June 25, 2025 • 16 mins
In this special bonus episode, I take you 'behind the scenes' with The River Cafe's executive chefs Sian Owen and Joseph Trivelli, talking about a busy Sunday lunch for Father’s Day, how to make the perfect pesto, and why DOP basil is so special.
Ruthie's Table 4, made in partnership with Moncler.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Ruthie's Table four.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
We're always getting people to talk about their memories of food,
how food has affected their lives, how they think of
food as comfort, of sharing, of joy, pleasure, and from us,
how does it happen, How does a restaurant work? What
are the concerns that we have as chefs, as managers,
as waiters, as suppliers. The sun has come out, there
(00:29):
are holidays, Wimbledon's going to be coming soon, and we're
doing parties, and we're doing a wedding, and so every
day is a different day, and so we thought today
we would talk to you, Sean, Joseph and myself about
the River Cafe and what we're thinking about and doing
right now over to you. So tell me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We had a pretty intense weekend.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
So I'm reeling off the back of yesterday lunch, which
was a Sunday our two hundred and eighty cover lunch
in the in the main restaurant, and feeling like it
probably run a small marathon, maybe a little mini marathon.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
When you say two hundred and eighty, what does that
feel like? Because would you say, if it had only
been two hundred and twenty, or if it had been
one eighty, what do you balance that? Again?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Probably it's not a number, is it When you're looking
at the number of people you cook for. It's more
about how that number rolls through the day. And I think, I,
on reflection, if this is the therapist culture, I would
say that I probably wrote too difficult menu.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I'll be introspective here.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So I thought, because it was Father's Day, I thought
I'd try and do some dishes for families. I thought
there'll be a lot of families coming out. So I
did one dish, which was the beasteak of Fiorantina. It
takes you to Tuscany. It's a really class sick dish
that I think is fun because you basically get a
(02:04):
whole a beef steak off Charantina is a tea bone,
but it's thick cut it.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's cut as if it.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Was a double thickness, and it has surloin on one
side and fill it on the other, and we charg
grill it and then would roast it to finish it off,
and then we serve it on a massive plate and
you can share it for two or three people, and
I thought, that's going to be amazing, all the fathers
out there having their steak. Specific I thought, what would
(02:37):
be really nice would be some tuscan and roasted potatoes,
some little potatoes, rosemary and garlic and olive oil, another
plate of some green bit of green vegetables.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Some checoria with olive oil.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
And then I thought it would be really nice with
two sauces, horseradish fresh, horse readish your crome fresh, and
salsa verde. That all sounds like dreamy, But what I
hadn't really thought through was the fact that you need
for that one dish, you need one plate with a
beef on, one plate with potatoes on, one plate with
greens on, one plate with sauces on, and the plates
(03:11):
for the people. So the person who's taking the food
out had to basically go back to the table several
times with all these extra accoutrement, which was just people
were in a lather taking the food out. It was
just like for every steak there was six plates, rather
than someone having a steak and having one plate. It
was like a feast arriving.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
We had it. So I came as a guest yesterday
and Noah always we love a beef and it was incredible.
It was incredible, It was so it was just so
great to have this piece of beef brought to the
table and actually the sides looked beautiful on the separate plates,
and you could choose. The potatoes are dark and crisp,
and the greens were just kind of juicing the sauces.
(03:54):
So as you were describing it, it doesn't sound like
the easiest thing.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
But did a lot of people order it?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
We had We had sixteen whole fiorantinas to sell, and
we sold all of them. We could have sold more.
So that's about thirty two people forty people having that
and the other dish. I'll tell you about the other dish.
I decided to totally stitch up the kitchen early on
in the day by doing another dish that I thought
(04:21):
would be really family focused, which was in a roster mysto.
I don't know why I thought of doing that on
such a busy day. So I sent a note to
the kitchen when I woke up in the morning, but
I was up earlier, but I sent a note saying
I wanted to debone three rabbits and then so we
need to debone the rabbits. That's already quite a skillful job.
