0:00

You are listening to Ruthie's Table four in

0:02

partnership with Montclair thinking

0:05

about.

0:05

Laura Dern coming here to day. I found myself

0:07

scrolling through three years of text

0:10

messages. It's kind of a story

0:12

about making plans to meet our excitement

0:14

at the thought of seeing each other in La or

0:16

London, choosing restaurants to go

0:19

to, and even sending photographs

0:21

of a fundraiser I gave for Nancy Pelosi.

0:24

As usual, most of ideas were aspirational,

0:27

adapting around our close families,

0:30

movies, cooking, travel. Laura

0:33

is loved by me and many others.

0:35

She's fond, she's curious, she's smart,

0:38

she hangs with a crew on set, passionate

0:40

about her children, Jaya and Ellery.

0:43

She has strong memories of her grandmother

0:45

and describes her parents as heroes.

0:48

Laura fights for human rights, social

0:50

values. It is a bold and brave

0:52

spokesperson for women in the film industry.

0:55

Directors and writers consider her first

0:58

when making a movie. Renzo

1:00

Piano, the architect for the Academy Museum

1:02

of Motion Pictures in La remembers

1:05

that as a trustee, she was a rigorous

1:08

and remarkable client. He asked

1:10

me to give her a hug. Laura

1:12

Dern loves to eat, and she cares about

1:14

food and the politics of feeding people

1:17

safely and sustainably. Today

1:20

we're here in the River Cafe to talk about

1:22

all this and more. And after I

1:24

give her the hug from Lorenzo and another

1:26

one for me, that's what we're going

1:28

to do. So

1:32

tell me about your cooking with Sean.

1:35

First of all, just being in the kitchen here

1:37

was incredible, and I was thinking about

1:40

tracking my memories over

1:43

the last probably

1:45

seven years of making movies here

1:48

in London, My memories

1:50

with my collaborators, my great

1:52

memories are here at the River

1:55

Cafe. This is where we plot

1:58

and create an vent and

2:01

over the course of a meal that's always

2:04

remembered. So then I was on set

2:06

with Noah bound back this week, and

2:08

we'd had dinner here together, the two of us,

2:10

talking about what it's feeling like and

2:13

how it feels different for him than the last

2:16

movies in his life. And

2:19

as we're describing it, we're describing

2:21

like, my God, wasn't

2:24

that wine incredible? Can you believe that

2:26

salad was? What was the art

2:28

of show? How did she make that art to show?

2:30

And we're just you know, it becomes

2:34

this organic part of memory,

2:36

food and art, and you've created

2:39

this sustainable, inventive

2:43

place for art and artists that

2:45

is forever seeped in

2:48

my memory so already. It's such

2:50

a gift and it means so much. And now our friendship

2:53

which is growing and evolving, and we're getting

2:55

finally getting time together, but

2:58

also being in the

3:00

kitchen and watching a

3:02

great chef's kitchen and it feels

3:05

rigorous and stressful. I

3:08

walk away from it saying, that's such

3:10

a terrifying space, and there's

3:13

something even cold about it. And the

3:15

minute you walk in, first

3:17

of all, the warmth of the kitchen as part

3:19

of the room, that

3:22

the chef is not separate from

3:25

the client, that we're

3:27

all eating and creating and inventing

3:29

this day together. That's what's so beautiful

3:31

about the space you've created. And then Sean's

3:34

energy is so beautiful, and that

3:36

she wants to teach as much

3:38

as she loves to cook is so amazing.

3:42

And my son we

3:44

were sharing ellery has

3:47

really, through the pandemic, discovered

3:50

his love of cooking. And he always

3:53

had that innate instinct

3:55

even as a little boy, you know, putting something

3:57

together. He knew how

3:59

to kind of close his eyes and pick the right

4:02

flavors or something. But

4:04

now he cooks. And I was sharing with Sean.

4:07

He said, you know, the only thing

4:10

that I've ever experienced that feels

4:12

like making music is making a meal.

4:15

And to make a meal alongside

4:17

other people is like when

4:19

you're collaborating in the studio. You

4:21

don't know what's going to happen or

4:24

how we're going to invent together to create this same

4:26

goal, this piece of art. But

4:30

everyone has their unique rhythm.

