October 14, 2024 • 20 mins
We have just one week until the new series of Ruthie’s Table 4 starts on the 22nd October!
And in just 21 days, the U.S. Presidental election will be underway.
This week we are revisiting an episode from Series 2 with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Considered the most powerful woman in American political history, she recalls how her five children would help her prepare dinners for the Democratic Party in the early days of her political career, her memories of childhood meals in Baltimore, and her love of everything chocolate.
Ruthie’s Table 4, made in partnership with Moncler.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to River Cafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
and Adamized Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Is it, Seve? What time is it? Is it seven? Okay?
Well they want us.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
To not time to eat yet.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
But a few weeks ago a very special person came
to dinner at our home, Speaker of the United States
House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I can't wait, I can't.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Wait up tonight. We're having two chocolate desserts.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I saw on that. Okay, I was thinking, that can
make that my whole meal. I mean that I won't.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Before greeting the other guests, Nancy and I talked together
about food and politics, food and family, food in her
Italian American childhood, and being the mother of five children.
We also spent quite a lot of time talking about
our shared passion for chocolate ice cream.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
My husband and I got married, we lived in New York,
now New York for me. When I was a young girl,
a child, really, our family would go to New York regularly.
We'd go to plays, we'd go to dinner. All that
New York was like heaven. So here. We were young,
married in Manhattan. Paul was working, but we didn't have
(01:27):
children yet.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
The first year, and what kind of restaurants would you
seek out?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
We had, shall we say, champagne taste and beer bottled purses.
So we did say that and go We would go
to the best restaurants as if we were entitled, almost
or we would just go to the neighborhood Italian American
restaurant in New York or something, or the corner place
(01:53):
to have whatever it was. But New York was great because,
for example, if you wanted to have chopped chicken livers,
oh my gosh, the best place in the world for
chopped chicken. You know, anything you wanted the best was
there carry out that would be. But we were largely
into dining out. Yeah, then we had children, and then
(02:13):
it was more.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Than And so when you when you were.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Bringing up the children, did you follow your mother's footsteps?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Did you have somebody helping? No?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
No, we had no help none. I mean that was
a different world. When you have five children in six years,
help doesn't come anywhere near your house. They take detours.
So you mean help wouldn't come near you, Oh my gosh, no,
why would they. You could go work with somebody with
one child or two children. Why would they going to
(02:43):
work with somebody with five children?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So how did you do it?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
It was intense. It was intense, but I would love
to do it all over. Then it was the most
glorious thing.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
You've lived in an apartment in New York? Or was
that time you were in San Francis?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Were?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well? We had four children New York?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
We did.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
We left New York. We had four children, the oldest
was four, and we had a lovely apartment in Beakman Place,
and then we moved to San Francisco and had a
big home. I mean, we didn't realize how small our
apartment was until we moved into a home in San
Francisco and that was lovely. And then we had our
fifth child there.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
And how did you cook for five children? Did you
both cook? Did you cook?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
How did you feed them healthily? Yeah, they'll not say
that I was a great cook. I mean it was
standard fare. And then as they got older, I just
got tired of washing pots and pants. I didn't want
to wash anymore pots and pans. So I developed a
(03:47):
practice where I would go to some place like MacArthur Park,
which was a restaurant then that had the greatest ribs. Okay,
or we go to the Rocas, which was a seafood place.
I would go to Chinatown Peking Duck and I would
make a salad and I would bring home this And
it wasn't strictly carry out like.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Fast food.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
It was delicious food from these restaurants. We have this
meal Linen's salad. So when I went to Congress, my
youngest daughter, Alexandra, she said, mother, I'm so proud of
you because you're a pioneer. I said, really, because I'm
a woman member of Congress. She said, no, Remember when
(04:31):
you used to cook and then you stopped. Well, now
a lot of people stop cooking, but you were the
first to stop.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Oh good, that's good that you pioneer. Oh, it is
a liberation, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
It can be creative cooking, It can be exciting, it
can be relaxing.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I think it a family affair.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, it's a lovely thing. But three times, and with
five children, five will get you ten every time because
they bring So it's a thing. But the pots got me,
the pots and pants that got me.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
So you got you got that's good. And then the
children got older. You then became more and more involved
in politics and participates.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Always said, we're in school all day.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
How did food fit into that life?
