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Speaker 1: We have good news. Ruthie's Table four is now a book.

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Speaker 1: Table four at the River Cafe Conversations about Food and

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Speaker 1: Life is a collection of guests, interviews, photographs from over

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Speaker 1: two hundred and forty episodes. We have Paul McCartney, Tina Fey,

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Speaker 1: David Beckham Melbrooks, Austin Butler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and many

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Speaker 1: many more telling their stories through the lens of food

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Speaker 1: or are now Ruthy's Table four dot com slash book

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Speaker 1: Ruthie's Table four presented by Sky.

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Speaker 2: When I came back to New York, I also came

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Speaker 2: out in life and I started to watch. I was

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Speaker 2: twenty seven at that point, though I had worked straight

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Speaker 2: through the Palm and that was building a relationship with

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Speaker 2: my dad that we didn't have from the early years.

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Speaker 2: And then when I came out, I said to him,

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Speaker 2: because it was such a heterosexual palms, say very much show.

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Speaker 2: And I said, but is this going to be an

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Speaker 2: issue for you? And he said, no, you're all You

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Speaker 2: are a good man. And I see, and that the

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Speaker 2: restaurant which I so resented as a boy, became the

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Speaker 2: bridge that gave me my relationship with my dad.

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Speaker 1: Like many of life's best ideas. The idea of having

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Speaker 1: Bruce Bozzi as a guest on Ruthie's table for began

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Speaker 1: in a kitchen a few months ago. Bruce, his husband Brian,

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Speaker 1: and I were together in their home in LA. Knowing

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Speaker 1: Bruce loves to cook, we had decided to make a

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Speaker 1: tomato and basil pasta together for a good group of friends.

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Speaker 1: Picking the basil, peeling the garlic, draining the tomatoes. Bruce

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Speaker 1: and I talked about growing up in New York, living

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Speaker 1: in LA and discovering how much we share in our

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Speaker 1: lives and the world of food. Bruce grew up in

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Speaker 1: an Italian American home and for many general rations his

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Speaker 1: family had the Palm restaurant, an American legend. Today, Bruce

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Speaker 1: and I are together again to continue our conversation, and

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Speaker 1: when it's over, we'll end up where we began, another kitchen,

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Speaker 1: this time at the River Cafe. Two good friends, cooking,

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Speaker 1: talking and basking in the love and happiness of being together.

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Speaker 1: Oh so do you remember that night?

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, that was That night goes down as

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Speaker 2: one of the top three nights we've ever had in

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Speaker 2: that Yeah, seriously, the connection besides the food that.

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Speaker 1: Was was just a tomato pust No, but as the simpler.

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Speaker 2: The simpler, the better. Yeah, and the connection over the

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Speaker 2: as we were cooking and our guests, it really was

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Speaker 2: a phenomenon. When you said you were going to come

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Speaker 2: to the house when we were going to cook, I

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Speaker 2: was nervous. I was like, okay, like Brusy's coming to cook.

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Speaker 2: What you know, what do we need to do? And

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Speaker 2: you made it so incredibly easy and fun and the

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Speaker 2: vibe of the.

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Speaker 1: Bona wandered in. My brother came and this is really

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Speaker 1: it was. Austin came, Austin came.

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Speaker 2: We had the best and the other thing that Ruthie

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Speaker 2: you do, which is something I really believe in the

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Speaker 2: business that we are in. Uh, you brought everyone together.

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Speaker 1: Well that's what you do, what we do and what

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Speaker 1: we love. But it was it was really special. It

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Speaker 1: was and I think tomato pasta do you love? You

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Speaker 1: actually chose a recipe which has tomatoes and the sauce

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Speaker 1: and pasta. Do you know the story of this pasta? Rose?

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Speaker 1: You know, my late partner in the River Cafe had

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Speaker 1: these two great friends called Adam mcchloe, and when we

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Speaker 1: were doing the very first cookbook, we decided to put

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Speaker 1: their recipes in for pasta with sausage, and when they disagreed,

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Speaker 1: they but one of them did it very slow. So

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Speaker 1: we said, okay, you're good friends. We'll put both your

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Speaker 1: recipes in side by side. So one is tomato pasta,

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Speaker 1: I'll Chloe, and the other one was Adam. And so

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Speaker 1: you choose the Adam one, you choose the atom. It's right,

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Speaker 1: all right.

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Speaker 2: So tonight we are going to have Penny with Adam.

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Speaker 2: Slow cooked sausage sauce. Serve six. It's eight fresh Italian

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Speaker 2: spiced pork sausages crumbled. I mean, come on, that's so delicious.

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Speaker 2: Two small red onions peeled and chopped. Two garlic clothes

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Speaker 2: peeled and chopped, two small dried chilis crumbled. Two hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifteen millis of kant leaders.

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Speaker 1: This is This was written for the British edition. I

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Speaker 1: could have given him the American one. Okay, we have

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Speaker 1: an international audience. Anybody's listening. We can do the math

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Speaker 1: for you.

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Speaker 2: Do the math. Okay, So one kilogram jar of peeled,

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Speaker 2: plump tomatoes, one hundred and twenty grams of parmesan, freshly grated,

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Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty milli liters double cream, two hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty grams of penney or goad day I got

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Speaker 2: mom Mia. Fry the sausage meat, stirring and breaking up

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Speaker 2: the pieces after the juices from the meat have evaporated.

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Speaker 2: Add the onions, garlic and chilies. Cook gently for about

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Speaker 2: thirty minutes. I mean, can you imagine the smell of that.

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Speaker 2: Add the wine. Cook until the wine evaporates. Add the tomatoes,

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Speaker 2: lower the heat and simmer gently, or until you have

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Speaker 2: a thick sauce. Season stir in the parmesan and cream.

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Speaker 2: Cook the pennate until al dente. Add the pennate to

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Speaker 2: the sauce, toss well and serve with simple as that. Yes, love,

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Speaker 2: it's delicious.

