January 20, 2025 • 28 mins
When the great filmmakers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach wrote to say they were moving to London for a year, we decided to meet for Sunday lunch with their son in The River Cafe. After that first lunch we made a date for the following Sunday, and the next one. Soon they became a tradition.
Today, Noah, Greta and I are here in The River Cafe to talk about food and life, food and friendship, and the beautiful movies they've made for all of us — Barbie, Little Women, The Squid and the Whale, and Marriage Story.
And after our conversation, we will have lunch, together. Now that's tradition.
Ruthie's Table 4, made in partnership with Moncler.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
When Greta, Gerwig and Noah Boundback wrote to say they
were moving to London for a year, we decided to
meet for Sunday lunch in the River Cafe. After that
first lunch we made a date for the following Sunday,
and after the second one, we agreed to meet for
the one after that. On the third Sunday, Harold, their
five year old son, turned to me and said, Ruthie,
(00:27):
is this the meaning of tradition? And from that moment
on our Sunday lunches became known between the four of
us as tradition, as in, what time are we meeting
for tradition? Will you be here next week?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
For tradition?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And even that was a delicious tradition. This Sunday, Noah,
Greta and I are here in the River Cafe to
talk about food and live food and friendship, beautiful movies
they've made for all of us. And when we're done,
Harold will join us and I will have lunch. Three
people I love and adore with all my heart. Now
(01:04):
that's tradition. Oh, that was beautiful When we chose the
recipe future, and then are all these complicated recipes of
pastas and risottos and desserts. And I thought that Noah's
thing is to order steak steak to share. Right, stay
for the steak for the table, and then I put
in the horse spratish because I know we always order
(01:25):
extra horsetratish.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I love horse. Yeah, so we do that.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
One hundred grams fresh horse radish.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
One tablespoon white wine vinegar, half a lemon, two hundred
and fifty mililters crem fresh.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Peel and great the horse radish on the fine part
of the cheese grater.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Then add the vinegar and lemon juice, season with salt
and pepper, and gently stir in the crim fresh.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
Add one more thing.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Make more of it than you think you'll need, because
you'll want more. Or if you're me, you will steak
four hundred RIBI steak about six centimeters thick, Sea.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Salt, extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
The trick is to have the confidence to leave the
steaks on the grill for the full cooking time.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
It means they will get those dramatic griddle markings.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
It is vital to rest your meat, which makes it
juicier and more full of flavor.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
About thirty minutes before cooking, remove the steak from the
refrigerator uncovered and let it come to room temperature.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Preheat a barbecue or a grill to a high heat.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Season the steak on both sides with salt and pepper.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Grill the steak on one side for twelve minutes. Turn
over the steak with tongs and grill for another twelve
minutes on the other side.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Put the steak on a warm plate, drizzle with oil,
and rest for twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Slice the steak thickly on the diagonal and serve.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Like rest for twenty minute. Sounds like you take it.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
You take a rest, yeah, but both of you could
rest for twenty ran the steak.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
One thing we talk about, it's the Nora Ephron one
for the table. When she died, the New York Times
for her obituary had there was like a list and
it was things I'll miss and things I won't miss,
and you realize it's things all miss from the world.
But one of the things is one for the table.
(03:20):
When you're ordering and you say, and just one for
the table. One to the table, And I was like, oh,
I will miss one for the table.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
That's such a nice concept.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
We'll get it, you know, maybe, yeah, the other world
will have another.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
One, another one for the table.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
My hope is that it's all the vibe of the
next one is just one for the table.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
That's the well, that's the thing. And was it defending
defending her life?
Speaker 5 (03:44):
The Albert Brooks movie, you know, where they it's like
they're in a kind of limbo where they're they're judging. Essentially,
it's like to figure out where you're going to go,
if you're going to go up or down, and they
sort of go to court in a way and have
to defend their lives. But while there it's him, it's
our Brooks and Meryl Streep. And and while they're there
they can eat anything they want because there's no consequences.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So there's a lot of good eating in that one
as well.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
In cinema, I was trying to think of the great
scenes of movies about you know, there's obviously The Godfather
where he's making good fellows who when they're in prison,
and you probably my time, there was Tom Jones, which
was Albert and Suside York and do you remember they
(04:31):
were just eating. It was sex and seduction. And I
was like.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Eryl Flynn in robin Hood. He comes into the Kings
and he thinks, and he takes that.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
Big or whatever their leg of something and and he
sits back in the chair and he eats.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It really confidently.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
But I remember thinking, I mean, I loved that movie,
and I loved Robinhood, but I really thought that looked delicious.
That the oh yeah, and then because then he kicked
goes back in the chair when they anyway, it's really good.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
When I made Little Women, my producer of Noah's producer
Amy and Pascal, she loves food in movies like it's
a thing. We did all this research of the kind
of food at the time. We had like American cookbooks
from the nineteenth century. And food was actually a big
part of the Alcotts life because their father, he was
(05:23):
one of the first vegans, and he moved them to
a vegan commune called fruit Lands in Massachusetts. And it
went fine in the eighteen fifties. And it was fine
in the summer because things grew, and then they basically
starved in the winter because there was no I mean,
(05:44):
it was like root vegetables and what they could store,
but it was terrible. Food was a big thing, and
I just this is one of the movie that I
was pregnant on. The woman who did all of the
food styling and made all the things. She would she
would make all this sample of like this would be
the kind of breads that were around, and this would
(06:04):
have a nice family, or they'd have like this kind
of cake. So there's a scene where the Lawrences send
Christmas to them and the ice cream and the pepper
and ice cream and anyway. She would make cakes and
different things for me, ostensibly just to look at to
say oh, yes or no. And then she realized I
was just so hungry, and she would start giving me cakes.
