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. In partnership with Montclair,
Jane Hardley.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
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. I've witnessed Jane negotiating difficult situations and
(00:29):
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 works rigorously to be informed. Her husband,
(00:54):
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 pizza in New York City. I
always introduced Jane as Ambassador Hartley. But my nickname for
(01:18):
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 talk about work, duty,
family and food. I know she will be informed and
(01:40):
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 3 (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.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And some days are pretty hard.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
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 and it was home. And you did that better
(03:11):
than anybody. Well.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Days, yeah, you know, yeah, I do have tough.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
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?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
It's thank god she's no longer with her. 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?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
We don't want to be too bad. I love my mother.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
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 3 (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 gourmet, although 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 differs Resion?
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
It's just the two of us.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
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 we
just go anywhere?
Speaker 1 (05:16):
We're hungry?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And your father would insist on the meat being rarest Yeah,
me being rare.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And sometimes the drink first, never wine with the meals.
So that was interesting that taste I developed later cocktails A.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
My brother played a lot of sports, but it was wonderful,
and that the other thing I remember from growing.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Up, and it's it's what Ralph is doing.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
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. Zachary's an odd
name for Waterbury.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
This was in Waterbury.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah. Yeah, so you grew up with a at the table.
You know, what were your parents in the 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.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
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
was very young when President Kennedy was president. But you know,
(06:52):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Didn't get that exactly right, but whole, that whole value of.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
In my parents, especially my father frankly, that 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 3 (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 3 (07:56):
Seven They told us we were going did they tell you?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
But then no, they didn't even tell us that.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
They just said you're all going home. So I never heard.
And in the car.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
My father was just crying.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And finally, and did he participate in politic was he was.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
He participated. He was more participated indirectly.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
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?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (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 3 (08:48):
Two papers because you couldn't support two papers in one town?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's interesting there.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Was one called Democrat and actually one was called Yeah.
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.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
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.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Find your passion.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
When you're forty fifty, however old you are, you find
your passion and it 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.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Or something else.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Ye say, exactly is what will give me the ability
to have the time?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
You have a passion a different listen.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
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 sect, 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.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
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.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
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.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And there was a legendary man. His name was Robert Strauss,
Bob Strauss. She probably knew me.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
He was.
Speaker 3 (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 1 (11:02):
They called so was a Carter White House.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
So they said how old are you? And I said
about thirty.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Now, if anybody I interviewed every said about thirty, I
would roll.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I was twenty four. I worked there and I.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Issues that she did.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It was huge housing in urban development.
Speaker 3 (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 3 (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 3 (13:17):
I'd met him briefly before I went to the White House,
but then we started working together.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So Ralf and I worked together all the time.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
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 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
(13:47):
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 this midnight.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Was he as rest and food then? As he is?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
He always loved food.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
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?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
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
(14:29):
he was working at the White House, but somehow we
put them through.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
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, it was wonderful. It was just
(15:02):
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 and never have
meals with the carters?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I went upstairs to the residents maybe then, but probably
more when President Obama was president, And do you remember
those meals? 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
(15:33):
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 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.
(15:55):
Six almonds for breakfast, right, but when he's relaxing, his
favorite thing steak and martini vodka.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Straight up. You know he loves it. So you always
want to make them happy.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
You work so hard when he's here, so I always
get ice creamy anything he wants he gets.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
He deserves all of it.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
And President Obama, I've had dinner with him at Martha's
finger and stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
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 3 (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 appled 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 get 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.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
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 one time a friend of ours
was a journalist for he'd been at the Western Post
(17:25):
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, now,
just come pick me up. And he wanted me to
see what a good mother's fridge look like.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
That's so funny, this is.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
A good mother. And it was that, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It was one of those double door fridges, filled wool,
vegetables and all the things. And I said, I have
a good mother and I have a good fridge. It
just doesn't have sixteen thousand different types of I was
a good job.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I was a good very good and what I did
well but I didn't have a good fridge.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Fridge they were. It all worked out very well.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
I love my children and they're terrific adults.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Terrific you said them, terrific people. Even though they may
have gotten did take out? Did they did cook? He was,
you know, during the week, it was so hard.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
At one point, I was like, do we have to
have it again?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
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 3 (19:06):
Well, I think he always it's just time, you know.
And even now he mainly cooks some weekends.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
But he loves he loves food.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
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 follow a recipe to write
the exact what it says, and.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
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 3 (19:37):
We had a couple of favorite places in Paris, but
one thing I remember that is of more.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Serious, having to do with food.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
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. 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
(20:09):
that night because Charlie Hebdo had happened.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Which was a terror, which was a.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
You know, a terrorist act and a terrible thing, but
it appeared more targeted, where this just shook the city,
shook the country, shook the world because it was done.
For a fact, it wasn't targeted. There are just young
kids at a music venue and huge, huge numbers of people.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Died. I remember that night because Ralph happened to be there.
