WEBVTT - Elton John and David Furnish 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.200 This episode is brought to you by Me and M, 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:05.600 the British modern luxury clothing label designed for busy women. 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:09.360 Founded and designed in London. Me and M is about 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.960 intelligence style. Much thought and care are put into the 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:16.720 design process, so every piece is flattering, functional and made 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.520 to last forever. Me and M is well known for 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.040 its trousers and how I got to know the brand. 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.119 It's my go to for styles that are comfortable enough 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.520 to wear in the kitchen or the restaurant, also polished 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.040 enough for meetings. Me and M is available online and 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.239 in its stores across London, Edinburgh, New York. If you're 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.360 in London, I'd really recommend heading to their beautiful, brand 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.400 new flagship store in Marlevin, which opens on the twenty 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:42.480 ninth of October. 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:49.480 What's the song with food? 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:55.600 Song with food? Sugar sugar shug? I am a sugar 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.440 free my candle girl. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:06.360 What about my thrill on Blueberry Hill? 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:12.040 Or do not, Oh my darling, do not? On this 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:13.280 our wedding day. 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.319 An open kitchen in the River Cafe gives me the 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:25.319 chance to watch people having dinner with their children. David 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:30.800 and Elton uniquely engage with theirs, focused listening laughing, all 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:31.440 for in. 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:32.959 Their own private world. 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.280 In between texts with David about plans for getting together, 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.399 there are photographs Sachari on a boat with a huge 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.600 seabassies just caught Elijah kicking a football, all of them 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.400 in the South of France around a table. Recently, sitting 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:49.520 next to Elton at a dinner in the River Cafe, 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.559 we had no small talk. We spoke immediately about Elton 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.200 John Aids Foundation, the polarized world we seem to be 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.960 living in and what we need to do as citizens. 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.560 David and Elton are activists. They registered their civil partnership 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.320 in two thousand and five on the first day it 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.440 was legal in the UK, leading the way for others 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.720 to follow with confidence and with pride. Do you remember 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.600 your first meal you had together? Did you meet in 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:17.240 a restaurant? 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:21.720 First may our first mill was at this table and 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:27.560 I was sitting there, okay, and. 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:30.000 I was a pleasant a date. 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:32.880 Oh no, it was a lot less imitation with a 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:37.320 group of well. Elton had come back from touring. He 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.200 was single and he had his friend staying with him, 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.160 and he said, I don't want to sit around the 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.360 house like a widow. Let's just have a dinner party 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.600 in write some people down because a lot of your friends. 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:50.840 I was in AA, so I hadn't really met anybody 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:52.600 except a people for three years. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:54.880 So his friend rang, my friend. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.560 Is that part of AA that you don't meet? I know, 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.000 you can't think. It just was so uncompassed. 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.560 I just I threw myself into getting well as much 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.160 as I threw myself into getting unwell. So I did 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:07.880 what I was told, and I had a great time. 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.920 But eventually all I knew was a people. I didn't 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:12.920 know any other gay people or I lost touch with 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.320 them or whatever, and it wasn't certainly a sexual thing. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:17.000 So he rang. 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:19.799 Elton's friend rang my friend Malcolm, and I was going 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.440 to Malcolm's house for dinner that night. He was having 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:24.680 a dinner party, and Elton's friend said, why didn't you 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.240 bring your dinner party down to Windsor. So Alton didn't 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.400 know me. I had no connection at all. It was 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.399 very random. And I was vegetarian then, and I came 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.440 through the door and you were having I think spaghetti bolonese. 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.400 It was what everybody was eating. And so that's this. 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:41.480 Is your menu for the first night. You laid eyes 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:43.040 on each other I didn't. 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:46.000 Have spaghetti bolonies, so Elton's housekeeper made me like a 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.040 pasta bake I think with cheese, which was which was fine. 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.000 But to be honest with you, I was so kind 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:55.040 of overwhelmed with meeting Elton John that I didn't really 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.200 think very much about the food then the next night, 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.600 so he asked for my number that evening, and then 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:03.320 he called me the next morning and said, I'm coming 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.360 into London and would you want to come around and 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:08.440 have dinner with me at my house in London? And 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.560 I said that would be lovely, and he said we'll 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:13.680 we'll have a Chinese takeaway and I was like, oh, 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.440 it sounds like I love Chinese food. So I arrived 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.600 at the house and there's four giant cardboard boxes on 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.840 the kitchen counter and the table set for two, and 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.520 I said, who else is coming? What's all this food for? 