WEBVTT - Emily Mortimer 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.880 You're listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair. 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.800 Last night, Emily Mortimer came to Thanksgiving dinner with her 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.760 family at our home, and as is a tradition, at 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:17.720 the end of the meal, we all sang you Are 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.640 My Sunshine, our favorite family song. Looking down at the 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:24.959 table of forty people, our eyes met and stayed there 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:29.000 for all four verses. In those moments, memories flooded back 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:30.960 with the girl I knew since she was six, the 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.040 time he spent with her father, John playwright and barrister, 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:37.839 and her mother Penny Fly fisher and tennis player who 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.400 managed the no small feat of smoking while playing the game. 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:47.279 What Emily does now is impressive. She's an actor, a writer, director, 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.879 Nodding Hill, The Pursuit of Love, Newsroom, Match Point, The 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:55.200 New Look, and Apple Show with Juliet Binoch and Paddington III. 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.160 When I see Emily, our conversation is mostly about what 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:02.120 she did other than what she's doing for. She was 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:04.400 one of the first employees of the River Cafe in 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:09.039 nineteen eighty nine, when being seventeen and totally inexperienced was 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:10.520 no obstacle. 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:11.760 To be a waiter here. 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.280 In the River Cafe. Today we're going to talk about 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:18.440 food and memories. For she is my family and most 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:22.560 of all, Emily Mortimer, you are my sunshine. Oh oh 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:24.000 my goodness. 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:37.720 Begin it was so nice to see Funny. 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.520 Yeah, your bully, we're going to get you back in here. 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.640 But do you remember what I felt like or what 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:45.240 it was like? 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:47.400 Yes? I do. It was it was just the same. 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.120 It was just smaller. I mean it was like half 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:51.480 the size of men there. 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:52.560 It was the kitchen. 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:54.440 We had the bar going across here. 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.160 Yes, that's right, the barn there. Definitely that bar was 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.720 a wall. I can remember that very clearly. 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.520 But there were tables outside sometimes in the summer. Yeah, 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:07.840 and we all do do you do you still get 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.200 them to the waitresses and the waiters to the pres Yeah. 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.760 That was the most amazing. We really kept iron. And 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:16.600 that really is what taught me to cook. 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.720 I think is coming here and having to like grape 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:24.079 parmesan and sweat the peppers and oh yeah yeah, peel 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:28.000 the peel the peppers, you know, and get the food 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:29.720 ready and then you kind of a part of it, 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:31.919 which is just such a cool thing. 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.680 So we'll start with the recipe that you chose, which 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:40.600 was a pair almon tarde. 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:46.200 Pear and almond tart serves ten to twelve six ripe 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:51.080 commas pears, three hundred and fifty grams of blanched whole almonds, 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:56.120 three hundred and fifty grams of unsalted butter softened, three 0:02:56.200 --> 0:03:02.160 hundred and fifty grams of caster sugar, three eggs. Peel 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.600 half and core the pears. Place the pear halfs face 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.440 down and in one layer in a pre baked sweet 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:13.320 pastry base. Put the almonds in a food processor and 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:17.440 chop until fine. Cream together the butter and sugar with 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.280 an electric mixer until pale and light. 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.720 Add the almonds, then the eggs. One by one. Pour 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:26.720 this almond. 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.640 Mixture over the pears, bake for forty minutes or until 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:35.080 the filling is golden brown, and set. Leave to cool 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.040 and serve with a dollop of crem fresh. 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:40.760 We do a version of the pair and almond tart 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:42.880 all year. So in the summer when we make a 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:46.080 tart with raspberries with the almond frownchipant dolt, we o 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.720 the strawberries or but I do think for me the 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:51.640 best is pear combinations. 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.440 The classic Yeah, well, I just love it because it's 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:56.840 the sort of most amazing bang for your buck of 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.440 a pudding, because you just people can't believe that a 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.200 human mortal made it and you didn't just buy it 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:03.440 in a. 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.160 Sort of yeah, you know, bou lingerie or something. 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.640 It really does and it's so simple and easy as 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.360 all your recipes are, but it just is so sort 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:14.360 of delicious and really impressive. 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.520 People are always just like, did you really make this? 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.159 Did you make the pastry? Shan, what did you do 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:21.800 the pastry? 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:22.159 Yeah? 