March 12, 2024 • 38 mins
Fisher Stevens and I were recently brought close together by one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Philip Guston, and one of the greatest footballers, David Beckham. Last September he was in The River Cafe with the producers of Beckham, the series he directed for Netflix. We agreed to have breakfast at my house and the next morning he arrived.
Walking up the stairs, Fischer stopped at the large pink Guston. It was hard to tear him away as he spoke about the painting and what it meant to him. A half hour turned into more than an hour as we talked about art we looked at, architecture we lived in and food we cooked. We agreed we would continue the conversation on Ruthie's Table 4 when I came to New York.
So here we are, this time in Fischer's house, connected through a love of Beckham, food, film, Guston and each other. Life is good.
Listen to Ruthie’s Table 4: Fisher Stevens in partnership with Moncler – out now.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair Fisher.
Stevens and I were recently brought close together by one
of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Philip Gustin,
and one of the greatest footballers, David Beckham. A few
weeks ago, he was in the River Cafe with the
producers of Beckham, the series he directed for Netflix. We
(00:21):
agreed to have breakfast at my house. A half hour
turned into more than an hour as we talked about Gustam,
architecture we lived in, and food we cooked. We agreed
we would continue the conversation on Ruthie's Table four when
I came to New York. So here we are at
this time in Fisher's house, connected through a love of Beckham, food, film,
(00:44):
and gustom and each other. Life is good. So here
we are. Do you know that we asked you to
choose a recipe, yes, which is for pumpkin soup. I
have to say that this soup is amazing because it's
so thick carneta with a fork. It's just and it
really is. You'll see it's just pumpkin and you can
(01:05):
have it with chicken stock or vegetable stock.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So the pumpkin soup. This one serves six, and we
start with three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil River
Cafe olive oil. I prefer plus extra for the crostini
and for serving fifty grams of unsalted butter, make it
organic butter if you can. Then we use two cloves
(01:28):
of garlic, peeled and finely chopped. Wash your hands afterwards,
a small bunch of fresh marsh room leaves. And then
because it's a British restaurant, we'll say kilograms and grams,
but one point five kilograms. Yeah, no, it's good. But
what is one point five kilograms?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
It's about two and a half pounds. Well, two polf
pounds is a kilo, so be about three.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Pounds three pounds, so one point five kilograms roughly three
pounds of pumpkin peeled, seeded, and dice. Two hundred grams
of new potatoes peeled and cubed, could be we should
keep them white potatoes, right, new potatoes. Two hundred grams
of new potatoes, peeled and cubed. Two dried red chilies crumbled.
(02:13):
I love making a little spice. Love chilies. One liter
of chicken stock or vegetable stock, six slices of chibata bread,
one garlic clove peeled in half, so not the finely
chopped but the bread with freshly grated parmesan. Yeah, this
(02:36):
sounds so good. So you're gonna heat the extra virgin
olive oil and butter in a sauce pan and gently
fry the chopped garlic with the Marjorum leaves until soft.
Add the pumpkin and potatoes and continue to cook for
a minute. Add the chilies in the season well with
sea salt and black pepper, not too much salt. Pouring
(02:59):
enough stock just to cover the pumpkin. Bring to the boil,
and then turn down the heat and simmer for twenty
to twenty five minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender,
adding more stock if necessary to keep the pumpkin covered.
So you'll have to keep checking.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
On it because you don't want it watery. So you
want just enough to the pumpkin.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
M Yeah, okay, that's important. Strain about a third of
the stock from the pumpkin and set it aside. Pour
the contents of the pan into a food processor and pulse.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Heah, you know what that is?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Like a magic mix, right, and pulse it though, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Because you want it thick, really thick. You don't want
to thin purre.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
No, it's like a great meal. Return to the saucepan
and add the strained off stock plus any remaining stock.
Check for seasoning, so if you need a little more salt,
a little more pepper, you check it out there. The
soup will be very thick. Then reheat gently for serving,
by the way, for the crostini. Toast the slices of chibata,
(04:01):
then rub with the garlic calves and drizzle over extra
virgin River Cafe olive oil. You serve the soup with
Parmesan extra virgin olive oil and the crostini, and the
addition of two hundred grams of cannellini beans is a
variation of the soup which I personally recommend if you
(04:22):
make this omit the chibata crostini. I prefer the cannellini
beans to the crostini, but that's up to you.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Beans. And when you read that recipe, it is just
pure potatoes, pumpkins and some you know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Healthy, healthy, and you'll be full and you don't need
much money.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It's not expensive. If you're thinking, especially after Halloween, except
for the olive oil. River Cafe this year is insane.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Why because because.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It was so hot this summer. I mean, there's hardly
going to be any.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Production of where do you get?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So we have five estates in Tuscany that we buy
our wine from, and we buy it for more. But
they a lot of the wine producers make olive oil
as well, and so every year we go, we take
twenty people from if you've worked in the River Cafe
for like a year, we take you to Tuscany. We
take it actually all. Then we take another twenty to
Piermonte and then we go and teach them how they
(05:17):
make the olive oil.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Are your wine producers you like the Italian the Tuscan wines?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, we do well now we used to. You know,
our whole roots in the River Cafe were Tuscan and
we started because Richard's family, my husband's family came from
Florence and Rose my partner, lived in Lucca. But then
you know, it was wine that really took us to
other regions. So we went to Piermonte, and we went
to the Venito, We went to Pulia, all of who
make wine. And so it's not just I love a
(05:45):
tuscan you know I love them? Do you drink wine?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yes, quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Maybe's become a big Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I'm very into Etna. I'm very into Sicilian wines. I've
been there. I've toured a few vineyards in Sicily. I
love and I love the natural wines of Sicily. Particularly
once I started making money, I would just go big
with food. Wine. I've blown a great portion of my respect.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Well, you know, I think it's really interesting that people
sort of measure their success and what they were able
to eat. So Beckham, you know, I remember we did
a podcast with him and he was saying that he
remembers being able to go to a restaurant and not
look at the right side of the the page, you know,
Or that McCartney said that he thought wine was terrible
(06:33):
because he'd only had cheap wine, never had a good
bottle of wine until Brian Epstein took him to to eat.
Was that yeah the case? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Well yeah, and I remember the first one of the
first proper meals I ever had was my girlfriend took
me to twenty one for my twenty first birthday, and
that was fancy. That's That was the begin of like
wow people, you know. And then my first bottle of
(07:05):
proper wine because I hated wine too. Was and I
was doing a play at Williamstown. Arthur Miller's play I
was playing Arthur Young Arthur Miller is called American Clock.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It was about Arthur Miller.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, by Arthur Miller, about Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was there.
He was rewriting the play while we were. I mean,
it was incredible and he said to me, like, you'll
get it when the closest kid, you know, didn't give
me much confidence. But the guy who played my father
was a guy nam is, a guy named Ron Rifkin
who's one of my great friends. And he took me
(07:37):
out and he said, have you ever had read wine?
I said, yeah, I don't like it. He goes, oh no,
oh no, no, no, no, have you ever tasted it? Do
you know what bordeuis? Do you know what Burgundy is?
Do you know? I'm like, no, barol no. He goes,
okay man and he and to this day he's eighty four.
He comes over, I go to we drink incredible wine together. Still,
(08:00):
So that was when I was like twenty two and
then he got me hooked, and then I just I'm
obsessed now with mostly red French Italian the good stuff
or yeah, but anyway.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Do you think back so you were you started acting?
Did you go to college or acting school? Or did
you were ever on your own in a place where
you had to not eat out but cook for yourself?