Speaker 4 (05:16):
I mean, how did it fit into working and being
a working mother.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Well, the children would call it child labor. But we
would have many events at our home all the time,
and we always had food. You know, the Democrats. It
was about people coming together, people coming so we would
always have food so that kids would help prepare. And
they say to this day, you know, for every salmon
(05:43):
on a bagel, we'd eat one and put one on
the tray, and these little ones. And when we would
have dinners, I hope I none of our guests hear this,
but here's how we would do it. Say we have
like many men, many people coming to dinner. Once we
had nearly two hundred, we had a big house. We
(06:04):
bought one of those pools, you know, those little pools
that children. You inflate it, fill it with water and
wash the lettuce in there. Then you put it in
a pillowcase, tie a knot in it, and you put
it on the spin cycle in the dishes in the
washing machine. The washing washing machine would have to be
(06:26):
very careful because sometimes while would tell people and they
get it mixed up. They put it in the dryer
that doesn't work had to be in the spin cycle
of the washing machine and come out crispy. You have
to have a big thing to wash the lettuce and
(06:48):
spin cycle.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Have any of your children taking on that recipe for us?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
So now, I don't think so. I think that they
don't entertain one hundred people at a time.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
So I think shopping is a hard thing to do.
Don't you think getting this shopping done?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well. We have a little motto. If I don't have
to shop for it, cook it, or clean it up,
I'm all in for it, whatever it is. But that's
not your life. It's very important. It's an art. I
remember fascinating my grandchildren by having them put a mountain
of flour. Each had their mountain of flour, break eggs
(07:30):
and net, mix it up, this that and that, let
it sit, roll it out neat, you know, put us
through the machine and in the pot of water, and
they're eating pasta that was a mound of flour with
an egg in the middle. They had their own individual.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Cooking in a restaurant. I say, people say to me,
how can you cook for two hundred people? And I
can't cook for eight? And I go I don't think
I can cook for eight. It's much harder, you know,
because in a restaurant it's you have somebody chopping the
parsa and somebody helping you pick the crab. I think
for a lot of people, cooking at home as a performance,
(08:08):
and you know, and it's quite hard to entertain. You
feel that you are being judged or is it good enough?
Or well is it hot? It's the old thing and
it keeping it hot.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, that was.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
That's a challenge in a restaurant too. And so what
about the Washington moving from San Francisco is a very
food city. I mean you have Alice Walters, you had
Judy Rogers, you have women chef, you have so many
different types of food. So was it a big wrench
going from such a food city to Washington.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Let me just say I live in San Francisco, I
work in Washington, Okay, And I was always working because
San Francisco is three hours earlier, so when other people
might go out to dinner it was at seven o'clock.
It was four o'clock in the afternoon in San Francisco.
So I was really always working. And people would say,
what's a good restaurant? I mean, I'm the worst person
(09:01):
to ask, but there are some wonderful restaurants in Washington
that I can now and look forward to, you know,
just putting work on the shelves to.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
What do you like about a restaurant? What do you
look for in a restaurant? Is it the food? Is
it the welcome, is it the descort what?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
First and foremost, it's the food. And it's very, very
important that there'd be a tablecloth. The tablecloth is not
only a tablecloth, it's absorbed sound. So it's little calmer
when you have that. Now there are many restaurants that
don't have tablecloths, that are wonderful restaurants. But I'm always
(09:38):
happy when I have a tablecloth still at this point
in life. And I especially still like Italian food, but
of course I like friend, I like all you know,
good food. Just like music. They're all different kinds of music,
from classical to rap whatever. Just as long as it's good,
it's good. And same thing with food. Well, we have California,
(10:00):
we have you know, the Mexican influence, we have the
we have every kind of food you can imagine in
the world in San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
So have great farms, and I think Alice has done great.
Oh she's farmed to the table. She's a force, I.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Mean, unbelievable. Yeah, she's fabulous in every way.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Do you ever work in a restaurant?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Would you take somebody out and work over dinner or
do you find that you kind of work when you
work and you eat.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
When you eat? I like just to enjoy dinner. Now.
Maybe that's being Italian. I don't know. I'm a big
believer in putting things on the shelf. There's an expression
in Latin a jay kuada. Just do what you're doing
if you're dining, if you're eating, and then even if
(10:47):
it means you have to split the I'm eating now
and I'll work then. But I don't want to do
them together, especially since some times your conversations can become contentious.
