Speaker 1: Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Adamized Studios.
Speaker 2: The Food is Love and love is food. For Valentine's
Speaker 2: Day today, we thought we should dedicate this episode of
Speaker 2: Ruthie's Table four talking to the chefs, the managers, the waiters, bartenders, gardeners,
Speaker 2: and some of our previous guests who spoke about the
Speaker 2: importance of food and celebrating love.
Speaker 3: Can I have a second to think about its.
Speaker 4: Food is love?
Speaker 5: That's a very tricky question. It could be so tailored
Speaker 5: to any particular individual.
Speaker 6: Have you done this to him yet?
Speaker 7: He's French.
Speaker 8: You can work it out.
Speaker 7: Food is love, foody's love.
Speaker 9: Wine is love.
Speaker 8: Probably a nice bottle of rose Champaigne, that's love.
Speaker 10: I think they're very closely linked with food, and because
Speaker 10: I think the way to a lot of people's heart.
Speaker 2: History food is love. It's about protection, it's about generosity
Speaker 2: and consciousness, memories, memories, memories, and it's also about confidt.
Speaker 2: We want to give other people comfort, so we feed them,
Speaker 2: and as times when we need comfort, so we feed ourselves.
Speaker 2: You were describing cooking as one of the great pleasures
Speaker 2: the other night.
Speaker 4: It's one of my biggest passions, you know, along with wine. Now,
Speaker 4: I love to cook.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I was in the kitchen the other day cooking for
Speaker 4: the kids, and Victoria was like, can I help, what
Speaker 4: can I do? And I was like, honestly, sit down,
Speaker 4: have a vagrant tonic, relax be with the kids. This
Speaker 4: is what I love to do.
Speaker 2: And I really relate to that because you kind of file.
Speaker 2: There's a method, isn't there, But it's also creative and
Speaker 2: it's also you're doing it for your kids who haven't
Speaker 2: seen all day, and there's the anticipation, and I think
Speaker 2: that is something why you probably like to cook, and
Speaker 2: I like to cook.
Speaker 4: It's just one of the main reasons why I love
Speaker 4: to cook, because it's why I love Lego also, you know,
Speaker 4: because it relaxes me, you know, and I'm forty seven
Speaker 4: years old and I still sit there with you know,
Speaker 4: on my own actually till two, three, four in the
Speaker 4: morning doing Lego because actually it relaxes me. And it's
Speaker 4: the same cooking for the kids. I love to cook
Speaker 4: for my parents. I love to cook for my friends.
Speaker 4: And I think that it's obviously come from, you know,
Speaker 4: my upbringing, and I tried to do the same, and
Speaker 4: Victoria tries to do the same with the kids as well.
Speaker 4: You know, we want them to be happy, we want
Speaker 4: them to be healthy.
Speaker 2: Do they cook with you?
Speaker 11: They do cooking for my wife, straightforward as that, you know,
Speaker 11: like that's my favorite thing to do, full stop. I
Speaker 11: have cooked to press many people over the years, with
Speaker 11: you know, various levels of suc Sometimes I think the
Speaker 11: message was so deeply embedded in the like you know,
Speaker 11: lentil broth, that didn't necessarily come across, but you know,
Speaker 11: eventually it works. And I think it's something that people
Speaker 11: do say quite often, you know, like, oh, you hear
Speaker 11: it a lot in the kitchen, you know, put some
Speaker 11: love into this. But when you actually put genuine love
Speaker 11: into making something for someone you love, I think it's
Speaker 11: it's it's it's elevated.
Speaker 12: Love is a secret ingredient to a great dish. I
Speaker 12: always like to think if I'm cooking for someone, I
Speaker 12: always try to imagine that and cooking for my girlfriends
Speaker 12: because then I know I'm going to put extra love
Speaker 12: into it and you can taste the love every bite,
Speaker 12: you know. Listen, my favorite meal at the moment is lasagna.
Speaker 12: Lasagna is a dish made out of love and hard work,
Speaker 12: so many different layers. You have to make the beautiful bechamel,
Speaker 12: you have to make the beautiful sauce, you know, you
Speaker 12: have to make the beautiful pasta, and everything has to
Speaker 12: be perfect. So that's my favorite thing.
Speaker 6: To do at the moment.
Speaker 2: The lasagna.
