WEBVTT - J.J. Abrams 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.840 Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:05.320 Adamized Studios. 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.840 Imagine walking into your hotel in Mexico City during a 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.959 family crisis and finding one hundred to Molly's delivered to 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:22.360 your room, then for the following three years receiving concerned texts, 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.919 uplifting emails, and bouquets of flowers which could hardly get 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:28.880 through the front door. Imagine a friend who makes a 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:31.880 lightsaber with your name engraved on it while directing Star 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.040 Wars with a cast and crew of thousands, and designing 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:38.320 a lego digital model of the River Cafe for your birthday, 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:41.839 confessing later more challenging than directing a movie, and what 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.720 movies they are? Brilliant, beautiful movies we wait for and require. 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:48.280 A friend who makes you laugh so much through dinners 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:50.879 at your restaurant, the staff look on and wonder, this 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.600 is jj Abrams, who I am here with today to 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.440 talk about food and family and friendship. Imagine how happy 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.280 I am to be with someone I love. 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:04.240 I mean, seriously, I can't follow that at all. 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:04.959 What are you doing? 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.120 I got chills four times when you're reading that. I mean, seriously, 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:09.640 that's impossible. 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.760 It's really possible. You know, it's true every word, so 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:14.600 I can imagine. 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:16.320 I thank you. 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:17.080 Okay, We're done. 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.120 That was it? That was it. There's nothing better than that. Seriously, 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:21.920 we should quit that. 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.760 Well we can't because we have to find a recipe? 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.240 Which one showd you that? Would you carbonaro? Or chocolate cake? 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:29.520 You carbon arts? You kidding me? 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.760 Nice room? Did you ever work in Row? Have you ever. 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:34.840 Lived in the first day of shooting on Mission II? 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:35.319 Was in Rome? 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.200 Was it? How long did you stay? 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:40.760 We were there for a few weeks. It was really fun. 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.600 I think it's the most beautiful city in the world. 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.120 It's unbelievable. So do you want to just read it? 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:45.480 Yep? 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.680 All right? And is it? Is it Penny Regatta? 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:49.120 Yeah? 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:54.840 Okay, I competed in the Penny Regatta once reat is? Seriously, 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:57.960 I'm so stupid. Okay, here we go, all right, Penny 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.680 I like carbonaro? Here we go for us. The two 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:05.480 most important ingredients are excellent, free range eggs and panchetta stessa. 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.800 This serves six. You start with two hundred grams seven 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:17.400 ounces of panchetta cut into match sticks, one tablespoon olive oil, 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.399 six egg yolks, one hundred and twenty million liters four 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:26.680 fluid ounces of double cream, one hundred fifty grams five 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:32.320 ounces parmesan freshly grated, two hundred fifty grams nine ounces 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.720 of penny regatta. Fry the panchetta and the olive oil 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.200 slowly so that it releases its own fat before becoming crisp. 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.919 Add some black pepper, Beat the egg yolks with a 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:49.160 cream and season with salt and pepper. Add half the parmesan. Meanwhile, 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.320 cook the penne in a generous amount of boiling salted water, 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.960 then drain thoroughly. Combine immediately with the hot panchetta and 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.600 the oil, and then pour in the cream mixture. Stir 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.440 to coat each pasta piece. The heat from the pasta 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:07.880 will cook the eggs slightly. Finally at the remaining palmesan 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:09.960 and surf beautiful. 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:11.880 So what was food like when you were growing up? 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:14.359 Did so? Your mother would say cook she was a cook, 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:15.080 or she was. 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.200 A cook, and she would make you know, traditional like brisket, 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:20.440 Jewish sort of food she would, but she would also 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.800 make you know she made an amazing caesar salad. For 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:25.000 some reason her said. 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:25.280 It was fantastic. 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.919 I don't know what it was. It was great, and 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.320 she was always always about what we were eating, and 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:34.600 to a point where it was insane, Like I would 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.520 I we'd be sitting at a lunch that she would 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.200 have made, and the conversation she wanted to have would 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.680 be about dinner the next and it'd be like, I'm trying, 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.960 you know, we're just eating. But weirdly now I do 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:49.920 tend to look forward to food in a way that 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:56.640 is probably not right sized, probably vaguely. It's not like 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.040 an obsession, but it's like it's super important. 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.040 And is that at home? Do you think at home 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:03.160 with your kids or just now you're thinking about what 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:03.760 you're gonna eat. 