(06:26):
And then I'd have nineteenth century cakes that I would
eat all weekend. And I was just gradually getting bigger
and bigger, and I just wore these big coats, and
no one knew I was pregnant. They thought I just
liked the cakes.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Do you think about it when you make a movie
where you're going to be and what that will be
like most of your movies have been shot in California.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Well, no, it was a California, London and Massachusetts. Yeah,
I like having cast and crew dinners before we start,
like long dinners, big dinners. I think one of the
reasons I love making movies is because it's these communities
that spring up and there's like a common purpose and
(07:11):
this it's all kind of impossible, and the idea of
like eating with your community, your makeshift temporary group of
mary band, is so great, and you're all doing something
kind of outrageously vulnerable together and it's like, let's all
(07:32):
have a meal, let's all eat together.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I when you're filming, do you resent having to stop
for lunch?
Speaker 6 (07:38):
Yes, he resents, I don't mind because.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I hear I didn't have to.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
It's hard to come back equally strong.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
The one version that works, I think, and I got
this from David Lynch, if you meditate during lunch, it
gives you a second morning. If you just take twenty
minutes and you meditate during lunch. She says, that's that
was his.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Would you tell that to the crew We're not going
to have lunch.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Could you imagine?
Speaker 4 (08:07):
No, I'll go meditate. But actually it's funny if you
say I'm going to go meditate for twenty minutes. Actually
it kind of I think. I mean David Lynch says this,
but people kind of say, oh, in a way, they're like, well,
maybe I should do that, Like just or whether it's
formal meditation or not, but like almost a chance to
(08:29):
recharge a little bit and to allow yourself to go
inside before you have to keep making decisions. But I
think on film sets, when you're making decisions, when it's
all going well, it doesn't feel like decisions. It feels
like it's all kind of coming together, and it's just
you're not torn between two things. You're like, well, obviously
(08:49):
it's the red hat. When when it's going badly, you're like,
I don't know what hat it is. But when it's
going well, it's like everything kind of just follows.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
There's a great story of Tom's Stoppard and Mike Nichols
on the set of the I mean on the They
were doing the play The Real Thing in the eighties,
and Stoppard visited the rehearsals and while they were talking,
somebody held up to chairs to Mike, and Mike just offhanded,
(09:18):
just looked quickly and pointed at one and then just
kept talking. And then Stoppard said, I see, I could
never do what you do because I look they look
almost exactly the same to me, like you knew exactly
which one you wanted, And Mike said, I had no
idea which chair. I just have to look decisive, so
they think I'm in charge. He's like, I can always
change my mind later, which is also directing.
Speaker 7 (09:44):
Yeah, that's directing, that's you know, yeah, I think it's
But I also find on movies sets I revert to
really juvenile food habits.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
I eat Cheetos in sort of like astonishing quantities Cheetos
and diet coat. But I think mine connects to childhood,
and there's some part of in a way dioretic movies
out of childhood.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
So you want things, I.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Think it puts it well.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I do think what I do do is put things
of mine in the movie. So I have a relationship
with I mean some movies. It's even the squid in
the Whale might he you know, Jeff was wearing my
dad's clothes, but that that was very direct.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Even on something like Barbie, which is like, well Barbie existed,
is like even the version of because Barbie Barbie's been
around since nineteen fifty nine, that logo has gone through
a few different versions and now Barbie is a corporation
is back around to the original nineteen fifty nine script version.
But the Barbie from my childhood, which was the Barbie
from is like the big bubble letters bubbleloaters, and I
(10:52):
just I remember there was like a moment when I
had to decide, what is the barbie I want to do?
And I'm going to ask mattl if we can use
this barbie for the movie. I was like, I want
the one that meant something to me, the one that
when I went to Toys r Us and looked at
the barbies it was and it's personal to me. I
also think it's a good logo, that big bubble letter one.
But I also was like, it's nothing if not, if
(11:14):
it's not personal, what does it matter. It could be
made by anyone. It was like, this was mine. I
was born in eighty three. These were the barbies I saw.
This is what I'm interested in.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
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(11:53):
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Rivercafe dot co UK to place your order. Now, Oh,
here's our pizza. This is a good tradition.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Okay, we have lots for everybody. There's lots of pizza here.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Oh my godness, looks so good. My dad was the
cook in our family. He's still a good cook.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
He actually comes to one tradition we still have as
my parents come to New York Everythan's Giving and they
cook the whole thing, and it's very stressful for them,
but they do it, and we gather the ingredients and
he makes this stuffing once a year, which is the
Julia Child stuffing, and it's really good and it has
(12:46):
olives in it and it's delicious.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Did your dad cooked? Is that seene and squid in
the wild? Then he says, but I cooked and.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Hamburgers, hamburger one time when you were sick.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
When you were.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
He well, he more post divorce.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
He had a few things that he felt he could handle.
