June 10, 2024 • 34 mins
Jane Hartley was the American ambassador to France and Monaco, and now to the Court of Saint James. In the two years she has spent in the United Kingdom so far, Jane has had two monarchs, three prime ministers, four chancellors, and a late-stage pandemic.
She has the qualities necessary for the role in abundance: leadership, resilience, duty. I know her as a close friend, and though I always introduce Jane as Ambassador Hartley, my nickname for her is Miss Sparkle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without sequins on a sweater, dress, earrings, or even the shoes she’s wearing today.
Now, we’re going to get together to talk about work, duty, family and food. I know she will be informed, and I know she will sparkle.
Ruthie’s Table 4 is made in partnership with Moncler.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Ruthie's Table four.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
In partnership with Montclair, Jane Hardley was the American ambassador
to France and Monaco and now to the Court of
Saint James. She has the qualities necessary for the role
in abundance, leadership, resilience, duty. I know the qualities she
has as a close friend, kindness, empathy, humor and love.
(00:26):
I've witnessed Jane negotiating difficult situations and people impressed by
her curiosity, strength and integrity. She has a courage to
challenge others and, though a diplomat, to say what she thinks.
In the two years she's been the ambassador to the
Court of Saint James, Jane has had two monarchs, three
prime ministers, four chancellors, and a late stage pandemic. She
(00:50):
works rigorously to be informed. Her husband, Ralph Schlostein, is
a committed cook and knows almost more about food than
I do, to giving serious attention to serious wines. He
and a group of friends meet every Monday discovering new restaurants,
and apparently his lifetime ambition is to find the best
(01:11):
pizza in New York City. I always introduced Jane as
Ambassador Hartley. But my nickname for her is miss Sparkle.
I don't think I've ever seen her without sequence on
a sweater, a dress, earrings, or even the shoes she's wearing. Today.
Jane has just been in the kitchen with Joseph cooking
a dover sole. Now we're going to get together to
(01:34):
talk about work, duty, family and food. I know she
will be informed and I know she will sparkle.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Thank you, Ruthie, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So what was it like being in the kitchen. I
don't think I've ever sat at a table. We didn't
order dover soul.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I ordered over sol every time I come, and you
have by far the best over soul that I've ever had.
I was asking where he got it from. Of course
it's it's from the UK. But you do something special
in terms of the cooking and in terms of my capers.
I always ask if you'll add capers, and you do.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's unusual because some people want capers off.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Oh yeah, I love capers, but I love but literally,
I said to you when I walked in today. I
come into this restaurant and I feel like I'm home,
and no matter how hard my day is. And some
days are pretty hard. I see you and I sit
at that corner table and have my dover soul and
my usually April sprits Apple spirits.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
But that's what that's what Conversely, we feel when we
see you coming in at your family, and I think
that it isn't just how you can relate to a restaurant.
Sometimes it is being taken care of, you know. Un Thus,
we always tell the people work for us, you know,
take care well.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
You do it perfectly. I only know one other person
who's also a friend of yours, because everybody's a friend
of Ruthie's, but Danny Meyer, who's a friend of mine
from New York, and when he started his restaurants, he
said what he wanted to provide was service that everybody
came in and felt that, you know, they were known,
they were taken care of, and it was home. And
(03:10):
you did that better than anybody.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well. Also, you never know how people when they walk
into a restaurant, how they are feeling. You know, they
may be celebrating something, or they may be grieving over
something sad, or they may just be, as you say,
had a really tough day. And you do have tough days, yeah,
you know, yeah, I do have tough days for the
work you do. You grew up in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I grew up in Connecting western Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Did you have fish? That part of fish?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You know? It's thank god she's no longer with us.
She was a wonderful woman. But my mother was not
the best cook. Although it was interesting because she cooked
meat and fish quite well. So she cooked meat rare,
which is how I like it, and she cooked fish moist.
Now vegetables unfortunately met their death in her kitchen.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Was hard to cook. You know, Lord, what did she do?
We don't want to be too bad.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I love my mother. But she cooked once for Ralph,
my husband, who is the best cook in the family.
My son may be close so Kate and I not
so much. But my husband came once to I think
the Thanksgiving dinner and my mother uttered the words, you
can't overcook a vegetable, and I thought Ralph was gonna
fall on the floor.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
She worked every day, did she was? She worked, She.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Did various jobs coming home, and it just it was interesting.
I don't think cooking was important to her in terms
of feeding the family. My father, I think, was not
a gourmetl though he was very interesting. He insisted on
meat rare. So anytime we'd go out to dinner, and
usually on Sunday evenings.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Do you remember the restaurant? Were they the same restaurant
or would you go to differ reson?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I think it was called White Fence Inn. It was
up in Litchfield County. The one thing I remember more
than anything else, though, is I have a twin brother
who I'm very close to. It's just the two of
us is riding around in a car and it was
long before ways and Google maps and things and them
being lost and my brother saying in the backseat, can't
(05:15):
we just go anywhere? We're hungry?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And your father would insist on the meat being rare.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, meat being rare. And sometimes the drink first, never
wine with the meals. So that was interesting that taste
I developed later cocktails A cocktail first, yeah, cocktail first. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So more about growing up, So your mom worked, your
father worked, and you would have you know, would you
and your brother sit down to dinner and your parents
every night, which you have a family meal pretty.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Much, but we ate very quickly. My brother played a
lot of sports, but it was wonderful, and that the
other thing I remember from growing up, and it's it's
what Ralph is doing now, which is after I participated
in various athletics and this was mainly swimming. After our
swim meets, my father would take the whole team out
to pizza. And I still remember the name of the pizza.
(06:06):
Zachary's an odd name for Waterbury. This was in Waterbury. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, so you grew up with a at the table,
you know, what were your parents in discussion about politics
or duty or being a citizen and giving something back.
Was that imbued with it?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, it really was. I mean we always talked about politics,
and my whole family had been in it kind of indirectly.
My sister in law now my sister in law currently
is in the state Senate and she was deputy speaker
in Connecticut, Connecticut. So we always we always had discussions
about politics. Yes, that was something and I think I
(06:48):
was very young when President Kennedy was president. But you know,
the whole concept of ask not what you could do
what your country asked, what you can do for your
country as opposed to what your country can do for you.
Didn't get that exactly right, but that whole that whole
value of in my parents, especially my father frankly, that
(07:09):
we were lucky, lucky to grow up in America, we
were lucky to be there, that there was such a
thing as the American dream, and because we were lucky,
we also had a responsibility to give him something.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I can remember. I think where I was when Kennedy
was shot. You in school, because I was in a classroom.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I was in a classroom too, my I you know,
I think everybody remembers. I was in a classroom also,
and all the children had to leave schools. So my
father came to get us in his car, and I
remember driving home and my father was crying.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
He was crying. In my school. I was at a
sort of what they call a central school. So we
all bussed in from Yea because it was in the countryside. Yeah,
and it came over the loudspeaker, you know, that we
were the buses would be outside. We were all going home.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Seven They told us we were going did they tell you?
