January 15, 2024 • 36 mins
Today, a Ruthie’s Table 4 first, our first couple interview. Recorded on location in New York, actors Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell join Ruthie to discuss their lives through food. Mathew grew up in Wales eating Cawl and Kerri started her career aged 15 where she had to fend for herself. They now live together with their children in Brooklyn and share a love for sage pasta, travelling through Italy, discovering local restaurants - and most of all a passion for each other.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Looking out in the River Cafe. I'm always happy to
see couples having a great time, but I also know
that every table has a story. A child who just
received a degree, a colleague at work who might be
changing jobs, a marriage proposal or a separation. I met
the couple Carrie Russell and Matthew Reese when they were
(00:20):
playing a couple Philip and Elizabeth Jennings in my favorite
TV series, The Americans, and I watched their story through
thick and Thin for six years. It was there for
a big moment for me seeing them sitting at a
table in the River Cafe. They were with my friend,
Ambassador Jane Hartley, who loves Carrie, playing a sort of
(00:41):
her in the Diplomat. Today we were here at a
home in New York City to talk about all this
and more. You are our first couple, yeah, they I
know it's true. It'll be fun that way. Yeah, Rogers,
(01:07):
I have said to you before we put the MIC's on,
how amazing it is that you came up down downtown.
Do you like uptown downtown? Did you ever think of
living uptown?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I didn't personally know, did you No?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
But we took the train up here together and it's
just you feel like uptown just feels like you're in
a movie in a New York.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
New York. Yeah, I think when people say where should
I stay in New York? I was as an American,
I love staying downtown. But then I think, if you're
coming to New York for the first time, Central Park,
the high buildings, the density, the avenues, Park Avenue, so
New York for that first.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, I totally agree. That hit again when we came
out of the subway, when your borough is is so
alien to this, when you kind of go, what in
New York? I know it sounds so stupid. I go,
Manhattan brings my that magic again? Or you think of
the movies you're saw growing up. You see the park
again in a way you haven't seen it, and you
just go, I'm always I'm always kind of falling in
(02:09):
love again with this city.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's so romantic. Yeah, you know, seeing everyone dressed in
nice clothes here, yeah, all over no where we live,
it's like, you know, we're all sweatpants taking our kids
to school.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So what we thought, Mike do is start with a recipe.
And the recipe I understood that you would like to
read is a lot to do with sage like sage.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
But yes, in fact, if you could spread butter on
say a leaf of sage, you kind of be.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Already there is that a piece of sage that you've
plucked from a plant or that you've bought, you grow
it a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
We don't. We tried, we with our children. It's like
it's like trying to grow something in within a family
of chimps. Everything is plucked or ripped or or torn
or destroyed before you go. You're constantly going who did this?
Who pulled the stage?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
When I take that stage?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
We were growing this.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, so it never never seems to last. So we do,
we do shamefully. But we have a great farmer's market
by us which we we get a lot of the
hoops from. And yees, sage and butter is a is
a is a heady mix. It's a it's a great
source of comfort.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I love butter. We can talk about better later because
I always say that as Italian chefs, we're supposed to
and we do love olive oil and that is you know,
that is the ingredient, you know. And so when people
say what do you want to have in your in
your cupboard. I would never say I have kil of
Italian butter. I'd usually say a bottle of extra Version
olive oil. But butter is like it is. But I
think we should just do a podcast called butter.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Tally Tally with portin am I butchering tally Tally. I
got it right, That's it. With Porcini and sage, will
begin with.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh okay, is that me?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Three hundred and fifty grand dried taglia.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Thirty five grams have dried porcini mu rooms.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Eight fresh sage leaves finally sliced.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Or could be sixteen who knows. Two thousand grams of
unsulted butter. Oh sorry, one hundred grams of unsalted butter.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Two garlic cloves peeled and crushed.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Another family favorite. One dried red chili crumbled like us for.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Like me, especially today. Yes, had a little too much
wine last night. It's rough, little fragile.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I'm getting it through a Yeah, maybe you should have
another classify maybe probably probably only way way.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Four tablespoons double cream and.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
The zest and juice of one lemon. Do we continue
on to go away?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I've been nice to know how to make it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
No, then you just get all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yes, how you make it's your problem. Good luck.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Expect me to write a book and tell you how
to do something.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
It's really rude like me to tell you to live
your lives. Yes, happy hunting.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Soak the mushrooms in hot water for twenty minutes. Oh see,
that's why you're magic.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yes, you see. Then drain the porcini, keeping the liquid
and roughly chop strain the liquid through a sieve lined
with kitchen paper to remove the grit.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Melt the butter in a thick bottomed pan. Add the garlic, sage,
and chili and fry gently until the garlic is soft.
Add the porcini and stir to combine. Oh my god,
this is so good.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
This is working already.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
This is what I need?
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Is all I need?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yes, cook for fifteen minutes. When the porcini is soft,
stir in the cream, lemon, zest and juice, and season.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Cook the tagliae in boiling salted water until aldente.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Then drain, add to the sauce, toss well, pour wine,
drink and enjoy.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Good And so tell me about cooking. And do you
make tagutailey? Do you make a little pasta with the kids.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, pasta is the absolute staple of our house, the
absolute staple, as I'm sure it is for many people
with young children. However, I've been out for some beautiful
dinners with care and she's come home and then made
a bowl of pasta with butter and stage and I,
with great genuine wonderment, go way, way way, and how
(06:12):
sometimes you do come home hungry?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Thanks. Yeah, I love the food when I eat it.
And then if we've stayed up, if miraculously I've made
it awake beyond nine pm, which is difficult for me
by ten thirty.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Any More, food, did you discover early on the food
that you ate affected the way you acted? So that
would you find that if you're doing a scene that
you would want to be not full of food or
you wanted to eat, you know? And also if you ask,
this is a load of many questions directors. They never
want to stop food.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I just want to stop and thinking that there was
one French director when I worked in France. There's one
French director I worked with who is just a true gastro.
What's the wood I'm looking for?
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, he was like he was.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Like no, he sit down for one hour, one hour half,
we have a nice launch, and he goes, it's not
like America where you get one plate and you put
sushi on it and a burger and salad, French fries
and you put all mess on one plate. This terrible
one thing. Yes, And then so we went into this
beautiful tent. There's there's long trestle tables with white linen,
(07:20):
classes wine on that. I was like this first day,
I was like, oh my god, where am I? And
we all sat down and I'm next to the director
and I said, I said, I said, do we choose?
Is there a menu? Because no, they will come and
put it in front of you, and it's sort of
like this sort of yeah, this sort of you know,
duck Liver put down in front of us. And I went,
(07:40):
but what if you're a vegetarian? And he took a
second and he just went, sorry, that was was.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That the one? I mean? But normally what happens.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So I think we can both confirm that I mostly donuts.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Donut fiend she can inhale them.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Not so much anymore. But when we were doing The Americans,
we were shooting that here in New York and often
in winter outside night, and I would inhale donut.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It became your kind of true comfort and seemingly engine fuels.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, I'm sure that was really good for my health.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Can we as we mentioned it? You know my obsession Americans? No, really,
I have to say, you know, I've loved them all.
