WEBVTT - Valerie Biden Owens 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.720 Welcome to River Cafe Table four, a production of iHeartRadio 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:08.920 and Adami Studios. 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:11.840 I have three brothers. My brother Joe is the eldest. 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:17.120 I'm Valerie, the second and the only girl, and then 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.720 my brother Jimmy, and then the baby is Frankie. And 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.360 we are a typical mid twentieth century American family. 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.720 Valerie Biden's family are typical Americans in some ways, but 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:34.080 not that typical. Her brother Joe is President Biden. And 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.720 in today's River Cafe Table four, we'll be talking about 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.680 food and family from the kitchen table to the White House. 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.080 When President Biden's first wife died in a tragic accident, 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:51.800 Valerie stepped up to support her nephew's beau and hunter 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.280 ice cream, hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, vows. 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.920 Food memories are made up of American classics. But we'll 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:04.640 begin right now with her favorite recipe from the River Cafe. 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:07.319 It's quick sweet tomato sauce. 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:12.400 Serve six to eight, three tablespoons olive oil, three garlic 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:18.080 cloves peeled and cut into slivers. Two one kilogram jars 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.959 peeled plum tomato drained of their juices, A handful of 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:27.560 fresh basil or oregano leaves. Heat one to two tablespoons 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.280 of the olive oil in a large pan and fry 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.160 the garlic until it is soft. 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:32.640 But not brown. 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:36.319 Add the tomatoes with some sea salt and black pepper, 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.200 and cook fiercely, stirring constantly to prevent the tomatoes from 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:44.040 sticking as they break up. As they cook, the tomatoes 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.720 will release their juices when the liquid has evaporated. Add 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.240 the remaining olive oil, the basil or oregano, and more 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:52.680 seasoning if necessary. 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:54.240 Serve hot and I. 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:59.880 Always use the basil, and it's spectacular. It makes me 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.320 smile because every family dinner, we all sit down and 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.440 we have spaghetti and meat balls with tomato sauce, tell 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:09.600 the same stories and laugh at the same jokes as 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:11.280 if it's the first time we ever heard them. 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:13.440 Can I ask you about food at the White House? 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.519 What's it like when you go to eat with your brother. 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:18.440 At the White House? 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.880 Joe the President and First Lady aka Joe and Jill. 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.600 They don't have breakfast served. That's a time when you 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.320 can get up and go to the small kitchen and 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:34.840 have coffee or cereal and not have people around, you know, 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.720 who are very gracious and want to take care of you. 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.800 But it's just a quiet time lunch. My brother is 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:48.760 rather a pedestrian eater like I. He'll have a ponifish salad, 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:53.960 ponfish sandwich or a chicken salad sandwich, and always if 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.680 we can, tomato soup. They make great tomato basil soup. 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:03.839 And then dinner, normal dinner that they suits set and 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:08.720 it's usually Jill, my sister in law, is very conscious 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.280 of help. I mean she's she's what I want to 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.520 be when I when you grow up. 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:16.160 Yes, when I grow up. 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:21.280 And generally she has a fish meal salmon and a 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.960 crust and delicious. But Joe and I said, oh we're 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.320 eating healthy again. Okay. 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:31.600 Do you share a lot of time over food? 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.240 It's almost always over a meal. 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.800 Especially since my you know brother, when he travels now 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:44.640 it's an entourage and it's generally and it's an inconvenience 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.160 to other people. I mean, it's for his safety and 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:52.160 he's very we're very appreciative, but it inconveniences other people, 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:53.680 you know, to go in in the arrest. 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:57.360 So we don't go to restaurants very often. 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:02.760 We either at his house or my house and Jimmy 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.120 Biden's house. Frankie, our youngest, is in Florida, so not 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.560 at his house. But we sit and again tell the 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.360 same old stories. We poke fun at each other, and 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.679 you know, in I have found that in a family 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.719 that's close or a large family, your place in the 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.200 family stays the same if you're sixty years old or 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.400 if you're six years old. Once the baby, always the baby, 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:28.920 you know, once the middle, always the middle, once the 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.400 eldest always and once the only which is of course 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:34.880 me and I would have it no other way. I love, 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.960 I love, love love growing up with my three brothers. 