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Sorry, the first question is what was your college? Did
you go to?
Speaker 4 (08:31):
No?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I after high school?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, I dropped out of high school. I started auditioning
at like fifteen for shows and plays. I got off
off Broadway, my first stuff when I could still use
my name before I had to join a union. And
then I started working as a busboy in two restaurants
in New York and as a bike messenger and making money,
(08:56):
like good money, like more money than my mom. And
then I got my first job at sixteen, had to
change my name. It was a movie over the summer.
Didn't pay that much, but I thought I'm gonna make it.
But no, of course I didn't work again for like
a year and a half, two years, but I was
eating out, yeah, and and and I. While in high school,
I worked two nights a week. Do you remember a
(09:19):
restaurant Mario Batally ended up opening a place called Esca
in the same spot, but it was called Curtain Up
forty third and Night. It was all right. It was
a busboy there, and I was a bus play at
a very groovy kind of hipster Upper east Side Singles
place called Yellow Fingers on sixtieth and third Avenue.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Do you think about food and one did they?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Well? No, no, no no, because I just was. Now
those places were not Those were Hamburger. Those weren't, you know,
like great places.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
No did a teacher in a restaurant? I was at peep.
One of the reasons I love Americans coming to the
River Cafe is that most Americans have at one time
in their life worked in a restaurant. And I think
that teaches you.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
It gave me such respect for waiters and bus boys.
Some of the things that I saw in those kitchens,
you would never ever have that at River Cafe.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I mean anger and bullying.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And anger bullying, but also not even that, just the
way they handled the food. Okay, yeah, but so I think,
and also that culture of eating out, you know. And
then I go to school and then you know what
I said my senior year in high school, I did
like two months and I was like, forget it, I'm
just going to work. My Mom's like, okay, you might
(10:43):
as well. You're making more money than me. And I
was auditioning and studying acting very seriously, and then I
couldn't really get a job. And then there was a
kid that I knew and through auditioning and in high
school he went to another high school. Two kids, actually
one of them is named Matthew Broaderick, and Matthew Broderick
(11:04):
I bumped into him and he's like, hey man, I'm
in this play. It's maybe moving to Broadway and I
just got a bigger play and I'm leaving. I'll get
you an audition to replace me. And he got me
the audition to replace him. And the play was called
Torch Song Trilogy, and I got the job nineteen eighty two.
(11:25):
It was in a little theater and Sheridan Square. It
was kind of a revolutionary gay play by Harvey Firestein.
And Matthew got me the audition and I got the
job and that was it. I started working from and
basically almost since then, I've been working. And then Matthew
was in a play called Brighton Beach memoirs that and
(11:48):
he was going to leave that, and then he got
me an audition to replace him in that, and then
I replaced him in that.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
He did, Yeah, he was in the restaurant the other well,
you know, they're.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Coming to do Plaza this week, and they were there.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I wasn't there that night, but he they like to eat.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Oh yeah, oh, I've had some great meals with Matthew.
Well yeah, as a matter of fact, okay, so this
is food story. So when I was replacing Matthew and
Brighton Beach Memrs, Matthew was making money. He was going
to do Ferris Bueller, right, he was going to go
do the movie or something, I believe, And he would
take me out to dinner at this amazing place. I
(12:28):
don't think it's still there. Maybe it is fifty second
Street called Gallagher's Steakhouse. Gallagher's Steakhouse was the place the
sports guys, everybody went in, and he bought me dinner
a few times. They're big dinner is serious because he
was making bank, man, you know, and we yeah, we
used to go and we would drink martiniz. I think
(12:48):
I was eighteen. It was illegal, len, but who cares
now food. It was so key. And then when you're
on Broadway, right, you're acting at night, you're done with
the show, you go to restaurants.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
So that's what I asked. You know, your friend Ray,
you know other actors. Do you eat before the play? Do
you eat after the play? Well, we had a couple
who ate before the play. Yeah, really a few, but
most I always meet them. You know, if you have
a friend in the theater, you meet afterwards and then
you go out.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, well you don't want to be too, but you
don't want to be you don't want to go on
stage with the full stomach.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You ever had to eat on stage?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Something?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Is that a fake?
Speaker 4 (13:29):
No?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
No, no, yeah, a little bit. You know, like Brighton Beach.
Every night we had to pretend to have dinner and
you know, apple sauce. But you just take a couple
of bit no, and and and the worst is in
movies because you have to recreate you know. The thing
about Succession?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Uh yeah, we can talk about it.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah. The thing about Succession is that there was a
lot of scenes where you're supposed to be eating, but
nobody's ever eating because you can't recreate the position and
how much is there. Because of the way we shoot
the show.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
You'd have to have the same thing and the same take.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
In the Yeah, and because of the way we shot
in big giant chunks, it was impossible. And people noticed.
There's like a whole website about why do nobody Why
does nobody eat? On Succession? Like literally that people notice that.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But because a lot of the drama takes place in
tables or in you know, in cocktail parties.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Or I like that because there's always a sense of
the tension about being sitting down to eat but not
eating because there was so much drama happening. I think
that's also quite you know, lots of people talk about
actually sitting down to the table is a very kind
of positive experience but can also be a very challenging experience,
and that's what Succession really challenging.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, I mean I never because my character never sits
still so and I'm never invited to the table to eat.
I'm always just told what to do. But sadly, but
that was good for my I didn't have to worry
about the food on the plate.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But did they feed you all the actors? Because that's
another thing, isn't it? What you feed.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, I talked to Wes.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
You know, Wes's dream would be not to stop for lunch.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You know, he told, what do you mean?
Speaker 1 (15:06):
That's it?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
That's what you don't stop for lunch. Wes and Succession
and now you know, I'm working on Guy Ritchie movie.
All these productions we do French hours, so there's no
real break for lunch. You work too lunch French hours.
You only work ten hour days, right like in the
old you know, in many days, my early days of
(15:28):
making movies, you shoot fourteen hour days, but that would
include like an hour where you all sit and eat.
Succession post COVID found it much more manageable and you
get much more done if you don't break. But they'll
hand you like a box, and in the box is
just crap. Wes is different because like on Asteroid City,
(15:52):
if we were working, you know, all the good news
about being on a Wes movie is that you're usually
a smaller part, so you only work like four hour days,
so then you can go and have a big lunch.
But if you're working a ten hour day with West
or an eight hour day with Wes, they have Like
on Asteroid City, we were in Spain, and yeah, it
(16:13):
would be a carton, but the food was it was
much not to knock successions catering, but much better on
a west On West's movies than.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Do you think that's a European versus.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That, Yeah, I think it's European. I think Jeremy Dawson
and Wes they like food. Jeremy is the producer, but yeah,
they are. It is better. It's just it's fun. I
love hanging out with but that the social experience experience
after work, sitting at a table with everybody talking and
eating and it's really nice. Nice, it's like a family. Well,
(16:45):
especially the last one. We were quarantined together and we
weren't even allowed to go into Madrid, which is you know,
we had to stay in chin Chung and there's not
much to do in chin Chung. So but but but
the food is good and yeah, and I've had great
meals with Wes.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
But what about when you were directing your decision? Isn't
it to say what I'm going to do about?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah? So my my feature that I last did in
New Orleans, which is right before COVID, we actually tried
an experiment with a healthy catering company. But it didn't
work out. No, I loved it. But the crew, you know,
we we were shooting in Louisiana and they, yeah, they
(17:25):
liked their meat, their pigs.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
It's very male about men who want It's a lot
of men.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But yeah, it's not only men, but but even the
women they wanted they wanted substances. But so that didn't
go great. But I also my last thing I directed
for APP this pilot, Dear Edward. I did the West
French hours and uh, the food wasn't great either, but
(17:52):
we you know, the days are shorter and the crew
gets to go home earlier, but we don't break fully
for lunch, but you get your box of lunch and
then you break for twenty minutes and then we go.