He made blueberry pancakes with his big He was very
proud of those and he would do like a real cutlet,
and he would do the pamburgers.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Certainly, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Because I had talked to Matthew Parson. I think he
met him, did you was the ambassador here, and he
was saying that his father never cooked until they were divorced,
and his cure that forced you, but also in a
nice way, he wanted to reassure his son that things
were still kind of oh they weren't the same because
he cooked, but that there was a safety, you know,
(13:42):
and there was love that he was showing him that
he could cook for them and that was his way
of taking care of them.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Or a friend of mine keeps threatening to do a
Divorced Dad cookbook, which I think is a good idea.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
A meal it was, it's called he called it special meal,
special meal.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Special put that marriage story. Actually the special.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
Meal, special meal.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
It's ground it's a potato. It's like a potatoes, ground beef,
onions and peas.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, like all ground up together, and it would be
like Dad, which I recreated.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Actually that in the marriage story. I recreated that special meal.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
But I remember eating like we we were with this
friend said, when there was a hurricane in New York
and we ended up walking to Brooklyn because we didn't
have any power, and he made special meal for all
of us and we like loved it.
Speaker 8 (14:36):
We ate so much special meal. It was like but
it was like, it's it's definitely it would be good.
It would be a featured item in the cookbook.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I wanted to. There was a point and my life.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I kept going to magazines when then magazines they were
all these brides magazines, wedding magazines, and I thought, everybody
I know is getting divorced. So friend of mine and
I would do a a magazine called Divorce. And you
could have like the car column, you know when you
had to buy a car for you know, sort of
that let few children, the dating column, the taking your
(15:11):
kids out to lunch column, the cooking column.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
You know, it could be a sort of nobody ever know.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
You could do it with like link links now to
and you know, like and also like things maybe they're
selling off.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, And also if you knew you were going to
be on the cover of divorce, you might not be
so sad about divorced. Oh. He wanted to call it
goodbye as opposed to Hello, we have We had this
whole plan, but you know, it was down to one
of those projects that never never got se But so eating,
so you're both your father's cook before we have memories.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
My dad was more.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
And your mother.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
My mother was more of like a sush.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
She would prepare, she would chomp and prepare everything, and
my dad would cook.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
She would clean up while you're still eating.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Well my mom, yeah, no, my mom is like you
put a glass down and you're like, oh, it's just
it's been washed.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
It's like it's done.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
She was like a very like a prep and clean
up person, and she would do breakfast. But my dad
was better at like making omelets, like you'd do the
flip and everything.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
So it's like men and barbecues.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I always think that that is the kind of thing,
but I think it's probably changed now. But it's a
lot of work feeding. How many were you and your family?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Well, it kind of like expanded and contracted because I
have a brother and sister who were older, so at
times it was just me, but then at times it
was all of us plus their friends, and there was
always some extra person living with us, Like we had
a woman who was dancing in the Sacramento Ballet who
lived with us for a while, another woman who was
(16:47):
a teacher at the college who lived with us for
a while. So my memory of childhood was always it
wasn't just immediate family, It was always like more and
so there was a lot of.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
Cooking for volume.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
My mom always had me eat eggs. She was concerned
that no one was getting enough protein.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
And all I wanted.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
For breakfast when I was growing up was dry cereal
with milk, and I wasn't allowed to have it.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
What about moosley?
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Were you allowed at if I put it on yogurt
with fruit?
Speaker 7 (17:23):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I see the protein thing.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Yeah, but she was like, you have protein, so and
I just all I wanted was like a bowl of
plain cheerios with milk.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
And then when I finally got to.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
College, that's all I ate for a solid year was
just plain cheerios with milk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
And I got very ill, like it was bad for me.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
So what was it like in your house? Did your
mother shop and cook and she all sat down? How
many of you were there in your family?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Brother?
Speaker 5 (17:52):
Well? Yeah, my brother was five and a half years
younger than me, but we would we would generally all
sit for dinner the day, talk about the day, and.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Did your mom work? Did she have a career?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Well, she was, she taught and then she was a writer,
but she was not she didn't have a mostly did
not have a like a job that.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Took Yeah, so she could kind of plan the dinner.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
She's still a good cook.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, cook right.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
And I was always a little bit self conscious about
her cooking because I had friends who I'd go over
there and it was like you'd eat very basic things
that I craved because we didn't we didn't do.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
That at home.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
But like macaronians, Yeah, like macaroni and cheese, and like
a sandwich that had like a double decker or something,
you know, like there'd be those those things that you'd
see pictures and magazines.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I would I would always would be was like a
whole wheat.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
And yeah and some kind of like something. Yeah exactly.
So I would go to other places to like people are.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Always usually always better enough. Once called me up, he
went to the American school. I never keep a lot
in my fridge. I don't know if you had fridges
for you, but I've never had any. Once called me
up and he said, can you just come to my
friend's house around the corner and why and he said, well,
they were American, you know, they'd moved here from whatever,
and that is I just like to show you what
(19:14):
a good mother's fridge looks.
Speaker 6 (19:20):
Yeah, and I think, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Did you have a fridge packed with food?
Speaker 6 (19:23):
We didn't have. We had a lot of Oh god,
I just keep eating pizza.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
But okay, I knew I was going to well also
know and I would say, we have no ability.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
We're eaters more.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, we eat.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Voracious, voracious.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Did you have grandmothers in your lives?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
My grandparents both were in southern California during the Depression
and grew up really poor, and that kind of the
cuisine of that was very much in what they were.
But my grandfather there were like walnut farms, almond farms,
and he'd come and he'd just bring always these big
(20:08):
bags of just nutsy you'd have to crack open, and
you'd sit with him and you would just play cards.
This is what I think when he was divorced, and
you just sit with Grandpa Ralph play cards and crack
nuts for hours. And he was great. And the agricultural
valley was such a thing. Farmers just sold stuff on Sundays.