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.760 The pastry is three hundred and seventy five grams of 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:29.040 plain flour, two hundred and fifty grams of unsalted butter, 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.320 which you pulse in a robocoop or magic mixed kind 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.560 of machine. Then add one hundred grams of icing sugar, 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:38.760 give that a little pulse, then bind it together with 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:42.040 three egg yolks, and it will make a firm dough 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.600 that you need to refrigerate for a couple of hours. 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:47.320 And then the secret of the almond tart is that 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:52.559 we actually grate the dough into the using a thick 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.200 cheese graye to cheese grater, isn't it, and then greate 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.680 that into the pastry. Tin and press it out. Don't 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:04.560 try and roll it because you'll probably never have a Yeah, exactly. 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.279 The secrets of our recipes. Press it into place. 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:10.919 You can make it as thick as soon as you like, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:12.840 but as long as you pre bake it before you 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.880 put the almonds in, isn't it. Yeah, you might put 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.200 the cake mixture in. It's probably one of the desserts. 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.919 It's been on since you's, you know, for thirty five years. 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:24.960 Now, that's six or. 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.520 Thirty five years. I can't believe that I hadn't actually 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:29.280 done the math. 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.200 So let's carry on back to those early early days 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:42.080 and to being a waiter here. What you were seventeen? Yeah, 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.159 that's really amazing. Yeah, and do you remember the story 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:47.839 of why you came or what happened? 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:49.960 I just was trying to make a bit of money 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:54.000 on my summer after well, yes, it was the beginning 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:55.920 of my gap year, and it was really the beginning 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.119 of my life because I was a very very shy 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.760 believe or not child, and still am as a person. 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.320 And actually cooking I have found in my life has 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.600 been something there's been the greatest sort of way of 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:14.400 counter acting being shy because you can. 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:15.560 Sort of have people over and. 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:19.599 Have parties and friends, but you can sort of also 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.360 be hiding behind this thing. And I think coming and 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.440 being a waitress was really the first time that I 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.159 had sort of been in life, like I knew I 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.520 was going to go to university, and I knew I 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.960 was going to go to Russia before I went to university, 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.800 having never really kissed a boy hardly, having never really 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.320 kind of hardly got drunk, having really lived a very 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.839 secluded life, and this was my sort of gateway to 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.240 the beginning of my life coming here. And I think 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.560 my parents had just said, you need to make a 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.800 bit of money, and why don't you be a waitress, 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.440 And they probably just asked you, and you very kindly 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:07.200 had agreed to have this completely callow, sort of just demented. 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:09.520 To have this absolute, fabulously beautiful, charming open. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:10.000 I had, you know. 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.520 I think shyness is a really interesting conversation because I 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:15.760 was at a dinner the other night and I said 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.040 to somebody that I stood outside the door. I hadn't 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.320 been to like a big dinner party for a long time, 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.640 and it was for Graydon Carter, and I said, I 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.160 kind of stood outside, really not wanting to ring that 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:27.200 doorbell go into a room of. 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:28.200 A whole lot of people. 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.240 And he said, well, I was at that doorstep too, 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.360 because I didn't want to go into a room. 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.600 And there are people who you just they just. 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.640 Assume that you're not shy when that things don't bother you, 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.720 when in fact there is that that terror. And I 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.040 sometimes do that of heading into the kitchen to safe 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.600 because I think Ruthie Rogers is here, so I'm really interested. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.000 But you just feel safe when you're in. 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.760 The kitchen and you can hide behind the business of 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:58.480 getting something ready and you don't actually have to sort 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:03.560 of properly being with the sort of responsibility. 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:04.400 Of talking trying to tell me that when she has 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.320 a dinner, you keep your apron aunts. You don't have 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:06.800 to talk to. 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:08.600 Thanks divulging that. 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.000 I find that if I got my chef's outfit, I'm 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.560 more confident if I was in my normal clothes. And 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:16.880 when I was trying to buy my car, I was 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.760 I was doing the deal with my chef's outfit because 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.760 I was much more like, yeah, I was like. 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.240 In the role I can totally imagine. 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:31.960 I think, yeah, we don't need psychiatrists. 