But it makes the day a lot faster.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Can I ask a question, Yeah, I just not that
many successful actors end up being successful directors. Well motivated
that word enable that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well. I to be honest, I would do these movies
as an actor, and then I would see them and
I would be like, God, this is not very good,
not all of them. But I can do this. I
want to do this because the script was great or
I mean, I mean there were other directors that I
worked with where I would be like, oh my god,
(18:35):
they're so good. I want to learn. So it was
a combination. I kind of liked watching certain directors direct
Yeah I don't know. And to be honest, like waiting
for the job as an actor and just being an actor,
it becomes all about you and how you look and
you you you you, as opposed to make you know,
being a character in a painting. I wanted to paint
(18:57):
the painting and uh, but I love acting and I
like bouncing back and forth as much as I possibly can.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Did you know The River Cafe has a shop. It's
full of our favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks,
Linden Napkins, kitchen ware, tote 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 shop Therivercafe dot co dot uk. So Fisher, here
(19:42):
we are in your beautiful house with your beautiful photographs.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Thank you. Brooklyn, Fort Green, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, to tell me about Fort Green, Brooklyn? Where are we?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Well, it's an interesting neighborhood. I played on my high
school softball team. In the late seven andes and we
played like four blocks away at a park called Fort
Green Park, and on two occasions, after once winning and
once losing, I was mugged after the game by local
(20:16):
neighborhood kids. When we saw this house, many many many
moons later, that was for sale, we were about to
have our first child, Lexi Bloom and Eye. I first
was a bit hesitant, but the neighborhood had changed quite
a bit. And as we were looking at the house,
we opened the door in the back porch and I'm
looking at it and there's a woman on the on
(20:37):
the porch next door chairs fish eye is that yell?
And I'm like Rosie, and she goes, are you are
you going to buy the house? And that's a terrible
impersonation of Rosie Perez, But Rosie Perez is my next
door neighbor, and he's like, the neighborhood's changed. You love it.
I've been here forever. That's the worst, Rosie Prez. I'm
just my accent's back. But anyway, so here we are,
(21:00):
and uh, the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, And did you live in Manhattan before?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I actually had moved to Brooklyn in two thousand and
five after thirty plus years in Manhattan. But I will
say my my neighborhood. And it's too bad. You know,
we can't go to dinner tonight because there are like
seven great restaurants now on decalb Avenue, which is near
you know, around the corner, and it has become restaurant road. Well,
(21:26):
the most the kind of landmark place. The first one
that's or the oldest one is called Romans and it's
an it's a they changed the menu every night. It's great.
And now there's Evelina's, there's miss Ada's, there's Sailors that
just opened. Woman who was the chef for The Pig
with Me, well, April for years, so April.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
H and I just got a message from her saying, hey,
with you, I'm opening a restaurant in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Okay, so it's around the corner.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, oh we have to go.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
So it's become right, and it's become really a spotted
Pig that's the place. So anyway, yeah, it's it's becoming
this this neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
It's tiny neighborhood, was it, No, it's just hipster.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I think it's more of a hipster thing. But no,
this neighborhood is very it's everything. It's a combination of everything.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I don't know if I'm cool enough to live.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yes you are. No, No, it's not cool anymore. We've
we've probably.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Screwed the what's cool like another part of Brooklyn because.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Well, Williamsburg is and Bushwick. I guess Bushwick is where
all the hipsters are now. You know, it's just keeps moving.
But I like to spend many days like today, I
won't go into Manhattan. Many days I don't go into Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
You know when did you drive to I?
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Well, I bicycle a lot electric. Yeah, yeah, it's nice.
I had a vespa for years now, yeah, using I know.
That's why I got rid of it.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I like, So you grew up near here.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
My mother was. We moved here with her to make
it as a painter from Chicago. You're born in Chicago,
born in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
And she was a painter in thee Well.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
She started in the seventies, the seventies. She had a
first loft in seventy one seventy two. Do you know
a painter named Marylyn Minter. She's made it pretty big.
So Maryland and my mother shared a space. We lived
in a loft, and my mom was dating an actor,
well a matre d but he was trying to be
(23:28):
an actor and she ended up, Yeah, she ended up
working as the co check at his restaurant. The restaurant, yeah,
it was called Charlie's. It was a very famous theater restaurant.
Forty now it was called Sam's, or it's called Sam
still there. And we had trouble paying the payments. So
the acting school that he studied in rented the loft
(23:50):
and built a stage in our living room in the
meatpacking So I'd come home and there'd be acting class
in my house, which is how I got into business,
because I had a stage in our living room and
h Yeah, so she.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Was painting or working, she was painting. What did you
eat do you remember as.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
A kid, Well, so I have crazy stories.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Do you remember the food you ate?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah? The food wasn't much. It wasn't much exciting. I
remember when we moved to New York. What was so
exciting was the food because my mom's boyfriend took us
to Chinatown and then she'd show up with a bushel
of blue crabs and we'd boil the crabs and eating
all these exotic foods, Vietnamese foe. I remember discovering that
(24:36):
at thirteen years old, and I remember, you know, spicy
chicken wings and just all kinds of eating out, eating out, no, no,
no cooking, very few, very little cooking at home in
my house and a lot of it. Because the other
thing about New York, even though we lived in the
meatpacking there weren't many restaurants there. There were opportunities to
(24:57):
grab food pizza right, the pizza slices and all that.
And then my mother working at night. And when I
was fifteen and sixteen, we moved to child No. My
sisters ended up moving back to Chicago with my dad
because the life was too crazy. I stayed with my
mom in New York and her boyfriend. And then so
you ate out, Yeah, I ate out a lot my
(25:20):
whole high school years.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
You get to choose the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
It was about a financial decision too sometimes, like you
know what was cheap, right, a lot of Chinese. I
got to be so friendly with a Chinese restaurant on
sixth Avenue in sixteenth Street, that Gin's Kitchen that I
actually ate with the family two nights a week with
the lazy Susan and yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
It different when you ate with them much yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, it was much of the food, well, the food
was the quantity of food and the selection of food
was I couldn't handle someone what they were eating. There
were things that I couldn't recognize. But then there was
some great stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
When did you go back to visit your father in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
And was that for different?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
That freezy spirits difference? Yeah, then I became a snob,
to be honest, I became a snop because I had
experienced these incredible delicacies or and and by the way,
you can eat brilliantly, especially in New York in the
seventies and eighties, for nothing? Is that my daughter?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Who is that?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Come in? Tell me? What what are you having for
dinner tonight?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Pasta meat boys and some zoutinly very good?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Have you eaten it already? Or if you just.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What do I cook? What's my specialty pasta Sundays? What?
What is the only thing I really make? Well?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Pancake?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
So how good are my pancakes?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Very very what's good about are they? Are they thick pancakes?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Then I have to say I am in the worst
cook except for pancakes and pasta dishes, right.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
And thanks to you. Yeah. Do you know why your
mom named you Fisher?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah? Because that wasn't my real name. Okay, my real name.