Ralph was not in France much.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
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've 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, and that is Ralph, and my
(20:59):
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. She 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 brief the White House, and there was a
wonderful woman. She was head of Homeland Security, Lisa Monico.
(21:23):
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. The streets of Paris were empty, empty,
(21:44):
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 1 (21:57):
You know.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
They said, can you do anything? So no one was
on the street.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
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, because you know, you have to
(22:43):
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 four, 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
(23:16):
York with your two babies to wearing up a new
working so hard, What were you doing at that time?
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
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 Steret. Yeah,
that's right now, which I think 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 to.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
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.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I had been on the sesime.
Speaker 3 (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. We're about to do all this work
with refugee children and you would be perfect.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
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.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
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, one hundred million dollars from MacArthur,
a Genius award to educate refugee children.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
So we had a huge.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
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 had just witnessed.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You were appointed ambassador to Paris by Obama. Yes, and
tell me how that happened.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I didn't really know much about him.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
And I heard that speech, that famous speech he gave
at that convention, and I remember 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
(26:24):
supporter of President Obama and worked with him in his
first administration. I was on a board that 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.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
So I was a good fit for it. I was
a little surprised with.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
The children grown up with that I've they ever grown up.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
But I really had a life, you know, I really had.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
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 called me and said, so let
me see if this interests you. You said no to
(27:16):
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, so it was funny because
(27:37):
Ralph was in London, it happened to be in London
at the time.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
He worked here occasionally.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Who was president of France when you were ambassador president alone?
Speaker 3 (27:59):
He was president, and you know, we 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 pretty Yeah, I got.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
That you 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
(28:43):
when she 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, Yeah,
I saw it. The other day I saw Jeff.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Jeff is fantastic. I was, I was. I was involved.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Want to serve?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I do think absolutely.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Would be right for that particular group.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
So I care about menus and I care that it
fits the occasion and that everybody's everybody's comfortable.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Oh, shake check. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
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 it very American?
(30:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
But it's a huge hit. Now he does it every
event we have.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
And the first holiday party, the funny thing was the
then Foreign secretary came and they had 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, I.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Have terma Connecticut.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
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 legendary
person who takes care of the grounds is Stephen. He's
(31:41):
been with Winfield almost forty years and he has greenhouses
and everything. If you go back there, 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.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
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.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
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 3 (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 at 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.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
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, 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 3 (33:48):
Thank you for being such a good friend. You are amazing, 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. In partnership with Montclair,
Jane Hardley.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
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. I've witnessed Jane negotiating difficult situations and
(00:29):
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 works rigorously to be informed. Her husband,
(00:54):
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 pizza in New York City. I
always introduced Jane as Ambassador Hartley. But my nickname for
(01:18):
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 talk about work, duty,
family and food. I know she will be informed and
(01:40):
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 3 (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.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And some days are pretty hard.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
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 and it was home. And you did that better
(03:11):
than anybody. Well.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Days, yeah, you know, yeah, I do have tough.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
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?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
It's thank god she's no longer with her. 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?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
We don't want to be too bad. I love my mother.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
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 3 (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 gourmet, although 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 differs Resion?
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
It's just the two of us.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
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 we
just go anywhere?
Speaker 1 (05:16):
We're hungry?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And your father would insist on the meat being rarest Yeah,
me being rare.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
And sometimes the drink first, never wine with the meals.
So that was interesting that taste I developed later cocktails A.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
My brother played a lot of sports, but it was wonderful,
and that the other thing I remember from growing.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Up, and it's it's what Ralph is doing.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
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. Zachary's an odd
name for Waterbury.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
This was in Waterbury.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah. Yeah, so you grew up with a at the table.
You know, what were your parents in the 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.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
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
was very young when President Kennedy was president. But you know,
(06:52):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Didn't get that exactly right, but whole, that whole value of.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
In my parents, especially my father frankly, that 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 3 (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 3 (07:56):
Seven They told us we were going did they tell you?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
But then no, they didn't even tell us that.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
They just said you're all going home. So I never heard.
And in the car.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
My father was just crying.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And finally, and did he participate in politic was he was.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
He participated. He was more participated indirectly.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
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?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (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 3 (08:48):
Two papers because you couldn't support two papers in one town?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's interesting there.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Was one called Democrat and actually one was called Yeah.
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.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
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.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Find your passion.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
When you're forty fifty, however old you are, you find
your passion and it 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.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Or something else.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Ye say, exactly is what will give me the ability
to have the time?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
You have a passion a different listen.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
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 sect, 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.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
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.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
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.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And there was a legendary man. His name was Robert Strauss,
Bob Strauss. She probably knew me.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
He was.
Speaker 3 (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 1 (11:02):
They called so was a Carter White House.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
So they said how old are you? And I said
about thirty.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Now, if anybody I interviewed every said about thirty, I
would roll.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I was twenty four. I worked there and I.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Issues that she did.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It was huge housing in urban development.
