1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:02,679 Speaker 1: Ruthie's Table four is now a book. 2 00:00:02,920 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 2: Paul McCartney, Michael ka Kamala Harris, David Beckham, Tina fey 3 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:12,600 Speaker 2: Elton John and many more. It's full of stories, beautifully designed, 4 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,680 Speaker 2: and a celebration of the way food connects us all. 5 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:21,120 Speaker 2: It's available now wherever you buy your books. 6 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:26,800 Speaker 1: Ruthie's Table four brought to you by Sky and Montclair. 7 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:36,720 Speaker 1: In your experience of being in the front line, of 8 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:39,280 Speaker 1: being with the soldiers, I'd like to ask you what 9 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: they feel about eating. They do they how do they 10 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: express the need for good food or food? How do 11 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 1: they want to be fed? 12 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:52,440 Speaker 3: Well, food is comfort, obviously, but food is survival primarily. 13 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:58,520 Speaker 3: So in most military situations, no matter which military were with, 14 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 3: the priority is hearty food that's portable, right, So if 15 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,279 Speaker 3: you're embedded with the American military, it'll be MRI's Meals 16 00:01:07,319 --> 00:01:10,280 Speaker 3: Ready to Eat, which are those little cardboard boxes full 17 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:12,480 Speaker 3: of little pouches and you sort of add hot water 18 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 3: and it heats up some sort of chicken casserole whatever. 19 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 3: But each of those packs has like two thousand calories. 20 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:20,479 Speaker 3: I mean, if you only add one of those a day, 21 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:25,080 Speaker 3: you'll be totally fine. I haven't actually seen many of 22 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 3: the militaries that I've been with recently eating things like that. 23 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 3: It's always been in Ukraine, I see a lot of 24 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:34,680 Speaker 3: these open faced sandwich type things. So they'll do rye 25 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:38,440 Speaker 3: bread with pork fat, with a boiled egg, with salmon, 26 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 3: with a pickle, with sausages mostly cured. The Ukrainians do 27 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 3: a lot of preserved things, lots of pickle things, lots 28 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 3: of condensed jammy things that they'll smear on bread. And 29 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:58,120 Speaker 3: then in the Middle East, a lot of it is 30 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 3: sort of catches, catch can but there are moments, it's 31 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:06,200 Speaker 3: in my experience, where there will be a big delivery 32 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:08,359 Speaker 3: of something and then they'll set out a feast for 33 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 3: the army. So I had like an amazing experience with 34 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:15,639 Speaker 3: the Kurdish Peshmerga on a mountaintop overlooking Mosul where they 35 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 3: were in a tent and we walked in and it 36 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:19,680 Speaker 3: was laid out with just platters of rice and meat 37 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:24,000 Speaker 3: and bread and little salads and picky things, and you know, 38 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 3: people would just rip up bread and grab a hunk 39 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 3: of meat with the bread, and you know, amazing. But 40 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:34,000 Speaker 3: the logistics of military feeding is mind blow I mean, 41 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:37,880 Speaker 3: it's it's quite an endeavor. And you know, we never 42 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:39,919 Speaker 3: expect to be fed in any of these situations. We're 43 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:45,080 Speaker 3: always i mean, just energy bars and nuts and you know, 44 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:47,360 Speaker 3: whatever sort of bare bones calories we can keep in 45 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,320 Speaker 3: our bag so that at minimum we don't have to 46 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 3: we don't have to ask to take food away from 47 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:54,359 Speaker 3: the people who need it to fight. 48 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:57,639 Speaker 1: But is that your responsibility is a producer, to make 49 00:02:57,680 --> 00:02:59,840 Speaker 1: sure there's food? Sure, how do you do it? 50 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 3: We just load up, We load up before we head out, 51 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 3: as simple as that. And then I mean, in a 52 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 3: place like Ukraine, there are supermarkets functioning all over the 53 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:14,400 Speaker 3: place and very beautiful, clean, well stocked gas stations, so 54 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:17,080 Speaker 3: you know, it's just a constant make sure we have it, 55 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:18,920 Speaker 3: make sure we have it, and you know, you end 56 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:21,160 Speaker 3: up doing a lot of pre eating, like I'm not hungry, 57 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:23,600 Speaker 3: but I'll eat because I never know when. 58 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:24,320 Speaker 1: My next meal comes. 59 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 3: And then at the end of the day you're like, oh, man, 60 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:28,840 Speaker 3: I just has five giant meals because I was pre 61 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 3: eating and then somebody served me something and you know, 62 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:32,040 Speaker 3: I overdid it. 63 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: When you come home, if you've been in this situation 64 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:42,280 Speaker 1: of danger, of fear, of lack of food, Ye, isolation? 