WEBVTT - Best of Season Three: Part 1 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.720 You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair. 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:07.960 When people talk about food, they talk about memories, the 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:12.440 meals of their childhood, unforgettable parties they went to, comfort eating, 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:16.279 and their grandmother's kitchen. Forty four guests have joined me 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:21.160 at Table four this season, Chefs, actors, tennis champions, football heroes. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:23.960 As part of the podcast, many have cooked with our 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.160 chefs in the River Cafe kitchen. As the season comes 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.080 to a close, we're sharing some of these conversations with 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:35.639 you in this episode Wycliffe, Seawan, Carrie Mulligan, Tom Hollander, 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:39.400 and Guy Ritchie. Let's begin with Sarah Jessica Parker, who 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:42.320 brought her family to the River Cafe, learned how to 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.400 make Puntaurel in the kitchen, and join me for a 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:48.160 lunchtime event with an invited audience. 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:51.680 Thank you, good cooling here. 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.520 So here we are. Did you ever work in a restaurant? 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:56.240 No? 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:58.880 But I say this, knowing how hard it is. I 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:00.960 think I would really love to be a server. 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:03.920 Like I really think that. 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.440 This summer is and you I was, we were really 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:11.880 admiring your service the day because I said to the girls, 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.400 I was like I'm not sure that I've seen servers 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:19.600 move this fast a long time, because Sunday is a 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:23.280 very busy day for you guys, right, Like especially was 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.520 a really busy day and I was saying to somebody 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:27.959 and I said, you know, I don't get to come 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.800 to the River Cafe very often. I don't live in London, 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:35.240 and to myself, to Matthew, it's like a very it's 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:39.119 a it's like a special thing. It's like something you 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.520 earn or maybe you work toward or you pine about, 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.200 and then you visit it and you're not sure if 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.280 you made it all up, like is it possible that 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.640 you joined a sort of cult, like a kind of 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:53.040 thinking about it? 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:54.680 Can it be? 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.680 And then you come here? My hand got it is? 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.400 And the kitchen really is. It's extraordinary to watch. It 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.440 is like a pinball machine, but it's like there's such 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.119 precision about it. And I love watching the chefs talk 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.359 to each other quickly and passing or actually come together 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:18.360 to speak. I don't know, it's amazing and it's glorious. 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.120 We were thrilled to be here, really. 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.040 Well, we're thrilled to have you and I. When we 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.360 first did the completely open kitchen. You will remember after 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.079 the fire, Richard Ayir, who's a director of theater, came 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:33.120 in and I said, Richard, isn't it just like theater 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.320 watching everyone around? And he said, actually, Ry, it isn't. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:41.600 It's like ballet. And he said, because watching people everybody, 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.200 you can't shout in an open kitchen. I mean, sometimes 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:48.560 raise your voice, but basically you're moving around to speak 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.480 to people about if you need to. Usually there's a 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:53.000 kind of communication. 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.440 And this time I had the ravioli with the spinach 0:02:56.480 --> 0:03:00.200 and the ricotta and those tiny gorgeous porcini mushrooms that 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:01.040 are like a surprise. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:02.560 They don't talk about that as much. 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:07.240 And we ordered two and I was like, my daughter said, 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:09.000 do you think we can order another one? 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.440 James said, can we order another one? Which just seems so. 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:18.480 Like gluttonous and decadent and greedy, and and I was like, 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.679 you know what, yes, And if anybody says anything, I'll 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.200 just say we'll take it, like I'm sorry that we're 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:31.120 being so like like animals about this, but it's a 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.000 kind of it's good to think of it as this 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:34.639 kind of once in a lifetime. 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:37.040 It's just incredible. 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.280 One of the things I think that we all, probably 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.960 everyone in this moom would think about. Was that in 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.800 Sex and the City and the way you talk about 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:49.280 food the joy. So many conversations were over food, and 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:51.880 it was the pleasure of food. It was enjoying food 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.200 as a way of communicating and being together, which we 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.200 you know, we all feel here that we a restaurant 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:00.880 is a place where you share Yeah, you know food 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:02.760 you're sitting down at the table or at home with 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.800 your children. Yeah, And so how is that working in 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.520 Sex and the City and doing was that from you? 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:10.400 I always loved food scenes. 