Speaker 1: Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Adamized Studios.
Speaker 2: The films of Olivia Coleman have the power to move
Speaker 2: us to tears, make us laugh, and inspire us to
Speaker 2: try something new. They can also make us feel really,
Speaker 2: really hungry. In the Favorite playing Queen Anne, Olivia Coleman
Speaker 2: conveys her authority by insisting on a cup of over
Speaker 2: rich hot chocolate, and there are tables laden with roasted venison,
Speaker 2: lamb cakes, desserts, the symbols of wealth and privilege. None
Speaker 2: to the Queen. What what you cannot have hot chocolate?
Speaker 2: Your stomach sugar inflames? It I begat having that cup?
Speaker 1: Do not?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I do not know what to do. Oh fine,
Speaker 2: give it her and you can get a bucket in
Speaker 2: a mop for the aftermath. I met Olivia over food
Speaker 2: one night in the River Cafe. She was with my
Speaker 2: friend Maggie gillinol and they just wrap filming for their
Speaker 2: movie The Lost Daughter in Greece. It is not an
Speaker 2: exaggeration to say they pretty much ordered everything on the menu.
Speaker 2: We immediately got into talking about feeding our kids, cooking,
Speaker 2: and inflicted distance from family when working this was a
Speaker 2: conversation that could have lasted for hours, but I had
Speaker 2: to go back to the kitchen and she needed to
Speaker 2: finish your lemon pasta before it cooled down. Today we're
Speaker 2: here in the River Cafe and she is the one
Speaker 2: who's been cooking the lemon pasta. Now we're going to
Speaker 2: pick up where we left off. Conversation with a woman
Speaker 2: I admire, I respect, and I adore lucky me. Oh,
Speaker 2: that was the best introduction. Thanks, that's true. It's true.
Speaker 2: So you're in the River Cafe kitchen with Alex, who's
Speaker 2: on the section called Hots two, which does pasta. So
Speaker 2: what was it like? What did you just say? Lovely,
Speaker 2: you chose for your recipe tag you Telly with lemon,
Speaker 2: cream and parsley, and I wonder if you would like
Speaker 2: to read it.
Speaker 3: Four hundred grams taglete, mold and salt and coarsely ground
Speaker 3: black pepper, three hundred miles double cream, one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty grams unsalted butter, softened zest and juice of four
Speaker 3: juicy lemons. Six tablespoons roughly chopped flat leaf parsley, one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty grams of grated parmitan.
Speaker 4: This is the one you chose. Sure, yeah, I mean
Speaker 4: it it is absolutely lovely and classic and I think
Speaker 4: sort of as you start being this time of year,
Speaker 4: is you know, it's like start a bit more light
Speaker 4: in summary that still on its slightly miserable.
Speaker 2: Well have I picked that too easy? You?
Speaker 4: No, No, this is great, it's fantastic. What we want
Speaker 4: to do is we basically just get everything in in
Speaker 4: the path that we need. So we're going to have
Speaker 4: a bit of butter, of bit of cream.
Speaker 3: In a large, thick bottomed saucepan. Gently heat the cream.
Speaker 3: When warm, add the butter, lemon juice, and zest, stir
Speaker 3: briefly together.
Speaker 2: Then remove from the heat.
Speaker 3: Cook the taglitarian a generous amount of boiling salted water
Speaker 3: until al dente, and then drain, stir into the warm
Speaker 3: cream and season. Add half the parsley and tossed together.
Speaker 4: Do you want to like toss it?
Speaker 2: Can? I? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I feel like, sorry, that's a
Speaker 4: bit you know, we've still got a bit of you know,
Speaker 4: we just give it a good old.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: Serve immediately on warm plates with the remainder of the
Speaker 3: parsley and the parmesan as it cools.
Speaker 4: It will sort of thicken up a little bit and
Speaker 4: then a little bit of parmesan on top, and that's
Speaker 4: sort of what we're looking for.
Speaker 2: Looks pretty Oh.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: What did you observe? Yeah, just amazing. He said you
Speaker 2: cooked it? You actually did well. I think you definitely.
Speaker 2: It's not easy to go into it. Let me do that.
Speaker 2: I did the tossing. Yeah, did you catch it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Well I did make a bit of a mess of
Speaker 2: your floor. Sorry, Oh dear, okay, wanted no, we didn't
Speaker 2: want to do. Do you see food and your ability
Speaker 2: to eat, well, it's a kind of measure of your success.