(20:28):
But it wasn't like a fancy farmers market. It was
just trucks that came in and they were selling stuff
because everything grew.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Did you go to restaurants.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Before we do restaurants?
Speaker 5 (20:41):
I was gonna say, well, I just was thinking that
my friend I got from my grandfather, my mom's dad,
who would have a big salad for dinner the painter.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
No, this is my mom's dad.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Who volunteered for World War he.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Can listed in World War two and he was decorated.
He but I my mom found it, so I do
this now I do.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
He has a big salad.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
When I'm not eating everything on the menu here I
come at home, I have I have a big salad.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
And my mom found a telegram from his grand from
my grandfather coming back from the war, and it says,
you know, there's one telegram which is sort of like.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Leaving this I should be back sometime around late July.
And then the next telegram is like he'd arrived in
America but it wasn't there yet.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
He's like, I'll be there Thursday. Can you make me
a big salad? By the word yeah, yeah, yeah. But
I had sort of always liked that he did that.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
The River Cafe When You Said Lunch is now running
from Monday to Thursday. Reserve a booking on www. River
Cafe dot co dot uk or give us a call.
And when you two met, did you fall in love
knowing that you both love food? Would have been impossible
(22:10):
if you had somebody to you liked but they didn't
care about food.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
That would you get together to.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Care about food? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (22:17):
You get together to have food and talk about music
and movies.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
I like there's like a point in most when I
see most plays where I'm sort of, even if I'm
really loving the play, where I will sort of enjoy
just taking a moment to think about what I'm going
to get it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Or so well, there was a lot of.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
The whole of the last act.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, This sort of like do I is
it late for a burger?
Speaker 6 (22:43):
No?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
No, but it's it's even part of the play for me.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
You told me because I read it, because you loved
that Andrea.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Augusty book open.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
There's a thing, There's there's.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
And I read it and then you were like, I
relate to something in this.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
But did he say, well, he's like there's a point
in the book he's serving. He's serving in the middle
of a serving, the middle of a set at the
US Open, and he's just thinking about what he's going
to have for dinner afterward at this restaurant. And they
are going to this place in the village, and you know,
and an Italian restaurant in the village. And I often
(23:22):
do that. I mean I do that when I'm directing
a movie. Sometimes I'm thinking, like, not not at the
expense of what I'm doing, but I will, I will,
I'll stay to get the scene. But if I can
get the scene and also have a great dinner, that
would be yeah, amazing that there's sometimes just sort of thinking, like,
you know, what we want tonight.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
A lot of people see success, their own success and
being able to order what you want. Did you feel
that financially.
Speaker 9 (23:49):
I'm absolutely able to not to, like, I mean, having
spent my entire childhood like watching my father burrowed brow
looking at the check for about five minutes, you know, after.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
Every and to not look at it and worry about
you know, who ordered the pecan.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Are allowed to have two courses?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yes, I mean, can we have two courses? I think
I know you don't need that.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
That's enough. It's a very they're very big, so we'll
just have one for the like that kind of ordering.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah, I've rebelled against.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
I felt that in the grocery store because when I
was in college and then in my twenties, food is expensive,
and good food is expensive. And when you bought like
nice vegetables or nice good fruit, good even like the
more expense slightly more expensive beans, and not be like, well,
(24:42):
these beans are on sale when wassa I think, honestly,
for me, not until I was like twenty eight, Like,
when you stop measuring out how many dollars a day
do you need to eat to keep going?
Speaker 6 (24:55):
That's a big thing.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
What about the movie that we just made in Italy?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
In Italy?
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Tell us about filming in Italy because you were in Tuscany.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Weren't you right?
Speaker 9 (25:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
And how did that enter into the film?
Speaker 5 (25:08):
It did? I'm trying to think about how food entered
into it, because it's this is the movie I just
made with Ruthie Rogers and George Clooney.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, and lord during several people, several wonderful.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Don't really care about food, don't they?
Speaker 9 (25:29):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And it was sort of reverse engineered in some way.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Its like I want to film in Italy to have
to have something happen, And it definitely did. I mean
certainly for the story. It adds this whole other element,
but there was I loved it.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
So food is community if you're sharing, food is love,
Food is family and remembering and feeling that you're liberated
from growing up and you can make your own decisions.
Also comfort, Is there a food that you would go
to for comfort?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Well, I would say my funny answer, but my salad
is like a comfort dinner for me, Like I know,
because I don't have to make a decision.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I know what it is, and.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
That is a comfort for you.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, yeah, like I look forward to it.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
Yeah, that's so Noah.
Speaker 10 (26:20):
The fact that your comfort is salad everything, it's like
you're the most he really is the most effortlessly disciplined
person I know.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
And it's just so annoying not.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
To take the said a rigor we could call it.
I like the word vigorous.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
I know what is yours a macaroni and she's cast role.
