Speaker 1: Welcome to River Cafe Table for a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Adam I Studios. Briefly, here's a story
Speaker 1: my mother. You know what she uses her oven for?
Speaker 1: Let me guess by her stockings. No, she used it
Speaker 1: as a filing cabinet and a filing cabinet. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: he didn't go in the microwave. Mrs Adams wasn't interested
Speaker 1: in it. But this was the eighties and I was
Speaker 1: growing up and it's all about microwaveable food and all
Speaker 1: being super super quick. So you know, as I began
Speaker 1: my life in the Spice Girls, we were eating out
Speaker 1: a lot, going to lovely restaurants, and that was something
Speaker 1: really quite new. A fashion designer, cosmetics entrepreneur, dancer, businesswoman,
Speaker 1: a mother for a singer. There are a few women
Speaker 1: who have seven or more adjectives attached to their name,
Speaker 1: and one of them is Victoria Beckham. When Victoria comes
Speaker 1: to the River Cafe, there's no fuss or privilege. She
Speaker 1: comes in with just her family, her close friends and
Speaker 1: her colleagues. She arrives early so she is there to
Speaker 1: greet them, and the quiet time before they come is
Speaker 1: spent discussing with us what is on the menu, how
Speaker 1: it is prepared, and what she would like to order food,
Speaker 1: how it affects our performance, our health and happiness, and
Speaker 1: how it is shared is important to Victoria Beckham, and
Speaker 1: Victoria Beckham is important to us. You are well. I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll make more fuss when I come the next
Speaker 1: time if I'm that easy. You can, you can do
Speaker 1: whatever you want, but you are. And also I do
Speaker 1: think that there's other people, but very few, who always
Speaker 1: arrive before their guests arrive. And I think it's a
Speaker 1: real act of kindness. It shows that you're kind of
Speaker 1: putting your time this side so that you'll be there
Speaker 1: to greet them. It's very very nice. I like it. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it's an act of kindness or
Speaker 1: if it's just that we're a desperate to leave the
Speaker 1: house and have a night on our own, or be
Speaker 1: that we're just super excited to get here because we
Speaker 1: adore the experience of coming and the food is always incredible,
Speaker 1: and the wine is is wonderful and the people watching
Speaker 1: is just everything good. Well, we're also here to listen
Speaker 1: to you read the recipe that you've chosen for today. Okay,
Speaker 1: so my recipe is roasted sea bass. So the ingredients
Speaker 1: are two kilograms of sea bass, scaled and cleaned, a
Speaker 1: hundred gram fennel seeds, two sliced lemons, a few parsley stalks,
Speaker 1: two fennel bulbs trimmed and sliced, the juice of one lemon,
Speaker 1: five tablespoons of olive oil, and seventy five million liters
Speaker 1: of white wine. So you preheat the oven to a
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety degrees centigrade, preheat the grill, put half
Speaker 1: of the fennel seeds inside the cavity of the fish,
Speaker 1: and season generously. Brush the skin with a little olive
Speaker 1: oil and grill for about five to six minutes on
Speaker 1: each side until lightly charred. Place half the lemon, slices, parsley, fennel,
Speaker 1: and the remaining fennel seeds in a roasting tin. Lay
Speaker 1: the fish on top and cover with the remaining lemon, parsley,
Speaker 1: and fennel. Pour over the lemon, juice, olive oil and wine,
Speaker 1: and bake for about thirty minutes, or until the flesh
Speaker 1: is firm to the touch. Serve either hot or cold
Speaker 1: with south of Verdi So Victoria. Of all the recipes
Speaker 1: that we haven are books and what you eat in
Speaker 1: the River Cafe? Why did you choose sea bus. I'm
Speaker 1: a very fussy eater. I like things to be cooked
Speaker 1: in a very simple way. I don't like oils and
Speaker 1: butters and sauces. So to most restaurants, I'm probably the
Speaker 1: worst nightmare. But you guys are always so accommodating and
Speaker 1: always cook the food exactly how I like it, very simple,
Speaker 1: very clean, incredibly fresh and just perfect. And then you know,
Speaker 1: I love some steam vegetables on the side, some bald
Speaker 1: stomic vinegar, and then to season myself. Did you come
Speaker 1: to this way of eating or did your parents cook
Speaker 1: that way? Did you grow up with very healthy, clean food?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, no, quite the opposite. You know. I've always
Speaker 1: been to nice places with my parents and been taken
Speaker 1: on lovely holidays, but I'd never been to the level
Speaker 1: of restaurant I was going to when I was with
Speaker 1: the Spice Girls, and it was all very exciting, and
Speaker 1: very quickly I came to the conclusion that unless I
Speaker 1: adapted a very healthy way of eating, I would just
Speaker 1: be inclined to sit there and eat the entire contents
Speaker 1: of the bread basket, which when you're eating out regularly
Speaker 1: is probably not the healthiest, not when you're on tour
Speaker 1: and you're expecting so much from your body. So I
Speaker 1: just decided from that point to really try and eat
Speaker 1: in a clean way. Lots of fresh vegetables, lots of fish.