I you know what people said to Richard, when do
you have time to watch so much? But you know
it wasn't but we watched a lot. But for me,
it is the pinnacle. It just was. It was about family,
It was about marriage, it was about secrecy, it was
(08:54):
about loyalty. But I think that there were so many
aspects of the American and so that was just stunning, beautiful.
And there were meal times, it was a domestic setting.
There was the times when the kids would go next
door and eat something or be at a table. Was
your feeling about that?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
There was definitely thought a lot of thought, possibly more
by the writers, about when when it seemed when it
was meant to be presented as an excess, that that
Philip Elizabeth might go or Elizabeth possibly I don't speak
on your behalf might go my you know, might be
post or repelled by it, by the indulgence of it,
or the.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Excess of it.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
There was actually an episode I directed when Martha is
being relocated to you know, one of the characters being
relocated to Moscow for helping the kdub And it was
a very brief moment, but I just I just put
in this moment where she's eating peanut butter on toast
and wondering kind of yes, what her life will be,
(09:58):
And it was kind of one of those things I
just kind of planted in as to the just as
the choice that we have in comparison to what may
have happened. I mean, the meal times were always always
kind of pandemonium because it was always when the set
fell apart, do you know what I mean? Because you're
in that one concentrated day for so long, everyon goes
(10:20):
a little crazy. Everyone is trying to figure out how
to eat without eating.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Because you shoot obviously that scene that is you know,
five minutes, you have to shoot it over four six
hours because you have to shoot everyone's coverage of it.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So yeah, yeah, And what about now when you're in
the Diplomat.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Well, one of the fun things about The Diplomat is
the writer who I just I love so much, Debra Khan,
who created the show, and she puts it in very specifically.
She wants the character to eat like really messy, like
just constantly be like shoving like food in her face
and like eat really mess you, like, you know, have
(11:03):
no manners and like a dude, which I think is
really fun, but it gross. It's gross too because you
have to continually eat.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I know, I do. I appreciate that. On The Diplomat
you do eat. We always I think a lot of
actors always talk about people those actors who do eat
on screen and those who can see kind of nibbling
on cucumber. And I'm always I'm always, I'm always on this.
I'm always on this. So I remember Noah Emeric and
I had this one scene in The Americans when we
ate pizza, and I directed at the time, said listen,
(11:32):
I really want to see you eat. And we really
to map it out, like the length of the scene,
how long you'll shoot coverage wise when and we ate
it goes, I want to see you swallow the pizza.
I don't want chewing. And then we cut away and
then spit bucket and we were like, okay, we'll go
for it, and I had I was sweating I had
(11:53):
so much dough in my stomach. At the end, I
was like, I don't I don't feel well. I don't
feel well at all.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Did you know The River Cafe has a shop. It's
full of our favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks,
linen napkins, kitchen ware, toat bags with our signatures, glasses
from Venice, chocolates from Turin. You can find us right
next door to the River Cafe in London or online
at Shopthrivercafe dot co dot uk. So growing up and
(12:32):
we can figure this out if one of you wants
to go first, so you can talk to each other
about because I assume you didn't grow up together, but
you did, grab maybe you did. You met in the hospital,
little beds. Okay, that was it. So you sort of
started out with milk. But what was it like in
mobile to carry? What was it like in your household?
Speaker 3 (12:52):
My mom wasn't the best cook or anything like that,
but what she was great at was you know, my
dad traveled a lot, so it was he was just
like a suit for like a car company, so he
would get in the car and drive multiple places. And
it was my mom and three kids, four nights a week,
(13:15):
and even though she wasn't such a great cook, what
she was was just you know, like, do you want
pancakes tonight? Eating pancakes tonight. There were no rules and
there weren't that the magic of that was really nice
to grow up with. That being said, I really noticed
when there was good cooking that you know, a friend's
(13:35):
house or something, and no disrespect to my mom at all.
But I loved mothers who really spent time, and I
remember watching them cook and the way, we know, loving
that whole feeling. And then as I grew up, I guess, I, oh,
both my grandmothers were great cooks.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Grandmothers.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah, it's funny because they're very different. They were raised
in completely different places, but they both made an incredible
homemade chicken noodle soup, so that I definitely remember. My
dad's mom was a bit more of the kind of
elaborate meals than there were rules, and people dressed nice,
(14:16):
and I remember, you know, just kind of more fabulous
people coming over to dinner parties and things like that,
which was all there as fair. And they both the
grandmothers ended up living in California, so we would you know,
drive a town, say I'm sort of kind of near
each other as they retired.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, you always said you can always remember, you remember
the clink of ice because cocktails were always big, you.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Know, like the tumblers like and ladies wearing like nice
slacks with painted nails. My mom was a little bit
more of a hippie and so that was also kind
of exotic to me.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Would you sit down to you add to your brothers sisters.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I'm the middle, so I have an older brother and
a younger sister.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah. And so with meal times, even though you might
have pancakes or something, yeah, kind of that's our was
it always expected that you would sit down.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
We always ate together and it was a really easy,
not stressful, you know, really kind of loving and fun
and imaginative time. She was a really good mom in
that way. And yeah, we all ate together, and our
family we really make a point. Yeah, maybe even though
(15:24):
our teenager doesn't always love it. We eat really early,
like six thirty six, and I like that. Everyone comes home,
you have to eat and you can do anything after,
but we all sit together. And yes, I mean.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
When you said that you envied the kids that you
liked going to my son, I have to tell you.
Once called me up.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
He went to the American school and.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
He called me up. He said, Mom, can you come
over to Tedwood Square, which is a square right around
the corner from where we live, to my friend's house.
And I said why? And he said, well, I just
like to show you what a good mother's fridge looks like.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
First of all, I don't know how to unpie clous
statement because saying that to you.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Exactly because if you opened our fridge, you'd see it.
You'd see a piece of parme, see some beans that
have been cooked, and then you know those American.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Yes double double. These people had.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
That, and there was just you know, I didn't go,
So I don't know because would I go, No, good mother.
I like the idea of your grandmother. And the cocktails.
I think cocktails are really that is a cultural phenom,
don't you think, Matthew? Eventually did you have cocktails and whales?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Not so much cocktails. The staples I think for my
parents were sherry. There was always a kickoff. Was always
a sherry and then and then wine with the meal. Yes,
or it was either a shabby kickoff or a gin
and tonic kickoff.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Was just for a dinner party that was entertaining.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, shatties were usually Sundays and then sort of you know,
the gen tonics were usually kind of for dinner parties
or sometimes Sundays also. But but my day or to
use it, well, actually any any any day and ending
in a why but my mother, my mother did. Look,
she loved to cook and there's a good cook and
love to entertain as well. So we did, you know,
(17:10):
we certainly grew up with that being instilled that we Saturday,
you know, everyone sat on the table and and and
I know I've become the stickler in our house about
table etiquette, about the table. I mean, but we're down
to basics at this point. We're like, maybe to use
a fork. That's a big one. That's a big one.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Yes, we have to.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
This is scary if I come to dinner to.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Oh, good grief, yes, my god.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, there's a spoon for knuckles.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
But ilse still have to do.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
No nothing crazy, nothing crazy. I'm a little too crazy
about the holding of knife and fork.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
That is another cultural difference.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yes, yes, My big thing is it's not a pen.
