WEBVTT - Wes Anderson 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.880 Welcome back to season three of Ruthie's Table four. We've 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:07.880 got a great group of people ahead, and we're going 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:11.360 to start with my good friend with a great director, 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:16.840 a great eater of food, appreciator of food, Wes Anderson. 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:23.920 I have a few philosophies in life, one of which 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:27.120 is to always say yes to Wes Anderson, my really 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.520 good friend, Ruthie. Should we get a sheet from upstairs 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:38.560 cupboard and screen fantastic mister Fox outside in the garden tonight, Yes, Wes, Ruthie. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.000 Shall we try again for the fourth time to make 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:47.520 a perfect Bellini? Yes, Wes, Ruthie. How about if we 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:52.320 invite all the kids and friends and watch Grand Budapest 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:56.200 Hotel before it opens in your living room in London. 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:57.480 Yes, Wes. 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.560 And most recently, Ruthie, I'd be happy to do podcast 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.800 with you. But could we do the interview by emailing 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.960 questions and answers back and forth to each other over 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.640 a few days or weeks, Yes, Wes. So here we 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:16.960 are Wes Anderson with Wes Anderson. A little strange, but 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:19.800 as always I said yes. 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.920 I'll just jump around with a few things. Maybe for 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.080 introducing myself. I don't know. If I'm responding to something 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:29.880 Ruthie is saying. Is Ruthie saying something at the beginning, 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.800 and then I'm chiming in. I'll wait to do that bit, 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:34.600 and then you can also anything you want me to 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:36.440 redo or add more. 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.440 I'll just give a few things to start. Maybe I'll 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:46.720 say I'll say hello, this is Wes Anderson. 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:51.440 I'm going to read you the recipe for the River 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:57.680 Cafe groast pigeon stuffed with kotaquino. This recipe serves six. 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:05.840 You'll need one small red onion, peeled and chopped, two 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:10.160 celery sticks chopped, two tablespoons of olive oil, plus twenty 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.240 five mili liters for the roasting tin to put that 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.160 on the side somewhere. You'll need one half ready cooked 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:23.720 cotaquino sausage, half a sausage, ten fresh sage leaves shredded, please, 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:29.680 five hundred milliters kianti. That's a more than a half bottle. 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:40.680 And finally you found it. You said it again, Where 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.679 did you find it? 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.079 Okay, I'll come see it in a moment. I'm just 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.640 going to finish this recipe. 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:56.400 Finally, perhaps most importantly, you'll need six breast pigeons. That's 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:01.200 six pigeons from the breast. I guess these are French pigeons. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:09.760 Breast I think is near near Lyon, near Genevas, south 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.160 of must be almost Burgundy or next to Burgundy, or 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:13.720 in Burgundy. 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:14.880 I'm not sure. They may. 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.320 Just make sure they're plucked and cleaned. Now, preheat the 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.440 oven to two hundred and thirty degrees celsius to make 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.600 the stuffing Soften the onion and celery in the two 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.680 tablespoons of olive oil for ten minutes over a low heat. 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:33.679 Small serpent, she says, remove the skin from the cotaquino 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.960 and crumble the meat with your hands. But this get 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:39.800 rid of this, put the skin somewhere else. Now, add 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.640 the cotaquino and sage to the onion and celery and 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:47.000 fry together for a few minutes. Then pour off the 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:49.920 fat from the pan and add two hundred and fifty 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.520 milli liters. 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:56.440 I'm going to continue. 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.280 Add two hundred and fifty mili liters red wine and 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.880 boiled to reduce by at least half season with black pepper, 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.640 and allow to cool before stuffing into the birds. Into 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.600 the six birds, heat the two hundred and fifty milli 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.160 liters of olive oil in a roasting tin over a 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.960 medium high heat. Then brown each bird all over, season 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.840 with sea salt and black pepper, and place the tin 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:27.120 in the top of the hot oven the upper shelf 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:31.599 inside the oven and roast for twenty minutes. Remove the 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.279 tin from the oven and take out the pigeons. 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:34.760 I'm not sure. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.520 Maybe we cook them a bit more through I'm not 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.200 sure how they come out twenty minutes, keep them warm, 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.520 Pour any excess oil out of the tin. Then add 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.480 the remaining red wine over a high heat. Reduce us 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:52.160 we got half the wine still to go, I think yes, 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.400 over a high heat, and so their pigeons are not 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.200 in there anymore. So okay, over a high heat, reduce 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.320 the liquid by half. So cook it until half it 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.080 goes away. I think all of the people who cook 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:02.400 know this. 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:04.000 I don't know that. 