I mean, I don't mean it in a negative way, but
it's like, why are we talking about this now? I'm
trying to eat my dinner.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
And what about How does food fit into your work life?
Do you stop always for lunch? Do you have a
sandwich at your desk? Does it depend on the day
my work?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
No food?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Well, I have a salad maybe at my desk but
like on Wednesdays I have now for a long time now,
it's been a pick up lunch for my members. I
wish that I could be having them for dinner more
and stuff, but we really can't because of COVID for
a long time, and some of the restaurants that would
be able to handle that scale just don't even exist
(11:40):
any I mean, some of them have moved on. But
the food is not an important part of my life
in DC. In DC and.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
When you travel, do you look forward to having a date,
dinner or lunch? Is it something that you think about
on your foreign trips?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
What did you have for lunch today? In London?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Today we had a beautiful lunch hosted by the Speaker
of the Househoil. It was lovely in every way and
he told me that they have a cook there at
the House of Commons, and it was beautiful in every way.
It was a lovely, lovely dining experience. It wasn't just
eating lunch. It was a dining experience.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
How many of you were there?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Maybe one table, probably at least forty people at the table,
big long table, beautiful, beautiful flowers, beautiful food. It was.
It was lovely and that's that's London's come a long way, baby,
(12:44):
I mean from when we would come here when we
were young. Now you have everything, Yeah, you have everything.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
It's really really good restaurants in London.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Where were you last night?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Last night? We were at Ivy how good that's Scott's.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah. And we have to get you to the River Cafe.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Oh yeah, all of the River Cafe too.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
You're in there that you come to myrong time thing
we have to get We're closed on Sunday nights, so
you're forgiven for last time.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But we would love you to come.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And I like Wolsey because it has a lot of ches.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
We love it.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
I want to chocolate. That's why I go there. I mean, yeah,
one of the reasons.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
That's a great restaurant.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
No, I think London has definitely there's so many different
types again, different types of restaurants. And that's one of
the heartbreaking things about Brexit, you know, is that we
want to encourage different cultures and being open and that's
something we we must we mustn't forget. We share values,
(13:52):
we share concern for inequality, the fact that there are
children who are going to bed hungry and in Britain
and in the United States that we know that during
the pandemic, certainly in this country, school shot a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Of children that was their main meal.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
And so being in a position of influence and policy,
what do you feel about the question of child.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Hunger, of hunger? Yes, well, you know homeless people queuing
up for food.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Well, I always say to members of Congress, know your why.
I'll tell people your why. Why do you think you
should be in Congress? What has motivated you? And my
why why I went from the kitchen to the Congress,
from housewives to house speaker, was that one in five
children in America goes to sleep hungry at night. That
(14:47):
I couldn't I couldn't handle it. I mean, it was
just that we had five children, and you think one
of these children will not have food, will will go
to sleep hungry at night in America? Now and take
it globally, and it's sinful, it's sinful any place. It's immoral.
(15:08):
And that was my motivation and all that that implied.
If they were hungry, they weren't learning to their capacity,
they were not feeling that their needs were being met,
and their families were just not able to meet their families' needs,
and it is a kitchen table issue for some families.
(15:28):
Are they going to be able to put food on
the table, pay the rent, pay the utility bill, pay
for their children to go to school if that required
some payment. So the food issue, that one in five
children living in poverty going to sleep hungry at night
was my why, and so we all every step of
the way, have worked for policy to alleviate that, to
(15:53):
not only supply food, food programs, launch proofs and that,
but also to improve the standard of living of people
so that they didn't have to choose between paying the
rent or feeding their children at dinner or taking a
turn eating.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
And when you went into Congress, I just will say,
what was it one in five, how many years ago?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And it's still the same. And that's really what's so tragic,
because no matter how you try to do one thing
and another, all kinds of things come along. My also
when I went to Congress was to fight HIV AIDS,
and that was my first speech on the floor of
the House was about AIDS. So you have all these
(16:36):
challenges and right now with COVID, when we're talking about
the southern hemisphere and that people are like I have
to worry about feeding my family before I worry about
what else is going on in the world. And it's
still a challenge. It shouldn't be. And again it's it
isn't even an issue. It's a value, it's an ethic.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's about way back.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
The concern you know, for looking after children is something
that is just a years old. It's something that is
a principle forever. And in a way, it was very
much feeding your children and taking care of them. And
then we became as we had vats, we knew that
we had to also educate them and we also had
to treat them in a certain we had to love them,
(17:22):
we had to you know, show them different environments. But
that we still haven't achieved the feeding of children.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
And when you think of it, Ruthie, when you think that,
when we're raising our own children, it's about nutrition and
you know, feeding the right thing, and then these other
children we have urban deserts in terms of you go
to the store and it's all processed food. It's not
fresh vegetables or fresh fish, this, that and the other thing.