What was my real name, Stephen Fisher? Yes, when you joined,
when you joined the Actors' Union, that.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Was already somewhere named Stephen. Do you know that happened
to Michael Caine? He said that he was called Michael
something else, and he called possession. He said, there's already
somebody named Michael something else. He's offered apart and they
said we need a last name.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
We did.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
The last name is sitting. He says he was sitting
in Leicester Square, or standing in Leicester Square the phone booth,
and he looked up and the Caine Mutiny was playing
in the.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Cinema, and that's how he spells it.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And that's why I became Michael Caine. You're thinking of,
you know Lawrence of Arabia called bikel Arabia or something.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Well, I was actually there used to be a sign
for years in Brooklyn and it said Fisher Dash Stevens Paints.
It was a store and that's when I got the
idea I'll just reverse it, but my dad always called
me fish. Everybody called me fish, so I was always fish.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Not your sister though.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
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, o wherever you get
your podcasts. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
You just directed Beckham, which is just about the biggest
thing ever happened to Netflix. And Beckham's also a great
fan of The River Cafe and the friend of Ruthie's.
How did that come out?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So? I was on my way to work on Succession
one day and the phone rang from and it was
Leonardo DiCaprio's office saying, listen, Leo and David had dinner
last night and he suggested you to direct his life story.
Are you interested? And I wasn't, to be honest that interested.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Did you know about David Beckham?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
No, I knew.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
I don't think very many Americans.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I know. Yeah, I didn't know about it, you know,
I think that's I mean. I knew who he was,
he was famous, I knew he was beautiful. I knew
he had a beautiful wife. I knew he was a brand.
And what really scared me was he's a brand and
he's going to try to brand me, make me do
a branded content film for him, which I wasn't interested in,
but I took the meeting on Zoom was during COVID
(29:47):
and also Succession is written by Jesse Armstrong and Tony
Roach to Brits and Jesse and Tony I told them
about this opportunity and they're like, you have to do it.
David he's a genius. He's a great footballer, and I'm like, really,
he's that good. They're like, are you you like football?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
You know?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I'm like, no, I didn't. I got into it a
little like when David left and they immediately like they
went on YouTube and showed me like clips of him
and they're like, you got to you gotta do your research, man.
So that it evolved and it was actually over a
dinner because I didn't want to say yes until I
met him. So I was shooting Succession in Italy, so
(30:30):
I said, Okay, well I'll come and have meet you
in London and he's like, okay, meet me, meet us
at Harry's Bar for dinner, and he said, and wear
a jacket and I'm like, I don't have a jacket.
He's like, well, get a jacket. So I was in Florence,
so I got. I bought a shirt. He might even
(30:51):
been this shirt, I mean the jacket. And I got
to Harry's Bar and I remember this, I haven't told
this story, but I walked. I walked in to the restaurant.
It was empty, it was like six o'clock and they go, oh, yes,
I'm here to see the Beckhams. He's like, oh, yes,
only David's here so far, So come in. And I
walk in and there's this ass just like sticking out
(31:12):
of a table and I'm like, oh, it's David's Oh
and he like almost it was like a comic moment,
almost like bumps his head on the table. It was
so sorry. Victoria just dropped her earrings. I'm just looking
at them under the table. And then and that's how
I met him. And then we had this dinner at
(31:33):
Harry's Bar, which is very fancy, and I was a bit,
you know, nervous, dressed in this ill fitted you know,
jacket forty dollars forty year row piece of you know whatever,
jacket from some store in Florence. Anyway, so we we
we sit down and immediately, you know, he loves red
(31:54):
wine and he's like, do you like red one? I'm like, yeah,
because you like Bordeaux and I love Bordoze. And he
he to like a two thousand and four Latur or
something like that, and I was like, oh my god,
this is going to be fun movie to work on. No,
I'm kidding, but anyway, so we instantly got to know
each other and had dinner, and that was what convinced me.
(32:15):
I can't remember the food isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Do you know how important food is to him? I
mean one of the when we talked, when he comes
to the River Cafe, you know when they come, very
often they come as a family. But he said that
his idea of a great night was to get rid
of his family and his kids. And you know, his
kids and Victoria not get rid of it. They're out
and he cooks for himself. And when he was in
Milan he took cooking classes. Right, Yeah, did you get
(32:39):
into food with him?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Well, I've seen yeah, so we filmed him cooking. Yeah,
we film him cooking chicken. But what's your.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Best Beckham food story? We got a great Beckham food Well.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
The other day he came to New York and he said,
let's have lunch. And he said, meet me at Luke
Colly's in Carol Gardens. Probably one of the best, the
best calzone, best pizza. And I thought, that's weird. Why
they're not open for lunch. So, you know, it's fifteen
minute bike ride. I bike over there and it's just
(33:16):
David Nicola who works with him, and Dave Gardner and
me and and Mark Lucalli. Just us at a table
and he made Mark cooked just for us and he
had We had some serious Yeah. He made this pork
chops with peppers and onions. It was unbelievable, the pork chops.
(33:42):
He made pasta fussili with barrata, fresh tomato sauce. He
made well, he makes these. His pizzas are legendary. What's
it called, Lullie. You've never been there? Oh, you guys
have really on New York restaurants. No, No, you have
to go. Okay college, Yeah, we have to go. And
(34:04):
there's only like eight tables.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Will they close to the restaurant for us.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
They won't close the restaurant for us, but they'll give
us a table. He'll love you to go into this restaurant.
Oh my god. So this was Friday and we and
we had two bottles of barolo, did you Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yeah, Well that's interesting as well, isn't it about an
athlete eating? You know, if he was he's now not
playing football anymore.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
No, but he works out. He works out six to
seven days a week, like incessantly. So he works out
so he can eat because he loves to eat, as
you know, and I love to eat.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Do you keep wine here?
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yeah, I've just just got.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Downstairs, and you're lucky to have a bottle.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Of I'm going to show you because this Okay, So
in this house when we moved in, and i'll show
you the room, there were barrels because they used to
make wine here. So we have grapevines in the back.
It's I can't make the wine. Yeah, Brooklyn wine, Brooklyn wine.
I know, but they're not they're not. I don't know
how good it is. But yeah, so I don't have
that many bottles, but I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
So it starting about an hour ago, you said to me,
I don't know if I have much to say about food.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Oh, but the last thing I'm gonna say, I'm gonna
shut up about food because now I want to talk
about food. Now, I know, because tief Spain, Spain. I
just got back for you. Now I hit all the
great restaurants, oat restaurants, Oh my god, the greatest restaurants.
I mean like funky little hole in the wall Taverna's
(35:35):
like anyway, if you go to Tenner Reef, I'm gonna
give you.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
I'm gonna give the harmon. I mean, I ave out.
My younger brother is obsessed with you.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Always think is like a tourist.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
No, because the Brits all go to the South, but
forget the South. You go to the North. The fish,
the fish, the mussels, it's oh.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Man, that's so good.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And the wine, the local Canary island wine, and that
I love Ribrieta. I don't like Ribera. I love red Ribia.
Oh I love the wine. But I'm not a Rioha drinker.
I'm a Ribeta drinker anyway. So I just want to
make that clear. If anyone wants to send me Spanish.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
We got the right one. Okay. Well, so if you're
you've got to go have the pasta with the.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Pasta with my son, don't get him on food because
he eats everything. He's ten years old, He's got the most.
He tries everything. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
So if we talk about eating for your kids, and
we talk about making pancakes, and we talk about eating
you know, great food with great wine and ten reef
and wherever you are, you are. We are defined as
a food person. You may try and run away, but
you can't hide. So you are. But if you need
food for comfort, is there something you would go to?
Speaker 2 (36:55):
The thing that comes into my mind is is pasta
with pesto. Pesto, the basil, the cheese that I'll oil,
the pine nuts also, I make it. That's the other
thing I try to make a little bit. But that
gives me comfort.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Okay. I hope you don't need comfort because you're a
great personal Okay, I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
See you in London, Yes, London.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table for in partnership
with Montclair.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atamei Studios for iHeartRadio.