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.080 They were a gift to me. I always say that 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.599 I earned my husband, but my brothers were a gift. 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:46.760 What was food like in the Biden household growing up? 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.880 Food was we always had enough of it to begin with, 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:57.240 but it was ordinary. We didn't dine, we ate, but 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.560 we always ate together every night. We grew up in 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.280 a middle class Irish Catholic background. 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:05.680 My brothers. 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:08.120 As the first born, he was born in Scranton, but 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.760 by the time I guess he was eight years old, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:15.960 my father got work and moved to back home to Delaware, 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:17.040 where dad was from. 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:18.400 But what did your father do. 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.039 My father was a car salesman and then he ended 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:28.000 up managing mostly Chevrolet dealerships, different ones here in Delaware. 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.279 He come home for dinner. My father. 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:35.640 The one thing about him was he had insisted upon 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:41.800 impeccable table manners. My brother Jimmy probably has a left 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.240 elbow that's still weak from my father smacking it, you know. 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:46.560 When he put it on the table. 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.560 So we had to know what the right knife and 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:55.479 fork were and how to pass our dishes. And that 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:59.720 was the only thing he was absolutely stern about. And 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.520 he thought it represented good matters. 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.680 And I think it is very telling the way people 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.360 are considerate in a way, if that's what matters are 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.960 at the table, and how things have changed. When I 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.080 talked to Nancy Pelosi, she said that she'd never sat 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.839 down in her child at a table where there wasn't 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.320 a tablecloth. Was that the Biden household as well? 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:22.040 Well? 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.040 What Mom and Dad had on the dining room table 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:29.040 was a piece of glass that was fitted that covered 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.240 the table so it would save the wood. And we 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.800 always had place met and we always had napkins. And 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:38.880 Mom was an ordinary cook in the best sense of 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:43.039 the word. I mean, we were Hamburger's hot dogs. My 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.760 favorite dish at the time was pot roast. You would 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:47.800 always make that for me for my birthday. 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:50.440 But there were certain rituals. 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.719 Sunday morning after Mass, we would come home and Dad 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:56.360 always made hotcakes. 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:57.480 That was a big deal. 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.440 There are three foods that I never ate when I 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:02.720 was a child, and I don't know why, but I 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.640 didn't like hotcakes, and I didn't like hot dogs, and 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.560 I didn't like cam oh the h Yeah, and my 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.080 mother never made me eat them. So everybody would have 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.320 hot hotcakes with maple syrup. 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:17.200 I had my cheerios and milk. 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.360 The second ritual was because we were a Catholic family, 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:26.160 we didn't eat meat on Friday, so on Fridays we 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:31.240 had missus Paul's frozen fish sticks, which meant that all 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:35.240 four children grew up to really dislike fish, I mean 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.960 because we had to eat it. But more often than 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.960 that Mom would substitute. And that's when we had spaghetti. 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.240 Mom made her homemade spaghetti sauce. 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:46.280 What was that? Can I ask you what that was? 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:47.840 Big kansa tomato sauce. 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.960 I think she would put in a pork chop, but 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.560 I never I was not in the kitchen. I was 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.440 out playing ball with my with my brothers. We came in, 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.480 you know, Mom had dinner ready. We sat down and 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.120 ate and there were no chores, like we didn't have 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.280 to clean up after the table or because Mom would 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:10.000 always say, my job is to be the mom, and 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:11.880 your job is to be the students. 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:12.840 Go do your homework. 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.960 The big deal in the house of food was if 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:24.640 things were good on Saturday night, we would my brother 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:26.960 and I would ride our bike, or if it were bad, 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.560 Mom would drive us up to the local Custlers pharmacy 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.160 where they had ice cream, and we would get a 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.400 half gallon of Briar's ice cream and the ice cream 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.480 was vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Nobody liked strawberry. I think 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:43.559 Jimmy I think Jimmy Biden was the only one to 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.360 eat the strawberry. But that was the big deal. We'd 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.200 had the half gallon of ice cream and we would 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.520 watch at Sullivan Joe on Sunday night. 