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Speaker 1: It's very Italian. Yeah, and I think that it's interesting

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Speaker 1: that you chose such an Italian recipe.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think you know, growing up, when my mother

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Speaker 2: would cook, you know, when she you know, she had

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Speaker 2: her lasagna recipe, and part of that was all sausage

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Speaker 2: and stirring and you know, startaining the onions and the

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Speaker 2: garlic and then adding that, and then when you were

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Speaker 2: cooking the sausages, using the sort of juice from that

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Speaker 2: to add in. So the whole ritual of kind of

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Speaker 2: combining the ingredients is so magical to me.

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Speaker 1: Let's start at the beginning, because your your parents were

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Speaker 1: born in parents and your grandparents.

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Speaker 2: No, my great grandfather, Pio Bossi and his partner, they

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Speaker 2: were born in Italy. My family comes from Parma. Parma

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Speaker 2: and his partner, John Gansey. So it's the Ganzys and

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Speaker 2: the basis his two families that came together. And they

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Speaker 2: really just opened a small, one room restaurant at eight

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Speaker 2: thirty seven Second Avenue on in New York on between

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Speaker 2: forty fourth and forty fifth. They went to apply for

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Speaker 2: a business license to call it Parama from the place

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Speaker 2: they were from. But the people in the you know,

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Speaker 2: the Business Bureau, couldn't understand their accents, so they stamped

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Speaker 2: at Palm. And they were so frightened to say anything

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Speaker 2: different for fear of like not getting it.

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Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about my sort of

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Speaker 1: thoughts about talking today. I was going to ask why

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Speaker 1: was this restaurant called the Palm Because when you think

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Speaker 1: of palm trees in the United States, you think of

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Speaker 1: Florida or California, and this was on Second Avenue. It's

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Speaker 1: such a great name for a restaurant. I mean, Parma

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Speaker 1: would have been great. So tell me more about the beginning.

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Speaker 2: So the beginnings I think are you know, and setting

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Speaker 2: up any sort of foundation, and we're talking about anything

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Speaker 2: that's set in truth and authenticity. The small restaurant that

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Speaker 2: had would sought us on the floor, so it was

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Speaker 2: not fancy. It was really you know, it was like

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Speaker 2: a beat up joint kind of restaurant that very much

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Speaker 2: in the early thirties, you know, the big crash of

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Speaker 2: nineteen twenty nine. The neighborhood had a lot of syndicates,

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Speaker 2: had a lot of newspaper people, but it was really

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Speaker 2: local people living there. Cartoonists used to come in and

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Speaker 2: they couldn't pay for their meals because their stock market

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Speaker 2: had crashed. So my great grandfather said, okay, we'll start

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Speaker 2: drawing on the walls and all the rivets of the murals,

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Speaker 2: and that's how they pay for their meals. And that

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Speaker 2: became a palm rivet. And then the other thing was

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Speaker 2: people started asking for steak and there was a butcher

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Speaker 2: literally across the street, and the waiter were just go

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Speaker 2: get the steak when they wanted a steak, So it

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Speaker 2: became then known as a steakhouse, an Italian steakhouse, and

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Speaker 2: then steak and as it grew, But really for all

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Speaker 2: those years, from the first and second generation, it was

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Speaker 2: that one location on Second Avenue and very much the

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Speaker 2: River Cafe. It expanded next door, took the space next door,

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Speaker 2: and then it took the space upstairs as business dictated,

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Speaker 2: you know. And then in the early seventies, my father

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Speaker 2: and his partner Wally, said their fathers had been sick.

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Speaker 2: They sort of took over and they at the time,

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Speaker 2: George Bush Senior, who was an ambassador, was moving to

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Speaker 2: DC and said, you know, there's not a lot of

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Speaker 2: places to eat in DC. Have you guys ever thought

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Speaker 2: of opening the Palm there? Because the Palm was three

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Speaker 2: or four blocks from the United Nations in Manhattan. And

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Speaker 2: they said no, but yes, and that began kind of

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Speaker 2: the first white tablecloth restaurant expansion in America. So we

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Speaker 2: went to DC and it was so jam packed. And

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Speaker 2: you know, we're both friends with Diane von Furstenberg, who

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Speaker 2: she always talks about the seventies and it was like,

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Speaker 2: you know, seventies in New York was pretty spec It

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Speaker 2: was just like you know, and it was like a

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Speaker 2: line you couldn't get in. And there was a little

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Speaker 2: Italian joint across the street, and my dad used to

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Speaker 2: say he'd look out the window and these guys would

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Speaker 2: just be like staring at the palm, which was so busy.

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Speaker 2: And then they decided to take over that small space,

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Speaker 2: and then from there went to Los Angeles, which I

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Speaker 2: think these uh DC, Los Angeles, New York. That trifecta, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: became politics in Hollywood and New York. It really kind

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Speaker 2: of grew this small immigrant Italian restaurant that was already.

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Speaker 1: Was it still seen as an Italian restaurant because you see,

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Speaker 1: I know what.

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Speaker 2: It was more of it than as a steakhouse.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and lobster. I remember the loves lobsters.

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Speaker 2: So in the sixties they introduced the because I you.

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Speaker 1: Know, I was married to an Italian who loved Italian

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Speaker 1: food and loved food, you know, whatever city we went to,

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Speaker 1: whether it was Beijing or Marrakesh or Paris, or you

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Speaker 1: want to eat the food of the country, you know.

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Speaker 1: You know, so when we go to New York and

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Speaker 1: be taken out to or off a day, can we

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Speaker 1: take you to this wonderful Italian restaurant, wonderful French restaurant.

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Speaker 1: Let's go to Chinatown and have this. Actually what Richard

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Speaker 1: would always say it was let's go to an American restaurant.

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Speaker 1: And for us that was palm, you know, and this

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Speaker 1: kind of and we and we just loved that generosity

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Speaker 1: that and I think I never ate anything that probably

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Speaker 1: except for lobster or steak.

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Speaker 2: And everything was big, big, wasn't it. Everything was big.

