WEBVTT - Griffin Dunne 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.720 You are listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair. 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:06.920 In the past weeks, a phrase has been said to 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:11.039 me over and over again, Ruthie, you are going to 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.080 love Griffin Dunn. Of course, being an independent spirit wishing 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:17.720 to make up my own mind, I've been listening to 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.480 Griffin's interviews, watching his films, and most of all, reading 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.680 his beautiful new memoir The Friday Afternoon Club. With stories 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:28.360 of growing up and a family full of story tellers. 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.440 Cooking a recipe is also about telling a story. Eating 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.839 together is telling a story. Going to a food market 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.280 in Naples is telling a story. When Griffin told his 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.840 brother Alex he was going to write a book about 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.880 their family, he responded, you can say anything you want, 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.680 but say it from a place of love. Today, Griffin 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.000 and I are going to talk about food and family, 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:57.360 food and friends, food and memories. So we have a 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:02.840 recipe for Tagaleradi, with which you chose from all our books. 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:03.560 Yes I did. 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:09.160 The ingredients are one hundred grams of panchetta, six hundred 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:14.600 grams of veal minced, twenty five grams butter, one red onion, 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.560 one small leak, one celery heart and two cloves of garlic, 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:25.040 one teaspoon, time and sage, three hundred milli liters of 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:29.279 chicken broth, one hundred and fifty milli liters of milk, 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:35.000 peel of half a lemon. Finely chop the red onion, leak, celery, 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.399 and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.520 over a medium heat. Fry the panchetta for five minutes. 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.880 Add the butter, onion, leak, celery, garlic, and thyme, and 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:52.320 season with salt and pepper. Fry for fifteen minutes, stirring. 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.760 Often add the veal in sage and cook until the 0:01:55.880 --> 0:02:00.320 veal is no longer pink. Stir in the hot froth 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:05.520 milk and lemon peel and bring to a boil. Simmer 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.000 for one hour until most of the liquid has evaporated. 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.720 Set aside in a pan of boiling salted water. Cook 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:18.280 the tagli orini until al dente. Drain and combine the 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:19.520 pasta with the sauce. 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.240 Serve. It's a story in itself. 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:24.040 That's a story. 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:25.320 It's a story in itself. 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.239 We have Sean, our head chef, who's here to tell 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.280 us about this wonderful pasta. 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.119 Well, actually, what we did instead of this exact recipe. 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.040 We actually substituted white wine rather than milk. Oh, I'm 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:41.720 shop that's okay because we do it in different ways. 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.919 But meat sauces are quite nice in the summer because 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.440 it always remind you if your summer holidays in Tuscany 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:49.880 or do you think how you kind of on a 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:52.000 hot Obviously it's not a hot day today, but if 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.079 it was a hot day, you might find that kind 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:55.839 of replenishing to have something like that. 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:57.680 I feel very. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.080 Also, the things you know when you think about American 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:09.280 where we grew up, you know, spaghetti and meatpoles, you 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.560 know bolines sauce. It's kind heavy and it's kind of 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.240 the tomato and meat and meatballs. And then in the 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:21.280 pasta and this is very delicate. It's much more like 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.760 it's delicious. Okay, So going to the beginning of the beginning, 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.359 what was the food like in your house? Who? Your 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:29.320 mother was Mexican? 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.240 My mother was half Mexican. My grandmother was fully Mexican. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.040 Was she present in your life? Your grandma very much. 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:41.360 She married my grandfather, My grandfather wooed her away from 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:42.680 a man in Mexico City. 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:44.160 He was a banker, a very prominent man. 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:46.440 So he went to Mexico, and he. 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:48.680 Was in Mexico City and he was coming into No Gallas, 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.920 where my grandmother lived, and she fell in love with 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:57.320 my grandfather, and to make sure that the wedding would 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:59.320 be called off because he was on his way to 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.440 marry her. There were about twenty five to thirty stops 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:04.160 from Mexico City to Nogallas. 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:06.080 Where's no Gallas, is it No, It's right. 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.280 On the border of Arizona and Mexico. And she was 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.760 on the Mexican side, and she was so worried that 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.920 he would show up, so she sent a telegram to 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.440 every stop from Mexico City all the way to Nogallas, 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.960 of which they were about thirty and every time there 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.960 was a stop, they go telegram for signor Gomez. 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.560 Do not come to the wedding. Stop. The wedding is 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:31.800 called off. I planned to marry. 