Speaker 1: I don't have any dairy at all. I haven't eaten
Speaker 1: red meat since I was about seven years old. Before
Speaker 1: you even go to that, I'd love to know if
Speaker 1: your mother, do you think that she put her filing
Speaker 1: in the oven or didn't use the oven because she
Speaker 1: was doing other things? Did she think cooking was just
Speaker 1: something she had to do rather than wanted to do?
Speaker 1: Do you think do you know she was always a
Speaker 1: great mom and a great wife, and she was always
Speaker 1: busy doing something, But you know, cooking was never really
Speaker 1: her thing. It's never really her passion, if you like,
Speaker 1: if she found her much better abuse of her of
Speaker 1: her oven and so rather myself. But did she do
Speaker 1: the cooking or did you have somebody else? No? No,
Speaker 1: she she did do the cooking. But you know, this
Speaker 1: was when I was younger. This was, you know, when
Speaker 1: it was all about microwaveable Do you know it was
Speaker 1: a real thing. I remember when I was growing up
Speaker 1: so many adverts on the television. It was all about
Speaker 1: food that you could put in the microwave, fast, about
Speaker 1: hurt and get out of the kitchen. Being seven and vegetarian.
Speaker 1: Do you remember what made that happen? I do? I do.
Speaker 1: I was at school and I was in a home
Speaker 1: economics lesson and they were telling us about what was
Speaker 1: I thing. I think it was either hamburgers or sausages
Speaker 1: or something like that, and I was absolutely horrified and
Speaker 1: haven't eaten me since that day. And I have to say,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't miss it. I eat lots of
Speaker 1: fish and I have a very very healthy way of eating.
Speaker 1: But I haven't touched me since then. The children do,
Speaker 1: and David does. And it's not something that I did
Speaker 1: for any reason other than the fact that I just
Speaker 1: went off of it when I learned what was in it.
Speaker 1: The shows are kind of determination of a child at
Speaker 1: that age to do that. It's a principle, it's a
Speaker 1: kind of view. So you must have been strong. I
Speaker 1: mean I am, and the way that i'm I'm very
Speaker 1: very disciplined, and I think you know, even Golden Ramsey,
Speaker 1: who's a very good friend of ours, has said he's
Speaker 1: never known anybody be as disciplined about the way that
Speaker 1: they eat, you know, because for me, it's just it's
Speaker 1: who I am. I expect a lot from from myself,
Speaker 1: being you know, a working mom for children, and I
Speaker 1: work out a lot, and I eat very very healthily.
Speaker 1: That's just who I am. And it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not the most exciting eater. I like to have
Speaker 1: a drink with my dinner, and then I can become
Speaker 1: a very good dinner guest. I'm sure you don't need
Speaker 1: the drink to make you a good dinner dress else.
Speaker 1: But I think that it is interesting to hear that
Speaker 1: trajectory as well, that you you know, and the discipline,
Speaker 1: so you don't because we've all been on diet and
Speaker 1: we all know what it's like to deny ourselves food.
Speaker 1: And I know that you know when you hold back
Speaker 1: sometimes on food, you hold back sometimes on fun or conversation.
Speaker 1: But that I think it your description of your discipline
Speaker 1: rings true. I absolutely don't deny myself anything. You know,
Speaker 1: if I wanted something, I have it, you know, I
Speaker 1: just it's just who I am. You know, I had
Speaker 1: this healthy way of eating that works for me when
Speaker 1: I was growing up. I used to have really bad
Speaker 1: skin as well, and I went to see numerous dermatologists
Speaker 1: over the years, and no one could ever figure out
Speaker 1: what was wrong with my skin where I had such terrible,
Speaker 1: terrible skin. And again that all just cleared up when
Speaker 1: I started eating in this very clean, healthy way as well.