(17:55):
So these children are not even getting the nutrition even
if they're getting fed.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
And adults you know, Steve McQueen, the director, told me
that he was in Chicago and there were no vegetable
stores in poor areas. So it's something that we all
need to keep.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Just for one example, in Flint, Michigan, when they had
the water crisis, it gives me chills just to even
think about what it meant for those children. They were
drinking water that was harmful to them, but not only that,
it hurt their development in the rest. And we had
scientists and doctors who would come to us and say,
(18:33):
the only way out is for these children to have
fresh food and vegetables. And you know all this, and
if you go there, there might be one store someplace
that might not be near where they are, whatever it
is that would supply that. Now we're getting a little
more informed that you have to have stores that are farmers'
(18:55):
markets and things like that where people can get fresh food.
But it directly related to the development of their brains.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And this is how we should judge a society, and
that the value we place in the future of our children.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
So it's not only a value, it's an art.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
And that's what I was going. We're coming and they're
all waiting for us.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Upstairs.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
But before we do, go upstairs and eat and talk
and greet the people who are all waiting for you
in London. I would say that we agree that food
is values, food is an art, food is family, food
is memories.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It is also comfort.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
And there's a food and I can probably guess what
your answer is going to be, but there is a
food that we turn to when we just need comfort.
And Nancy Pelosi, my friend, what would be your comfort food?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Ice cream? Dark, very dark. The older I get, the
darker that ice cream. I would say that.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
You were ever predictable, but I did predict that answer.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Thank you, thank you, thank you, love you, love you
to thank you.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
To visit the online shop of The River Cafe. Go
to shop the Rivercafe dot co dot uk.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and
Adami Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to River Cafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
and Adamized Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Is it, Seve? What time is it? Is it seven? Okay?
Well they want us.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
To not time to eat yet.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
But a few weeks ago a very special person came
to dinner at our home, Speaker of the United States
House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I can't wait, I can't.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Wait up tonight. We're having two chocolate desserts.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I saw on that. Okay, I was thinking, that can
make that my whole meal. I mean that I won't.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Before greeting the other guests, Nancy and I talked together
about food and politics, food and family, food in her
Italian American childhood, and being the mother of five children.
We also spent quite a lot of time talking about
our shared passion for chocolate ice cream.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
My husband and I got married, we lived in New York,
now New York for me. When I was a young girl,
a child, really, our family would go to New York regularly.
We'd go to plays, we'd go to dinner. All that
New York was like heaven. So here. We were young,
married in Manhattan. Paul was working, but we didn't have
(01:27):
children yet.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
The first year, and what kind of restaurants would you
seek out?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
We had, shall we say, champagne taste and beer bottled purses.
So we did say that and go We would go
to the best restaurants as if we were entitled, almost
or we would just go to the neighborhood Italian American
restaurant in New York or something, or the corner place
(01:53):
to have whatever it was. But New York was great because,
for example, if you wanted to have chopped chicken livers,
oh my gosh, the best place in the world for
chopped chicken. You know, anything you wanted the best was
there carry out that would be. But we were largely
into dining out. Yeah, then we had children, and then
(02:13):
it was more.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Than And so when you when you were.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Bringing up the children, did you follow your mother's footsteps?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Did you have somebody helping? No?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
No, we had no help none. I mean that was
a different world. When you have five children in six years,
help doesn't come anywhere near your house. They take detours.