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.960 Then season with sea salt and black pepper, and then 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.640 this is your sauce. Pour it over the pigeons to serve, 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:17.839 maybe with some peese or something like that. You've read 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.520 the recipe for a pigeon. Why have you chosen this recipe? 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.560 Do you cook it yourself? When did you last eat it? 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:26.080 Were there any memorable moments that you ate it? Well, 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.960 I have not cooked any pigeon ever. I haven't cooked 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.279 any bird. I can't really cook. I can cook a 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.560 few things, but I have chosen the recipe for no 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.599 reason other than the fact that anytime I see this 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.520 pigeon on the River Cafe menu, I immediately order it. 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.720 Pigeon is my favorite bird anyway, and it ruined. Fact 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.240 once told me about an occasion when he ate a 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.880 pigeon and he literally began to cry out of happiness. 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:01.160 Jaman saw the actual tears. See. I'm in the. 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:06.320 Room here at the Chateau La Coste, which is extremely comfortable. 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.960 It's a great place. So far, I have not been out. 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.280 I haven't seen Richard's gallery yet, which I'm going to 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:19.000 go do in about an hour. I've just been doing 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.800 my work here in the room, which is really all 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.880 I wanted to do except for go see Richard's building. 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.680 You know one thing I thought might be worth mentioning 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:34.120 is for years we do often the first premiere of 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.239 a new movie I make ends up being one where 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.360 you're cooking at it at your house. We had the 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:44.800 first public screening of Grand Budapest hotel in Italy. Many 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.960 years ago we showed Fantastic Mister Fox on a sheet 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.279 and that was the first time anybody had seen it 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.719 outside of the production. We always plan to do one, 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.880 as you know, and we always eat very well afterwards. 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.240 Now I'm going to act like Ruthie's asked me about 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.159 how do we eat on our movies. Well, you know, 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.560 on our movies, what we do during the day. We 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.160 actually I don't like to stop work in the day. 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:13.880 On movies. 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.280 Often you stop and that there's a very long break, 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.360 and then it takes even longer to get back from 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:21.560 the break. So the way we've been doing it is 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.720 we have these little tables. They're made to be folded 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:27.480 into suitcases, and we set them up on the right 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:28.880 on the side of the set. And the people who 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.960 are actually working on the set, which is kind of 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.160 a small group. Other people working building sets and things, 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:37.960 they have a different experience. But the group on the set, 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.160 we have our lunch there and it's brought out. And 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:44.680 for years I tried to make it just soup and 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.120 to convince everyone that we would just eat soup and 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:48.240 then get right back to work. 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:49.760 But we did have some very good soups. 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.800 In Germany, there was a shop across the street from 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.440 the hotel that we lived where they would make soups 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:56.480 for us every day, but. 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.640 Most people don't just want soup. Eventually there was a mutiny. 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:06.200 In particular our key grip Sanjay Sammy said you can't 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.280 push a dolly all day and just only eat a 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:13.520 thin soup. We started bringing sanch his own steaks and things. 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.320 But the thing we do also is when we finish 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.680 the shooting for the day, we always have a dinner 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:25.000 with the whole cast and the department heads. 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:25.440 That group. 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:29.160 We all live together in a small hotel usually, and 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.920 we have our own little dinner room and cook We 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.000 always have great dinners at the end of the day. 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.960 Almost invariably, everybody who's working in the cast and in 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:44.120 those departments is there for dinner. Our costume designer usually 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.000 shows up very late, sometimes close to midnight, but we 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.280 keep a plate for her and usually a plate for 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:54.840 the extremely large team of helpers who roll in. It 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:59.559 just reinforces how dedicated she is because she works into 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:01.760 the late out. You know, I've done a lot of 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.480 work in restaurants over the years with no Ah boundback 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.280 and we wrote a movie in Barpeiti in New York. 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:11.400 We were there for probably six hours a day for 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.960 a year, and we still go there of course in 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:16.480 New York. 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:19.439 That's our canteen. 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.000 Ruthie am I allowed to turn the tables for a 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:38.480 moment in this podcast and ask about Well, I've always 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:43.920 loved the history of the River Cafe, you know, I've 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:48.280 looked at the plans that show how it grew over 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:52.119 the years from a little room which was a canteen 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:56.520 for Richard's firm, for Rogers, Sirk and Harbor. 