4:35

Hi, I'm done, and I'm making

4:38

a potatoes alborno

4:40

with sage with lord.

4:42

The potatoes are done

4:44

in the wood open, but you don't

4:46

need to have a wood open in your house time.

4:48

Okay, good, you might have one. No, he

4:51

don't, I will don't.

4:53

Oh yeah, so this is

4:55

your recipe that you've chosen.

4:57

Yeah, And so.

4:59

It's just thinly sliced

5:01

waxy potatoes and

5:03

then they've been tossed with garlic and sage

5:07

and covered and cooked for about

5:09

forty five minutes and then

5:12

just sprout in another it's really.

5:14

A traditional oven. What would

5:16

you do? You just put it in forty five

5:18

minutes.

5:19

Yeah, So when you read the recipe. You'll see

5:21

to slice of potatoes, scarlet

5:24

sage cover it and then you

5:26

uncover it and brown it and it will turn out

5:28

like that, I promise you.

5:29

And you'd only use the fresh

5:31

sage leaves,

5:34

right.

5:34

Yeah, well you can use anything is fine. Roast,

5:37

Yeah, it's really nice with fish

5:40

or meat, anything another

5:43

beautiful.

5:44

This is my son's obsession also

5:47

with there's the

5:49

beauty to the irregularity, and there's a

5:51

beauty to the shaving.

5:52

And like he was like, when you have a.

5:54

True critata in

5:57

Spain.

5:57

Yeah, when he's like America,

6:00

try to make it and it's you never

6:02

get the texture of it,

6:04

right, there's like.

6:06

A density like aldento and pasta.

6:08

Yes, exactly. And I wonder whether it's something

6:10

to do with the potato because it's actually

6:12

like a waxy potato. By

6:14

the end of today, you'll know how to make that. You can impress

6:16

your son and you know what you're where you're going

6:18

with it?

6:19

Now, Okay, great, I'm going to attempt

6:21

it.

6:22

I think like when you get really good at

6:24

cooking, I think you don't need to

6:26

cook with your eyes. You cook it with other

6:28

senses. I reckon you can cook with your

6:30

ears. Because you can hear how it's cooking,

6:32

aren't you, and then you can obviously smell and

6:35

she just got it like somewhere in your intuition.

6:38

Yeah, I wonder what your son thinks.

6:40

I love it.

6:41

I have to ask them.

6:43

Need your eyes.

6:44

You know, when you're like frying garlic or something,

6:47

and when it goes into oil, it's sort

6:49

of making a noise. But as it browns, it

6:51

starts to change in the sound. I

6:53

reckon you can tell when when it's brown.

6:55

Just buying the sound.

6:57

Oh that's so yeah, I'm really into I'm really

7:00

put without your eyes?

7:01

Yes, all right, you got that's amazing.

7:03

I'm not got that.

7:04

Well, if he wants to come and have a look, I have a

7:06

kitchen any time.

7:07

Oh my god, I have to bring in it.

7:10

A day with them.

7:11

Are you kidding? Yeah?

7:12

No, oh my god, that would

7:14

be wo talk about him?

7:18

Should we read the recipe first? Why don't you read

7:21

the recipe?

7:21

Okay? So the recipe is

7:24

potato alfoo, four

7:27

tablespoons of olive oil, four

7:29

garlic cloves, peeled and finely

7:31

sliced, twenty

7:33

sage leaves. We spoke a

7:35

lot about the sage because the sage is beautiful

7:38

now that spring is here. Eight hundred

7:41

and fifty gram's Rosevale or similar

7:43

yellow waxy potatoes,

7:45

peeled sea salt,

7:48

and freshly ground pepper. You

7:50

preheat the oven to one ninety degrees.

7:53

You heat the oil and a frying pan. Stir

7:55

in the garlic. Slice

7:58

each potato lengthway is

8:00

down the middle, so that you are left

8:02

with two thick slices. Place

8:04

in a large bowl, season

8:07

with salt and pepper, tossed together with

8:09

olive oil and sage.

