

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Speaker 3: Oh, they were really soft. And then she put them

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Speaker 3: in a baking pan and she would empty a bottle

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Speaker 3: of Heinz ketchup over there, This is spaghetti. And then

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Speaker 3: she'd bake it for thirty or forty minutes until the

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Speaker 3: pan was dead, till everything was dead. And then she

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Speaker 3: cut them into squares and served it to us and

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Speaker 3: said spaghetti. And I was from eight years old to

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Speaker 3: about thirteen or fourteen. That was spaghetti and it was okay, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: it was really okay. Then I had joined a club

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Speaker 3: called the Baltzer Bugs. We made model airplanes. I think

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Speaker 3: we enjoyed smelling the glue. Where do we like baking

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Speaker 3: the planes? But we may so. One of one of

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Speaker 3: the Baltzer Bugs, it was Bertie Steinberger, was Flappy Rothman,

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Speaker 3: and there was Tony Galliani Italian an Italian, and Tony

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Speaker 3: said I'm going home. It was Sunday, and I said,

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Speaker 3: he said, I'm going home to have spaghetti. I said,

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Speaker 3: we have spaghetti on Sunday too. He said, well try,

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Speaker 3: you know, come on and have bar spaghetti. So I

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Speaker 3: went home. I walked into his apartment, which was in

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Speaker 3: green Point.

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Speaker 2: A little on the.

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Speaker 3: Edge of Williamsburg. As I walked in, I was assaulted

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Speaker 3: by these incredible smells, just as the aromas of of garlic,

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Speaker 3: and I mean, it was just incredible. Then I sat down.

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Speaker 3: They served this warm, squiggly spaghetti, real spaghetti, squiggly but

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00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:20,920
Speaker 3: not dead, fotback and sauces red thick, red, beautiful sauce

240
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Speaker 3: with meatballs in it, and sprinkled on top of it

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Speaker 3: was this white stuff snow. I think it was parmesan cheese.

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Speaker 3: And I took I took one bite and I started

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Speaker 3: to cry.

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Speaker 2: Did you cry?

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Speaker 3: I wept? I wept, and I said, Tony, this is

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Speaker 3: this is spaghetti. This is spaghetti. I was about fourteen,

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Speaker 3: and I just wept and I went When I came home,

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Speaker 3: I said, Mom, you're not making spaghetti. I don't know

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Speaker 3: what stuff is that cardpoint, but it's not spaghetti.

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Speaker 2: You're starting to tell me about your her mother's food.

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Speaker 2: What was her mother's food when you went to your grandmother's.

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Speaker 3: When we went to the sata was, I know they

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Speaker 3: made little dishes before to celebrate the Jews freedom from

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Speaker 3: slavery in Egypt, and had something with apples and stuff

255
00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:20,440
Speaker 3: that was supposed to mimic the mortar that the Jews

256
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Speaker 3: carried up to make sure these big stones stayed together.

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Speaker 3: And then some salt for the heart, for the suffering,

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Speaker 3: for the tears, and it was a lot of those

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Speaker 3: little things. And then she served this thing called the

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Speaker 3: filter fish with red horse rices. They called it crane,

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Speaker 3: crane or grain, and it was just thrilling. I loved it.

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Speaker 2: So you love food from food?

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Speaker 3: I tasted food. My mother wasn't making food. She was

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Speaker 3: she was making something at bathroom food.

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Speaker 2: So do you think your mother was not?

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Speaker 3: And the first time I had Chinese food? Where was

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Speaker 3: that Bluesburg? We never went to. My mother said we're

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Speaker 3: gonna go to a Chinese restaurant tonight, and each meal,

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Speaker 3: the whole meal menu twenty five cents.

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Speaker 2: And the Chinese restaurant.

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Speaker 3: And the Chinese restaurant and you got you got eggs first,

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Speaker 3: then you got chowmine, Oh, chowmine, and then you got

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Speaker 3: a yellow ball with little pieces of ice in it,

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Speaker 3: a round ball that was the ice cream dessert, and

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Speaker 3: and then some fortune cookies with the paper and that,

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Speaker 3: you know, I hate the paper. I hate everything. Everything

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Speaker 3: was sweet. One of the most delicious things was very simple.