(04:42):
Then we wanted to stuff them with bread crumbs, livers,
rosemary panchetta, roll it up and then wrap it in
presciutto then tie it and then that would be roasted
as one dish.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
That's what I'm ordering.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It was, and then that was going to be served
with a live a Crostino, slow cook peas and a
half a pigeon. And so in theory for a nice
fifty to one hundred cover lunch, that's manageable, but for
that many people it was really cardgoing.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
It's finally because I was here the Saturday night and
I saw that it was on Saturday night, I think
it was Carlotta, and she was laying out the menu,
you know, just saying what was available, what we're going
to have, and I saw a rosta misto and I thought,
whow okay, I thought it was Joseph's idea. I thought
it was Joseph. Yeah, I said it was Joseph on
(05:42):
and he thought that would be a nice thing for
Sean to do on Sunday lunch. And no, the message
came back it was Shann's idea. So I thought, okay,
it's a Shan's idea and she's doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And I did notice a few antinas, but both of
them were you know, was it fun?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It was? It was fun.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
And the fact that it was a busy day and
we sort of spend the whole year knowing that in
this week, the next few weeks we've got Queen's Tennis, Wimbledon,
there's Henry. It's a London season. People come to London
for art, people come to London for parties, don't they actually,
And so the River Cafe over the next two months
is full throttle, and so all the chefs know that.
(06:21):
So people they're kind of pumped. I guess they kind
of know what's expected of them.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And because a few times and you don't usually you see.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And the thing that scares me is when you go
in there, when I'm working in there, was so you
just have a build up of tickets and you see
the whole line of tickets. But I never saw more
than like four or five on each level of the
dett Gravidge tables. I think, yeah, maybe, oh yes, did
it and then took a table down.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I think there were lots of bigger tables, so there
were sixes and eights rather than like so you could
have a whole order board full of tables of two,
or you could have a smaller order board but with
bigger tables. I think maybe that was it. But never
has the staff drink at the end of the day.
Taste is so good.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That was a fun part. Decompress what you've been cooking to.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
What have we been cooking a lot this week? Been
thinking about the pizzas this week that we've been serving
and looking at the types of flour and the recipe
for our pizza. Though. I like the way in the
River Cafe is so it's this combination of like what
chance be talking about things you do in the moment
that are just you know, could be just In fact,
Keith mcnaledge was just asking us about the menu, were saying,
(07:39):
is that when do you try out stuff? You know,
we can just have a go at doing something and
then we might not do it again, which is really lovely.
But aside that kind of incredible freedom, really there's also
these things that we constantly do, like pizza and squid
and it's really nice. Actually, I quite like the just
digging a bit more down into We've got a new
(07:59):
baker here who's making the dough for us, and I've
been talking to him this week about making some adjustments.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I think the great thing is that we've been having
lately is the pesta. You know that we're doing pesta
right now, and we've been waiting for pesta to start,
and still I don't know how you feel about the basil,
whether it's sort of that really green peppery that you
get more in July. We do have a way of
making it that is quite light. Now let's talk to
(08:26):
the people who are listening about pesto. I mean, what
is your idea of pesta.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I would start with the basil, because we already have
a situation in the kitchen with the basil, how it's prepped.