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.559 Psycht I just said, yeah, I. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.880 Think we just marrier chefs Out'll give you mine to 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:39.800 take home today. 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.720 It's a natural barrier, like if I have to talk 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:44.920 to people, if I'm like people come to my house, 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:46.400 I keep my apron on it because. 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:51.240 It keeps me in the persona like really nervy. Well 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:51.920 it's funny though. 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.160 Also I was thinking about last night and coming to 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:59.640 your incredible dinner and just thinking it's it's and as 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.080 is coming to your restaurants. It's like you're entering this world. 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.240 And in a funny way, it feels like because people 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.040 think as an actor you're not shy because you're performing 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:10.640 all the time and you're putting yourself out there. 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.319 But as I said, that's really the only way you can't. 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:17.040 I can exist is by forcing myself into this. But 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:17.719 it's like. 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.800 Putting on a show in a way like having a 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:25.360 dinner or or having it's putting it's it's you know, 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.280 having having a restaurant or whatever, but even having people 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:29.040 for dinner. 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:29.360 In your own home. 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.680 I always feel like that it's you make it look 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:33.600 nice and you sort of put the music on them, 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.360 and you sort of light the fire and you can 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.360 create this kind of world that people set a stage set, 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.920 but it is all a kind of illusion and really 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:48.880 the sort of behind the scenes shouting at everybody to 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.160 tell you their bedrooms and anyway. So I feel very 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.040 I think coming to as a young Yeah, so that's 0:09:55.200 --> 0:10:01.199 call to this magical place. It felt like it felt 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.880 the best way of sort of forcing myself into life 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.840 because it was you and your family in Rose and 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:10.319 just it was a family. 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.880 Nineteen eighty nine. We opened in September eighty seven. Do 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:15.200 we teach you anything? 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.000 Yes, And you taught me basically taught me how to cook. 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:24.160 You taught me, but we opened the restaurants. Seventeen year 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.640 old was in the kitchen cooking. Yeah, no you didn't. 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.920 I wasn't cooking, but I was greating you as you 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.360 as a fact you were saying, they still do that here. 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:37.200 That the waiters that you you really become very familiar 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:39.200 with the food and you're making it, and you have 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.040 to get in earlier than most waiters would come to 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.080 do a job in a restaurant. So you get in 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:47.000 a few hours before and you create the parmesan or 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.640 a lot of the time was chopping up the basil 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.640 and the Parsley and things like that and just sort 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:57.000 of becoming. And I can always remember you saying, and 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:58.800 my mom says that to me. Ruthie always says, and 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.480 I said, I can remember it. Just get a good 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.839 smell going, you know. And that's true. I always think 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:05.680 of that as I'm cooking. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:05.800 Now. 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:07.560 It's just like, you know, it's going to be okay, 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:09.720 You've just got this good smell going. 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.440 And then I got about being a waiter who taught 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.720 you how to wait no one, and I still training. 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.719 That's the training of the river surf. I mean, it 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:19.520 really was. 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.040 I really sorry about Nemesis. When what was that story 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:26.000 about the Nemesis and the glass? I said, you broke 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.200 a glass over a Nemesis, a whole Nemesis. 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.320 I'm sure I did. I mean, I broke everything over 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:31.320 everything I was. 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:31.800 I was. 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.040 I just remember the dry cleaning bills that you guys 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:35.079 were having to pay on my. 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:39.000 Bar, so people that had red wine dropped in their lapse. 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:41.680 And I think that I think I've come to the 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.120 conclusion that actually being a waiter is a very difficult job, 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.079 and people don't really don't really. 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:50.880 Be nicer to waiters. 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.959 There's so much going on in your head at one 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.600 time where you really are having to try to remember, 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.160 and you could generally you can get from starter to 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.160 main course. That's okay, you can remember because you can 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.400 see you've take taken their plates away, but then you 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.440 take the main course plates away, and then you just 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:12.240 forget about them for hours because you just forget totally 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:13.720 to bring them there putting menus. 