WEBVTT - Martha Stewart 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.880 Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:05.360 Adamized Studios. 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.600 Hello everyone, and welcome to an evening with Ruthie Rogers 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:12.159 and Martha Stewart on the River Cafe. Look book for 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:19.800 Ruthie's Table four podcast. Award winning chef and best selling 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.439 cookbook author Ruthie Rogers launched The River Cafe in London 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:24.960 in nineteen eighty seven. 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:29.440 A week ago today, I was in New York with 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.280 Martha Stewart doing a live podcast. 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.520 Marta Stewart is the founder of the first multi channel 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:37.400 lifestyle Come. 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:42.199 About Cooking, About Magazines, about. 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:46.120 Author of books about each other and our careers and food. 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:49.800 Reaching more than one hundred million devoted fans on a 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.880 monthly basis through her magazines, television shows, books and products 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.320 for the home, Martha is a go to source for 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:07.200 the homemaker. Please join me in welcoming Ruthie and Martha. 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:12.080 Imagine for a moment you are Martha Stuart. It is 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.759 nineteen ninety two, and you're the most important woman in. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:16.640 The world of food. 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.959 You are beautiful, you're funny, and you say yourself that 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:25.679 your best quality is your curiosity. So maybe it was 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.680 that curiosity which made you drive twenty five minutes from 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.679 your hotel in London to a small restaurant in a 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.800 warehouse on the Thames, which had opened just a few 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:41.080 years before, run by two women whose only culinary experience 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:46.479 was cooking for their families. Now imagine how these women 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.400 Rose Gray and Ruthie Rogers felt when Martha Stuart booked 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.880 a table for lunch. They were anxious, excited, and probably 0:01:54.920 --> 0:02:00.600 a bit overwhelmed. To day, being here together on this 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.520 autumn day in New York means more to me than 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:04.800 I can possibly say. 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:07.880 This is a long time ago. Nineteen wouldn't I first? 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.280 Nineteen ninety two? That's it seems like yesterday, But it's 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:14.919 actually was a long time ago. And I was a 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.000 divorce a and my first big trip to London after 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:22.560 I got divorced and started my own company, I met men, 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.440 really nice men, and I read and I read in 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.040 your book. I read in your book you who You're 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.440 and some of them are in that list, and it's 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:37.200 really fun to see that well or all I looked online, 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.440 you know, but yeah, people you're grateful to. But like 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:42.800 I did, I did not have an affair with Michael Caine. 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:44.880 But I did have affair. But I did have an 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:50.160 affair with one of his best friends, and Terry Donovan, 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:55.720 No Neil the photographer, remember him. He was great and 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.040 he sort of introduced me to the nice crowd in London. Yeah, 0:02:59.160 --> 0:02:59.680 and we had. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.200 That Michael Is said, Michael's amazing. 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.600 Oh. I went to Michael Kaine's house for the weekend. 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.760 I had so much fun. It was a big house party, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.320 you know. And when I think about those days, I 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.160 can't even believe that was me, because it was. It was, 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.280 but it was so much fun. But we but we 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:19.880 ate at that We ate at this restaurant that was 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:25.080 so exquisite because there's two ladies dressed in their stiff 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.440 white chef's jackets and they looked really great and they 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.840 spoke really nicely to everyone, and the food was just 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:36.160 delicious and really well presented. I just loved it. I 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.080 loved it for the first moment that I walked into 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:38.640 the restaurant. 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:40.240 On TV. 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:45.000 Yes I did. We must post that segment tomorrow. Okay, 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:49.000 you have it still, of course, that's it said, it's film, 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:49.760 you film. 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:52.800 Okay, I'm still looking for the baby. 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:54.400 We have a big library. 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:56.680 I tried to find that. 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:03.880 It's so funny because I'm working in my hundreds book 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.920 and I get this book in the mail called The 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.280 River Cafe Look Book, and I open it up and 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.880 I say, oh shit, she beat me to it. And 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.120 what I had already discussed with my editor what I 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.120 wanted to do, and I wanted to I wanted to 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.680 make the food in the book it's my hundred favorite recipes. 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:31.000 I wanted to make the food look like art. And 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.599 You've done it, so I can't do it now. I 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:36.839 have to think of a whole new idea for the photographer. No, 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.080 but I really love the picture so much. 