Because we get this basil, which is the op basil.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
From described to listener what dop is?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Will you describe the op basl?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
So it's not often it's used for wine or for
things that it's come it's protected, are protected, comes from
the specific place. So the basil that they grow in Liguria,
I've always been told, doesn't grow anywhere else. You know,
you can't. They try and take the same seeds south
and it doesn't work. So the daguri and basil that
we buy comes in these little light green leaves in
(09:09):
a bunch that is protected in a box and is
so delicate. As soon as you open the box and
start using it, the basil starts to you know, will
to go away. I'm not going to talk about how
much it costs, but it's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And because somebody listening and they might want to get
this basil, can they find it?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Well, we buy this basil sometimes as much as seven
pounds a bunch of basil, and that's you know, bringing
mind with buying boxes of it. It's very expensive.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It almost looks like a bridal bouquet.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Yeah, so beautiful and then a great big thing. You
should see the box. It really is beautiful. Yeah, yeah,
And so you're right. Over the last few years, I
think we've really perfected this kind of like kind of
light green paint emulsion paint type kind of pesto that
(10:01):
is absolutely beautiful and is so and it's really useful
here on days obviously days like today when it's sunny
and bright, but also you know, like you get in London,
you get bad weather in the summer, and I always
think putting this beautiful pesta on the menu brings this
brings the sun in, you know. It's a lovely way
we can we can use the menu. And at the
same time, sometimes when you just need a tiny bit
(10:24):
of pesto, might make it old fashioned innner mortar and pestle,
you know, putting leaf by leaf, you know, and crushing
leaf by leaf and getting a slightly more rustic sort
of dark green pesto, which I don't mind so much
to put like a doll up in the middle of
the soup or something.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And I had the soup, I had the ministrooney with
the in the middle. And also we do the peace
soup pesta. I like pesta in soups, you know, just
to a little dark what is your.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We went what was the name of that restaurant we
went to in Liguria? We went together where they put
the bibs around an x and then they made us
this super smooth pesta, and we got the feeling they
were making it like literally to.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Order to margarita. They give you that that very well,
what's your technique for making?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So there's the there's like various house styles, aren't there
so since then we were like, how do they make
this pesto? It's so pale green, you not like what
you might imagine you can buy in a deli. It's
almost I we really think farm Ball should make a
paint color called the River Cave pisto.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Maybe it could be a pain that sort of will
go khaki quickly.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, how would you describe the green?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
It's almost like it's pale, pale green.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
There was no pale and that comes from I mean
when I was in you know, Todd in the kitchen.
They put it in a vertical blender. They don't put
it in the neither in the queisin, nor do they
pounded or you know. Yeah, it's that verticalness which really
wizards it up almost, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
You're trying to avoid the basil oxidizing, really, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think they're trying to retain the green.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
So tell somebody listening.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
So we used to think, oh do we how do
they get it this pail? Then we found that with
a little bunch of basil packed I found that you
don't want to pick the basil pick the leaves because
the stalks are so delicate that you can just.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Use a stalk as well.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So I would fill a large bowl of water, dip
the basil head in it, and swish it around. But
then any of the water that's left I think helps
with thermossifying.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Of the oil and water, because you need a bit
of water in it.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And then you have, you know, for one bunch of basil,
probably fifty grams of pine nuts and maybe half a
clove of garlic, probably about fifty grams of parmesan, and
then we put it all in the liquidizer with a
probably about one hundred fifty mili olive oil, give or take,
and then switch on and the water and the oil
(13:03):
and all of that washes up, and then it becomes
this green, pale green paste which is just so you think,
I wonder what that's going to taste like, and then
you taste it and it's literally like all the flavors
in the pesto in this smooth liquid amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So it's so beautiful on the plain.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Also, I think, especially you know the pesta that you
have in Liguria, you often have with Lasagnetti. It's very
thin sheets of a pasta, and I used to watch
the woman and she just would spoon it over and
it was just so so thin and yet so strong.
But I think you do need something liquid. You need
a bit of water or something other than the olive
(13:41):
oil and the pine nuts, because it just doesn't whizz up.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
You need some something.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
I remember a Lagurian chef who worked here, Lorenzos, Yes,
Lorenzo long Ago, and I remember making pesto with him
when I was, you know, a chef in the back
of the kitchen with him and him asking me what
the ingredients were, the classic kind of so what do
you think guys did a pesta pie that's you know,
(14:08):
cheese whatever, And he said, you've missed an ingredient now
and I was like, what have I missed out? And
what's your Is that water? Yeah? That was that was
It was like, you need to have a little bit
of water to make so good.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
We are now officially expecting a heat wave, okay this week,
and so we've got to think about what when we
order what what are we thinking about.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
When it gets hot and I know that we're gonna
it'll be hot in the kitchen, you sort of think
about the well being of the team because it's kind
of I remember a few summers ago where we had
a proper mega heat wave in London and we ran
a sweep steak on how hot it was going to
get above the grill and the person who got the temperature.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Right and we bought we bought big blocks of ice
and we brought these people buy to like calve, just
to have them like hanging around.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
We don't have air conditioning.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
No, probably try and do the cooking early on in
the morning when it's cool, and then turn the ovens off.