It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.
This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Nigel Appleton, our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore and our production coordinator
(37:55):
is Bella Selini. Thank you to everyone at The River
Cafe for your help in me in this episode.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
H
You're listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair Fisher.
Stevens and I were recently brought close together by one
of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Philip Gustin,
and one of the greatest footballers, David Beckham. A few
weeks ago, he was in the River Cafe with the
producers of Beckham, the series he directed for Netflix. We
(00:21):
agreed to have breakfast at my house. A half hour
turned into more than an hour as we talked about Gustam,
architecture we lived in, and food we cooked. We agreed
we would continue the conversation on Ruthie's Table four when
I came to New York. So here we are at
this time in Fisher's house, connected through a love of Beckham, food, film,
(00:44):
and gustom and each other. Life is good. So here
we are. Do you know that we asked you to
choose a recipe, yes, which is for pumpkin soup. I
have to say that this soup is amazing because it's
so thick carneta with a fork. It's just and it
really is. You'll see it's just pumpkin and you can
(01:05):
have it with chicken stock or vegetable stock.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So the pumpkin soup. This one serves six, and we
start with three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil River
Cafe olive oil. I prefer plus extra for the crostini
and for serving fifty grams of unsalted butter, make it
organic butter if you can. Then we use two cloves
(01:28):
of garlic, peeled and finely chopped. Wash your hands afterwards,
a small bunch of fresh marsh room leaves. And then
because it's a British restaurant, we'll say kilograms and grams,
but one point five kilograms. Yeah, no, it's good. But
what is one point five kilograms?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
It's about two and a half pounds. Well, two polf
pounds is a kilo, so be about three.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Pounds three pounds, so one point five kilograms roughly three
pounds of pumpkin peeled, seeded, and dice. Two hundred grams
of new potatoes peeled and cubed, could be we should
keep them white potatoes, right, new potatoes. Two hundred grams
of new potatoes, peeled and cubed. Two dried red chilies crumbled.
(02:13):
I love making a little spice. Love chilies. One liter
of chicken stock or vegetable stock, six slices of chibata bread,
one garlic clove peeled in half, so not the finely
chopped but the bread with freshly grated parmesan. Yeah, this
(02:36):
sounds so good. So you're gonna heat the extra virgin
olive oil and butter in a sauce pan and gently
fry the chopped garlic with the Marjorum leaves until soft.
Add the pumpkin and potatoes and continue to cook for
a minute. Add the chilies in the season well with
sea salt and black pepper, not too much salt. Pouring
(02:59):
enough stock just to cover the pumpkin. Bring to the boil,
and then turn down the heat and simmer for twenty
to twenty five minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender,
adding more stock if necessary to keep the pumpkin covered.
So you'll have to keep checking.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
On it because you don't want it watery. So you
want just enough to the pumpkin.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
M Yeah, okay, that's important. Strain about a third of
the stock from the pumpkin and set it aside. Pour
the contents of the pan into a food processor and pulse.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Heah, you know what that is?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Like a magic mix, right, and pulse it though, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Because you want it thick, really thick. You don't want
to thin purre.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
No, it's like a great meal. Return to the saucepan
and add the strained off stock plus any remaining stock.
Check for seasoning, so if you need a little more salt,
a little more pepper, you check it out there. The
soup will be very thick. Then reheat gently for serving,
by the way, for the crostini. Toast the slices of chibata,
(04:01):
then rub with the garlic calves and drizzle over extra
virgin River Cafe olive oil. You serve the soup with
Parmesan extra virgin olive oil and the crostini, and the
addition of two hundred grams of cannellini beans is a
variation of the soup which I personally recommend if you
(04:22):
make this omit the chibata crostini. I prefer the cannellini
beans to the crostini, but that's up to you.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Beans. And when you read that recipe, it is just
pure potatoes, pumpkins and some you know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Healthy, healthy, and you'll be full and you don't need
much money.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It's not expensive. If you're thinking, especially after Halloween, except
for the olive oil. River Cafe this year is insane.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Why because because.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It was so hot this summer. I mean, there's hardly
going to be any.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Production of where do you get?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So we have five estates in Tuscany that we buy
our wine from, and we buy it for more. But
they a lot of the wine producers make olive oil
as well, and so every year we go, we take
twenty people from if you've worked in the River Cafe
for like a year, we take you to Tuscany. We
take it actually all. Then we take another twenty to
Piermonte and then we go and teach them how they
(05:17):
make the olive oil.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Are your wine producers you like the Italian the Tuscan wines?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, we do well now we used to. You know,
our whole roots in the River Cafe were Tuscan and
we started because Richard's family, my husband's family came from
Florence and Rose my partner, lived in Lucca. But then
you know, it was wine that really took us to
other regions. So we went to Piermonte, and we went
to the Venito, We went to Pulia, all of who
make wine. And so it's not just I love a
(05:45):
tuscan you know I love them? Do you drink wine?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yes, quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Maybe's become a big Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I'm very into Etna. I'm very into Sicilian wines. I've
been there. I've toured a few vineyards in Sicily. I
love and I love the natural wines of Sicily. Particularly
once I started making money, I would just go big
with food. Wine. I've blown a great portion of my respect.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Well, you know, I think it's really interesting that people
sort of measure their success and what they were able
to eat. So Beckham, you know, I remember we did
a podcast with him and he was saying that he
remembers being able to go to a restaurant and not
look at the right side of the the page, you know,
Or that McCartney said that he thought wine was terrible
(06:33):
because he'd only had cheap wine, never had a good
bottle of wine until Brian Epstein took him to to eat.
Was that yeah the case? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Well yeah, and I remember the first one of the
first proper meals I ever had was my girlfriend took
me to twenty one for my twenty first birthday, and
that was fancy. That's That was the begin of like
wow people, you know. And then my first bottle of
(07:05):
proper wine because I hated wine too. Was and I
was doing a play at Williamstown. Arthur Miller's play I
was playing Arthur Young Arthur Miller is called American Clock.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It was about Arthur Miller.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, by Arthur Miller, about Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was there.
He was rewriting the play while we were. I mean,
it was incredible and he said to me, like, you'll
get it when the closest kid, you know, didn't give
me much confidence. But the guy who played my father
was a guy nam is, a guy named Ron Rifkin
who's one of my great friends. And he took me
(07:37):
out and he said, have you ever had read wine?
I said, yeah, I don't like it. He goes, oh no,
oh no, no, no, no, have you ever tasted it? Do
you know what bordeuis? Do you know what Burgundy is?
Do you know? I'm like, no, barol no. He goes,
okay man and he and to this day he's eighty four.
He comes over, I go to we drink incredible wine together. Still,
(08:00):
So that was when I was like twenty two and
then he got me hooked, and then I just I'm
obsessed now with mostly red French Italian the good stuff
or yeah, but anyway.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Do you think back so you were you started acting?
Did you go to college or acting school? Or did
you were ever on your own in a place where
you had to not eat out but cook for yourself?
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Sorry, the first question is what was your college? Did
you go to?
Speaker 4 (08:31):
No?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I after high school?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, I dropped out of high school. I started auditioning
at like fifteen for shows and plays. I got off
off Broadway, my first stuff when I could still use
my name before I had to join a union. And
then I started working as a busboy in two restaurants
in New York and as a bike messenger and making money,
(08:56):
like good money, like more money than my mom. And
then I got my first job at sixteen, had to
change my name. It was a movie over the summer.