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.560 And it was for mister Chows And Elton didn't know 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:33.400 what I like, so he ordered the entire menu. 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.000 I marry a man like that. I mean, I'd marry you. 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.839 The minute somebody did that. I would say, this is 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:40.680 the man for the rest. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:43.200 I think that's nice. 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.320 I've never been to mister Chows. I didn't you know, 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.680 I hadn't had high end Chinese food before. We had 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.400 great Chinese food in Canada, but it was not mister Choles. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.559 But it was a really delicious meal. And we talked 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.800 and talked for hours and hours and hours. We really connected. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.560 We're here in your beautiful, beautiful hou. Would you were 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.520 saying you have lived here for how many years? 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:05.840 I've lived here for next year, which will be twenty 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:07.400 twenty five, lived here for fifty years? 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.880 Fifty years? And you've never been tempted to move? Why 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:12.200 would you no? 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.039 I mean this is the hub of all the properties behind. 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.240 This is the hub where the children were brought up 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.240 and go to school locally, so it's always lovely to 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:23.520 come back. It's the only traditional house we own, but 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:25.479 you couldn't really do anything else to it. And I 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:27.640 love the fact that it is traditional because I love 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:31.360 the garden and in fact everything was decimated in nineteen 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.039 eighty nine when I knocked the house down practically for 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.839 two years to have it made into a proper home 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.159 instead of a pop stars house, and I started. 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:41.719 The god, what a pup star's house looks like? 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:46.479 We had a lot of gold records a lot of awards, 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:52.080 and also I collected Gallet lamps, Tiffany lamps, Art Nouveau, 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:58.400 Art Deco, Mazurel furniture, and there was so much of it. 0:05:58.400 --> 0:05:59.880 It was just all on the floor and I just 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:01.719 actually run out of room to put anything. As you 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:07.679 can see, I'm not a minimalist. 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.080 But we could get for it what it has. It's 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.680 not a minimalists, but it has a quality of real rigor. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.560 It does, so you're not saying you're not a minimalist. 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:16.360 Yeah. So I decided how do I get rid of 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.680 all this stuff? So I decided to say all basically 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.520 apart from a few four cars, some paintings and a 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:23.599 bit of jewelry. And so I had a souther of 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:25.479 his cell which was at the VNA for a week. 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:30.080 I'm luckily we'd sold everything before the crash in nineteen 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.880 eighty nine, or I sold it because I hadn't met 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.000 David by that time. And then I converted that after 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.240 two years, I rented a house in London, which I 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.720 subsequently bought, and then I came back here two years 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:42.159 later in nineteen ninety one. 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.479 But that is full of a collection. You might not 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.919 have the deco furniture and the same art. But you 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:52.279 have collected when you collect. We suppose to be talking 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:55.760 about food, but do do you have a rhythm and 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.719 a kind of consistency for the kind of what you collect? 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:02.359 Do you think, well, I've never collected ceramics before I 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:07.120 became a mice and fanatic, and I became Staffordshire fanatic. 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.200 I just wanted to put things that seemed right in 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:13.280 that country home. I love silver well. I never come 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.160 back from a place without something. 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:17.320 And it doesn't have a memory. 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.040 You can look at something and remember, do you, David, 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.280 You remember where you were when you bought it? 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:23.480 Absolutely? 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:25.200 But I must have met. I have a hard time 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:30.520 keeping up because Elton is such an enthusiastic collector. And 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.760 you know, he grew up and the things in his 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:35.679 room when he was a little boy were his friends. 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.200 So he's always had a great love of objects. Objects 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:41.600 he feels have feelings, don't you. 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:43.600 Well they were the when I grow up. My parents 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.360 argued all the time, so my olddicts were kept in 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.160 pristine condition and they didn't shout at me. So I 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.720 loved them and I've suddenly subsequently followed that on through 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.080 the rest of my life. I do love objicts and 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.240 they comfort me while I'm on the road. My dress 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.360 room is full of and stuff like that. It's just 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:03.600 very heartwarming for me to see it. 