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Speaker 3: We lived at five five stories up in this tentement,

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Speaker 3: and I wasn't I wasn't gonna come up. They will

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Speaker 3: get that. I was not going to come up for lunch.

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Speaker 3: I was not why because there was five stories and

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Speaker 3: I didn't want to leave the game. So we took

283
00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:14,560
Speaker 3: a break in the game and we all had lunch.

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Speaker 3: They all brought bags and stuff with them. Sat on

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Speaker 3: the carve of my friends and my mother would throw

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Speaker 3: in it, throw down in a brown paper bag, kaiser

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00:17:26,280 --> 00:17:31,600
Speaker 3: roll smeared with a lot of butter, fresh butter, and

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Speaker 3: almost a whole tomato sliced and salted and put that

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00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:41,040
Speaker 3: and it was the most delicious thing. And I'd always

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Speaker 3: catch it. But one time I missed it.

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Speaker 2: I was going to say five stories up as.

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Speaker 3: One time I missed it, and splata you heard the sound,

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00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:55,600
Speaker 3: and the bag was crammed with wet so I very

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00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:58,840
Speaker 3: carefully peeled that what used to be the bag away

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Speaker 3: from the sandwich, and I began eating the sandwich, and

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Speaker 3: I once again cried. It was so great. It was

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Speaker 3: the closest thing to pizza.

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Speaker 2: When did you have your first pizza? Oh?

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Speaker 3: I had my first pizza when I was I was

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Speaker 3: sixteen or seventeen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So as a teenager, you lived at home and

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Speaker 2: then when did you leave? When you left home, did

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Speaker 2: you cook for yourself?

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Speaker 3: Well? I didn't leave home. Oh, okay, I was sent

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Speaker 3: to Virginia Military Institute the Army. There's a guy that

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Speaker 3: came to my high school. We were going to graduate.

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Speaker 3: We were seventeen. We're going to be eighteen and graduated

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Speaker 3: from Eastern District High School. I claim to fame. Was

309
00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:47,879
Speaker 3: a red hour back was a great, incredible basketball coach

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Speaker 3: and world famous and he was on the team and

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Speaker 3: he was a genius. Anyway, I left because the guy said,

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Speaker 3: if you can pass a test, you'll be in the

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Speaker 3: Army Specialized Training Reserved program and it would stand you

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Speaker 3: in good stead because later when you were drafted or

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Speaker 3: taken into the regular Army you already had some background

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Speaker 3: in military and you could maybe choose your branch of

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Speaker 3: service and great, okay. So I took the test and

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Speaker 3: the test was not hard. It was how much is

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Speaker 3: doing too? I said, well, if you put them next

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00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:33,399
Speaker 3: to each other, you got twenty two, you know. But

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00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:37,359
Speaker 3: it was easy and they wanted you. So when I

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Speaker 3: was seventeen, they sent me to VMI Virginia Military Institute,

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Speaker 3: the West point of the South and go to restaurants

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Speaker 3: in Lexington, Virginia. And when the waitliss to take your order,

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Speaker 3: she answer back one thing. She'd say, you want grits

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Speaker 3: of that? And we said what she said? Do you

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Speaker 3: want grits with that?

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00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:06,080
Speaker 2: Nor that? I just couldn't understand.

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Speaker 3: I couldn't understand.

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Speaker 2: Later, it's kind of like polent. It's kind of like

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Speaker 2: you know, what was it like the food in the

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Speaker 2: military Awakening?

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00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, can I can be very honest with you and

334
00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:22,200
Speaker 3: say some words.

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Speaker 2: That's this is a podcast. We can do it.

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00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,160
Speaker 3: Okay, it's a podcast. We can do it. I remember

337
00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:31,240
Speaker 3: the only thing the army had a I went into

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Speaker 3: the mess hall at four Dicks and I was shocked

339
00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:40,679
Speaker 3: by what I saw on a on a a great

340
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:46,280
Speaker 3: big griddle, maybe maybe twelve feet by twelve. It was

341
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Speaker 3: just enormous. I saw a thousand eggs, sunny side up,

342
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Speaker 3: and you pick, you'd say, give me to give me three,

343
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Speaker 3: give me four, and then that was that was eggs.