8:12

Put in a baking dish, cover with

8:14

foil, and you cook in the oven

8:16

for forty minutes. About twenty

8:19

minutes before the end of cooking, remove the

8:21

foil so that the surface

8:23

of the potatoes become brown. Now

8:28

the sage looked so fresh, which

8:30

I think is a key. And

8:32

she was saying, these amazing waxy

8:34

potatoes are from Italy, and

8:37

I don't even know how I find

8:39

those waxy potatoes in California

8:41

or what they translate as.

8:44

I can't answer that, But we

8:46

can find them. You can find great potatoes.

8:48

I mean, the stream for potatoes is when

8:50

I went to perof you just seeing all these you

8:53

know, different different, different potatoes.

8:55

But I bet if we went to a market in

8:58

La we can find the potatoes so

9:00

that they'll give you a Rosevelt potato.

9:02

Show it to the amazing.

9:04

Amazing potatoes.

9:06

But I also was so

9:10

touched, especially because I said, I want to make it for

9:12

ellery by not only the

9:14

lengthways, but the beauty of irregularity

9:18

that ellery doesn't

9:21

like precise, the

9:24

precise look of things. It's even

9:26

like in filmmaking something being off

9:28

center. You know that there's

9:30

something so beautiful about the way it looks.

9:33

And I was really touched

9:36

by that. And he always comments on that,

9:38

like when we've been in Spain and

9:40

you have a frittata and the potatoes

9:42

the density, like he

9:44

was comparing it to al dente and pasta,

9:47

like you have it. There's a little bite to them, and

9:49

they can be very potatoes can be very

9:52

mushy.

9:53

Well that's why I think there when

9:55

she said waxy, they're not flowering.

9:57

You know, you have a baked potato

10:00

with sour cream or whatever you have with it,

10:02

you want it to be quite flowery. And we have

10:04

mashed potatoes.

10:05

You want them not to be waxy.

10:07

But these hold their shape and

10:09

they kind of a defined and always

10:11

sounds better and better, what where is he?

10:13

I know, we got to get him over here.

10:15

If he's concerned about the way that potatoes

10:17

just lie and I want him here tomorrow. He's

10:20

a musician.

10:21

He's a musician, yes he did guitarist,

10:24

singer songwriter, and now he's just

10:26

started producing his first record for

10:28

an amazing artist, a female singer

10:30

songwriter. And so I think sound

10:33

and instinct is everything. You know, it's

10:36

really Yeah, it's beautiful.

10:38

But over food, talking over food, food

10:41

and sharing a meal and

10:43

creating also really

10:45

happens together, doesn't it so much?

10:48

I was just saying to a girlfriend. She was like, what is the

10:50

thing that makes you know? And I said,

10:53

if anyone mistreated a waiter, I

10:55

deal, oh yeah, yeah, million percent.

10:57

Yeah, you know, we're pretty lucky in the restaurant

11:00

that people are really nice.

11:01

And also being raised between Los

11:03

Angeles and New York. I

11:06

was raised by actor parents, and

11:08

most waiters are often

11:11

actors in Los Angeles and New York or

11:13

musicians, and so their

11:17

respect at the presentation

11:19

of the specials. I was taught

11:22

that, you know, you not only

11:25

the focus and regard, but

11:27

actually honoring

11:29

their performance of the specials as

11:32

high art and so the performance

11:35

of specials was given deep

11:37

in high regard for.

11:38

A long time. The friend

11:40

of mine had their two children

11:42

who were like eight and ten. We were

11:44

all having their journalists. We were all having lunch

11:46

in a restaurant, and the little daughter

11:49

turned him and said blue, daddy,

11:52

and then the sun later on said

11:54

brown. And I said, what are they doing?

11:56

He said, oh, we've taught them to learn

11:58

the color of the eyes the person who's

12:01

waiting on their table, so that they

12:04

look at them. And I thought that was really

12:06

a nice way of doing it, that they just met

12:08

the you know somebody. Yeah, since

12:10

a brown blue, blue brow.

12:13

That's amazing, it's nice.

