0:00

You're listening to Ruthie's Table four in

0:02

partnership with Montclair Fisher.

0:05

Stevens and I were recently brought close

0:07

together by one of the greatest artists of

0:09

the twentieth century, Philip Gustin,

0:12

and one of the greatest footballers, David Beckham.

0:15

A few weeks ago, he was in the River Cafe

0:17

with the producers of Beckham, the

0:19

series he directed for Netflix. We

0:21

agreed to have breakfast at my house. A

0:24

half hour turned into more than an hour

0:27

as we talked about Gustam, architecture

0:29

we lived in, and food we cooked.

0:32

We agreed we would continue the conversation

0:34

on Ruthie's Table four when I came

0:37

to New York. So here we are at this

0:39

time in Fisher's house, connected

0:41

through a love of Beckham, food,

0:43

film, and gustom and each

0:45

other. Life is good. So here

0:48

we are. Do you know that we

0:50

asked you to choose a recipe, yes,

0:53

which is for pumpkin soup. I

0:55

have to say that this soup is amazing

0:58

because it's so thick carneta

1:00

with a fork. It's just and it really is.

1:02

You'll see it's just pumpkin and

1:05

you can have it with chicken stock or vegetable

1:07

stock.

1:08

So the pumpkin soup. This one serves

1:10

six, and we

1:12

start with three tablespoons of extra virgin

1:14

olive oil River Cafe olive oil. I

1:17

prefer plus extra for the crostini

1:20

and for serving fifty grams

1:22

of unsalted butter, make

1:24

it organic butter if you can. Then

1:27

we use two cloves of garlic,

1:29

peeled and finely chopped. Wash

1:32

your hands afterwards, a small bunch

1:34

of fresh marsh room leaves. And

1:37

then because it's a

1:39

British restaurant, we'll say kilograms

1:42

and grams, but one point five kilograms.

1:45

Yeah, no, it's good. But what is one point

1:47

five kilograms?

1:48

It's about two and a half pounds. Well, two polf

1:50

pounds is a kilo, so be

1:52

about three.

1:53

Pounds three pounds, so one point five kilograms

1:56

roughly three pounds of pumpkin peeled,

1:58

seeded, and dice. Two

2:01

hundred grams of new potatoes peeled and cubed,

2:05

could be we should keep them white potatoes, right,

2:07

new potatoes. Two hundred

2:09

grams of new potatoes, peeled and cubed. Two

2:11

dried red chilies crumbled. I

2:14

love making a little spice. Love

2:16

chilies. One liter of chicken stock

2:20

or vegetable stock, six slices

2:22

of chibata bread, one garlic

2:24

clove peeled in half, so not

2:27

the finely chopped but the

2:30

bread with freshly grated parmesan.

2:36

Yeah, this sounds so good. So

2:38

you're gonna heat the extra virgin olive oil

2:40

and butter in a sauce pan and gently

2:42

fry the chopped garlic with the Marjorum

2:45

leaves until soft. Add

2:47

the pumpkin and potatoes and

2:49

continue to cook for a minute. Add

2:52

the chilies in the season well

2:55

with sea salt and black pepper, not

2:57

too much salt. Pouring enough stock

3:00

just to cover the pumpkin. Bring

3:02

to the boil, and then turn down the heat

3:04

and simmer for twenty to twenty five

3:07

minutes, or until the pumpkin

3:09

is tender, adding more stock if

3:11

necessary to keep the pumpkin covered.

3:14

So you'll have to keep checking.

3:15

On it because you don't want it watery. So you want

3:17

just enough to the pumpkin.

3:19

M Yeah, okay, that's important. Strain

3:22

about a third of the stock from the pumpkin and

3:24

set it aside. Pour the contents

3:26

of the pan into a food processor

3:29

and pulse.

3:30

Heah, you know what that is?

3:31

Like a magic mix, right, and pulse

3:34

it though, yeah.

3:35

Because you want it thick, really thick. You don't want

3:37

to thin purre.

3:38

No, it's like a

3:40

great meal. Return to the saucepan

3:43

and add the strained off stock plus

3:45

any remaining stock. Check

3:48

for seasoning, so if you need a little more salt,

3:50

a little more pepper, you check it out there. The

3:52

soup will be very thick. Then

3:55

reheat gently for serving,

3:57

by the way, for the crostini. Toast the

4:00

slices of chibata, then rub with

4:02

the garlic calves and drizzle over

4:04

extra virgin River Cafe

4:07

olive oil. You

4:09

serve the soup with Parmesan extra

4:11

virgin olive oil and the crostini, and

4:14

the addition of two hundred grams of

4:16

cannellini beans is a variation

4:18

of the soup which I personally recommend

4:21

if you make this omit the

4:23

chibata crostini. I prefer the cannellini

4:26

beans to the crostini, but that's

4:29

up to you.

4:30

Beans. And when you read that recipe,

4:33

it is just pure potatoes, pumpkins

4:35

and some you know.

4:37

Healthy, healthy, and you'll be

4:39

full and you don't need much money.

4:41

It's not expensive. If you're thinking,

4:43

especially after Halloween, except for the olive oil.