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.680 All. It's about the curation and the celebration of them 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.720 and displaying them lovingly and appreciating them. That brings you 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:12.480 so much joy, and it gives the house of real 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:13.480 sense of order too. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.000 It does. And also there's a lot of white, isn't there. 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:17.040 I was thinking they give a. 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.440 Lot of lightness these, you know, if you look at 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:22.960 there is a lot of white and happiness. And it's 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.800 maybe safety, you know, maybe as you were describing your room, 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.880 maybe it's safe to have, you know, something that you 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:33.280 can look at, the standing guard safety in the emotional way. 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.640 Let's talk about food. So we thought we would do this. 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.400 We would have our guests read a recipe and you're 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:41.400 going to read it, David. 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.520 So it's risotto with porcini and giol and this recipe 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:50.560 served six. One kilogram of fresh porcini and giole, one 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:55.640 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped, one teaspoon of fresh time, 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.480 one leader of chicken stock, one hundred grams of unsold butter, 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:06.160 a red onion finely chopped, three hundred grams of risotto rice, 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.160 two hundred and fifty millilters of extra dry white vermouth, 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.559 and two hundred grams of parmesan freshly grated. Want the 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:15.320 instructions as well? 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:16.360 How are we going to make it otherwise? 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.520 Okay, all right? Clean the mushrooms by brushing them lightly 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.560 clean the caps of the porcini. Tear any large mushroom 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:29.360 into small pieces. In a frying pan, heat three tablespoons 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.360 of extra virgin olive oil. Add half of the mushrooms, chopped, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:37.240 garlic and thyme in season. Fry until cooked and the 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.319 liquid has evaporated. Heat the chicken stock. Melt the butter 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.240 with the remaining olive oil. Add the chopped onion, and 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.640 cook on a gentle heat until the onion is soft. 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.440 Add the rice and stir. Pour in the vermouth and 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:55.320 cook until absorbed. Stir in the hot stok, ladle by ladle, 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.920 and cook until the rice is al dante, usually about 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.600 twenty minutes. Add the crooked wild mushrooms, the remaining butter, 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:04.920 and the parmesan, and stir. Well. 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:06.640 Let me have some. 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:08.880 Yeah, let's make it. We got in the kitchen. But 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:13.200 I heard or I read that you like risotto so 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:15.760 much you actually asked one of your cooks to go 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.640 gently to learn how to make it risotto? Might that 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:20.360 be the actually yesterday? 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:21.240 That was? 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:22.240 When was that? 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:22.640 Well? 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:26.360 That was in the nineties when Johnny Versaci was a 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:28.080 big part of our lives, and we used to go 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:33.120 to Johnny's house in Milan. He lived above the offices 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:37.960 on Via Jesu in a beautiful apartment that had been 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:44.520 decorated by Monjardino spectacular, and the meals were theater is 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.400 the only way I can describe it, because he had 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:51.040 the white coated butlers with the white gloves, the white jackets, 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.080 and you sat down and there was a beautiful piece 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.600 of antique porcelain and then wosh, it was cleared away, 0:10:57.640 --> 0:10:59.600 and then a plate went down with a starter, and 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.000 then we it was cleared away, and then another antiq 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.760 porcelain plate came down to be cleared away for the 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.880 second course or the premier patty, and then taken away 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.880 again for the main course. And the resulto at Johnny's 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:15.040 that was it's like nectar. 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:17.840 It was, you know, it's just it was just so 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:22.280 luscious and also as David said, the presentation went a 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:27.640 long way with it because he got me into collecting china, 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:34.760 porcelain and tablecloths. It was his fault. Tablecloths, tablecloths, tablecloth. 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:40.680 We're huge on table cloths, napkin. Johnny introduced us to 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:45.920 the tablecloth in Venice, which was Originallyesum, which is now closed. 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.640 It was the most beautiful shop. And then on the 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:54.280 island of we went to Dalla Olga, which is the 0:11:54.320 --> 0:12:00.280 most incredible shop which has tablecloths of every size, hand 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.240 on lace. So I have to say that we went 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.439 there and spent so much money on one weekend on 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:07.760 tape gloves. I couldn't believe it. 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.480 And so you asked one of your cooks to learn 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:12.920 how to make a resulto properly? 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:14.679 Did that work? Did he learntually? 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:15.400 Yeah? 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.400 It was it was good. Yeah. 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.559 Have either of you ever worked in a restaurant? Did you? 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:22.240 Did I have work? 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:22.439 No? 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.959 I mentioned wine merchants, but not a restaurant, did you. 