12:15

Yeah, let's go back, Okay,

12:18

because we've talked about your son, we haven't

12:20

talked about your daughter yet, but about it does she is?

12:22

She interested in food.

12:23

She is like me, We love

12:26

food and we appreciate food. And

12:28

she is a fierce young

12:30

activist. So she definitely

12:33

cares deeply about sustainability

12:35

and the politics of food, particularly

12:38

in the US, and so we have

12:40

a lot of conversations about

12:42

where the food is coming from,

12:45

carbon emissions, how to support it, regenerative

12:48

farming, the soil itself, and

12:50

she was a really beautiful supporter

12:52

of a series of films, and I've

12:55

been a producer on the

12:57

most recent, which has Kissed the Ground, and now

12:59

a film made Common Ground, which is sort

13:01

of the sequel to that about

13:04

regenerative farming. And so she's learned

13:06

a lot about the question of over

13:08

tilling and pesticides

13:11

and big food the

13:13

industry of it, and obviously the laws

13:16

in the UK and EU are very

13:18

different than in the US, in

13:21

which chemicals are somehow

13:23

god in the US, which is tragic

13:25

and hopefully changing more and more with independent

13:28

farmers, and so she

13:30

is deeply interested in

13:32

it, which is really beautiful.

13:39

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

13:42

full of our favorite foods and designs.

13:44

We have cookbooks, Linden Napkins, kitchen

13:47

ware, toadbags with our signatures,

13:49

glasses from Venice, chocolates from

13:51

Turin. You can find us right next door

13:54

to the River Cafe in London or

13:56

online at shop Therivercafe

13:58

dot co dot K. I'm

14:07

a grandmother now and I think

14:09

there is something about wanting

14:12

to cook for your grandchildren in a way that

14:14

you were, maybe as a working mother, not

14:17

able to do or to do enough and

14:20

tell me about the role that your grandmother played

14:22

in your childhood.

14:24

My mom being a single parent

14:26

when my parents divorced and

14:28

a working actress because of travel,

14:31

my grandmother raised me

14:33

when she was gone working,

14:36

so a majority of my time was with

14:38

my grandmother Mary, who's from

14:40

Alabama, and she

14:43

gave birth to my mom in Mississippi. And

14:45

so the roots of my family

14:49

are so tied to food

14:53

and tradition in the South.

14:55

Southern cooking is the region,

14:57

isn't it. When we think about France

15:00

in Italy and Britain having

15:02

you know, the north of France has a very

15:04

different cuisine from the south of France,

15:06

and Piermonte has a very different cuisine

15:09

from Sicily. And then you think about American

15:11

food and you think, well, there's a food of Vermont

15:14

really different from the food of Ohio or

15:16

but the food actually of the South

15:18

has such a strong identity.

15:20

So strong, and you what's beautiful

15:23

is you watch the DNA of those traditions

15:26

and where they came from. Just like

15:28

in the Great Lakes, you know, a

15:31

very Scandinavian focused

15:34

American cuisine and the

15:36

South, I mean, particularly in New Orleans obviously,

15:38

there's so much French influence, but

15:40

there's also the influence of the American

15:42

farmer. And what was incredible

15:45

was in lower income

15:47

families, the food

15:50

was simpler and from the land that

15:52

you had. But my grandmother

15:55

was getting what she could

15:57

from her fellow friends and

16:00

and farms locally.

16:01

So did she move to la to take care

16:03

of you, Yeah, oh she did. Yeah.

16:05

So it was very based in

16:08

broad beans, kidney beans, okra,

16:11

collared greens, rice,

16:14

and you know, that was sort of the staple

16:16

of your meal. But when she

16:19

was in the South, especially

16:22

when they were on the farm, the major

16:24

meal of the day was breakfast,

16:28

which was so wild. They would have like

16:31

really like an early morning breakfast

16:34

and then go out and work in the fields and then

16:36

come back and have this huge breakfast

16:39

at like ten in the morning

16:41

because they'd already been working since four am.