I'm like, it's not Are you writing with that knife?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
It's not a pen and then Americans put their knife down.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Yes, when they eat.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
And then so the far more selective which is why,
which is why meals take hours? Yes, and lord, can
we mind dying the dessert?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Okay, So back to the etiquette at the at the house.
We have to sit down at the table and use
our knape and fork.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Correctly, and then and then and then and then you know,
then went into then went to the second phase, which
is conversation, which can you please can you please ask
a sibling a question?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, you know, Joe Biden I interviewed his sister and
she talked about meal times at the Biden household, and
everybody had to go around the table and talk about
their day. I'm with them, there we are, and he
became President of the United States. Of course, this could
also end up with somebody who just dreads meals.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
You know, that's my hope for the children.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I think I think we're succeeding.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Then I think we've succeeded. I think I think we've
nailed it. Yeah, we've set aside money for their therapy
so they can say we used to dreaded times were
it was it was positive.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
River, especially by the time we come around to him, well,
how was your day?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, just like it's like, what's the minimum I can
say that, get me away from this table as quickly
and get.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It done as quickly as quickly.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
So the meal time. So you so, growing up you
had they but actually it's interesting that you had wine
your parents. Was that only for entertaining or.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
No, they have wine, they have mine themselves. Yeah, yeah,
they enjoyed wine. I mean the culmination of the week
was always the Sunday roast and that was everything kind
of everything. You know, we'd go into the dining room
for that, do you know what I mean? And it
was always Where did you grow up in Cardiff and Wales?
Was that like my parents were teachers and then my
father became a principal of.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
A Welsh speaking school.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yes, yes, so, and you know, I think the Welsh,
like a lot of the Celtcer, kind of very culturally
minded in order to kind of keep their own culture alive.
So culture was a big element in the house. Music
was big.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You say it was a Welsh speaking school. Did they
speak anything other than most in.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
The school nor English? Lessons were in English, but that
was it. Everything else is taught in the medium.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Of Welsh, and had you spoken of before you went?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yes, yeah, I learned English.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I remember, I remember, I remember learning English like there
was this new phenomenon my you know. It was like
we used to call it yes, no language, because it's
all I could say for a while, and I was like,
why are we learning this language? What's this?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And do your children?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I speak only Welsh to our youngest Sam, and he's
entering into his the beginnings of the rebellion, when he's
now saying no, no, no, just say it in mama's language,
when you know the greater complexities are coming in. You know,
I'm trying to explain to him what insurance is in Welsh?
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Wait what what?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Just say in mom's language. No.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
He he knows everything you're saying, and in his accent
is exactly right. But he likes to answer in English.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
He's in school. I was. I lived in Paris and
a friend of mine had six children American in Paris,
married into this very very ground French family, and she said,
I have to speak to my children in my language,
you know, because speaking to your children is complex enough.
Of course, then if you're trying to think about the
past or the future chance or whatever it is. You know,
(21:16):
but do you feel more comfortable in Welsh?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I do, And it wasn't it wasn't a particularly conscious choice.
It was just something I did absolutely instinctively when he
was born. But then I speak to dogs in Welsh
as well, so I don't know what that tells you.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I want to tell me about Welsh food very sores
an identity as much as language.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
With the food, there is there is in that way
that I think the Irish and the Scots have, which
is very much a peasant culture that off cuts are
primarily everything you do and the big, the great dish
in Wales is we call it cowl, which is a
lamb's neck soup, so it's lamb's neck and then usually potatoes, leaks, carrots.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
How do you make it?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Very very simply. Everything is basically boiled with milk and
salt and that's kind of milk. Yeah, a little bit
of milk.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I remember the milk, milk going.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Not not a huge amount. Well maybe I've mis misremembered that,
but no, I'm pretty yeah, dash kind of a dash
of milk and then yeah, you kind of you you
you know, fry up the onion and the leaks. First
the carrots, boiled the potatoes a bit, and then fry
up the lamb's neck and then add it all together
and boil it up.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Do you take the beat off the neck? Does it?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, yeah yeah, with some time and salt.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
What else do you eat the The.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Other big one was seaweed or you know, lava bread,
which is a triple cooked seaweed and that is usually
made into a patty with kind of oatmeal and then
fried in bacon. Fat.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Fast has nothing to do with bread lava bread, No.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's basically more like a kind of looks more like
a hamburger paddy and and then's eaten with kind of cockles.
So you know, the majority of the country is by
the sea, so enormous kind of again peasant influenced. Where
can they scavenge from from the shoreline.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
But you had the Sunday rose that was always big,
and that was would that be lamb?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
A lot of lamb My father's family predominantly, A huge
number of them are sheep farmers. Yeah, so a lot
of lamb is eaten. It was lamb and beef. Those
are the big favorites. And then you know we were
always obsessed with Yorkshire pudding, which I've which I've terrified
carry with because but your Yorks puddings are challenged. Fantastic,
(23:34):
isn't it.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
The kids love the kids obsessed.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, yeah, they call them those bread things.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And did you go to restaurants?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I didn't go. I mean that I don't think we
had the money for that and I did not go.
So it was all in my kind of twenties starting
to go to restaurants and our kids come with us
to restaurants.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Restaurants for me growing up very special.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Is it like in Cardiff?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
I mean, you know it was. It was. There was
a there was a great seafood game there there was,
but there were especial occasions Birthdays, Mother's Day we always
went out. And then yeah, there was like you know,
when when we finished big, big exams, there was this
one place I think it's still going called the Walnut
Tree in Abergaven.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I remember the Walnut Tree was really what was his name?
Do you remember? Under Time? Yes, because I think he
started a bit before before Rose and I did the
River Cafes. It must have been in the early eighties
that you did.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
The Walnut It was because my parents. My parents said
when we finished at eighteen, the big you know, a
level that the walnut tree was where we were allowed
to go. And that was for me, like that, the
dizzy and height.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
What did you what did you eat?
Speaker 4 (24:43):
What did they used to do?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
This incredible seafood platter there And the first time I
met my older sister, she know, she finished exams and
we took her there and I saw the seafood platter,
was like, what is that? So when I went, that's
what I ordered again.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Because it just seems so fancy.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
It was. It was something incredible. It was like a
work of art.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
If you like listening to Ruthie's Table four, would you
please make sure to rate and review the podcast on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Thank you. So you sort of grew up
(25:30):
in these houses which were that you sat down for
a meal, you were cooked for sometimes you had a
cocktail and your grandmother and did that. And then and
then you particularly I think you started pretty young being
away from home. What did you do? Yeah? I think,
so what was that story of kind of being taken
away from this or it's hard to separate it from
the comfort of.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, you know, I guess I was.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I was.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I started working about when I was about fifteen, pretty young.