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:57.439 Was it always called? 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:57.720 Was it? 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:00.200 Were those partners all there in the beginning? 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:02.320 Can I asked you to tell a bit about the 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.400 beginning of the River Cafe and what it was like 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.640 and who started coming there and was it only at 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.240 lunch at first? It reminds me of the commissaries of 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.720 the old studios, which used to be such busy places. 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.480 And I remember when Owen Wilson and I first went 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:23.960 to Los Angeles to go to work. Essentially we our 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.960 producers James L. Brooks and Polyplatt. They had their offices 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:29.920 were in the Sydney Poitier. 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.760 Building on the Columbia Lot, which was in Culver City. 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.600 And it was the which had been the MGM lot, 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.880 and the Commissary was still a busy place. I mean 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.880 there were sort of two, but I don't know how 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.120 much people use those anymore or if they're even there, 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.720 but they were play you know, when I'm. 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:50.319 Doing a movie. 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.000 When I'm working on a movie, I try to have 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.480 the lunch be briefest experience it possibly can be. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.080 We do it on the set. 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.280 We bring to tables onto the set itself, and the 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.040 people who are working on the set just have a 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.240 fifteen minutes or something like that. That's that's the way I. 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:09.600 Like to do it. 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:11.840 But I love to have a So I like the 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:17.640 idea of having the canteen right there in the workplace, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.880 but then to have a canteen that grows into the 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:21.600 river cafe. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.160 That's an unusual story. 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:29.800 Can I ask some nostalgic recollection of the beginnings of 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:31.120 it and the evolution of it? 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.880 Or I wes s it's Ruthie. I'm sitting here looking 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.120 at Santa Margharita. I'm watching you were here. It seems 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.360 wherever I go on holiday wish you were there, and 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.800 I can understand why. So it's interesting your question, and 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.640 I'm really happy to turn the table. Have you turned 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:52.920 the table on me? When Richard finished the Pompadou after 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.880 six years of living in Paris, working in Paris creating 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:01.360 that building, the view going back to London was to 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.760 create kind of almost like you were describing a studio 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:12.120 community with open space, with common rooms and a place 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:16.720 to eat, whether it was a commissary or canteen, that 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:18.960 there would be a place where people could meet and 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:22.240 talk of food. Very often what we did in Paris 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.880 in a cafe or a bar on the way to 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.720 the office or the way back. And I think what 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.640 he did not want was to be just an office 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:36.520 in a large building and then everybody disappeared at midday 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.760 and came back to work. So I think when they 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.280 found the warehouses on the Thames, it was completely ideal 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.439 because it wasn't out of the center, it was on 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.319 the river. It had the possibility of a green space. 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.719 He actually tore down a building that blocked the view 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:57.240 of the river and made that into a communal garden. 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.760 Because it was quite large, there were spaces taken by 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.640 other architectural firms. There was a space taken by a 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:10.240 set designer, there was one taken by a framer, and 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:14.240 so everybody was there doing different kind of creative things, 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.280 and then the challenge was where to eat, what to 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.560 do with that space. And I can remember very few 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.560 decisions or decisions I think that you can actually remember 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.160 being made in your life. But I do remember that 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:31.160 we were on a ski holiday in Switzerland and Richard 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:33.760 had sent out the office had sent out all sorts 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.520 of applications for people who might want to open a 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.760 restaurant or cafe, a canteen in the Thames Wharf. And 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:44.480 I turned to Richard and I said, you know, the 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.200 only thing worse not having a place to meet and 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:50.360 to eat, but to be have something mediocre. Maybe I'll 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.160 do it. And i'd come back from Paris. We had 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.360 just had bo who was by that time for where 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.080 as you know, was sort of fifteen with Jaman at 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:03.640 the American School, and so that's kind of how we 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.720 started the River Cafe. Rose and I knew that Rose 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.480 had worked with the McNally's in New York and she 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:12.840 was back in London really wanting to cook. And you know, 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.040 I was a domestic cook, so I knew nothing about 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.880 working in restaurants, but I always say also that restrictions 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.800 are sometimes the best things