But then no, they didn't even tell us that. They
just said you're all going home. So I never heard.
And in the car my father was just crying.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And finally, and did he participate in politic was he was.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
He participated, He was more participated indirectly. I think he did.
He did run for senate once in Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well that's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Well you state senate? What might still he lost?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah? Still?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
But yeah, yeah, but my family was always a little
bit involved. Yeah. And my mother's family hit on the
newspaper until until it went bankrupt. What that pack up
the paper went out of business?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Was your mother's family? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
It was the Waterbury Democrat ran out run out of
town by the Weterbury Republican.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Were they for.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Two papers because you couldn't support two papers in one town?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That's interesting there was one called Democrat and actually one
was called Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Well that tells you about bias in the press.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And so when you when you left, when you went
to college, did you have that sense that this is
what you wanted to pursue or did that come later?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
It's interesting. I kind of I kind of knew. I
consider myself lucky because I remember when my children were
growing up. I always sort of had this passion saying
to my kids, find your passion, until I realized that
was really the wrong thing to say to young people,
because many times you find your passion when you're forty fifty,
however old you are, you find your passion, and it
(09:29):
shouldn't be a burden for young people.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I think there's something about finding your passion. I was
just listening to Scotty, but we had the passion. Yeah,
he was saying, if you don't find the passion in
your work, then find the passion in your family or
something else. Ye say, exactly is what will give me
the ability to have the time when you have.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
A passion a different listen. In my life, I've worked
in the public sector, I've worked in the private sector.
My passion is the private Is the public safe, because
I think that's where you can make a difference. But
I've certainly worked in the private sector, which is much
easier when you have a family. And I also moved
to New York after the White House, so you know,
it's a balance. Life. Life is a journey.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah. But he went straight from college to Washington.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I did. I went. I was very lucky. I was
going to go to law school, but I didn't because
I've got an opportunity very very early, which is sort
of through luck and being in the right place. And
there was a legendary man. His name was Robert Strauss,
Bob Strauss. She probably knew me.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
He was.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
He ran the Democratic Party. He was later ambassador to
Russia USTR. He did so many different things. But I
had been doing some work on fiscal economic issues on
the Hill budget priorities, and somehow was introduced to him
because a lot of the budget fiscal stuff had to
do with cities, urban policy and revenue sharing things like that.
(10:55):
So I got to know him, and I was introduced
to him, and I got a big job at the
Democratic headquarters at the DNC.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
They called so was a Carter White House.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It was right before the Carter And I do remember
when I was interviewed for this job, because it was
quite a big job. They asked me how old I was,
and I remember wearing a black dress and glasses to
the interview. So they said how old are you? And
I said about thirty. Now, if anybody I interviewed every
said about thirty, I would roll. I was twenty four.
(11:26):
I worked there and I had a lot of visibility
because you were. I was working with a lot of
the big city mayors at the time. In urban policy
was one of the key issues that she did.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It was huge housing in urban development.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, well, yeah, I went there first, and then I
went to the White House for a legendary woman who
was at the White House. Her name was Anne Wexler,
and she controlled, She controlled the White House, and she
controlled so much in that city. Stew Eyes Instead always
said to me once, if Anne had come eighteen months earlier,
Carter would have won the election. But she came maybe,
(12:03):
I don't know, maybe eighteen months in and I came
right after that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
The River Cafe is excited. We're opening the River Cafe Cafe.
Come for a morning Briochian cappuccino, a plate of seasonal
antipasty on the terrace, or an ice cream or a
paratibo in the sun. We can't wait to open, and
we cannot wait to welcome you. Do you remember having
(12:41):
left college and having set up on your own? Do
you remember working what you ate? Do you remember food
at that time? Would you grab something? Would you go?
Were you suddenly having restaurants to go to in Washington.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Washington didn't have the restaurants that they do now, but
there was one quite famous restaurant that was on right
above DuPont Circle called Nora's and we got to know
Nora quite well. And the restaurant was right across from
where Ralph lived because Ralph was at the White House also,
(13:15):
so we went there all the time.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
When did you meet Ralph?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I'd met him briefly before I went to the White House,
but then we started working together. So Ralf and I
worked together all the time. And the joke about that
was that memos to the President were always due on
Saturday morning, and we were the point people for the
memos to the President and urban policy. I was the
point for Anne and he was point and then there
(13:38):
was the omb person Office of Management and Budget. But
we could never agree, so we'd be editing late into
Friday night. And the joke was we broke so many
dates with other people as they do, we ended up
together from Wes Wayne, Yeah, exactly, couldn't get a date
because we had to break them because we were working
in midnight.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Was he as rest and food then? As he is?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
He always loved food. Yeah, he always loved food and
he was always a good cook.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah. So did he cook for you?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
He cooked for me? Yeah, I remember, Well, we did
go to dinner light a lot because we went to
this place, Nora's across the street, because we worked so late,
both of us. But I do remember one time, right
in the beginning of our relationship, he had been in
France for work for something with the White House, and
he came back with all these French cheeses. Now, I
don't think you're supposed to bring French cheese back into
this country, and he was working at the White House,
(14:31):
but somehow we put them through. So I went to
his house and did a tasting of French cheese.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Did you eat in the canteen in the White House.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Pretty much every day? It was a wonderful place. Actually,
I went back to the White House just like six
months ago or something and went there again, and one
of the things I was disappointed is they took out
they had in the White House mess for years and years,
they had a big round table which was called the
staff table, so you never had to make a reservation.
You could just go in and sit at this big
round table when you'd be sitting next to Vice President Mondale. Yeah,
(15:00):
it was wonderful. It was just a fantastic, fantastic experience.
So I was very disappointed that they got rid of
it last year. When I was there, it's no longer there.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Did you go upstairs to the residents that never have
meals with the carters?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I went upstairs to the residents maybe then, but probably
more when President Obama was.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
President, And do you remember those meals?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I think it was mainly cocktails. President Obama and President
Biden care quite a bit about food. They have their
own they have their own special treats that they like.
So when President Biden comes to Winfield House, which he
has four times, I think since I've been here, we
always have to make sure we get ice cream. His
favorite thing in the world is ice cream. He likes
(15:44):
chocolate chip, but I think last time we had vanilla,
but he loves ice cream. President Obama came recently, just
for twenty four hours, and he's very careful about food.
Six almonds for breakfast, right but when he's relaxing, his
favorite thing steak and martini vodka. Straight up, you know
(16:05):
he loves it. So you always want to make them happy.
Work so hard when he's here, so I always get
ice creamy anything he wants he gets. He deserves all
of it. And President Obama, I've had dinner with him
at Martha's finger and stuff. So he always makes the martinis.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Does it good Martin vodka? If we're going in the
order you went from Washington and then you were in
New York with your having your children. Were they all
born in New York?
Speaker 1 (16:28):
My children were born in New York.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
They consider themselves total New Yorkers actually, although both of
them went to Dartmouth which is up in New Hampshire,
and Kate, when she came back, applied to business school.