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00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,720
Speaker 3: And then there was like a a trash barrel clean

345
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:05,440
Speaker 3: one of course, that had oatmeal in it. And then

346
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,480
Speaker 3: there was It was just that kind of you know,

347
00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 3: so it wasn't so bad.

348
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,520
Speaker 2: Were homesick? I was homesick, could be so homesick? How

349
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:14,400
Speaker 2: old were you?

350
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Speaker 5: Oh?

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00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,520
Speaker 3: Well I was. I was nearly old enough to be

352
00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:19,600
Speaker 3: in the regular army. So I was seventeen and a

353
00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:20,640
Speaker 3: half young to.

354
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Speaker 2: Take you out of Brooklyn, to take you out of

355
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:24,080
Speaker 2: your yeah, put you into place.

356
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,000
Speaker 3: It was a strange place. But anyway, we're all together

357
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,400
Speaker 3: and we we you know, we held onto each other.

358
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. Did you take anything away from that experience?

359
00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:36,760
Speaker 3: Yeah? I did. They were they were unusually nice to us,

360
00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:40,239
Speaker 3: these cadets. Yeah, these Southern cadets. They had and they

361
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:44,000
Speaker 3: taught us never to lie. Honor is the best thing,

362
00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:46,879
Speaker 3: you know. That stayed with you, and stay that stayed

363
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:49,960
Speaker 3: with me. Hardly, I hardly ever lie, except in show business.

364
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 3: You're forced to liar.

365
00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,400
Speaker 2: Say something, to tell somebody there.

366
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:58,800
Speaker 3: To do that good. Ally, you look so great today,

367
00:21:58,880 --> 00:21:59,200
Speaker 3: you know.

368
00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:02,679
Speaker 2: That, I said. A friend of mine once interviewed Isaiah Berlin,

369
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:05,680
Speaker 2: you know, the philosopher ya. He said, when you admire

370
00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:08,040
Speaker 2: somebody's work, do you just say I loved your work?

371
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:09,920
Speaker 2: And they said, no, no, no, that's for the work

372
00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,680
Speaker 2: you didn't think so much of. If you really loved

373
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:15,280
Speaker 2: their work, you I died, you know, I was on

374
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:17,639
Speaker 2: the floor. You know, how do you how do you

375
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:20,960
Speaker 2: give I love? Your work is for the people whose

376
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 2: work you didn't like it? You know, you say, that's fine?

377
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:24,720
Speaker 3: Yeah?

378
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:26,320
Speaker 2: But then what happened after.

379
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:28,840
Speaker 3: The and any anyway? I went into the real army

380
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,400
Speaker 3: and there I saw a thousand eggs Sonny Sun.

381
00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:33,520
Speaker 2: That was in the real army.

382
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:36,320
Speaker 3: Fourth that was Fourth Dicks, New Jersey.

383
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:38,119
Speaker 2: What year would that have been, mel.

384
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Speaker 3: I'll tell you exactly. June forty four. I was transferred

385
00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:48,040
Speaker 3: from v M I to four Dicks. I was in

386
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:51,680
Speaker 3: the regular army. And then there was a thing that

387
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 3: was on the table. It was a big round bowl

388
00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:58,600
Speaker 3: with stuff in it, and it was I'm not at

389
00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:01,920
Speaker 3: the table. It was like where where the cooks were,

390
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 3: you know, and they had big spoons and they could

391
00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:07,919
Speaker 3: slop it. They could they put it on on some toast,

392
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 3: and you know, and I didn't. I never took a chance.

393
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:16,280
Speaker 3: But once I said, you know, I said, the guy's

394
00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 3: next to me, ate it. So I took a chance

395
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 3: and I got it. And I said to them, what

396
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:24,959
Speaker 3: is that? What is this we're eating? And they said,

397
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 3: shit on a shingle? I said, what shit on a shingle?

398
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:34,240
Speaker 3: It turned out to be cream beef on toast, and

399
00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:37,200
Speaker 3: it wasn't so bad. But the Army, you know.