So you mean help wouldn't come near you, Oh my gosh, no,
why would they. You could go work with somebody with
one child or two children. Why would they going to
(02:43):
work with somebody with five children?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So how did you do it?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
It was intense. It was intense, but I would love
to do it all over. Then it was the most
glorious thing.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
You've lived in an apartment in New York? Or was
that time you were in San Francis?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Were?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well? We had four children New York?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
We did.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
We left New York. We had four children, the oldest
was four, and we had a lovely apartment in Beakman Place,
and then we moved to San Francisco and had a
big home. I mean, we didn't realize how small our
apartment was until we moved into a home in San
Francisco and that was lovely. And then we had our
fifth child there.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
And how did you cook for five children? Did you
both cook? Did you cook?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
How did you feed them healthily? Yeah, they'll not say
that I was a great cook. I mean it was
standard fare. And then as they got older, I just
got tired of washing pots and pants. I didn't want
to wash anymore pots and pans. So I developed a
(03:47):
practice where I would go to some place like MacArthur Park,
which was a restaurant then that had the greatest ribs. Okay,
or we go to the Rocas, which was a seafood place.
I would go to Chinatown Peking Duck and I would
make a salad and I would bring home this And
it wasn't strictly carry out like.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Fast food.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
It was delicious food from these restaurants. We have this
meal Linen's salad. So when I went to Congress, my
youngest daughter, Alexandra, she said, mother, I'm so proud of
you because you're a pioneer. I said, really, because I'm
a woman member of Congress. She said, no, Remember when
(04:31):
you used to cook and then you stopped. Well, now
a lot of people stop cooking, but you were the
first to stop.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Oh good, that's good that you pioneer. Oh, it is
a liberation, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
It can be creative cooking, It can be exciting, it
can be relaxing.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I think it a family affair.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, it's a lovely thing. But three times, and with
five children, five will get you ten every time because
they bring So it's a thing. But the pots got me,
the pots and pants that got me.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
So you got you got that's good. And then the
children got older. You then became more and more involved
in politics and participates.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Always said, we're in school all day.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
How did food fit into that life?
Speaker 4 (05:16):
I mean, how did it fit into working and being
a working mother.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Well, the children would call it child labor. But we
would have many events at our home all the time,
and we always had food. You know, the Democrats. It
was about people coming together, people coming so we would
always have food so that kids would help prepare. And
they say to this day, you know, for every salmon
(05:43):
on a bagel, we'd eat one and put one on
the tray, and these little ones. And when we would
have dinners, I hope I none of our guests hear this,
but here's how we would do it. Say we have
like many men, many people coming to dinner. Once we
had nearly two hundred, we had a big house. We
(06:04):
bought one of those pools, you know, those little pools
that children. You inflate it, fill it with water and
wash the lettuce in there. Then you put it in
a pillowcase, tie a knot in it, and you put
it on the spin cycle in the dishes in the
washing machine. The washing washing machine would have to be
(06:26):
very careful because sometimes while would tell people and they
get it mixed up. They put it in the dryer
that doesn't work had to be in the spin cycle
of the washing machine and come out crispy. You have
to have a big thing to wash the lettuce and
(06:48):
spin cycle.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Have any of your children taking on that recipe for us?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
So now, I don't think so. I think that they
don't entertain one hundred people at a time.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
So I think shopping is a hard thing to do.
Don't you think getting this shopping done?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well. We have a little motto. If I don't have
to shop for it, cook it, or clean it up,
I'm all in for it, whatever it is. But that's
not your life. It's very important. It's an art. I
remember fascinating my grandchildren by having them put a mountain
of flour. Each had their mountain of flour, break eggs
(07:30):
and net, mix it up, this that and that, let
it sit, roll it out neat, you know, put us
through the machine and in the pot of water, and
they're eating pasta that was a mound of flour with
an egg in the middle. They had their own individual.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Cooking in a restaurant. I say, people say to me,
how can you cook for two hundred people? And I
can't cook for eight? And I go I don't think
I can cook for eight. It's much harder, you know,
because in a restaurant it's you have somebody chopping the
parsa and somebody helping you pick the crab. I think
for a lot of people, cooking at home as a performance,
(08:08):
and you know, and it's quite hard to entertain. You
feel that you are being judged or is it good enough?