4:46

River Cafe this year is

4:48

insane.

4:49

Why because because.

4:50

It was so hot this summer.

4:52

I mean, there's hardly going to be any.

4:54

Production of where

4:56

do you get?

4:57

So we have five estates in Tuscany

4:59

that we buy our wine from, and we buy it for more.

5:01

But they a lot of the wine producers make

5:03

olive oil as well, and so every

5:06

year we go, we take twenty

5:08

people from if you've worked in the River Cafe for

5:10

like a year, we take you to Tuscany.

5:12

We take it actually all. Then we take another twenty

5:15

to Piermonte and then we go and teach

5:17

them how they make the olive oil.

5:19

Are your wine producers you

5:22

like the Italian the Tuscan wines?

5:24

Yeah, we do well now we used to. You know, our

5:26

whole roots in the River Cafe were Tuscan and we

5:28

started because Richard's family, my husband's

5:31

family came from Florence and Rose

5:33

my partner, lived in Lucca. But then

5:35

you know, it was wine that really took us to other

5:37

regions. So we went to Piermonte, and we went to

5:39

the Venito, We went to Pulia, all of who

5:42

make wine. And so it's not just

5:44

I love a tuscan you know I love them?

5:47

Do you drink wine?

5:48

Yes, quite a bit.

5:49

Maybe's become a big

5:52

Yeah.

5:53

I'm very into Etna. I'm very into Sicilian

5:55

wines. I've been there. I've toured

5:57

a few vineyards in Sicily. I

6:00

love and I love the natural wines of Sicily.

6:03

Particularly once I started

6:05

making money, I would just go big

6:07

with food. Wine. I've blown

6:09

a great portion of my respect.

6:12

Well, you know, I think it's really interesting that people

6:14

sort of measure their success and what they were able

6:17

to eat. So Beckham, you know, I

6:19

remember we did a podcast with him and

6:21

he was saying that he remembers being able

6:23

to go to a restaurant and

6:25

not look at the right side of the the

6:28

page, you know, Or that McCartney

6:30

said that he thought wine was terrible

6:33

because he'd only had cheap wine, never

6:35

had a good bottle of wine until Brian Epstein

6:37

took him to to eat. Was

6:40

that yeah the case? Yeah?

6:42

Well yeah, and I remember the first one

6:44

of the first proper

6:46

meals I ever had was

6:51

my girlfriend took me to twenty

6:54

one for my twenty first birthday,

6:56

and that was fancy. That's

6:59

That was the begin of like wow people, you

7:01

know. And then my first bottle

7:05

of proper wine because I hated wine

7:07

too. Was and I

7:09

was doing a play at Williamstown. Arthur

7:12

Miller's play I was playing Arthur Young Arthur

7:14

Miller is called American Clock.

7:16

It was about Arthur Miller.

7:17

Yeah, by Arthur Miller, about Arthur Miller.

7:19

Arthur Miller was there. He was rewriting

7:21

the play while we were. I mean,

7:24

it was incredible and he said to me, like, you'll get

7:26

it when the closest kid, you know, didn't

7:28

give me much confidence. But the

7:30

guy who played my father was

7:32

a guy nam is, a guy named Ron Rifkin

7:35

who's one of my great friends. And he

7:37

took me out and he said, have you ever had read

7:39

wine? I said, yeah, I don't like it. He goes, oh no, oh

7:41

no, no, no, no, have you ever tasted it?

7:43

Do you know what bordeuis? Do you know what Burgundy is? Do you

7:45

know? I'm like, no, barol no.

7:48

He goes, okay man and

7:50

he and to this day he's

7:52

eighty four. He

7:55

comes over, I go to we drink

7:58

incredible wine together. Still, So

8:00

that was when I was like twenty two and

8:02

then he got me hooked, and then

8:05

I just I'm obsessed now with mostly

8:08

red French Italian the

8:10

good stuff or yeah, but anyway.

8:13

Do you think back so you were

8:15

you started acting? Did you go

8:17

to college or acting school?

8:19

Or did you were ever on your own

8:21

in a place where you had to not

8:24

eat out but cook for yourself?

8:27

Oh?

8:27

Sorry, the first question is what was your college?

8:30

Did you go to?

8:31

No?

8:31

I after high school?

8:32

Yeah, I dropped out of high school. I started

8:35

auditioning at like fifteen for

8:38

shows and plays. I got off off

8:41

Broadway, my first stuff when

8:43

I could still use my name before I had to join a union.

8:46

And then I started

8:49

working as a busboy in two

8:51

restaurants in New York and as

8:53

a bike messenger and making

8:56

money, like good money, like more money than

8:58

my mom. And then I

9:00

got my first job at sixteen, had to change

9:02

my name. It was a movie over the summer.

9:05

Didn't pay that much, but I thought I'm gonna make it. But

9:07

no, of course I didn't work again for like a year

9:09

and a half, two years, but

9:12

I was eating out, yeah, and and and

9:14

I. While in high school, I worked two nights

9:16

a week. Do

9:18

you remember a restaurant Mario

9:20

Batally ended up opening

9:23

a place called Esca in the same spot, but

9:25

it was called Curtain Up forty third and Night.