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.440 And then when you went to college, did you cook 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:57.679 for yourself? You no longer had your mother saying go 0:08:57.760 --> 0:08:59.760 and study. What did you do for food? 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.720 Then? Well, I had a meal ticket, and at the time, 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:07.480 everybody lived on campus all four years, so I didn't 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.320 have an apartment where I had to experiment. You know, 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:17.160 there was a meal ticket and we ate normal college food. 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:19.040 What college did you go to? 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:23.400 Where was the University of Delaware, Delaware about fifty minutes 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.600 from our home. But to me, I had graduated from 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:30.880 Ursuline Academy for Young Girls. But I thought I had 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.200 died and gone to heaven. I went to the University 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:39.360 of Delaware, five thousand undergraduates, co ed, and I was 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.760 in a brand new world and I loved every single 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.240 minute of it. And my big brother Joey was there too. 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.760 He was a junior when I was a freshman, and 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.200 I was there because because of him, I was a 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:58.040 good student and I got in Delaware. But my mom 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:02.720 and dad were not able to afford room and board, 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.960 which is what the essence of college was. And I 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.599 desperately wanted to go in room and board, and my 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.560 dad told me, Toney, look, I can't swing it. You know, 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:18.000 you could commute. And my brother in that right after 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:22.199 that called a family meeting with mom and dad, and respectfully, 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.199 we were very, very aware of my father's dignity and 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:30.280 it pained him that he wasn't able to send us 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:34.160 both to room and board. But my brother said, Dad, 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:38.199 I've thought about this, and here's what I proposed. Vo's 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.720 a good kid, She's smarter than I. She deserves college 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.720 more than I do. So I'm going to drop out 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.280 this coming semester in September. I'm going to work for 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:50.840 the year, save money so that I can go back 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.680 the next year, so that Voo could take my place, 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:58.760 because she should be able to go to Delaware. She's 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.960 earned it, ye, my father said. My father called my 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:04.679 brother champ and he said, Champion can't do that because 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:09.680 my dad was as in that generation and that time, 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:14.120 in mid nineteen sixties, my dad assumed that I would 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.920 get married and have children and that you know, the 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:19.719 man had to be was the breadwinner. 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:23.160 And he said, you know, you have to raise a. 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.040 Family and support a family, and VAL's not going to 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.200 have to do that. She'll have her pick of whatever 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:33.640 she wants. But my brother said, no, he wanted to 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.720 do it that way. And somehow, long story short, Ruthin 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.360 And it was late August, right before school started. My 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:44.840 father somehow managed to get alone another loan and I 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:49.760 went to the university with my brother, and as I said, 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:54.000 I realized what a gift it was from my parents, 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.240 and I squeezed every single thing I could out of 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:57.760 the school. 0:11:57.960 --> 0:11:58.559 I loved it. 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.560 You were thrust at a very young age into cooking 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.600 for young children, taking care of your brother's children. 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.000 I jumped into domestic life, and you know what. I 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.600 had a very close friend. Her name was Maureen. She 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:24.840 had two young boys who were close in age to 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.520 bow and hunt, and she would give me quick, down 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:28.599 and dirty recipes. 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.679 You know that they like this, and they like that. 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.959 She used to make scalop potatoes and she said, get 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.800 brock worst, which I didn't know. They were fat hot 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:40.480 dogs as far as I was concerned, and put them 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.920 on top. And that was a great dish, an easy dish. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.000 And I did that and I served it. We used 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:51.200 to have a lazy Susan in the kitchen and I 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.960 served it. Nobody told me to take the skin off 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:55.800 the brock wars. So when I took it off and 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:57.839 went to serve it to the boys. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:02.960 It flew off the table. They said, Aunt vaol. I 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.280 mean it was always a little bit of you. 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:07.440 But you were twenty. You were twenty six. You know, 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.560 cut yourself some slack. I mean that is very very young. 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:15.080 When I got the boys and started to cook, I 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:15.839 wasn't a cook. 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:17.040 I mean I was an eater. 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:23.240 So I made probably most nights of the week chicken breast, 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:29.960 which I boiled interesting boiled sucken breast. 