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.960 I think it initially it was initially in place I 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:21.240 think probably from either Candace's original source material or Darren 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.080 Starr wrote that first coffee shop scene, which I think 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.320 was just a great meeting place to sort of talk 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.000 about the themes of the of each episode, like get 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:33.040 the headline out, and then each person, those kind of 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.200 archetypal characters would share points of view, so we knew 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:41.920 where where everybody stood, and it allowed for controversial conversation 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:47.960 or titillating conversation. But I will say this that Cynthia Nixon, 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.000 who is a dear friend of mine and we've been 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:52.720 working together since we were little girls. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.240 We've known each other, so we were eleven or ten. 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.920 She was a child actor also, and we would all 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.880 auditioned together. She often got the part. And but we 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:08.480 played siblings when I was very young. We played sisters 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.279 on records. They used to do records of stories, and 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.400 we played Laura and Mary Ingalls, and then we played 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:19.760 siblings of we played children of Vanessa Redgrave in a movie. 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:22.720 But Cynthia and I in those coffee shop scenes, we 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:27.880 always eat. Yeah, we always eat, and we always need 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:33.279 to like reprop our plate. And then when we finally wrap, 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.520 they'll always they always said to Cynthia, Me and Cynthia, 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:38.200 do you guys want to take it. 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.880 To go again today? Yes, we do. 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.000 So we really like those scenes, and we very much 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:46.760 go back and forth about what you could they'll send 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:48.960 the menu in advance now now that we all have 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.359 the phones and things, and because they want you to 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.200 order an advance for props to have everything ready and multiple, 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:56.480 you know, multiples of it. 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:58.880 So we'll go back and forth. Would you order You're 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:00.880 going to order the all or that? So you ordered 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:05.159 that and we can share. So the food is the lines. 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:10.880 Are blurred yes, women eating you know, yes was something 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:15.640 that we are all thinking about how we combine you know, food, 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:16.760 and I think it it's changed. 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.040 You find that your daughters are different now in terms 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:19.880 of their attitude. 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:24.320 Yeah, I mean I I never was very disciplined about it. 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.760 I just wasn't. 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:32.839 I think I'm not really good at like denying myself something. 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.120 And I think also I was a dancer for so 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.200 long and running around, so it was I was able 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.560 to be that way. It's certainly not the same now. 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:46.320 But I also just I had girls. It just was 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.520 so I didn't want them to have a relationship with 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:55.159 food that was antagonistic or they felt like this was 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:57.640 their enemy and that they were going to have to 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.960 sort of like stake out a position with food. So 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.320 when I was growing up, we weren't allowed sugar in 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:04.800 the house, and we were allowed to cookies, and we 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:07.320 weren't allowed the chocolate. And of course all we did 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.240 the minute we moved out was buy Entimate's cakes and cookies, 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:15.080 and you know, and I didn't want that. So in 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:17.680 our house we have cookies, we have cake, we have everything. 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.400 And I think as a result, you kind of have 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.480 a healthier relationship and my daughters will have the figures 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:25.760 they have and hopefully they'll be healthy in their athletes 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.240 and they enjoy food, and they have different palettes, and 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.160 you can't make someone like something they don't like or want. 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:37.600 And I hope that they I hope that they can 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:42.480 maintain their affection for the experience and their delight in 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:47.480 taste and find their own ways to have that be 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:48.520 healthy for them. 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:54.600 And your son mad for food. It was fantastic to 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.800 be all three of them are just you know, involved 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.400 in the food and talking about the food and asking 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:02.360 questions about yea on Sunday, I know. 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:04.480 Math Matthew cooks. 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.880 We both cook every single day, every day, every single day. 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:13.240 Every day. We probably eat dinner as a family every night. 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:15.920 If I'm shooting or he's going to play, obviously that 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:20.160 shifts around. We always have dinner Sunday night, but one 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.720 of us, if we're home, cooks every single day. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.560 The film director Guy Ritchie loves food and he loves 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.920 wine and has his own unique way of doing things. 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.240 When he came to the River Cafe, he didn't go 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.760 into the kitchen. He set up his own outdoor kitchen 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:41.880 in the garden and cooked a steak for our chefs. 