9:27

It was all right. It was a busboy there, and I was a bus

9:29

play at a very groovy

9:32

kind of hipster Upper

9:34

east Side Singles place called Yellow

9:36

Fingers on sixtieth and third

9:38

Avenue.

9:41

Do you think about food and one did they?

9:43

Well? No, no,

9:45

no no, because I just

9:48

was. Now those places were not Those

9:50

were Hamburger. Those weren't,

9:52

you know, like great places.

9:54

No did a teacher in

9:56

a restaurant? I was at peep. One of the reasons

9:59

I love Americans coming to the River Cafe

10:02

is that most Americans have at one

10:04

time in their life worked in a restaurant. And

10:06

I think that teaches you.

10:08

It gave me such respect for

10:11

waiters and bus boys.

10:14

Some of the things that I saw in those kitchens,

10:16

you would never ever have that

10:19

at River Cafe.

10:20

I mean anger and bullying.

10:22

And anger bullying, but also not even

10:24

that, just the way they handled the food.

10:27

Okay, yeah, but

10:30

so I think, and also that culture of eating

10:32

out, you know. And then I go to school

10:35

and then you know what I said my senior

10:37

year in high school, I did like two months and I

10:39

was like, forget it, I'm just going to work. My

10:42

Mom's like, okay, you might as well. You're making

10:44

more money than me. And I

10:46

was auditioning and studying acting

10:49

very seriously, and then

10:51

I couldn't really get a job. And then there was a

10:53

kid that I knew and through

10:56

auditioning and in high school he went to another

10:58

high school. Two kids, actually one of

11:00

them is named Matthew Broaderick, and

11:02

Matthew Broderick I bumped into

11:05

him and he's like, hey man, I'm in this play.

11:07

It's maybe moving to Broadway and I just got

11:09

a bigger play and I'm leaving. I'll get

11:12

you an audition to replace me. And

11:14

he got me the audition to replace him. And the

11:17

play was called Torch Song Trilogy,

11:19

and I got

11:22

the job nineteen

11:24

eighty two. It was in a little theater

11:26

and Sheridan Square. It was

11:28

kind of a revolutionary gay play by

11:30

Harvey Firestein. And Matthew

11:33

got me the audition and I got the job

11:35

and that was it. I

11:38

started working from and basically almost

11:41

since then, I've been working. And

11:43

then Matthew was in a play called Brighton Beach

11:46

memoirs that and he was

11:48

going to leave that, and then he got me an audition

11:50

to replace him in that, and then I replaced him

11:52

in that.

11:53

He did,

11:55

Yeah, he was in the restaurant the other well, you know,

11:57

they're.

11:57

Coming to do Plaza this week,

12:01

and they were there.

12:02

I wasn't there that night, but he

12:04

they like to eat.

12:05

Oh yeah, oh, I've had some great meals

12:07

with Matthew. Well yeah, as

12:09

a matter of fact, okay, so this is food story.

12:12

So when I

12:14

was replacing Matthew and Brighton Beach Memrs,

12:17

Matthew was making money. He was going to do Ferris

12:19

Bueller, right, he was going to go do the movie

12:21

or something, I believe, And he

12:23

would take me out to dinner at

12:26

this amazing place.

12:28

I don't think it's still there. Maybe it is fifty

12:30

second Street called Gallagher's Steakhouse.

12:33

Gallagher's Steakhouse was

12:36

the place the sports guys, everybody

12:38

went in, and he bought me dinner

12:40

a few times. They're big dinner is serious because

12:42

he was making bank, man, you know, and

12:45

we yeah, we used to go and we would drink

12:47

martiniz. I think I was eighteen. It

12:49

was illegal, len, but who

12:52

cares now food. It

12:54

was so key. And then when you're on Broadway,

12:57

right, you're acting at night, you're done

12:59

with the show, you go to restaurants.

13:00

So that's what I asked. You know, your friend Ray, you

13:03

know other actors. Do you eat

13:06

before the play? Do you eat after the

13:08

play? Well, we had a couple who ate before

13:10

the play. Yeah, really a few,

13:13

but most I always meet

13:15

them. You know, if you have a friend in the theater,

13:17

you meet afterwards and then you go out.

13:19

Yeah, well you don't want to be too,

13:21

but you don't want to be you don't want to go on stage

13:24

with the full stomach.

13:25

You ever had to eat on stage?

13:27

Yeah?

13:27

Something?

13:28

Yeah?

13:28

Is that a fake?

13:29

No?

13:30

No, no, yeah, a little bit. You know, like Brighton

13:32

Beach. Every night we had to pretend to have dinner

13:34

and you know, apple sauce. But you just take

13:36

a couple of bit no, and and

13:38

and the worst is in movies because you

13:40

have to recreate you know. The

13:43

thing about Succession?

13:45

Uh yeah, we can talk about

13:47

it.

13:47

Yeah. The thing about Succession is that there

13:49

was a lot of scenes where you're supposed

13:51

to be eating, but nobody's ever eating because

13:54

you can't recreate the position

13:57

and how much is there. Because of the way we

13:59

shoot the show.