Speaker 2: People very often see that that we've talked to would
Speaker 2: say as their success increased, they measured it by being
Speaker 2: able to go to a good restaurant, better bottle of wine,
Speaker 2: even not have to look at the right hand side
Speaker 2: for the prices before they looked at what they wanted
Speaker 2: to eat. Yeah. The difference is, so is that how
Speaker 2: is that measured in your career?
Speaker 3: I remember, we've got a close group of active friends
Speaker 3: that we all were drama school together and we've all
Speaker 3: stayed very close. But when we first left drama school,
Speaker 3: sometimes we'd go to you know, a pub for someone's
Speaker 3: birthday to eat, and it was very much sort of
Speaker 3: how about should we share that all of us were?
Speaker 3: You know, really there wasn't much lots of money going
Speaker 3: around and renting terrible places and trying to share something
Speaker 3: between us. Or if we clubbed together and buy one
Speaker 3: bottle and then we could always get something from the
Speaker 3: offfee on the way home and have more to drink
Speaker 3: because it's cheaper at home. And then cut to you know,
Speaker 3: years later, I could say, let's walk out with dinner
Speaker 3: my shout, or you know, what.
Speaker 2: Did you eat after we had the ark? Was that
Speaker 2: celebrated with food? No?
Speaker 3: I think that was entirely booze.
Speaker 2: You could do another program called you know.
Speaker 3: I think I was so out of it sort of
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe what had happened.
Speaker 2: You did seem very sharp, yes, And why why were
Speaker 2: you so surprised? I didn't think i'd get it, you know,
Speaker 2: the first time I'd been nominated, and we were so
Speaker 2: proud of the film and everything, but I just thought
Speaker 2: that that's never gonna happen.
Speaker 3: That's well, it makes you emotional. It was such a
Speaker 3: ridiculous thing to have happened.
Speaker 2: In a way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't believe it. Still can't quite believe that happened.
Speaker 3: I did afterwards.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Do you are you an emotional eater? Do you
Speaker 2: eat when you're happy or sad? Do you both? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do love you know, the comfort foods or
Speaker 3: hot buttered toast butter place.
Speaker 2: I love butter. Toast is basically just a vehicle for butter. Agree.
Speaker 2: My mother in law used to say that butter is
Speaker 2: the best cheese, you know. She treated it like cheese.
Speaker 2: You just have a piece of slab butter until she
Speaker 2: decided that it was would kill you, so that I
Speaker 2: was never allowed to cook with butter after that. But
Speaker 2: it is really Yeah, I like it. And when you
Speaker 2: make a film like, for instance, going to Greece, when
Speaker 2: you made The Lost Order, what.
Speaker 3: With Maggie too, Yeah, all of the casts were in
Speaker 3: the same hotel. Maggie had a little house separately because
Speaker 3: she had to do grown up things think about the
Speaker 3: next day.
Speaker 2: And we were all quite badly behaved.
Speaker 3: Who you were so me Jesse Dakota, Dakacha Johnson, Jesse Buckley,
Speaker 3: to Coach Johnson, Paul Meskill, Ollie Jackson, Cohen, Dagmara demin
Speaker 3: chic who else?
Speaker 2: I feel awful if I'm missing anyone else out.
Speaker 3: But we were all together and quite badly behaved and eating.
Speaker 3: We knew exactly the menu because we'd all been the
Speaker 3: same hotel for I think six weeks, so we knew
Speaker 3: the menu back to front. And they were very sweet
Speaker 3: and would do very But I remember they had a
Speaker 3: deconstructed fetter, you know Greek salad, so it was a
Speaker 3: really different fetter, not a solid one, but quite a
Speaker 3: soft one, laid out sort of prettily rather than you
Speaker 3: know what. But I remember from a childhood holidays degrees
Speaker 3: which is great big chunks of everything in a bomb
Speaker 3: or I have you even got pictures of the food,
Speaker 3: and they did a savice something with mango and mm,
Speaker 3: lovely things. This is when Greece in Greece, sorry, in
Speaker 3: the hotel in the Posidonian and your parents as well, Yes,
Speaker 3: we did go to Greece as it as yeah, as kids,
Speaker 3: and I remember then eating octopus. I couldn't eat octopus
Speaker 3: now because i've you know, the multipus teacher and learning
Speaker 3: so much about how clever they are. I can't do
Speaker 3: it but to eat it straight out of the sea
Speaker 3: so fresh and squid.
Speaker 2: And so did your parents travel with you when you
Speaker 2: were a kid, did you know?
Speaker 3: No, they weren't really travelers. But my dad's best friend
Speaker 3: moved to Naples when I was twelve. I don't think
Speaker 3: they'd ever been to Italy, and we decided to go
Speaker 3: and we stayed with them.