She ap fled to Columbia. And I remember, as a
mother always worries. I said, shouldn't even been applying more
than one school? And she said, no, I'm never leaving
New York again. If I don't get in, I don't
(16:51):
kid in.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Did you find as a working mother that did you
have help for taking care of child?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
It's nutty. No, it wasn't easy. I mean anybody who says,
even some of my friends at the time would say
it was easy, and I thought they were probably not
telling the truth. It's not a bit. It's terrorI it's
really hard. It's really really hard. And you know, I
think the kids that not that they suffered, but there
wasn't a lot of cooking in the house, Ralph and
I would come back. We'd be exhausted and tired. And
(17:21):
one time a friend of ours was a journalist for
he'd been at the Western Post and Time, and he
was writing a book about young people with children and
how difficult it was, and Kate was actually in the book.
One of her lines was when the doorbell rings, Kate
would say dinner, because we got take out every night.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I have one of my children. Once when I started
the River Cafe and he went to the American School, Yeah,
and he came. He called me up and he was
out a playdate around the corner and he said, Mom,
can you just come come over pick me up? And
I thought about the ground the corner. He said, no,
just come pick me up. And he wanted me to
see what a good mother's fridge look like.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
That's so funny, this is a good mother.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
And it was that, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
It was one of those double door fridges, filled vegetables
and all the things. And I said, I have a.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Good mother and I have a good fridge. It just
doesn't have sixteen thousand different types of I was.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Ab I was a good very good and what I
did well, but I didn't have a good fridge, fridge
they were. It all worked out very well. I love
my children and they're terrific adults. Terrific you said them,
terrific people. Even though they may have gotten rafts take out?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Did they did?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
He was, you know, during the week, it was so hard.
We both worked and we were both exhausted, so we
didn't really cook during the week, but he did cook
Friday nights usually we'd have dinner with the kids, and
they got into this one thing. At one point, I
was like, do we have to have it again? They
loved steak and chicken fajitas, so we had steak and
chicken fajitas every Friday n them.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Would he make them?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Make them? You'd make them?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Because now he's such a passionate cook, isn't it. Yeah,
that happened later, think.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, I think he always it's just time, you know.
And even now he mainly cooks some weekends. But he
loves he loves food, and he has a great feel
for it, whereas I'm much more in I'm sort of
I'm a perfectionist by nature, even cooking, and I think
it makes me less good at cook I have to
(19:27):
follow a recipe to write the exact what it says,
and roughness has a feel for it. You didn't have
to follow anything.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
What was it like going to Paris.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
We had a couple of favorite places in Paris, but
one thing I remember that is of more serious, having
to do with food. When I was in Paris, I
was there during the worst of terrorism, so I got
there right before Charlie Hebdo. It was Isis terrorism during
the time when I was there in Isis terrorist attacks
and Bodaclan was the huge attack at the music van.
(20:00):
You called Bataclan, but there were like three different attacks.
Huge numbers of people were killed. It was in November,
right before Thanksgiving. I'll never forget that night because Charlie
Hebdo had happened, which was a terror, which was a
you know, a terrorist act and a terrible thing, but
it appeared more targeted, where this just shook the city,
(20:22):
shook the country, shook the world because it was done
for ef fact, it wasn't targeted. There are just young
kids in a music venue and huge, huge numbers of people.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Died.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I remember that night because Ralph happened to be there.
Ralph was not in France much. He was there maybe
six days a month, but this night he happened to
be there. So we were out to dinner and the
security rushed over to my table and said, you have
to leave now, and they'd never done that before, especially
because we were in the middle or just finishing the
main course. So Ralph said, but I haven't had dessert,
(20:57):
and that is Ralph, and my secure already said she's leaving.
We don't care what you do. And I got rushed back.
And I did have safe rooms in my residence, so
got rushed to a safe room. And you have kept
up all the time with oh yeah, and I'd calls
from the White House. In the situation room, we did
(21:17):
brief the White House, and there was a wonderful woman.
She was head of Homeland Security, Lisa Monico. She's now
Deputy Attorney General. But I laughed because I used to
say she'd hate to see my name on her phone
because she was head of home on security for the president,
so I'd always be calling her with bad news. Other
than after nine to eleven, I've never seen anything like it.
(21:41):
The streets of Paris were empty, empty, not a person,
not a car. They had the Christmas decorations up, and
Ralph got a picture of one of the main avenues
totally empty with these Christmas decorations. I mean, the juxtaposition
was just heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
One of the things when you have this terror and
terrorist attacks, you worry not just about the terrorist attack,
but what they're going to do to the economy of
the country and the economy of the city. And that's
how they often win, because then everybody's afraid to come.
So the mayor I was about to go into Christmas
season very very worried. They said, can you do anything?
(22:18):
So no one was on the street. We decided there
was a cafe around the corner from the embassy that
Ralph and I would go very publicly and sit and
eat lunch on the street so everybody could see us,
and people took photos and whatever. And then when we
got to the cafe it was empty, and I remember
by the time we lacked, a few other people started coming,
(22:42):
because you know, you have to fight terrorism in many ways,
but you can't let them win economically either.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
If you like listening to Ruthie's Table for would you
please make sure to rape and review the podcast on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, o wherever you get
your podcasts. Thank you. When you were in New York
(23:17):
with your two babies to wearing up a new working
so hard, What were you doing at that time?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
What was your What was my career In the beginning,
I was doing media. After the Whitehouse, I went into
media on the business side of media. That a company
that became CBS UH and Universal. But after that I
became a CEO at a macroeconomic consulting firm that did
a lot of work with G seven countries. It was
called the G seven Groups.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
So you kept your political social.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, it was that was that was sort of nonpartisan.
But I kept involved on policy stuff for sure, the
economic and political.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I know that you're a chairman of sessme Stet. Yeah,
that's right now, which was a huge social innovation in
our country in terms of the value of children of
teaching them on television, teaching them. My children certainly learned
to love to read, and I think it had an outreach.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
To It's one of the things I'm the most proud of.
I did it as I actually did after I was
Ambassador to France and I was on a lot of boards.
I was on the Kennedy School Board and I was
on the Carnegie Board and I was doing.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
So this wasn't somehow, this wasn't this is what I
had been on the SESIM.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'd been on the Sesame Board earlier, but only as
a member and fairly briefly. So then I got out,
and when I came home from being Ambassador to France,
I had been on them once before, you know, once
again I was doing more kind of policy Kennedy School, Carnegie,
things like that. But the amazing Joan Cooney who started
who's now like ninety four started Sesame Street, called me
(24:52):
one day and said, I want you to be chair
of Sesame Street. Were about to do all this work
with refugee children and you would be perfect. It's funny.
I said no to or twice and Ralph finally said
to me, you know you're going to say yes to her.