you can have, and we 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.320 definitely had restrictions. We had a very small space, we 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.680 had a very low budget of what we could create, 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:33.160 and we also had the council, which for some reason 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:38.240 really was against having anything in a residential area, so 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.840 they only allowed us to open to the people who 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:47.160 worked in the warehouses, and only at lunch. But then 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.840 as words spread that this was going on, that there 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.080 was a place in Hammersmith where you could go and 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:57.120 have aposta or a sandwich or Italian ingredients, that we 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.200 were starting to get Feimashler, in her first review of 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.760 The River Cafe wrote in The Evening Standard, I'm going 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.160 to tell you about a restaurant you cannot go to. 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.160 And of course it was a big struggle for us 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.640 because it was very hard to make money. We were 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.280 competing not against other restaurants or cafes, but against the 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:21.080 sandwich girl who would bring sandwiches on her bicycle. So really, 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.120 like your idea of the commissary in a film or 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:30.160 working in a film and having tables brought in was 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.920 exactly what Richard wanted to have a place where people 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.560 could work, eat, go over for a coffee talk about 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.160 a drawing. That's why we had the paper tablecloths, and 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.480 we still do, so that the architects could draw while 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.640 they sat there. We also wanted to be much more 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.920 cafe can to me, because if we had linen tablecloss 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:54.040 or no table class, it wouldn't be right. And in fact, 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.560 not long ago, the Michelin people came in and said, 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:58.440 you know, we could give you a second star, but 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.760 you've got to lose the paper. That is something we'd 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:02.840 rather have than a star. 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.880 I think that it's best to have paper tablecloths, not 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.560 just on every table everywhere, but on every surface everywhere, 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.520 because you never know, something always comes out of the 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.760 fact if you have a paper tablecloth and a pen, 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:21.320 this is always a great combination. Everybody's going to do something. 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:26.440 So here's me pretending we're having the conversation again. Well, 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:30.240 I live partly in Paris, and when we're in England, 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.360 where we partly live, we eat at home every night, 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:37.120 and when we're in Paris we go out to dinner 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:37.720 every night. 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:39.640 When I was first. 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.680 Kind of living in Paris or spending more time in Paris, 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.680 Juman and I, Juman, my wife, we used to try 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.800 new restaurants continuously and then over the years. The thing 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.560 I is my favorite kind of restaurant is a restaurant 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:59.800 where I've already been a restaurant where I know the place. 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:01.680 I I sort of know where I would like to 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:05.040 sit and what I want to order already. And in France, 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.440 I think it if you're a foreigner, it helps if 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.520 you're a familiar face in the restaurant, if you've been 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:17.399 there thirty times, that's a good way to. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:18.280 Establish yourself there. 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.960 I will say in France, I have a tendency to 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.800 eat the now I wouldn't call them the healthiest dishes, 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:31.760 the confie of duck and quite a few lamb chops 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:33.560 and more pigeon. 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:37.000 You asked about bar Luce and Milan. 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.920 Well, you know, we made this sort of restaurant bar 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.240 bar Lucca in Milan. It's what Mutual Product wanted, something 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:48.439 like a kind of classic spot. 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.560 And the sandwiches are very good. They make extremely. 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:56.520 Good cocktails and things, and lots of sweets and things 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.479 like that gelato. I guess I was trying to make 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.840 a place, try to draw on different places we love, 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.600 like a bit of Nino in Rome and a bit 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.280 of a place called New York burgher town. That's on 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:12.879 what is it forty third Street, fifty I can't even 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:17.840 remember where it is. Near Saint Piez. Is that the cathedral? Gosh, 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:19.959 I can't remember where it is. They have these if 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.560 it's still there. They have these tables where you sit 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.399 more like desks with little arms to the tables, wondering 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.280 if there one is the one to mention in Paris 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:30.960 or Rome. In Rome, we like to go to Nino, 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.919 we like to go to Tulio, we like to go 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.639 to Pure Luigi. But maybe our other favorite place to 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:42.840 go eat in the world is Tokyo. Every now and 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:47.760 then we find ourselves in Japan and there as careful 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:54.680 and interesting and inventive and perfectionist with with their cooking 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.639 as anyone in the world. Maybe I guess on some 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:04.080 level it's the Japanese food and the Italian food that 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:09.399 leads the way these days. I particularly love Japanese food. 