Speaker 12: Sure, do you know what, I don't have gun at
Speaker 12: the moment. You're breaking my heart reminding me. But hopefully
Speaker 12: I'll meet someone by then and I have something to cook.
Speaker 13: You know, I love cooking.
Speaker 14: I'm doing this play here at the moment, and I'm
Speaker 14: actually living at a friend's house. My kids are spending
Speaker 14: the summer with their dad and my mom's. But when
Speaker 14: things are a little bit more normal and we're all
Speaker 14: living together on under one roof, then it's I'd make
Speaker 14: them every weekend without fail. I do a Sunday roast
Speaker 14: on a Sunday. My mom said, actually that one of
Speaker 14: the funniest memories that she has with me is this
Speaker 14: is my emotional connection to roast. In is that when
Speaker 14: I went traveling around Asia, and I must have been
Speaker 14: eighteen or nineteen, and I came back and she'd obviously
Speaker 14: made a roast inner because that's why I said that
Speaker 14: I wanted to come back for And we sat around
Speaker 14: the table as a family, and once we'd finished, my
Speaker 14: sister went, oh, thanks, Mum, that was delicious. Gravy was amazing,
Speaker 14: and I just burst into tears because I'd forgotten to
Speaker 14: put gravy or.
Speaker 2: You've been way too long. I think. So the rose
Speaker 2: tradition is something that goes back from your childhood to
Speaker 2: your to yours and then to your children.
Speaker 14: Yeah, but I think even my mom's childhood as well.
Speaker 14: You know, I think she was sort of raised on
Speaker 14: roast dinners. I mean, I mean, maybe it's because in
Speaker 14: my family just the way that things have worked out
Speaker 14: and my mom being, you know, a single working mother,
Speaker 14: and that was possibly the one time a week that
Speaker 14: we all did come together around a table. You know,
Speaker 14: there wasn't there wasn't much of that. I don't really
Speaker 14: have memories of sitting around a table as a family,
Speaker 14: but I do on Sundays. I think I'm quite good
Speaker 14: at rose, but I mean there's something like your mum's
Speaker 14: cooking is there, so I can never quite get that
Speaker 14: element in there that she seems together.
Speaker 7: But I think it's just.
Speaker 2: A lot of stock that she says. So it could
Speaker 2: just be that.
Speaker 12: I love to cook.
Speaker 15: My dad was a coke I used to watch in
Speaker 15: the whole time. It's something I do here as well.
Speaker 15: I just kind of watch people cooking, and that's my
Speaker 15: favorite thing to do, particularly when you work on the past.
Speaker 15: I gave a spare moment. I just watch people, and
Speaker 15: you pick up so many things.
Speaker 16: Food and love. Gosh, food is love, isn't it. I
Speaker 16: mean I cook for my husband every single day, and
Speaker 16: that is like my way of showing love for him.
Speaker 16: That's my love language for him.
Speaker 2: Food.
Speaker 16: His love language is definitely i'd say words of affirmation. Yeah,
Speaker 16: it's definitely not food. He definitely doesn't cook for me.
Speaker 2: I don't really cook.
Speaker 13: I think my love language is probably being cooked for
Speaker 13: eating the food. Food is the way to my art.
Speaker 14: Just Yeah, if someone puts in a lot of time
Speaker 14: and effort to cook a nice meal, I think that
Speaker 14: says a lot and it's a nice little thank you.
Speaker 2: And so do you do that with your children? Do
Speaker 2: you cook with them?
Speaker 11: Idea?
Speaker 2: Do you think that you're interested in cooking for them?
Speaker 2: Does come from your own childhood or idea?
Speaker 1: Because it was such an unabashed expression of my father's
Speaker 1: life for us, like there was no denying it. And
Speaker 1: when someone is so excited about like the seer on
Speaker 1: their baby back ribs, you know, and like look at this,
Speaker 1: Look what I did. You know, it's so imbued with
Speaker 1: love that you can't It's undeniable, and so you learn
Speaker 1: it as a love language. I just had this beegind
Speaker 1: I at a house full of people at our house
Speaker 1: in Santa Barbara, and I was making all these different breakfasts,
Speaker 1: and you know, my friends are like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: we feel so terrible, and I was like, no, you
Speaker 1: don't understand, Like this is my love language, Like I'm
Speaker 1: so happy doing this.