Or well is it hot? It's the old thing and
it keeping it hot.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, that was.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
That's a challenge in a restaurant too. And so what
about the Washington moving from San Francisco is a very
food city. I mean you have Alice Walters, you had
Judy Rogers, you have women chef, you have so many
different types of food. So was it a big wrench
going from such a food city to Washington.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Let me just say I live in San Francisco, I
work in Washington, Okay, And I was always working because
San Francisco is three hours earlier, so when other people
might go out to dinner it was at seven o'clock.
It was four o'clock in the afternoon in San Francisco.
So I was really always working. And people would say,
what's a good restaurant? I mean, I'm the worst person
(09:01):
to ask, but there are some wonderful restaurants in Washington
that I can now and look forward to, you know,
just putting work on the shelves to.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
What do you like about a restaurant? What do you
look for in a restaurant? Is it the food? Is
it the welcome, is it the descort what?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
First and foremost, it's the food. And it's very, very
important that there'd be a tablecloth. The tablecloth is not
only a tablecloth, it's absorbed sound. So it's little calmer
when you have that. Now there are many restaurants that
don't have tablecloths, that are wonderful restaurants. But I'm always
(09:38):
happy when I have a tablecloth still at this point
in life. And I especially still like Italian food, but
of course I like friend, I like all you know,
good food. Just like music. They're all different kinds of music,
from classical to rap whatever. Just as long as it's good,
it's good. And same thing with food. Well, we have California,
(10:00):
we have you know, the Mexican influence, we have the
we have every kind of food you can imagine in
the world in San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
So have great farms, and I think Alice has done great.
Oh she's farmed to the table. She's a force, I.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Mean, unbelievable. Yeah, she's fabulous in every way.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Do you ever work in a restaurant?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Would you take somebody out and work over dinner or
do you find that you kind of work when you
work and you eat.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
When you eat? I like just to enjoy dinner. Now.
Maybe that's being Italian. I don't know. I'm a big
believer in putting things on the shelf. There's an expression
in Latin a jay kuada. Just do what you're doing
if you're dining, if you're eating, and then even if
(10:47):
it means you have to split the I'm eating now
and I'll work then. But I don't want to do
them together, especially since some times your conversations can become contentious.
I mean, I don't mean it in a negative way, but
it's like, why are we talking about this now? I'm
trying to eat my dinner.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
And what about How does food fit into your work life?
Do you stop always for lunch? Do you have a
sandwich at your desk? Does it depend on the day
my work?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
No food?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Well, I have a salad maybe at my desk but
like on Wednesdays I have now for a long time now,
it's been a pick up lunch for my members. I
wish that I could be having them for dinner more
and stuff, but we really can't because of COVID for
a long time, and some of the restaurants that would
be able to handle that scale just don't even exist
(11:40):
any I mean, some of them have moved on. But
the food is not an important part of my life
in DC. In DC and.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
When you travel, do you look forward to having a date,
dinner or lunch? Is it something that you think about
on your foreign trips?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
What did you have for lunch today? In London?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Today we had a beautiful lunch hosted by the Speaker
of the Househoil. It was lovely in every way and
he told me that they have a cook there at
the House of Commons, and it was beautiful in every way.
It was a lovely, lovely dining experience. It wasn't just
eating lunch. It was a dining experience.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
How many of you were there?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Maybe one table, probably at least forty people at the table,
big long table, beautiful, beautiful flowers, beautiful food. It was.
It was lovely and that's that's London's come a long way, baby,
(12:44):
I mean from when we would come here when we
were young. Now you have everything, Yeah, you have everything.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
It's really really good restaurants in London.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Where were you last night?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Last night? We were at Ivy how good that's Scott's.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah. And we have to get you to the River Cafe.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Oh yeah, all of the River Cafe too.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
You're in there that you come to myrong time thing
we have to get We're closed on Sunday nights, so
you're forgiven for last time.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But we would love you to come.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And I like Wolsey because it has a lot of ches.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
We love it.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
I want to chocolate. That's why I go there. I mean, yeah,
one of the reasons.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
That's a great restaurant.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
No, I think London has definitely there's so many different
types again, different types of restaurants. And that's one of
the heartbreaking things about Brexit, you know, is that we
want to encourage different cultures and being open and that's
something we we must we mustn't forget. We share values,
(13:52):
we share concern for inequality, the fact that there are
children who are going to bed hungry and in Britain
and in the United States that we know that during
the pandemic, certainly in this country, school shot a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Of children that was their main meal.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
And so being in a position of influence and policy,
what do you feel about the question of child.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Hunger, of hunger? Yes, well, you know homeless people queuing
up for food.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Well, I always say to members of Congress, know your why.