It's also my friend Sarah because she she makes a
great macaroni, and she's cast role and she makes it
just perfect. And my birthday is in August, and she
has we used to in our early twenties. We all
together in this tiny apartment that had no air conditioning,
(27:03):
and she made me a macaroni and she's castrole for
my birthday in August in the heat, and I was like,
she loves me. She loves me because who does that
makes a roue and.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
Does all this stuff and gets the crust just right.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
And then in the pandemic, she made one for my
birthday and got it to me, Like I feel like
that if it's the food itself is comforting, and also
like the fact that she made it.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
It's like it I think that's my food.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I would also say the steak here I look forward to.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Let's go have something.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yeah, okay, great, yay.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
with Montclair
You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
When Greta, Gerwig and Noah Boundback wrote to say they
were moving to London for a year, we decided to
meet for Sunday lunch in the River Cafe. After that
first lunch we made a date for the following Sunday,
and after the second one, we agreed to meet for
the one after that. On the third Sunday, Harold, their
five year old son, turned to me and said, Ruthie,
(00:27):
is this the meaning of tradition? And from that moment
on our Sunday lunches became known between the four of
us as tradition, as in, what time are we meeting
for tradition? Will you be here next week?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
For tradition?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And even that was a delicious tradition. This Sunday, Noah,
Greta and I are here in the River Cafe to
talk about food and live food and friendship, beautiful movies
they've made for all of us. And when we're done,
Harold will join us and I will have lunch. Three
people I love and adore with all my heart. Now
(01:04):
that's tradition. Oh, that was beautiful When we chose the
recipe future, and then are all these complicated recipes of
pastas and risottos and desserts. And I thought that Noah's
thing is to order steak steak to share. Right, stay
for the steak for the table, and then I put
in the horse spratish because I know we always order
(01:25):
extra horsetratish.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I love horse. Yeah, so we do that.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
One hundred grams fresh horse radish.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
One tablespoon white wine vinegar, half a lemon, two hundred
and fifty mililters crem fresh.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Peel and great the horse radish on the fine part
of the cheese grater.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Then add the vinegar and lemon juice, season with salt
and pepper, and gently stir in the crim fresh.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
Add one more thing.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Make more of it than you think you'll need, because
you'll want more. Or if you're me, you will steak
four hundred RIBI steak about six centimeters thick, Sea.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Salt, extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
The trick is to have the confidence to leave the
steaks on the grill for the full cooking time.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
It means they will get those dramatic griddle markings.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
It is vital to rest your meat, which makes it
juicier and more full of flavor.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
About thirty minutes before cooking, remove the steak from the
refrigerator uncovered and let it come to room temperature.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Preheat a barbecue or a grill to a high heat.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Season the steak on both sides with salt and pepper.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Grill the steak on one side for twelve minutes. Turn
over the steak with tongs and grill for another twelve
minutes on the other side.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Put the steak on a warm plate, drizzle with oil,
and rest for twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Slice the steak thickly on the diagonal and serve.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Like rest for twenty minute. Sounds like you take it.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
You take a rest, yeah, but both of you could
rest for twenty ran the steak.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
One thing we talk about, it's the Nora Ephron one
for the table. When she died, the New York Times
for her obituary had there was like a list and
it was things I'll miss and things I won't miss,
and you realize it's things all miss from the world.
But one of the things is one for the table.
(03:20):
When you're ordering and you say, and just one for
the table. One to the table, And I was like, oh,
I will miss one for the table.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
That's such a nice concept.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
We'll get it, you know, maybe, yeah, the other world
will have another.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
One, another one for the table.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
My hope is that it's all the vibe of the
next one is just one for the table.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
That's the well, that's the thing. And was it defending
defending her life?
Speaker 5 (03:44):
The Albert Brooks movie, you know, where they it's like
they're in a kind of limbo where they're they're judging. Essentially,
it's like to figure out where you're going to go,
if you're going to go up or down, and they
sort of go to court in a way and have
to defend their lives. But while there it's him, it's
our Brooks and Meryl Streep. And and while they're there
they can eat anything they want because there's no consequences.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So there's a lot of good eating in that one
as well.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
In cinema, I was trying to think of the great
scenes of movies about you know, there's obviously The Godfather
where he's making good fellows who when they're in prison,
and you probably my time, there was Tom Jones, which
was Albert and Suside York and do you remember they
(04:31):
were just eating. It was sex and seduction. And I
was like.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Eryl Flynn in robin Hood. He comes into the Kings
and he thinks, and he takes that.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
Big or whatever their leg of something and and he
sits back in the chair and he eats.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It really confidently.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
But I remember thinking, I mean, I loved that movie,
and I loved Robinhood, but I really thought that looked delicious.
That the oh yeah, and then because then he kicked
goes back in the chair when they anyway, it's really good.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
When I made Little Women, my producer of Noah's producer
Amy and Pascal, she loves food in movies like it's
a thing. We did all this research of the kind
of food at the time. We had like American cookbooks
from the nineteenth century. And food was actually a big
part of the Alcotts life because their father, he was
(05:23):
one of the first vegans, and he moved them to
a vegan commune called fruit Lands in Massachusetts. And it
went fine in the eighteen fifties. And it was fine
in the summer because things grew, and then they basically
starved in the winter because there was no I mean,
(05:44):
it was like root vegetables and what they could store,
but it was terrible. Food was a big thing, and
I just this is one of the movie that I
was pregnant on. The woman who did all of the
food styling and made all the things. She would she
would make all this sample of like this would be
the kind of breads that were around, and this would
(06:04):
have a nice family, or they'd have like this kind
of cake. So there's a scene where the Lawrences send
Christmas to them and the ice cream and the pepper
and ice cream and anyway. She would make cakes and
different things for me, ostensibly just to look at to
say oh, yes or no. And then she realized I
was just so hungry, and she would start giving me cakes.