Speaker 1: And also I feel that I have great energy, and
Speaker 1: so I just figured out, you know, and I'm happy
Speaker 1: the way that they are happy. And what about when
Speaker 1: you were growing up? Where would you eat? Would your
Speaker 1: family all eat together? Did you have family meals? Did
Speaker 1: you sit in a living room or in the kitchen
Speaker 1: or the dining room? What were meals at the Adams house?
Speaker 1: But we always sat together and we eat in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: You know, meal time has always been important. It's an
Speaker 1: important time when when you're you know, when you're together
Speaker 1: reflecting on your day. And that's something that we do
Speaker 1: even now, you know, unless my myself or David are
Speaker 1: actually traveling, we always make sure that we are home
Speaker 1: at the same time and that the kids are always there,
Speaker 1: and that's the time when we eat together and we
Speaker 1: discussed our days. And I think it's very important. And
Speaker 1: that's how it was when we were growing up. You know,
Speaker 1: I was always starting in and out and dancing lessons
Speaker 1: and singing lessons. You know, my mom was a taxi
Speaker 1: driver when I was younger, literally running myself and my
Speaker 1: brother and sister around all the activities. You know, my
Speaker 1: mom was a real hands on mom. That's probably part
Speaker 1: of the reason why she loved the microwave meals because
Speaker 1: she was always so busy driving us around and then
Speaker 1: sitting down to the meal. So I think whether the
Speaker 1: meal comes from the microwave or or from the oven,
Speaker 1: or from you brought in the actually the idea that
Speaker 1: you were sit around the table and talk. My memories
Speaker 1: of my people always asked me as a chef, you
Speaker 1: know what did my mother cook? And she was a
Speaker 1: good she just simple cook. But she was a teacher
Speaker 1: so she would come back from work. But what I
Speaker 1: remember as a conversation, you know, I remember the idea
Speaker 1: that we got around that we had talk around the table,
Speaker 1: you know, politics or the day, what you did during
Speaker 1: the day and the time to do that. You know,
Speaker 1: did you go out to restaurants with your parents? Would
Speaker 1: be special occasion restaurants or would you go up My
Speaker 1: mom and dad used to love you know, on a
Speaker 1: Friday night, it was probably the treat to go to
Speaker 1: the local Indian restaurant. You know, my mom and dad
Speaker 1: loved Indian food, they loved Chinese food and so and
Speaker 1: we traveled quite a lot, so we was always very
Speaker 1: lucky to go on nice holidays and experience different kinds
Speaker 1: of foods. You know, we go to Spain most summers.
Speaker 1: My parents at a house in Spain, so we were
Speaker 1: lucky enough to be able to go there and and
Speaker 1: have you know, foreign holiday. Every year. We go to Press.
Speaker 1: We were lucky enough to go to America a couple
Speaker 1: of times. Actually, we laughed a lot and we had
Speaker 1: some great experiences together. And it's nice now that I
Speaker 1: can do that with my parents, you know, me and
Speaker 1: the kids and David love to take my mom and
Speaker 1: dad out. You know, it's it's a real treat. Family
Speaker 1: time is so so important something that we cherish. I
Speaker 1: was quite touched when you said that the pleasure that
Speaker 1: you gave from actually being able to take out your parents,
Speaker 1: because there is that moment you as you're sort of
Speaker 1: growing up, when you realize that you can actually, after
Speaker 1: years and years of them taking care of you, that
Speaker 1: you can take care of them, and so is that
Speaker 1: something that you associate also with taking them out to restaurants?
Speaker 1: And yeah, because as you said, you know, if you
Speaker 1: have three children, you know it's expensive to go out
Speaker 1: and eat and go on holiday. And I think that
Speaker 1: my parents they were wonderful, wonderful parents. So now the
Speaker 1: fact that we can treat them, we can take them
Speaker 1: on holiday, and we can take them to lovely restaurants
Speaker 1: really means a lot. That's something that me and David
Speaker 1: really do enjoy with his parents as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: both sides are very very close. Going back into the
Speaker 1: trajectory of your childhood and teenage years, how old are
Speaker 1: you when you left home? So I did my GTSC.
Speaker 1: So I was sixteen and I moved to Epsom in Surrey.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a dancer and a singer. I
Speaker 1: wanted to go into musical theater actually, and I took
Speaker 1: a place at Lane Theater Rance in Epsom in Surrey.