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:35.400 Thomas Griffin and finally had a stack of about twenty 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:36.880 eight and then he went. 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:37.600 He got the hint. 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:38.799 He did get them. 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.360 He got them all, and then he turned and went 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.520 back to Mexico City a single man, and my grandmother 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:52.840 married Tom Griffin, who was from a very prominent family. 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.680 In Chicago, they had the Griffin Wheel Company, and the 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:00.600 Griffin wheels were on every pullman car in America. But 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:02.360 he didn't want to be in that business. He wanted 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.280 to be a rancher. And he came to Arizona as 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.279 a young boy at pulmonary problems. And he came back 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.440 and he left somebody at the altar too, a lot 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.839 of scandal in my family, and settled on a ranch 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:19.200 and he was sort of cut out of the will 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.920 and a lot of brought up. It was quite a 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.479 scandal that he left the society woman on the altar 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.479 in Chicago. So when I was growing up, food was 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:35.200 not really a priority my mother, except for the meal 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:39.520 that we had almost every day, was always cooked by 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.320 our housekeeper, a woman named Carmen, and she made free 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:44.680 poles and rice. 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:45.479 So she was Mexican. 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:46.400 She's a Mexican. 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.440 We grew up on rice and beans, and we loved rice. 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.080 We never to this day. I'm never tired of rice 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.960 and bean. If I cook for myself, I always make 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.599 rice and beans. It's just a stable of our diet. 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.560 But do you think your grandmother she sounds She came 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.480 from a probably privileged family as well. So maybe she 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:04.719 didn't go in the kitchen either. 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:05.600 She did not. 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:10.920 She was Her family were going back generations were like 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.320 real estate barons. They had silver mines. But when the 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:18.039 Mexican Revolution happened Pancho Villa, they were on the wrong 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.920 side of the revolution. They were aristocrats, and that's how 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:24.320 they ended up in Nogallas on the Arizona side. He 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.360 drove them out and took all their holdings. But then 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:29.920 my grandmother's side of the family they built up their 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:32.760 real estate business and ended up owning a lot of 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:33.920 property at Nogallas. 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.440 When I did an interview with Alfonso Korn, you know Alfonso, 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:42.080 he was saying that the Mexican the class structure was 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.719 that when you had more wealth. So in America, if 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:47.640 you have more wealth, you have bigger houses, bigger cars, 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:52.160 more cars, bigger refrigerators, bigger everything. And he said in Mexico, 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:55.640 with greater wealth, you didn't have bigger everything, but you 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:57.239 had more domestic staff. 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.760 Yes, my mother liked the comfort of how she grew up. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:02.960 You know, in those days when you hired someone to 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:07.160 cook and look after your children, they stayed in your lives. Yeah, 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.920 she was such an old Carmen who cooked for us. 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.360 She was so old by the time she finally retired. 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:14.960 Did you feel quite connected to home? 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:15.080 Oh? 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.680 Yeah, it was just so comforting, you know. And she 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:19.400 was the one who would spank us. She was the 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:21.040 one who would, you know, discipline us. 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:23.840 And she had children of her own, she did not, and. 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.360 She would always go whenever we were exacerbating her patients, 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:34.240 she go, I kim ochocho it. Oh you horrible little boy, 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.679 and you know you're driving me crazy. 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.680 Is you g So your grandmother spoke Spanish? Obviously, did 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:41.160 your mother? 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.480 My mother spoke Spanish well. To my regret, I had 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.200 a bucket list. One was to write a book. I 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.000 did that, and the other was to finally master Spanish. 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:56.120 And recently I have a problem being in California, Mexican 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.600 Spanish was the language of domestics, and I think my 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.800 father was a bit of a snob at that period 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.040 in his life before he evolved, so we weren't really 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:11.080 encouraged to speak Spanish. And in fact, when I started 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.400 school from the first grade, you know, they had us 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.640 take French. Yeah, and here I had, you know, so 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.240 I spoke of pigeon Spanish that I learned from Carmen 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:21.520 and what else. 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:23.760 Going back to the food, do you ever sit. 