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.719 I waited on tables. I was a last boy, I 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:32.040 was a dishwasher, I was a sooux chef. I worked 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.599 in a kitchen of a golf and tennis club, and 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.920 I did serve dinners to banquets for five hundred people. 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.839 I served breakfast to golfers, used to do short order 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.280 stuff in the kitchen to you know, do the toast 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.000 and sometimes the bacon and the eggs for people getting 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.520 ready to go play their golf game. I loved that. 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:50.480 Did that teach you? 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.840 It taught me a lot about the importance of kindness 0:12:55.720 --> 0:13:00.720 because particularly for weight staff, because they are under pressure 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.839 from the chef, the under pressure from the management, and 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:05.840 then the under pressure from the people they're serving. They 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:08.959 get it from all directions. And so I always go 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.120 out of my way anyone that serves me to make 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:16.600 sure I'm incredibly grateful and reasonable and polite and always 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.640 leave a nice tip, because it's really hard work and 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.280 it can be unforgiving work at times. I don't know, 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.280 you learn so much about human nature because watching the 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.960 way people were very particular about their food was quite 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.280 quite a learning experience for me when I when I 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:32.640 worked in. 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.559 Great experience, and that's why I like the restaurants that 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.319 I go to because I like this stuff and I 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.240 hate people who are route to serving staff. And I 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.600 know a lot of people in my business that are 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:46.880 and talk down to them. I just that's one thing 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.959 I hate the most. No, it's the seductiveness is part 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.240 of it. It's like Daivo right in Venice, which is 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:56.200 the simplest restaurant, and. 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.040 It's it's beautiful because the major d comes to the 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.719 table of every meal we've we've never looked at the 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.800 physical menu. He comes to the table with this little 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:06.400 chart board. 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.800 Eva is a restaurant Inventers that you get to it's 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.680 quite hard to find, is there's that little light outside. 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.200 It's really the most beautiful way is to ride by boat, 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:16.880 isn't it? Is that how you get there? Do you 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:17.720 ever go by boat? 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.800 Yes, that's the only way we go anywhere we go. 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.920 Come in through the side windows. But they arrive with 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:30.080 the chartboard on the on the beautiful gilded column, and 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:32.640 they give you all of the specials and everything that's 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.080 being made for the day, and never the same meal twice. 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:38.680 And the simplicity of it is so sexy and so 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.080 fun that I hate pretentious restaurants. I can't. That's why 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.720 the River Cafe is always her door enjoyable because you 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.400 come in and it's like the greatest canteen in the 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.560 world where you mix with a lot of people you know, 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.120 and where people just seem to be having the best time. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.200 The service is great, the atmosphere is fantastic, whether you're 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.240 inside with you're outside, and there's not an ounce of potential. 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.280 And I would say that you'll. 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:05.760 Go back to a restaurant if you didn't have a 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.480 great meal, But if you were treated as if you 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.520 weren't good enough to eat there, then why would you 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:19.200 go back? The River Cafe Cafe are all day space 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.640 and just steps away from the restaurant is now open 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:27.240 in the morning an Italian breakfast with cornetti, ciambella and 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:31.160 crostada from our pastry kitchen. In the afternoon, ice creamed 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:37.640 coops and River Cafe classic desserts. We have sharing plates Salumi, misti, mozzarella, brusquetta, 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.520 red and yellow peppers, Vitello, tonato and more. 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:42.080 Come in the evening for. 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.560 Cocktails with our resident pianist in the bar. No need 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:47.240 to book, see you here. 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:57.960 I grew up after the war, so everything about the 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.200 early life. Yeah, I was born in the council house. 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.440 I lived with my mother, my grandmother, because my father 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.440 was away in the Air force. Was your mother's mother, Yes, 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:10.160 My grandmother. She was fantastic. 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:10.760 What was she like? 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:13.160 She was wonderful. She could cook anything and make it 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.800 taste incredible. I mean, basic ingredients were hard to get. 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.440 After all, we were Russiened and bacon was partly a 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.840 no no. But she made I never remember a bad 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.640 meal or going hungry, and everything that was left over 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.680 she made into something else the next day. And what 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:31.920 I loved about her because I have the biggest sweet tooth. 