400
00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:38,919
Speaker 2: Did they send you abroad? Did you go?

401
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:42,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, eventually, But let me tell you, at breakfast and

402
00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 3: all meals in the Army, there was no shortcutting. You

403
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:50,480
Speaker 3: got into a lot of trouble. If someone said passed

404
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:53,880
Speaker 3: a butt, or passed the jam, or passed the whatever,

405
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:57,000
Speaker 3: you passed it. If you stopped and took some of

406
00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,960
Speaker 3: it and put it on your plate, that was shortcutting.

407
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:02,720
Speaker 3: And you had to leave the table in the middle

408
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 3: of your meal. That's it, your your throat.

409
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:06,840
Speaker 2: So you pass and then you wave.

410
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:12,639
Speaker 3: Passing and waited, you waited, and then when we were

411
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:16,359
Speaker 3: on bivouac bivouac means when you're you're on a campsite,

412
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 3: you pitched tents and you sleep on the ground, and

413
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:23,679
Speaker 3: then you go through a mess line with this stuff

414
00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:26,639
Speaker 3: to eat with it's all aluminum, and then there are

415
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:28,880
Speaker 3: there are indentations for food.

416
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:32,160
Speaker 2: In it, yeah, trays.

417
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 3: And then they always did the same thing. It was

418
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:40,680
Speaker 3: beef stew. They put the beef stew in the deepest

419
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:44,680
Speaker 3: dish in the dray. Then yes, for the let's say

420
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 3: the the mashed potatoes. You figured, well, there's a big

421
00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:51,880
Speaker 3: spot next to it. It's deep. Give that no on

422
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 3: the meat.

423
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 2: On the meat, and then mashed potatoes on the meat on.

424
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:57,719
Speaker 3: The meat, and then the top it off, or slice

425
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:00,680
Speaker 3: beaches on top of the mashed potato. And then places

426
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 3: in each plate for sections where everybody you can eat

427
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:12,040
Speaker 3: like a person. But they invariably put beef stew, then

428
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:16,400
Speaker 3: mesh petted, and then and I don't know, so.

429
00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 2: You always cared about how food tasted.

430
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, And there was one big another, very big revelation

431
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 3: in about food. Jeane Wilder, I could cry taking him,

432
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:33,359
Speaker 3: he's so sweet, sweetest, invited Anne and I to dinner

433
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 3: at his house and in the village at his houshest

434
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 3: apartment in the village. I forgot what we hate. But

435
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:46,399
Speaker 3: he served wine. Up until then the only wine I

436
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,040
Speaker 3: had ever really, I never cared for wine. They don't

437
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:52,440
Speaker 3: say it tastes a little sour. Oh. Up until then,

438
00:25:52,800 --> 00:26:00,760
Speaker 3: mana chevitz and carmel is sweet Jewish wine. And I

439
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:01,920
Speaker 3: tasted this wine.

440
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:03,000
Speaker 2: Was it a French wine?

441
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 3: It was a French wine, Santa stef you know. And

442
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 3: I said, what is this? He said, it's wine. I said, yeah,

443
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:17,680
Speaker 3: so this is wine. And he got me hooked. And

444
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,520
Speaker 3: from that day I think I was twenty something whatever,

445
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,080
Speaker 3: twenty four, twenty six, I don't know. To that day

446
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 3: to this if I have wine, it's always a good wine.

447
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:32,200
Speaker 3: It's either a good Italian wine or a good French

448
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,960
Speaker 3: wine or a good and half of valley wine. But

449
00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:40,639
Speaker 3: he taught me that wine could wine could actually taste

450
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 3: really taste good, you know.

451
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 2: And so how did you make the kind of voyage

452
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 2: from tasting wine to having one of the great sellers?

453
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:52,480
Speaker 3: And well, up until Blazing Saddles, I was hanging on

454
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,440
Speaker 3: the show business with the skin of my teeth, not

455
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:58,800
Speaker 3: making any money. The first movie I made was The Producers,

456
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:03,679
Speaker 3: good movie. I won Academy Award for the screenplay, but

457
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 3: just about broke even. And then the next one was

458
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:11,159
Speaker 3: The Twelve Chairs, which was a foreign movie kind of

459
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 3: you know made it was a good, very time, one

460
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:17,760
Speaker 3: of my best movies, but alas it didn't make a penny.

