WEBVTT - Judd Apatow 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.880 You're listening to Ruthy's Table four in partnership with Montclair. 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:08.280 I may not know what makes a good comedian, but 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.039 I do know what makes a good father. And last night, 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.640 when I met Judd Apatow in the West End production 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.760 of Cabaret in London, where his daughter Maude is playing 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.680 the lead role of Sally Bowles, he told me this 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.480 was the eighth time he'd seen it in three weeks. 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:25.800 And if I may not know what makes a good comedian, 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.400 Judd certainly does. His advice to kickstart your writing process, 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:32.520 come up with a topic and write down as many 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.640 jokes or one liners as you can think of. Don't 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.800 be scared if your first draft doesn't want to make 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:39.839 you laugh out loud, or if you don't find your 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.400 own writing funny. I think they are definite parallels in 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.880 comedy and cooking, and I can imagine paraphrasing the second 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.199 sentence telling an aspiring chef not to be scared if 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.760 the first attempt doesn't taste right. Comedy and cooking children 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.360 and acting and laughing and eating movies and restaurants. Today 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:00.640 we're here in the River Cafe, and Jed and I 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.440 will cover them more for after all I said and done, 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:09.480 life is a cabaret. I agree with that eight times. 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:12.640 Times this weekend too. 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:16.160 So lovely, yeah, why not? So I want to talk 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.400 to you about cabaret. But for the moment you've just 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:22.200 come from the pastry kitchen or the recipe you chose, 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.520 pistachio ice cream is being made. 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.760 I'm Bellatups, I'm the head past chef at the River Cafe, 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.120 and these are our ice cream machines and they've actually 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:38.840 got quite a small drum make like roughly two liters 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.959 of ice cream. Here is our lovely pistachio base, which 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:47.720 is essentially plain custard that has had the pistashia paste 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:54.000 stirred through it. We do churn. It makes a delightful 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.520 noise probably, I mean for this amount, it will take 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.440 like four or five minutes, like nothing crazy. So you 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.200 can have a look on the topic. You can see 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.800 it's sort of lightly creasing. We know that it's nearly there, 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:11.000 but I'll turn it to churn. Then this will just 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:16.840 go into the freezer until it's frozen fully. And in 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.679 the restaurant what we do is just before service, we'd 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.280 get the ice creams out to temper you mean like 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.200 you would do at home, so that you can get 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:29.080 a lovely scoop from it, but that it only takes 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:34.239 like five minutes, but just make sure you're using a 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:36.600 cupful of hot water and dipping your scoop in every 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.720 time so you get a perfect scoopy. 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.200 Thank you very much, pleasure jost. 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:42.560 Lovely to meet you too. I hope you have a 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:43.079 lovely meta. 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:47.760 What did you think? 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:50.840 I'm always impressed by people who know how to cook, 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.040 because as much as I like food, I don't have 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.720 enough interest in making it because I always feel like 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:58.600 there's someone who makes it better, fair enough. So why 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:00.960 would I make myself mediocre food? I can go to 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.040 you and get great food. Like it's been eight hours 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:05.960 doing the bad version of what you do. 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.880 Well, would you like to start by reading the recipe 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:10.200 for the pistachio ice cream? 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.200 Okay, this is the pistachio ice cream recipe from the 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:21.480 River Cafe. It serves ten or me alone. One thing 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:23.840 I learned during the pandemic is it is possible to 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:26.519 eat a pint of ice cream, finish it, and then 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:31.120 start another one and finish it. Okay, here's what you need. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.320 You need two hundred grams of unsalted, shelled pistachios, four 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:40.000 hundred grams of castor sugar, plus an extra eighty grams, 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:46.080 seven hundred milli liters of full fat milk, no oat milk, 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:51.760 the real stuff, three hundred milliliters double cream, and ten 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.520 large egg yolks. You know, in every performance of Cabaret, 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:58.840 it's a scene where Mode has a crack open an 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:04.480 in a cup and eat it on stage every night. 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.120 That's acting for you. That is disciplined. No, it's to 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:08.440 do that. 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.240 It's like that movie with a Nick cage where he 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:13.920 I think it was vampire's kiss and he ate a 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.360 bug in it like a cockroach in a scene. That's 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:18.200 Mod's equivalent. 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:20.680 Yeah, i'd ag a day is quite a lot. 