Speaker 1: So I was nervous about that and I didn't enjoy
Speaker 1: that part of it. I was always a little bit
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say socially awkward, but I was always quite
Speaker 1: shy when I was a child and as I was
Speaker 1: growing up. I loved the dancing and the singing. But
Speaker 1: again I never really fitted in that well. I don't
Speaker 1: think I really knew who I was. It wasn't until
Speaker 1: I met the Spice Girls and kind of accepted who
Speaker 1: I was, and they brought me out of my shell.
Speaker 1: If you like that, I really became who I am.
Speaker 1: Now do you remember what you ate when you were
Speaker 1: at Oh gosh, yes, I used to eat super noodles.
Speaker 1: I mean very very student style super noodles that you
Speaker 1: put in there. We go again, the microwa. But yes,
Speaker 1: when I was at college, I would eat super noodles.
Speaker 1: I would have frosties, remember the series Frosties, bowls and
Speaker 1: bowls of frosties with skimmed milk. And I used to
Speaker 1: eat those yogurts, you know, those muller like when you
Speaker 1: peel the corner off and you dump a whole load
Speaker 1: of sugary you know what into it. Yeah, I used
Speaker 1: to eat a lot of it. But you know, this
Speaker 1: was the nineties when I feel that it was sort
Speaker 1: of rammed down our throats. You know, fat free, fat free,
Speaker 1: fat free. So we used to eat a lot of
Speaker 1: fat free food without realizing how much sugar we were eating,
Speaker 1: and I think that that probably didn't help my skin.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, you know, there was so much
Speaker 1: attention on eating fats free, and now what we know
Speaker 1: is a complete opposite. Actually, I mean, my diet now
Speaker 1: consists of a lot of healthy fats. I mean numerous avocados,
Speaker 1: for example, and seeds and nuts. And now we know
Speaker 1: that fats are good, good fats. But back in the day,
Speaker 1: we were terrified of them. It's crazy. And like I said,
Speaker 1: I think that that probably really didn't help my skin
Speaker 1: as I was growing up, but we didn't realize it
Speaker 1: then when you joined the spice Fields, what was food
Speaker 1: like there? Well, you know, I mean it was so
Speaker 1: much fun. But again, you know, we lived in a
Speaker 1: house together and we ate like students. You know. I
Speaker 1: think I was probably still on the frosties and the
Speaker 1: super noodles and all those kinds of all those kinds
Speaker 1: of things, sharing the food and fighting over the food
Speaker 1: that was in the fridge, like all kind of students do.
Speaker 1: And when I interviewed Paul mccurrently last week, he was
Speaker 1: describing that was a very touching story about going with
Speaker 1: John Lennon to Paris, for the first time they ever
Speaker 1: had a glass of wine, because he grew up in
Speaker 1: Liverpool never had had wine. But he said that there
Speaker 1: was a point when George Martin took them to a
Speaker 1: restaurant called their Uh in London, which was a kind
Speaker 1: of a microt fancy French restaurant, and then he knew
Speaker 1: what good food and good wine was. Was there a
Speaker 1: moment when you were as a measure of your success,
Speaker 1: when you realized what food could be. Got absolutely when
Speaker 1: we signed our record deal with Virgin Records, they took
Speaker 1: us too lovely restaurants and I remember actually when we
Speaker 1: signed our record deal, you know, they opened a bottle
Speaker 1: of Christal champagne. And again this was the nineties, and
Speaker 1: it was like, wow, that champagne. How much? I mean,
Speaker 1: this was just insanity but so much fun and not
Speaker 1: something that any of us had experienced. And I was
Speaker 1: the posh one and I came from a lovely, lovely family.
Speaker 1: It wasn't as paras people thought. I'd never had any
Speaker 1: anything like that in my life, and it was incredibly
Speaker 1: luxurious and we were going to wonderful restaurants and eating
Speaker 1: wonderful food, um and experience that I'll never forget, not
Speaker 1: just in England, but you know, we traveled all around
Speaker 1: the world. You know, we were we were selling records
Speaker 1: in America, in in Japan, we spent time in China.
Speaker 1: We traveled the whole world, and I feel so blessed
Speaker 1: that I visited the most incredible restaurants in the world.
Speaker 1: Would you eat afore a show or would you after it?