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.000 And came to be known as my rubber chicken. 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:38.520 And boiled chicken breast. And meat loaf was another thing 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:42.360 that I made. And I would try in the beginning 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.040 now and I'm trying when I had the boys, I'm 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.840 trying to be healthy, and I tried making flounder and 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.880 telling them that it was chicken oh. 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:52.640 In their favorite dish. 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.160 And all of both friends who called me aunt vol 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:58.800 when you know this whole, these kids who all grew 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:03.440 up together. Specialty was egg in the cup, and that 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:08.160 was a soft bailled egg. And I never had a time, Ruthie, 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.960 I had an instinct exactly when it was right. 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:13.800 That's very that's impressive because it's really hard to make 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:15.360 a good soft boiled egg. Yeah. 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.839 I would put it in the cup along with some shell, 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.440 always a little bit of shell, some salt and pepper butter, 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:23.600 and I would break up toast and put it in 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.520 an egg in the cup, and that was bowen hunts. 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:29.760 My children and all their kids. That was that was 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.040 a favorite meal. Aunt found didn't really screw that one 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:32.560 up much. 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.960 It's very traditional. It's very English. I think they call 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.640 it as a fellow American. It's called soldiers, isn't it. 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.080 They'd make the little sticks of bread and then you 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:42.360 tip it into the egg. 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.320 Yo that I would give my children with tang and 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:50.400 what they call they called uh, I would sing it, do. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:51.800 It with a ting tang kong. 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.520 That was the drink of astronauts. 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:57.040 But it was, I mean, it was. 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.080 It was a terrible time, Ruthie, a terrible tragedy, but 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:02.720 it was also a time of healing. 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:04.360 And there was joy. 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:10.400 These boys they loved me full throttle, and I love 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:14.760 them and uh, and they healed Joe and we healed 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:18.800 as a family, I mean, and there was there was joy. 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.520 And as I said, five years later, Joe was able 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.760 to come out of it because he met this wonderful woman, 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:27.520 Joe Jacobs, and fell in love. 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:29.600 So Uh. 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:34.120 The best thing that my memories of raising being with 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.880 the boys would My brother bought me a jeep to 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.360 travel around with the boys, and we were up high 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:45.080 and we would look out the window and. 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:45.320 We had a passer by. 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.400 We'd be at a stop signer or a red light, 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.160 and the boys would look out and we'd see the person, 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.000 and then we'd go off and we would spin magical 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.320 tales like where they were going? What do we think 0:15:57.400 --> 0:15:59.320 that they were doing? The jeep was like a magic 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.520 carper ride. And we always had peanut butter and jelly 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.600 sandwiches and ting tang tong in the backseat, okay for 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:06.400 an emergency. 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.120 If this was a food of everyday life, and you 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:13.160 describe the meals around the table after school and before homework, 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.520 did your parents ever or did your family ever go 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:18.040 to restaurants. 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:22.920 A graduation or first communion or something like that. But 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.640 we would always have a tray and you know, bring 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.320 it help. The big thing that we did in Delaware 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.160 that we always brought home where hoggies or subs we 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:33.840 call them. 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:35.480 And that's when the. 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.800 Family gets together, if it's lunchtime or even going into dinner, 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.800 it's either hogies where we all grab them go out 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.040 and sit in the porch on the picnic table, or 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:47.640 when we sit down to dinner. 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:49.680 It's spaghetti and meatballs. And now it's my. 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.320 Spaghetti sauce, which is very similar to your quick suite 0:16:53.640 --> 0:17:08.399 tomato sauce. At the risk of sounding preachy, but again 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:13.000 from our parents, there was family, and there's faith, and 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.720 there was a responsibility to each other. And then that 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:21.879 went to moved over to the community at large. And 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:27.679 there are so many people who are in need of food, 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:33.119 which is a travesty in this country. And I'm very 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.800 happy that I'm able to work with the Ministry of Caring. 