I my life. I love everything that I have been
able to do because of this strange circus upbringing that
I've had. But there was a point when I was
doing a television show in my young twenties called Felicity
(26:15):
and working crazy long hours, and I had at that
point real like romantic nostalgia heartache for regular things like
family and dinners, like really basic normal stuff, girlfriends and
(26:40):
birthday parties. And because I was working at such a
pace for so long that I think the wonderful thing
about our lives now is, you know, we work really hard,
crazy long hours till three in the morning or whatever
while we're shooting a show or a movie or whatever,
(27:00):
and it's this uphill sprint. But then it affords us
six months off where I get to do nothing but
do laundry and organized birthday parties and walk kids to
school and cook bad dinners.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
And you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
So, you know, I think it informed my real longing
for and the importance of those family dinners in my
younger twenties. I consistently would seek out boyfriends that had
that big family and those moms who cooked, And I realized, oh,
(27:37):
I'm dating you for your mom.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Yeah, okay, you're you're okay, Yeah, yeah, you know I
want I want that like cozy, you know those I
just think cooking to be a good cook, which I
am not.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
After one kid, I was a little bit more involved
in it. I would bake a lot, do a lot
of things. And then now that we have three kids,
life is really busy and careers, and I know I'll
get back to it. But to be a good cook,
it's just I just think it's the highest art. It's
just such a you've got.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
She's got a very good she's being modest, she's got
a very good baking game. Makes it gin just gone.
And every birthday, every birthday, I ask there's only one
thing I have my birthday, which is a pear cake
that you make with her. What's the cream cheese frusting?
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Yeah, that's a good one, that is That's.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Only only thing I asked for every birthday.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But I'll get back to it. I like, I like
doing it when I have time.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
When you take the time, when did you leave.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Home when I was eighteen, you know, going to college
in London. Where did you get I went to the
Royal Academy to study acting.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Did you go home when you were living in London? Oh?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah, I have such visceral memories of running to Paddington
and grabbing a four pack of Stellar to our for
the train. That was what we always what we always did.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
What I need right now?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah? Yeah? And the real Yeah, the real treat was
always say you went back for a weekend or something
you would like, Mum would do a slightly earlier Sunday
roast so you can get you know, the train and
one of the last trains back to London. But yeah,
we always headed home for Christmas and all the big holidays.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Did you have either of you ever work in a restaurant?
Speaker 4 (29:24):
I worked.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It wasn't quite I wouldn't call it a restaurant, but
I was. I was a kitchen porter for for a
little while, well for a summer, just being shouted at
as I washed dishes.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Did you ever I didn't. I liked other things, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
I played a chef once a.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Yeah, who did you play?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
And who trained you?
Speaker 4 (29:43):
It was?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
No, it was Who's who was the three Mission stars Marcus.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yes, I remember that, Yes, And I remember when he
was doing that and I.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Bradly Bradly Cooper, you know, did a lot with a
number of different chefs. He was kind of you know,
filleting grouse and all kinds of stuff. And I remember
they said to me, and they said, you have this
scene where you make a French omelet for Bradley and
then you make an espresso and then you smoke a cigarette.
And they're like, you'll be fine, You'll be fine, You'll
(30:14):
be fine. Right, So we had we had all Marcus
Marcus's people on set, well initially actually have to make them.
So they say, we're going to pull you in an
hour early and we'll.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Show you an hour early.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And I was like an hour omelet. I was like, surely,
I put it in a microwave, don't I. This is madness.
So I'm showing how this, how this French omelet is made,
and there's so much whisky, like you've got to get
here into this, You've got to get into this. I
was like, well, that's easy, it's just whisk And I
tried this thing so many times and for some reason,
(30:46):
it came out looking like a trainer that a dog
had chewed right, and you could see whoever Marcus is
kind of one of his suit chefs was looking on
abject horror as the way I was doing this, as
was the director, like he can't do it. And in
the end, it's not even my hands who make the
omelet in the movie. It's actually playing the piano. Oh
(31:08):
my god, it's because and I was so arrogant in
my in my thinking that was like, oh.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I can anybody can do it was.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
It was to me. That's when I was a humbling moment.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Do you go out to restaurants in Brooklyn?
Speaker 6 (31:20):
The good restaurant we do the real scene are my
most favorite thing that we did when we were dating,
and we continue to do even more than sitting in
a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I love meeting you. We go to great restaurants, but
we always sit next to each other at the bar. Yeah,
and I love that. I love going early and you
can sit closer to somebody and just and we usually
leave just as it starts getting busy.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, it's the best thing to do.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
It that sounds like things are good, Yeah, really good.
And so the love you have and reminiscing about your memories.
So there is also food as comfort. So times when
maybe things are not exactly as you want them, would
you turn to a food for comfort? And if you did,
(32:12):
what would that be? Who wants to go first?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
I would almost always cook something like we're going to cook.
I mean, you make the joke about when we go
out really late and I come home at eleven, still
make that before going to bed, which is just a
you know, like a really simple pasta with butter and
whatever I have. I'll even add rosemary to it, but
stage would be ideal, but whatever. It just kind of
(32:38):
salt and butter in pasta. That's what feels good.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, I'm certainly with you on that pasta. But to me,
if I'm talking pure comfort, it would it would always
be that the cow.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
The super I was going to say, I thought it
might be that.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Made just so it's hard lined in that it was
always the great source of comfort, even when you to
play football, you know, play soccer, and I went coming
in on a winter's morning when you're so cold, and
that was always on the stove, and it would be
with a huge piece of bread that you tea and
some cheese and that was that was kind of everything.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Actually when your mom, before we lived together, your parents
would come and she would leave, and before she would
walk out of the apartment, everything would be clean, and
she would leave cow on the stove for.
Speaker 7 (33:23):
You, yes, and then she would they would go to
the air would she would It was one thing quickly
I was when I lived in La just before I'd
gone to Los Angeles, I'd.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Gone to Argentina because there's there's a Welsh community in
southern Patagonia, and I felt very in that very cliched,
obvious male way, kind of fell in love with Malmon
style of cooking and the great asado is great, incredible,
and I had we kind of had a distant We
found a distant relative who was obsessed with a sad
and he taught me how to had a cook, you know,
(33:56):
a whole whole lamb on the cross. And when I
was in La, every month, first in David's day, I
would go and buy a full lamb and we would
we would do it on you know, we would do
a Sada style on the cross over like seven hours
and have this huge party when it was kind of
carved up at the end of it. That was always
a real highlight to me March the first Could you
(34:18):
do that?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Now?
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I like to think that I could.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I was going to say one thing about you and
I think is we both have I think we both
love the bringing everyone together and having really good food.