Speaker 10: A few years ago, I was living in Peru in
Speaker 10: a van and it was my girlfriend's birthday. She's from
Speaker 10: Australia and she'd been missing, you know, food from her home,
Speaker 10: and so I decided I was going to make her
Speaker 10: sausage rolls, which is easy here but not easy in
Speaker 10: Peru because you can't get the puff pastry or even
Speaker 10: the sausage meat like needs to be fresh minced and stuff.
Speaker 10: So I went around town all day looking for all
Speaker 10: of the ingredients. Never made pup paste before, made it myself,
Speaker 10: but didn't have a rolling pin, so used a little
Speaker 10: wine bottle, you know, went to the butcher there, and
Speaker 10: this lady in full peruvium get up is there with
Speaker 10: a machete, you know, hacking up the meat for me.
Speaker 10: I didn't even have an oven, so I had a
Speaker 10: borrow an oven and it was taken forever, took hours,
Speaker 10: but it was a surprise, so she had no idea
Speaker 10: what was happening. She just knew that I was cooking
Speaker 10: up a storm. And it took like two days because
Speaker 10: of the pup pastry having to chill. But they were
Speaker 10: the most amazing sausage drills I've ever had, and I
Speaker 10: don't think I'll ever beat it. She was blown away,
Speaker 10: and yeah, she almost cried.
Speaker 7: I suppose if you were ever to try and do
Speaker 7: something romantic or think about, your first thought would always
Speaker 7: be to use food as the gateway to enhance that situation.
Speaker 7: And then your memories of a romantic scenario has always
Speaker 7: been intrinsically linked to food. So I guess that's what
Speaker 7: it brings up for all of us.
Speaker 17: By the way, I fell, I fell in love with
Speaker 17: my wife over dinner.
Speaker 2: Did you tell me about it? That the story.
Speaker 17: We had run into one another at an event in
Speaker 17: New York, and through a variety of complicated circumstances, it
Speaker 17: took us eighteen months to have the first dinner. Eighteen months,
Speaker 17: which is extraordinary.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of patience.
Speaker 17: Yeah, but for both of us. And there I was
Speaker 17: thinking about this woman that I had met eighteen months ago,
Speaker 17: trying to figure out where to take her to dinner,
Speaker 17: and we went to a restaurant called Allison on Dominic.
Speaker 17: Dominic is the street in downtown New York, which was
Speaker 17: not only really good food, but quite romantic. And that
Speaker 17: was our first official date, June thirteenth, nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 17: We still we celebrate the anniversary of that date more
Speaker 17: than we celebrate our wedding anniversary. And I mean, she
Speaker 17: claims that she knew that night were a good meal
Speaker 17: at Allison on Dominic. I think I probably did too.
Speaker 17: It was the beginning of a great romance. And now
Speaker 17: twenty five years.
Speaker 2: Of marriage, is the restaurant still there.
Speaker 17: No, the restaurant is not there, but we've carried on
Speaker 17: a tradition of having dates.
Speaker 10: Since then.
Speaker 17: I think one of the nicest parts of my life,
Speaker 17: and there are many, is just being able to go
Speaker 17: out to dinner alone with my wife. If I know
Speaker 17: that I'm doing that, I look forward to it all week.
Speaker 17: It's one of the things I missed the most out
Speaker 17: of from the pandemic.
Speaker 18: So when we reopened after COVID, what I found absolutely incredible.
Speaker 18: It was this sort of mentality of everyone just wanting
Speaker 18: to be together and just be so respectful and so happy,
Speaker 18: and I kind of, oh, what I remember when I
Speaker 18: think about it is those big coats and blankets and
Speaker 18: the big scarfs, and everyone was just so happy to
Speaker 18: sit outside. There were evenings where it was freezing. It
Speaker 18: was so cold and we were standing outside in our
Speaker 18: big jumpers. But there was just something so magical about
Speaker 18: it about society coming together again after being apart and
Speaker 18: being in such a times and I just, yeah, I
Speaker 18: kind of remember the opening. Of course I remember the
Speaker 18: fears and everything else, but it just felt such a
Speaker 18: joyous time and everyone was so happy, and yeah, everyone
Speaker 18: was wearing pig jacket.