Speaker 2: In the summer.
Speaker 3: Yes, in the summer, we went to Ischia in the
Speaker 3: Bay of Naples and just had because they lived there
Speaker 3: and he married an Italian woman.
Speaker 2: We had incredible food.
Speaker 3: We went to amazing restaurants, and we didn't know what
Speaker 3: we were doing, so he would trust me and he
Speaker 3: would order something of everything and try these beautiful things.
Speaker 3: We went to little restaurants in people's houses in the hills.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, is it when I was twelve? I was
Speaker 3: born in seventy four and I can't do maths.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's eighty two, well done, No twelve, No maths,
Speaker 2: it's either seventy four eighty eighty six. How long did
Speaker 2: it take us to add twelve to seventy four eighty
Speaker 2: that's the year before we started here. And it's interesting
Speaker 2: that you know your first introduction to Italian cucoo was
Speaker 2: southern you know so regional. Isn't it that the different
Speaker 2: said you go on to Venice, you would have had
Speaker 2: completely different food. Yeah. And I love the food of
Speaker 2: southern Italy. I did that last year. I went sailing
Speaker 2: in that area and it's lemons and basil. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: fish fresh, yeah, fresh, really good. So let's go back
Speaker 2: to the beginnings. Yes, born in Norfolk, Yes, not really.
Speaker 3: Family of food. Food was always love. We'd always sit
Speaker 3: together and we had dinner. Yeah, I mean a lot
Speaker 3: of My mum was a nurse. Often she'd come in.
Speaker 3: It would be quick. We might sit on the sofa
Speaker 3: watch Telly with food on our laps and you know,
Speaker 3: doctor who. But when people came around, it was an
Speaker 3: excuse for my dad to open a bottle of wine
Speaker 3: and entertain.
Speaker 2: And who did the cooking? Then? Would he ever cook?
Speaker 2: My mum did the cooking. She never really loved cooking.
Speaker 3: And her mum, I remember my granny sort of dreaded
Speaker 3: people coming around, and we'd always have slightly overcooked salmon,
Speaker 3: new potatoes and green beans.
Speaker 2: I think that was it.
Speaker 3: Every time I went to my granny's house, and then
Speaker 3: my mum whenever anyone came for a dinner party.
Speaker 2: I can just remember cold Morney that's with cheese and
Speaker 2: kind of crepes and spinach I think, yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 2: new potatoes, as simple as possible.
Speaker 3: She really didn't want to spend much time after that
Speaker 3: trip to Italy. My dad decided he wanted to get
Speaker 3: involved and started to particularly pastors.
Speaker 2: And things, and that's what did you do.
Speaker 3: He was a surveyor, chilter surveyor, but he quite liked
Speaker 3: the glass of wine feeding everybody.
Speaker 2: He wasn't great, but he was enthusiastic. I think it
Speaker 2: is hard for a woman who was a nurse, you know,
Speaker 2: to think about did she work nights?
Speaker 3: By the time I came along, she wasn't doing nights
Speaker 3: because she wasn't working in the hospital. She was working
Speaker 3: on the district, so I can't even remember. She must
Speaker 3: have been on call if someone needed her at night time.
Speaker 3: But she worked Christmas Day, you know. She always took
Speaker 3: the shifts that she knew other people didn't really want
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: And your grandmother lived near you, often i'd go and
Speaker 3: stay there. If Mum and Dad were very busy, I'd
Speaker 3: go and stay with my granny. And she always had
Speaker 3: orange club biscuits in her.
Speaker 2: So, what are your memories of your grandmother?
Speaker 3: My grand orange club biscuits, Rabina hilariously bed so that's
Speaker 3: sugar all night.
Speaker 2: Probably they didn't think about that. No, no, not at all,
Speaker 2: and look pretty okay, So the memories. What about your
Speaker 2: father's mother. She was an amazing baker girl. We found
Speaker 2: someone in the what did she make?
Speaker 3: Just there was always she had a little larder and
Speaker 3: she'd always go we have a little look in the cupboard.
Speaker 3: There go on and there was always been at a
Speaker 3: little bit of cake and made you a little bit
Speaker 3: something or shortbreads, fruitcake which I'd ever liked. So she'd
Speaker 3: always make me a little chocolate cake. And yeah, just
Speaker 3: we were always allowed to go in and help ourselves.
Speaker 2: So growing up Norfrika's see only place incredible secret.
Speaker 3: We used to also our holidays were also camping in Norfolk,
Speaker 3: just a few miles away from where we actually lived
Speaker 3: on the coast, and we'd camp in a campsite and
Speaker 3: picked Sanfa.