Just get it over with. And it was one of
the more impactful things I've done because at the time
they had just gotten a grant from MacArthur, huge grants,
(25:14):
one hundred million dollars from MacArthur, a genius award to
educate refugee children. So we had a huge program in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan,
and Syria to go into both refugee camps and destabilize
areas to teach children. But that's just to teach them,
to really help them deal with trauma and anxiety, which
they were all obviously having and given the life they
(25:37):
had just witnessed.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You were appointed ambassador to Paris by Obama. Yes, and
tell me how that happened.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I'm met President Obama in two thousand and six. I
think I was one of his early supporters. I had
seen him at the convention at two thousand and four
in Boston, and to be very honest, even though I'd
always been involved in politics and policy, I didn't really
know much about him. And I heard that speech, that
famous speech he gave at that convention, and I remember
(26:09):
after it calling somebody from Chicago, like Bill Daley or
somebody saying is this guy for real and them saying, yes,
he's very much for real. So I got to know him.
So I was an early supporter, even though I'm a
huge fan of Hillary Switch, you know, but I was
an early supporter of President Obama and worked with him
in his first administration. I was on a board that
(26:31):
I also loved because I didn't want to leave New York.
But then the second term the firm I was running
was called the G seven Groups, so we did a
huge amount of work with the G seven countries, both
on economics, central bank policy, currency politics all that. So
I was a good fit for it. I was a
little surprised with the children grown up with that I
(26:52):
they ever grown up. But I really had a life,
you know, I really had. I was I had a company,
and I was on boards, and I really had a
life that you know, when you're ambassador you have to
pick up and leave it is well worth it, which
I learned it is well worth it. But the time,
the name of it was Valerie Jared, who was a
good friend and an amazing woman. So one day she
(27:12):
called me and said, so let me see if this
interests you. You said no to everything else, she said,
Ambassador to France. First woman, second, second woman there a
second woman here, all right, you know, second woman here,
two in two hundred years, in the first and fifty years.
So we don't do very well. But the story on France.
(27:37):
So it was funny because Ralph was in London. It
happened to be in London at the time. He worked
here occasionally, so He called me when he was in
London and he said anything new And I said, well, yeah,
when you come in home, maybe we should talk. And
he said why, I said, because I might be moving
to France. Who was president of France when you were
ambassador president alone? He was president, and you know, we
(28:00):
worked very closely. He was president. Kazanov was prime minister
most of the time. I was very close to him
because he was in charge of security, and we worked
very very closely for most of the time he was
prime minister. Emanuel Macron was economics minister, so I worked. Yeah,
I got to know him very much, very smart. Did
you he cared a lot?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Did you entertain a lot? The embassy was a part
of the that you.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Always have to entertain. I though, have a purpose for
my entertaining. I never entertained just to entertain. So whether
that's to do something in terms of public diplomacy, in
terms of women, or in terms of working with the
business community to make sure they do more in their communities,
or whether it's highlighting you know, Gina Romando when she
(28:44):
comes over here, our wonderful commerce secretary. I always have
a purpose behind it. And culture, well, culture, culture, I
love culture. I love yeah, and I did a lot
in France. I do even more here.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Were you there with the Jeff Coons when the Jeff Coons?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, I saw it.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
The other day I saw.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Jeff Jeff is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I was, I was.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I was involved. This is after our ambassador with his
sculpture in Paris. But the first off, yeah, I was
very involved in that.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
So, whether it's for culture, whether it's or politics, whether
it's a visiting personal business, do you mass would you
talk to the chef at all? Would you think about
what you want to serve?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah? I do think absolutely. I mean, first of all,
you want to think about who you have there, what
might appeal to them, obviously allergies, but no, no, no,
I absolutely talked to them about what I think would
be right for that particular group. So I care about
menus and I care that it fits the occasion and
that everybody's everybody's comfortable. Chef is very Was it a friend.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Would you bring your own chefs?
Speaker 1 (29:46):
No, you never bring your own chef. It was a
French chef.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
But then you did have a party where you had
shake check, oh.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Shake check. Yeah. They Meyer is a good friend, you know,
I love him and I love his restaurants. But it
was very funny because how shakeshak started was the first
holiday party that we had, not this last this year,
but the last year, and we wanted to make it
very American. So we were thinking, how do we make
(30:15):
it very American? And initially they were saying free, well,
let's do caviar. And I'm like, no, no, no caviar,
no cavia. And then I, you know, since Danny's a friend,
I said, I know how to make an American shake shack.
But it's a huge hit. Now he does it every
event we have. And the first holiday party, the funny
thing was the then foreign secretary came and they had
(30:38):
closed the kitchen and he's a lovely man and he
was so disappointed. So Danny went into the kitchen and said,
Foreign Secretaries, here, make a burger for him.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Michelle Obama had a garden. Yes, Obama had a garden
at the White House. Yes, to sort of try and
teach about food through the garden, what grows, what you
in a city, about organic food, about the importance of nutrition.
And you have a farm in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
I have Terma Connecticut. And I, by the way, when
I was in France, did a garden just like Michelle
Obama did at the White House.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And how did that go? Tell me about creating a
garden vegetable It was great. We did.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
I love herbs, so we had a lot of herbs,
but what would grow and what wouldn't grow. And it
was out in the back of the house. Wasn't as
big a garden as we have in Winfield, but out
to the right and we used it. We had berries,
and we had herbs, and I think we had tomatoes.
I don't remember exactly, but yeah, we absolutely used it
here in Winfield. I don't have one because there's the
(31:38):
legendary person who takes care of the grounds is Stephen.
He's been with Winfield almost forty years and he has
greenhouses and everything. If you go back, it's quite a
production what we have at Wingfield House and he's in charge,
but herbs, everything. You walk through these greenhouses, it's incredible.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
On the farm in America, Yeah, we have a.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Garden there too. I'm never there and Roun's out there
very much, but we do. We have a We have
a pretty we had a pretty big garden, cucumbers and
zucchini and cherry tomatoes, yellow and red berries. It was great.
We'd go out and pick our pick our vegetables and
cook them.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
You're using food, as you say, to have dinners at
the embassy, to represent the United States, as you say,
with a purpose for bringing culture business.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
I had a small one for Obama. He was here
for the Obama Foundation. I had one for Hillary. I
think you were at that. One for Hillary was very funny.
When I was discussing with her the dinner, I said,
who do you want? And she said, I only want
fun smart women. So we had fun smart women.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, she's a smart woman. You're a smart woman. And
I think that we're so lucky to have you here,
we being Americans who have you as our ambassador, and
the country for having you as ambassador. And if we
always wind up with the one question at the end,
which is food is for feeding people who are hungry,
(33:03):
Food is for entertaining. Food is a political issue in
terms of social value. It's also comfort And so if
you were seeking comfort in a food, is there a
food that you would turn to for comfort?
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Probably a pasta dish when I'm really tired or really
kind of overwhelmed. That's what I would go for. I
don't love desserts. My mother made an amazing apple pie.
I still love that, but I do when I'm tired
or need comfort, it would be it would be a carb.