Didn't pay that much, but I thought I'm gonna make it.
But no, of course I didn't work again for like
a year and a half, two years, but I was
eating out, yeah, and and and I. While in high school,
I worked two nights a week. Do you remember a
(09:19):
restaurant Mario Batally ended up opening a place called Esca
in the same spot, but it was called Curtain Up
forty third and Night. It was all right. It was
a busboy there, and I was a bus play at
a very groovy kind of hipster Upper east Side Singles
place called Yellow Fingers on sixtieth and third Avenue.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Do you think about food and one did they?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Well? No, no, no no, because I just was. Now
those places were not Those were Hamburger. Those weren't, you know,
like great places.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
No did a teacher in a restaurant? I was at peep.
One of the reasons I love Americans coming to the
River Cafe is that most Americans have at one time
in their life worked in a restaurant. And I think
that teaches you.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
It gave me such respect for waiters and bus boys.
Some of the things that I saw in those kitchens,
you would never ever have that at River Cafe.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I mean anger and bullying.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And anger bullying, but also not even that, just the
way they handled the food. Okay, yeah, but so I think,
and also that culture of eating out, you know. And
then I go to school and then you know what
I said my senior year in high school, I did
like two months and I was like, forget it, I'm
just going to work. My Mom's like, okay, you might
(10:43):
as well. You're making more money than me. And I
was auditioning and studying acting very seriously, and then I
couldn't really get a job. And then there was a
kid that I knew and through auditioning and in high
school he went to another high school. Two kids, actually
one of them is named Matthew Broaderick, and Matthew Broderick
(11:04):
I bumped into him and he's like, hey man, I'm
in this play. It's maybe moving to Broadway and I
just got a bigger play and I'm leaving. I'll get
you an audition to replace me. And he got me
the audition to replace him. And the play was called
Torch Song Trilogy, and I got the job nineteen eighty two.
(11:25):
It was in a little theater and Sheridan Square. It
was kind of a revolutionary gay play by Harvey Firestein.
And Matthew got me the audition and I got the
job and that was it. I started working from and
basically almost since then, I've been working. And then Matthew
was in a play called Brighton Beach memoirs that and
(11:48):
he was going to leave that, and then he got
me an audition to replace him in that, and then
I replaced him in that.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
He did, Yeah, he was in the restaurant the other well,
you know, they're.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Coming to do Plaza this week, and they were there.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I wasn't there that night, but he they like to eat.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Oh yeah, oh, I've had some great meals with Matthew.
Well yeah, as a matter of fact, okay, so this
is food story. So when I was replacing Matthew and
Brighton Beach Memrs, Matthew was making money. He was going
to do Ferris Bueller, right, he was going to go
do the movie or something, I believe, And he would
take me out to dinner at this amazing place. I
(12:28):
don't think it's still there. Maybe it is fifty second
Street called Gallagher's Steakhouse. Gallagher's Steakhouse was the place the
sports guys, everybody went in, and he bought me dinner
a few times. They're big dinner is serious because he
was making bank, man, you know, and we yeah, we
used to go and we would drink martiniz. I think
(12:48):
I was eighteen. It was illegal, len, but who cares
now food. It was so key. And then when you're
on Broadway, right, you're acting at night, you're done with
the show, you go to restaurants.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
So that's what I asked. You know, your friend Ray,
you know other actors. Do you eat before the play? Do
you eat after the play? Well, we had a couple
who ate before the play. Yeah, really a few, but
most I always meet them. You know, if you have
a friend in the theater, you meet afterwards and then
you go out.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, well you don't want to be too, but you
don't want to be you don't want to go on
stage with the full stomach.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You ever had to eat on stage?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Something?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Is that a fake?
Speaker 4 (13:29):
No?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
No, no, yeah, a little bit. You know, like Brighton Beach.
Every night we had to pretend to have dinner and
you know, apple sauce. But you just take a couple
of bit no, and and and the worst is in
movies because you have to recreate you know. The thing
about Succession?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Uh yeah, we can talk about it.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah. The thing about Succession is that there was a
lot of scenes where you're supposed to be eating, but
nobody's ever eating because you can't recreate the position and
how much is there. Because of the way we shoot
the show.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
You'd have to have the same thing and the same take.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
In the Yeah, and because of the way we shot
in big giant chunks, it was impossible. And people noticed.
There's like a whole website about why do nobody Why
does nobody eat? On Succession? Like literally that people notice that.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But because a lot of the drama takes place in
tables or in you know, in cocktail parties.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Or I like that because there's always a sense of
the tension about being sitting down to eat but not
eating because there was so much drama happening. I think
that's also quite you know, lots of people talk about
actually sitting down to the table is a very kind
of positive experience but can also be a very challenging experience,
and that's what Succession really challenging.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, I mean I never because my character never sits
still so and I'm never invited to the table to eat.
I'm always just told what to do. But sadly, but
that was good for my I didn't have to worry
about the food on the plate.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But did they feed you all the actors? Because that's
another thing, isn't it? What you feed.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, I talked to Wes.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
You know, Wes's dream would be not to stop for lunch.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You know, he told, what do you mean?
Speaker 1 (15:06):
That's it?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
That's what you don't stop for lunch. Wes and Succession
and now you know, I'm working on Guy Ritchie movie.
All these productions we do French hours, so there's no
real break for lunch. You work too lunch French hours.
You only work ten hour days, right like in the
old you know, in many days, my early days of
(15:28):
making movies, you shoot fourteen hour days, but that would
include like an hour where you all sit and eat.
Succession post COVID found it much more manageable and you
get much more done if you don't break. But they'll
hand you like a box, and in the box is
just crap. Wes is different because like on Asteroid City,
(15:52):
if we were working, you know, all the good news
about being on a Wes movie is that you're usually
a smaller part, so you only work like four hour days,
so then you can go and have a big lunch.
But if you're working a ten hour day with West
or an eight hour day with Wes, they have Like
on Asteroid City, we were in Spain, and yeah, it
(16:13):
would be a carton, but the food was it was
much not to knock successions catering, but much better on
a west On West's movies than.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Do you think that's a European versus.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That, Yeah, I think it's European. I think Jeremy Dawson
and Wes they like food. Jeremy is the producer, but yeah,
they are. It is better. It's just it's fun. I
love hanging out with but that the social experience experience
after work, sitting at a table with everybody talking and
eating and it's really nice. Nice, it's like a family. Well,
(16:45):
especially the last one. We were quarantined together and we
weren't even allowed to go into Madrid, which is you know,
we had to stay in chin Chung and there's not
much to do in chin Chung. So but but but
the food is good and yeah, and I've had great
meals with Wes.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
But what about when you were directing your decision? Isn't
it to say what I'm going to do about?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah? So my my feature that I last did in
New Orleans, which is right before COVID, we actually tried
an experiment with a healthy catering company. But it didn't
work out. No, I loved it. But the crew, you know,
we we were shooting in Louisiana and they, yeah, they
(17:25):
liked their meat, their pigs.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
It's very male about men who want It's a lot
of men.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But yeah, it's not only men, but but even the
women they wanted they wanted substances. But so that didn't
go great. But I also my last thing I directed
for APP this pilot, Dear Edward. I did the West
French hours and uh, the food wasn't great either, but
(17:52):
we you know, the days are shorter and the crew
gets to go home earlier, but we don't break fully
for lunch, but you get your box of lunch and
then you break for twenty minutes and then we go.