Speaker 2: That's all I.
Speaker 18: Remember, but I remember that's a very it's a very
Speaker 18: happy memory when we reopen again.
Speaker 6: Just in addition to Sylvia's big jackets and people sitting
Speaker 6: out time being happy. I'll never forget the bride sitting
Speaker 6: outside on table three oh one in November and it
Speaker 6: was raining and she was sitting there.
Speaker 1: She was just there.
Speaker 6: She was like, I'm having my wedding and it was
Speaker 6: amazing and she and they had a great time. And
Speaker 6: I also remember one of when we it was the
Speaker 6: first time when we came back because there were obviously
Speaker 6: quite a few closures, and every time was like not again.
Speaker 6: And one of our very regular customer, Cissy Yard, and
Speaker 6: remember when she first time she came back, she just
Speaker 6: she stood in the door and she had just stuck
Speaker 6: tears coming down. She was she just said like, oh, guys,
Speaker 6: I'm just so happy to see you. I'm just so
Speaker 6: happy that you are okay.
Speaker 2: It was just so.
Speaker 6: Sweet and we were like, oh, it was very emotional.
Speaker 9: I would probably say if you were to ask people
Speaker 9: closest to me, I'm not always the most fun to
Speaker 9: be with in the kitchen because I was I didn't
Speaker 9: have my stent in kitchens, you know, and I learned
Speaker 9: from professionals, and it's a very tough place a kitchen,
Speaker 9: you know, it requires a particular type of focus and
Speaker 9: a sense of geography, you know, like knowing all spaces
Speaker 9: and moving hot things, and I think I might take
Speaker 9: it all a bit too seriously. It's a general note
Speaker 9: for myself, but I think that my sister likes it
Speaker 9: when I cook for her. My nieces like it when
Speaker 9: I cook for them. I love cooking for my nieces.
Speaker 9: I love asking them what it is that everything that
Speaker 9: they want. That to me is like, what is your favorite?
Speaker 9: What do you want me to coming over? I'm going
Speaker 9: to bring you anything that you want. We're going to
Speaker 9: cook it, you know, and just the satisfaction of that
Speaker 9: is there's nothing like that too.
Speaker 19: I always think if you're trying to loose someone, getting
Speaker 19: them involved in the process of making something that is
Speaker 19: very important. So I would kind of like, here we
Speaker 19: make lovely like ravioli from scratch and and we make
Speaker 19: pastor and it's a brilliant skill to learn. So I
Speaker 19: think I would, you know, have the dough and the
Speaker 19: filling and everything else like a thought if you're going
Speaker 19: to do it, ready to go, and then I have
Speaker 19: my verpasta machine set up at home and and get
Speaker 19: them involved in the process of you know, making portaloni
Speaker 19: or different types of pasta shapes and kind of you know,
Speaker 19: you can show off a little bit and make something
Speaker 19: together and then cook it together and eat it, and
Speaker 19: you put everything together, which I think is quite romantic.
Speaker 6: Food is love conjures up for me.
Speaker 13: Toplet me some and stick toatalk.
Speaker 2: Tell me about your love for chocolate.
Speaker 20: My earliest memories are about loving chocolate. I remember once
Speaker 20: when I was a very little girl, my big brother
Speaker 20: who was a teenager. My parents said, you can have
Speaker 20: the car if you bring Nancy home some ice cream. First,
Speaker 20: he brought vanilla ice cream home. I put it under
Speaker 20: the bed, never ate it because it wasn't chocolate. Why
Speaker 20: would he bring me vanilla ice cream? But I've always
Speaker 20: loved it, and as time has gone by, I've loved
Speaker 20: it darker and darker and darker.
Speaker 2: What about ice cream, because I did read that you
Speaker 2: have ice cream from breakfast? Or is that an urban myth?
Speaker 20: No, it's not an urban myth. It's convenient, it's right there,
Speaker 20: it has long shelf life. I don't have to worry
Speaker 20: about it. It's right there. And but I have it
Speaker 20: for breakfast. It's a great way to start the day.
Speaker 20: I don't have it every day, but I have it
Speaker 20: often and when I was younger, I used to have
Speaker 20: it before I went to sleep, a pint device chocolate
Speaker 20: ice cream. But as time has gone by, the later
Speaker 20: the chocolate, the less sleep I have.