It would be a pasta dish, some really good bread,
(33:38):
things like that.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Okay, well we're going to go and have lunch now,
No good, So you have past over soul, oh my favorite.
Most of all, you have my love and thanks for being.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Thank you for being such a good friend. Good you
are amazing.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
No, you are lots of thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
with Montclair
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Mm hmm
You are listening to Ruthie's Table four.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
In partnership with Montclair, Jane Hardley was the American ambassador
to France and Monaco and now to the Court of
Saint James. She has the qualities necessary for the role
in abundance, leadership, resilience, duty. I know the qualities she
has as a close friend, kindness, empathy, humor and love.
(00:26):
I've witnessed Jane negotiating difficult situations and people impressed by
her curiosity, strength and integrity. She has a courage to
challenge others and, though a diplomat, to say what she thinks.
In the two years she's been the ambassador to the
Court of Saint James, Jane has had two monarchs, three
prime ministers, four chancellors, and a late stage pandemic. She
(00:50):
works rigorously to be informed. Her husband, Ralph Schlostein, is
a committed cook and knows almost more about food than
I do, to giving serious attention to serious wines. He
and a group of friends meet every Monday discovering new restaurants,
and apparently his lifetime ambition is to find the best
(01:11):
pizza in New York City. I always introduced Jane as
Ambassador Hartley. But my nickname for her is miss Sparkle.
I don't think I've ever seen her without sequence on
a sweater, a dress, earrings, or even the shoes she's wearing. Today.
Jane has just been in the kitchen with Joseph cooking
a dover sole. Now we're going to get together to
(01:34):
talk about work, duty, family and food. I know she
will be informed and I know she will sparkle.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Thank you, Ruthie, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So what was it like being in the kitchen. I
don't think I've ever sat at a table. We didn't
order dover soul.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I ordered over sol every time I come, and you
have by far the best over soul that I've ever had.
I was asking where he got it from. Of course
it's it's from the UK. But you do something special
in terms of the cooking and in terms of my capers.
I always ask if you'll add capers, and you do.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's unusual because some people want capers off.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Oh yeah, I love capers, but I love but literally,
I said to you when I walked in today. I
come into this restaurant and I feel like I'm home,
and no matter how hard my day is. And some
days are pretty hard. I see you and I sit
at that corner table and have my dover soul and
my usually April sprits Apple spirits.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
But that's what that's what Conversely, we feel when we
see you coming in at your family, and I think
that it isn't just how you can relate to a restaurant.
Sometimes it is being taken care of, you know. Un Thus,
we always tell the people work for us, you know,
take care well.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
You do it perfectly. I only know one other person
who's also a friend of yours, because everybody's a friend
of Ruthie's, but Danny Meyer, who's a friend of mine
from New York, and when he started his restaurants, he
said what he wanted to provide was service that everybody
came in and felt that, you know, they were known,
they were taken care of, and it was home. And
(03:10):
you did that better than anybody.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well. Also, you never know how people when they walk
into a restaurant, how they are feeling. You know, they
may be celebrating something, or they may be grieving over
something sad, or they may just be, as you say,
had a really tough day. And you do have tough days, yeah,
you know, yeah, I do have tough days for the
work you do. You grew up in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I grew up in Connecting western Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Did you have fish? That part of fish?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You know? It's thank god she's no longer with us.
She was a wonderful woman. But my mother was not
the best cook. Although it was interesting because she cooked
meat and fish quite well. So she cooked meat rare,
which is how I like it, and she cooked fish moist.
Now vegetables unfortunately met their death in her kitchen.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Was hard to cook. You know, Lord, what did she do?
We don't want to be too bad.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I love my mother. But she cooked once for Ralph,
my husband, who is the best cook in the family.
My son may be close so Kate and I not
so much. But my husband came once to I think
the Thanksgiving dinner and my mother uttered the words, you
can't overcook a vegetable, and I thought Ralph was gonna
fall on the floor.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
She worked every day, did she was? She worked, She.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Did various jobs coming home, and it just it was interesting.
I don't think cooking was important to her in terms
of feeding the family. My father, I think, was not
a gourmetl though he was very interesting. He insisted on
meat rare. So anytime we'd go out to dinner, and
usually on Sunday evenings.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Do you remember the restaurant? Were they the same restaurant
or would you go to differ reson?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I think it was called White Fence Inn. It was
up in Litchfield County. The one thing I remember more
than anything else, though, is I have a twin brother
who I'm very close to. It's just the two of
us is riding around in a car and it was
long before ways and Google maps and things and them
being lost and my brother saying in the backseat, can't
(05:15):
we just go anywhere? We're hungry?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And your father would insist on the meat being rare.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, meat being rare. And sometimes the drink first, never
wine with the meals. So that was interesting that taste
I developed later cocktails A cocktail first, yeah, cocktail first. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So more about growing up, So your mom worked, your
father worked, and you would have you know, would you
and your brother sit down to dinner and your parents
every night, which you have a family meal pretty.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Much, but we ate very quickly. My brother played a
lot of sports, but it was wonderful, and that the
other thing I remember from growing up, and it's it's
what Ralph is doing now, which is after I participated
in various athletics and this was mainly swimming. After our
swim meets, my father would take the whole team out
to pizza. And I still remember the name of the pizza.
(06:06):
Zachary's an odd name for Waterbury. This was in Waterbury. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, so you grew up with a at the table,
you know, what were your parents in discussion about politics
or duty or being a citizen and giving something back.
Was that imbued with it?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, it really was. I mean we always talked about politics,
and my whole family had been in it kind of indirectly.
My sister in law now my sister in law currently
is in the state Senate and she was deputy speaker
in Connecticut, Connecticut. So we always we always had discussions
about politics. Yes, that was something and I think I
(06:48):
was very young when President Kennedy was president. But you know,
the whole concept of ask not what you could do
what your country asked, what you can do for your
country as opposed to what your country can do for you.
Didn't get that exactly right, but that whole that whole
value of in my parents, especially my father frankly, that
(07:09):
we were lucky, lucky to grow up in America, we
were lucky to be there, that there was such a
thing as the American dream, and because we were lucky,
we also had a responsibility to give him something.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I can remember. I think where I was when Kennedy
was shot. You in school, because I was in a classroom.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I was in a classroom too, my I you know,
I think everybody remembers. I was in a classroom also,
and all the children had to leave schools. So my
father came to get us in his car, and I
remember driving home and my father was crying.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
He was crying. In my school. I was at a
sort of what they call a central school. So we
all bussed in from Yea because it was in the countryside. Yeah,
and it came over the loudspeaker, you know, that we
were the buses would be outside. We were all going home.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Seven They told us we were going did they tell you?
But then no, they didn't even tell us that. They
just said you're all going home. So I never heard.
And in the car my father was just crying.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And finally, and did he participate in politic was he was.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
He participated, He was more participated indirectly. I think he did.