16:44

And I remember as a little girl when

16:46

I would go visit my grandfather in

16:49

Mississippi, and at

16:51

ten am, it was corn

16:54

bread and eggs and bacon

16:56

and grits and collars and

16:58

a coconut cake. The

17:00

cake or a cake for breakfast with your

17:03

coffee.

17:03

You know. Would this be weekdays as well?

17:05

Every day for them, every day

17:08

you know, but the Los Angeles version

17:10

is like Sunday breakfast was like a big.

17:13

Did you was your father in the kitchen

17:16

or never?

17:16

Never, although my mom just told

17:18

me that when they were first together

17:21

in New York, he would

17:23

cook on Sundays for all

17:25

the unemployed actors, you

17:27

know, and do like a big pasta spaghetti

17:30

and meatballs or lamb

17:32

chops or some kind of Sunday

17:34

meal to help feed the other

17:36

actors, and whoever was working would

17:39

feed everybody. My father

17:42

was raised in Chicago with a very

17:45

influential and wealthy

17:48

family, grabing aristocratic family.

17:51

See the husband of your grandmother

17:53

who came to look after or a different no.

17:57

Side, Yeah, yeah, the Durn McLeish

17:59

side, and it was Secretary of

18:01

War under FDR. Poet Laureate

18:04

of the US that chi yeah,

18:06

no, yeah, Now.

18:07

How are you related to Archibal?

18:09

That's my dad's uncle. Archibald

18:11

McLeish was the Poet Laureate under FDR.

18:14

While his grandfather on his father's

18:17

side, George Dern, was Secretary of

18:19

War under FDR.

18:21

So Warnora Roosevelt.

18:23

His godmother, who was eleanor

18:26

I mean I've lost that one, was my dad's

18:28

godmother.

18:29

Brewster's godmother was Eleanor Roosevelt.

18:32

But in that family, no

18:34

one you have someone cooking,

18:37

and so he didn't grow up with it at

18:39

all, but he loved it.

18:40

I was sinking. If you don't have any money, then

18:42

probably you have to learn to cook if you want to eat well

18:45

exactly. But if you do, then you

18:47

know, there are probably quite a lot of men and women

18:49

who never went into a kitchen.

18:50

And also, my mom tells so many stories

18:53

of like literally

18:55

hungry actors in New York City.

18:58

My mom came to New York with twenty dollars

19:00

in her pocket and a little cardboard suitcase to

19:02

become an actress from a tiny town in Mississippi,

19:04

knowing no one. And she said,

19:06

you know, you used to go in and if

19:09

you ordered a beer, they

19:12

would suggest, you know, order a beer because it'll fill your

19:14

stomach, and the bartender would give them bread

19:17

and butter.

19:18

But coming out of this family

19:20

where your grandmother cooked

19:22

for you, where your mother cared

19:25

about food, your father came

19:27

from a food culture, was there a

19:29

time when you went off on your own and suddenly

19:32

there was not that comfort food or

19:34

a.

19:34

Million percent I mean I started acting

19:36

at eleven and I was on location

19:39

by myself at sixteen on

19:42

and working

19:46

on movies meant eating

19:49

on the run and eating poorly and

19:52

eating in small towns everywhere,

19:55

and so it became what

19:57

is provided to small town America,

20:00

which was fast food, eating

20:02

tragic. This isn't what y're starting

20:05

in the late seventies, and

20:08

I only

20:11

discovered the gift of

20:14

the connection between eating

20:17

beautifully and food becoming a

20:19

part of my artistic

20:22

experience in

20:24

the last decade because

20:26

of heroes like you.

20:28

But do you think that you could work

20:30

or act or do what you do

20:33

better if you actually had healthy

20:35

food on a film set, or do you think it doesn't

20:37

matter?

20:38

Well, there are heroes in this movement,

20:40

and I mean in music, I

20:42

am so impressed thanks

20:45

to Maggie Billie Eilish's mom, who is

20:47

working so hard in terms of

20:50

how to feed crew on music

20:53

productions and touring. And

20:55

there is a new model that a lot

20:58

of incredible

21:00

companies that are looking at zero

21:02

waste are looking at sustainable

21:05

models for catering. It's

21:07

shifting and so we're trying to figure out

21:09

on film production how to do that more

21:11

and more. Kate Blanchette

21:14

care so deeply about this as well. We've

21:16

been having conversations about, you

21:18

know, making sure there is a model that

21:20

production follows more

21:23

and more.