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.039 It's a very method. Okay, here we go. Roast the 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:29.039 pistachios in a dry frying pan over medium heat. Blend 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.320 roasted pistachos in a food processor with eighty grams of 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.040 sugar and mix to a fine paste. Heat the milk 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:40.000 and cream to just below boiling. In a bowl. Beat 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.960 together egg yolks and four hundred grams of sugar. Add 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.320 warm milk and cream into the egg and sugar. Return 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:51.080 this custard mixture to a thick bottomed pan and cook 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:55.279 slowly over heated and low heat until it reaches eighty 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:59.320 two degrees. Remove from the heat, stir in the pistachio 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.400 paste and then or through a fine sieve. 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:04.640 Or what do we call it in our country? We 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:06.440 call it a strainer. 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.560 A strainer into a bowl and leave to cool. Cool, 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.000 then churn in an ice cream machine. You gotta get 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:13.760 an ice cream machine. 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:14.719 Oh yeah, I do have one. 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.960 No, I don't dangerous so to be for me to 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:19.320 own my own ice cream machine and. 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:25.520 Making pints and pipes. So when you are making a movie, okay, 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:27.840 you're on the set of forty year Old Virgin, one 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:31.279 of my favorites, or Knocked Up? What do you do 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:32.240 about food for your. 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:37.080 Crew on a movie? Every day lunch is basically a buffet, 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:42.680 and I have trouble not taking too much from any buffet. Yeah, Like, 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.360 that's one of my issues is like this, you know, 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.159 fried chicken there, I'm not going to get like one wing. 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:50.960 I mean, I'm gonna like it's hard for me not 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.160 to take full advantage. So when I make movies, for 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:58.240 the most part, I don't I can't go to where 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.840 the food is, like there's usually a tent. I have 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:03.719 to just have someone tell me what's there and have 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.120 them bring it back. And because I'll just go to 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.960 like the cheap lemon cake, you know, like I'll have 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.599 ice cream Sundays, and then I fall asleep in the afternoon, 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.000 and I told, like, I get really. 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:19.960 Tired, and you like eating because it makes you feel 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:21.839 such up, but you have to go back to work, right, 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.560 So then so you are careful. I mean, well you 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:26.640 don't go to thee But then I mean. 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:28.560 I get weak. So usually about like two thirds through 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.279 a movie, I lose my will and then by the 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.479 end I'm just gaining weight and binging. But but for 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.240 a while, I'll try to control myself. Although when we 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.440 shot The King of Staten Island, we were shooting in 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.280 Staten Island. We were there for months, and they got 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:47.840 good pizza and Staten Island, so it was pretty hard 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.400 not to flip out for pizza. But if I could 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.159 like lose weight before a shoot starts, then by the 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.560 end of the shoot I am overweight, but not insanely overweight. 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.599 I have to like get a lower baseline to start, 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:03.240 so I have to pretend I'm like Christian Bale playing 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.080 a skinny person and I like lose weight to begin 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:07.200 and then it falls apart. 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:08.719 What are you writing at the moment? 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.000 I'm trying to write a movie right now to shoot 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:17.120 next year, which is you know, it's a little bit 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.200 about like what's happening in the world of comedy at 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.600 this moment where everyone doesn't know what they can say. 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.680 So I'm trying to write about people not knowing where 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:26.320 the line is. 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:28.080 Do you do you know where the line is? 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.840 Well, for me, the line is never that complicated, because 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:34.280 I think if your heart's in the right place, people know, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:39.040 and if your point is reasonable and kind, you can 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:41.200 get away with all sorts of things. I think people 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.640 can tell when you're being outrageous with no real point 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.800 to it, and some people love that, and I think 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.560 that's fine. I think it's fine for anyone to enjoy 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.440 anything like It's like music. You might like heavy metal, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.280 you might like country music. Everyone picks their flavor. I 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.840 think it's hard when people feel like they're getting force 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.040 fed the flavor they don't want and then suddenly like 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.560 why you have to say, well, you don't have to 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.320 listen to that or watch that, but it's definitely a 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:11.480 tricky time. So I'm trying to. 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.440 Find it be a movie about a comedian. 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.920 Not a comedian about a writer. And so I just 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:19.760 finished the draft of that. Hopefully I'll get to do 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:20.600 that next year. 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.680 One of my favorite movies of a long, long time 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:24.960 ago was King of Comedy. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.720 Yeah you like That Jerry Lewis and Robert de Niro 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.760 and Sandra Bernhard one of my favorite movies. Loved it 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.199 when it came out, wasn't a big hit. It came 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:39.240 out after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, so the 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.840 whole plot line of kidnapping a celebrity freaked people out 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:47.920 a bit and also obsessed fans freak people out at 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.440 the time. But as the decades have passed, I think 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.160 people realize it's one of Martin Scoressy's best movies. 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.640 I haven't seen it again, I have so many times 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:56.679 I'd like to see it. 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.520 In fact, it's one of the movies I watch to 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:04.920 pay attention to the cinematography and the shot selection because 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.440 it's very alive, but it's covered in a way that 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.920 really works for comedy. So seeing how Scorsese shoots humor 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:15.800 is really helpful, so I always watch. 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.520 It for me. What was interesting about that was the 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.320 movie was the idea that comedians had to be funny, 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:25.439 And you know, is Steve Martin funny? Is Meilbrooks funny? 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.600 As I think when I did my talk about Mailbrooks, 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:31.480 I said something that people we always think about as 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:33.520 a man who makes us laugh, but I also think 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:37.120 about the man who talks about bankroft and what happened 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.680 when she died. There is the pressure, as someone who 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.640 writes about funniness or humor to be funny. Do you 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:45.880 feel that people expect you? 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.080 I mean, it is a weird pressure to try to 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.000 be funny in your work all day. It's kind of 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.840 an unnatural state. You know. Most people don't try to 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.480 be funny that often. So imagine sitting in office and 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.440 trying to be funny for ten straight first. I mean, 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.320 it's you're kind of a weird person to like just 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.160 be in that gear all the time and looking for 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.920 it all the time. So it does get a little 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.160 exhausting to be in that headspace looking at life through 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.440 that lens. Ye, what's weird about this? What's funny about this? 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.559 The good part about it is that when you're in comedy, 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:18.240 when bad things happen, you don't go oh, no, a 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.080 bad thing happened, You go, oh, this would be a 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.840 great story. And so sometimes when things go really bad, 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.720 like I threw out the first pitch at a Mets 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.600 baseball game, and I thought, well, if it goes bad, 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:32.200 it's a good story, and if it goes good, it's 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.040 just good. And so there is a way of looking 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:35.480 at life. 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:36.360 How did it go? 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.120 It wasn't in the middle. It wasn't bad enough to 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:41.920 be a good story, and it wasn't good enough to 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:44.320 not be a triumph. It was just like, that's a 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:44.760 big deal. 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.520 That's a big deal getting to to I mean again, 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.120 for the listeners who may live in some other country. 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:51.480 That's where was it. 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.280 It was a city field in New York and it 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.079 was the Mets versus Yankees, so it was sold out. 0:10:56.080 --> 0:11:01.640 There were fifty two thousand people there. Yeah, and was terrifying. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.480 And I always joke that the worst part was when 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:08.880 they announced me throwing out the first pitch. I didn't 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.920 really get more than a very small smatter of applause, 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.080 and I thought, I think I'm more famous than this. 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.200 I mean I'm from New York, aren't I a beloved 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:19.000 son of New York? And I realized that no one 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:19.720 cares about me. 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:21.280 It was they just wanted the game to start. 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.440 It was like a politician was doing it. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:26.920 Yeah, maybe they don't do it for anyone. Absolutely, did 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:27.880 you grow up in New York? 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.560 We lived on Long Island where siast would bury. Area 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.400 of Long Island. A lot of bagels being eaten there. Yeah, 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:37.760 it's a big bagel town. At midnight, you'd go to 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:39.559 the bagel place while they were cooking him and get 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:40.520 them right out of the oven. 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:45.000 There's nothing like a bagel that's Also, West Coast isn't 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.280 as good? Is it that New Yorkers always say it's 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.160 Some people have said it's the water that makes it good. 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.720 Then we heard that theory that they say the reason 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:54.640 you can't have a good bagel outside of New York 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:55.800 is the water in New York? 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:57.920 Is that true? You understand how the bread works? 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:01.360 Because also I think that maybe i've had bagels. It's 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.000 really hard to insult a country's bagels. 