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.080 In general, I think it's food is such a It's 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:08.920 something that like, I know this is gonna sound insane, 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:10.800 but I literally get sad when I'm like halfway through 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:14.880 a meal, so like wait a minute, yeah, it's gonna 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.440 be oversuit And it's a very and I do think 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:22.440 there's probably some strong analogy to life in that that 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.279 there's something about it that you just feel like, oh no, 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.560 you know this is you don't want this to go away. 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:34.880 She was always concerned that you weren't eating enough while 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:39.200 you were eating. Also, it's interesting because she liked myself. 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:44.239 She always talked about herself and felt that she was fat, 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:46.839 and she was incredibly not fat. 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:48.880 Yeah, and you're not fat. 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:52.120 But like whatever the body dysmorphia thing, yeah, but like 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.880 but and yet both she and I like it's not 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.520 like we then shy away from food. It's the opposite. 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.360 Like it's like I'm I I love you know. And 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.919 as a kid when I was young, I definitely was 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.360 a chubby kid, but I was never like athletic, So 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:13.000 I sort of probably conflated that feeling of being chubby 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.280 as a kid and then not a very good athlete 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:20.479 with somehow just being a bit of a fat slot. 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:22.520 But I love food. I member as a kid, I 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:24.320 was always you know, I was always making things. 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:27.400 Did you know you cooked as a kid with her 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.080 by yourself both, Yeah, what would you cook? 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:32.960 Well, whatever she was making, she would like be doing, 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:34.560 you know, all sorts of things. And it was also 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.040 like La in the seventies, so it was like, you know, 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.000 like stuffed zucchini thing, just things that were just like 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.320 very much of that era. She would cook. But the 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.839 thing that I was most beyond her just being to 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.599 a fault probably loving. I mean, she was so loving 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.960 that it was like I remember thinking, I know, it's 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:55.479 not as good as you think it is, whatever it 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:57.880 is I've done. But the thing that I really take 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:01.720 away the most was that switching up what you do 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.279 and how you define yourself and who you are is 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:07.840 part of living, that not being defined by a label 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.960 or any one thing. And she was someone who when 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:14.919 we moved to Los Angeles and I was only five, 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.440 we moved from New York. She's early on started being 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:24.080 a real estate agent, and then she you know, she 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:28.599 was interested in art and started doing classes and became 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.239 a painter. But then she was going to be forty, 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.839 and she thought, you know, she wanted to be a lawyer. 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:38.280 And she was asking around, is it crazy to start 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.359 law school, you know, when you're thirty, And she asked someone, 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.440 and I remember their response to her was, you know, in 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.320 two years going to be forty either way, Yeah, you know, 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.360 And then she went to law school and graduated top 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:52.040 of her class, and then she became a law professor 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.160 and she was doing that for a while, and then 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:58.800 she wanted to go into producing and she did that. 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.680 You know, She's just was someone who is constantly creating 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:04.880 but also shape shifting. 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:06.360 Would you sit down to dinner? 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:06.800 Yeah? 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:07.360 Every night? 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.400 Yeah, we would sit whatever you were doing. We would 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:13.560 sit at the table most every night, although obviously at 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.560 a certain point and it might not be. Frankly, as 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.920 I say this, I'm sure that if my sister's listening 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:21.440 to this, she's probably like laughing and saying, what are 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.400 you talking about? Every night? You know, my guess is 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:27.880 it's probably far less frequently than my memory suggests. But 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:32.160 I have, you know, I have a real sense of 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:35.920 and memory of sitting together with the family. But it 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:39.160 was also, I have to say, because it was that era, 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.200 and I think being in Los Angeles in the seventies, 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:48.240 there was a bit of like carelessness. And I know 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.280 that I'm comparing it to some of the more kind 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.880 of helicopter parenty crap that happens today, which is not 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.880 healthy at all either. But there was a bit of 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.040 a kind of benign neglect and maybe not even benign 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:06.120 sometimes that would happen with parents, and I certainly feel 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.680 like I was safe. I never felt like, oh my god, 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:12.040 my parents are like crazy. They were not like druggy 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.800 nutty out of their minds. You know, but there were 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.360 in that era, and whether it was like various you know, 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:20.640 cults that were around, whether it was like this kind 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.360 of culture was such a kind of free wheeling, odd 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.040 sort of place to grow up that I remember seeing 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.440 a lot of friends whose parents were kind of off 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.760 the rails as parents. But I will say that I 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.800 do have a sense that there were times when I 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:38.720 think my sister and I were a little bit on 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.800 our own too, in terms of like not really being 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.880 supervised the way you'd think kids should be. 