But I think there's something in the fun of the
theater of it as well that we love. You know,
your friends Jason and Tash are such intuitive, beautiful, creative cooks,
(34:45):
and it just becomes a whole fun theatrical thing visually
as well. And you know, we did that thing for
all of our friends up in the mountains, up where
we had that chef and we said we want to
do it outside with everyone came up on the mountaintop
and I think.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
We both was that here, Yeah, the whole hot gross.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah, it was really.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
I think food is drama, you know, being in a regiment,
and also the idea that you know, no matter how
you're feeling, you.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Have to act.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yes, you have to do it. You have to do it,
you have no choice. You don't need to do that.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
But mostly I don't have to because I love I
love being the River Cafe and just see your beast,
Where when are you coming soon?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Because I'll be back for the diplomat hopefully soon and
will come always always always be with I would.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Okay, you're going to get Sean still with you very
very well. I was going to say, ask her about
the ask about Cowl.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
I'm sure all our conversation it's really well, you'll meet him,
and thanks so much.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Thank you for asking that you fund.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atamei Studios for iHeartRadio.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Nigel Appleton.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore, and our production coordinator
is Bella Cellini.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Thank you to everyone at The River Cafe for your
help in making this episode
Looking out in the River Cafe. I'm always happy to
see couples having a great time, but I also know
that every table has a story. A child who just
received a degree, a colleague at work who might be
changing jobs, a marriage proposal or a separation. I met
the couple Carrie Russell and Matthew Reese when they were
(00:20):
playing a couple Philip and Elizabeth Jennings in my favorite
TV series, The Americans, and I watched their story through
thick and Thin for six years. It was there for
a big moment for me seeing them sitting at a
table in the River Cafe. They were with my friend,
Ambassador Jane Hartley, who loves Carrie, playing a sort of
(00:41):
her in the Diplomat. Today we were here at a
home in New York City to talk about all this
and more. You are our first couple, yeah, they I
know it's true. It'll be fun that way. Yeah, Rogers,
(01:07):
I have said to you before we put the MIC's on,
how amazing it is that you came up down downtown.
Do you like uptown downtown? Did you ever think of
living uptown?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I didn't personally know, did you No?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
But we took the train up here together and it's
just you feel like uptown just feels like you're in
a movie in a New York.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
New York. Yeah, I think when people say where should
I stay in New York? I was as an American,
I love staying downtown. But then I think, if you're
coming to New York for the first time, Central Park,
the high buildings, the density, the avenues, Park Avenue, so
New York for that first.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, I totally agree. That hit again when we came
out of the subway, when your borough is is so
alien to this, when you kind of go, what in
New York? I know it sounds so stupid. I go,
Manhattan brings my that magic again? Or you think of
the movies you're saw growing up. You see the park
again in a way you haven't seen it, and you
just go, I'm always I'm always kind of falling in
(02:09):
love again with this city.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's so romantic. Yeah, you know, seeing everyone dressed in
nice clothes here, yeah, all over no where we live,
it's like, you know, we're all sweatpants taking our kids
to school.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So what we thought, Mike do is start with a recipe.
And the recipe I understood that you would like to
read is a lot to do with sage like sage.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
But yes, in fact, if you could spread butter on
say a leaf of sage, you kind of be.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Already there is that a piece of sage that you've
plucked from a plant or that you've bought, you grow
it a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
We don't. We tried, we with our children. It's like
it's like trying to grow something in within a family
of chimps. Everything is plucked or ripped or or torn
or destroyed before you go. You're constantly going who did this?
Who pulled the stage?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
When I take that stage?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
We were growing this.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, so it never never seems to last. So we do,
we do shamefully. But we have a great farmer's market
by us which we we get a lot of the
hoops from. And yees, sage and butter is a is
a is a heady mix. It's a it's a great
source of comfort.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I love butter. We can talk about better later because
I always say that as Italian chefs, we're supposed to
and we do love olive oil and that is you know,
that is the ingredient, you know. And so when people
say what do you want to have in your in
your cupboard. I would never say I have kil of
Italian butter. I'd usually say a bottle of extra Version
olive oil. But butter is like it is. But I
think we should just do a podcast called butter.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Tally Tally with portin am I butchering tally Tally. I
got it right, That's it. With Porcini and sage, will
begin with.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh okay, is that me?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Three hundred and fifty grand dried taglia.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Thirty five grams have dried porcini mu rooms.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Eight fresh sage leaves finally sliced.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Or could be sixteen who knows. Two thousand grams of
unsulted butter. Oh sorry, one hundred grams of unsalted butter.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Two garlic cloves peeled and crushed.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Another family favorite. One dried red chili crumbled like us for.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Like me, especially today. Yes, had a little too much
wine last night. It's rough, little fragile.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I'm getting it through a Yeah, maybe you should have
another classify maybe probably probably only way way.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Four tablespoons double cream and.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
The zest and juice of one lemon. Do we continue
on to go away?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I've been nice to know how to make it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
No, then you just get all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yes, how you make it's your problem. Good luck.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Expect me to write a book and tell you how
to do something.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
It's really rude like me to tell you to live
your lives. Yes, happy hunting.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Soak the mushrooms in hot water for twenty minutes. Oh see,
that's why you're magic.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yes, you see. Then drain the porcini, keeping the liquid
and roughly chop strain the liquid through a sieve lined
with kitchen paper to remove the grit.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Melt the butter in a thick bottomed pan. Add the garlic, sage,
and chili and fry gently until the garlic is soft.
Add the porcini and stir to combine. Oh my god,
this is so good.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
This is working already.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
This is what I need?
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Is all I need?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yes, cook for fifteen minutes. When the porcini is soft,
stir in the cream, lemon, zest and juice, and season.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Cook the tagliae in boiling salted water until aldente.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Then drain, add to the sauce, toss well, pour wine,
drink and enjoy.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Good And so tell me about cooking. And do you
make tagutailey? Do you make a little pasta with the kids.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, pasta is the absolute staple of our house, the
absolute staple, as I'm sure it is for many people
with young children. However, I've been out for some beautiful
dinners with care and she's come home and then made
a bowl of pasta with butter and stage and I,
with great genuine wonderment, go way, way way, and how
(06:12):
sometimes you do come home hungry?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Thanks. Yeah, I love the food when I eat it.
And then if we've stayed up, if miraculously I've made
it awake beyond nine pm, which is difficult for me
by ten thirty.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Any More, food, did you discover early on the food
that you ate affected the way you acted? So that
would you find that if you're doing a scene that
you would want to be not full of food or
you wanted to eat, you know? And also if you ask,
this is a load of many questions directors. They never
want to stop food.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I just want to stop and thinking that there was
one French director when I worked in France. There's one
French director I worked with who is just a true gastro.
What's the wood I'm looking for?
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, he was like he was.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Like no, he sit down for one hour, one hour half,
we have a nice launch, and he goes, it's not
like America where you get one plate and you put
sushi on it and a burger and salad, French fries
and you put all mess on one plate. This terrible
one thing. Yes, And then so we went into this
beautiful tent. There's there's long trestle tables with white linen,
(07:20):
classes wine on that. I was like this first day,
I was like, oh my god, where am I? And
we all sat down and I'm next to the director
and I said, I said, I said, do we choose?
Is there a menu? Because no, they will come and
put it in front of you, and it's sort of
like this sort of yeah, this sort of you know,
duck Liver put down in front of us. And I went,
(07:40):
but what if you're a vegetarian? And he took a
second and he just went, sorry, that was was.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That the one? I mean? But normally what happens.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So I think we can both confirm that I mostly donuts.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Donut fiend she can inhale them.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Not so much anymore. But when we were doing The Americans,
we were shooting that here in New York and often
in winter outside night, and I would inhale donut.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It became your kind of true comfort and seemingly engine fuels.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, I'm sure that was really good for my health.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Can we as we mentioned it? You know my obsession Americans? No, really,
I have to say, you know, I've loved them all.
I you know what people said to Richard, when do
you have time to watch so much? But you know
it wasn't but we watched a lot. But for me,
it is the pinnacle. It just was. It was about family,
It was about marriage, it was about secrecy, it was
(08:54):
about loyalty. But I think that there were so many
aspects of the American and so that was just stunning, beautiful.