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Speaker 2: It became known to have these lobsters which no one

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Speaker 2: was serving at this worth three four or five six

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Speaker 2: pound lobsters which are huge, and steaks were eighteen ounces,

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Speaker 2: and like you know, you know, everything could feed yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, everyone at the table, like you know. But

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Speaker 2: and that became sort of a thing.

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Speaker 1: But how did that connect to your house, back to

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Speaker 1: the domestic life. Well, you were born into this family.

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Speaker 1: Your father was at the restaurant.

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Speaker 2: My father was at the restaurant all day. I never

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Speaker 2: really saw my dad, right, I mean, so what would

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Speaker 2: happen is in the morning he'd be asleep when we

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Speaker 2: would go to school, and then he'd beat the restaurant

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Speaker 2: for lunch. We'd come home from school. He who was

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Speaker 2: two of us, and Andrea and she and.

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Speaker 1: This was in New York City, so you lived right

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Speaker 1: in Manhattan.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we lived in Queen's Jackson Heights, Queens until nineteen

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Speaker 2: seventy five, and then moved into Manhattan and because it

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Speaker 2: was closer to ye know, it's just across the bridge.

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Speaker 2: And then at night we were with our mom and then.

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Speaker 1: So I really does she have any involvement?

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Speaker 2: Not really. It was a very pretty much man. It

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Speaker 2: was historically the boys got the restaurant and it was

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Speaker 2: not the easiest of times in regard to and my

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Speaker 2: parents met in high school. They're still together today. But

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Speaker 2: there was a big you know, a restaurant guys. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: a restaurant person.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it takes a lot. The restaurant becomes your home

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Speaker 1: as well when you're working there.

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Speaker 2: My mother always says, you know, the restaurant would close

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Speaker 2: at twelve, but you'd be home at three thirty in

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Speaker 2: the Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Ye, she cooked.

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Speaker 2: She would cook for us.

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Speaker 1: You go to school, go to school, home.

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Speaker 2: Come home. And you know, I was not I didn't

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Speaker 2: have the biggest palette. So you know, a chicken milonaise

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Speaker 2: or a roast. A roast chicken was one of my

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Speaker 2: favorite things. She could cook. You know, slow roast chicken,

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Speaker 2: you know, salad and god, we didn't eat it because

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Speaker 2: we you know, after school sometimes you go and the

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Speaker 2: grocery store. She's a great woman. Yeah, a tough New

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Speaker 2: York Italian, fiercely loyal to friends and family woman.

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Speaker 1: And she sounds beect but she did you connect? Did

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Speaker 1: you have a grandma? So your grandmother?

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Speaker 2: My two grandmothers are really my Both grandfathers I met

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Speaker 2: very briefly in life passed over quickly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: One passed in seventy four, one past in seventy one,

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Speaker 2: so I was a little boy. My grandmother's I was

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Speaker 2: very close to my mother's mother, specifically Sadie, and she

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Speaker 2: died in nineteen eighty three on March thirteenth, And we

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Speaker 2: were very close. And she and my father's mother, who

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Speaker 2: is now part of the Palm Experience, Louise, we were

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Speaker 2: very close as well. And you know, they they were

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Speaker 2: very different. My father's mother was loving, she had but

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Speaker 2: she was out there, like she kind of traveled and

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Speaker 2: lived life. She was sort of like a Sophia Laurent type,

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Speaker 2: like red hair, you know, curvacious, smoking cigarettes. And my

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Speaker 2: grandmother was more of a traditional if you think of

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Speaker 2: Martin Scorsese's mom. Yeh, yeah, wins. I think they were twins.

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Speaker 2: Like I recently saw that documentary and I sent to

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Speaker 2: my mom and dad. I was like, is this not sadie,

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Speaker 2: This is crazy? But so it was a different I

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Speaker 2: would sit with her and squash into the same chair

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Speaker 2: as her, and just she was kind of heavy set,

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Speaker 2: and just her her arms were like dough if you

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Speaker 2: and I say that respectfully, you know, if they had

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Speaker 2: a lot of skin. So I would sit and kind

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Speaker 2: of need her arms as we were watching TV. And

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Speaker 2: one day we were watching TV and there was a

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Speaker 2: there was a television commercial, if you will call there

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Speaker 2: was a perfume called Chloe, and it was early eighties

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Speaker 2: and this beautiful blonde woman now and like around this

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Speaker 2: seventy something. And my grandmother said to me, and I

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Speaker 2: wish I was beautiful like that. And I looked at

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Speaker 2: her and I said, you are beautiful like that. Like

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Speaker 2: that was so women as much as men were in

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Speaker 2: my life. The women in my life shaped me and

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Speaker 2: really informed me and raised me. Like the community of women.

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Speaker 2: So I'm very connected to women in all levels in

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Speaker 2: my life, which is funny because I'm also gay. And

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Speaker 2: married to Brian. But you know.

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Speaker 1: Connect that makes me connect. We do. My father was

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Speaker 1: absent then during the did you did they? Did you

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Speaker 1: ever take you to work with him?

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Speaker 2: Well, the first memory I have of my dad taking

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Speaker 2: me to the palm was in uh Now. Because he

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Speaker 2: was working so much, the relationship wasn't so organic. There

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Speaker 2: was a bit of you know, and I think Italian

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Speaker 2: mothers and their sons there was there's, you know, something

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Speaker 2: in my sister.

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Speaker 1: My I was married to the son of an Italian mother.

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Speaker 1: When I used to walk into the house Richard and

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Speaker 1: I would go to visit her, there was what I

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Speaker 1: used to call the gays. You know, it sort of

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Speaker 1: stopped like I was sort of put on the side.