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:40.720 We have three places throughout the city that serve food, 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:46.040 and it's over a hundred churches and synagogues and religious 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.960 groups and that do that. And I think, I mean, 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.880 it's just so obvious if we if we don't have nutrition, 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.719 then we don't have energy. And we don't have energy, 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:02.560 we don't have power, we don't have an ability to 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:06.080 think and to be on our feet. If we have 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:10.000 food shortages, we. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.920 Fall into political problems where you have to cross borders 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:13.640 to go. 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.359 You know, politics is the art and signs of living 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.520 together peacefully. While we tussle over the allocation of scarce 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:25.040 resources and with climate change, with our scarce resources, with 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.680 the fact that in America, only less and two percent 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:33.199 of our families, our farm and ranchers. We have to 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.640 be more vigilant and we have to be aware that 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:38.280 we are our brother's keeper. 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.600 I'm really glad we talked about this because talking to 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:46.080 a woman who is campaigned, who is political, who is active, 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.720 who has values, you just defined politics in a certain 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.320 way of caring for each other. But politics is also active. 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.600 It should be the role of a government to make 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:00.320 sure that every child is fed when they go to 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.840 start their day at school, that they go home to 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.280 a house where there is food, that there's access to food. 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.400 And when we look at the poverty in the United States, 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.960 it is shocking that our children are hungry. I know 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:18.320 that the President has tried to push laws through is 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:20.760 working on it. It must be one of the great 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:23.119 concerns of his political life. 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.400 And it all comes under the umbrella of health and 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:31.159 health for every American should be a right and not 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:31.959 a privilege. 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:34.639 And what was food like on the campaign trail? 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.399 Well, very very rarely did we get to go to 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.679 a nice restaurant. The truth is the food on a 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:48.399 campaign is grab and grow. Applebee's is a great I 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.399 presume great restaurant, but one I never ever want to 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:55.600 walk into again, because every meeting in Iowa was that 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:59.080 Applebee's and we had fried food and fried food and 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.960 whatever it was. It reminds me of campaigning. And I'm 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.600 not disparaging Applebee's. I just it reminds me of sitting 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:11.080 trying to talk a county chair into supporting my brother. 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:15.920 The foods were what, you know what. We would pick 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.840 up those fruit bars that were supposed to give me 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:24.280 energy and nutrition, but mostly it was Coca cola, a 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:28.919 Hamburger grabbing on the road. And then any and I 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.400 mean this in the best sense, any local Italian restaurant 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.240 was really good. My choice of restaurants would either be 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:37.320 Italian or Greek. 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.399 I love both of those foods. 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.360 I suppose. My last question to you is to say, 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.880 if food is alleviates hunger and food is an expression 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.560 of love, it is also comfort. And so if you 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.399 were having a day where you just looked at a 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.439 meal or food as comfort, is there a food that 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:58.400 you would choose to give you that comfort. 0:20:58.960 --> 0:20:59.440 Yeah? 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:04.760 I would have a rigatoni with red sauce, and if 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:10.120 I were particularly adventuresome, I would chop a salad because 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:12.320 I know how to make oil and moneager dressing. That's 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:14.280 one of the few things I do know that I'm 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:16.480 good at. And I would have a salad and I 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:21.280 would have some French bread with butter. I would have 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:25.119 a coke first, and this just shows you how unrefined 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.359 I am. I would have my glass of wine after 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.840 because I wouldn't want to mess. 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:31.600 Up either taste. 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.080 I know it's supposed to have wine and it's supposed 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:37.240 to reflect and augment the food. I just want the 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:37.879 red sauce. 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.760 Well, you can have whatever you want. Val Biden, you 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.520 can have whatever you want. Thank you very much. 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:45.919 I'm going to come see you. 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:47.720 Okay, we'll waity for you. We're going to get that 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:51.399 dive coke and red tomato sauce and glass of white 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:59.600 wine ready for you. To visit the online shop of 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:06.000 the cafe, go to shop Therivercafe dot co dot Ukka. 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.720 River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:15.960 Adamized Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:19.080 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.