Speaker 2: We in Norfolk we call it Sanfa.
Speaker 3: And when I first it written down on our menu
Speaker 3: in London it said Samphire, I have no idea what
Speaker 3: that was, So I.
Speaker 2: Thought it was pronounced.
Speaker 3: I thought it was spelled as a kid s a
Speaker 3: n f e r sanfa. But I think that's just
Speaker 3: the Northern way of saying it. But the way we
Speaker 3: ate it as well was so shake off the mud
Speaker 3: in the seawater and it's sort of blanched, but it's
Speaker 3: still so you keep the rooting, yeah, and just dip
Speaker 3: it in butter and put it like that. You get
Speaker 3: the meat off the meat, you know. Yeah, Yeah, And
Speaker 3: we'd always just have it like that. You'd never have
Speaker 3: it with something else.
Speaker 2: You eat it. That's how we ate it. We take
Speaker 2: that little twig off at the barroom and then we blanched,
Speaker 2: but we put it with a fishert and yeah, sea burst.
Speaker 2: It's great. It's a short season though, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think you're not allowed to pick it anymore.
Speaker 3: We used to really go and pick it, just go
Speaker 3: to the beach, pick it off the marshes and fish
Speaker 3: and fish. Yes, we used to go cockling as well.
Speaker 3: And muscles. I have always loved muscles. Oh that creamy,
Speaker 3: garlicy dunk bread in it. Yeah. I did my first
Speaker 3: school play when I was sixteen, and suddenly i'd always
Speaker 3: been so rubbish at everything at school and then suddenly
Speaker 3: did a play and went a light went on.
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 3: I wonder if I could do this, but I didn't
Speaker 3: know anyone who did it. I assumed you had to
Speaker 3: come from that place in order to do it, so
Speaker 3: sort of had a secret yearning that never said it.
Speaker 3: And then I went to Homerton, which I think still
Speaker 3: is a teacher training college in Cambridge, but I left
Speaker 3: after a term or so, so I never They call
Speaker 3: it matriculation when you become part of the university, but
Speaker 3: I never did that, so I was never part of
Speaker 3: the university. And I left because I just couldn't do it.
Speaker 3: And then went off to the town of Cambridge and
Speaker 3: ended up working as a cleaner there for years.
Speaker 2: And I had a bicycle.
Speaker 3: I had the same major, so everyone else nobody questioned me,
Speaker 3: and I went cycled around, went to lectures of people.
Speaker 2: So I went to an.
Speaker 3: Architecture lecture, went to an EU law lecture with when
Speaker 3: I was totally in desperate in love with Ed and
Speaker 3: just trying to you.
Speaker 2: Were being an actor. Nigella Lars and a friend of mine,
Speaker 2: you know, she worked as a cleaner in hotels and
Speaker 2: Florence and she said it was the most revealing you
Speaker 2: could have, particularly in the hotel the way people left
Speaker 2: their rooms or so you did that for how long?
Speaker 3: Yeah, a couple of years, and then did a secretarial course.
Speaker 3: That was my mum's suggestion that if you're going to
Speaker 3: be an actor, you need something for it. So you
Speaker 3: knew then that by then, Yeah, I had done in Cambridge.
Speaker 3: There's about thirty drama societies and I would just cycle
Speaker 3: around all that. I did my shift and auditioning for things.
Speaker 3: Don't play his learning lines, going back, cleaning all the
Speaker 3: loose and chasing head around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was your husband to be was a student Cambridge.
Speaker 2: Yes he was.
Speaker 3: He's proper clever and he was there doing it properly.
Speaker 3: What does he do He was doing law then, but
Speaker 3: he's a writer.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then we went off to Bristol lol VIC Drama
Speaker 3: School together and then we sort of you know, the
Speaker 3: food is love thing. We went to Thai restaurants and
Speaker 3: discovered new food together and there's a Thai restaurant in
Speaker 3: Cambridge and it was so delicious we took it back
Speaker 3: with us. We asked, it's first of a time I've
Speaker 3: asked for a doggie bag, and I didn't want to
Speaker 3: leave any of it, and we left it on his window,
Speaker 3: still outside, putting arms out the window and.
Speaker 2: Going, oh my god, it's amazing. The lemon grass and
Speaker 2: the coconut Milcolm so Cambridge. And then you started acting
Speaker 2: more and more and you went to Bristol. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: when you actually then started working in the theater, that
Speaker 2: must have solutely changed your way of eating. Did it
Speaker 2: give you a routine or did it give you restrictions
Speaker 2: some what you could have?