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Speaker 1: It was started at the top and just sort of

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Speaker 1: go down and end with you know, you look a

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Speaker 1: bit thin as you be giving enough to eat or

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Speaker 1: to you know. She was always that was her and

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Speaker 1: that's why we loved going home. That's why you kind

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Speaker 1: of went home. But he had his first granddaughter aged

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Speaker 1: you know, I can't I guess this is she must

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Speaker 1: have been ninety. And when we said that Richard's son

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Speaker 1: had had a baby girl, this is my step children

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Speaker 1: girl she said, Oh, at last, now we should we'll

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Speaker 1: have someone to look after him. It was like, is

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Speaker 1: that's what it was? But you know what, what no,

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Speaker 1: I say, The prisons are not full of people who've

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Speaker 1: been loved too much, you know, so that love, you know,

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Speaker 1: sort of carried on.

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Speaker 2: Very interesting.

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Speaker 1: So your father, though, we're talking about my dad, he was,

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Speaker 1: he was working.

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Speaker 2: I think the connection was when I got old and

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Speaker 2: I in my teens and I started to work in

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Speaker 2: the summers for the Palm. I started to do not

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Speaker 2: only was in my blood. You could see that this

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Speaker 2: is not for everybody, and it began a relationship for

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Speaker 2: he and I. And then well, go back to that.

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Speaker 1: I mean, did you realize that this was not what

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Speaker 1: you wanted to do in life?

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Speaker 2: I didn't know what I wanted to but I knew.

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Speaker 2: I knew during the summers I was going to work

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Speaker 2: in the Palm because it was summer job. When I

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Speaker 2: worked down East Hampton, I worked in the kitchen as

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Speaker 2: an expedier. I was at the front, seating people, answering phones,

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Speaker 2: taking with all old school at the time, you know

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Speaker 2: what I mean. There was no pos systems and things

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Speaker 2: like that. It was really but what I knew what

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Speaker 2: I did well. Was I connected with not only the

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Speaker 2: guests but the people I worked with. And there was

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Speaker 2: no entitlement, there was nothing. I was in it, in

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Speaker 2: it from the beginning to the end. And I think

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Speaker 2: over time because then after when I became a young

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Speaker 2: adult man looking for a career, I had my Hollywood years.

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Speaker 2: I called them my normal Genie years, where I went

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Speaker 2: to Hollywood. I worked at at night at the West

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Speaker 2: Hollywood Palm, ringing checks with the matreaty of all times

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Speaker 2: Gigi del Maestro, who was a waiter at the Palm two,

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Speaker 2: and as they expanded the Palm, they spend it from within.

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Speaker 2: They would if you were working, it's the best way

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Speaker 2: culturally to keep the integrity. So Gigi became like a

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Speaker 2: second dad to me. So at night I'd be like

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Speaker 2: answering phones. During the day, I was trying to be

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Speaker 2: an actor. I worked on a production, you know, I

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Speaker 2: did all that kind of stuff. It's where I met

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Speaker 2: a lot of people that we you know, that we

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Speaker 2: know together. And then when I came back to New York,

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Speaker 2: I also came out in life and I started to work.

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Speaker 2: I was twenty seven at that point, though I had

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Speaker 2: worked straight through the palm, and that was building a

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Speaker 2: relationship with my dad that we didn't have from the

347
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Speaker 2: early years. And then when I came out, I said

348
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Speaker 2: to him, because it was such a heterosexual.

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Speaker 1: Show, right there, probably no waitresses were.

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Speaker 2: There was much later in life. Yeah, it was the

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Speaker 2: integration and then female managers and the whole thing. And

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Speaker 2: I said, but is this going to be an issue

353
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Speaker 2: for you? And he said, no, you're all. You are

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Speaker 2: a good man, and that's and that that the restaurant,

355
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Speaker 2: which I so resented as a boy, became the bridge

356
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Speaker 2: that gave me my relationship with my dad.

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Speaker 1: Did you study in California?

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Speaker 2: Did I wanted to go to calif I grew up

359
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Speaker 2: watching television and seeing these shows in California, like these

360
00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:53,119
Speaker 2: company chi Angels, all these. I thought California was like

361
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Speaker 2: just freedom. So when it was time to go and

362
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Speaker 2: I had a sort of just an energy, I was

363
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Speaker 2: kind of.

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Speaker 1: Laid back and I just gorgeous as you are now

365
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Speaker 1: you know about that.

366
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Speaker 2: But I said, I want to go to la for school.

367
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Speaker 2: And I can remember two things happened in nineteen eighty four.

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Speaker 2: My dad said in the which was very meaningful. He said,

369
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Speaker 2: you know, you don't have to go that far. We're

370
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Speaker 2: not just going to pop up and you know. And

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Speaker 2: I said, that's not why I'm going. I'm going because

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Speaker 2: I have this this love of California. My mother said,

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Speaker 2: your dad's going to take you. And I looked at her.

374
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Speaker 2: Because their wedding anniversary was something was happening, she couldn't come,

375
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Speaker 2: and I was like, are you crazy. We were in

376
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Speaker 2: the kitchen. He was, are you crazy? What? And we landed.

377
00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,359
Speaker 2: The radio was on and said, you know, it's ninety

378
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,280
Speaker 2: seven degrees in southern California and I thought, I looked

379
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:57,720
Speaker 2: at the going down. I was like, yes. But he

380
00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,000
Speaker 2: took me and for three days he did everything a

381
00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:04,560
Speaker 2: dad you want, get you set up in you know,

382
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,400
Speaker 2: get your betting, set you up for food. And it

383
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 2: was those three days that completely shape shifted our relationship too.

384
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Speaker 2: And he left and he wrote a note that said

385
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Speaker 2: you can there's always a ticket when you want to

386
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Speaker 2: come home. I love you, and I'd never seen or

387
00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:22,760
Speaker 2: heard him say that, and I kept it for a

388
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Speaker 2: million years and then I gave it back to him

389
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Speaker 2: as a gift.

390
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Speaker 1: Sorry, that's just.

391
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Speaker 2: It's all to me. It's all about family and it's

392
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:31,360
Speaker 2: all about.

393
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Speaker 1: But did you create yourself a bit of family? And

394
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Speaker 1: even in that situation in La, did you did you

395
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Speaker 1: have your own apartment? Did you live in campus? Did

396
00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:44,080
Speaker 1: you too many questions? Eat out? Cook at helme? No?