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.679 But that's not the only reason I like guy. He's 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.719 a childhood friend of my step Sunabe and I've known 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.600 him for decades. We began this conversation talking about his 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.240 early food memories growing up with his family in London. 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.000 When we moved in, it was an old old fashion. 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:02.679 In theory. 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.840 It wasn't a sort of Cottney community, but it was 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.480 an old fashioned English community there. So this is in 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:14.560 sixty They bought that house in Fulham and they were 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.800 like foodies and boozies then, which is quite early doors. 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.120 So you grew up in the house that loved food. 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:22.840 And then my mum was very a cook. 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:23.680 Where did she cook? 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.120 My favorite was watercress soup. Really it was quite exotic 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.640 rabert carriers idea, but she was a very goa cook. 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.560 I used to like baked eggs and watercrest soup. 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.640 And would you sit down to dinner like most nights 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:41.240 as a fa who's in your family? 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:46.800 Your brothers and one sister, a sister and a mother, and. 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.400 So would you sit down to me with the family supper? 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:55.839 I heard something earlier on that I'm not can't remember 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.319 which generation we are, but we are still the sort 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.040 of the I suppose maybe the LA generation that lived 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.560 more outdoors than we did indoors, so I knew all 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.720 the other kids in the street, so you were never indoors. 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.600 You were always out with your mates. And we were 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:15.480 on bicycles. I remember used to cycle to quite far 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.640 Afield and we were on bicycles when we were six. 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.480 So I went to local school, local, I went to 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:26.120 thirteen school. I went thirteen thirteen. Okay, yeah, local school 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.280 or no school could cope with no educating local school 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:33.880 could cope. And I sort of picked up the reputation 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:35.600 that it was because I was naughty, and it wasn't 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:39.640 because I was naughty. It was it was just I 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:45.120 was remarkably slow in understanding what they were trying to translate, 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.480 and I had no ability to translate it. So yeah, 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.440 very probiscuous for schools. And I went to about five 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.760 local schools and then gradually, I mean even the one 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:56.640 I went to school with ab that was which is 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.040 subsequently shut down. Most of the schools I went to 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.480 subsequently because they were all learning disability schools, and they 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:06.199 did well. They sort of fumbled around as best they could, 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:08.600 and I'm sort of grateful for their efforts. But there 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.040 was only one person I met that was more dyslexic 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.040 than me, and that was Abe. 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.840 I've been to my kids' schools, you know, whether it 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.640 was Abe or it was you know, my children, and 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.600 I remember saying the only I don't care if they 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.360 learned to read when they're eight or six or ten 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.200 or twelve or fourteen. What you do never want your 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.000 child to do is to feel stupid. You know, because 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:32.480 I said, those are the people that come into the 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:35.400 River Cafe, and they was coming and they say, I 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:36.880 don't want to sit here. I don't want that, I 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:38.800 don't want this, And I almost want to say, did 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:40.800 you have a hard time in school? You know, because. 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.199 It's I'm going to challenge you. I'm going to challenge 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:48.800 you that from the best roses come from the worstman you. Okay, 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:53.080 So I think a certain amount of adversity is rather essential. 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.760 And I don't think it did me much harm being told. 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:59.280 You never told you're stupid, It was implicit feel that 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:01.640 you were where you were clear, it was clear that 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.600 you couldn't follow right, and you were clear that kids 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:10.240 that weren't that quick were following quicker than you. Could follow, 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:14.079 so you could you knew there was an issue. I 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.360 would argue though, that that gave me a sort of 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:24.000 a myriad of skills that otherwise I would never have developed. 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.679 And feeling like you were an outside of some description 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.400 and feeling diminished as a point in the end, I 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.079 just don't think that did me any harm. 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:34.160 I agree with you about a lot of that. I mean, 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.160 I agree with self esteem. I used to think self 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.000 esteem was the most important thing. Now I think maybe not. 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:43.480 It was a paradox that. Yeah, there's a paradox. 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:47.680 Okay, well, going back then thirteen schools, do you remember 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:50.439 any of those searteen schools having good food? 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:55.040 Yeah, you'll be surprised what kind of food I can enjoy? Yeah, 0:12:55.200 --> 0:13:00.640 tell me everything. My mum wasn't fussy, and I've never 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:04.280 been fussy. The only thing I couldn't eat was rhubarb, 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.960 and even that I can eat now, and I was. 