He did run for senate once in Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well that's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Well you state senate? What might still he lost?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah? Still?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
But yeah, yeah, but my family was always a little
bit involved. Yeah. And my mother's family hit on the
newspaper until until it went bankrupt. What that pack up
the paper went out of business?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Was your mother's family? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
It was the Waterbury Democrat ran out run out of
town by the Weterbury Republican.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Were they for.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Two papers because you couldn't support two papers in one town?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That's interesting there was one called Democrat and actually one
was called Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Well that tells you about bias in the press.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And so when you when you left, when you went
to college, did you have that sense that this is
what you wanted to pursue or did that come later?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
It's interesting. I kind of I kind of knew. I
consider myself lucky because I remember when my children were
growing up. I always sort of had this passion saying
to my kids, find your passion, until I realized that
was really the wrong thing to say to young people,
because many times you find your passion when you're forty fifty,
however old you are, you find your passion, and it
(09:29):
shouldn't be a burden for young people.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I think there's something about finding your passion. I was
just listening to Scotty, but we had the passion. Yeah,
he was saying, if you don't find the passion in
your work, then find the passion in your family or
something else. Ye say, exactly is what will give me
the ability to have the time when you have.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
A passion a different listen. In my life, I've worked
in the public sector, I've worked in the private sector.
My passion is the private Is the public safe, because
I think that's where you can make a difference. But
I've certainly worked in the private sector, which is much
easier when you have a family. And I also moved
to New York after the White House, so you know,
it's a balance. Life. Life is a journey.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah. But he went straight from college to Washington.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I did. I went. I was very lucky. I was
going to go to law school, but I didn't because
I've got an opportunity very very early, which is sort
of through luck and being in the right place. And
there was a legendary man. His name was Robert Strauss,
Bob Strauss. She probably knew me.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
He was.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
He ran the Democratic Party. He was later ambassador to
Russia USTR. He did so many different things. But I
had been doing some work on fiscal economic issues on
the Hill budget priorities, and somehow was introduced to him
because a lot of the budget fiscal stuff had to
do with cities, urban policy and revenue sharing things like that.
(10:55):
So I got to know him, and I was introduced
to him, and I got a big job at the
Democratic headquarters at the DNC.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
They called so was a Carter White House.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It was right before the Carter And I do remember
when I was interviewed for this job, because it was
quite a big job. They asked me how old I was,
and I remember wearing a black dress and glasses to
the interview. So they said how old are you? And
I said about thirty. Now, if anybody I interviewed every
said about thirty, I would roll. I was twenty four.
(11:26):
I worked there and I had a lot of visibility
because you were. I was working with a lot of
the big city mayors at the time. In urban policy
was one of the key issues that she did.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It was huge housing in urban development.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, well, yeah, I went there first, and then I
went to the White House for a legendary woman who
was at the White House. Her name was Anne Wexler,
and she controlled, She controlled the White House, and she
controlled so much in that city. Stew Eyes Instead always
said to me once, if Anne had come eighteen months earlier,
Carter would have won the election. But she came maybe,
(12:03):
I don't know, maybe eighteen months in and I came
right after that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
The River Cafe is excited. We're opening the River Cafe Cafe.
Come for a morning Briochian cappuccino, a plate of seasonal
antipasty on the terrace, or an ice cream or a
paratibo in the sun. We can't wait to open, and
we cannot wait to welcome you. Do you remember having
(12:41):
left college and having set up on your own? Do
you remember working what you ate? Do you remember food
at that time? Would you grab something? Would you go?
Were you suddenly having restaurants to go to in Washington.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Washington didn't have the restaurants that they do now, but
there was one quite famous restaurant that was on right
above DuPont Circle called Nora's and we got to know
Nora quite well. And the restaurant was right across from
where Ralph lived because Ralph was at the White House also,
(13:15):
so we went there all the time.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
When did you meet Ralph?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I'd met him briefly before I went to the White House,
but then we started working together. So Ralf and I
worked together all the time. And the joke about that
was that memos to the President were always due on
Saturday morning, and we were the point people for the
memos to the President and urban policy. I was the
point for Anne and he was point and then there
(13:38):
was the omb person Office of Management and Budget. But
we could never agree, so we'd be editing late into
Friday night. And the joke was we broke so many
dates with other people as they do, we ended up
together from Wes Wayne, Yeah, exactly, couldn't get a date
because we had to break them because we were working
in midnight.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Was he as rest and food then? As he is?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
He always loved food. Yeah, he always loved food and
he was always a good cook.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah. So did he cook for you?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
He cooked for me? Yeah, I remember, Well, we did
go to dinner light a lot because we went to
this place, Nora's across the street, because we worked so late,
both of us. But I do remember one time, right
in the beginning of our relationship, he had been in
France for work for something with the White House, and
he came back with all these French cheeses. Now, I
don't think you're supposed to bring French cheese back into
this country, and he was working at the White House,
(14:31):
but somehow we put them through. So I went to
his house and did a tasting of French cheese.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Did you eat in the canteen in the White House.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Pretty much every day? It was a wonderful place. Actually,
I went back to the White House just like six
months ago or something and went there again, and one
of the things I was disappointed is they took out
they had in the White House mess for years and years,
they had a big round table which was called the
staff table, so you never had to make a reservation.
You could just go in and sit at this big
round table when you'd be sitting next to Vice President Mondale. Yeah,
(15:00):
it was wonderful. It was just a fantastic, fantastic experience.
So I was very disappointed that they got rid of
it last year. When I was there, it's no longer there.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Did you go upstairs to the residents that never have
meals with the carters?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I went upstairs to the residents maybe then, but probably
more when President Obama was.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
President, And do you remember those meals?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I think it was mainly cocktails. President Obama and President
Biden care quite a bit about food. They have their
own they have their own special treats that they like.
So when President Biden comes to Winfield House, which he
has four times, I think since I've been here, we
always have to make sure we get ice cream. His
favorite thing in the world is ice cream. He likes
(15:44):
chocolate chip, but I think last time we had vanilla,
but he loves ice cream. President Obama came recently, just
for twenty four hours, and he's very careful about food.
Six almonds for breakfast, right but when he's relaxing, his
favorite thing steak and martini vodka. Straight up, you know
(16:05):
he loves it. So you always want to make them happy.
Work so hard when he's here, so I always get
ice creamy anything he wants he gets. He deserves all
of it. And President Obama, I've had dinner with him
at Martha's finger and stuff. So he always makes the martinis.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Does it good Martin vodka? If we're going in the
order you went from Washington and then you were in
New York with your having your children. Were they all
born in New York?
Speaker 1 (16:28):
My children were born in New York.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
They consider themselves total New Yorkers actually, although both of
them went to Dartmouth which is up in New Hampshire,
and Kate, when she came back, applied to business school.