397
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Speaker 2: In the in the in the school years, I did.

398
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,440
Speaker 2: I did do what you're saying. But in the school

399
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:50,720
Speaker 2: years it was pretty traditional. I created. I had a

400
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:53,080
Speaker 2: family of the you know, the kids I was around,

401
00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:58,760
Speaker 2: and we did all LA stuff. The what I did

402
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 2: wasn't I graduated in eighty nine, I moved back to

403
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:04,920
Speaker 2: New York and I became an NBC page and I

404
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 2: love that job.

405
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:08,200
Speaker 1: That like in thirty rows.

406
00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:09,280
Speaker 2: In thirty row it was his.

407
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:09,879
Speaker 1: Name, Kenneth.

408
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:14,399
Speaker 2: It was. I was not as queen as Okay, I

409
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 2: was not as key, but I was came.

410
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 1: To mind because I sa the other day we were

411
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:21,040
Speaker 1: just talking.

412
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Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry, due respect. Tell me about a great job.

413
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Speaker 1: Kenneth was a really good worker. I mean I would

414
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Speaker 1: aspire to be as efficient as Kennedy.

415
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 2: No, no, well, I so I was giving tours. I

416
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 2: would give four tours. I loved. I actually stole my

417
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:40,560
Speaker 2: uniform from you were supposed to return it. So I

418
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,600
Speaker 2: have given the button and that year SNL was celebrating

419
00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:48,800
Speaker 2: it's fifteenth year anniversary. So Saturdays were get to work,

420
00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 2: give four tours, hang out, work, do the show, and

421
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:55,919
Speaker 2: I myself and this girl Stephanie. We had hair that

422
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 2: was bigger than I can imagine. It was nineteen eighty

423
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:02,040
Speaker 2: nine big hair some of these It was crazy. And

424
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:05,200
Speaker 2: I would work the door studio at eight h again.

425
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:07,560
Speaker 2: You could get up and I would have the list

426
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 2: and that was like the VIP and I'd be like, sorry,

427
00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:13,440
Speaker 2: you're not coming in your name like people like they

428
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:19,440
Speaker 2: are so But I also had the Today Show assignment

429
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:21,880
Speaker 2: to me and I talk about that because I learned

430
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:24,840
Speaker 2: a lesson there that I thought I would, but I

431
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:29,199
Speaker 2: think we're taught in our business. So that summer, no

432
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:31,720
Speaker 2: one wanted this assignment. It started at five in the morning.

433
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,359
Speaker 2: The Today Show went live at seven AM. Jane Paully

434
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 2: and Brian Gumble were the host. It was the last

435
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 2: year they were doing that. It was sort of like

436
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:42,920
Speaker 2: the trauma someone when they were kind of looking to

437
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:47,320
Speaker 2: get Jane out. Robert Palmer was reading Robert John Palmer

438
00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:51,040
Speaker 2: was reading the news and they wanted him out. It

439
00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 2: was quite but every morning I went to work and

440
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,159
Speaker 2: I said, good morning, miss Paully, good morning, mister Gumble.

441
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 2: I never called them Jane and Brian. And my job

442
00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:01,920
Speaker 2: was to make sure Ruthie, you got to the green

443
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:04,000
Speaker 2: room in time, that the bagels were set up, that

444
00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 2: I got you to make up in time that I

445
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 2: got you. Think we had people like Betty Davis. So

446
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:13,160
Speaker 2: Betty Davis came one morning, she was all like smoking

447
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:15,560
Speaker 2: her six. I had to get her astray. And Catherine

448
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 2: was her assistant at the time. It was Betty Davis.

449
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,359
Speaker 2: And she's in the one of the private dressing rooms

450
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 2: and Katherine, I'm like, you know Betty Davis, She's like conic,

451
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:25,720
Speaker 2: I love her. And Katheryn goes, you should go in

452
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:27,359
Speaker 2: and tell her. And I walk into this room. I

453
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,399
Speaker 2: knock and she is leaned back on a chair and

454
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:33,040
Speaker 2: she has a stress on. She has one leg down

455
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 2: and one leg up on the wall, so like's quite spread.

456
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:39,920
Speaker 2: Couldn't see anything, but it was I was like, okay,

457
00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:43,320
Speaker 2: oh my god. And that was the morning, and she

458
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:45,720
Speaker 2: was on Letterman that afternoon. So Catherine said, do you

459
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:49,280
Speaker 2: think you could help us? So I did, and she goes,

460
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:52,919
Speaker 2: can you Betty Davis says can you walk me to

461
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:55,600
Speaker 2: my car? Becas and being honored at Lincoln Center. She

462
00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 2: slips her hand through my arm. We get into this

463
00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:02,480
Speaker 2: crowded elevator and she's talking and I put her in

464
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 2: and at one point I'm standing between her and Audrey Hepburn,

465
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:10,679
Speaker 2: who's on Live five. What and me? That was? It

466
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 2: was like those two talking and like my face and

467
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 2: I'm like.

468
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: I don't know how that must have been their best

469
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:17,240
Speaker 1: day to have you in the middle, though, I bet

470
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 1: they let's throw up. I think I think you said yes.

471
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 2: It was the lesson. So Jane poly says to me,

472
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 2: it's the end of August. It's been I go every

473
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:31,879
Speaker 2: morning at nine thirty, I go back to the page

474
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:35,679
Speaker 2: office and I am filled with energy and story. Now

475
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 2: the assignment comes back up because there was three month assignments.

476
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,200
Speaker 2: Everybody wants this assignment and went from no one wanting

477
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 2: it to everyone wanting it. And the last day it's

478
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 2: like six point fifty. Jane's going through her notes for

479
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 2: the beginning top of the show. She's putting on her

480
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 2: lipstick Never Forget, and she says, Bruce, I hear today

481
00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 2: is your last day on the assignment, and I said yes,

482
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,360
Speaker 2: and she goes, if you'd like, I would be happy

483
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:04,639
Speaker 2: to write you a letter of recommendation. And I said, oh,

484
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,160
Speaker 2: but you know, all I did was make sure people

485
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:09,400
Speaker 2: got to make up and air and she goes, it's

486
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:12,520
Speaker 2: not what you did, it's how you Yeah, And that's

487
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 2: stuck with me us. And I think it's when you're

488
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:20,920
Speaker 2: raised in hospitality, in service to people, you just do.

