Speaker 1: Welcome to River Cafe Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and Adamized Studios.
Speaker 2: When my good friend duro Olowu calls me, I never
Speaker 2: know if he's on his way to show his collection
Speaker 2: in Paris, curate an exhibition in Chicago, visit a wool
Speaker 2: factory in Tuscany, or just sitting down to have a
Speaker 2: plate of spaghetti Patarka in the River Cafe. Fajura is
Speaker 2: a man of many parts, fashion designer, art director, ventor
Speaker 2: to young entrepreneurs, and a passionate lover of food. Right
Speaker 2: now we are in my kitchen. I'm wearing one of
Speaker 2: his beautiful, bright dresses, and he is grating Patarka. We'll
Speaker 2: have a talk about everything he is thinking and doing
Speaker 2: over a long lunch. Then he will tell me he
Speaker 2: has to go, and as always I will try and
Speaker 2: persuade my friend to stay with me just a little
Speaker 2: bit longer. Okay, okay, all right, we are so action.
Speaker 2: Spaghetti Bataga gota guy so batarga is. I think it's
Speaker 2: one of the great delicacies of life. Really, you know,
Speaker 2: it's identified completely with sardinia. It's the dried row of
Speaker 2: the mullet of the gray mullet, and there is botarga
Speaker 2: of tuna, but we always use the botarga of the
Speaker 2: gray Manalat.
Speaker 3: And it's wonderful. And here's how to cook it. Two
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty grams of spaghetti, three tablespoons of olive oil,
Speaker 3: two garlic clothes peeled and finely chopped, fifty grams of
Speaker 3: fresh flat leaf parsley, very family chopped, one dried red
Speaker 3: chili crumbled, one hundred grams of botaga, coarsely grated juice
Speaker 3: of one lemon. Those are the ingredients. You cook the
Speaker 3: pasta in a generous amount of boiling salted water, then
Speaker 3: drain thoroughly and return to the saucepan. Meanwhile, heat the
Speaker 3: olive oil in a sep fit saucepan and fry the
Speaker 3: garlic with the parsley and chili for a few seconds.
Speaker 3: Add to the drained pasta, then stir in most of
Speaker 3: the botaga, serve immediately with the remaining botago on top
Speaker 3: or more plus a squeeze of lemon.
Speaker 2: How wonderful, Oh, thank you to why botaga.
Speaker 3: It's interesting because it's a difficult one. Whenever anyone asks
Speaker 3: you for a favorite anything, it's always best to think
Speaker 3: like a child and go for the first thing that
Speaker 3: comes to your mind, because there's a reason during the lockdown,
Speaker 3: and every time the lockdown was lifted. One of the
Speaker 3: greatest things that I got to do with friends was
Speaker 3: to sneak out the river cafe and thinking about the food.
Speaker 3: It was the pizzetta with talagio and time or the botaga,
Speaker 3: and the botaga had to come up top because it's
Speaker 3: a very I mean, the pizzetta is difficult to make,
Speaker 3: but good.
Speaker 4: Botaga spaghetti is.
Speaker 3: The most difficult thing is I would never try to
Speaker 3: make it at home, and that's why I always look
Speaker 3: forward to having.
Speaker 2: A river cafe it But have you been to Sardinia.
Speaker 3: I went to Sardinia twice, once in my teens and
Speaker 3: once in the early two thousands.
Speaker 4: I loved Sardinia.
Speaker 3: You know, you arrive in Santa as Morelda No, and
Speaker 3: then you just think, okay, we drive inwards, you know,
Speaker 3: and there you just drive past this wonderful, dry, almost brutal,
Speaker 3: but beautiful terrain, and every way you stop and eat,
Speaker 3: you start to feel the essence of this part of
Speaker 3: Italy that has a history of severe poverty and very
Speaker 3: harsh conditions. It sort of has that feel. So to me,
Speaker 3: spaghetti potaga reflects that terrain and the colors and just
Speaker 3: the coarseness, but delicious coarseness.
Speaker 2: I think if you go to Sardinia, but targa is
Speaker 2: so associated with Sardinia. It is the food of Sardinia,
Speaker 2: and I don't think I'd ever had it until I
Speaker 2: went to Sardinny and then you have it everywhere. You
Speaker 2: have it on salads, you have it in you know, pasta's,
Speaker 2: you have it on other fish.