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:25.920 Down for a fact, No, No, We would have meals 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.640 always in restaurants when we ever we ate together. We 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.640 never sat at a table in our home. And we 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.560 would go to a place on Sunday nights. There were 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.880 three restaurants. One was called the Bistro, the other was 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.400 called Chasins, and the other was the Brown Derby. And 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.360 our favorite was Chasins. And we'd have to get dressed up, 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.319 and it was every Sunday night and we'd be there 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:51.080 and you'd see Alfred Hitchcock at one table and mister 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.000 and missus Jimmy Stewart at another. 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:54.920 And it was a very you know, good people move around. 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:57.679 Well, it was very social, you know, but everybody had 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.080 their own sort of table. My brother and sister and 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.680 I loved Chasins because they made a dish called a 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:05.720 butterfly steak. 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:07.760 I can imagine it's opened up. 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.000 They open it up and it's just covered in butter, 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.920 and it was so delicious. And we would always go 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:15.360 on about the butterfly steak. 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:17.120 Do you think they put the butter on so you 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:18.520 get it? And then there would be a lump of 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:19.760 butter on it that would melt. 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.319 Over there and you'd see the lump and then you'd 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.480 see it spread and it would just and you could cut. 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:26.640 You could rest the knife on top of the steak, 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:29.440 not even apply pressure, that would just sort of cut. 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.839 And there was a bathroom at Chasin's, the men's room, 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.120 and I think one of my earliest I guess sort 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.160 of not to overshare, but earliest erotic memories of this 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.720 place was there was in the bathroom at the urinal 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:49.040 was a picture of a man drowning in bosoms. He 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:51.520 was a tiny figure and then it was just surrounded 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:52.160 by bosoms. 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.600 And I bet that picture is there anymore? 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:55.160 Is no? 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.240 In fact, you know, the business Chasins went out of 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.839 business and they had an aux and I found out 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.200 too late, but I wanted to know what happened to 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.439 the bosom picture. I wanted to have that bosom picture 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:08.839 to where it is. I don't know who happened. 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:10.720 Maybe it's gone to the Metropolitan Museum. 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:12.520 Yeah, I don't know if it's worthy of that. 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.079 Of times in a change. So you go to Chase 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.880 and said where the other did you go to other restaurants? 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.600 So did you wasn't just I mean other restaurant meals, 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:24.640 or were it you in school Monday to Friday and 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:26.960 then Sunday night, you want to Monday. 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:29.080 Monday through Friday, we would sit at the table and 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:33.000 be served just my brother, sister and I the the 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.959 rice and beans, and you know, we had another unusual thing, 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:38.439 and we had a pantry in our house. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:40.520 Just to show you how. 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:45.760 Irreverent we were about food. We had stacks and stacks 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:50.880 of spam and a can and when we would I 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:54.560 would go for lunch. They would make to school. In 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:59.480 our lunch bags were spam sandwiches. Now they're disgusting spam, 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.680 but it's I happen to love that taste. It probably 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.160 tastes like dog food, if you like dog food. 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:08.520 When they entertained, would you be sort of like sitting 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.480 on the stairs watching these sparkling. 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.200 Got it exactly, And you know, then there would be 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.480 the moment at the beginning of the party before the 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.760 adults really got hammered, and yeah, it got kind of wild. 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:26.120 You know, we'd be called down and we'd you know, 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:29.679 my brother and I would have matching bathrobes, and my 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.360 sister wore like one of those little caps you see 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:36.559 in like dickens a nightgown, and we'd say good night, 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.640 and my brother and I would bow, and my sister 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.079 would curtsey, and the adults would go ooh and on. 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.360 It was a little spectacle that was terribly embarrassing to us. 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.400 You know. Years later, Dennis Hopper used to come to 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:50.560 our house. This is well before Easy Writer. 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.559 And years later I'm doing a movie with Dennis and 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.880 it's after work and we're smoking a joint and he 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:01.720 kind of looks off and he goes, I'm just thinking 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:06.640 about you kids coming down and bowing and curtsying to 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.920 us all. I think that was the saddest thing I ever. 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.960 Saw in my whole life. And it was weird, you know. 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:15.719 But where do you think that came from? Because I 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:19.200 was just thinking your mother grew up on a branch 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:21.800 and your father had left all that, So I wondered 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.760 where that. It's not as if they came from European 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:25.440 run No. 