489
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:24,400
Speaker 1: I really think that working in a restaurant teaches you

490
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:27,719
Speaker 1: so much, you know, because of that experience of you

491
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 1: have to be kind to people you might not want

492
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:31,399
Speaker 1: to be kind to. You have to read whether a

493
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: table wants you to hover, they want you to go away.

494
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:37,120
Speaker 1: You have to find out if they're having a hard

495
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 1: time how you can make You know, people come to

496
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 1: me and say, oh, there's a difficult table and table four.

497
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:44,400
Speaker 1: I go, great, let me go and find them. Because

498
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:46,840
Speaker 1: one of the challenges is, yes, there's no such thing

499
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 1: as a difficult table. There are people who might have

500
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,919
Speaker 1: got lost getting here, that they might have I would say,

501
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,440
Speaker 1: every table has a story. You know, their mother might

502
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,679
Speaker 1: be sick, they might have been fired that day, there

503
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:00,320
Speaker 1: might be celebrating. And I think what you're talking talking

504
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: about from your experience at NBC or whether it was

505
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 1: at the Pomp or your mother or your grandma. It's

506
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: all to do with actually bottom line, liking people.

507
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. My dad always would say. He'd be like, you know,

508
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:17,960
Speaker 2: why are you working in the restaurant business if you

509
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,680
Speaker 2: don't like people? Yeah, And when you come across that, yeah,

510
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:23,680
Speaker 2: he'd say, like, you know, go be a librarian. Sit

511
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 2: in a library and quiet and just like make sure

512
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 2: someone has to their book. And I don't mean anything

513
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,800
Speaker 2: disrespectful about I'm sure there are many nice librarians. I'm

514
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 2: saying it's a Joplin you don't have to have, but

515
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:38,240
Speaker 2: I believe that you have to really be interested in people.

516
00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:41,640
Speaker 2: And to your point, one of the you know, there's

517
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 2: nothing like a restaurant like here at the River Cafe

518
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:49,160
Speaker 2: when you when it's on full throttle, you feel the

519
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 2: energy of that room and there's a million details. Like

520
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 2: you said, you're looking, and you're if someone's not eating

521
00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 2: their food, you're looking and you you're going to that

522
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 2: table to understand is something wrong, is something you don't

523
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 2: like because you want to make them happy. I often

524
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 2: would say to the people I work with who were

525
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:11,560
Speaker 2: equally as important to me. The working where at the Palm,

526
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 2: anyone like, there's a differential. If you disrespected somebody that

527
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 2: worked in at the Palm and you were a guest,

528
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 2: that was unacceptable to me. But they were you know,

529
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:26,600
Speaker 2: they could have bad days too. But I always would

530
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 2: say to that, you can't bring that into the house.

531
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:33,240
Speaker 2: This is this, This is the lady that we take

532
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 2: care of because she provideses. She the work here allows

533
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,080
Speaker 2: you to send your children to school, or the work

534
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 2: here lets people celebrate the life. So if you're going

535
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 2: to bring that ship in here, you gotta go and

536
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:48,160
Speaker 2: people do so. I remember the first time I learned

537
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:49,640
Speaker 2: how to fire somebody.

538
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 1: Which that's really hard.

539
00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 2: But I'm not that kind of guy. And I was

540
00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 2: working with a great general manager named Tim King. We

541
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 2: opened up the Palm West and you York City, which

542
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 2: was a big deal for me. It was July nineteen

543
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 2: ninety nine, two hundred and fifty Sex Rush twenty five,

544
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 2: super hot. Yeah, where was it fiftieth between Broadway and

545
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,200
Speaker 2: Eighth Avenue and you know that that was not even

546
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 2: fully developed that piece of Manhattan and massive heat wave.

547
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 2: So Tim King, he comes in and he said there

548
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 2: was a guy just just we gave a lot of

549
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 2: chances to and he was not living to what the ethics,

550
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:34,600
Speaker 2: the values that we and delivering the service. So he goes, Okay, Bruce,

551
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 2: we're going to go meet with him and you're going

552
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 2: to fire him. And I'm like, no, I can't do that.

553
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:41,280
Speaker 2: He goes, no, you're going to fire him. And the

554
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 2: way is because you're not firing him. He fired himself

555
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 2: in the minute. He flipped it. Yeah, yeah, I was like, oh,

556
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 2: you're right. I didn't do this. He gave him a

557
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:56,000
Speaker 2: number of conversations and we wanted him to be successful.

558
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 2: He couldn't be so in delivering that message as disappointing

559
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 2: and setting as it is, when I think you get fired,

560
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 2: for the most part in my experience, it's it's you've

561
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 2: done it to yourself. So that made me.

562
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:12,520
Speaker 1: We once said I've only had to actually fire somebody

563
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,440
Speaker 1: once and in thirty eight years, and we had a chef.

564
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 1: It was really good. He was the one I always

565
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,080
Speaker 1: wanted to work with. He was just great. But he

566
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,920
Speaker 1: one night he kind of flipped and he did things

567
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 1: that were really unacceptable in a restaurant, and so I

568
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 1: had to call him in the next day and I said,

569
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,200
Speaker 1: you know, I'll call him Chris, right, you know, because

570
00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: you know we need to talk about this. You know,

571
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 1: what happened, what happened last night? Well you know and

572
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, I don't know. We talked about it

573
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:46,720
Speaker 1: and then I said, you know, because what would you

574
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,920
Speaker 1: do if you were me? And he said I'd fire me.

575
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:54,720
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, fire. He said, I'd give you

576
00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 1: another chance, I'll give you another chat. But he said fire.

577
00:31:59,520 --> 00:31:59,760
Speaker 2: It was.