She ap fled to Columbia. And I remember, as a
mother always worries. I said, shouldn't even been applying more
than one school? And she said, no, I'm never leaving
New York again. If I don't get in, I don't
(16:51):
kid in.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Did you find as a working mother that did you
have help for taking care of child?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
It's nutty. No, it wasn't easy. I mean anybody who says,
even some of my friends at the time would say
it was easy, and I thought they were probably not
telling the truth. It's not a bit. It's terrorI it's
really hard. It's really really hard. And you know, I
think the kids that not that they suffered, but there
wasn't a lot of cooking in the house, Ralph and
I would come back. We'd be exhausted and tired. And
(17:21):
one time a friend of ours was a journalist for
he'd been at the Western Post and Time, and he
was writing a book about young people with children and
how difficult it was, and Kate was actually in the book.
One of her lines was when the doorbell rings, Kate
would say dinner, because we got take out every night.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I have one of my children. Once when I started
the River Cafe and he went to the American School, Yeah,
and he came. He called me up and he was
out a playdate around the corner and he said, Mom,
can you just come come over pick me up? And
I thought about the ground the corner. He said, no,
just come pick me up. And he wanted me to
see what a good mother's fridge look like.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
That's so funny, this is a good mother.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
And it was that, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
It was one of those double door fridges, filled vegetables
and all the things. And I said, I have a.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Good mother and I have a good fridge. It just
doesn't have sixteen thousand different types of I was.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Ab I was a good very good and what I
did well, but I didn't have a good fridge, fridge
they were. It all worked out very well. I love
my children and they're terrific adults. Terrific you said them,
terrific people. Even though they may have gotten rafts take out?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Did they did?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
He was, you know, during the week, it was so hard.
We both worked and we were both exhausted, so we
didn't really cook during the week, but he did cook
Friday nights usually we'd have dinner with the kids, and
they got into this one thing. At one point, I
was like, do we have to have it again? They
loved steak and chicken fajitas, so we had steak and
chicken fajitas every Friday n them.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Would he make them?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Make them? You'd make them?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Because now he's such a passionate cook, isn't it. Yeah,
that happened later, think.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, I think he always it's just time, you know.
And even now he mainly cooks some weekends. But he
loves he loves food, and he has a great feel
for it, whereas I'm much more in I'm sort of
I'm a perfectionist by nature, even cooking, and I think
it makes me less good at cook I have to
(19:27):
follow a recipe to write the exact what it says,
and roughness has a feel for it. You didn't have
to follow anything.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
What was it like going to Paris.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
We had a couple of favorite places in Paris, but
one thing I remember that is of more serious, having
to do with food. When I was in Paris, I
was there during the worst of terrorism, so I got
there right before Charlie Hebdo. It was Isis terrorism during
the time when I was there in Isis terrorist attacks
and Bodaclan was the huge attack at the music van.
(20:00):
You called Bataclan, but there were like three different attacks.
Huge numbers of people were killed. It was in November,
right before Thanksgiving. I'll never forget that night because Charlie
Hebdo had happened, which was a terror, which was a
you know, a terrorist act and a terrible thing, but
it appeared more targeted, where this just shook the city,
(20:22):
shook the country, shook the world because it was done
for ef fact, it wasn't targeted. There are just young
kids in a music venue and huge, huge numbers of people.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Died.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I remember that night because Ralph happened to be there.
Ralph was not in France much. He was there maybe
six days a month, but this night he happened to
be there. So we were out to dinner and the
security rushed over to my table and said, you have
to leave now, and they'd never done that before, especially
because we were in the middle or just finishing the
main course. So Ralph said, but I haven't had dessert,
(20:57):
and that is Ralph, and my secure already said she's leaving.
We don't care what you do. And I got rushed back.
And I did have safe rooms in my residence, so
got rushed to a safe room. And you have kept
up all the time with oh yeah, and I'd calls
from the White House. In the situation room, we did
(21:17):
brief the White House, and there was a wonderful woman.
She was head of Homeland Security, Lisa Monico. She's now
Deputy Attorney General. But I laughed because I used to
say she'd hate to see my name on her phone
because she was head of home on security for the president,
so I'd always be calling her with bad news. Other
than after nine to eleven, I've never seen anything like it.
(21:41):
The streets of Paris were empty, empty, not a person,
not a car. They had the Christmas decorations up, and
Ralph got a picture of one of the main avenues
totally empty with these Christmas decorations. I mean, the juxtaposition
was just heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
One of the things when you have this terror and
terrorist attacks, you worry not just about the terrorist attack,
but what they're going to do to the economy of
the country and the economy of the city. And that's
how they often win, because then everybody's afraid to come.
So the mayor I was about to go into Christmas
season very very worried. They said, can you do anything?
(22:18):
So no one was on the street. We decided there
was a cafe around the corner from the embassy that
Ralph and I would go very publicly and sit and
eat lunch on the street so everybody could see us,
and people took photos and whatever. And then when we
got to the cafe it was empty, and I remember
by the time we lacked, a few other people started coming,
(22:42):
because you know, you have to fight terrorism in many ways,
but you can't let them win economically either.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
If you like listening to Ruthie's Table for would you
please make sure to rape and review the podcast on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, o wherever you get
your podcasts. Thank you. When you were in New York
(23:17):
with your two babies to wearing up a new working
so hard, What were you doing at that time?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
What was your What was my career In the beginning,
I was doing media. After the Whitehouse, I went into
media on the business side of media. That a company
that became CBS UH and Universal. But after that I
became a CEO at a macroeconomic consulting firm that did
a lot of work with G seven countries. It was
called the G seven Groups.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
So you kept your political social.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, it was that was that was sort of nonpartisan.
But I kept involved on policy stuff for sure, the
economic and political.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I know that you're a chairman of sessme Stet. Yeah,
that's right now, which was a huge social innovation in
our country in terms of the value of children of
teaching them on television, teaching them. My children certainly learned
to love to read, and I think it had an outreach.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
To It's one of the things I'm the most proud of.
I did it as I actually did after I was
Ambassador to France and I was on a lot of boards.
I was on the Kennedy School Board and I was
on the Carnegie Board and I was doing.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
So this wasn't somehow, this wasn't this is what I
had been on the SESIM.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'd been on the Sesame Board earlier, but only as
a member and fairly briefly. So then I got out,
and when I came home from being Ambassador to France,
I had been on them once before, you know, once
again I was doing more kind of policy Kennedy School, Carnegie,
things like that. But the amazing Joan Cooney who started
who's now like ninety four started Sesame Street, called me
(24:52):
one day and said, I want you to be chair
of Sesame Street. Were about to do all this work
with refugee children and you would be perfect. It's funny.
I said no to or twice and Ralph finally said
to me, you know you're going to say yes to her.