Speaker 13: If I make a Valentine's meal, I would probably make
Speaker 13: a truffle Taglerini.
Speaker 10: I think traffle is amazing.
Speaker 13: I would make Taglierini with caviar, Taglierini lightly, you know,
Speaker 13: tossed with butter and a tiny little bit of lemon
Speaker 13: and then a massive spoofy of caviar on top, beautiful
Speaker 13: glassy champagne. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 21: I Well, my instant thought is like a big warm pie.
Speaker 21: It sounds horrible when I say it like that, but
Speaker 21: like pies hold a very special place in my heart
Speaker 21: being from the North, so I just feel like it's
Speaker 21: a big hug in a plate, big pie.
Speaker 12: That's what i'd say.
Speaker 3: I'm half Italian, so I think it would definitely be
Speaker 3: Italian for you. For me, I think probably, like from
Speaker 3: the expression like labor of love, things that take a
Speaker 3: long time to like prepare and cook for me like
Speaker 3: really special because they've taken so much like care to
Speaker 3: do so, like just a simple baked pumpkin, you have
Speaker 3: to like peel it, and the preparation of it is
Speaker 3: really long. So yeah, the longer and the more care
Speaker 3: into it for me means more love's being put into it.
Speaker 18: The meal I most enjoy eating with my pant is toast,
Speaker 18: so yeah, it can be really anything as long as
Speaker 18: it's with the person that you love.
Speaker 13: As much as I love cooking for other people, I
Speaker 13: think being cooked for, especially as a chef, is like
Speaker 13: the nicest thing anyone could do, but everyone always gets
Speaker 13: like quite nervous. I think cooking for you when you
Speaker 13: do that as your job, but I literally couldn't care
Speaker 13: less what anyone gave me. I would honestly just love anything.
Speaker 8: Yeah, oh no, this is terrible.
Speaker 5: The first thing that came to my mind was a McDonald's.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I don't know food is love. I don't
Speaker 5: know if it's a boring answer, but I'd probably just
Speaker 5: go a bottle of champagne.
Speaker 8: I would say freshness, seasonal, comfortable, cozy, and something like that.
Speaker 8: At a moment in the world, you knowing bananas and
Speaker 8: you look in nature and just you know, there's last
Speaker 8: thing is happening, and it feels kind of hopeful that
Speaker 8: you know, life carries on do you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to think I should go for like a typical.
Speaker 3: My name is Olivia and I work in the offesting
Speaker 3: a bit of everything.
Speaker 5: Really, I might have sticking on a button.
Speaker 7: My name is Stephen Hampson and I'm one of the
Speaker 7: strum managers.
Speaker 8: My name is Christoph the head Somebody.
Speaker 18: I'm Kitty and I'm Ruthie's po.
Speaker 11: My name is jose Trevelli and I'm the co executive.
Speaker 2: Chef of the River Cafe.
Speaker 12: My name is Ricky and I'm one of the most
Speaker 12: charming chefs at the River Cafe.
Speaker 8: Tabby, I worked in the shop.
Speaker 15: My name is Max. I'm a headwaiter the River Cafe.
Speaker 16: Yeah Immager, and I'm shop operations manager.
Speaker 20: I would say.
Speaker 10: My name is Jackie and I'm a chef.
Speaker 18: My name is Sylvia Lezevska and I am reservations manager
Speaker 18: at the River Cafe. My name is Alex Paidick.
Speaker 6: I'm I'm a floor manager River Cafe.
Speaker 19: I'm Otto and I'm a chef in the kitchen.
Speaker 13: My name is Sophia and I'm a chef at the
Speaker 13: River Cafe. I am Jess and I'm a chef the
Speaker 13: River Cafe. My name is Sean Willowen and I am
Speaker 13: the executive chef at the River Cafe.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 21: My name's I'm Rosie and I'm a pastry chef.
Speaker 3: HI are called Sassy and I am a cook at
Speaker 3: the River Cafe.
Speaker 13: I'm Sula. I'm marketing an ecoms manager. I'm Hebee, and
Speaker 13: I am a chef at the River Company.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 8: My name is Jamie Vilherner and I'm the gardener at
Speaker 8: the River Campe.
Speaker 2: Happy Valentine's Day.