578
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: Just so you know, but it is. It's a hard

579
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 1: it's really hard. So back to your trajectory. We were working,

580
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: you went to UCLA, you came back, you worked at NBC,

581
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:19,520
Speaker 1: and then did you then go into the bathroom?

582
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:23,719
Speaker 2: I know? So I said I needed one more chapter

583
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,240
Speaker 2: in California, okay, And I thought it was going to

584
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 2: be my last chapter. And my mother looked at me

585
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:32,160
Speaker 2: and I was like, I'm nineteen ninety I'm moving back

586
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 2: to Los Angeles and she was like okay. And it

587
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 2: was one of those moments where you're standing at the

588
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 2: door of January and I leave no place to I'm

589
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:44,600
Speaker 2: sleeping on a buddy's couch. And in those three and

590
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 2: a half four years, I met a lot of people

591
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 2: in Hollywood, like Barry Diller and Sandy Gallen and like

592
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:55,040
Speaker 2: this whole great group. On top of working in the restaurant,

593
00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,200
Speaker 2: which was fantastic, So I met like, fancy people.

594
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:00,640
Speaker 1: Are you for still pursuing your act? I was.

595
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 2: I was a production assistant and I was a commercial

596
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:05,920
Speaker 2: doing car I got only commercials that I could be

597
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:08,120
Speaker 2: in a bathing suit, not say a word and show

598
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,000
Speaker 2: my body. That's what they wanted from me. I really could.

599
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:13,720
Speaker 2: I was. Sandy would say you were the worst actor

600
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 2: I've ever heard. He'd helped me do lines and I'd

601
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:17,760
Speaker 2: be like, okay, and then he'd be like if you knew.

602
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:20,520
Speaker 2: Sandy was always like real New York accent. He's like,

603
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:25,800
Speaker 2: you are a horrible accent, and I'd be like, thank you,

604
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 2: like I'm going on this audition tomorrow. But it was setting.

605
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:32,720
Speaker 2: What it allowed me was to create a group of

606
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 2: friends again and have begin a community that I could

607
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 2: get to know myself, which I couldn't do in New

608
00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:44,040
Speaker 2: York because that was you know, bloodline. And then I

609
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:45,760
Speaker 2: knew it was time to go home. All of cinner.

610
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 2: I was like, because La at the time, especially for me,

611
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:49,959
Speaker 2: didn't ask a lot of me. So I did everything,

612
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 2: but you could literally be like, you know, what'd you

613
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:54,160
Speaker 2: do to the Oh my god, I got my dry cleaning? Yeah,

614
00:33:56,040 --> 00:34:03,480
Speaker 2: h much be exhausted. That was so fun. Yeah. Then palm, pomp, palm,

615
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 2: I did you know? Worked? And then I fell in

616
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:08,880
Speaker 2: love and I fell in love with Brian. And I

617
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:11,840
Speaker 2: had decided right before that that I was going to

618
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 2: become a dad and I was going to become a

619
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,840
Speaker 2: single father through surrogacy and yeah, and I.

620
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:19,360
Speaker 1: Helped you.

621
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:23,520
Speaker 2: I was forty thirty forty and I said to my parents,

622
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:25,000
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm going to do this and they

623
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,360
Speaker 2: were like, wow, it's not easy. And I said yes.

624
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 2: And though I had known Brian, life brought that us together.

625
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:35,919
Speaker 2: That really brought us together in a series of circumstances

626
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 2: which created effect. You know, we were like and I

627
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 2: moved back to LA and that was.

628
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: A domestic life, was it? Did you then create a

629
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 1: family home? And cooking?

630
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 2: When I cook, I cooked things very simple.

631
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:50,759
Speaker 1: Tell me about what you like to cook.

632
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:54,000
Speaker 2: My stuff is I could cook a great stay, you know,

633
00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:59,200
Speaker 2: you know, charreds here, media mediumware, sauteed spinach, I like

634
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 2: various super lean just these like lionaise potatoes or you know,

635
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:09,719
Speaker 2: sauteed potatoes and onions and a nice salad, two and

636
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:14,319
Speaker 2: a half bottles of wine. It's really good.

637
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:15,080
Speaker 1: It's really good.

638
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:20,080
Speaker 2: So like that. That. So that was the last twenty years.

639
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 2: And in the beginning I was doing a lot of

640
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:25,919
Speaker 2: traveling because of the restaurant. My job had become more

641
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 2: of an executive position. And then what we realized too

642
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,880
Speaker 2: was people forgot the Palm was a family owned business.

643
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:36,160
Speaker 2: And I got a little media training and would go

644
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:40,200
Speaker 2: on TV shows and I would cook dishes very you know,

645
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,600
Speaker 2: classic palm dishes, and I would always say when when

646
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 2: it was presented to me as a possibility to do,

647
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:49,040
Speaker 2: I said, it's fine, but I can never be presented

648
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:51,920
Speaker 2: as a chef. I can be presented as a palm

649
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,880
Speaker 2: expert because I can cook you the shrimp bruno, or

650
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:59,959
Speaker 2: cook you the steak or but I'm not a chef.

651
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 2: That would be disrespectful. I am. I just know how

652
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:06,360
Speaker 2: to cook our food. So that I did that for

653
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 2: a while, and then twenty years later, the Palm was

654
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:14,600
Speaker 2: no longer in our family. In twenty twenty, unrelated to COVID,

655
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:20,919
Speaker 2: but really due to family strife where they always say

656
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:27,359
Speaker 2: generational family businesses do eventually, it's very difficult. Then when

657
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:30,480
Speaker 2: I look back my twenty twenty of it is the

658
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:33,960
Speaker 2: Palm at ten Restaurants, which was now in ten cities,

659
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:39,520
Speaker 2: still retained its magic somehow, not somehow because culturally at

660
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:44,080
Speaker 2: the time we were still everyone was being grown within.