14:00

You'd have to have the same thing and

14:02

the same take.

14:03

In the Yeah, and because of the way we shot

14:05

in big giant chunks, it was impossible.

14:08

And people noticed. There's like a whole website

14:10

about why do nobody Why

14:12

does nobody eat? On Succession? Like

14:15

literally that people notice that.

14:17

But because a lot of the drama

14:19

takes place in tables or in you

14:22

know, in cocktail parties.

14:24

Or I like that because

14:26

there's always a sense of the tension about being

14:28

sitting down to eat but not eating

14:30

because there was so much drama happening.

14:32

I think that's also quite you know, lots of people talk about actually

14:35

sitting down to the table is a very kind of positive

14:37

experience but can also be a very challenging experience,

14:40

and that's what Succession really

14:42

challenging.

14:43

Yeah, I mean I never because my character

14:45

never sits still so and I'm never invited

14:48

to the table to eat. I'm always just told

14:50

what to do. But sadly, but

14:52

that was good for my I didn't have to worry about the

14:54

food on the plate.

14:55

But did they feed you all the

14:58

actors? Because that's another thing, isn't

15:00

it? What you feed.

15:01

Yeah, I talked to Wes.

15:02

You know, Wes's dream would be not to

15:04

stop for lunch.

15:05

You know, he told, what do you mean?

15:06

That's it?

15:06

That's what you don't stop for lunch. Wes

15:09

and Succession and now

15:11

you know, I'm working on Guy Ritchie movie.

15:14

All these productions we

15:16

do French hours, so there's no real

15:19

break for lunch. You work too

15:21

lunch French hours. You only work ten hour

15:23

days, right like in the old you know,

15:25

in many days, my early days

15:28

of making movies, you shoot fourteen hour days,

15:31

but that would include like an hour where you all

15:33

sit and eat. Succession

15:36

post COVID found it much

15:38

more manageable and

15:41

you get much more done if you don't break. But

15:43

they'll hand you like a box, and in the

15:45

box is just crap.

15:49

Wes is different because like on Asteroid

15:52

City, if we were working,

15:54

you know, all the good news about being

15:56

on a Wes movie is that you're usually

15:59

a smaller part, so you only work like

16:01

four hour days, so then you can go and have a

16:03

big lunch. But if you're working a ten hour

16:05

day with West or an eight hour day with Wes, they

16:08

have Like on Asteroid City, we

16:10

were in Spain, and yeah,

16:13

it would be a carton, but the food was it was

16:15

much not to knock

16:18

successions catering, but much better

16:20

on a west On West's movies than.

16:22

Do you think that's a European versus.

16:24

That, Yeah, I think it's European. I think Jeremy Dawson

16:26

and Wes they like food. Jeremy

16:29

is the producer, but yeah, they are. It is

16:31

better. It's just it's fun. I love

16:33

hanging out with but that the social

16:36

experience experience after

16:38

work, sitting at a table with everybody

16:40

talking and eating and it's really nice.

16:43

Nice, it's like a family. Well,

16:45

especially the last one. We were quarantined together and

16:47

we weren't even allowed to go into Madrid, which is

16:49

you know, we had to stay in chin Chung and

16:52

there's not much to do in chin Chung. So but

16:54

but but the food is good and

16:57

yeah, and I've had great meals with Wes.

16:59

But what about when you were directing your

17:02

decision? Isn't it to say what I'm going to do about?

17:04

Yeah? So my

17:06

my feature that I last did in New Orleans,

17:08

which is right before COVID, we

17:11

actually tried an experiment with

17:14

a healthy catering company. But it didn't

17:16

work out. No, I loved it. But the

17:19

crew, you know, we we were

17:21

shooting in Louisiana and

17:23

they, yeah, they liked their

17:26

meat, their pigs.

17:27

It's very male about

17:29

men who want It's a lot of men.

17:30

But yeah, it's not only men, but but

17:33

even the women they wanted

17:37

they wanted substances. But so

17:39

that didn't go great. But I

17:42

also my last thing I directed

17:44

for APP this pilot, Dear Edward.

17:47

I did the West French hours and

17:49

uh, the food wasn't great either,

17:51

but we you know, the days are

17:53

shorter and the crew gets to go

17:55

home earlier, but we don't break fully

17:58

for lunch, but you get your box of lunch and

18:00

then you break for twenty minutes and then we go.

18:03

But it makes the day a lot

18:05

faster.

18:06

Can I ask a question, Yeah, I just not

18:08

that many successful actors end up being successful

18:10

directors. Well motivated that

18:12

word enable that.

18:15

Well. I to be honest, I

18:17

would do these movies as an actor, and

18:20

then I would see them and I

18:22

would be like, God, this is not very

18:24

good, not all of them. But I

18:27

can do this. I want to do this because

18:29

the script was great or I mean,

18:31

I mean there were other directors that I worked

18:33

with where I would be like, oh my god, they're so good.

18:36

I want to learn. So it was a combination.