Speaker 1: Again a question I asked people about actors. Do you
Speaker 1: eat for them if you're doing a mat name, would
Speaker 1: you have lunch before breakfast? It was their discipline and
Speaker 1: rigor to the way you ate and performed. I mean,
Speaker 1: not with us, but then you know, we we kind
Speaker 1: of just did our own thing, Ruthie. You know, I
Speaker 1: mean I remember once they introduced us to a choreographer
Speaker 1: and we were like, what do you mean you're going
Speaker 1: to tell us what to do? Just going to get
Speaker 1: on stage and we're just going to jiggle around and
Speaker 1: we're just going to do our own thing. So, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: we ate before the show, we ate during the show,
Speaker 1: and we ate off the show. During the show that
Speaker 1: in the middle of quick changes, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: Melanie c was the most disciplined for sure, but not
Speaker 1: so much. I'm much more disciplined now than I was then.
Speaker 1: You know, I was twenty years old and we were
Speaker 1: on the road and we were having fun, um, you know,
Speaker 1: and I was so much more naive than I am now,
Speaker 1: nive and and just ready to just as you say,
Speaker 1: have fun and not be not be held back by
Speaker 1: any you know, but also with a huge rigor. I mean,
Speaker 1: you put on those shows. You were not the twenty
Speaker 1: year old just you know, having fun. You were working
Speaker 1: a lot of work. We were working work, Yeah, we were.
Speaker 1: We were working really we were working really really hard,
Speaker 1: and we did have a lot of fun we did.
Speaker 1: And then in the trajectory again of food and work
Speaker 1: and discipline and rigor, you started a business, a business
Speaker 1: of fashion and fashion and food and employing people is
Speaker 1: something major, isn't it? Because you find the eating and
Speaker 1: the food and the discipline and the rigor of being
Speaker 1: an entertainer. Did that also go into being a businesswoman? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, at that point then I did start to
Speaker 1: become more conscious of what I was eating because I
Speaker 1: knew that I was sort of demanding a lot from myself,
Speaker 1: and so I was much more disciplined then because you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, I'd go into the stadium in a
Speaker 1: pencil skirt and blouse and carrying a bark in And
Speaker 1: then I walked into the dressing room and put on
Speaker 1: you know, a PBC cat suit if you like. And
Speaker 1: then I was a spice girl at night. And I
Speaker 1: knew that I was demanding a lot from myself. And
Speaker 1: so therefore I think, you know, I'm a I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer of if it's not just what you wear
Speaker 1: and what you put on your skin, obviously, I mean
Speaker 1: it's about what you eat and being healthy as well.
Speaker 1: And when you have a show, when you have the
Speaker 1: new finish, do you celebrate, do you go and have food,
Speaker 1: you go out to dinner, do you have food brought in?
Speaker 1: Or do you just everybody kind of so exhausted, you know,
Speaker 1: it depends. It depends. I mean, actually, after my last show,
Speaker 1: I came here actually with a few of my team
Speaker 1: members and my mom and dad and my friend and
Speaker 1: my sister. So we actually came here to River Cafe
Speaker 1: to celebrate. But I'm looking forward to I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to the next show and business getting back on track.
Speaker 1: Nothing more. Well, we're in the process of working on
Speaker 1: a pre collection at the moment um, and then we'll
Speaker 1: have our main collection in September. But I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to things getting back to normal because I think socializing
Speaker 1: and and eating and um and drinking with friends and
Speaker 1: colleagues is so so important in my Victoria. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: been it's been a hell of a year, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so we think about you know, we've talked about
Speaker 1: food and family and food and love and your parents
Speaker 1: and exposure to new new places and travel. Food also
Speaker 1: can give us comfort. And so my last question to
Speaker 1: you on this very flusterry River Cafe day is to
Speaker 1: ask you what is your comfort food? And this is
Speaker 1: where I sound even more boring in the food department.
Speaker 1: You're not boring in the food department. You're interesting in
Speaker 1: the food. Okay, what do I like? You know? I
Speaker 1: like whole grained toast with salt on it? Good? Is
Speaker 1: that really boring? You know? Is that carby thing? Isn't it?
Speaker 1: Is that carbohydrate that makes you feel comforted? And I
Speaker 1: love salt. I'm a slavery person is supposed to a
Speaker 1: sweet person? Yeah? I think that sounds like a very
Speaker 1: good comfort food. And it's been a very very lovely
Speaker 1: conversation thank you, thank you so much, thank you. It's great.
Speaker 1: Is this for me? That's nice? What is it? I
Speaker 1: think it might be fall Contina very nice. Is that
Speaker 1: what you're having? There? We go? I am both having nice.
Speaker 1: Let's go in the afternoon is my kind of day.
Speaker 1: To visit the online shop of the River Cafe. Go
Speaker 1: to shop the River Cafe dot co dot uk. River
Speaker 1: Cafe Table four is a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Adam I Studios. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.