Speaker 3: And well, once we left Bristol and we were working,
Speaker 3: you know, trying to earn our keep as actors. I
Speaker 3: did my first few plays and things. I think I
Speaker 3: ate quite late after the show because you was sort
Speaker 3: of on a high, certainly wanted to have a drink afterwards.
Speaker 3: When I worked at the Noel Coward Theater right next
Speaker 3: to Siky's with Amy Morgan and Phoebe Wallerbridge, the three
Speaker 3: of us would sort of go to Cheeky's afterwards and
Speaker 3: sit outside and I think we all smoked then and
Speaker 3: we would order the little croquettes and the Scarlett Burgers.
Speaker 2: Oh, and that was a true and just drink. This
Speaker 2: would have been.
Speaker 3: After Iron Lady Excep's when I first met Phoebe, which
Speaker 3: was Meryl Street playing Margaret Thatcher.
Speaker 2: So a couple of you after that, three is after that.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm so bad with but you can
Speaker 2: remember what you ate, you can always yes, Yeah, loves food,
Speaker 2: she does. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And it's really annoying that she's so tall and lean
Speaker 3: and she loves eating.
Speaker 2: It's annoying. It's annoying. I will, I will. But sure
Speaker 2: you were eating out, so when you because it's you know, picnics.
Speaker 2: Would you eat before if you were in a martine
Speaker 2: would you We'd sometimes have a picnic on the floor
Speaker 2: of one of our dressing rooms, so go to you know,
Speaker 2: get sort of little little cheeses and meats and pretend
Speaker 2: you we're having a normal life and not going back
Speaker 2: on stage. And there are men involved as well. Was
Speaker 2: it most of the female It was mostly just the
Speaker 2: three of our girls, and we'd have a kip.
Speaker 3: We'd sort of put we had some roll out mattresses
Speaker 3: that we could put on the floor and we'd have
Speaker 3: a snooze and eat nice food and then do the matinee.
Speaker 2: Do you think that it binds you together? Food? When
Speaker 2: you when you go on a set and you know
Speaker 2: that you're medi you know. I don't know if the
Speaker 2: all the other actors were friends of yours before, but
Speaker 2: does it something that holds you all?
Speaker 3: Before COVID happened, everyone would eat together on the dining
Speaker 3: bus and I loved that you're eating with the crew
Speaker 3: and what did you go for? What you go for,
Speaker 3: and having a lovely time together, so social, and then
Speaker 3: time to sort of all be equal and to let
Speaker 3: your head down. And then now the dining bus hasn't
Speaker 3: really come back, and so people sort of eat separately,
Speaker 3: and that's such a shame, and you sort of sit
Speaker 3: on your own in your little van. And I missed
Speaker 3: that very much and hopefully we'll come back. But also sometimes,
Speaker 3: you know, some actors are having to have a particularly
Speaker 3: strict diet because they've got to look a certain way,
Speaker 3: and that's sort of awful. You try and hide the
Speaker 3: pudding option that you went for.
Speaker 2: How is weight and physical appearance with food? How does
Speaker 2: it affect your work? I was just talking to someone
Speaker 2: who's coming to London to be in a movie, and
Speaker 2: his assistant said to me that he has a nutritionist
Speaker 2: and a trainer because he's on a very special diet
Speaker 2: for the film, and I thought that'd be interesting. I'd
Speaker 2: like to know about that, because maybe I could go
Speaker 2: on that without the nutritionist. And it turned out that
Speaker 2: he was actually eating eight thousand calories a day because
Speaker 2: I had to gain so much weight. It was completely
Speaker 2: and I just was wondering how that, you know, when
Speaker 2: you were a princess, when you or when you're okay queen,
Speaker 2: and I had to put on weight. You had to
Speaker 2: put on about two stone, did you? And how did
Speaker 2: you do that? I mean, that's easy. Yeah, you didn't
Speaker 2: need a nutritionist in my feet.
Speaker 3: But you know, and Rachel and and Emily Emma are
Speaker 3: very healthy, clean eaters anyway, they love food, but it's
Speaker 3: sort of clean food, so well, they had their healthy options.
Speaker 3: I would say, I have one of everything and all
Speaker 3: of the puddings, and if you don't want that, I'll
Speaker 3: have that.
Speaker 2: Yah.
Speaker 3: It started actually to be a little bit quite quite gloomy.
Speaker 3: I thought it, God, what fun being told to put
Speaker 3: on weight. But I can put all my quite quickly,
Speaker 3: and so it starts to feel, oh, yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 3: you want another pizza? Yeah, or another I'm going to
Speaker 3: have to take it all off at the end, you know, And.