But it makes the day a lot faster.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Can I ask a question, Yeah, I just not that
many successful actors end up being successful directors. Well motivated
that word enable that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well. I to be honest, I would do these movies
as an actor, and then I would see them and
I would be like, God, this is not very good,
not all of them. But I can do this. I
want to do this because the script was great or
I mean, I mean there were other directors that I
worked with where I would be like, oh my god,
(18:35):
they're so good. I want to learn. So it was
a combination. I kind of liked watching certain directors direct
Yeah I don't know. And to be honest, like waiting
for the job as an actor and just being an actor,
it becomes all about you and how you look and
you you you you, as opposed to make you know,
being a character in a painting. I wanted to paint
(18:57):
the painting and uh, but I love acting and I
like bouncing back and forth as much as I possibly can.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Did you know The River Cafe has a shop. It's
full of our favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks,
Linden Napkins, kitchen ware, tote 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 shop Therivercafe dot co dot uk. So Fisher, here
(19:42):
we are in your beautiful house with your beautiful photographs.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Thank you. Brooklyn, Fort Green, Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, to tell me about Fort Green, Brooklyn? Where are we?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Well, it's an interesting neighborhood. I played on my high
school softball team. In the late seven andes and we
played like four blocks away at a park called Fort
Green Park, and on two occasions, after once winning and
once losing, I was mugged after the game by local
(20:16):
neighborhood kids. When we saw this house, many many many
moons later, that was for sale, we were about to
have our first child, Lexi Bloom and Eye. I first
was a bit hesitant, but the neighborhood had changed quite
a bit. And as we were looking at the house,
we opened the door in the back porch and I'm
looking at it and there's a woman on the on
(20:37):
the porch next door chairs fish eye is that yell?
And I'm like Rosie, and she goes, are you are
you going to buy the house? And that's a terrible
impersonation of Rosie Perez, But Rosie Perez is my next
door neighbor, and he's like, the neighborhood's changed. You love it.
I've been here forever. That's the worst, Rosie Prez. I'm
just my accent's back. But anyway, so here we are,
(21:00):
and uh, the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, And did you live in Manhattan before?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I actually had moved to Brooklyn in two thousand and
five after thirty plus years in Manhattan. But I will
say my my neighborhood. And it's too bad. You know,
we can't go to dinner tonight because there are like
seven great restaurants now on decalb Avenue, which is near
you know, around the corner, and it has become restaurant road. Well,
(21:26):
the most the kind of landmark place. The first one
that's or the oldest one is called Romans and it's
an it's a they changed the menu every night. It's great.
And now there's Evelina's, there's miss Ada's, there's Sailors that
just opened. Woman who was the chef for The Pig
with Me, well, April for years, so April.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
H and I just got a message from her saying, hey,
with you, I'm opening a restaurant in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Okay, so it's around the corner.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, oh we have to go.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
So it's become right, and it's become really a spotted
Pig that's the place. So anyway, yeah, it's it's becoming
this this neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
It's tiny neighborhood, was it, No, it's just hipster.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I think it's more of a hipster thing. But no,
this neighborhood is very it's everything. It's a combination of everything.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I don't know if I'm cool enough to live.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yes you are. No, No, it's not cool anymore. We've
we've probably.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Screwed the what's cool like another part of Brooklyn because.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Well, Williamsburg is and Bushwick. I guess Bushwick is where
all the hipsters are now. You know, it's just keeps moving.
But I like to spend many days like today, I
won't go into Manhattan. Many days I don't go into Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
You know when did you drive to I?
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Well, I bicycle a lot electric. Yeah, yeah, it's nice.
I had a vespa for years now, yeah, using I know.
That's why I got rid of it.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I like, So you grew up near here.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
My mother was. We moved here with her to make
it as a painter from Chicago. You're born in Chicago,
born in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
And she was a painter in thee Well.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
She started in the seventies, the seventies. She had a
first loft in seventy one seventy two. Do you know
a painter named Marylyn Minter. She's made it pretty big.
So Maryland and my mother shared a space. We lived
in a loft, and my mom was dating an actor,
well a matre d but he was trying to be
(23:28):
an actor and she ended up, Yeah, she ended up
working as the co check at his restaurant. The restaurant, yeah,
it was called Charlie's. It was a very famous theater restaurant.
Forty now it was called Sam's, or it's called Sam
still there. And we had trouble paying the payments. So
the acting school that he studied in rented the loft
(23:50):
and built a stage in our living room in the
meatpacking So I'd come home and there'd be acting class
in my house, which is how I got into business,
because I had a stage in our living room and
h Yeah, so she.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Was painting or working, she was painting. What did you
eat do you remember as.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
A kid, Well, so I have crazy stories.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Do you remember the food you ate?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah? The food wasn't much. It wasn't much exciting. I
remember when we moved to New York. What was so
exciting was the food because my mom's boyfriend took us
to Chinatown and then she'd show up with a bushel
of blue crabs and we'd boil the crabs and eating
all these exotic foods, Vietnamese foe. I remember discovering that
(24:36):
at thirteen years old, and I remember, you know, spicy
chicken wings and just all kinds of eating out, eating out, no, no,
no cooking, very few, very little cooking at home in
my house and a lot of it. Because the other
thing about New York, even though we lived in the
meatpacking there weren't many restaurants there. There were opportunities to
(24:57):
grab food pizza right, the pizza slices and all that.
And then my mother working at night. And when I
was fifteen and sixteen, we moved to child No. My
sisters ended up moving back to Chicago with my dad
because the life was too crazy. I stayed with my
mom in New York and her boyfriend. And then so
you ate out, Yeah, I ate out a lot my
(25:20):
whole high school years.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
You get to choose the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
It was about a financial decision too sometimes, like you
know what was cheap, right, a lot of Chinese. I
got to be so friendly with a Chinese restaurant on
sixth Avenue in sixteenth Street, that Gin's Kitchen that I
actually ate with the family two nights a week with
the lazy Susan and yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
It different when you ate with them much yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, it was much of the food, well, the food
was the quantity of food and the selection of food
was I couldn't handle someone what they were eating. There
were things that I couldn't recognize. But then there was
some great stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
When did you go back to visit your father in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
And was that for different?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
That freezy spirits difference? Yeah, then I became a snob,
to be honest, I became a snop because I had
experienced these incredible delicacies or and and by the way,
you can eat brilliantly, especially in New York in the
seventies and eighties, for nothing? Is that my daughter?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Who is that?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Come in? Tell me? What what are you having for
dinner tonight?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Pasta meat boys and some zoutinly very good?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Have you eaten it already? Or if you just.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What do I cook? What's my specialty pasta Sundays? What?
What is the only thing I really make? Well?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Pancake?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
So how good are my pancakes?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Very very what's good about are they? Are they thick pancakes?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Then I have to say I am in the worst
cook except for pancakes and pasta dishes, right.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
And thanks to you. Yeah. Do you know why your
mom named you Fisher?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah? Because that wasn't my real name. Okay, my real name.
What was my real name, Stephen Fisher? Yes, when you joined,
when you joined the Actors' Union, that.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Was already somewhere named Stephen. Do you know that happened
to Michael Caine? He said that he was called Michael
something else, and he called possession. He said, there's already
somebody named Michael something else. He's offered apart and they
said we need a last name.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
We did.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
The last name is sitting. He says he was sitting
in Leicester Square, or standing in Leicester Square the phone booth,
and he looked up and the Caine Mutiny was playing
in the.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Cinema, and that's how he spells it.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And that's why I became Michael Caine. You're thinking of,
you know Lawrence of Arabia called bikel Arabia or something.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Well, I was actually there used to be a sign
for years in Brooklyn and it said Fisher Dash Stevens Paints.