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:47.679 But you came out, you know that. I look at 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:50.080 my kids and I you know, when you are a grandparent, 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.360 you'll see that you kind of it's great having grandchildren. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.640 But the really interesting thing is to see the parents 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:59.160 as parents, your children as parents. It's very revealing. And 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.000 I think I look back and you know, Richard and myself, 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:06.440 and we certainly were not as attentive as they are. 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.800 No, but I'm really sorry, sad, but I do think 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:14.679 we were. I do think that you, you know, you're 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.480 constantly learning lessons. I'm fascinated with what you're talking about 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.360 because I think there's a there's obviously this sort of 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:25.760 seismic shift that happens when what was your primary family 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.920 shifts into it slightly into a different you know, the 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:30.760 not the rear view, but a very different station, and 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:33.440 your primary family becomes the family you choose to make. 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.400 But then there's another shift that happens again, when then 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.640 your kids shift and you're suddenly the one that's being shifted. 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:42.920 It's not your choice, and you're sort of the and 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:49.240 And so I think that we're probably constantly learning about 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:51.440 kind of where we stand based on kind of how 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:53.920 we define ourselves given the relationships with the people we 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.520 love the most. And when you start to see people 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.960 that you raised that you you know, in some cases, 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.160 gave birth to and you raised that, you you witness 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:08.959 something that sometimes you realize, oh wow, I don't know 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:10.920 where the hell they got that or how they know that, 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:12.920 but certainly not from me. And the other times you think, 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.040 oh my god, they actually did absorb that thing that 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:17.520 I did not think they were aware of. And it's 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:18.400 just fascinating. 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.120 You talk about your mother, what about the men in 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.959 your family? Did they cook? Does your father? He came 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:25.480 right up to the past. You remember when you brought 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.520 your father to the cafe and he was so interested 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:30.599 in the food he was with me. I don't know 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:32.720 if he was interested in cooking or eating. 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:37.520 But he loves food. He would cook something sometimes it 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:43.240 was sort of usually fairly simple stuff. He was a 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.400 soft boiled egg. That's so, what's it called like when 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.920 it's like yeah, stf well, which I never in my 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.480 life will understand. But he loved them. And he had 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.040 that little like egg cup and he would tap the 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:57.679 thing in British. 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.920 Because that's how the English they call them soldiers, and 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:06.440 you kind of a little and you dip it into 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:07.360 a very running egg. 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.520 No thank you. So I have no interest. But my dad, 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.160 I think if you said to him, you could have 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:19.320 this giant pile of gold or some eggs. He loves 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:21.319 eggs in a way I don't. I don't think it's 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.880 healthy and not not like unhealthy cholesterol like I think 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:25.000 mentally is insane. 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:27.080 He has them all day or just for. 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.679 He'll just if you ever want him to say yes 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:31.520 to you, say do you want some eggs? Because that's 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:32.840 the He'll never say none of that. 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:45.280 I'd love to see him. 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.120 I was obsessed for some reason with omelets. I don't 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:50.679 know what, why, where that came from. But you know, 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:52.680 it looks so easy, but like, once you start getting 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:53.120 into it. 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:54.040 How do you make it? 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:58.600 It is deceptively difficult. It really is, well because you think, 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.280 come on, what egg a pa like? First of all, 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.480 one of the key things about anomenal I think is 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:05.760 just not keeping it on the fire because when I forever, 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:07.960 I would just sort of keep the pan there and 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:09.440 keep the eggs there, and you have to actually take 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:10.960 them off when I think as soon as it start 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.880 to congeal, and then I don't like flipping it before 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:16.640 you fill it. And then you know, I think you 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:17.679 want to sort of do it. 