(06:26):
And then I'd have nineteenth century cakes that I would
eat all weekend. And I was just gradually getting bigger
and bigger, and I just wore these big coats, and
no one knew I was pregnant. They thought I just
liked the cakes.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Do you think about it when you make a movie
where you're going to be and what that will be
like most of your movies have been shot in California.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Well, no, it was a California, London and Massachusetts. Yeah,
I like having cast and crew dinners before we start,
like long dinners, big dinners. I think one of the
reasons I love making movies is because it's these communities
that spring up and there's like a common purpose and
(07:11):
this it's all kind of impossible, and the idea of
like eating with your community, your makeshift temporary group of
mary band, is so great, and you're all doing something
kind of outrageously vulnerable together and it's like, let's all
(07:32):
have a meal, let's all eat together.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I when you're filming, do you resent having to stop
for lunch?
Speaker 6 (07:38):
Yes, he resents, I don't mind because.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I hear I didn't have to.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
It's hard to come back equally strong.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
The one version that works, I think, and I got
this from David Lynch, if you meditate during lunch, it
gives you a second morning. If you just take twenty
minutes and you meditate during lunch. She says, that's that
was his.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Would you tell that to the crew We're not going
to have lunch.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Could you imagine?
Speaker 4 (08:07):
No, I'll go meditate. But actually it's funny if you
say I'm going to go meditate for twenty minutes. Actually
it kind of I think. I mean David Lynch says this,
but people kind of say, oh, in a way, they're like, well,
maybe I should do that, Like just or whether it's
formal meditation or not, but like almost a chance to
(08:29):
recharge a little bit and to allow yourself to go
inside before you have to keep making decisions. But I
think on film sets, when you're making decisions, when it's
all going well, it doesn't feel like decisions. It feels
like it's all kind of coming together, and it's just
you're not torn between two things. You're like, well, obviously
(08:49):
it's the red hat. When when it's going badly, you're like,
I don't know what hat it is. But when it's
going well, it's like everything kind of just follows.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
There's a great story of Tom's Stoppard and Mike Nichols
on the set of the I mean on the They
were doing the play The Real Thing in the eighties,
and Stoppard visited the rehearsals and while they were talking,
somebody held up to chairs to Mike, and Mike just offhanded,
(09:18):
just looked quickly and pointed at one and then just
kept talking. And then Stoppard said, I see, I could
never do what you do because I look they look
almost exactly the same to me, like you knew exactly
which one you wanted, And Mike said, I had no
idea which chair. I just have to look decisive, so
they think I'm in charge. He's like, I can always
change my mind later, which is also directing.
Speaker 7 (09:44):
Yeah, that's directing, that's you know, yeah, I think it's
But I also find on movies sets I revert to
really juvenile food habits.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
I eat Cheetos in sort of like astonishing quantities Cheetos
and diet coat. But I think mine connects to childhood,
and there's some part of in a way dioretic movies
out of childhood.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
So you want things, I.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Think it puts it well.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I do think what I do do is put things
of mine in the movie. So I have a relationship
with I mean some movies. It's even the squid in
the Whale might he you know, Jeff was wearing my
dad's clothes, but that that was very direct.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Even on something like Barbie, which is like, well Barbie existed,
is like even the version of because Barbie Barbie's been
around since nineteen fifty nine, that logo has gone through
a few different versions and now Barbie is a corporation
is back around to the original nineteen fifty nine script version.
But the Barbie from my childhood, which was the Barbie
from is like the big bubble letters bubbleloaters, and I
(10:52):
just I remember there was like a moment when I
had to decide, what is the barbie I want to do?
And I'm going to ask mattl if we can use
this barbie for the movie. I was like, I want
the one that meant something to me, the one that
when I went to Toys r Us and looked at
the barbies it was and it's personal to me. I
also think it's a good logo, that big bubble letter one.
But I also was like, it's nothing if not, if
(11:14):
it's not personal, what does it matter. It could be
made by anyone. It was like, this was mine. I
was born in eighty three. These were the barbies I saw.
This is what I'm interested in.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Imagine Estate bottled olive oil chosen and bottled for the
River Cafe, arriving at your door every month. Our subscription
is available for six or twelve months, with each oil
chosen personally by our head chefs and varying with each delivery.
It's a perfect way to bring some River Cafe flavor
into your home or to show someone you really care
(11:53):
for them with the gift. Visit our website shop the
Rivercafe dot co UK to place your order. Now, Oh,
here's our pizza. This is a good tradition.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Okay, we have lots for everybody. There's lots of pizza here.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Oh my godness, looks so good. My dad was the
cook in our family. He's still a good cook.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
He actually comes to one tradition we still have as
my parents come to New York Everythan's Giving and they
cook the whole thing, and it's very stressful for them,
but they do it, and we gather the ingredients and
he makes this stuffing once a year, which is the
Julia Child stuffing, and it's really good and it has
(12:46):
olives in it and it's delicious.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Did your dad cooked? Is that seene and squid in
the wild? Then he says, but I cooked and.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Hamburgers, hamburger one time when you were sick.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
When you were.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
He well, he more post divorce.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
He had a few things that he felt he could handle.