65 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: Does it take an adjustment to it. 66 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 3: Actually took me a while in my career to figure 67 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:53,440 Speaker 3: out the right way to decompress from these things. Because 68 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:55,320 Speaker 3: even in America, when I was a young producer, I 69 00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:58,160 Speaker 3: was covering school shootings. And when you're young and covering 70 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 3: school shootings like Virginia, you know, those students who were 71 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 3: killed in Virginia Tech were two years younger than me 72 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 3: at the time, so that that was really traumatic. And 73 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 3: I used to go home after those trips and just 74 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 3: crawl into bed and lie there for a couple of 75 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:15,360 Speaker 3: days and then emerge. And actually it wasn't serving me, 76 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 3: and I was really not treating the trauma in any 77 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:22,440 Speaker 3: real way. And what I've what I've actually learned is 78 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:25,279 Speaker 3: as soon as I come out of a war zone, 79 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 3: I like pack my life full. So as soon as 80 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 3: I come home, I'll throw a dinner party that night 81 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 3: or the next night, or I'll immediately book some exercise 82 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:38,840 Speaker 3: classes or spend some real time with my kids, or 83 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:41,839 Speaker 3: you know, just make a bunch of plans and dive 84 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:44,719 Speaker 3: right back in into sort of the warmth of everybody 85 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 3: around me. 86 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:46,799 Speaker 1: Do you sleep well? 87 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 2: I do? 88 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:48,039 Speaker 1: Yeah? 89 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean I mean, I'm lucky. I don't 90 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:55,720 Speaker 3: have to live in a war zone. I get to 91 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:58,720 Speaker 3: leave a war zone. So I think the job has 92 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:02,920 Speaker 3: given me actually a amazing amount of perspective and gratitude. 93 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 3: So I know how lucky I am that I can 94 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:11,880 Speaker 3: sleep without a siren and have water running water in 95 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:13,080 Speaker 3: my house in a hot shower. 96 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: Where would you like to go next? If you do 97 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 1: not like to go? But is there a kind of war, 98 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:24,520 Speaker 1: the conflict conflict that is going on now that particularly 99 00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:25,720 Speaker 1: treats you. 100 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,279 Speaker 3: I think, I mean, I'll be going back to Ukraine 101 00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:34,640 Speaker 3: probably very soon. The Iran conflict is interesting. We're trying 102 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:38,520 Speaker 3: to figure out how to cover it because it's it's 103 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:42,520 Speaker 3: impossible to get there, so we're trying to figure out 104 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,839 Speaker 3: interesting ways to cover it. The Ebola outbreak is happening. Yeah, 105 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:50,600 Speaker 3: we have a team going. But they're very different calculations 106 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:54,920 Speaker 3: for me because I've got small children, and yeah, I 107 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:58,159 Speaker 3: really don't want to get ebola. They are six and eight, 108 00:05:59,160 --> 00:05:59,760 Speaker 3: two daughters. 109 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:02,120 Speaker 1: What's the longest you've been away when you go on 110 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:02,679 Speaker 1: a trip. 111 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:08,040 Speaker 3: The longest since having children is about I think the 112 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:11,280 Speaker 3: twenty twenty two Russian invasion of Ukraine. Was the longest. 113 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:13,440 Speaker 3: I think that was about three and a half weeks, 114 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 3: but I try to keep it to two weeks max. 115 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 1: When you go on vacation, where do you go. 116 00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:21,679 Speaker 3: I spend a lot of time in France. I love France. 117 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 3: I go to Osgor these days. It's near Beerits just 118 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:28,800 Speaker 3: fut the Beirits, and it's amazing. It's it also has 119 00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:31,520 Speaker 3: a saltwater lake in the middle of town, and so 120 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:33,880 Speaker 3: they've got oyster shacks all around it. So you go 121 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:37,320 Speaker 3: and oysters and rose and oh it's the best. 122 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:39,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it, and literally. 123 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:42,920 Speaker 3: Annually I spend a lot of time in Ligouria as well. 124 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:46,520 Speaker 3: I mean the sort of Mediterranean is the best place. 125 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 1: It is not a cookbook, you know, I was thinking 126 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,279 Speaker 1: that or a memoir of some of these stories. Yeah, 127 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:53,200 Speaker 1: food under Fire. 128 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,680 Speaker 3: It's interesting because people love food and the people are 129 00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:00,920 Speaker 3: endlessly curious about how other people eat. So it's you 130 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:01,480 Speaker 3: as 131 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:10,040 Speaker 1: Mhm.