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.679 But start from the beginning. Do you put water in them? 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:20.480 Or do you put milk? 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.560 Nothing, I'll put in milk sometimes, but we I'm not. 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:27.079 I'll usually just do eggs, then some salt. I have 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.559 very I have very stupid simple like I like a 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.199 little bit of like sauteed onions in it, and maybe 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.360 some tomato dice up, but not filling things like I 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.000 don't like bell peppers and Western omelets and any of 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:39.319 that stuff. 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.400 That's what I like about brunch in New York because 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.280 it's they always give you these huge omelets, don't they 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:46.280 like spinish and everything. 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.760 I'm fascinated watching because it's the truth is like until 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.760 there was cooking shows and things, and have you seen 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.800 the Julia Child things? Not yet she cooks an omelet 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:57.880 in the very first episode and in a way on 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.680 live TV, and it's it's very charming. And before they're 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:04.160 all the cooking shows. When you go to any kind 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.240 of whether you're at a hotel or you know, like 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:09.280 a buffet, when they would have someone cooking the you know, 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.040 I'm always fascinated to watching someone. Yeah they do that, well, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.400 who makes anyone who makes like ten thousand omelets a 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.960 day or whatever? It is like it's fascinating to watch 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.719 someone and then the way they flip the thing over 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:22.839 and you just think, or at least I think, I'm 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:24.640 never gonna be able to do Do you flip things 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:24.840 like that? 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.000 In pan I don't flip. I'm not very good at flipping. 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.920 But they are the chefs. They flip pastas you know, 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.080 they know they make the penny and then they go 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:33.560 like that. I'm kind of standing. 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:34.400 I know. 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.720 It's it's a little bit like watching like an Olympic jumper. 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:39.680 It scares the hell out of me. How do they 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:40.160 do that? 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.000 I know they kind of. I don't even know if 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.679 it's necessary that I think it's out all the pasta. 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.480 It is probably I like shaking a pan. I'm quite 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.800 good like shaky. I like getting potatoes out of the oven, 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:54.920 burning my hand, you know, shaky. I always say to 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:56.120 the chefs, shake a pad, And. 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:58.079 Have you ever reached into the album without putting a 0:13:58.120 --> 0:13:58.400 mid on? 0:13:58.679 --> 0:13:58.760 Like? 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:00.880 Have you ever reached the other for something without putting 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:01.760 a handle mint on them? 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.160 Because from the beginning when I because you know, he's 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.120 never trained, So we rose and I just opened the 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:08.640 River Cafe, and so you were never trained to do. 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:13.160 No, I took some don't tell yeah, ruin because okay, 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:13.840 So I went. 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.240 To cooking school when I was fourteen. No, we just 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:18.360 you know, we were family cooks, both of us. She 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.800 went to live in Italy and my mother in law 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.280 was Italian and told me to cook. But we started 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.960 so small. The River Cafe was nothing. It was teeny tiny, 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:30.880 and so I would say we learned. Well, we made 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.520 small movies, didn't you? How did you did you train 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:34.960 to be a film. 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.200 I didn't, but I just want to. The first movie 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.760 I directed was Mission Impossible three because Tom Cruise asked 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.400 me if I wanted to do it, and I you 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:46.080 know why did he? 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.560 Response was yes, yeah did he just he just knew, 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:50.960 uh smart, he knew. 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.240 Look, all I know is that is that he he 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:55.760 and I got to know each other a little bit, 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.600 and he had watched some of this TV series I 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:00.720 had done called Alias. It was about the spy, so 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:05.240 he'd seen I would be interested in doing Mission Possible three. 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:07.280 So that was crazy. I started as a writer and 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.080 then I got into doing TV and then ended up 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:14.040 doing doing Mission first. But wait a minute, you were saying. 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:16.440 So I was just saying that I don't shake you man, 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.360 and I didn't reaching into the thing she used to 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.200 because to come back with with burns, you know, that 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:22.800 was the thing. 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:23.960 I hate that always scares hell. 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:25.800 Say do you would you rather have a cut or 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.680 a burn? What's worse? You know? I hate burns. I 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.240 really hate burns. Cuts you can kind of burns are, 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:33.000 but a burn is upsetting. 