So you like you guys say like we do, like
the wild trout cooked in sea salt, or turbert in
sea salt, and do vitello tonato, seabast cupacchos cold longestings
with ioli.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
I really like fish Cookbook one.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Yeah, and think about I always think about the customer
sitting outside with a cold glass of rose that always
looks so appetizing, and then like what food goes with what?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
You know?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
That kind of thing, isn't it. You kind of think
do you want to eat finely chopped up raw veal
on a boiling hot day? I don't know, you sort
of think maybe not, so you probably don't be careful
with rosottos on hot days. We don't often serve rosotto
just because of the rice being a bit something you
might not fancy on a hot day, although.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
There's tomato rosottos sometimes. Summary this is thank you, thank
you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with
Montclair
You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Ruthie's Table four.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
We're always getting people to talk about their memories of food,
how food has affected their lives, how they think of
food as comfort, of sharing, of joy, pleasure, and from us,
how does it happen, How does a restaurant work? What
are the concerns that we have as chefs, as managers,
as waiters, as suppliers. The sun has come out, there
(00:29):
are holidays, Wimbledon's going to be coming soon, and we're
doing parties, and we're doing a wedding, and so every
day is a different day, and so we thought today
we would talk to you, Sean, Joseph and myself about
the River Cafe and what we're thinking about and doing
right now over to you. So tell me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We had a pretty intense weekend.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
So I'm reeling off the back of yesterday lunch, which
was a Sunday our two hundred and eighty cover lunch
in the in the main restaurant, and feeling like it
probably run a small marathon, maybe a little mini marathon.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
When you say two hundred and eighty, what does that
feel like? Because would you say, if it had only
been two hundred and twenty, or if it had been
one eighty, what do you balance that? Again?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Probably it's not a number, is it When you're looking
at the number of people you cook for. It's more
about how that number rolls through the day. And I think, I,
on reflection, if this is the therapist culture, I would
say that I probably wrote too difficult menu.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I'll be introspective here.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So I thought, because it was Father's Day, I thought
I'd try and do some dishes for families. I thought
there'll be a lot of families coming out. So I
did one dish, which was the beasteak of Fiorantina. It
takes you to Tuscany. It's a really class sick dish
that I think is fun because you basically get a
(02:04):
whole a beef steak off Charantina is a tea bone,
but it's thick cut it.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's cut as if it.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Was a double thickness, and it has surloin on one
side and fill it on the other, and we charg
grill it and then would roast it to finish it off,
and then we serve it on a massive plate and
you can share it for two or three people, and
I thought, that's going to be amazing, all the fathers
out there having their steak. Specific I thought, what would
(02:37):
be really nice would be some tuscan and roasted potatoes,
some little potatoes, rosemary and garlic and olive oil, another
plate of some green bit of green vegetables.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Some checoria with olive oil.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
And then I thought it would be really nice with
two sauces, horseradish fresh, horse readish your crome fresh, and
salsa verde. That all sounds like dreamy, But what I
hadn't really thought through was the fact that you need
for that one dish, you need one plate with a
beef on, one plate with potatoes on, one plate with
greens on, one plate with sauces on, and the plates
(03:11):
for the people. So the person who's taking the food
out had to basically go back to the table several
times with all these extra accoutrement, which was just people
were in a lather taking the food out. It was
just like for every steak there was six plates, rather
than someone having a steak and having one plate. It
was like a feast arriving.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
We had it. So I came as a guest yesterday
and Noah always we love a beef and it was incredible.
It was incredible, It was so it was just so
great to have this piece of beef brought to the
table and actually the sides looked beautiful on the separate plates,
and you could choose. The potatoes are dark and crisp,
and the greens were just kind of juicing the sauces.
(03:54):
So as you were describing it, it doesn't sound like
the easiest thing.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
But did a lot of people order it?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
We had We had sixteen whole fiorantinas to sell, and
we sold all of them. We could have sold more.