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:13.640 I'm quite interested and enjoy industrial quantities of food that's 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.040 not necessarily to consume. But there's a sort of it 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.240 takes on certain qualities they used to do, like school, Lasanya, 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:21.520 when you're cooking for a few hundred kids, it takes 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:27.319 on complex characteristics that are impossible to derive if you're 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:32.280 using quality product. So yeah, I liked school food. 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:34.920 Out of thirteen schools, which one did you? Did you 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.240 do something like graduating from school? Or did you just 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:37.839 leave school? 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:43.600 It just left fifteen, and it was anticlimactic sort of. 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.720 I left and then they said, don't bother coming back? 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:51.199 And did your parents were they? Were they worried about you? 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:51.640 Yes? 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.160 Yeah, yes, because I had no qualifications at all. I 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.959 can barely spell my name, but I was. I mean, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.280 I was working by the time I was fifteen, not 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.520 far from here, actually some Peter Square in amazonhere. 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:04.600 Yeah. 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:06.800 I worked in the Island Records, which I don't know 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.080 if it's still there, but I worked as a twoboy 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:10.040 in records. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:12.520 Were you living at home? Did your mom still cook 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:12.760 for you? 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:13.000 Who? 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:13.400 No? 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:19.480 I left home early door, So I was from fifteen onwards. 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:20.520 I was in and out And. 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:21.760 What were you eating? Do you remember? 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.640 Ummm no is. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.720 The answer that no be goes. Then it was it 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.640 was all work from fifteen to now. It's really all 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.440 been work, although it's been sort of messy periods along 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.800 that way. I've been working pretty much since I was fifteen. 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:43.200 My first love of real food was French and I 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.120 was tremendously impressed by the layering. 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.960 M call layering, you mean the way. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.720 That I felt as though there was every nuance was investigated. 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:55.880 There was a place on Pimlico Road that was run 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:56.560 by those brothers. 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.560 Remember, yeah, it was next to the pot Yeah, but 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:00.160 that's when I. 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:02.960 There was a little supermarket. There was next door a 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.040 little shop and a little French shop, not much bigger 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:09.280 than this room. And when I was a van driver, 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:14.080 I used to go in there and it was absurdly expensive, 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:19.040 but the quality was mind blowing. You've run a career 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.640 off the quality of your ingredients, Avenue. 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.280 I would say that about French food and Italian food. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:27.640 You know that I see nothing I love more than 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.640 a piece of fish, both blanc and spinach on the bottom. 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.400 As you say, almost layering the way. But there's something 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:35.480 also when you go to Italy and then you have 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.240 a piece of sea bass and nothing. You know, you 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:41.360 just get this bass and maybe, if you're lucky, a 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:43.760 bit of salsa verdi or lemon, and so if you're 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.160 going to have only two ingredients of lemon and a 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.120 sea bass or sea bass and a bit of wild diregular. 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.680 The wild diregua has to be wild, and the sea 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.080 bass has to be incredibly fit, you know, fresh, because 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.640 there's no masking of it. You're not looking at the 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.480 hollandaise or the burnets or the other stuff, you know. 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:01.920 So I think we are with the river Cafe definitely 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.280 is very ingredient based. Yeah, we are. 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:10.480 I went fishing for sea bass this week, actually Portland anyway, 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.400 So I caught four very healthy bats. We're actually caught fourteen. 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.440 We returned ten of them. Wet fishing with my ten 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.760 year old is obsessed and English bass. 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.920 We get it is. We get all our fish off 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.400 the coast. We don't bring any two now or anything in. 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.240 We once had one of my was we had the 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:36.560 we you know, we call it the end of service. 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.120 So at eleven o'clock at night, we know how much 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.080 bass we've sold, how much you know turbot we've sold, 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:43.800 and we know that the next day we're going to 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.360 change the menu. So we never have the menu. It 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.280 just depends what there is in the fridge and what 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.160 there is in the sea. And then we got a 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.800 call from the boat and he said, I we have 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.680 just reeled in a turbot and it's so big that 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.400 either the River Cafe takes it or we put it 0:16:58.440 --> 0:16:59.160 back in the sea. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.560 Do you want and we took it? How big was it? 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:03.400 I can't remember? 