Speaker 3: And in a way for me eating Botoga that it
Speaker 3: wasn't the first time I'd had spaghetti bottaga, but it
Speaker 3: was different. It was a revelation because you really understand
Speaker 3: how it's so basic in one way, you know, it's row,
Speaker 3: but at the same time it's not caviat it's row
Speaker 3: and it's but it's so sort of respected and beautifully treated,
Speaker 3: and I love that. Of course, I've eaten it in
Speaker 3: Milana Lodge where go. I also in Peruja, where I
Speaker 3: have a factory that makes my network. But I mean,
Speaker 3: I haven't been to Sardinia for many years, but I
Speaker 3: have my little sardina at the River cafege.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is it's also I think Sardinia is so wild.
Speaker 2: It is you can imagine the coast, but then it's
Speaker 2: so the interior is like the wild West. And what
Speaker 2: about the food of your country? Tell me about growing
Speaker 2: up in Lake.
Speaker 3: Yes, and you know the food in Nigeria. First of all,
Speaker 3: I had a Jamaican mother, but my mother learned to
Speaker 3: cook all the Nigerian food. And I'm Uruba, so we
Speaker 3: had this household where we had Nigerian food all sorts.
Speaker 3: It's very meat based, I have to say, at least
Speaker 3: from the region that I'm from. So we had this
Speaker 3: real mix. So we'd have Nigerian food, you know, pounded yam,
Speaker 3: rich vegetable sauces with meat or fishes. But then we'd
Speaker 3: also have rice and peas, you know. And my mother
Speaker 3: would make the best coconut candy and she would bake
Speaker 3: and she would make rice and peas. We didn't have
Speaker 3: aki and sulfish so much, but we had jahanny cakes,
Speaker 3: which they're almost like little buns of our fried They're
Speaker 3: like little flour buns, but the dough has to be
Speaker 3: just right and you stick them in the oil and
Speaker 3: they quick fry. And usually we'd have them with scrambled
Speaker 3: eggs on the side, but in Jamaica you have them
Speaker 3: with aciine sulfish sometimes, but we had this mix.
Speaker 2: So your mother came from Jamaica and how old was
Speaker 2: she when she came.
Speaker 4: My parents met here.
Speaker 3: My father she came to study nursing on the winter
Speaker 3: the windwress generation, and my father came to study law
Speaker 3: and he trained as a barrister.
Speaker 4: That's how they met. Had two children.
Speaker 3: Here, my oldest brother and sister, and then went back
Speaker 3: to Nigeria in nineteen fifty nine, so just before independence.
Speaker 3: So that's how they met and they went back. But
Speaker 3: you know, my extended family on my mother's side, a
Speaker 3: lot of them worked on the trains and in car
Speaker 3: factories here in Darby in London, so you know we
Speaker 3: would always come on holiday and then we would be
Speaker 3: staying in central London, but we would visit them. So
Speaker 3: I also had that sort of incredible experience of being
Speaker 3: with my cousins. Some of them were raster and I
Speaker 3: was completely engulfed in that. Food was an important part
Speaker 3: of that, but mostly things like Jamaican patties. Whenever we'd
Speaker 3: have the chance to visit, my older cousin say, come on,
Speaker 3: let's go for a walk and you'd stop and get
Speaker 3: the patties. But my parents were very very food with
Speaker 3: very much.
Speaker 2: Was it important to them. Did you sit down for
Speaker 2: dinner every meal? Every meal? Tell me about the lunches
Speaker 2: and the dinner as well.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, of course in the day when I
Speaker 3: was in school and I during the day, you know,
Speaker 3: you go to school, but we all have breakfast and
Speaker 3: then you know.
Speaker 2: What would you have for breakfast?