461
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:20,880
Speaker 3: So I was thinking of going back to television, where

462
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 3: I was doing all right, I was making money. And

463
00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 3: then Blazing Saddles and that was an explosion, busted open

464
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 3: the doors and windows and gave me enough money to

465
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:37,000
Speaker 3: buy a house, and you know, finally paid pay for

466
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:39,640
Speaker 3: dinner and did not have to slip me money under

467
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:44,400
Speaker 3: the table. And I was okay, Blazing Saddles did it.

468
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:47,160
Speaker 2: And that How did you educate yourself in wine? Did

469
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:47,879
Speaker 2: somebody help you?

470
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:48,040
Speaker 3: Or?

471
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 2: Well?

472
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:51,439
Speaker 3: Once, once I tasted those wines and I looked, I

473
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:53,880
Speaker 3: looked up. You know, I got a book. I got

474
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 3: a few books. Can you find a book? Take a look,

475
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 3: look up on the on the shelf there, look up

476
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 3: on the shelf. See if you find a wine book. Yeah,

477
00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 3: so I've always got books finding out.

478
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:13,879
Speaker 2: You know, if somebody said they want to learn about wine,

479
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:14,640
Speaker 2: would you say.

480
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 3: Read, I would say read, I would say read. I

481
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:24,160
Speaker 3: would say read yeah, yeah, what book is that now? Bordeaux?

482
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 2: So then you just learned and you visited, and you.

483
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 3: And I visited, you know, and I went cheval Blanc

484
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 3: invited me the owner of the chateau, and I spent

485
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 3: the weekend.

486
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,160
Speaker 2: Do you still go down Do you have your wine

487
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 2: cellar downstairs? You go downstairs.

488
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 3: I don't drink much wine now because of my belly.

489
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 3: I can't drink a lot of wine.

490
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:46,640
Speaker 2: But you can drink some.

491
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 3: I can drink some. I can, I can, I can

492
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 3: drink some.

493
00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:52,520
Speaker 2: What do you feel about Italian wine?

494
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 3: I love Italian wine. I love a barolo, you know.

495
00:28:55,960 --> 00:29:00,400
Speaker 3: And the wines can be soft in wonder for they

496
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,960
Speaker 3: can be rough and beautiful, you know, and a lot

497
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 3: of minds a great.

498
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 2: It's changed now, you know, there's a new generation of

499
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:11,480
Speaker 2: Italian winemakers whose fathers were and was farmers. You know,

500
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,600
Speaker 2: everybody had a vineyard and gianti or whatever. And then

501
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 2: this new generation of taking it seriously and they actually

502
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 2: even came to California to learn more about wine.

503
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:20,560
Speaker 3: All right.

504
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:34,479
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we talked about food in the army. But

505
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:37,959
Speaker 2: what I'd like to talk to you about food and filmmaking,

506
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 2: so or television. When you were working in film and

507
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 2: the studios, what would food be like? There would there

508
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:47,840
Speaker 2: be a canteen where you ate? What would they call

509
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 2: the commissary?

510
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 3: What would they commissary?

511
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:50,480
Speaker 2: Commissary?

512
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 3: What was that?

513
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 2: Yeah?

514
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:55,520
Speaker 3: In the movie studios, it's a commasary.

515
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 2: What happened? What was that like?

516
00:29:57,440 --> 00:30:02,720
Speaker 3: Well? Some some had a Fox was very good. Fox

517
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:07,760
Speaker 3: actually had really I mean Fox, you could get an omelet,

518
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,920
Speaker 3: you know. Other studios didn't know what an omelet was.

519
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,160
Speaker 2: You know, So tell me about a lunch. Would you

520
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 2: stop for lunch and would you all meet other actors

521
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 2: from other films? Everybody would just meet. There was that

522
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 2: a way of kind of meeting people. Who did you

523
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 2: meet when you had commissary? Yeah?