Speaker 2: How did you take it off?
Speaker 3: Just see old fashioned eating a lot less and trying
Speaker 3: to move more. But it was boring and hard, and
Speaker 3: she loved to eat, wasn't Yeah she was?
Speaker 2: I mean she did. Was it fifteen pregnancies she'd had seventeen?
Speaker 2: Or maybe when I watched the film against and she lost,
Speaker 2: she'd lost seventeen babies, that's right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, her eldest one had lasted to had got to
Speaker 3: ten years old, so they had varying degrees of ages.
Speaker 3: But I think food for her was she was apparently
Speaker 3: clinically obese, and and yeah, comfort food.
Speaker 2: And what about playing the Queen and the green? Was
Speaker 2: she very different now?
Speaker 3: And she was tiny, so I did have to She
Speaker 3: had a tiny waist and I don't have a tiny waiste,
Speaker 3: so I did.
Speaker 2: They were very sweet.
Speaker 3: They got me a trainer before I started, and then
Speaker 3: thankfully by my second season she was a bit older
Speaker 3: and didn't have such tiny waste, so I was about it.
Speaker 2: But did she go a little bit? Did you feel
Speaker 2: playing her and the research into the live post war
Speaker 2: so completely restrictive and different from what the voluptuous nurse
Speaker 2: and the time. Yes, So what was that, like, what
Speaker 2: was your sense of food in the palace and food
Speaker 2: in the monarchy and food for being queen.
Speaker 3: Well, I think when they had I mean, this is
Speaker 3: you know, only stuff, but I remember from what we did.
Speaker 3: But whenever there was there were people coming to visit
Speaker 3: sort of big must entertain the heads of state things,
Speaker 3: it was all beautiful, lovely food. But because she'd remembered
Speaker 3: rations and everything. Yeah, she was never irresponsible about too
Speaker 3: much food. She ate quite sort of ah circumspect frugally,
Speaker 3: and she did maintain and she was very healthy and outdoorsy,
Speaker 3: and she maintained a sort of neat little figure which
Speaker 3: doesn't come from copies amounts of food. So I think
Speaker 3: she was quite conservative about pleasure.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, it's interesting that you know what you
Speaker 2: wonder what pleasure there was in Yeah, you know you
Speaker 2: can see the kings of France and the childs and
Speaker 2: wonder whether the British aristocracy had I could probably probably
Speaker 2: did you know those country houses? Then yeah, you just
Speaker 2: wonder about the palace, whether eating and food was fun
Speaker 2: I hope, So, yeah, I hope they enjoy it how
Speaker 2: they enjoy it now, I think with King Charles. I
Speaker 2: think that that family probably is more interested in food,
Speaker 2: because yes, the lovely organic vegetables, and yeah, for Miller's son,
Speaker 2: Tom Barker Bowles is right about food. Go to cook book,
Speaker 2: hopefully they have. I wonder if they go to restaurants. So,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think that's probably quite hard thing
Speaker 2: to do, isn't it. Maybe do you cook at home?
Speaker 2: Is this passion for food telling that you love to eat?
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's fair enough. I'm a very good guest.
Speaker 3: When I first left home, my mom gave me a
Speaker 3: Delia Smith sort of complete, which was amazing.
Speaker 2: And I think she's good, really, I do. She was
Speaker 2: in the restaurant that long ago, really, and I thought
Speaker 2: she really taught a generation to cook.
Speaker 3: All those lovely sort of staples. I learned that from
Speaker 3: from her recipe book. So your mom gave you this book?
Speaker 3: And yeah, and so I loved cooking for my two flatmates,
Speaker 3: Debbie and Olivia, and that was the only cookbook we had,
Speaker 3: and we would I loved. Also, I started to really
Speaker 3: enjoy going to the shop and going to buy because
Speaker 3: we want such a tight budget, we'd picture meals and
Speaker 3: buy for the meals, not just you know, anything off
Speaker 3: the shelf, fancy that.
Speaker 2: And I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 3: And I enjoyed and sometimes it was just a jacket
Speaker 3: potato with loads of butter and cheese. But I really
Speaker 3: enjoyed the us all eating together and you know, feeding
Speaker 3: each other.
Speaker 2: So you have three children as you work, and sometimes
Speaker 2: you don't. Yeah, it can be home or you have
Speaker 2: do have to shop. So what is like? You told
Speaker 2: us what food was like in your parents and your grandparents.
Speaker 2: If I were to knock on the door, what is
Speaker 2: food like if you were to knock on the door that, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you should, because now we have.