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:16.439 Maybe I have no eight kills. The River Cafe Cafe, 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:19.960 our all day space and just steps away from the restaurant, 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:24.600 is now open. In the morning an Italian breakfast with cornetti, 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:29.000 ciambella and crostada from our pastry kitchen. In the afternoon, 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.760 ice creamed coups and River Cafe classic desserts. We have 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:37.280 sharing plates Salumi, misti, mozzarella, brusqueto, red and yellow peppers, 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:41.240 Vitello tonado and more. Come in the evening for cocktails 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.600 with our resident pianist in the bar. No need to book, 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:56.480 see you here. When Michael Jean came to Table four, 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.760 he had memories to share and songs to sing, But 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:03.400 the moment that stays with me most was this story 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.520 about his childhood. As a young boy, Wycliffe was left 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.720 with his grandmother in Haiti while his parents tried to 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.000 make a new life for the family in America, and 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:19.160 then one day an immigration officer came looking for them. 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:24.639 The immigration unit goes to my mama the apartment that 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.879 they staying in. So while my dad's running, this is 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.639 a big raid like dayDay about them. Yes, this is 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:38.240 in Brooklyn. Now immigration officer gets to my mama apartment. Immigration, 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:44.840 open up the door now, man, and my mom is 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:52.600 so scared. The immigration officer has a translator with him 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:57.320 that speaks French and crayle. So the immigration officer says, 0:18:58.119 --> 0:18:59.960 I had a knocked on this door for a time. 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:03.760 They ain't open and I know somebody in there. I 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:05.640 need you to say it in cray all, in French 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.120 whatever language that is. Tell them to open that door. 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.840 And the translator says to my mother and cray all 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:20.679 fair softly, man, I was butler translation, do you not 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:26.800 open that door right now? Now? The reason why I 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.119 say this right is, at the end of the day, 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:36.560 people get caught up in these situations, and we the 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:42.280 United States of America, like there was a time where 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.280 we would take keyed to this, and we would take 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.879 like cause to this, and we would be so sensitive 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.760 to that, like where we could say, we'll give you 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:58.960 a pass because we know what you're doing here. You're 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.040 not breaking the law. You just had a bad day. 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.320 And these days do not exist. 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:09.000 No. Also, you know you're making the country better, you know, 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:13.080 by coming from another country. And I was just given 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:17.639 a prize in America. It asked to be in the academy. 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:19.800 I was made a member of this Academy of Arts 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:22.000 and Letters. And I wrote the letter and I said, 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:26.639 my grandparents came from Russia and I came in nineteen seventeen. 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.280 You know, they were part of that Ellis Island. I 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.320 was just thinking, two generations. How you know if your 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.959 grandparents were here watching you they did your grandparents know 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:39.320 the measure of your success? Did they see? 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:39.760 No? 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:47.199 My grandparents, my grandma knew my musical abilities at a 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.920 very young age because I would just like make songs up. 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.840 There was these women in the village every Sunday that 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.040 would sing these church hymns and I would just get 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.959 I would just be part of remember one. Yeah, I 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:06.360 remember a few of them. 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:11.080 She sat fair, Not do you wan pair? 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:23.920 When Bennie and corner Shop? She shuck fair? Oh what 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:29.000 do you want pair? Oh Bennie when Bennie? 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:36.280 Yeah? And more corner Poco Damn the. 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:44.200 Lulja bo Ben Dick Show, Wha. 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:58.879 Wha Poco men, The Louija Bo Ben Dick show Whoa. 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:05.879 So that was that was you know, you could just 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:06.280 feel it. 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:09.880 But the the the the him is saying we're blessed 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.639 and we should acknowledge that like basically every day of 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:17.600 our life. So again that was some of the I 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.320 would hear these these these uh, these amazing women like 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:23.800 and and then so the heymns would just channel through me. 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:27.520 And after church, would you would that be food? Would 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.480 that be a meal? Would you go home? 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:35.080 And hence we call it lucky Sunday. You get that 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:39.240 lucky Sunday. Everything come out on that Lucky Sunday. But 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.600 it doesn't happen often. Lucky Sunday happens on Easter. 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:45.640 The meal is big. 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:49.520 The meal is big. The meal is a lot of meat, 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:55.960 goat goat goat cooked very interesting. It's called tasu. It's 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.920 fried traditionally in Haiti. If you see how they cook, 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:03.840 they used the chabon charcoal, so it's caught with the 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:06.920 charcoal because you know, the food gonna taste different, and 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:10.920 then they put the big aluminum pan and so the 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:16.720