21:24

I know that Wes Anderson, you know, when he did

21:26

a podcast and his dream and

21:28

there are a few directors who would say, would not to

21:30

stop at all, you know that sitting

21:33

down to a meal, Let's do that at the end,

21:35

we'll all go out to dinner. We'll do this. But

21:37

he tried it. He tried giving everyone soup,

21:40

and of course there was a rebellion,

21:42

especially months of crew saying we

21:44

can't do the lighting of this or that out a bowl

21:46

of soup.

21:47

And it's deeply

21:50

possible. I've seen

21:52

it done here and I've seen it done

21:54

in Italy. When I've worked and

21:58

you're you're not taking a lunch so

22:00

as people are free, you're

22:02

feeding that group of people when

22:05

cameras taking a break, when the actors are taking

22:07

a break, so that you

22:09

have a shorter day, so that everybody has

22:11

the time to be with their family. Yeah,

22:15

and then you have time for a meal with your

22:17

family or your collaborators, which I think works

22:19

beautifully. I mean I've worked on a couple

22:22

of productions now where there's a

22:24

certain amount of meat and it's on order.

22:26

So the day before, if you're someone who wants

22:30

meet a meal that involves meat, you're

22:32

pre ordering so you're not wasting that

22:35

day of food. And then also working

22:37

with local communities so that you're

22:41

taking the food and giving

22:43

it to the community and there's no waste,

22:45

because the waste is shocking.

22:54

If you like listening to Ruthie's Table

22:57

four, would you please make

22:59

sure to and review

23:01

the podcast on the iHeartRadio

23:03

app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

23:06

o wherever you get your podcasts. Thank

23:09

you. What

23:16

was it like with David Lynch, Because you talk

23:18

about him a lot and you've worked with him a lot. What

23:20

was foodise? What was

23:23

David's is?

23:26

Yeah, it matters to him and sharing

23:28

a meal matters to him. And from the first

23:31

time I worked with him, which was on Blue Velvet, I

23:33

was seventeen, and

23:35

those meals are some of my favorite

23:38

memories, which was you

23:40

know, at night, we go and we eat

23:42

together. You know, we go to we

23:45

find a couple of chefs in

23:47

that town that become friends.

23:50

They know what we love and we learn

23:52

what they make and at the

23:54

end of the day, we'd always have a meal together.

23:56

What about food and movies when

23:58

you do a food scene, their food scenes that

24:01

you remember.

24:01

Yeah, the one I remember the most was on this experimental

24:04

film Inland Empire that

24:07

we made some of that movie literally,

24:10

just the two of us, and we shot several

24:12

days.

24:13

In Paris, you and David Lynch.