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.599 We took all the photographs of the finished dishes, and 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.719 trying to do it step by step was patronizing, boring, 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.039 and we just weren't very good at it. So we thought, 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.920 you know, what would be a book that might inspire 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:57.240 people to cook, and not necessarily just children, without intimidating them, 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.960 but inspiring them to cook. And it has a kind 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.320 of backstory, this book, which is to do with someone 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.600 bought me these books for people who have had brain 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:13.560 damage or autism or anything connected with neurology. And I'll 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.160 just show you very quickly. It's about pairing images. And 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.000 so we thought what we would do is do a 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:24.200 book in which you just had images next to each other. So, 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:28.440 why is looking at a vase of wilting tulips something 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.320 that connects you with spaghetti? Vongelais with red chilis? And 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.120 why would have you know burnt matches somehow mean something 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.479 to you? With lamb chops, there's something that stops you. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.599 And so what we did was we had the photographer 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.039 do all the food photographs, Matthew Donaldson, and then we 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:50.080 didn't commission these photographs. We went through his archives and 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.920 so we went through the archives and we found photographs 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:58.040 that we thought we could possibly match with the cooked food. 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.760 And then we put the recipes at the back and 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:07.400 with kind of very Martha Stewart like instructions, which is advice, 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.919 which is to begin by reading a recipe twice, ending 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.520 by now put on your apron and wash your hands. Anyway, 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.200 this is what we did and this is our book. 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:18.440 It was very nice production. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.560 I said to someone who helps me, I said, can 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:25.040 you go and get a book by Martha? Not one 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:26.640 of the new ones, but just go and try and 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.320 find a book. And they came back with Housekeeping six 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:31.640 things to do when. 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.159 You wake up in the morning. Do you know what 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:33.520 they are? 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:38.160 I know, wake your bed, get rid of the clutter. 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.479 This is this dates it because it says sort your mail, 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:43.000 which I thought just. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:48.600 I disorted my mail this afternoon email letter. Really had 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.800 a letter mail every day, thank you. 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:52.680 I haven't had a letter. 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.880 If anybody wants to write here fan mail, I'd love 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:59.760 to sort it. Then I could have something to sort. 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:01.680 And I have to sort through all that mail I 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.560 have saw it to. Stephanie gets all the like the 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:06.880 fan mail. We get a lot of fan mail. I mean, 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.120 it's it's amazing where they where it comes from. And 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.440 then and then the guy who pays all the bills, 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.400 he gets all the bills. Don't you get bills? No, 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:17.600 oh geez, you're lucky. 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:21.400 I think that Housekeeping have eye. You've seen it. It 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:24.960 is when we've been reading it every night wherevery bak 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:25.760 comes to the house. 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.120 It's about that homekeeping handbook. 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:31.120 I love it is the best tells you there's you know, 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:32.960 And I thought you know. And I was talking to 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:34.920 a yet very young friend of mine and I was 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.760 telling him that that a lot of us whose mother's 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.760 perhaps really became involved in feminism. Right, so in the 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.280 maybe the sixties, really didn't want to teach us how 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.880 to sew a button, you know, or clean a spill 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:49.360 when it's fresh. 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:51.320 Well, we know that, you know, it's easier. 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.600 But I think that what Martha really did teach us 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.320 that it's okay to do what we want to do, 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.680 but also know how to do something domestic. 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:02.880 And I think it's very important. 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.520 It's a huge Like my friends don't know to use 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.240 a squeegee in their showers. 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:08.520 What's a squeechee? 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:10.880 They don't know that, And then you get into their 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.120 shower and it's all grungy, you know, and the glass 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.960 looks all cloudy if only you use a squeegee. My 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.520 grandchildren use squeegees just to see them, and they're beautiful showers. 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.160 They're cleaning them everything. You know, since they were one, 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.280 they were using squeegees. But that book is great. The 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.760 Home Heaping hand Book is great. And decorators, I'm Michael Smith, 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.800 who's the fanciest fanciest decorator on earth. He gives that 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.640 book to his clients and they sit down and they 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:39.200 read it so they can learn how to take care 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.480 of those fancy houses that he designs for them. I 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:47.320 wish I could read my first Twitter recipes because I 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.680 was a really big fan of Twitter when it came out. 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.199 I still have the original stock. I think I've gotten 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.880 paid fifty four dollars a share, but I'm not sure. 