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:37.680 Her bread puddings and her apple pies, and her scones 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:42.560 or scones and her victorious spongeres very simple. The kitchen 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.640 was again, the coal cellar was in. The kitchen was 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.040 con believe it. The laundry was done on the stove 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.760 in a boiler, and we had a mangle to It 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.040 was a very basic upbringing. But I can never remember 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:58.880 the smell of cooking was always wonderful, and she could 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.520 cook anything. I fell in love with very basic, simple 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:03.720 English food at that point. 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:06.440 I think that a simple English food. 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.920 As you talk about bread pudding and apple pie, those 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.840 are very They're not easy to make, you know, And 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:15.320 it's to do with the ingredients and the method and. 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:16.000 The way you cook. 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:22.919 Yeah, and things like spotted digging calcid. I walk into 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.159 a restaurant, say in Yorkshire or something like that, and 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:28.440 sometimes they have things like that on the menu to go, 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:33.000 oh my God, which for me is just a sheer delight. 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.680 I always sometimes think that you go to some john 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.760 for instance, they have ecoes cakes, and the echoes cakes 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:41.760 are incredible, and they sell it with the cheese and 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.119 it's just like wow, man from heaven. Nowadays, unfortunately I 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.280 can't eat it because I'm semi diabetic, but I do 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.040 like those English stalwarts a lot too well. 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.600 So growing up, you had a mother and a grandmother 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:56.680 in the house, and your father was where he was. 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.040 He was in a way in the Air Force in Aiden, 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:01.840 and so I didn't really see much of him. So 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.720 it was a woman's household. My mom's sister, my aunt, 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.280 was always there as well. So I grew up with 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:09.920 a bunch of women who knew how to cook, which 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:10.280 was great. 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.160 And you all sat down to meal every night together. 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.520 Yes, and we toasted our toast by the fire was yours. 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:18.040 Similar in Toronto. 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.360 I grew up in Canada. In Toronto, I was one 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.480 of three boys, and my mom was We were very lucky. 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.200 She was a stay at home mom. She could make 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.000 almost anything happen instantly. She had a deep freeze in 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:36.240 the basement and sometimes we'd come back from school or 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:40.000 a sports match and we'd bring two friends along and 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:42.480 she'd say, no problem, and she'd go downstairs and she 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:44.960 thought out some pastries, she thought some meat, she thought 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.080 a tomato sauce or something then prepared in advance. Suddenly 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.440 the dinner could just expand or change, you know, with 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:54.600 thirty minutes notice. And meals were important, although given it 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:56.159 was three boys and there was a lot going on, 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:58.320 it was a lot of meals on the hop by 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.240 what you were the I'm the middle one, the middle one. Yeah, 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:03.760 the one thing that mum was important because we were 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:08.720 always coming and going. But Sunday lunch, Sunday dinner was 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.520 the one time she wanted the family to be around 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:13.560 the table and have more of a sense of occasion, 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.720 and that was a traditional English roast. My grandparents on 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.200 my mother's side were from the north and the South 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.520 of Ireland, and my grandparents on my father's side were 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.960 from England and Wales, so a lot of those traditions 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.920 came across to Canada and Sunday roast, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:38.600 roast beef, you know, Brussels sprouts, beans, carrots, a really 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:43.480 good gravy, and then always a baked pie or cake 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.960 or sweet for dessert. My British grandmother was an amazing baker. 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:49.960 So you both had grandmothers that. 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:53.440 I think grandparents are so important. 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:54.679 They are, I agree. 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.080 The thing about my grandmother was that because we had 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:00.600 a garden, we grew all our own produce because it 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.280 was so much cheaper, and my grandmother had green fingers, 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.960 so we always had fresh vegetables. Hardly ever had processed peas. 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.560 I mean the great advantage in those days that food 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.119 wasn't really you know, instant you did, no instant whips, 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:18.200 no instant there mashed potato. It was all genuinely from 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.639 the garden, which was delicious. So I mean, I remember 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:25.280 shelling the peas every Sunday morning. That's that was like David, 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.359 Sunday roase was very important for the family gathering. So 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:31.080 shelling the peas was one thing. Peeling the potatoes and 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:35.360 another broad being to another. So we always had good 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.920 produce because we couldn't afford to buy them because you know, teams. 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:40.520 Times were hard after the war and the ruts, and 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:42.760 we had a tiny bottle of orange juice which you 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.119 diluted and poured the water into. But I never felt 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.359