And there were meal times, it was a domestic setting.
There was the times when the kids would go next
door and eat something or be at a table. Was
your feeling about that?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
There was definitely thought a lot of thought, possibly more
by the writers, about when when it seemed when it
was meant to be presented as an excess, that that
Philip Elizabeth might go or Elizabeth possibly I don't speak
on your behalf might go my you know, might be
post or repelled by it, by the indulgence of it,
or the.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Excess of it.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
There was actually an episode I directed when Martha is
being relocated to you know, one of the characters being
relocated to Moscow for helping the kdub And it was
a very brief moment, but I just I just put
in this moment where she's eating peanut butter on toast
and wondering kind of yes, what her life will be,
(09:58):
And it was kind of one of those things I
just kind of planted in as to the just as
the choice that we have in comparison to what may
have happened. I mean, the meal times were always always
kind of pandemonium because it was always when the set
fell apart, do you know what I mean? Because you're
in that one concentrated day for so long, everyon goes
(10:20):
a little crazy. Everyone is trying to figure out how
to eat without eating.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Because you shoot obviously that scene that is you know,
five minutes, you have to shoot it over four six
hours because you have to shoot everyone's coverage of it.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So yeah, yeah, And what about now when you're in
the Diplomat.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Well, one of the fun things about The Diplomat is
the writer who I just I love so much, Debra Khan,
who created the show, and she puts it in very specifically.
She wants the character to eat like really messy, like
just constantly be like shoving like food in her face
and like eat really mess you, like, you know, have
(11:03):
no manners and like a dude, which I think is
really fun, but it gross. It's gross too because you
have to continually eat.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I know, I do. I appreciate that. On The Diplomat
you do eat. We always I think a lot of
actors always talk about people those actors who do eat
on screen and those who can see kind of nibbling
on cucumber. And I'm always I'm always, I'm always on this.
I'm always on this. So I remember Noah Emeric and
I had this one scene in The Americans when we
ate pizza, and I directed at the time, said listen,
(11:32):
I really want to see you eat. And we really
to map it out, like the length of the scene,
how long you'll shoot coverage wise when and we ate
it goes, I want to see you swallow the pizza.
I don't want chewing. And then we cut away and
then spit bucket and we were like, okay, we'll go
for it, and I had I was sweating I had
(11:53):
so much dough in my stomach. At the end, I
was like, I don't I don't feel well. I don't
feel well at all.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Did you know The River Cafe has a shop. It's
full of our favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks,
linen napkins, kitchen ware, toat bags with our signatures, glasses
from Venice, chocolates from Turin. You can find us right
next door to the River Cafe in London or online
at Shopthrivercafe dot co dot uk. So growing up and
(12:32):
we can figure this out if one of you wants
to go first, so you can talk to each other
about because I assume you didn't grow up together, but
you did, grab maybe you did. You met in the hospital,
little beds. Okay, that was it. So you sort of
started out with milk. But what was it like in
mobile to carry? What was it like in your household?
Speaker 3 (12:52):
My mom wasn't the best cook or anything like that,
but what she was great at was you know, my
dad traveled a lot, so it was he was just
like a suit for like a car company, so he
would get in the car and drive multiple places. And
it was my mom and three kids, four nights a week,
(13:15):
and even though she wasn't such a great cook, what
she was was just you know, like, do you want
pancakes tonight? Eating pancakes tonight. There were no rules and
there weren't that the magic of that was really nice
to grow up with. That being said, I really noticed
when there was good cooking that you know, a friend's
(13:35):
house or something, and no disrespect to my mom at all.
But I loved mothers who really spent time, and I
remember watching them cook and the way, we know, loving
that whole feeling. And then as I grew up, I guess, I, oh,
both my grandmothers were great cooks.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Grandmothers.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah, it's funny because they're very different. They were raised
in completely different places, but they both made an incredible
homemade chicken noodle soup, so that I definitely remember. My
dad's mom was a bit more of the kind of
elaborate meals than there were rules, and people dressed nice,
(14:16):
and I remember, you know, just kind of more fabulous
people coming over to dinner parties and things like that,
which was all there as fair. And they both the
grandmothers ended up living in California, so we would you know,
drive a town, say I'm sort of kind of near
each other as they retired.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, you always said you can always remember, you remember
the clink of ice because cocktails were always big, you.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Know, like the tumblers like and ladies wearing like nice
slacks with painted nails. My mom was a little bit
more of a hippie and so that was also kind
of exotic to me.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Would you sit down to you add to your brothers sisters.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I'm the middle, so I have an older brother and
a younger sister.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah. And so with meal times, even though you might
have pancakes or something, yeah, kind of that's our was
it always expected that you would sit down.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
We always ate together and it was a really easy,
not stressful, you know, really kind of loving and fun
and imaginative time. She was a really good mom in
that way. And yeah, we all ate together, and our
family we really make a point. Yeah, maybe even though
(15:24):
our teenager doesn't always love it. We eat really early,
like six thirty six, and I like that. Everyone comes home,
you have to eat and you can do anything after,
but we all sit together. And yes, I mean.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
When you said that you envied the kids that you
liked going to my son, I have to tell you.
Once called me up.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
He went to the American school and.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
He called me up. He said, Mom, can you come
over to Tedwood Square, which is a square right around
the corner from where we live, to my friend's house.
And I said why? And he said, well, I just
like to show you what a good mother's fridge looks like.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
First of all, I don't know how to unpie clous
statement because saying that to you.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Exactly because if you opened our fridge, you'd see it.
You'd see a piece of parme, see some beans that
have been cooked, and then you know those American.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Yes double double. These people had.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
That, and there was just you know, I didn't go,
So I don't know because would I go, No, good mother.
I like the idea of your grandmother. And the cocktails.
I think cocktails are really that is a cultural phenom,
don't you think, Matthew? Eventually did you have cocktails and whales?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Not so much cocktails. The staples I think for my
parents were sherry. There was always a kickoff. Was always
a sherry and then and then wine with the meal. Yes,
or it was either a shabby kickoff or a gin
and tonic kickoff.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Was just for a dinner party that was entertaining.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, shatties were usually Sundays and then sort of you know,
the gen tonics were usually kind of for dinner parties
or sometimes Sundays also. But but my day or to
use it, well, actually any any any day and ending
in a why but my mother, my mother did. Look,
she loved to cook and there's a good cook and
love to entertain as well. So we did, you know,
(17:10):
we certainly grew up with that being instilled that we Saturday,
you know, everyone sat on the table and and and
I know I've become the stickler in our house about
table etiquette, about the table. I mean, but we're down
to basics at this point. We're like, maybe to use
a fork. That's a big one. That's a big one.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Yes, we have to.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
This is scary if I come to dinner to.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Oh, good grief, yes, my god.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, there's a spoon for knuckles.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
But ilse still have to do.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
No nothing crazy, nothing crazy. I'm a little too crazy
about the holding of knife and fork.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
That is another cultural difference.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yes, yes, My big thing is it's not a pen.
I'm like, it's not Are you writing with that knife?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
It's not a pen and then Americans put their knife down.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Yes, when they eat.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
And then so the far more selective which is why,
which is why meals take hours? Yes, and lord, can
we mind dying the dessert?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Okay, So back to the etiquette at the at the house.