I'll tell people your why. Why do you think you
should be in Congress? What has motivated you? And my
why why I went from the kitchen to the Congress,
from housewives to house speaker, was that one in five
children in America goes to sleep hungry at night. That
(14:47):
I couldn't I couldn't handle it. I mean, it was
just that we had five children, and you think one
of these children will not have food, will will go
to sleep hungry at night in America? Now and take
it globally, and it's sinful, it's sinful any place. It's immoral.
(15:08):
And that was my motivation and all that that implied.
If they were hungry, they weren't learning to their capacity,
they were not feeling that their needs were being met,
and their families were just not able to meet their families' needs,
and it is a kitchen table issue for some families.
(15:28):
Are they going to be able to put food on
the table, pay the rent, pay the utility bill, pay
for their children to go to school if that required
some payment. So the food issue, that one in five
children living in poverty going to sleep hungry at night
was my why, and so we all every step of
the way, have worked for policy to alleviate that, to
(15:53):
not only supply food, food programs, launch proofs and that,
but also to improve the standard of living of people
so that they didn't have to choose between paying the
rent or feeding their children at dinner or taking a
turn eating.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
And when you went into Congress, I just will say,
what was it one in five, how many years ago?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And it's still the same. And that's really what's so tragic,
because no matter how you try to do one thing
and another, all kinds of things come along. My also
when I went to Congress was to fight HIV AIDS,
and that was my first speech on the floor of
the House was about AIDS. So you have all these
(16:36):
challenges and right now with COVID, when we're talking about
the southern hemisphere and that people are like I have
to worry about feeding my family before I worry about
what else is going on in the world. And it's
still a challenge. It shouldn't be. And again it's it
isn't even an issue. It's a value, it's an ethic.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's about way back.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
The concern you know, for looking after children is something
that is just a years old. It's something that is
a principle forever. And in a way, it was very
much feeding your children and taking care of them. And
then we became as we had vats, we knew that
we had to also educate them and we also had
to treat them in a certain we had to love them,
(17:22):
we had to you know, show them different environments. But
that we still haven't achieved the feeding of children.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
And when you think of it, Ruthie, when you think that,
when we're raising our own children, it's about nutrition and
you know, feeding the right thing, and then these other
children we have urban deserts in terms of you go
to the store and it's all processed food. It's not
fresh vegetables or fresh fish, this, that and the other thing.
(17:55):
So these children are not even getting the nutrition even
if they're getting fed.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
And adults you know, Steve McQueen, the director, told me
that he was in Chicago and there were no vegetable
stores in poor areas. So it's something that we all
need to keep.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Just for one example, in Flint, Michigan, when they had
the water crisis, it gives me chills just to even
think about what it meant for those children. They were
drinking water that was harmful to them, but not only that,
it hurt their development in the rest. And we had
scientists and doctors who would come to us and say,
(18:33):
the only way out is for these children to have
fresh food and vegetables. And you know all this, and
if you go there, there might be one store someplace
that might not be near where they are, whatever it
is that would supply that. Now we're getting a little
more informed that you have to have stores that are farmers'
(18:55):
markets and things like that where people can get fresh food.
But it directly related to the development of their brains.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And this is how we should judge a society, and
that the value we place in the future of our children.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
So it's not only a value, it's an art.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
And that's what I was going. We're coming and they're
all waiting for us.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Upstairs.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
But before we do, go upstairs and eat and talk
and greet the people who are all waiting for you
in London. I would say that we agree that food
is values, food is an art, food is family, food
is memories.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It is also comfort.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
And there's a food and I can probably guess what
your answer is going to be, but there is a
food that we turn to when we just need comfort.
And Nancy Pelosi, my friend, what would be your comfort food?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Ice cream? Dark, very dark. The older I get, the
darker that ice cream. I would say that.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
You were ever predictable, but I did predict that answer.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Thank you, thank you, thank you, love you, love you
to thank you.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
To visit the online shop of The River Cafe. Go
to shop the Rivercafe dot co dot uk.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and
Adami Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Ruth Rogers
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