24:14

Yeah, Inland Empire is

24:17

this radical journey

24:20

movie. I think it's more of a meditation

24:23

than a linear film. And it

24:26

was an amazing experience. We shot over

24:28

almost three years. Yeah,

24:31

and he wanted to make a film

24:34

so that everyone

24:37

could be inspired to make a movie. He's like, if you're

24:39

seventeen years old and you're in Phoenix, Arizona,

24:41

and you've got your grandparents sony camcorder,

24:44

you pick that up and you make a movie, and

24:46

now you can do it with your iPhone. But we

24:48

did a scene in a hotel room

24:50

in Paris, and it was this

24:52

very long monologue me on

24:54

a phone call and we'd sit down

24:57

for our cafe ole,

25:00

and he wanted his Penishoko law

25:03

and he would write on a legal pad

25:06

and I would sit there and he would look at me like

25:09

a painter and just

25:11

be writing this monologue. And then

25:13

he'd give it to me, and he's like, now while I have my Panasha

25:15

cola, you learn your monologue

25:17

and it's like seven pages, and

25:20

so I'm like, you better eat slow, buddy. So

25:22

then i'd try to learn it and do

25:25

a probably poor job, but attempt,

25:28

and then we'd go to the hotel room and

25:32

he would do my makeup or I would do my makeup,

25:35

or we'd work on it together, and

25:37

then he would set up the shot and we'd shoot

25:39

the scene. And we shot this monologue

25:42

and he was happy with it, and I was

25:45

so exciting. He was like, we got it. And

25:47

so then I went and I sat next to

25:49

the bed. There was this little chair and the side table

25:52

and there were two perfect

25:55

ladree maqueron which that hotel

25:58

would have, and

26:01

there was a pistachio one. It was so

26:03

the green was so beautiful and

26:06

he bit into it was so fresh,

26:09

and then he said, okay, now we'll do the close

26:11

up and he set up the shine and he goes, where's

26:14

the macaron? I'm like, what

26:16

do you mean?

26:16

I ate it?

26:17

He goes, you ate my props.

26:19

So that's my biggest

26:21

memory of food and working

26:23

with David in a movie. I ate

26:25

the prop and he was like, you

26:28

have to go now to Landerie

26:30

and get a pistachio macaron I

26:33

was.

26:33

I was once in Mexico and I sat down

26:35

and I was late for lunch, and there was the

26:37

mayor of Mexico City, and I

26:40

was so starving that I ate the crudyte

26:42

that was in the middle of the table. And the waiter came

26:44

up and said, you just ate our floral

26:46

arrangement, and I'd eaten somehow.

26:49

He said, I need

26:51

the floral arrangement.

26:52

I think had then guess.

26:54

What happened my whole mouth Vietnam. It was

26:56

part of that floral arrangement was some weird

26:58

plant and I thought, Okay.

27:00

I'm gonna die.

27:01

I'm going to die in this lunch with the mayor

27:03

in Mexico because I ate the flower

27:06

flower plant but no called flowers

27:08

something. Do you think about food a lot?

27:10

Do you think what you're going to eat the next day?

27:12

Or do you go to bed thinking, well, well

27:15

I have when I wake up, or do you wake

27:17

up and think what am I going to see?

27:19

My son started cooking.

27:21

We've started having conversations

27:24

that we never had before and challenging

27:26

ourselves, you know, like

27:29

how do we really make truly

27:32

a great Cajun style red

27:34

beans and rice? Because we talk about my grandmother

27:37

and how i'd have red beans, didn't you know as

27:40

a baby only? Yeah?

27:42

Did she ever leave you any of her recipes?

27:45

Yes? And in fact, my mother and I

27:47

did a book together of conversations

27:52

and it's called Honey, Baby Mine

27:55

and the book it's a book.

27:57

Did you publish it?

27:58

Yeah? And and

28:01

in the sort of subtitle we reference

28:04

banana pudding and there

28:06

are a few of her recipes for chicken and dumplings

28:09

and for banana pudding and cobbler and

28:12

chicken and dumplings is such an interesting

28:14

thing because it's what is. It's

28:18

fascinating because it's like the

28:20

mainstay meal that can

28:22

be made no matter

28:25

what family you come from and where you are

28:27

in life. And it's a big part of Southern

28:30

culture. And I think in

28:33

communities who are struggling,

28:35

like my mom's family, you

28:38

need flour, you need starch,

28:40

and you know, and chicken

28:43

and that's it. And so but the

28:45

dumplings are radically

28:49

different, and it's interesting like

28:52

in the UK, like a chicken

28:54

pie, the idea of flour

28:57

and in a way a dumpling

28:59

or a potato being used

29:01

within it. There's a similarity

29:03

in it, just like cobblers.

29:05

I think.

29:06

So in California, being in

29:08

LA, you have such a

29:11

fast availability of great produce,

29:13

would you say, what do you think we

29:15

do?

29:16

But tragically there is probably

29:19

the most pesticide use in

29:21

California. So California has a

29:25

massive trend toward organic

29:27

and regenerative farming. And you

29:29

can find through farmers' markets

29:32

and organic markets, health food

29:34

stores some gorgeous

29:36

produce. And we

29:39

have not illegalized the

29:41

use of glycasates and roundup in

29:43

California, which is illegal in many

29:46

farming states throughout the US, now, which

29:49

I find tragedy. There

29:51

are so many small farms, and there

29:53

are some amazing companies

29:56

and corporations even like general mills

29:59

that are starting to you put money

30:01

into supporting regenerative

30:03

farming as their source of

30:05

soy and wheat. That's

30:08

what we need, I mean, we need the corporations.