Just get it over with. And it was one of
the more impactful things I've done because at the time
they had just gotten a grant from MacArthur, huge grants,
(25:14):
one hundred million dollars from MacArthur, a genius award to
educate refugee children. So we had a huge program in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan,
and Syria to go into both refugee camps and destabilize
areas to teach children. But that's just to teach them,
to really help them deal with trauma and anxiety, which
they were all obviously having and given the life they
(25:37):
had just witnessed.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You were appointed ambassador to Paris by Obama. Yes, and
tell me how that happened.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I'm met President Obama in two thousand and six. I
think I was one of his early supporters. I had
seen him at the convention at two thousand and four
in Boston, and to be very honest, even though I'd
always been involved in politics and policy, I didn't really
know much about him. And I heard that speech, that
famous speech he gave at that convention, and I remember
(26:09):
after it calling somebody from Chicago, like Bill Daley or
somebody saying is this guy for real and them saying, yes,
he's very much for real. So I got to know him.
So I was an early supporter, even though I'm a
huge fan of Hillary Switch, you know, but I was
an early supporter of President Obama and worked with him
in his first administration. I was on a board that
(26:31):
I also loved because I didn't want to leave New York.
But then the second term the firm I was running
was called the G seven Groups, so we did a
huge amount of work with the G seven countries, both
on economics, central bank policy, currency politics all that. So
I was a good fit for it. I was a
little surprised with the children grown up with that I
(26:52):
they ever grown up. But I really had a life,
you know, I really had. I was I had a company,
and I was on boards, and I really had a
life that you know, when you're ambassador you have to
pick up and leave it is well worth it, which
I learned it is well worth it. But the time,
the name of it was Valerie Jared, who was a
good friend and an amazing woman. So one day she
(27:12):
called me and said, so let me see if this
interests you. You said no to everything else, she said,
Ambassador to France. First woman, second, second woman there a
second woman here, all right, you know, second woman here,
two in two hundred years, in the first and fifty years.
So we don't do very well. But the story on France.
(27:37):
So it was funny because Ralph was in London. It
happened to be in London at the time. He worked
here occasionally, so He called me when he was in
London and he said anything new And I said, well, yeah,
when you come in home, maybe we should talk. And
he said why, I said, because I might be moving
to France. Who was president of France when you were
ambassador president alone? He was president, and you know, we
(28:00):
worked very closely. He was president. Kazanov was prime minister
most of the time. I was very close to him
because he was in charge of security, and we worked
very very closely for most of the time he was
prime minister. Emanuel Macron was economics minister, so I worked. Yeah,
I got to know him very much, very smart. Did
you he cared a lot?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Did you entertain a lot? The embassy was a part
of the that you.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Always have to entertain. I though, have a purpose for
my entertaining. I never entertained just to entertain. So whether
that's to do something in terms of public diplomacy, in
terms of women, or in terms of working with the
business community to make sure they do more in their communities,
or whether it's highlighting you know, Gina Romando when she
(28:44):
comes over here, our wonderful commerce secretary. I always have
a purpose behind it. And culture, well, culture, culture, I
love culture. I love yeah, and I did a lot
in France. I do even more here.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Were you there with the Jeff Coons when the Jeff Coons?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, I saw it.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
The other day I saw.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Jeff Jeff is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I was, I was.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I was involved. This is after our ambassador with his
sculpture in Paris. But the first off, yeah, I was
very involved in that.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
So, whether it's for culture, whether it's or politics, whether
it's a visiting personal business, do you mass would you
talk to the chef at all? Would you think about
what you want to serve?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah? I do think absolutely. I mean, first of all,
you want to think about who you have there, what
might appeal to them, obviously allergies, but no, no, no,
I absolutely talked to them about what I think would
be right for that particular group. So I care about
menus and I care that it fits the occasion and
that everybody's everybody's comfortable. Chef is very Was it a friend.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Would you bring your own chefs?
Speaker 1 (29:46):
No, you never bring your own chef. It was a
French chef.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
But then you did have a party where you had
shake check, oh.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Shake check. Yeah. They Meyer is a good friend, you know,
I love him and I love his restaurants. But it
was very funny because how shakeshak started was the first
holiday party that we had, not this last this year,
but the last year, and we wanted to make it
very American. So we were thinking, how do we make
(30:15):
it very American? And initially they were saying free, well,
let's do caviar. And I'm like, no, no, no caviar,
no cavia. And then I, you know, since Danny's a friend,
I said, I know how to make an American shake shack.
But it's a huge hit. Now he does it every
event we have. And the first holiday party, the funny
thing was the then foreign secretary came and they had
(30:38):
closed the kitchen and he's a lovely man and he
was so disappointed. So Danny went into the kitchen and said,
Foreign Secretaries, here, make a burger for him.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Michelle Obama had a garden. Yes, Obama had a garden
at the White House. Yes, to sort of try and
teach about food through the garden, what grows, what you
in a city, about organic food, about the importance of nutrition.
And you have a farm in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
I have Terma Connecticut. And I, by the way, when
I was in France, did a garden just like Michelle
Obama did at the White House.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And how did that go? Tell me about creating a
garden vegetable It was great. We did.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
I love herbs, so we had a lot of herbs,
but what would grow and what wouldn't grow. And it
was out in the back of the house. Wasn't as
big a garden as we have in Winfield, but out
to the right and we used it. We had berries,
and we had herbs, and I think we had tomatoes.
I don't remember exactly, but yeah, we absolutely used it
here in Winfield. I don't have one because there's the
(31:38):
legendary person who takes care of the grounds is Stephen.
He's been with Winfield almost forty years and he has
greenhouses and everything. If you go back, it's quite a
production what we have at Wingfield House and he's in charge,
but herbs, everything. You walk through these greenhouses, it's incredible.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
On the farm in America, Yeah, we have a.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Garden there too. I'm never there and Roun's out there
very much, but we do. We have a We have
a pretty we had a pretty big garden, cucumbers and
zucchini and cherry tomatoes, yellow and red berries. It was great.
We'd go out and pick our pick our vegetables and
cook them.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
You're using food, as you say, to have dinners at
the embassy, to represent the United States, as you say,
with a purpose for bringing culture business.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
I had a small one for Obama. He was here
for the Obama Foundation. I had one for Hillary. I
think you were at that. One for Hillary was very funny.
When I was discussing with her the dinner, I said,
who do you want? And she said, I only want
fun smart women. So we had fun smart women.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, she's a smart woman. You're a smart woman. And
I think that we're so lucky to have you here,
we being Americans who have you as our ambassador, and
the country for having you as ambassador. And if we
always wind up with the one question at the end,
which is food is for feeding people who are hungry,
(33:03):
Food is for entertaining. Food is a political issue in
terms of social value. It's also comfort And so if
you were seeking comfort in a food, is there a
food that you would turn to for comfort?
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Probably a pasta dish when I'm really tired or really
kind of overwhelmed. That's what I would go for. I
don't love desserts. My mother made an amazing apple pie.
I still love that, but I do when I'm tired
or need comfort, it would be it would be a carb.
It would be a pasta dish, some really good bread,
(33:38):
things like that.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Okay, well we're going to go and have lunch now,
No good, So you have past over soul, oh my favorite.
Most of all, you have my love and thanks for being.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Thank you for being such a good friend. Good you
are amazing.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
No, you are lots of thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
with Montclair
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Mm hmm
Host
Ruth Rogers
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