18:38

I kind of liked watching certain directors

18:40

direct Yeah I don't

18:43

know. And to be honest, like waiting for

18:45

the job as an actor and just being an actor,

18:47

it becomes all about you and

18:50

how you look and you you you

18:52

you, as opposed to make you

18:54

know, being a character in a painting. I wanted

18:56

to paint the painting and uh,

18:59

but I love acting and I like bouncing

19:02

back and forth as much as I possibly

19:04

can.

19:13

Did you know The River Cafe has a shop. It's

19:16

full of our favorite foods and designs.

19:18

We have cookbooks, Linden Napkins, kitchen

19:21

ware, tote bags with our signatures,

19:23

glasses from Venice, chocolates from

19:25

Turin. You can find us right next

19:27

door to the River Cafe in London or

19:30

online at shop Therivercafe

19:32

dot co dot uk. So

19:41

Fisher, here we are in your beautiful

19:43

house with your beautiful photographs.

19:46

Thank you. Brooklyn, Fort Green, Brooklyn.

19:48

Yeah, to tell me about Fort Green, Brooklyn? Where are

19:50

we?

19:51

Well, it's an interesting neighborhood.

19:54

I played on my high school softball

19:57

team. In the late

19:59

seven andes and

20:02

we played like four blocks away

20:04

at a park called Fort Green Park, and

20:07

on two occasions, after once

20:10

winning and once losing, I was

20:12

mugged after the game

20:14

by local neighborhood kids.

20:17

When we saw this house, many

20:20

many many moons later, that was for sale,

20:23

we were about to have our first child, Lexi Bloom

20:25

and Eye. I first was a bit

20:28

hesitant, but the neighborhood had changed

20:30

quite a bit. And as we were looking at the house,

20:32

we opened the door in the back porch

20:34

and I'm looking at it and there's a woman

20:37

on the on the porch next door chairs fish eye

20:39

is that yell? And I'm like Rosie,

20:41

and she goes, are you are you going to buy

20:44

the house? And that's a terrible impersonation

20:46

of Rosie Perez, But Rosie Perez is

20:48

my next door neighbor, and he's like, the neighborhood's

20:51

changed. You love it. I've been here forever.

20:54

That's the worst, Rosie Prez. I'm just my

20:57

accent's back. But anyway, so here

20:59

we are, and uh, the neighborhood.

21:01

Yeah, And did you live in Manhattan

21:03

before?

21:04

I actually had moved to Brooklyn in

21:07

two thousand and five after thirty

21:09

plus years in Manhattan. But I will say my

21:11

my neighborhood. And it's too bad.

21:13

You know, we can't go to dinner tonight because there

21:15

are like seven great restaurants

21:18

now on decalb Avenue, which

21:20

is near you know, around the corner, and

21:23

it has become restaurant road.

21:26

Well, the most the kind of landmark place.

21:28

The first one that's or the

21:30

oldest one is called Romans and

21:33

it's an it's a they

21:35

changed the menu every night. It's great. And now

21:37

there's Evelina's, there's miss Ada's,

21:40

there's Sailors that just opened. Woman who

21:42

was the chef for The Pig

21:45

with Me, well, April for years,

21:47

so April.

21:48

H and I just got a message from her saying, hey,

21:50

with you, I'm opening a restaurant in Brooklyn.

21:52

Okay, so it's around the corner.

21:53

Yeah, oh we have to go.

21:54

So it's become right, and it's become really

21:57

a spotted Pig that's the place. So

22:00

anyway, yeah, it's it's becoming this

22:02

this neighborhood.

22:03

It's tiny neighborhood, was it, No, it's

22:05

just hipster.

22:07

I think it's more of a hipster thing. But no, this neighborhood

22:10

is very it's everything. It's

22:12

a combination of everything.

22:13

I don't know if I'm cool enough to live.

22:15

Yes you are. No,

22:17

No, it's not cool anymore. We've

22:19

we've probably.

22:20

Screwed the what's cool like

22:22

another part of Brooklyn because.

22:24

Well, Williamsburg is and Bushwick.

22:26

I guess Bushwick is where all the hipsters are

22:28

now. You know, it's just keeps moving. But I

22:31

like to spend many days like today,

22:33

I won't go into Manhattan. Many days I don't go

22:35

into Manhattan.

22:36

You know when did you drive to

22:39

I?

22:39

Well, I bicycle a lot electric. Yeah,

22:45

yeah, it's nice. I had a vespa for years

22:48

now, yeah, using I

22:50

know. That's why I got rid of it.

22:51

I like, So you

22:53

grew up near here.

22:55

My mother was. We

22:57

moved here with her to make it as a painter

23:00

from Chicago. You're born in Chicago, born

23:02

in Chicago.

23:03

And she was a painter in thee Well.

23:06

She started in the seventies,

23:08

the seventies. She had a first

23:11

loft in seventy

23:13

one seventy two. Do you know a painter named Marylyn

23:15

Minter. She's made it

23:17

pretty big. So Maryland and my mother shared

23:19

a space. We lived in a loft, and

23:22

my mom was dating an actor, well

23:25

a matre d but he was trying

23:27

to be an actor and

23:30

she ended up, Yeah, she ended up working

23:32

as the co check at his restaurant.