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:30.480 But my father at this point in his life was 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.920 very materialistic and very much of a sort of the 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:39.720 production designer of his life, with the right material things 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:43.320 for the house. And I think he fashioned us on 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:48.040 the photographs of the royal family of Cecil Beaton. I 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.520 mean he would say as much. And he was a 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:55.800 fantastic photographer. He had a hostle blot and every summer 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.960 we would pose for these deadly serious Christmas card picks, 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:05.200 these three glum looking children in suits and with this 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:09.400 sort of pastoral background and the art design in our 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:14.880 backyard and send them out as Christmas cards to families 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.959 in New York, London, Los Angeles. 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:19.720 And they were beautiful. 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.200 Did you ever go to other kids' houses and see 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.440 family like fridges and people sitting around? 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:30.520 Yeah, parents and totally different, totally different kind of things 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:36.440 in about half, but other parents were equally sort of superficial, 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.240 you know, and their priority, particularly in that generation, their 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.440 main focus was themselves, you know. They were not like 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.959 the kind of parent I became in most every parent 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.600 I know, where you just encourage every little thing they do, 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.600 and you notice and you want to know where they 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:54.160 go and where you know, And. 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.000 Yeah, I think that. Do you have grandchildren yet? No, 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:57.920 that's really nice. 0:13:57.960 --> 0:13:58.200 I do. 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:02.079 And I always say is that the really great thing 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.120 about having grandchildren is the children, but also just seeing 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:07.959 your kids as parents And I just look at them 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:09.600 and I think they are. You know, I thought we 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.559 were pretty good, but they are amazing. 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:14.320 One of the happiest things I was able to do 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:20.080 for my parents was give them a child. They loved 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:21.480 being grandparents. 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:25.840 So maybe that skipped generate. They were better grandparents and. 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:27.840 Parents so much better. It was so much easier. You 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:29.000 have less responsibility. 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:33.080 And my father would just spoil my daughter, Hannah Rotten, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.440 and she goes, listen kid. My dad always had a funny, 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.080 dark sense of humor. He goes, listen kid, when I cool, 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.800 I'm going to leave you so much money, which is 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:44.680 a terrible thing to tell a little kid, by the way, 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:52.000 And my mother was my mother had ms, multiple scrosses, 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.960 and so she was unable to you know, she was 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.360 in bed confined and could be moved to a wheelchair. 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.920 But the look on her face when I brought my 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.560 daughter and I put her on the bed and my 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:11.000 daughter was, you know, an infant, but she recognized that 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:16.920 this lady sitting up in bed was someone important and 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.600 she which she'd never done with anyone. 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.320 She just crawled to her and. 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:27.600 Did your parents they didn't like to cook or have 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.760 a domestic life of food? Did they love food? Did 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.800 you was your mother very did. She looks so elegant 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.320 in these I just think they like to drink, right, 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.480 they like to drink. Did they like to eat? 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:42.200 I don't think so. 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.680 My father was you know, Irish Catholic, and I think 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:48.960 they ate the staple of you know whatever. Again more 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.600 the Irish cook would make they called cook what is 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.440 cook serving? And it was all like comfort food. I 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.120 know my dad loved meat loaf, you go on in. 0:15:58.160 --> 0:15:59.080 Chicken pot pie. 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:03.000 In fact, when when I was married to Hannah's mom 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:06.160 and at our wedding, Dad said, I'm paying for the 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:07.640 whole thing. I'm going to take care of this. He 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.200 was very you know, proud and excited. And he told 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.720 the wedding planner that he hired he wanted chicken pot pie. 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.400 And the wedding planner already had a chicken dish prepared, 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.440 and he shows the menu of what's going to be served, 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:24.280 and he goes, where's my chicken pot pie? He went, well, 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:26.320 it just seemed redundant because we have chicken pie art 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.520 and he went, I said, I want a chicken fucking 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:29.240 pot pie. 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:31.240 That's how much you love that? 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:31.680 Why not? 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:32.720 Yeah, that's what do you want? 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.480 You want? Yeah? Yeah, but you had did you get 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:36.240 boarding school? 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:37.200 I did? Yeah? 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:39.280 So was that a Wrencher going away? 