30:10

What about what about the wellness

30:13

industry? Because I know that you've also done

30:16

a lot of investigation into

30:18

what is wellness? What is

30:20

you.

30:21

Know it starts with food and my

30:24

mom and I's book seemingly

30:29

is two actresses talking her mother

30:31

and daughter about things we've never spoken about before.

30:34

But the auspices, the reason

30:36

for its existence, and the hope was

30:39

to promote the fact that

30:42

my mother moved to a beautiful

30:45

town, Ohi, California, which is

30:47

gorgeous for produce and

30:49

farming, to get away from la

30:52

and the smog and moved

30:54

into a beautiful

30:57

home surrounded by orange

30:59

groves which were those

31:02

were then bought by sun Kiss,

31:04

therefore Monsanto, and they were spraying

31:06

without notification, and my

31:08

mom was exposed to glyc estates

31:11

over five years and ended up with a lung disease.

31:14

And so Hi, she's

31:18

struggling still but doing

31:21

amazing. And the only protocol

31:24

that was given was eating healthfully

31:27

and to get her walking. And so our

31:29

book is me getting

31:32

her walking on oxygen a few

31:34

steps and every day we walked,

31:36

and I knew to get her walking, I had

31:39

to get her telling stories, and then I recorded

31:41

the stories, so it

31:43

unfolded. But it also gave us an opportunity

31:46

to do press, to talk about pesticides,

31:49

and to talk about healthy eating and wellness

31:52

and breathing fresh air and exercise

31:55

and storytelling stories.

31:57

Well that's what we're doing today. You know the story

32:00

of food, of memory and.

32:02

Passing down recipes and

32:05

stories of our grandparents and

32:07

great grandparents and our children.

32:09

Do you go out to eat lunch? Do you I

32:11

go to? Where? Do you? What kind of restaurants

32:13

do you look for when you go?

32:15

Well, hero restaurants like yours,

32:18

that provide local and

32:21

healthy food that put art

32:23

and love into it is my

32:26

favorite. But I think I

32:28

tend when I'm traveling on

32:30

movies, I tend to find

32:33

Italian restaurants often because

32:36

they're the food is simpler and

32:39

the produce is fresh, and

32:41

so i'll, you know, unless

32:43

I'm in London and I get

32:46

you know, a home like River Cafe, but

32:49

you know, but it's rare so around

32:51

the world. You can also often find

32:55

restaurants that don't mess it up by

32:58

you know, smothering food, which is

33:00

a very Southern tradition. You just smother

33:03

everything with every possible spice

33:07

and yeah, it's just

33:09

crazy that you can't taste

33:11

the food anymore. And now

33:15

that the hobby, I think thanks to my son,

33:17

has been getting to understand

33:19

the food differently and want to understand

33:22

how to cook.

33:23

Well. We want to have him here, We want to

33:25

definitely have more of you. And this

33:27

has been such an incredible time

33:29

and just to talk about food is love,

33:32

and food is sharing, and food is teaching,

33:34

and food is a legacy. It's also comfort,

33:37

yea. And one of the questions that we do ask

33:40

is there food that you would go to for

33:43

comfort?

33:44

It always was cobbler growing

33:47

up.

33:47

As certain fruit or just any cobbler.

33:49

Maybe peaches pieces

33:51

that would be, you know, because

33:53

of remembering my grandmother's love of

33:56

it and her taste, the taste

33:58

of peaches and like that idea

34:00

of summer and the scent

34:02

of them. And but I

34:04

think for me now, comfort

34:07

is community.

34:10

Let's go eat, eat all

34:13

right.

34:13

Thank you, thank you, Oh

34:16

my god, that's so beautiful. Thank

34:23

you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in

34:25

partnership with Montclair