23:35

The restaurant, yeah, it was called Charlie's. It was a very

23:37

famous theater restaurant. Forty now it was

23:39

called Sam's, or it's called Sam still there.

23:42

And we had trouble paying

23:44

the payments. So the acting

23:46

school that he studied in rented

23:50

the loft and built a stage in our living room

23:52

in the meatpacking So I'd come

23:54

home and there'd be acting class in my house,

23:58

which is how I got into business,

24:00

because I had a stage

24:02

in our living room and h Yeah,

24:05

so she.

24:06

Was painting or working, she was painting.

24:08

What did you eat do you remember as.

24:10

A kid, Well, so I have crazy stories.

24:13

Do you remember the food you ate?

24:15

Yeah? The food wasn't much. It wasn't much

24:17

exciting. I remember when

24:19

we moved to New York. What was so exciting

24:21

was the food because my

24:24

mom's boyfriend took us to Chinatown and

24:26

then she'd show up with a bushel of

24:29

blue crabs and we'd boil the crabs

24:31

and eating all these exotic foods,

24:33

Vietnamese foe. I remember discovering

24:36

that at thirteen years old, and I

24:39

remember, you know, spicy

24:41

chicken wings and just all kinds

24:43

of eating out, eating

24:45

out, no, no, no cooking, very few,

24:48

very little cooking at home in my house and

24:51

a lot of it. Because the other thing about New York,

24:53

even though we lived in the meatpacking there weren't many restaurants

24:55

there. There were opportunities

24:57

to grab food pizza right, the

24:59

pizza slices and all that. And

25:01

then my mother working at night. And

25:03

when I was fifteen and sixteen, we moved

25:06

to child No.

25:08

My sisters ended up moving back

25:10

to Chicago with my dad because the life

25:12

was too crazy. I stayed with my

25:14

mom in New York and her boyfriend. And

25:16

then so you ate out, Yeah, I ate

25:19

out a lot my whole high

25:21

school years.

25:22

You get to choose the restaurant.

25:24

It was about a financial decision too sometimes,

25:26

like you know what was cheap, right,

25:29

a lot of Chinese. I got to be so

25:32

friendly with a Chinese restaurant

25:35

on sixth Avenue in sixteenth Street,

25:38

that Gin's Kitchen that

25:40

I actually ate with the

25:42

family two nights a week with the lazy

25:44

Susan and yeah,

25:48

it was.

25:48

It different when you ate with them much

25:50

yourself.

25:51

Yeah, it was much of the food, well, the food

25:53

was the quantity of food and the selection

25:55

of food was I couldn't handle

25:57

someone what they were eating. There

26:00

were things that I couldn't recognize.

26:03

But then there was some great stuff. Yeah.

26:04

When did you go back to visit your father in Chicago?

26:06

And was that for different?

26:08

That freezy spirits difference? Yeah, then I

26:10

became a snob, to be honest, I became

26:12

a snop because I had experienced

26:15

these incredible delicacies

26:17

or and and by the way, you can eat

26:20

brilliantly, especially in New York in the seventies

26:22

and eighties, for nothing? Is

26:24

that my daughter?

26:26

Who is that?

26:29

Come in? Tell me? What

26:31

what are you having for dinner tonight?

26:33

Pasta meat

26:35

boys and some zoutinly

26:37

very good?

26:39

Have you eaten it already? Or if you just.

26:43

What do I cook? What's my specialty pasta

26:46

Sundays? What? What is the only thing I

26:49

really make? Well?

26:50

Pancake?

26:51

So how good are my pancakes?

26:53

Very very what's

26:55

good about are they? Are they

26:57

thick pancakes?

26:59

Then I have to say I am in the worst

27:02

cook except for pancakes

27:04

and pasta dishes, right.

27:07

And thanks to you. Yeah. Do

27:09

you know why your mom named you Fisher?

27:11

Yeah? Because that wasn't my real name. Okay,

27:14

my real name. What was my real name,

27:17

Stephen Fisher?

27:19

Yes, when you joined, when you joined the

27:22

Actors' Union, that.

27:23

Was already somewhere named

27:26

Stephen. Do you know that

27:28

happened to Michael Caine? He said

27:31

that he was called Michael something else,

27:33

and he called possession. He

27:35

said, there's already somebody named Michael

27:38

something else. He's offered apart and they

27:40

said we need a last name.

27:41

We did.

27:42

The last name is sitting. He says he was

27:44

sitting in Leicester Square, or

27:46

standing in Leicester Square the phone booth, and he looked up

27:48

and the Caine Mutiny was

27:51

playing in the.

27:52

Cinema, and that's how he spells it.

27:54

And that's why I became Michael Caine.

27:57

You're thinking of, you know Lawrence of Arabia

28:01

called bikel Arabia or something.

28:04

Well, I was actually there

28:06

used to be a sign for years in

28:09

Brooklyn and it said Fisher Dash

28:11

Stevens Paints. It

28:13

was a store and that's when I got

28:15

the idea I'll just reverse it, but my dad always

28:17

called me fish. Everybody called me fish,

28:19

so I was always fish.