524
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:27,800
Speaker 3: Well, mostly the folks that I met, you know, the

525
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:30,520
Speaker 3: stuff that you know Allan Ladd Jr. Who ran Fox

526
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,400
Speaker 3: often liked to eat at my table. Yeah. And the

527
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 3: guy who just passed away lest this earlier this year

528
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 3: with Richard Donner, Yes, I loved so much. He was

529
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:47,280
Speaker 3: so mischievous. And Jay Canter, who at one time as

530
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 3: an agent for MCA handle Marlon Brando, Grace Kelly, I mean,

531
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 3: and they all liked him because he was soft and

532
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 3: sweet than he was.

533
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 2: So Jay used to eat with us, and he was

534
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:01,000
Speaker 2: on the movie set.

535
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 3: And well he had you would invite people to come

536
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 3: to the conversary. They'd come to the Fox and eat

537
00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 3: with us.

538
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 2: Your good friend Alan Up who whenever he was in town,

539
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 2: he told me to ask you a story about Carry Grant. Yes,

540
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 2: what's the story about Carry kran Oh, it's.

541
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:16,280
Speaker 3: A good story.

542
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:16,720
Speaker 2: Okay.

543
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 3: I was not yet a filmmaker, but I was writing

544
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 3: a movie for a guy called Marvin Schwartz on the

545
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 3: universe a lot. So I'm writing this movie and I

546
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:31,600
Speaker 3: look across the way and I see grand Art g

547
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 3: r a n Art, And I say to Marvin Schwartz, Marvin,

548
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 3: what the hell is Grant? Grandheart? Who works there? He says,

549
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 3: that's Carry Grant, that's his Carrie Grant. That's about twenty

550
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 3: feet away. It's thirty feet away.

551
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 2: What here was this smell?

552
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 3: This was? I can tell you exactly fifty nine. Yeah,

553
00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:59,360
Speaker 3: I think fifty nine. So you're watching, I'm watching to

554
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 3: see Carry Grant. I'm watching, and sure enough a Rolls

555
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,959
Speaker 3: Royce comes, I know, a guy gets out of chauffeur.

556
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:15,240
Speaker 3: He opens the back door bounding two steps at a time,

557
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:20,000
Speaker 3: up up the stairs to Grandharts in a gray It

558
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:23,840
Speaker 3: has got to be a good dark gray with chalk stripes.

559
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:29,280
Speaker 3: Double breasted Carry Grant. It was him. I said, holy shit,

560
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 3: Carry Grant. I can't believe it. So one day soon

561
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 3: after that, I'm walking down about twelve thirty two, the

562
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:46,240
Speaker 3: commissary at Universal. I hear a little click clack behind me,

563
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 3: and I turn around and I hear mel Brooks. Don't

564
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 3: believe it. It's mel Brooks. I said, oh my god,

565
00:32:56,720 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 3: it's Carry Grant. I said, how do you know me?

566
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:01,880
Speaker 3: He said, I your record. I just bought your record.

567
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:04,960
Speaker 3: You cost me one thousand dollars. I bought so many records.

568
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:06,840
Speaker 3: And then he said, but where are you going? I

569
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 3: said to the company. He said, well, let's go together.

570
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,080
Speaker 3: So wow, I'm going to have lunch. I had lunch

571
00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 3: with Carry Grant. I called my brother Bernie, Lenny, Irvy.

572
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 3: I called everybody Williamsburg. They you wanted to know what

573
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 3: he ate? I said, he had two poached eggs yon toast,

574
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 3: but I had Tunicial. Yeah. Okay. Next day, phone rings,

575
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 3: it's car Carrie, Yeah, it's mail Carry Mal. They come

576
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 3: lunch yes, well boom together, Me and Carry Grant we

577
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 3: walked down the Wednesday was me and Carry in Thursday.

578
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 3: Me and We're talking. What's your favorite color? I say blue?

579
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:45,800
Speaker 3: He says yellow. What's your favorite car? I said buick?

580
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:49,640
Speaker 3: He says the rolls or yeah, comes right. I don't

581
00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:51,240
Speaker 3: know what they ask him. I don't you know. I

582
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 3: know it's gonna call. I run out of dialogue. So

583
00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:58,560
Speaker 3: the phone rings, and I said to Marvin, if it's

584
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 3: Carry Grant, I'm not in, which is not true, but.