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:15.800 And then once they've had their pudding. I was just like, 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.320 you totally forget to have to pay a bill. 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:20.839 No, no, don't worry about the bill. That was always 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.400 the bit that un did me. I was remembering. But 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.080 then I was remembering the other day there was this 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.480 awful thing where I still feel guilty about this. This 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.280 man called I mean, I don't I think his name 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.000 was Dougal McDougall, and he was he was eating his 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.600 lunch here and there was a big Christmas lunch and 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.280 everybody was going bananas getting ready for you know, this service, 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.240 and then this lunch full of people and it was 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.080 a Christmas thing, and so all the people from all 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:51.080 the offices were having their Christmas lunches and and the 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.880 phone was going off the hook bananas. This phone kept 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:55.400 ringing and no one had time to pick it up. 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.040 The phone in the restaurant, and people picked it up 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:00.160 and took a reserve. 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.200 And I remember finally picking it up and thinking, because 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:06.520 I thought, maybe this is something you know, I needed, 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:08.280 you know, somebody needs to deal with this phone. And 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:09.760 I picked it up and I said hello, and the 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:13.080 woman said, oh, hello. You know you've got a mister 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:17.400 dougall McDougall dining with you today and he's urgently required 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.040 to the telephone. And I said, oh, yes, absolutely, I'll 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:21.400 find it for you. And I put the phone down, 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.800 and I thought, how do I find Google McDougall and 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:25.560 all these people? 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:26.959 And then I looked. 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:28.959 Around and I saw this man and I just thought, 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:31.200 I think you're Google mdog. 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:32.400 And he. 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.360 Had a sort of he was so sweet looking. He 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.480 had a sort of mullet hair and then a suit 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.680 that was slightly ill fitting, but you looked really lovely. 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.240 And anyway, I just thought, you're Google McDougal. I think 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:46.800 you are. And I went over and I said, are 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.720 you buy any chance, mister Doogle McDougall, And man said yes. 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:49.920 I am. 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:53.240 And I was so victorious, and I went to the 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:54.960 phone and I picked up them, and I said, he's 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.320 just coming, and he went and he and all lunch 0:13:57.400 --> 0:13:59.000 long and he had his phone, goll and it was 0:13:59.000 --> 0:13:59.400 all good. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:00.560 All lunchlong. 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.440 I was just so happy and laughing about this story 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.079 to myself, and it got me through the lunch. And 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.120 then at the end of lunch, I started telling all 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.520 the other staff and the waitresses and the chefs and 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.280 all about it, and everybody was laughing up roariously, and 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:15.800 I said, and I saw this man, and I just 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.440 knew out of everybody in this restaurant lot of people, 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:20.520 that had to be Doggle McDougall. Sure enough it was, 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:23.240 and I described as mullets and his badly fitting suits. 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:26.400 And then this little voice went, I'm still here, you know, 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.000 and it was Google McDougall, and he'd gone to the 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:31.480 loo while I was telling the story and. 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:32.840 Come out and heard me. 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.840 And I still to this daste wake up in the night, 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.120 just feeling bad for Doogle Mcdoggle. 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.080 If you're listening to this, I have a big apology 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.320 to make. I really feel bad. 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:48.960 The other nights when you heard, somebody came up to me. 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:50.680 This man came up with the felt and he said, 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.720 my wife is dying to beat you. I said, okay, 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:55.720 So I went over and I went listen, I hear 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:56.840 you're dying to meet me. 0:14:57.120 --> 0:14:58.520 And it was the wrong table. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:01.680 Dying. 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.440 We just tried to my table, and so you're dying 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:08.560 to me. So things, you know. 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:12.320 It was thirty five years later, it's still still. 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:13.120 But I do remember. 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.960 The Other thing I remember was that cell phones had 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:20.800 only just started, and people were they had phones in 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.920 their cars, and they were some of these men, these 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:27.280 sort of guys that were trying to show off and 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.720 be fancy, would go to the car park and phone 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.360 in there, putting orders from the car park to show 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:34.880 off about their phones. 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:39.240 We once had somebody when we had somebody was using 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.600 their cell phone outside and a wader went up and 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.000 for some reason said, you know, we'd prefer you not 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:49.360 to use your cell phone disturbing other people. She said, well, 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.040 I was trying to get the attention of a waiter. 