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.160 I haven't gotten any money yet from Elon. Let's let's 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.360 see if he pays, if he pays those debts. But 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:05.920 I had so much fun writing those recipes. Try to 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.760 do a recipe in eighty characters, It was really hard. 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.360 So Martha, can you tell me about your family? Can 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.040 you tell me about growing up in a household? 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:29.040 Did you well? I grew up with mom and dad 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:33.720 both in Nutley, New Jersey. Mother was a school teacher. 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.400 She taught sixth grade at the Washington School in Nutley, 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.760 New Jersey, and she went back to teaching when she 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.880 had her sixth child. Right when that sixth child, Laura 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.360 was old enough to go to kindergarten, my mother started 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.080 teaching again. She took off, like I think eighteen years 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.160 to have six kids, but she substituted during that time 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.280 because she didn't like staying home that much. Right father, 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:59.120 Dad was a pharmaceutical salesman, like I said once, he 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.599 was a drug salesman. And it's not exactly the right thing, missay. 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.760 But but mother cooked every meal? 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:07.160 How did she do that? 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.640 She she was organized. And Martha I was the oldest daughter, 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:13.520 so I was. There was a brother, a daughter, and 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:15.719 a boy girl, boy girl all the way down. And 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.560 I learned how to cook at her side, and I 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.200 would help, of course. But the kitchen was the hub 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.160 of our home, and it was a really ugly kitchen. 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.360 My father he renovated the kitchen himself, and and he 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:33.040 put down pink linoleum squares on the floor pink. And 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.800 he put a bathroom, a little sink and toilet right 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.720 off the breakfast nook. We had a nook where we 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.400 all sat with a big picture window looking out at 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:45.600 the garden. And then he put birch cabinets which were 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.160 they were okay, except that he put very ugly hardware 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:52.040 on them, and then pink for micah countertops, which which 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:56.240 was not nice, and and on that's all one side 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.920 of the kitchen and one little oven one with a 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.600 broil or in it. You know, this is for eight 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.560 people right here. That that well, I guess that was 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.880 the nineteen fifties. That was the renovation of fifties kitchen. 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:14.199 It looked like a oh, we had it, and it's 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:16.760 still there. Have been I haven't been inside the house. 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.160 I've gone to visit the house since my mother sold it, 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.320 but I'm sure it's still there. It was, it was 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:24.520 well built, but they must have put new counters in 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:26.320 because that pink was heart was hideous. 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.200 But but you know, it's just before we go back 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.280 to your mom is. I did a podcast with Alfonso 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.719 cur On, the film director did Roma, and it's very 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.280 interesting because he talked about the difference between the American 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:44.000 culture of the kind of middle class wealth or growth, 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.200 and the Mexican and it also reminded me of Italy 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.160 that he said that in America, if you had more money, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.720 you had bigger kitchens, you had a huge fridge, you 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.040 have two ovens, you'd have walk in this and you know, 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.800 that's how you showed your wealth. In Mexico, and I 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.120 think probably in Italy you could go to quite grand 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:07.080 houses and have a very simple kitchen, really really small, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:08.400 but you had more help. 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.360 That was the way help. You just had more domestics. 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.280 So his whole well if you've seen Roma, it is about, 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:17.040 you know the life of the domestic where we had. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.000 You had no your mother had no help. So when 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:22.440 was she shop? How did she work? 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:26.080 Well, we went shopping. It was Friday morning. Friday morning 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.000 with mister Mouse from next door, this German baker from 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:33.800 next door, and he had a big buick a mouse 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.679 and he was he and his wife would take us, 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.560 would drive us because we only had one car and 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:41.880 dad took the car to work. So they would take 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.880 us to the co op that's where we shopped and 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.200 uh and load up the car with a week's supply 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.360 of groceries. And we also had a large garden and 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:53.600 so that that was only you know, during the warm 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.120 weather though, it was the garden and my mother did 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.320 a lot of canning and preserving. We had a large 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.280 freezer in the basement, a great big freezer, and we 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.959 also had a large refrigerator in the basement where overflow 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.840 was kept. Yeah. And when my brother wasn't skinning muskrats 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.080 in the in the laundry sink, he was a trapper. 