We have to sit down at the table and use
our knape and fork.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Correctly, and then and then and then and then you know,
then went into then went to the second phase, which
is conversation, which can you please can you please ask
a sibling a question?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, you know, Joe Biden I interviewed his sister and
she talked about meal times at the Biden household, and
everybody had to go around the table and talk about
their day. I'm with them, there we are, and he
became President of the United States. Of course, this could
also end up with somebody who just dreads meals.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
You know, that's my hope for the children.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I think I think we're succeeding.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Then I think we've succeeded. I think I think we've
nailed it. Yeah, we've set aside money for their therapy
so they can say we used to dreaded times were
it was it was positive.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
River, especially by the time we come around to him, well,
how was your day?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, just like it's like, what's the minimum I can
say that, get me away from this table as quickly
and get.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It done as quickly as quickly.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
So the meal time. So you so, growing up you
had they but actually it's interesting that you had wine
your parents. Was that only for entertaining or.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
No, they have wine, they have mine themselves. Yeah, yeah,
they enjoyed wine. I mean the culmination of the week
was always the Sunday roast and that was everything kind
of everything. You know, we'd go into the dining room
for that, do you know what I mean? And it
was always Where did you grow up in Cardiff and Wales?
Was that like my parents were teachers and then my
father became a principal of.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
A Welsh speaking school.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yes, yes, so, and you know, I think the Welsh,
like a lot of the Celtcer, kind of very culturally
minded in order to kind of keep their own culture alive.
So culture was a big element in the house. Music
was big.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You say it was a Welsh speaking school. Did they
speak anything other than most in.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
The school nor English? Lessons were in English, but that
was it. Everything else is taught in the medium.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Of Welsh, and had you spoken of before you went?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yes, yeah, I learned English.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I remember, I remember, I remember learning English like there
was this new phenomenon my you know. It was like
we used to call it yes, no language, because it's
all I could say for a while, and I was like,
why are we learning this language? What's this?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And do your children?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I speak only Welsh to our youngest Sam, and he's
entering into his the beginnings of the rebellion, when he's
now saying no, no, no, just say it in mama's language,
when you know the greater complexities are coming in. You know,
I'm trying to explain to him what insurance is in Welsh?
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Wait what what?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Just say in mom's language. No.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
He he knows everything you're saying, and in his accent
is exactly right. But he likes to answer in English.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
He's in school. I was. I lived in Paris and
a friend of mine had six children American in Paris,
married into this very very ground French family, and she said,
I have to speak to my children in my language,
you know, because speaking to your children is complex enough.
Of course, then if you're trying to think about the
past or the future chance or whatever it is. You know,
(21:16):
but do you feel more comfortable in Welsh?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I do, And it wasn't it wasn't a particularly conscious choice.
It was just something I did absolutely instinctively when he
was born. But then I speak to dogs in Welsh
as well, so I don't know what that tells you.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I want to tell me about Welsh food very sores
an identity as much as language.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
With the food, there is there is in that way
that I think the Irish and the Scots have, which
is very much a peasant culture that off cuts are
primarily everything you do and the big, the great dish
in Wales is we call it cowl, which is a
lamb's neck soup, so it's lamb's neck and then usually potatoes, leaks, carrots.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
How do you make it?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Very very simply. Everything is basically boiled with milk and
salt and that's kind of milk. Yeah, a little bit
of milk.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I remember the milk, milk going.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Not not a huge amount. Well maybe I've mis misremembered that,
but no, I'm pretty yeah, dash kind of a dash
of milk and then yeah, you kind of you you
you know, fry up the onion and the leaks. First
the carrots, boiled the potatoes a bit, and then fry
up the lamb's neck and then add it all together
and boil it up.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Do you take the beat off the neck? Does it?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, yeah yeah, with some time and salt.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
What else do you eat the The.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Other big one was seaweed or you know, lava bread,
which is a triple cooked seaweed and that is usually
made into a patty with kind of oatmeal and then
fried in bacon. Fat.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Fast has nothing to do with bread lava bread, No.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's basically more like a kind of looks more like
a hamburger paddy and and then's eaten with kind of cockles.
So you know, the majority of the country is by
the sea, so enormous kind of again peasant influenced. Where
can they scavenge from from the shoreline.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
But you had the Sunday rose that was always big,
and that was would that be lamb?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
A lot of lamb My father's family predominantly, A huge
number of them are sheep farmers. Yeah, so a lot
of lamb is eaten. It was lamb and beef. Those
are the big favorites. And then you know we were
always obsessed with Yorkshire pudding, which I've which I've terrified
carry with because but your Yorks puddings are challenged. Fantastic,
(23:34):
isn't it.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
The kids love the kids obsessed.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, yeah, they call them those bread things.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And did you go to restaurants?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I didn't go. I mean that I don't think we
had the money for that and I did not go.
So it was all in my kind of twenties starting
to go to restaurants and our kids come with us
to restaurants.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Restaurants for me growing up very special.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Is it like in Cardiff?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
I mean, you know it was. It was. There was
a there was a great seafood game there there was,
but there were especial occasions Birthdays, Mother's Day we always
went out. And then yeah, there was like you know,
when when we finished big, big exams, there was this
one place I think it's still going called the Walnut
Tree in Abergaven.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I remember the Walnut Tree was really what was his name?
Do you remember? Under Time? Yes, because I think he
started a bit before before Rose and I did the
River Cafes. It must have been in the early eighties
that you did.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
The Walnut It was because my parents. My parents said
when we finished at eighteen, the big you know, a
level that the walnut tree was where we were allowed
to go. And that was for me, like that, the
dizzy and height.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
What did you what did you eat?
Speaker 4 (24:43):
What did they used to do?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
This incredible seafood platter there And the first time I
met my older sister, she know, she finished exams and
we took her there and I saw the seafood platter,
was like, what is that? So when I went, that's
what I ordered again.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Because it just seems so fancy.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
It was. It was something incredible. It was like a
work of art.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
If you like listening to Ruthie's Table four, would you
please make sure to rate and review the podcast on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Thank you. So you sort of grew up
(25:30):
in these houses which were that you sat down for
a meal, you were cooked for sometimes you had a
cocktail and your grandmother and did that. And then and
then you particularly I think you started pretty young being
away from home. What did you do? Yeah? I think,
so what was that story of kind of being taken
away from this or it's hard to separate it from
the comfort of.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, you know, I guess I was.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I was.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I started working about when I was about fifteen, pretty young.