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.640 She was actually calling reception to ask a waiter to. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.240 Come to her tail. So yeah, I mean, big waiter. 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.440 It's hard, really, it really is hard. It really is hard. 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.440 It requires an awful lots of concentration and your brain 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:07.080 has to be in about twenty five places. 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:09.280 Do you ever work anywhere else? No, of course not. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.280 I mean I was just I mean I was unemployab 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:13.120 all those waits. 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:16.400 It would be good to try at one more. I 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:17.400 should do one. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:18.840 Here? 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:28.080 Yeah, yeah, you happy to do it? Did you know? 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.720 The River Cafe has a shop. It's full of our 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.920 favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks and then in 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:38.560 Napkins kitchen were toat bags with our signatures, glasses from Venice, 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.840 chocolates from Durin. You can find us right next door 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.240 to the River Cafe in London or online at shop 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:55.120 Therivercafe dot co dot uk. Going back before you were seventeen, Yeah, 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.640 let's talk about growing up in the Mortimer household and food. 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.840 What were meals like at your well? 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.960 Yeah, dad was Dad could really cook and loved food, 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.320 but he was his He always said his favorite His 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:11.360 idea of good food is food you don't really need 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.600 teeth to eat, like no, like sort of mashed potato 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.639 or kedgeree was his favorite thing as sort of comfort food. 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.440 And I remember as a little little girl, my dad 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.320 always cooked me boiled eggs and toast soldiers. 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:24.159 That was the thing I was. 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.080 I used to say, get my eggs, you bugger gone 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.479 down in the morning, and send them back if they 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:30.000 weren't I mean. 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.800 I wasn't very dead. She said that I was a very. 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.160 Shy child, but I was not shy with my dad, 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:36.920 and so I would, Yeah, I would send back the 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.360 eggs if they went exactly cooked to my you know, 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:46.560 certain specificity, and if the toa soldiers went perfectly lightly blonded. 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:48.160 I was very annoyed. 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:53.160 But food, I mean, our family was such a sort 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:57.840 of place of love and also as all families, quite 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.960 dysfunctional in lots of wonderful ways. But the one thing 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.280 that they really always got right my mom and dad 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:07.600 was was meals, Like we always I can't remember not having. 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.720 I mean, we just always ate together where whether it 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:16.120 was at you know, dinner at home with mom Mum 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:20.000 normally cooking, or sometimes Dad, or in a restaurant, and 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.560 restaurants we just from our dad. Both me and Rosie, 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.199 my sister inherited just a love of restaurants, and his 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.320 attitude to restaurants was that it was just sort of 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.359 that there was no problem so great or sort of 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.080 heart so broken that it couldn't be slightly made better 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.320 by and delicious meal in a restaurant with a white 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.960 tablecloth and preferably a glass or three of champagne, and 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.879 that that you know, you that there was something so 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.320 cheering about going out for lunch or dinner in a 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.440 nice restaurant. And I think Rosie and I just still 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:56.280 have that. We're addicted to restaurants. Yeah, I just it 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.320 just feels like such a treat. It never stops being 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:01.480 a treat. And just sort of that feeling of being 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.359 cozy and with people you love in this kind of 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:08.080 special place. And and again another thing of that of 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.359 wherever you are in the world, finding a little key 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.359 into it. It's a way of getting to know people 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.160 and getting to know the place you're in and and 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.560 and finding some sort of, you know, place that feels 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:24.240 authentic to where you are and being there generally you're 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:26.680 with people you really like, eating good food and. 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.680 Tells you about the culture and take the place you are. 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:31.800 Did you Because I always think of your parents as 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:37.600 being incredibly social as well. Father was his playwright and 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.040 his you know, voyage around my father and he was 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.399 defending Oz Magnet was it was he was a Oz 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:49.320 trial and and the sex It's really radical lawyer who 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.080 was you know, on the forefront of every case that 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.520 was happening, with everything that was contentiously there was John 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:00.919 Mortimer and yet such a gentle and gorgeous man and Penny. 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:02.960 I say, the first time I met Penny, she was 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.320