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:07.280 When someone has a good bagel. 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.080 But we know. But they took me once to the 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:13.080 East End to what's that street? Do you know Bricklay 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:16.800 Brickday bagels And they're bagels and the British are really 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.000 really proud of them. So I have got a podcast 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:21.439 that I would like to go on and on. So 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:23.280 I won't say I think that, but when you have 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.280 a New York bagel, it makes all the difference, you know, 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:28.520 I think that. But I don't know about La bagels. 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:30.080 How are they? Theyre pretty much the same. 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.680 There's some people who seem to have cracked the code. 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:34.720 I don't know, they're bringing some water from New York 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:36.760 or maybe the whole water thing is a mess. 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.439 That the whole thing is a mess. Yeah, rightly and everybody. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.400 So you grew up in Long Island eating bagels and 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.360 smelling bagels, and what was the food like in your house? 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:50.120 Uh? Not impressive. I can't say my late mother was 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:57.280 a master chef. We had a very small rotation of chicken, chicken, cutlet, salmon, 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:02.800 sometimes like a pot roast. Our. Vegetable was usually peas 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.560 and corn. I don't think broccoli got cooked in my house. Yeah, 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:09.800 I think I refused to eat a salad till mid twenties. 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.880 Yeah, maybe you didn't know, but we didn't grow up 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:12.439 on salads. 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:14.120 There wasn't a lot of salads, A lot of Chinese 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:14.800 food happening. 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:16.400 There was going out for it. 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:19.760 Going out fair amount of McDonald's happening. But then my 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.040 parents opened a restaurant. 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:23.960 Oh yeah, so just going back one step, your mother 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:25.760 would cook the pot roast of the chicken. 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.000 Did she work well? They owned a restaurant. 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.360 And then when she was doing the restaurant, you come 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.280 home and have supper. How many in the family There. 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:39.400 Was five, five of us children. And at some point 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:41.400 I think my mom made all the cakes for the restaurant. 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.800 She started cooking the desserts for it, and I was 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:45.600 a dishwasher. 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:46.560 Was a restaurant. 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.760 It was called Raisins, and it was like, I don't 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.800 know what you would call it, American continental. It was 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.520 like steak, lobster, chicken, parmesan. It was it seemed like 0:13:55.800 --> 0:14:00.120 some Italian some hamburgers. And I you know, they bring 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:02.679 in a big bag of muscles, Give me a brush. 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.560 I'd have to clean the muscles and pull the hair 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.000 out of the muscles. What a nightmare. No one, No 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.320 one's paid enough money to rip hairs off a mussel. 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.319 I have nightmares about someone going can you do the 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:15.280 muscles today? 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:17.160 We'll go check it the way we could have set 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.520 up pistachio ice cream. We could. Well, we don't do muscles. 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:20.360 Actually, I don't know. 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:22.520 I don't like muscles that much. I like clams, but 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:23.600 I'm not a big muscle. 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:26.360 I'm not. I didn't mind peeling the potatoes and give 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.200 me a fifty pound bag of potatoes. I'm happy to 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.040 feel them cut them into French fries. Myself. I got 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:31.640 no issue with that. 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.560 So let's go back to raisins. Your father, he wasn't 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:36.200 a chef, so they just did it as a business 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:36.960 as a business. 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:39.320 So before that he was he was working in the 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.880 record business. And well, my grandfather was a jazz producer 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:47.560 who produced Charlie Parker and the first Janis Joplin record. 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:48.720 His name was Bobby Shadd. 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:50.840 What was the first Janis jop record? 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.640 It was called Big Brother in the Holding Company, which 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:55.120 is her first album. 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.440 My generation. Yeah, and that I can remember the cover 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.120 of the the Big Brother. Yeah, hold on take a 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:03.800 little piece of My Heart right, that's right. 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:06.360 That was on that record that dad produced, that my 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.360 grandfather did, Your grandfather, it had that song down on 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:14.440 me a song of hers. And so my father worked 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.320 for him when I was a kid for a while, 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:21.400 and they had some friends and owned a tennis equipment store, 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.560 and then they all went into business with this restaurant. 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:25.280 In your local town. 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.400 My local town. I remember, well, I was getting four 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.720 bucks an hour. I was so excited. I started working 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.080 there at fifteen, and then I became the salad man. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.080 Oh I see, so you were actually right in there. 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.480 And then my friend Ron Gardner started. He was on 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.320 the grill making the steaks and the burghers. How old 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.520 was he He was probably seventeen. And then at the 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:48.160 end of the night, you know, we'd steal a lobster 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:48.760 and head home. 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.000 Wow. And this went on, but then you'd go to 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:51.880 school the next day. 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.560 I hope we went to school. But we loved making money, 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:57.400 is the truth. You know, to be sixteen seventeen and 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:01.160 have a little pocket money was was fun. And we 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.320 put in a lot of hours, like we really worked there, 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.920 you know, three or five nights a week, and they 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:08.640 so you can go to. 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.280 School, come home, eat, do your homework, and then go 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:12.280 to the restaurant or not. 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.040 Do your homework maybe sometimes sometimes no homework. 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:17.160 Yeah, And did they do that because it was hard 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.680 to get stuff, or was it that they wanted you there, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.560 or was the incentive of having your kid just kept 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:25.320 me out of the house and they were out of 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:26.000 that Your mom. 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:27.640 Was what did sheep me out of trouble? 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:28.640 What did she do there? 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:30.080 My mom? 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:32.000 Did she cook in the kitchen? Uh? 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.480 No, just just at some point she started doing the cakes. 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:37.680 I don't know if anyone wanted her to do the cakes. 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:39.920 It's also the key. Was it a good Maybe she 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:41.680 was forcing the cakes on everyone. I'm not saying she 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:43.600 was good at it. I'm just saying she did it well. 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.720 Did The question is did the restaurant carry on? Did 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:47.840 to have a good? 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.080 Lasted a little while and then they sold it to 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.960 someone Those people couldn't pay the money that they owed, 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.520 and then they got it back, and then they owned 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.000 it for a few more years and then they sold it. 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.360 But it was a really fun part of our childhood. 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:03.800 And rumor has it Billy Joel ate there once. I 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:05.840 know you have a lot of celebrities here and all 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.880 the doctor Dre's eating here, but we had one Billy 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.320 Joel sighting in our whole history of the restaurant. 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:14.399 I used to have seen him. 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:16.960 Do you know I have met Billy Joel a few times? 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:18.800 Did you ever come to my caro? 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:20.680 I may have? 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.120 Might say that was the best cake I've ever had. 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.879 That's a big thing on Long Island is a Billy Joel. 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:29.240 You know you had that song scenes from Italian restaurant 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.160 and so every Italian restaurant claimed it was written about 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:34.119 their place. 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.520 I see, but not yours because wasn't Italian. 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.640 So it wasn't Italian. Yeah, we thought that our local pizzeria, 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.159 Christiano's was what he was writing about. 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.440 Did you know The River Cafe has a shop. It's 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.720 full of our favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks, linen, napkins, 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.800 kitchen ware, toad bags with our signatures. Class is from Venice, 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.080 chocolates from Turin. You can find us right next door 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:07.639 to the River Cafe in London or online at shopth 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:18.320 Rivercafe dot co dot uk. Did you ever sit down 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:21.359 for dinner with your parents around the table? Yes, for 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:22.960 the restaurant or during the restaurant. 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.399 Well, my parents got divorced when I was in middle school, 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:28.480 and then I would do a fair amount of cooking 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.119 for myself, Like I was very excited to learn how 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.440 to use a walk. Okay, that was a big thing. 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.560 To cut up steak and broccoli and just pour an 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.880 enormous amount of Kikuman's soy sauce. And then I thought 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.320 that was cooking. It was a three ingredients meal. 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:46.359 Yeah, how did you come upon that? I wonder, But 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:48.359 I think it was a period when everybody did walks, 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:50.040 but for a teenage. 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:51.440 Kid to do that, we thought that was fun. And 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:53.880 also I remember on my kitchen island at home as 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:57.439 a kid, it was a grill on the kitchen island. 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:00.440 So I used to make hamburgers and I really felt 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.879 like a chef, just like taking my hamburgers every day 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.280 and then my comfort food. I would come home. All 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.120 my friends played sports and I didn't, so I would 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.080 come home by myself and I'd watch like talk shows 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.040 and I would cook a grilled cheese sandwich. I would 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:22.920