Speaker 3: I mean, funny enough, the big thing with like bacon
Speaker 3: and eggs, like breakfast bacon and eggs, toast or my
Speaker 3: mother used to make a great thing. I mean big
Speaker 3: beans which aren't the best, but they were delicious on
Speaker 3: brown slices, bread toasted with a thin sort of layer
Speaker 3: of butter and tomatoes. But you know, the thing is
Speaker 3: there was this thing of you couldn't we could talk
Speaker 3: at the table, but you know, if you sat down,
Speaker 3: the table was set, everything was set. And my mother
Speaker 3: always cooked the other thing, which was incredibly rare because
Speaker 3: you know, my father's this old school that my father
Speaker 3: cooked amazingly.
Speaker 2: Well, I remember you telling me about your father cooking.
Speaker 2: Tell me what did he cook that?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: He cooked Nigerian food really well, everything the fourie row,
Speaker 3: which is a sort of particular vegetable that has a
Speaker 3: bitter taste with different kinds of meat or fish. My
Speaker 3: father loved fresh fish, he loved catfish, he loved the
Speaker 3: equivalent of sea bream, you know. And there were always
Speaker 3: people in the huge market, the special fish ladies who
Speaker 3: were the queens. But my father loved to cook. And
Speaker 3: sometimes on Sundays or whatever, he'd say, I'm cooking. And
Speaker 3: what struck me was my mother was an incredible cook,
Speaker 3: really incredible. But when my mother cooked, the kitchen could
Speaker 3: look like a vombinan fish. And then they'd be a
Speaker 3: big clean up with my father as he'd be cooking,
Speaker 3: everything would be washed and put away. Your father was
Speaker 3: and I watched that. I mean I learned a bit
Speaker 3: from that.
Speaker 2: But do you know where he learned to cook?
Speaker 3: I mean, if I take my father, the son of
Speaker 3: a king, nobody told him. My father taught himself. Yeah,
Speaker 3: my father taught himself. Nobody told my father to cok
Speaker 3: and he came from that sort of really. You know,
Speaker 3: he's very quiet about it, but you know, you know
Speaker 3: that he you know, this is something that he just felt.
Speaker 3: He loved and he took pride in He didn't do
Speaker 3: it often, but he did it, and he loved to cook.
Speaker 3: And sometimes he would meet us here on holiday, if
Speaker 3: we were here, he'd come and he would go on
Speaker 3: special trips to certain markets where you could get Nigerian
Speaker 3: ingredients and cook.
Speaker 2: There was a comment that you just mentioned that I
Speaker 2: don't want to that slip and you said your father
Speaker 2: was the son of a king. I don't think I've
Speaker 2: ever met anybody. I don't hang around the royal family
Speaker 2: very much.
Speaker 3: No, No, my grandfather is an about, you know, of
Speaker 3: a certain region. And my father said, mother, I'm saying,
Speaker 3: is my father or back insurgion. My grandfather was this
Speaker 3: guy that we just I never really looked at this ray.
Speaker 3: We just bowed to him all the time. He was
Speaker 3: a wonderful man and he died in one hundred and something.
Speaker 3: Very stoic but very wise, tough, but very wise. We
Speaker 3: used to go up and see him. He would come
Speaker 3: to Legous with his whole entourage and stay with us.
Speaker 2: And what would food be like my mother's food?
Speaker 3: He would only eat my mother's food. Really, yeah, which
Speaker 3: was the biggest compliment considering you know there we would
Speaker 3: eat what they cooked. We usually used to go for
Speaker 3: the New Year, so it would go three days before
Speaker 3: New Year. They'd be cars full of fireworks for the
Speaker 3: kids in the village and then and then. But I
Speaker 3: don't really remember the food. It's strange, I think because
Speaker 3: we were just you know, it's rural, rural, and you know,
Speaker 3: you go crazy. It's like children just being allowed to run.
Speaker 3: So food was really not something that was on my mind.
Speaker 3: But again, there was a lot of meat and a
Speaker 3: lot of fish. We didn't eat chicken in the village,
Speaker 3: and I asked my father. We ate chicken at home.
Speaker 3: But later he stopped in his sixties, and I said why,
Speaker 3: and he said, there's this whole story. Basically, chicken saved
Speaker 3: the village. Hundreds of years ago, the enemies were coming.