28:21

Not your sister though.

28:22

No.

28:27

If you like listening to Ruthie's Table

28:29

four, would you please make sure

28:32

to rate and review the podcast

28:34

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple

28:36

Podcasts, Spotify, o wherever

28:39

you get your podcasts. Thank

28:41

you.

28:49

You just directed Beckham, which is just about the biggest

28:51

thing ever happened to Netflix. And

28:54

Beckham's also a great fan of The River

28:56

Cafe and the friend of Ruthie's. How did

28:58

that come out?

29:00

So? I was on my way to work

29:03

on Succession one day and the phone rang

29:05

from and it was Leonardo DiCaprio's office

29:07

saying, listen, Leo

29:11

and David had dinner last night and

29:14

he suggested you to direct his life story.

29:17

Are you interested? And I wasn't,

29:19

to be honest that interested.

29:21

Did you know about David Beckham?

29:23

No, I knew.

29:23

I don't think very many Americans.

29:25

I know. Yeah, I didn't know about it, you

29:28

know, I think that's I mean. I knew who

29:30

he was, he was famous, I knew he was beautiful.

29:32

I knew he had a beautiful wife. I knew he was a brand.

29:35

And what really scared me was he's a

29:37

brand and he's going to try to brand me, make

29:40

me do a branded content film

29:42

for him, which I wasn't interested in, but

29:44

I took the meeting on Zoom was during

29:47

COVID and also Succession

29:49

is written by Jesse Armstrong and

29:51

Tony Roach to Brits and

29:53

Jesse and Tony I told

29:55

them about this opportunity and

29:58

they're like, you have to do it. David he's

30:00

a genius. He's a great footballer, and

30:02

I'm like, really, he's that good. They're like,

30:04

are you you like football?

30:06

You know?

30:06

I'm like, no, I didn't. I got into

30:09

it a little like when David left

30:11

and they immediately like they went on YouTube

30:13

and showed me like clips of him and they're like, you got to

30:15

you gotta do your research, man. So that

30:18

it evolved and it

30:21

was actually over a dinner because

30:24

I didn't want to say yes until I met him.

30:27

So I was shooting Succession in

30:30

Italy, so I said, Okay, well I'll come and

30:32

have meet you in London and

30:35

he's like, okay, meet me, meet us at

30:37

Harry's Bar for dinner, and he said,

30:39

and wear a jacket and I'm like, I

30:41

don't have a jacket. He's like, well,

30:44

get a jacket. So

30:46

I was in Florence, so I got.

30:49

I bought a shirt. He might even been this shirt,

30:51

I mean the jacket. And I

30:54

got to Harry's Bar and I remember this,

30:56

I haven't told this story, but I walked.

30:59

I walked in to the restaurant. It was

31:01

empty, it was like six o'clock and

31:03

they go, oh, yes, I'm here

31:05

to see the Beckhams. He's like, oh, yes, only David's

31:07

here so far, So come in. And I walk in

31:09

and there's this ass just like sticking

31:12

out of a table and

31:15

I'm like, oh, it's David's

31:18

Oh

31:21

and he like almost it was like a comic moment, almost like bumps

31:23

his head on the table. It was so sorry. Victoria just

31:25

dropped her earrings. I'm just looking at them under

31:28

the table. And then and

31:31

that's how I met him. And then we had this dinner

31:33

at Harry's Bar, which is very fancy,

31:35

and I was a bit, you know, nervous, dressed

31:38

in this ill fitted you know, jacket

31:41

forty dollars forty year row piece

31:43

of you know whatever, jacket from some

31:46

store in Florence. Anyway,

31:48

so we we

31:50

we sit down and immediately,

31:52

you know, he loves red

31:54

wine and he's like, do you like red one? I'm like, yeah,

31:57

because you like Bordeaux and I love Bordoze.

31:59

And he he to like a two thousand and four Latur

32:02

or something like that, and I was like, oh my god,

32:04

this is going to be fun movie to work on. No, I'm kidding,

32:06

but anyway, so we

32:09

instantly got to know

32:11

each other and had dinner, and that was what

32:13

convinced me. I can't remember

32:15

the food isn't that interesting?

32:16

Do you know how important food is to him? I

32:19

mean one of the when we talked, when he

32:21

comes to the River Cafe, you know when they come, very

32:23

often they come as a family. But he

32:25

said that his idea of a great

32:28

night was to get rid of his family

32:30

and his kids. And you know, his kids and Victoria

32:33

not get rid of it. They're out and he cooks for

32:35

himself. And when he was in Milan he

32:37

took cooking classes. Right, Yeah, did

32:39

you get into food with him?

32:40

Well, I've seen yeah, so we filmed

32:42

him cooking. Yeah, we

32:44

film him cooking chicken. But

32:47

what's your.

32:48

Best Beckham food story? We got a great

32:50

Beckham food Well.

32:52

The other day he

32:54

came to New York and he said, let's

32:56

have lunch. And he said,

32:58

meet me at Luke Colly's in

33:00

Carol Gardens. Probably one of the best,

33:03

the best calzone, best pizza.