585
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:07,480
Speaker 2: I mean, did you see him ever again all the time?

586
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:09,240
Speaker 2: One of the carry Grunt stories.

587
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 3: You know, I used it in my stand up stuff,

588
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 3: and I made it funny, But actually, if I told

589
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:21,319
Speaker 3: the truth, it was really very touching because he was

590
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 3: really a good actor, and he had made some very beautiful,

591
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 3: you know, intelligent soft films about love and people and

592
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,200
Speaker 3: and and they did have none of it. I kept saying,

593
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:38,600
Speaker 3: why don that was such a great picture. What did

594
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:42,000
Speaker 3: they make? He said, because the money was in the

595
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:42,920
Speaker 3: light comedies.

596
00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:47,600
Speaker 2: So I think that you know life through food and

597
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:52,280
Speaker 2: through your family and to your grandparents and coming here

598
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 2: to do this home and memories, food.

599
00:34:55,719 --> 00:35:01,279
Speaker 3: At the every cafe still is u literally some of

600
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:05,400
Speaker 3: the best. And I've eaten in some really great restaurants,

601
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,640
Speaker 3: you know, and I've had duck at the Tour Do Jean,

602
00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 3: you know.

603
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:11,759
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's.

604
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 3: An omelets with the Madame Romayne de Leon. Never split

605
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 3: an omelet. She said, if you.

606
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:21,080
Speaker 2: Split it, it'll run run.

607
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:23,840
Speaker 3: She said. You can split a steak, but never split

608
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:24,360
Speaker 3: an omelet.

609
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 2: When I came here, I told Danny, remember Danny the chef,

610
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 2: And I said, I was coming to see you. And

611
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:33,840
Speaker 2: he said, you know, I once made a risotto for

612
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,880
Speaker 2: mel And he came up to the past and he said, Danny,

613
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 2: you made that risutto. You should be proud of yourself.

614
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:44,839
Speaker 2: And it was so something, so meaningful because you didn't

615
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:46,720
Speaker 2: say I'm proud of you, and you said you should

616
00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:48,960
Speaker 2: be proud of yourself. So I'd like to end this

617
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 2: by saying, mel Brooks, you should be.

618
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:52,040
Speaker 3: Proud of you.

619
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 2: I love you, Thank you. One last question. Food is

620
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 2: something to leave you ate hunger. If food is something

621
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:06,120
Speaker 2: to give someone we love, it's also comfort. There is

622
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:10,560
Speaker 2: a kind of food that we go to we.

623
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:14,040
Speaker 3: Have when I have a really outstanding meal, like like

624
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:20,560
Speaker 3: your spaghetti you made for my son Max. We we

625
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:24,600
Speaker 3: just came in upon you and Max was hungry, and

626
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:27,160
Speaker 3: you said, I'll make them, and you made him some spaghetti,

627
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 3: and I take it was the most delicious spaghetti in

628
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:35,360
Speaker 3: the world. When food is really good, it serves the soul.

629
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:39,040
Speaker 3: It serves the soul. And I'm not talking about dope soul.

630
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,120
Speaker 3: But when food is really good, it serves more than

631
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 3: just the belly and the hunger, and it serves the soul.

632
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:51,839
Speaker 3: And you should be very proud of yourself and the

633
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 3: restaurant that that's one of the best restaurants.

634
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 2: In the world.

635
00:36:55,840 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 3: You bet.

636
00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:06,640
Speaker 1: The River Cafe Lookbook is now available in bookshops and online.

637
00:37:06,719 --> 00:37:10,799
Speaker 1: It has over one hundred recipes, beautifully illustrated with photographs

638
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:14,800
Speaker 1: from the renowned photographer Matthew Donaldson. The book has fifty

639
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 1: delicious and easy to prepare recipes, including a host of

640
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:22,360
Speaker 1: River Cafe classics that have been specially adapted for new cooks.

641
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 1: The River Cafe Lookbook Recipes for Cooks of all ages.

642
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 1: Ruthie's Table four is a production of iHeart Radio and

643
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:40,560
Speaker 1: Adamized Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

644
00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:44,120
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,