Speaker 3: I still struggle with saying because I feel a bit
Speaker 3: it's sort of embarrassed. But we have a really lovely
Speaker 3: nanny now I know because we certainly both started working
Speaker 3: much more.
Speaker 2: She's an incredible cook. Okay, so definitely coming there. Yeah
Speaker 2: you should. And you all sit down to dinner. We
Speaker 2: always sit together and eat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when we sometimes the kids are doing late things
Speaker 3: at school and we have we do a Sunday roast
Speaker 3: every Sunday.
Speaker 2: We're so boring. And do you take them on holidays
Speaker 2: and food holidays?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we took the kids to sort of holiday of
Speaker 3: a lifetime to Sri Lanka just before lockdown and just
Speaker 3: ate the most incredible food three times a day.
Speaker 2: Curry three times a day. Yeah, what was that?
Speaker 3: Because we traveled around with the kids, and our two
Speaker 3: eldest are really adventurous.
Speaker 2: They've always we've we've always.
Speaker 3: Included them with all the food we have, and when
Speaker 3: we have curry, we always make one that's slightly less spicy,
Speaker 3: and they sort of they love it now and the
Speaker 3: boys love spice. And so when we were traveling around,
Speaker 3: our little one really wasn't wasn't thrilled, but she was
Speaker 3: only four at the time. So she ate plain pasta
Speaker 3: wherever we were plane rise and we would have egg
Speaker 3: hoppers and the string hoppers for breakfast, and the dolls
Speaker 3: and the coconuts, sambal and all these beautiful things we
Speaker 3: would eat and they loved it as well.
Speaker 2: It does tell you about a country, doesn't It tells
Speaker 2: you what's growing.
Speaker 3: And yeah, our middle boy, he's he became obsessed with
Speaker 3: Japan when he was very little and he did a
Speaker 3: sushi course and he makes beautiful sushi and ramen.
Speaker 2: He does three day ramen.
Speaker 3: It does take, yeah, days, it makes days yeah, And
Speaker 3: actually Ed is taking the two boys for a cookery
Speaker 3: course when they before our eldest goes to university. So
Speaker 3: they're doing a little week together, little boys week doing
Speaker 3: learning to cook.
Speaker 2: Do you feel when you're away and you're working, do
Speaker 2: you feel that your work takes you away from some
Speaker 2: people you love? And well, you know, how does that work?
Speaker 3: Ed and I've been together third years, and up until COVID,
Speaker 3: I'd only ever been away. The longest I've been away
Speaker 3: was two weeks because I just don't take jobs away
Speaker 3: from home.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's stuck there. So then you think about accepting
Speaker 2: a movie or a player, something that will keep you
Speaker 2: away from home.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I get terribly homesick. I never used
Speaker 3: to be able to sleep very well if ED wasn't there,
Speaker 3: And now I think we're probably you know, I'm at
Speaker 3: an age where sleep is harder anyway, so actually it's
Speaker 3: quite you go a night away, I'll I'll get a
Speaker 3: great night sleep. But I also I missed the kids,
Speaker 3: you know, I wanted to be there, and so I
Speaker 3: was very lucky that I had the option of great
Speaker 3: work in the UK and I didn't have to go away.
Speaker 2: And then well, lost daughter. I was going to say
Speaker 2: it was that six weeks.
Speaker 3: Six weeks, so Sunny went from the six sixth way,
Speaker 3: which is I think why we all behave so badly
Speaker 3: because we all adored each other, got on so well,
Speaker 3: got hey, we're here, We're in a beautiful place. Did
Speaker 3: the kids come out, No, because weren't allowed to because
Speaker 3: if they came, they'd have to quarantine before point.
Speaker 2: So we'd all meet up.
Speaker 3: We were each other's family, and I know dag Mara
Speaker 3: was really missing her family, and I really understood that feeling.
Speaker 3: So I said, you'll be back on the school run
Speaker 3: before you know it. And they don't know that you're
Speaker 3: miserable or happy, so just go for happy.
Speaker 2: And men aren't who are in the same actors feel
Speaker 2: that way as well. Do you think they know that
Speaker 2: their wife is home with all the kids, and.
Speaker 3: It's all I've always struggled with this male female thing.
Speaker 3: I think ideally, if you're all brought up the same,
Speaker 3: you are the same. It's only conditioning that makes sisting
Speaker 3: male female. So all the men I know and love
Speaker 3: struggle with being away from home when they miss you know,
Speaker 3: the ones I'm not that impressed by have a ball.
Speaker 3: But I think that's the same with some women as well,
Speaker 3: you know, love being away. It's I don't think it's
Speaker 3: a gender thing. I think it's a conditioning thing. But
Speaker 3: people get shot down by different No.