Speaker 3: People ran up through the mountains. I don't know if
Speaker 3: this is true. It's a fable. They ran off into
Speaker 3: the mountains. When they got to the village, they were
Speaker 3: looking for the people, but all the foot prints leading
Speaker 3: to where they had escaped to were visible. But when
Speaker 3: the villagers were leaving, they let loose all the chickens
Speaker 3: because they didn't want them to be captured, and the
Speaker 3: chickens ran all over the footprints and scattered them, so
Speaker 3: they're held in high esteam.
Speaker 2: I see the.
Speaker 4: Chickens generally, you know, I love chickens.
Speaker 2: When I see you in the river cafe, usually come
Speaker 2: with one person, and you're very engaged, and I think that,
Speaker 2: how does that work when you're designing? Do you have
Speaker 2: pins in your mouth? Can you eat or do you
Speaker 2: do not eat? Or do you do take your team
Speaker 2: out for meals or do you I.
Speaker 3: Don't have a team, which you know, I have to
Speaker 3: say I have a very very small team, and therefore
Speaker 3: it's sort of not isolated. I don't make all the things.
Speaker 3: I have someone who cuts them properly for me. I
Speaker 3: can do the early things. But sometimes if I'm working
Speaker 3: really intensely, you look and it's three o'clock and you think, gosh,
Speaker 3: I haven't had lunch. But then I just save it
Speaker 3: up for supper, you know, for a really good supper.
Speaker 3: So I usually, you know, breakfast, I can just have
Speaker 3: a coffee and some homemade granola. But lunch, now, yes,
Speaker 3: I will stop. And especially during lockdown, you know, you
Speaker 3: make something and sometimes it's Yesterday's faster sauce with fresh
Speaker 3: faster or a salad. I used to think I didn't
Speaker 3: have the patience to make really good salads.
Speaker 4: But I do.
Speaker 2: You need patience to make a good.
Speaker 4: Sell, need patience to make food patience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you cook at help, do you find it
Speaker 2: relaxing to cook? Do you find it's a way of
Speaker 2: kind of winding down?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, because you do switch off. I mean when you're
Speaker 3: trying to get the peel off the garlic, things like that.
Speaker 3: Concentrating tomatoes, like getting the core out is always a
Speaker 3: chill for me. I've tried focused, but with everything else
Speaker 3: I do not have. I was really out your eloquently
Speaker 3: written recipe, but I never know how much of anything
Speaker 3: to put in.
Speaker 4: I just go with my gut.
Speaker 2: Do you go with your Yeah? Yeah? And what about
Speaker 2: Chicago when you were there? Tell me about the show.
Speaker 2: It involved the city, it involved culture, it involved design
Speaker 2: and art, and yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, the director of Madeline Greenstein asked me
Speaker 3: if I would do a show of my work, and
Speaker 3: I thought, I mean, I love what I do, but
Speaker 3: I just felt, you know, there's more. I have curated
Speaker 3: art shows, contemporary art shows, and I said I wouldn't
Speaker 3: do that, but I'll do this, and I said, I'm
Speaker 3: going to curate because Chicago is an incredible city that
Speaker 3: has incredible people and the most incredible things in the world.
Speaker 3: Very quietly, it's all there. And basically I decided to
Speaker 3: do a show that shows people in Chicago what they have.
Speaker 3: So the MCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago,
Speaker 3: where I did it. I picked a lot from their collection,
Speaker 3: but then I asked every major museum there, from the
Speaker 3: Art Institute, the Terror Foundation into it high Low, if
Speaker 3: I could borrow works, and everyone says, oh, they'll never allow.
Speaker 3: You know, it's very complet They all did, and of
Speaker 3: course some of the people with the greatest collections, I'd
Speaker 3: never even seen some of their collections, but all of
Speaker 3: them opened their doors to me, usually over breakfast, lunch,
Speaker 3: or dinner, to look at their collection and borrow anything.