I my life. I love everything that I have been
able to do because of this strange circus upbringing that
I've had. But there was a point when I was
doing a television show in my young twenties called Felicity
(26:15):
and working crazy long hours, and I had at that
point real like romantic nostalgia heartache for regular things like
family and dinners, like really basic normal stuff, girlfriends and
(26:40):
birthday parties. And because I was working at such a
pace for so long that I think the wonderful thing
about our lives now is, you know, we work really hard,
crazy long hours till three in the morning or whatever
while we're shooting a show or a movie or whatever,
(27:00):
and it's this uphill sprint. But then it affords us
six months off where I get to do nothing but
do laundry and organized birthday parties and walk kids to
school and cook bad dinners.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
And you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
So, you know, I think it informed my real longing
for and the importance of those family dinners in my
younger twenties. I consistently would seek out boyfriends that had
that big family and those moms who cooked, And I realized, oh,
(27:37):
I'm dating you for your mom.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Yeah, okay, you're you're okay, Yeah, yeah, you know I
want I want that like cozy, you know those I
just think cooking to be a good cook, which I
am not.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
After one kid, I was a little bit more involved
in it. I would bake a lot, do a lot
of things. And then now that we have three kids,
life is really busy and careers, and I know I'll
get back to it. But to be a good cook,
it's just I just think it's the highest art. It's
just such a you've got.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
She's got a very good she's being modest, she's got
a very good baking game. Makes it gin just gone.
And every birthday, every birthday, I ask there's only one
thing I have my birthday, which is a pear cake
that you make with her. What's the cream cheese frusting?
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Yeah, that's a good one, that is That's.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Only only thing I asked for every birthday.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
But I'll get back to it. I like, I like
doing it when I have time.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
When you take the time, when did you leave.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Home when I was eighteen, you know, going to college
in London. Where did you get I went to the
Royal Academy to study acting.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Did you go home when you were living in London? Oh?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah, I have such visceral memories of running to Paddington
and grabbing a four pack of Stellar to our for
the train. That was what we always what we always did.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
What I need right now?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah? Yeah? And the real Yeah, the real treat was
always say you went back for a weekend or something
you would like, Mum would do a slightly earlier Sunday
roast so you can get you know, the train and
one of the last trains back to London. But yeah,
we always headed home for Christmas and all the big holidays.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Did you have either of you ever work in a restaurant?
Speaker 4 (29:24):
I worked.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It wasn't quite I wouldn't call it a restaurant, but
I was. I was a kitchen porter for for a
little while, well for a summer, just being shouted at
as I washed dishes.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Did you ever I didn't. I liked other things, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
I played a chef once a.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Yeah, who did you play?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
And who trained you?
Speaker 4 (29:43):
It was?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
No, it was Who's who was the three Mission stars Marcus.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yes, I remember that, Yes, And I remember when he
was doing that and I.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Bradly Bradly Cooper, you know, did a lot with a
number of different chefs. He was kind of you know,
filleting grouse and all kinds of stuff. And I remember
they said to me, and they said, you have this
scene where you make a French omelet for Bradley and
then you make an espresso and then you smoke a cigarette.
And they're like, you'll be fine, You'll be fine, You'll
(30:14):
be fine. Right, So we had we had all Marcus
Marcus's people on set, well initially actually have to make them.
So they say, we're going to pull you in an
hour early and we'll.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Show you an hour early.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And I was like an hour omelet. I was like, surely,
I put it in a microwave, don't I. This is madness.
So I'm showing how this, how this French omelet is made,
and there's so much whisky, like you've got to get
here into this, You've got to get into this. I
was like, well, that's easy, it's just whisk And I
tried this thing so many times and for some reason,
(30:46):
it came out looking like a trainer that a dog
had chewed right, and you could see whoever Marcus is
kind of one of his suit chefs was looking on
abject horror as the way I was doing this, as
was the director, like he can't do it. And in
the end, it's not even my hands who make the
omelet in the movie. It's actually playing the piano. Oh
(31:08):
my god, it's because and I was so arrogant in
my in my thinking that was like, oh.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I can anybody can do it was.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
It was to me. That's when I was a humbling moment.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Do you go out to restaurants in Brooklyn?
Speaker 6 (31:20):
The good restaurant we do the real scene are my
most favorite thing that we did when we were dating,
and we continue to do even more than sitting in
a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I love meeting you. We go to great restaurants, but
we always sit next to each other at the bar. Yeah,
and I love that. I love going early and you
can sit closer to somebody and just and we usually
leave just as it starts getting busy.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, it's the best thing to do.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
It that sounds like things are good, Yeah, really good.
And so the love you have and reminiscing about your memories.
So there is also food as comfort. So times when
maybe things are not exactly as you want them, would
you turn to a food for comfort? And if you did,
(32:12):
what would that be? Who wants to go first?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
I would almost always cook something like we're going to cook.
I mean, you make the joke about when we go
out really late and I come home at eleven, still
make that before going to bed, which is just a
you know, like a really simple pasta with butter and
whatever I have. I'll even add rosemary to it, but
stage would be ideal, but whatever. It just kind of
(32:38):
salt and butter in pasta. That's what feels good.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, I'm certainly with you on that pasta. But to me,
if I'm talking pure comfort, it would it would always
be that the cow.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
The super I was going to say, I thought it
might be that.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Made just so it's hard lined in that it was
always the great source of comfort, even when you to
play football, you know, play soccer, and I went coming
in on a winter's morning when you're so cold, and
that was always on the stove, and it would be
with a huge piece of bread that you tea and
some cheese and that was that was kind of everything.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Actually when your mom, before we lived together, your parents
would come and she would leave, and before she would
walk out of the apartment, everything would be clean, and
she would leave cow on the stove for.
Speaker 7 (33:23):
You, yes, and then she would they would go to
the air would she would It was one thing quickly
I was when I lived in La just before I'd
gone to Los Angeles, I'd.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Gone to Argentina because there's there's a Welsh community in
southern Patagonia, and I felt very in that very cliched,
obvious male way, kind of fell in love with Malmon
style of cooking and the great asado is great, incredible,
and I had we kind of had a distant We
found a distant relative who was obsessed with a sad
and he taught me how to had a cook, you know,
(33:56):
a whole whole lamb on the cross. And when I
was in La, every month, first in David's day, I
would go and buy a full lamb and we would
we would do it on you know, we would do
a Sada style on the cross over like seven hours
and have this huge party when it was kind of
carved up at the end of it. That was always
a real highlight to me March the first Could you
(34:18):
do that?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Now?
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I like to think that I could.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I was going to say one thing about you and
I think is we both have I think we both
love the bringing everyone together and having really good food.
But I think there's something in the fun of the
theater of it as well that we love. You know,
your friends Jason and Tash are such intuitive, beautiful, creative cooks,
(34:45):
and it just becomes a whole fun theatrical thing visually
as well. And you know, we did that thing for
all of our friends up in the mountains, up where
we had that chef and we said we want to
do it outside with everyone came up on the mountaintop
and I think.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
We both was that here, Yeah, the whole hot gross.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah, it was really.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
I think food is drama, you know, being in a regiment,
and also the idea that you know, no matter how
you're feeling, you.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Have to act.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yes, you have to do it. You have to do it,
you have no choice. You don't need to do that.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
But mostly I don't have to because I love I
love being the River Cafe and just see your beast,
Where when are you coming soon?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Because I'll be back for the diplomat hopefully soon and
will come always always always be with I would.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Okay, you're going to get Sean still with you very
very well. I was going to say, ask her about
the ask about Cowl.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
I'm sure all our conversation it's really well, you'll meet him,
and thanks so much.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Thank you for asking that you fund.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atamei Studios for iHeartRadio.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Nigel Appleton.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore, and our production coordinator
is Bella Cellini.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Thank you to everyone at The River Cafe for your
help in making this episode
Host
Ruth Rogers
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