He made blueberry pancakes with his big He was very
proud of those and he would do like a real cutlet,
and he would do the pamburgers.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Certainly, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Because I had talked to Matthew Parson. I think he
met him, did you was the ambassador here, and he
was saying that his father never cooked until they were divorced,
and his cure that forced you, but also in a
nice way, he wanted to reassure his son that things
were still kind of oh they weren't the same because
he cooked, but that there was a safety, you know,
(13:42):
and there was love that he was showing him that
he could cook for them and that was his way
of taking care of them.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Or a friend of mine keeps threatening to do a
Divorced Dad cookbook, which I think is a good idea.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
A meal it was, it's called he called it special meal,
special meal.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Special put that marriage story. Actually the special.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
Meal, special meal.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
It's ground it's a potato. It's like a potatoes, ground beef,
onions and peas.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, like all ground up together, and it would be
like Dad, which I recreated.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Actually that in the marriage story. I recreated that special meal.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
But I remember eating like we we were with this
friend said, when there was a hurricane in New York
and we ended up walking to Brooklyn because we didn't
have any power, and he made special meal for all
of us and we like loved it.
Speaker 8 (14:36):
We ate so much special meal. It was like but
it was like, it's it's definitely it would be good.
It would be a featured item in the cookbook.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I wanted to. There was a point and my life.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I kept going to magazines when then magazines they were
all these brides magazines, wedding magazines, and I thought, everybody
I know is getting divorced. So friend of mine and
I would do a a magazine called Divorce. And you
could have like the car column, you know when you
had to buy a car for you know, sort of
that let few children, the dating column, the taking your
(15:11):
kids out to lunch column, the cooking column.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
You know, it could be a sort of nobody ever know.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
You could do it with like link links now to
and you know, like and also like things maybe they're
selling off.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, And also if you knew you were going to
be on the cover of divorce, you might not be
so sad about divorced. Oh. He wanted to call it
goodbye as opposed to Hello, we have We had this
whole plan, but you know, it was down to one
of those projects that never never got se But so eating,
so you're both your father's cook before we have memories.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
My dad was more.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
And your mother.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
My mother was more of like a sush.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
She would prepare, she would chomp and prepare everything, and
my dad would cook.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
She would clean up while you're still eating.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Well my mom, yeah, no, my mom is like you
put a glass down and you're like, oh, it's just
it's been washed.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
It's like it's done.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
She was like a very like a prep and clean
up person, and she would do breakfast. But my dad
was better at like making omelets, like you'd do the
flip and everything.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
So it's like men and barbecues.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I always think that that is the kind of thing,
but I think it's probably changed now. But it's a
lot of work feeding. How many were you and your family?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Well, it kind of like expanded and contracted because I
have a brother and sister who were older, so at
times it was just me, but then at times it
was all of us plus their friends, and there was
always some extra person living with us, Like we had
a woman who was dancing in the Sacramento Ballet who
lived with us for a while, another woman who was
(16:47):
a teacher at the college who lived with us for
a while. So my memory of childhood was always it
wasn't just immediate family, It was always like more and
so there was a lot of.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
Cooking for volume.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
My mom always had me eat eggs. She was concerned
that no one was getting enough protein.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
And all I wanted.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
For breakfast when I was growing up was dry cereal
with milk, and I wasn't allowed to have it.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
What about moosley?
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Were you allowed at if I put it on yogurt
with fruit?
Speaker 7 (17:23):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I see the protein thing.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Yeah, but she was like, you have protein, so and
I just all I wanted was like a bowl of
plain cheerios with milk.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
And then when I finally got to.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
College, that's all I ate for a solid year was
just plain cheerios with milk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
And I got very ill, like it was bad for me.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
So what was it like in your house? Did your
mother shop and cook and she all sat down? How
many of you were there in your family?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Brother?
Speaker 5 (17:52):
Well? Yeah, my brother was five and a half years
younger than me, but we would we would generally all
sit for dinner the day, talk about the day, and.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Did your mom work? Did she have a career?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Well, she was, she taught and then she was a writer,
but she was not she didn't have a mostly did
not have a like a job that.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Took Yeah, so she could kind of plan the dinner.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
She's still a good cook.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, cook right.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
And I was always a little bit self conscious about
her cooking because I had friends who I'd go over
there and it was like you'd eat very basic things
that I craved because we didn't we didn't do.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
That at home.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
But like macaronians, Yeah, like macaroni and cheese, and like
a sandwich that had like a double decker or something,
you know, like there'd be those those things that you'd
see pictures and magazines.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I would I would always would be was like a
whole wheat.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
And yeah and some kind of like something. Yeah exactly.
So I would go to other places to like people are.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Always usually always better enough. Once called me up, he
went to the American school. I never keep a lot
in my fridge. I don't know if you had fridges
for you, but I've never had any. Once called me
up and he said, can you just come to my
friend's house around the corner and why and he said, well,
they were American, you know, they'd moved here from whatever,
and that is I just like to show you what
(19:14):
a good mother's fridge looks.
Speaker 6 (19:20):
Yeah, and I think, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Did you have a fridge packed with food?
Speaker 6 (19:23):
We didn't have. We had a lot of Oh god,
I just keep eating pizza.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
But okay, I knew I was going to well also
know and I would say, we have no ability.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
We're eaters more.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, we eat.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Voracious, voracious.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Did you have grandmothers in your lives?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
My grandparents both were in southern California during the Depression
and grew up really poor, and that kind of the
cuisine of that was very much in what they were.
But my grandfather there were like walnut farms, almond farms,
and he'd come and he'd just bring always these big
(20:08):
bags of just nutsy you'd have to crack open, and
you'd sit with him and you would just play cards.
This is what I think when he was divorced, and
you just sit with Grandpa Ralph play cards and crack
nuts for hours. And he was great. And the agricultural
valley was such a thing. Farmers just sold stuff on Sundays.