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.280 He put himself through college on his on the fur, 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.440 the fur that he trapped, can you imagine. And I 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:20.000 was the best skinner, So I did a lot of 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:25.360 this skinning. I imagine that I skinned muskrats. They were 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.680 dead by the time I got them. Thank god I didn't. 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.520 Have to get You learned how to skin a muskrats? 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:30.520 Do you learn that for life? 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.360 Is that something you never forget. I'm really good. I'm 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.400 really good at killing the chickens and the geese and 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:36.280 all of that stuff. 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.360 So you grew up in this house, so it's not 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.080 a surprise that you taught everybody how to change your 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:42.319 light bulb and how to make it. 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:44.920 I did all that stuff. I did all that stuff. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.720 I'm still not very good at plumbing, and I'm not 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:50.000 very good at electricity, but I can do all the 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:50.559 other stuff. 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.520 Yeah, so tell me more about growing up in them. 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:55.880 Well, the house was, it was. It was a fun house, 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.480 you know, because you you like the old Polish joke 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.760 where what's a what's a Polish vacation? Do you know 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.600 what that is? And please don't take this badly. I'm 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.040 not big at hit. I have polish one. It's sitting 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.679 on your neighbor's stoop, and that's a vacation. And that's 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.800 what we We sat next door on the Italian Stoop 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.480 where we sat next door on the Irish Stoop, and 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:21.080 we had we ate everybody's food. We were. It was 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.880 a very nice neighborhood. And I learned a lot. I 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.040 learned how to roast the potato the best way you know. 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.000 That was that was important to know how to do that. 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.040 And I also learned how to make beautiful, beautiful yeast 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.520 spreads from mister Mouse and his basement. He had a 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.960 big bakery down in his basement. And I still have 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.120 his bread making bowl, the big yellow ware bowl in 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.880 which I which I made all my dough. And for Thanksgiving, 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.880 I'm giving my whole staff, I'm giving them all panatoni, 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.720 which is which is a recipe that I learned from 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:53.240 mister Mouse a long time ago, and it's good. 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.640 So if you had all that background, which does really 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.440 explain a lot, I didn't know that because there were 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:01.880 a lot of people grew up without any of that knowledge. 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.240 We fished. We went fishing and would bring home one 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.480 hundred bluefish and we would freeze those bluefish and we 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:11.760 could eat bluefish for a lot, a lot of bluefish. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:15.080 I like bluefish actually, And we would also we had 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:19.000 farmer relatives in southern New Jersey that had cows and 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:23.880 grew corn, really good corn. Being a Polish background, you 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:26.720 learn a lot about agriculture, and you learn a lot 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:31.480 about cooking and preserving. And every night, all of us, yes, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:37.320 dinner was important, and conversation at the dinner was important. Oh, 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:41.080 everything from current events to what was on the Shadow 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:47.320 Nose to this radio program. We had a radio, but 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.560 not a television. We were the last family on the 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.760 street to get a television. We would have to sneak 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.240 out and visit our neighbors to watch TV. 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.760 When I interviewed Nancy Pelosi, she said she'd never sat 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.480 down to a meal without a Oh. 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.280 Well, we sat down to a pink for mica table 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.120 in the nook of the of the kitchen nook. It 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.160 was called the breakfast nook, but it was a large 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:11.440 enough table for eight people. 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:13.320 And did the dishes afternoon, And. 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.920 Yes, I did the dishes, and the homework was at 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.480 the kitchen table, and Mom would sit there with her 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:25.840 one cigarette. She was so sexy. She sat there and 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.360 after dinner, after everybody was in bed except for Martha 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.240 who was cleaning up. And I was also sewing a 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.280 lot too, because I've made my own clothes. Mom would see, 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.560 asked my sisters, and my mother would sit there with 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:45.640 one cigarette, her Chesterfield cigarette in her fingers, and I 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.320 loved how she looked. I thought it was the greatest. 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.520 I never smoked, no, no, but that was only one 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:52.840 a day. 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:54.360 Did your father cook? 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.600 Dad made breakfasts, but you would you know. He would 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:00.680 make eggs with smiley faces made out of Marachine cherries 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.600 and green pepper, some lips, you know, to Laura's down 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:06.840 to the kitchen. And he had an intercom in the house. 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.560 If you ever read Cheaper by the Dozen, it was 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.400 a fabulous book about a father who had twelve children, 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:16.840 and it was written in like Montclair, New Jersey. Dad 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.320 would would make believe he was that father. 