Speaker 3: So really I sort of was left with this encyclopedic
Speaker 3: from David Hammond's to Margriet to Lynette, to Louis Nevilson
Speaker 3: to Michael Armitage, Bryce Marten, you name it. I mean
Speaker 3: unbelievable mixed with Malix c Dbay mixed with it was
Speaker 3: all inspiring and it all came together because they were
Speaker 3: featured out about the size of it and the number
Speaker 3: of works, But I think it's the same thing with
Speaker 3: you when you're cooking. The way I approach my curatorial
Speaker 3: practice with art, which is why I do it, is
Speaker 3: I don't believe in put things in categories because I
Speaker 3: always think ingredients go together when they're together, if they're
Speaker 3: right for each other. So my approach is it can
Speaker 3: be the biggest or the most revered artists mixed with
Speaker 3: people that are as incredible artists but not known. And
Speaker 3: I don't like the world or use the word outside
Speaker 3: artists because it's so patronizing. Really, it's almost the way
Speaker 3: women artists were called women artists in the seventies.
Speaker 4: And you put it all.
Speaker 3: Together and at the end, I would walk through the
Speaker 3: gallery about an hour or two before, and it was
Speaker 3: six huge galleries, you know, filled with work, three hundred works,
Speaker 3: and there was a calm, and that's how I know
Speaker 3: it's fine. So yes, I wanted to really show that
Speaker 3: city because I think a lot of people Borrow, Borrow
Speaker 3: Borough have the shows that involve works from all over
Speaker 3: the world, so much planning and finance or whatever, and
Speaker 3: they have incredible things in their cities. That the public
Speaker 3: don't see. And I think, why do people give all
Speaker 3: this art, you know, these families and people that have
Speaker 3: donated art to these museums.
Speaker 4: It's for the public to see.
Speaker 2: But it also sounds like you're a personal relationship with
Speaker 2: the people that gay And then you had that tiny
Speaker 2: little sense if we did this in over lunch, dinner, breakfast,
Speaker 2: because I think that's also interesting how people use or
Speaker 2: go to a restaurant, and so maybe do you think
Speaker 2: that made them more relaxed with you or yes?
Speaker 4: I think so.
Speaker 3: I think you're right, and I think, you know, some
Speaker 3: people do it with alcohol, and I like a good
Speaker 3: glass of wine or whatever, but food levels everyone alseo.
Speaker 3: It disarms certain people. And because people always think, whether
Speaker 3: it's in the art world, in the fashion world, in
Speaker 3: the food world, people always think that you're coming into
Speaker 3: a scenario with a plan. No one just has lunch
Speaker 3: with each other. Like if somebody calls references, Oh, I
Speaker 3: was wondering if you like lunch, and I say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: of course, Oh do you want to know why? And I, well,
Speaker 3: I didn't think there were why you know, And you're right,
Speaker 3: I think the great thing about food you can start
Speaker 3: even talking about business or work. But once the first
Speaker 3: monscules go into your mouth slightly off, the other thing
Speaker 3: is really it's almost what you said, projects, deals, breakups,
Speaker 3: getting together, dangerous liaisons, you know, ideas. I love eating
Speaker 3: in restaurants on my own, I get great. I love
Speaker 3: eating in restaurants.
Speaker 2: What do you like about it?
Speaker 3: Because it's I feel grown up? Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 3: the movies, you know, and I feel grown up, and
Speaker 3: I just think, you know, this is a wonderful establishment.
Speaker 4: I can just admire it.
Speaker 3: I can look around and when you hear the murmurs
Speaker 3: and no one's looking at you, I mean they are
Speaker 3: because they're thinking, how come? But really all you can
Speaker 3: see are people eating. You see the movie, it's like
Speaker 3: a Brunell movie.
Speaker 2: I remember that used to come. I mean, it feels
Speaker 2: so long ago. Yeah, but I think coming meet me
Speaker 2: when I'm almost finished work. And so we'd come at
Speaker 2: the end of the s and sit down, and you'd
Speaker 2: come in a bit before, and then I would be
Speaker 2: up and down.
Speaker 3: Remember sometimes you'd get up and say, oh, I have
Speaker 3: to do this, and I'd say no.
Speaker 2: Go go. And we watched the restaurant winding down, and
Speaker 2: every beautiful scene come and talk to you. And do
Speaker 2: you remember the night that you gave me a coat?
Speaker 2: And I was waiting and those at the end, and
Speaker 2: the restaurant was almost empty, and so I just put
Speaker 2: on this beautiful Durer coat and then everybody was putting
Speaker 2: it on. The receptionist was putting it on, and everybody.