33:06

And I thought, that's weird. Why they're not open

33:08

for lunch. So, you know,

33:10

it's fifteen minute bike ride. I

33:12

bike over there and

33:15

it's just David Nicola

33:17

who works with him, and Dave Gardner and

33:20

me and and

33:22

Mark Lucalli. Just

33:25

us at a table and he

33:27

made Mark cooked just

33:29

for us and he

33:31

had We had some serious Yeah.

33:35

He made this pork chops with peppers

33:37

and onions. It was unbelievable,

33:41

the pork chops. He made pasta

33:43

fussili with barrata,

33:46

fresh tomato sauce. He

33:48

made well, he makes these.

33:51

His pizzas are legendary. What's

33:54

it called, Lullie. You've never been there?

33:56

Oh, you guys have really on New

33:58

York restaurants. No, No, you have to go. Okay

34:01

college, Yeah, we have

34:03

to go. And there's only like eight tables.

34:06

Will they close to the restaurant for us.

34:07

They won't close the restaurant for us, but they'll give us

34:10

a table. He'll love you to go into

34:12

this restaurant. Oh my god. So

34:14

this was Friday and we

34:17

and we had two bottles of barolo, did

34:19

you Yeah?

34:22

Yeah, Well that's interesting as well,

34:24

isn't it about an athlete eating?

34:27

You know, if he was he's now not playing

34:29

football anymore.

34:29

No, but he works out. He works

34:32

out six to seven days a week, like incessantly.

34:35

So he works out so he can eat

34:37

because he loves to eat, as you know, and I

34:40

love to eat.

34:41

Do you keep wine here?

34:42

Yeah, I've just just got.

34:44

Downstairs, and you're lucky to have a bottle.

34:46

Of I'm going to show you because this Okay,

34:48

So in this house when we moved in, and

34:50

i'll show you the room, there were barrels because

34:53

they used to make wine here. So we have grapevines

34:55

in the back. It's I can't make the

34:57

wine. Yeah, Brooklyn

34:59

wine, Brooklyn wine. I know, but they're not they're

35:02

not. I don't know how good it is. But yeah, so I

35:05

don't have that many bottles, but I love

35:07

it.

35:08

So it starting about an hour ago,

35:10

you said to me, I don't know if I have much to say about food.

35:12

Oh my gosh.

35:14

Oh, but the last thing I'm gonna say, I'm gonna shut up

35:16

about food because now I want to talk about food.

35:18

Now, I know, because tief Spain,

35:22

Spain. I just got back for you. Now

35:24

I hit all the great restaurants,

35:27

oat restaurants, Oh my god,

35:30

the greatest restaurants. I mean like funky

35:32

little hole in the wall Taverna's

35:35

like anyway, if you

35:37

go to Tenner Reef, I'm gonna give

35:39

you.

35:39

I'm gonna give the harmon.

35:43

I mean, I ave out. My younger brother

35:46

is obsessed with you.

35:47

Always think is like a tourist.

35:49

No, because the Brits all go to the South, but

35:52

forget the South. You go to the North. The

35:55

fish, the fish, the mussels,

35:58

it's oh.

35:59

Man, that's so good.

36:00

And the wine, the local Canary island

36:03

wine, and that I love Ribrieta.

36:05

I don't like Ribera.

36:08

I love red Ribia. Oh I love the wine.

36:10

But I'm not a Rioha drinker. I'm a Ribeta

36:13

drinker anyway. So I just

36:15

want to make that clear. If anyone wants to send me

36:17

Spanish.

36:18

We got the right one. Okay. Well,

36:20

so if you're you've got

36:22

to go have the pasta with the.

36:23

Pasta with my son, don't

36:27

get him on food because he eats everything. He's

36:29

ten years old, He's got the most. He

36:32

tries everything. Yeah.

36:34

So if we talk about eating for

36:36

your kids, and we talk about making pancakes,

36:38

and we talk about eating you know,

36:40

great food with great wine and ten reef

36:43

and wherever you are, you are. We are

36:45

defined as a food person. You may try

36:47

and run away, but you can't hide. So

36:49

you are. But if you need food for comfort,

36:52

is there something you would go to?

36:55

The thing that comes into my mind is is

36:57

pasta with pesto. Pesto,

37:00

the basil, the cheese that I'll oil,

37:02

the pine nuts also, I

37:05

make it. That's the other thing I try to make a little

37:07

bit. But that gives

37:09

me comfort.

37:11

Okay. I hope you don't need comfort because you're

37:13

a great personal Okay, I'm going to.

37:15

See you in London, Yes, London.

37:21

Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table for

37:24

in partnership with Montclair.

37:35

Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atamei

37:37

Studios for iHeartRadio. It's

37:39

hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced

37:41

by William Lensky. This episode

37:43

was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed

37:46

by Nigel Appleton, our executive

37:48

producers are Fay Stewart and

37:50

Zad Rogers. Our production manager

37:53

is Caitlin Paramore and our production coordinator

37:55

is Bella Selini. Thank you

37:57

to everyone at The River Cafe for your help

37:59

in me in this episode.

38:11

H