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.280 And it was his school very much based on on 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.160 English boarding schools, you know, have no. 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.920 Heat, bad food, and. 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.760 Bullying, terrible cruelty. There was corporal punishment. 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:52.920 Sorry for the British people here, but that is kind 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.040 of the ethos of yeah, I think it's better now maybe. 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:56.800 But that it does not. 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.000 But I mean we were literally flogged. There was a 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.560 it was called where was it? It was in Massachusetts, 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.520 a little a town called Southborough, mass called Fay, which 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:08.160 wasn't a lot of fun to go back to LA 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.879 and come home from Fay. You know, there were children 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.840 as young as seven years old. I was eleven, and 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.679 it was a novelty to be a kid from LA 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.600 to be going to school in Massachusetts, you know, at 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:24.960 such a young age as well. But you know this, 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.680 the food at that school was slop. You know, We're 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:32.520 all dressed in coats and ties for dinner and we 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:33.120 couldn't eat. 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:34.880 There was a ceremony before. 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:38.399 We could eat, of some kind of homily would be said, 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:43.040 and then we'd just eat and it just stuff ourselves. 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:45.399 Just everybody ate like it was like being at a 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.639 trough and if you put your elbow on the table, 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:51.240 the headmaster at an enormous silver spoon. It must have 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:54.000 weighed about five pounds or something. And if you saw 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.040 a kid, you know, with his elbow on the table, 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:00.760 or he'd throw the spoon, throw it. And at one 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:02.399 time hit a kid in the mouth and knocked his 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:03.040 tooth out. 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.800 The River Cafe, cafe, steps away from our restaurant, is 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:17.600 now open. In the morning an Italian breakfast with cornetti, 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.960 chiambella and cristata from our pastry kitchen. In the afternoon, 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.800 ice creamed coops and River Cafe classic desserts. Come in 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.000 the evening for cocktails with our resident pianist in the bar. 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:40.760 No need to book, see you here, So let's go back. 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.640 So you left home all domestic sort of domestic life 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.520 at home and school? Did you did you go to college? 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.320 Did you go straight into film? 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.119 So I was a bit of a discipline problem. I 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.639 was kicked out, kicked out. I was kicked out of 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:56.480 tenth grade. 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.920 And then I became an actor both uh and moved 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.760 to New York. But in tenth grade, No, I spent 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:08.439 a year in Los Angeles before going, but and I 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.320 was held back a year also because I was. 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:13.080 Dyslexic. Poor student. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.960 Yeah, my husband's dyslexic. Yeah, can you do you spell? 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:17.720 You can't spell? 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:23.040 Or I have a terrible time with math. But I 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.760 became a voracious reader once I was out of school. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:28.360 Once I wasn't And. 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.240 Also probably when you were in school. I don't know. 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.240 My husband's much older than you that he was in school, 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.080 probably in the forties or whatever, and they didn't know 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.919 what dyslexia was, so he was beaten because he couldn't 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.760 memorize it. They say, you have to learn this poem, 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:44.400 and if you can't, then he was. 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:46.560 Also I know just what he went through. 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:51.280 I was treated as you know, stupid, lazy, Yeah, mostly 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:55.080 stupid and and sort of mentally handicapped. And he had 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.000 to be I had to be held back a grade, 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.320 and you know, I get pitying looks or just be 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:04.600 called stupid. But you know, before then we did. I 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.439 had one more you mentioned Europe. One of my mothers 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.760 before she became you know, unable to walk, and she 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:18.000 was quite healthy. When I was thirteen, my brother was 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:23.399 eleven and my sister was eight, she took us to Italy. 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:27.120 It was her dream and she wanted to show us. 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.240 We went to Italy and England and France and we 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:36.760 took the Michelangelo, the ocean liner, and there began our journey. 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.480 And there I realized, oh, my mother really does love food. 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:42.800 And she would take us to these restaurants and go, 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:44.720 oh my god, this is so good, that's so good. 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:47.760 You know, I was, you know, a bit of a 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.040 you know, mischievous kid, and I would always kind of 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:55.600 sneak out. And when we were in Venice, I snuck 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.800 out and I when everybody was asleep, I assumed, and 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.240 I met these girls and I told him I was thirteen, yeah, 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:06.359 and I told him I was much older. And we 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.240