So that's about thirty two people forty people having that
and the other dish. I'll tell you about the other dish.
I decided to totally stitch up the kitchen early on
in the day by doing another dish that I thought
(04:21):
would be really family focused, which was in a roster mysto.
I don't know why I thought of doing that on
such a busy day. So I sent a note to
the kitchen when I woke up in the morning, but
I was up earlier, but I sent a note saying
I wanted to debone three rabbits and then so we
need to debone the rabbits. That's already quite a skillful job.
(04:42):
Then we wanted to stuff them with bread crumbs, livers,
rosemary panchetta, roll it up and then wrap it in
presciutto then tie it and then that would be roasted
as one dish.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
That's what I'm ordering.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It was, and then that was going to be served
with a live a Crostino, slow cook peas and a
half a pigeon. And so in theory for a nice
fifty to one hundred cover lunch, that's manageable, but for
that many people it was really cardgoing.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
It's finally because I was here the Saturday night and
I saw that it was on Saturday night, I think
it was Carlotta, and she was laying out the menu,
you know, just saying what was available, what we're going
to have, and I saw a rosta misto and I thought,
whow okay, I thought it was Joseph's idea. I thought
it was Joseph. Yeah, I said it was Joseph on
(05:42):
and he thought that would be a nice thing for
Sean to do on Sunday lunch. And no, the message
came back it was Shann's idea. So I thought, okay,
it's a Shan's idea and she's doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And I did notice a few antinas, but both of
them were you know, was it fun?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It was? It was fun.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
And the fact that it was a busy day and
we sort of spend the whole year knowing that in
this week, the next few weeks we've got Queen's Tennis, Wimbledon,
there's Henry. It's a London season. People come to London
for art, people come to London for parties, don't they actually,
And so the River Cafe over the next two months
is full throttle, and so all the chefs know that.
(06:21):
So people they're kind of pumped. I guess they kind
of know what's expected of them.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And because a few times and you don't usually you see.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And the thing that scares me is when you go
in there, when I'm working in there, was so you
just have a build up of tickets and you see
the whole line of tickets. But I never saw more
than like four or five on each level of the
dett Gravidge tables. I think, yeah, maybe, oh yes, did
it and then took a table down.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I think there were lots of bigger tables, so there
were sixes and eights rather than like so you could
have a whole order board full of tables of two,
or you could have a smaller order board but with
bigger tables. I think maybe that was it. But never
has the staff drink at the end of the day.
Taste is so good.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That was a fun part. Decompress what you've been cooking to.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
What have we been cooking a lot this week? Been
thinking about the pizzas this week that we've been serving
and looking at the types of flour and the recipe
for our pizza. Though. I like the way in the
River Cafe is so it's this combination of like what
chance be talking about things you do in the moment
that are just you know, could be just In fact,
Keith mcnaledge was just asking us about the menu, were saying,
(07:39):
is that when do you try out stuff? You know,
we can just have a go at doing something and
then we might not do it again, which is really lovely.
But aside that kind of incredible freedom, really there's also
these things that we constantly do, like pizza and squid
and it's really nice. Actually, I quite like the just
digging a bit more down into We've got a new
(07:59):
baker here who's making the dough for us, and I've
been talking to him this week about making some adjustments.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I think the great thing is that we've been having
lately is the pesta. You know that we're doing pesta
right now, and we've been waiting for pesta to start,
and still I don't know how you feel about the basil,
whether it's sort of that really green peppery that you
get more in July. We do have a way of
making it that is quite light. Now let's talk to
(08:26):
the people who are listening about pesto. I mean, what
is your idea of pesta.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I would start with the basil, because we already have
a situation in the kitchen with the basil, how it's prepped.