It was a store and that's when I got the
idea I'll just reverse it, but my dad always called
me fish. Everybody called me fish, so I was always fish.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Not your sister though.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
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, o wherever you get
your podcasts. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
You just directed Beckham, which is just about the biggest
thing ever happened to Netflix. And Beckham's also a great
fan of The River Cafe and the friend of Ruthie's.
How did that come out?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So? I was on my way to work on Succession
one day and the phone rang from and it was
Leonardo DiCaprio's office saying, listen, Leo and David had dinner
last night and he suggested you to direct his life story.
Are you interested? And I wasn't, to be honest that interested.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Did you know about David Beckham?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
No, I knew.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
I don't think very many Americans.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I know. Yeah, I didn't know about it, you know,
I think that's I mean. I knew who he was,
he was famous, I knew he was beautiful. I knew
he had a beautiful wife. I knew he was a brand.
And what really scared me was he's a brand and
he's going to try to brand me, make me do
a branded content film for him, which I wasn't interested in,
but I took the meeting on Zoom was during COVID
(29:47):
and also Succession is written by Jesse Armstrong and Tony
Roach to Brits and Jesse and Tony I told them
about this opportunity and they're like, you have to do it.
David he's a genius. He's a great footballer, and I'm like, really,
he's that good. They're like, are you you like football?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
You know?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I'm like, no, I didn't. I got into it a
little like when David left and they immediately like they
went on YouTube and showed me like clips of him
and they're like, you got to you gotta do your research, man.
So that it evolved and it was actually over a
dinner because I didn't want to say yes until I
met him. So I was shooting Succession in Italy, so
(30:30):
I said, Okay, well I'll come and have meet you
in London and he's like, okay, meet me, meet us
at Harry's Bar for dinner, and he said, and wear
a jacket and I'm like, I don't have a jacket.
He's like, well, get a jacket. So I was in Florence,
so I got. I bought a shirt. He might even
(30:51):
been this shirt, I mean the jacket. And I got
to Harry's Bar and I remember this, I haven't told
this story, but I walked. I walked in to the restaurant.
It was empty, it was like six o'clock and they go, oh, yes,
I'm here to see the Beckhams. He's like, oh, yes,
only David's here so far, So come in. And I
walk in and there's this ass just like sticking out
(31:12):
of a table and I'm like, oh, it's David's Oh
and he like almost it was like a comic moment,
almost like bumps his head on the table. It was
so sorry. Victoria just dropped her earrings. I'm just looking
at them under the table. And then and that's how
I met him. And then we had this dinner at
(31:33):
Harry's Bar, which is very fancy, and I was a bit,
you know, nervous, dressed in this ill fitted you know,
jacket forty dollars forty year row piece of you know whatever,
jacket from some store in Florence. Anyway, so we we
we sit down and immediately, you know, he loves red
(31:54):
wine and he's like, do you like red one? I'm like, yeah,
because you like Bordeaux and I love Bordoze. And he
he to like a two thousand and four Latur or
something like that, and I was like, oh my god,
this is going to be fun movie to work on. No,
I'm kidding, but anyway, so we instantly got to know
each other and had dinner, and that was what convinced me.
(32:15):
I can't remember the food isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Do you know how important food is to him? I
mean one of the when we talked, when he comes
to the River Cafe, you know when they come, very
often they come as a family. But he said that
his idea of a great night was to get rid
of his family and his kids. And you know, his
kids and Victoria not get rid of it. They're out
and he cooks for himself. And when he was in
Milan he took cooking classes. Right, Yeah, did you get
(32:39):
into food with him?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Well, I've seen yeah, so we filmed him cooking. Yeah,
we film him cooking chicken. But what's your.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Best Beckham food story? We got a great Beckham food Well.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
The other day he came to New York and he said,
let's have lunch. And he said, meet me at Luke
Colly's in Carol Gardens. Probably one of the best, the
best calzone, best pizza. And I thought, that's weird. Why
they're not open for lunch. So, you know, it's fifteen
minute bike ride. I bike over there and it's just
(33:16):
David Nicola who works with him, and Dave Gardner and
me and and Mark Lucalli. Just us at a table
and he made Mark cooked just for us and he
had We had some serious Yeah. He made this pork
chops with peppers and onions. It was unbelievable, the pork chops.
(33:42):
He made pasta fussili with barrata, fresh tomato sauce. He
made well, he makes these. His pizzas are legendary. What's
it called, Lullie. You've never been there? Oh, you guys
have really on New York restaurants. No, No, you have
to go. Okay college, Yeah, we have to go. And
(34:04):
there's only like eight tables.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Will they close to the restaurant for us.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
They won't close the restaurant for us, but they'll give
us a table. He'll love you to go into this restaurant.
Oh my god. So this was Friday and we and
we had two bottles of barolo, did you Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yeah, Well that's interesting as well, isn't it about an
athlete eating? You know, if he was he's now not
playing football anymore.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
No, but he works out. He works out six to
seven days a week, like incessantly. So he works out
so he can eat because he loves to eat, as
you know, and I love to eat.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Do you keep wine here?
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yeah, I've just just got.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Downstairs, and you're lucky to have a bottle.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Of I'm going to show you because this Okay, So
in this house when we moved in, and i'll show
you the room, there were barrels because they used to
make wine here. So we have grapevines in the back.
It's I can't make the wine. Yeah, Brooklyn wine, Brooklyn wine.
I know, but they're not they're not. I don't know
how good it is. But yeah, so I don't have
that many bottles, but I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
So it starting about an hour ago, you said to me,
I don't know if I have much to say about food.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Oh, but the last thing I'm gonna say, I'm gonna
shut up about food because now I want to talk
about food. Now, I know, because tief Spain, Spain. I
just got back for you. Now I hit all the
great restaurants, oat restaurants, Oh my god, the greatest restaurants.
I mean like funky little hole in the wall Taverna's
(35:35):
like anyway, if you go to Tenner Reef, I'm gonna
give you.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
I'm gonna give the harmon. I mean, I ave out.
My younger brother is obsessed with you.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Always think is like a tourist.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
No, because the Brits all go to the South, but
forget the South. You go to the North. The fish,
the fish, the mussels, it's oh.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Man, that's so good.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And the wine, the local Canary island wine, and that
I love Ribrieta. I don't like Ribera. I love red Ribia.
Oh I love the wine. But I'm not a Rioha drinker.
I'm a Ribeta drinker anyway. So I just want to
make that clear. If anyone wants to send me Spanish.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
We got the right one. Okay. Well, so if you're
you've got to go have the pasta with the.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Pasta with my son, don't get him on food because
he eats everything. He's ten years old, He's got the most.
He tries everything. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
So if we talk about eating for your kids, and
we talk about making pancakes, and we talk about eating
you know, great food with great wine and ten reef
and wherever you are, you are. We are defined as
a food person. You may try and run away, but
you can't hide. So you are. But if you need
food for comfort, is there something you would go to?
Speaker 2 (36:55):
The thing that comes into my mind is is pasta
with pesto. Pesto, the basil, the cheese that I'll oil,
the pine nuts also, I make it. That's the other
thing I try to make a little bit. But that
gives me comfort.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Okay. I hope you don't need comfort because you're a
great personal Okay, I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
See you in London, Yes, London.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table for in partnership
with Montclair.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
Ruthie's Table four is produced by Atamei Studios for iHeartRadio.
It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.
This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Nigel Appleton, our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore and our production coordinator
(37:55):
is Bella Selini. Thank you to everyone at The River
Cafe for your help in me in this episode.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
H
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