(20:28):
But it wasn't like a fancy farmers market. It was
just trucks that came in and they were selling stuff
because everything grew.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Did you go to restaurants.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Before we do restaurants?
Speaker 5 (20:41):
I was gonna say, well, I just was thinking that
my friend I got from my grandfather, my mom's dad,
who would have a big salad for dinner the painter.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
No, this is my mom's dad.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Who volunteered for World War he.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Can listed in World War two and he was decorated.
He but I my mom found it, so I do
this now I do.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
He has a big salad.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
When I'm not eating everything on the menu here I
come at home, I have I have a big salad.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
And my mom found a telegram from his grand from
my grandfather coming back from the war, and it says,
you know, there's one telegram which is sort of like.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Leaving this I should be back sometime around late July.
And then the next telegram is like he'd arrived in
America but it wasn't there yet.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
He's like, I'll be there Thursday. Can you make me
a big salad? By the word yeah, yeah, yeah. But
I had sort of always liked that he did that.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
The River Cafe When You Said Lunch is now running
from Monday to Thursday. Reserve a booking on www. River
Cafe dot co dot uk or give us a call.
And when you two met, did you fall in love
knowing that you both love food? Would have been impossible
(22:10):
if you had somebody to you liked but they didn't
care about food.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
That would you get together to.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Care about food? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (22:17):
You get together to have food and talk about music
and movies.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
I like there's like a point in most when I
see most plays where I'm sort of, even if I'm
really loving the play, where I will sort of enjoy
just taking a moment to think about what I'm going
to get it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Or so well, there was a lot of.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
The whole of the last act.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, This sort of like do I is
it late for a burger?
Speaker 6 (22:43):
No?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
No, but it's it's even part of the play for me.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
You told me because I read it, because you loved
that Andrea.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Augusty book open.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
There's a thing, There's there's.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
And I read it and then you were like, I
relate to something in this.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
But did he say, well, he's like there's a point
in the book he's serving. He's serving in the middle
of a serving, the middle of a set at the
US Open, and he's just thinking about what he's going
to have for dinner afterward at this restaurant. And they
are going to this place in the village, and you know,
and an Italian restaurant in the village. And I often
(23:22):
do that. I mean I do that when I'm directing
a movie. Sometimes I'm thinking, like, not not at the
expense of what I'm doing, but I will, I will,
I'll stay to get the scene. But if I can
get the scene and also have a great dinner, that
would be yeah, amazing that there's sometimes just sort of thinking, like,
you know, what we want tonight.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
A lot of people see success, their own success and
being able to order what you want. Did you feel
that financially.
Speaker 9 (23:49):
I'm absolutely able to not to, like, I mean, having
spent my entire childhood like watching my father burrowed brow
looking at the check for about five minutes, you know, after.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
Every and to not look at it and worry about
you know, who ordered the pecan.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Are allowed to have two courses?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yes, I mean, can we have two courses? I think
I know you don't need that.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
That's enough. It's a very they're very big, so we'll
just have one for the like that kind of ordering.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah, I've rebelled against.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
I felt that in the grocery store because when I
was in college and then in my twenties, food is expensive,
and good food is expensive. And when you bought like
nice vegetables or nice good fruit, good even like the
more expense slightly more expensive beans, and not be like, well,
(24:42):
these beans are on sale when wassa I think, honestly,
for me, not until I was like twenty eight, Like,
when you stop measuring out how many dollars a day
do you need to eat to keep going?
Speaker 6 (24:55):
That's a big thing.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
What about the movie that we just made in Italy?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
In Italy?
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Tell us about filming in Italy because you were in Tuscany.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Weren't you right?
Speaker 9 (25:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
And how did that enter into the film?
Speaker 5 (25:08):
It did? I'm trying to think about how food entered
into it, because it's this is the movie I just
made with Ruthie Rogers and George Clooney.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, and lord during several people, several wonderful.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Don't really care about food, don't they?
Speaker 9 (25:29):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And it was sort of reverse engineered in some way.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Its like I want to film in Italy to have
to have something happen, And it definitely did. I mean
certainly for the story. It adds this whole other element,
but there was I loved it.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
So food is community if you're sharing, food is love,
Food is family and remembering and feeling that you're liberated
from growing up and you can make your own decisions.
Also comfort, Is there a food that you would go
to for comfort?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Well, I would say my funny answer, but my salad
is like a comfort dinner for me, Like I know,
because I don't have to make a decision.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I know what it is, and.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
That is a comfort for you.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, yeah, like I look forward to it.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
Yeah, that's so Noah.
Speaker 10 (26:20):
The fact that your comfort is salad everything, it's like
you're the most he really is the most effortlessly disciplined
person I know.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
And it's just so annoying not.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
To take the said a rigor we could call it.
I like the word vigorous.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
I know what is yours a macaroni and she's cast role.
It's also my friend Sarah because she she makes a
great macaroni, and she's cast role and she makes it
just perfect. And my birthday is in August, and she
has we used to in our early twenties. We all
together in this tiny apartment that had no air conditioning,
(27:03):
and she made me a macaroni and she's castrole for
my birthday in August in the heat, and I was like,
she loves me. She loves me because who does that
makes a roue and.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
Does all this stuff and gets the crust just right.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
And then in the pandemic, she made one for my
birthday and got it to me, Like I feel like
that if it's the food itself is comforting, and also
like the fact that she made it.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
It's like it I think that's my food.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I would also say the steak here I look forward to.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Let's go have something.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yeah, okay, great, yay.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
with Montclair
Host
Ruth Rogers
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