661
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:46,120
Speaker 2: Once you got past that and you start to hire

662
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,360
Speaker 2: from outside, you teach that culture, and then it just

663
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,319
Speaker 2: became too big and too mageable. And though it was

664
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 2: successful for many, many years, and like us, all good

665
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:59,320
Speaker 2: times recessions, bad times. If I could tell the younger

666
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 2: version of me to tell the younger version of my dad,

667
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:04,880
Speaker 2: I say, I would have said, been more of like

668
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:09,800
Speaker 2: a McNally, have a bunch of restaurants in one city. Yeah,

669
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:12,879
Speaker 2: and you can really sort of enjoy the different flavors

670
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:17,120
Speaker 2: of that. I that I think the man I have

671
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:21,120
Speaker 2: am is all due to the room I stood in

672
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:25,120
Speaker 2: for so many years. When you're standing on your feet

673
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:27,640
Speaker 2: and you're looking at people and you're connecting, and you

674
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:31,840
Speaker 2: want and you're responsible for them, Like you said earlier,

675
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:35,880
Speaker 2: closing a business deal, so you know when to go

676
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,080
Speaker 2: near a table, not to make sure the quality of

677
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 2: the food is great, but it's really about the experience

678
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 2: or you are responsible for them celebrating an engagement or

679
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:48,920
Speaker 2: christening or American like, these are big. These are things,

680
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:52,320
Speaker 2: and then just connecting with people and making people feel

681
00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:56,400
Speaker 2: Tim taught me once. Another lesson he taught me was

682
00:37:56,440 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 2: at the podium when people would come. So someone comes

683
00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:03,440
Speaker 2: in that I don't know, and then Ruthy, you come in.

684
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:05,920
Speaker 2: So you're right behind them. So I'm talking with them,

685
00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:07,640
Speaker 2: but then I see you and my eye light up

686
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:11,319
Speaker 2: and he and he took me aside. He said, just

687
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:13,439
Speaker 2: so you know what you're doing, but you can't see

688
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:15,319
Speaker 2: the face of the person that's right in front of you.

689
00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:18,440
Speaker 2: They see that, and they they kind of go there

690
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 2: because I go, wow, you're right. Everyone needs to get that.

691
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:26,360
Speaker 1: I was trying. When I go to a table somebody

692
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 1: I know, I sort of say hello to the other

693
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:32,719
Speaker 1: people first. It's just like because otherwise you're sort of

694
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 1: saying hello, the big embrace to the person you know,

695
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,719
Speaker 1: and then the other people are like, you know, I'm

696
00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:40,800
Speaker 1: not interested in you. I'm interested in who your friends,

697
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:41,960
Speaker 1: where you come from.

698
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:45,960
Speaker 2: The most important guest was the first time the person

699
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,239
Speaker 2: to face you didn't know in the room. The most

700
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:50,080
Speaker 2: important guest for you to connect with.

701
00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 1: I have to say that I have the best job

702
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:53,800
Speaker 1: in the world. I'd love my job, you know, I

703
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:57,840
Speaker 1: love I love coming in here, and it's become you know,

704
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 1: it's a place of energy and decisions and food is

705
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:07,560
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's as we say, it's about sharing.

706
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:10,760
Speaker 1: It's about communicating about connections that you and I really

707
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:13,719
Speaker 1: bonded in the kitchen making trying to open those jars,

708
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:14,359
Speaker 1: remember we had.

709
00:39:14,239 --> 00:39:15,759
Speaker 2: To bang them.

710
00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:21,480
Speaker 1: And so food is all that. It's a connection, it's sharing,

711
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,719
Speaker 1: it's love, it's it's stressful. Sometimes it's all that, but

712
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:29,080
Speaker 1: it is also comfort and so for my you know,

713
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:30,839
Speaker 1: as you say, we can, we're going to do this again,

714
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:32,759
Speaker 1: going to be We're going to do this carry on.

715
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:35,879
Speaker 1: The food is all that, but it also something that

716
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 1: you very often reach for because you need food to

717
00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:41,439
Speaker 1: give you. Maybe a sense of comfort is there? Would

718
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:43,360
Speaker 1: it be your mom's lasagnia? Would you is there a

719
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:46,160
Speaker 1: food that you have that would be a sense a

720
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:48,040
Speaker 1: source of comfort for you? Sure?

721
00:39:48,239 --> 00:39:50,399
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean I think it has changed. I think

722
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:54,640
Speaker 2: yes there was one. My mother's lasagna is always a

723
00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:58,840
Speaker 2: source of comfort, but it's now a rarity because she

724
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,960
Speaker 2: doesn't do it as much. I like to take a

725
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 2: chicken and slice it up in sautea with brown rice,

726
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:09,520
Speaker 2: broccoli with vegetables, with a little bit of a jalapeno pepper,

727
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:11,319
Speaker 2: so it gives it a little bit of a cake

728
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:13,040
Speaker 2: and it's like and I always need to put it

729
00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 2: in a bowl.

730
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 1: I would eating a bowl is comforting, isn't it.

731
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,839
Speaker 2: I'd love to do pasta in a sort of restaurant

732
00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 2: metal ball where you just really kind of like twirl

733
00:40:23,080 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 2: it around and like that to me gives me a

734
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:27,040
Speaker 2: lot of comfort and joy.

735
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:29,719
Speaker 1: Well, you give me comfort, and thank you so much

736
00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:33,640
Speaker 1: for coming today. We'll do more. Let's go eat, okay,

737
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: thank you. Ruthie's Table four is proud to support Leukemia UK.

738
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,960
Speaker 1: The Cartwheel for a Cure campaign raises funds for vital

739
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:50,600
Speaker 1: research and more effective and kind of treatments for a

740
00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 1: cute my Lord leukemia. Please donate and to do so

741
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:57,279
Speaker 1: search Cartwheel for a Cute.

742
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:04,200
Speaker 2: Ruthie's Table four was produced by Alex Bell, Robbie Hamilton

743
00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:07,200
Speaker 2: and Zad Rogers with Andrew Sang and Bella Selina.

744
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:10,000
Speaker 1: This has been an atomized production for iHeartMedia,