Speaker 2: We were all so excited about. And I think that
Speaker 2: restaurants are places where you say the unexpected happen. Magic
Speaker 2: when you create a dress, when you created the skirt
Speaker 2: that I'm wearing of yours right now, and the process
Speaker 2: of creating and then it being worn and then it
Speaker 2: may be lasting for centuries. Maybe not. And food, do
Speaker 2: you think that there's a kind of relationship. I sometimes
Speaker 2: think that I make a work of art when I
Speaker 2: make up a parat art, and maybe it is a
Speaker 2: slight work of art. It's not like a dua dress,
Speaker 2: and then it's eaten and then it's gone. So you're
Speaker 2: judged by the moment if somebody's paratart is too sweet
Speaker 2: or it isn't cooked enough. Because fashion is could be
Speaker 2: defined is temporary, absolutely, but it's in fashion. But do
Speaker 2: you think there's relationship between food?
Speaker 3: I do, But I think what you said about food
Speaker 3: is very interesting because it's true there's a moment for food,
Speaker 3: and as soon as it's consumed, it's the memory that remains.
Speaker 3: But for the maker, who's like the creator of it,
Speaker 3: that's the only moment they feel they will be judged.
Speaker 3: I don't like to think of what I do as fashion.
Speaker 3: I'm a fashion designer, but I'm not interested in fashion.
Speaker 3: I never have been. I'm interested in the culture of style,
Speaker 3: and that's not pompous. That just incorporates everything, you know.
Speaker 3: But at least with clothes, you really get the chance
Speaker 3: to see it on different women of different shapes, different ethnicities,
Speaker 3: different physiques, you know. I mean, it's a very beautiful
Speaker 3: thing to see. And you see it on people you
Speaker 3: don't know. Sometimes I'm in New York or even in
Speaker 3: London or wherever in the world, and I see someone
Speaker 3: run across the road and I think it's four winter. Yeah,
Speaker 3: twenty four winter twelve. You know, that's nice. So I
Speaker 3: do have this constant reminder of the work in a
Speaker 3: way that for you you have to keep creating it.
Speaker 3: You know, it's not it comes and it goes, but
Speaker 3: it's it's more sustaining routie than I work aout.
Speaker 4: Food is life.
Speaker 2: Food is life. Clothes a life.
Speaker 4: Close a life, but food is life.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And do you think that when you talked about
Speaker 2: food in growing up, because your clothes are a reflection
Speaker 2: of also, yes, growing up in Africa. Think that your
Speaker 2: identity as a designer is to do with memory and
Speaker 2: history as absolutely.
Speaker 3: I always say, you don't know where you're going until
Speaker 3: you know where you've come from, whether it's creatively, sexually,
Speaker 3: wherever you know, you just don't know. Emotionally. You can't
Speaker 3: say you're in love unless you've been in love before.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: One of the greatest things that I got from my
Speaker 3: growing up and my assistance was a cosmopolitan eye. And
Speaker 3: that's what my parents showed us. Look at everything. You know,
Speaker 3: we mix Nigerian with everything. You give everything its credence,
Speaker 3: even though you know where you're from. You know, you
Speaker 3: respect yourself, but also look at everything. And I'm one
Speaker 3: of those children. You know when you were a child,
Speaker 3: like really young, and you'd be given boxes of toys
Speaker 3: and left like in the corner, and your parents or
Speaker 3: whoever was with you would turn around and they would
Speaker 3: take the toys out and they would expect you to
Speaker 3: put them back in the box to try and fit
Speaker 3: them in the little square. Well, I was the kid
Speaker 3: that always had them rearranged on the outside.
Speaker 2: Always range. And that's what you're saying about your cooking,
Speaker 2: real range.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. And this is the other thing I
Speaker 3: have to say. This is not a sucker, but Ruthie,
Speaker 3: everyone that works at the River Cafe or has worked
Speaker 3: as a River Cafe, the one thing they never lose
Speaker 3: is their love of food. Now that might seem simple,
Speaker 3: but it's something that they saw and learned at.
Speaker 4: The River Cafe.
Speaker 3: And you can see, especially when they're very young, you
Speaker 3: can see them looking for that love while they're working.