Speaker 2: No, people ask me if women chefs cooked differently from
Speaker 2: male chefs, and I always try and avoid that. They
Speaker 2: really want you to say that women cook with more
Speaker 2: care or more sensitivity and men are a bit more
Speaker 2: and it's not true.
Speaker 3: And it's not fair to the men that we all
Speaker 3: know love and I know plenty of really uncaring women
Speaker 3: and plenty of incredibly emotional, you know kind men.
Speaker 2: And now you're doing a movie about chocolate. Is that right?
Speaker 2: Oh god, yeah, I had to talk about that will
Speaker 2: they won't get and the chocolate? So what was that
Speaker 2: like in terms of chocolate?
Speaker 3: And they had a chocolate here, but when I went
Speaker 3: to have for fittings and things, they said, can't look
Speaker 3: at what this chocolate has made for us. And these
Speaker 3: chocolates were exquisite, and he said you can eat them all.
Speaker 3: I mean, often, if it's going to be a prop
Speaker 3: why bother maker, But that he was so such a master.
Speaker 3: He insisted that it had to taste beautiful, what sort
Speaker 3: of caramel?
Speaker 2: Incredible?
Speaker 3: And they were brightly colored and amazing shapes, and every
Speaker 3: one of them you could have eaten and it would
Speaker 3: have been incredible.
Speaker 2: I wish the audience could see your smile, because every
Speaker 2: time you talk about food, your face lights up, and
Speaker 2: you know, you sort of remember things that you ate,
Speaker 2: places that you've eaten.
Speaker 3: And the first time I had truffle, Yeah, a white truffle. Oh,
Speaker 3: just any truffle, any true? And now we have we
Speaker 3: have a little job with truffle, and every now and then, yeah,
Speaker 3: overscrumbled eagle, yeah, on a Russian pasta.
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, food is love, and food is alleviating hunger,
Speaker 2: and food is curiosity or traveling or discovering. Food is
Speaker 2: also comfort. And I was wondering if there's a food
Speaker 2: that you would turn to, something you'd either make or buy.
Speaker 2: Olivia Coleman, wonderful person that you are, and I hope
Speaker 2: you don't need comfort very often because you give such joy.
Speaker 2: I mean when you came in the restaurant today, We've
Speaker 2: had all sorts of people come in and they're great.
Speaker 2: They're politicians or you know, actors or writers or doctors
Speaker 2: or whatever, and you just I could just see everybody
Speaker 2: look up and be so happy you were there, really
Speaker 2: happy that you were there. It was really great to see.
Speaker 2: And of course I joined them and saying thank you
Speaker 2: so much. So would you come back again? Yeah? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: we'll do it more. And meanwhile, will you tell me?
Speaker 2: And tell I was ever listening what would be the
Speaker 2: comfort food you turn to?
Speaker 3: My comfort food is sort of a one spoon thing
Speaker 3: and it's tarcodile.
Speaker 2: I could eat that all day, every day. Okay, tarcodile?
Speaker 2: Tell me? Can you just tell people who might not
Speaker 2: know what it is?
Speaker 3: So it's a lentils which are soft, and there's garlic,
Speaker 3: and I think the tadca is the tempered thing on
Speaker 3: the top. I've never made it, ok but I am
Speaker 3: a connoisseur of eating it. Yeah, and it is my
Speaker 3: favorite thing I always order. If we have a takeaway
Speaker 3: or delivery, I order much more tacodile than we need,
Speaker 3: so I can have it cold for breakfast, I'll have
Speaker 3: it reheat it again for lunch next day.
Speaker 2: I just love it. I could eat it. I'm going
Speaker 2: to try that you love it. I was surprised because
Speaker 2: I'm sure you're going to say toast and butter, I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: don't be sorry, but I will come and have that
Speaker 2: tacodile knock on your door. Yes, and thank you so God,
Speaker 2: thank you for having me. And now you're going to
Speaker 2: go and have food, have lunch and you can eat
Speaker 2: and need to eat. Oh, thanks, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: The River Cafe Lookbook is now available in bookshops and online.
Speaker 1: It has over one hundred recipes, beautifully illustrated with photographs
Speaker 1: from the renowned photographer Matthew Donaldson. The book has fifty
Speaker 1: delicious and easy to prepare recipes, including a host of
Speaker 1: River Cafe classics that have been specially adapted for new cooks.
Speaker 1: The River Cafe Lookbook Recipes for cook of All Ages.
Speaker 1: Ruthie's Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and Adami Studios.
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