Speaker 3 (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 3 (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 3 (13:17):
I'd met him briefly before I went to the White House,
but then we started working together.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So Ralf and I worked together all the time.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
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 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
(13:47):
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 this midnight.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Was he as rest and food then? As he is?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
He always loved food.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
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?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
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
(14:29):
he was working at the White House, but somehow we
put them through.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
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, it was wonderful. It was just
(15:02):
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 and never have
meals with the carters?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I went upstairs to the residents maybe then, but probably
more when President Obama was president, And do you remember
those meals? 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
(15:33):
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 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.
(15:55):
Six almonds for breakfast, right, but when he's relaxing, his
favorite thing steak and martini vodka.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Straight up. You know he loves it. So you always
want to make them happy.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
You work so hard when he's here, so I always
get ice creamy anything he wants he gets.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
He deserves all of it.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
And President Obama, I've had dinner with him at Martha's
finger and stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
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 3 (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 appled 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 get 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.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
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 one time a friend of ours
was a journalist for he'd been at the Western Post
(17:25):
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, now,
just come pick me up. And he wanted me to
see what a good mother's fridge look like.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
That's so funny, this is.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
A good mother. And it was that, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It was one of those double door fridges, filled wool,
vegetables and all the things. And I said, I have
a good mother and I have a good fridge. It
just doesn't have sixteen thousand different types of I was
a good job.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I was a good very good and what I did
well but I didn't have a good fridge.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Fridge they were. It all worked out very well.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
I love my children and they're terrific adults.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Terrific you said them, terrific people. Even though they may
have gotten did take out? Did they did cook? He was,
you know, during the week, it was so hard.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
At one point, I was like, do we have to
have it again?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
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 3 (19:06):
Well, I think he always it's just time, you know.
And even now he mainly cooks some weekends.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
But he loves he loves food.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
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 follow a recipe to write
the exact what it says, and.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
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 3 (19:37):
We had a couple of favorite places in Paris, but
one thing I remember that is of more.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Serious, having to do with food.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
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. 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
(20:09):
that night because Charlie Hebdo had happened.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Which was a terror, which was a.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
You know, a terrorist act and a terrible thing, but
it appeared more targeted, where this just shook the city,
shook the country, shook the world because it was done.
For a fact, it wasn't targeted. There are just young
kids at a music venue and huge, huge numbers of people.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Died. I remember that night because Ralph happened to be there.
Ralph was not in France much.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
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've 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, and that is Ralph, and my
(20:59):
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. She 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 brief the White House, and there was a
wonderful woman. She was head of Homeland Security, Lisa Monico.
(21:23):
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. The streets of Paris were empty, empty,
(21:44):
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 1 (21:57):
You know.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
They said, can you do anything? So no one was
on the street.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
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, because you know, you have to
(22:43):
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 four, 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
(23:16):
York with your two babies to wearing up a new
working so hard, What were you doing at that time?
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
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 Steret. Yeah,
that's right now, which I think 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 to.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
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.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I had been on the sesime.
Speaker 3 (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. We're about to do all this work
with refugee children and you would be perfect.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
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.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
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, one hundred million dollars from MacArthur,
a Genius award to educate refugee children.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
So we had a huge.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
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 had just witnessed.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You were appointed ambassador to Paris by Obama. Yes, and
tell me how that happened.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I didn't really know much about him.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
And I heard that speech, that famous speech he gave
at that convention, and I remember 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
(26:24):
supporter of President Obama and worked with him in his
first administration. I was on a board that 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.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
So I was a good fit for it. I was
a little surprised with.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
The children grown up with that I've they ever grown up.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
But I really had a life, you know, I really had.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
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 called me and said, so let
me see if this interests you. You said no to
(27:16):
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, so it was funny because
(27:37):
Ralph was in London, it happened to be in London
at the time.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
He worked here occasionally.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Who was president of France when you were ambassador president alone?
Speaker 3 (27:59):
He was president, and you know, we 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 pretty Yeah, I got.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
That you 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
(28:43):
when she 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, Yeah,
I saw it. The other day I saw Jeff.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Jeff is fantastic. I was, I was. I was involved.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Want to serve?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I do think absolutely.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Would be right for that particular group.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
So I care about menus and I care that it
fits the occasion and that everybody's everybody's comfortable.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Oh, shake check. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
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 it very American?
(30:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
But it's a huge hit. Now he does it every
event we have.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
And the first holiday party, the funny thing was the
then Foreign secretary came and they had 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, I.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Have terma Connecticut.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
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 legendary
person who takes care of the grounds is Stephen. He's
(31:41):
been with Winfield almost forty years and he has greenhouses
and everything. If you go back there, 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.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
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.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
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 3 (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 at 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.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
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, 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 3 (33:48):
Thank you for being such a good friend. You are amazing, 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
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