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.680 But you know an interesting thing. The last time we 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.840 were in Japan, we were there for a couple of 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:19.000 weeks probably, and at the end of our stay, our 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.840 friend Con had been trying to convince us to go 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.240 to this Italian restaurant, and I was I don't want 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:31.720 to go to Italian restaurant Signal Inoteca. The chef was 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:36.639 called Toshiji Tomori. Well, anyway, finally the last night we 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.639 were there, we just went with going to the Italian place. Well, 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:44.360 you would be very impressed because it would be one 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.600 of the better ones outside of Italy and the River Cafe. 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:53.200 I'll act like you asked about when we went on 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.480 the boat. Yes, we went on the Queen Mary too, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.159 and we had a group with us Jason Schwarzman and 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:06.480 Roman and Roman's wife Jenny, and Tilda Swinton, Sandro cop 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:09.720 and me and my wife Juman and we really all 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.439 had a great time. I mean when the boat arrived 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:16.959 from New York to England, we tried to convince them 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.760 to let us sail on to Germany, but they had 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.600 to bump us out of our rooms. And we showed 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:26.960 our movies and things and did little talks during the journey. 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:29.160 One of the great things was we had this room 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.879 and it was on the opposite end of the boat 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.360 from the kitchens. I mean there are probably many kitchens 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:41.320 on there, but we often arranged to have a curry 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.840 dinner that we watched them roll the cart down a 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:49.399 corridor that's probably about a kilometer long, and it was 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:49.800 very good. 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:58.479 We had very good dinners on that boat, all right. 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:03.400 So Wes Anderson, there was Wessa Anderson, Michael Caine, and 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.640 Jake John who are our first three podcasts, and when 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:09.240 we didn't really know what we were doing with thought 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:11.920 we might be just doing a recipe. So we asked 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:15.400 Wes to choose a recipe, and he chose a recipe 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.560 from the Blue Book, which was published in nineteen ninety four, 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:24.040 soon to be thirty years old. And it has canty classico, 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:28.359 it's stuff with codaquino, and it's a breast pigeon, which, 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.360 coming up to Christmas is very christmasy. It's a bit 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:34.919 like the Blito misto using the kurdaquino kanti. What do 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:35.600 you think about that? 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.240 It's one of those dishes that people who have worked 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:40.680 in the River Cafe a long time ago come back 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:42.760 and eat and they're like, it's like the menu was 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:45.840 very from when I was here before, because it's one 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.639 of those dishes. It's timeless. It's a timeless dish, isn't it. 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:52.040 I remember when I learned to cook pigeon when I 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.240 was a young chef heir and how you guys would 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:58.679 would say, don't cook it, like if we're in rules 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.000 or a gentleman's dining club. It's not got to be 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:04.879 served so pink that it's ripping off the bone. It 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.679 can be cooked more like an a rosta misto and 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.160 cooked so it's so it's maybe cooked a bit slower, 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:14.720 but so you can eat the whole. Yeah, pigeon. And 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.520 you know, Riches would literally the whole pigeon. 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.719 You see him cutting off the legs and picking them up. 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:24.800 It's a great bird to have when we don't have 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.520 the game season, so when we don't have grouse or partridge, pheasant, 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:31.680 and then we can have pigeon, you know, all through 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:35.880 the other seasons. Now yeah, I mean as as an animal, 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:38.560 I might offend people, but I really have a real 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:39.720 version to pigeons. 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:43.080 Generally, maybe the Brits like the thought of eating them 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:45.199 rather than have a sere. 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:49.960 I was trying to Danny about it, and he was saying, 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:53.040 you know, pigeon in a way, it's so rich. I 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.440 kind of can also almost taste like fois gras. 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:58.600 Yeah, it's one of the ingredients that we can be 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:01.520 flamboyant with. I feel you can put things with it 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:03.240 that you think that I can do a really decadent 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.879 dish with this pigeon. Often you can put things like lardo, 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:10.960 fresh chestnuts, cook it in vincanto if you want to 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:14.879 be really swanky, and you can really change the dish 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:16.520 by just altering even the wine. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:18.800 Yeah, I like doing it, so, especially when we do 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:21.119 velshin and red wine and you're thinking of using so 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:23.639 much red wine, and then you think about what we 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:26.879 can use as a white wine, as you say, vincenta 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:28.160 white wine. 0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:30.040 But we do them on bread that we can do 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:34.440