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.160 And uh, well, what about the intercom. 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:26.760 The intercondess rise and shine. I still remember that. I'm 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:28.920 not allowed to say that in my house at all, 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:32.560 So that the early years, I'm getting silly. This is 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.760 very silly, because it is, but it is a childhood 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.120 based on real good I mean, we were brought up 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:43.359 on fresh good food. Yes, this is life in the 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:47.040 house in the suburbs and the what was your name for? 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.440 What was Martha? Casteira, Castira. 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:52.880 What do you think they were? Did you have a grandmother? 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:54.399 Oh yeah, I had two grandmothers. 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.240 Just one of the other things. Was she important? 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.800 Well, Grandma Grandma Helen lived down the street, so she 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.200 and she made the best gaffilter fish. She would bring 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:08.520 home the giant carp that would sit in the bath. 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:15.240 Of course, the most delicious moose. The moose of carp 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:17.840 that was the turned out to be the gaffilter fish 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:22.320 with a wonderful sauce. She was. She was great. And 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:26.680 the other grandmother, grandmother, Grandma Raskowski, lived in Buffalo, New York, 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:31.879 and she lived next door to a slaughterhouse, so I 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.480 got to see how animals were slaughtered. Early on. We 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.080 would peek through the wooden fence and see the cows 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.919 coming in and all of that. But I learned. I 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.760 learned a lot about how to treat animals and how 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.120 not to treat animals. And also she was She would 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.199 go to the farms up in New York State near 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:54.160 Buffalo and and bring home the most beautiful golden cherries. 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.320 And she would do all canning because they didn't have freezers, 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:01.760 but they did. She did amazing. Oh yeah, It was incredible. 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:03.640 I learned how to be a good cannor from her. 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:05.240 How do you be a good canna? 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.159 Well, the preparation on the sterilization of the jars and 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.680 making sure everything is impeccable and so that we won't 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:16.560 get sick eating you know, tainted food, And that was 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:17.760 impressed on us a lot. 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.920 About how your grandparents born in Poland, yes, all of them, 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:23.119 so they brought that with them. So that was what 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.760 it was growing up in that household. And then when 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.160 you left, did you miss that? Was that not at all? 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.480 Not at all, Because I got married when I was nineteen. 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:36.440 I fell in love at eighteen and got married as 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.360 quickly as I could possibly get married and get out 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.119 of the house and start my own house. It was fun. 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:44.080 It was a lot of fun. And I cooked everything 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:46.440 all the time, did you oh yeah? And dinner parties cool? 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:47.880 Did your husband cook? 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:50.359 No, no, he didn't, but he liked to eat. 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:03.920 With a large family and the kind of life you had, 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:06.560 I think I might know the answer to this question. 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:08.240 But did you go to restaurants? 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.320 No? No, no, he had no money to go to restaurants. 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:17.119 Six kids, all preparing to go to college. There was 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.760 no time. My big treat for my dad. My dad 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:25.040 loved good food, and he went to restaurants because he 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.199 would take his doctors out that he was selling drugs 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:33.440 to whatever. So he got to experiment and visit restaurants 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:35.840 in New York City. But he would bring me home 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.320 like a pomegranate from Chinatown. 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.199 And so when did you start going to restaurants day? 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.359 Well, as soon as I could get to work, I 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:48.800 went to work seriously. Probably when I was around thirteen. 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:52.680 I started to model in New York City. A girl 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:56.199 across the street was a model and a ballerina in 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:58.280 New York and she said, Martha, you should really come 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.119 see my agent. She'd love you. So I went to 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.240 see this lady. I lean forward and she accepted me 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:09.440 as a as a kind of a point yeah, part 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.480 time model. So I would I would work after school 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:15.720 and on Saturdays, I would work maybe modeling live at Bond. 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.359 Would tell her it was fun, and you know it 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:20.800 was like instead of fifty cents an hour, I was 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:23.800 making more like twenty dollars an hour in New York 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:26.000 and that's that was a lot of money. And then 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.760 I got some TV commercials, and that's what really paid. 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.720 It paid for my entire college education. The residuals. In 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.520 those days, it was very lucrative. So I did that 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:39.120 until I went to Barnard College. When you started eating out, 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:41.520