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:35.160 But because that's always what I think when I see 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:39.440 people in kitchens working, as you know you do, I'm 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:41.560 always the thing that I'm always and it's a bit 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:44.200 also talking about my mom. It's a bit like here's 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.160 the one thing I say. She was always so careful 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.040 about everything, like she like and wanted us to be 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:53.400 so careful. And to see where that came from. Her father, 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:58.040 who was Harry Calvin, who was one of my favorite people, 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.800 and he was an incredible influence on me because he 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.600 he worked. He had this electronics company called Calvin Electronics, 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.720 which is still around, and Calvin Electronics was a place 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.560 that would he started after the Second War and he 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.280 was he sold surplus electronics as kits to. 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.320 Schools, and he's lessons in how things work exactly. 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.040 Yeah, So here was a guy who was aware of 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.320 how certain things radios and TVs and telephones and things worked. 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.160 So as a young kid, he would take things apart 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.120 and show me how a phone worked, or how a 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.600 TV worked, or why this happened. And then we would 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:37.840 do these little projects together where we'd have a little 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.240 plank of wood and we would put a motor on it, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.160 and we would put little brackets to you know, screw 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:44.720 it in place, and then a little battery and then 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:46.520 a switch and he would show me how the circuit works. 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.800 And he was always demystifying things and how they work. 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.320 So that was always something. But he was also apparently 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:58.320 like petrified of his grandchildren ever getting hurt. But you 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.400 saw how he lived. He was a bit paranoid, and 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:06.399 he would have every corner in his house, whether it 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.360 was a table, a counter, anything, he would take tissue 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.280 and roll it up and then put like electrical tape 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.040 on it and everything was padded. So it was a 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.480 little bit like they ridiculous, like you'd run through the 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:19.399 house and everything was padded. So that was kind of 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:21.400 where my mom. By the way, one thing about my grandfather, 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:26.200 which was vaguely funny, so his company, Coven Electronics. He 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.040 had some really cool designs for some of his catalogs 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.639 and one of them was the circuit that looked like 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.359 a K and I always sort of loved it. And 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:36.800 I loved my grandfather. Now he was a great grandfather, 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:38.960 but I know as a father he was a bit 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:43.159 tough and my mother's sister and I think that, like 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.680 my mom would say, I think that he was bipolar. 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.440 That's interesting, But to me, he was just a great 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.280 grandfather And I didn't get any of that. There was 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:52.880 a little bit of the you know, anger here and there, 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:55.679 but like I never had the issues as yet anyway, 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:57.840 So the k design was really cool, and we were 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.760 doing a little in house the U effects company that 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:04.600 we were calling Calvin Optical. So I had this graphic 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:06.760 designer who was working on a logo, and I said, oh, 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:08.560 why don't we just use the logo that he used 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:10.639 to use, which is the case. So she looked at 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:12.159 it and she did some researcher. You came back and 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.560 she she said to me, oh, this is this is 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:18.120 an actual circuit that exists. I'm like, oh, really, yes, 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.600 and she's like, it's called a bipolar circuit. Now, my 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:23.679 mom had passed away at that point, so I couldn't 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:25.720 call her to say, you're not going to believe this, 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:32.800 but his logo was bipolar anyway. But my mother was 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:37.080 always like, you know, nervous about things and how things happened. 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.480 And for whatever reason, when I look at a kitchen 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.719 and see how crazy it is, I feel like it's 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:44.600 sort of that kind of like nervousness that she used 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.239 to have. And I think, dear God, please put an 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:49.240 oven mid on, because the idea of reaching into and 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:54.160 grabbing a mozzarella marin ara pan bare handed is a nightmare. 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.719 Heavy. Yeah, I think that fear. People sometimes say can 0:18:57.760 --> 0:18:59.520 we come and cook in the kitchen? Or can I 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.320 spend the day with you in the kitchen, And sometimes 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:03.760 it says, but you know, it is a dangerous place. 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.760 So that's my you know, if you come in a kitchen, 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:08.720 you know, and the chef's the way they move and 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.399 they carry hot pans and they're always saying. And in 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:13.720 the River Cafe, you know, we have an open kitchen, 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.680 so you can't shout, you know, hot behind you or 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:22.199 move or whatever. Everybody's kind of navigating it between between 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.320