Speaker 3: And I think the love that they're looking for when
Speaker 3: you teach them how to prepare is what goes on
Speaker 3: our plate. So when I eat the botaga, it's not
Speaker 3: just a spaghetti bottaga. It's sort of a plate of love,
Speaker 3: you know. And by the time the lemon is squeezed
Speaker 3: on it, it's like a kiss.
Speaker 2: I was going to say that if there was a
Speaker 2: hint about if you make that spaghetti botaga, that last
Speaker 2: squeeze of lemon juice is crucial, isn't it. It's the
Speaker 2: one thing that you think, well, because there's so many
Speaker 2: different ways of making it, and some people do it
Speaker 2: very very dry. They just put the graded potarga into
Speaker 2: the spaghetti and we make it quite oily, oily and one.
Speaker 2: But I think that what you need to do is
Speaker 2: cut that with that squeeze of lemon a thing.
Speaker 3: But it's just the right. That's where the love comes in.
Speaker 3: You just it's kacina dii mama, you know, but it's
Speaker 3: really that and I love that. And I'll just say
Speaker 3: something about the potaga, which is very interesting. It's never
Speaker 3: I love savory but not salty. Yeah, And it's the
Speaker 3: perfect thing right where you just want. The portions are
Speaker 3: also perfect.
Speaker 4: You never feel it's too much, not too much.
Speaker 2: So that brings me to our very last question of
Speaker 2: comfort and friendship and love, all the topics we've talked
Speaker 2: about memories and so if you were thinking about what
Speaker 2: is your comfort food? If you wanted food is comfort,
Speaker 2: would you go back to your early days of food,
Speaker 2: the food your mother made you, or would you think
Speaker 2: of comfort food as a particular dish or what would
Speaker 2: be your comfort food?
Speaker 3: I think I would think of comfort food as anything,
Speaker 3: because I'm very open. So I also love Indian food,
Speaker 3: South Indian food. I love Japanese food. But I think
Speaker 3: of comfort food as food that somehow seems to have
Speaker 3: the integrity of the ingredients within it, and people just
Speaker 3: took the time and the effort to use the best ingredients,
Speaker 3: not necessarily the most expensive, just the best, and think
Speaker 3: about everything to do with how it feels a sense
Speaker 3: of safety that you get when it goes in your mouth.
Speaker 3: And I think, instead of picking specific food, I always
Speaker 3: look for food that reminds me of a place. For instance,
Speaker 3: of course River Kaffee, for anywhere in Italy. I mean,
Speaker 3: I love Rome. You know I love Rome. So I'll
Speaker 3: try and order something with the cheese that I used
Speaker 3: to eat in Lot. I still do legos. I love
Speaker 3: jell of rice with fried planting fried plantain. I could
Speaker 3: that could be my last meal. Okay, it's just andsoft.
Speaker 2: What is what is fried planting fried plantain?
Speaker 3: Plantain comes from almost the banana family, but it's large,
Speaker 3: it's full of potassiums it's very good for you when
Speaker 3: it's boiled. The treat as a child was we would
Speaker 3: have fried plantain chopped up, fried and then we'd have
Speaker 3: it with the delicious omelet. My mother used to do that.
Speaker 3: And fried plantain. I mean sometimes if I'm eating any
Speaker 3: Nigerian food, like something with rice, I can't quite I
Speaker 3: don't feel I've eating it well until I have fried plantain.
Speaker 2: And that is comfort. I mean that is you know
Speaker 2: you've described it's comfort. It's memory, it's memories, memories, and
Speaker 2: then when you are feeling that you need comfort, maybe
Speaker 2: you also need the memory of when you didn't need comfort.
Speaker 3: And I love the fact that I can think of
Speaker 3: having it with any of your sources, like I'll just
Speaker 3: have that and a sauce. And it's not about the
Speaker 3: easiness of it, because it has for me, has to
Speaker 3: be just so right, sliced in a certain way, slide
Speaker 3: the sultan and fried in a certain way, and it's easy.
Speaker 4: I'll cook it for you.
Speaker 2: Let's do it. Thank you, Drew, Thank you.
Speaker 3: I love you.
Speaker 4: Bie.
Speaker 2: To visit the online shop of the River Cafe, go
Speaker 2: to shop Therivercafe dot co dot uk.
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