Because we get this basil, which is the op basil.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
From described to listener what dop is?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Will you describe the op basl?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
So it's not often it's used for wine or for
things that it's come it's protected, are protected, comes from
the specific place. So the basil that they grow in Liguria,
I've always been told, doesn't grow anywhere else. You know,
you can't. They try and take the same seeds south
and it doesn't work. So the daguri and basil that
we buy comes in these little light green leaves in
(09:09):
a bunch that is protected in a box and is
so delicate. As soon as you open the box and
start using it, the basil starts to you know, will
to go away. I'm not going to talk about how
much it costs, but it's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And because somebody listening and they might want to get
this basil, can they find it?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Well, we buy this basil sometimes as much as seven
pounds a bunch of basil, and that's you know, bringing
mind with buying boxes of it. It's very expensive.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It almost looks like a bridal bouquet.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Yeah, so beautiful and then a great big thing. You
should see the box. It really is beautiful. Yeah, yeah,
And so you're right. Over the last few years, I
think we've really perfected this kind of like kind of
light green paint emulsion paint type kind of pesto that
(10:01):
is absolutely beautiful and is so and it's really useful
here on days obviously days like today when it's sunny
and bright, but also you know, like you get in London,
you get bad weather in the summer, and I always
think putting this beautiful pesta on the menu brings this
brings the sun in, you know. It's a lovely way
we can we can use the menu. And at the
same time, sometimes when you just need a tiny bit
(10:24):
of pesto, might make it old fashioned innner mortar and pestle,
you know, putting leaf by leaf, you know, and crushing
leaf by leaf and getting a slightly more rustic sort
of dark green pesto, which I don't mind so much
to put like a doll up in the middle of
the soup or something.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And I had the soup, I had the ministrooney with
the in the middle. And also we do the peace
soup pesta. I like pesta in soups, you know, just
to a little dark what is your.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We went what was the name of that restaurant we
went to in Liguria? We went together where they put
the bibs around an x and then they made us
this super smooth pesta, and we got the feeling they
were making it like literally to.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Order to margarita. They give you that that very well,
what's your technique for making?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So there's the there's like various house styles, aren't there
so since then we were like, how do they make
this pesto? It's so pale green, you not like what
you might imagine you can buy in a deli. It's
almost I we really think farm Ball should make a
paint color called the River Cave pisto.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Maybe it could be a pain that sort of will
go khaki quickly.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, how would you describe the green?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
It's almost like it's pale, pale green.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
There was no pale and that comes from I mean
when I was in you know, Todd in the kitchen.
They put it in a vertical blender. They don't put
it in the neither in the queisin, nor do they
pounded or you know. Yeah, it's that verticalness which really
wizards it up almost, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
You're trying to avoid the basil oxidizing, really, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think they're trying to retain the green.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
So tell somebody listening.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
So we used to think, oh do we how do
they get it this pail? Then we found that with
a little bunch of basil packed I found that you
don't want to pick the basil pick the leaves because
the stalks are so delicate that you can just.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Use a stalk as well.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So I would fill a large bowl of water, dip
the basil head in it, and swish it around. But
then any of the water that's left I think helps
with thermossifying.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Of the oil and water, because you need a bit
of water in it.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And then you have, you know, for one bunch of basil,
probably fifty grams of pine nuts and maybe half a
clove of garlic, probably about fifty grams of parmesan, and
then we put it all in the liquidizer with a
probably about one hundred fifty mili olive oil, give or take,
and then switch on and the water and the oil
(13:03):
and all of that washes up, and then it becomes
this green, pale green paste which is just so you think,
I wonder what that's going to taste like, and then
you taste it and it's literally like all the flavors
in the pesto in this smooth liquid amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So it's so beautiful on the plain.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Also, I think, especially you know the pesta that you
have in Liguria, you often have with Lasagnetti. It's very
thin sheets of a pasta, and I used to watch
the woman and she just would spoon it over and
it was just so so thin and yet so strong.
But I think you do need something liquid. You need
a bit of water or something other than the olive
(13:41):
oil and the pine nuts, because it just doesn't whizz up.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
You need some something.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
I remember a Lagurian chef who worked here, Lorenzos, Yes,
Lorenzo long Ago, and I remember making pesto with him
when I was, you know, a chef in the back
of the kitchen with him and him asking me what
the ingredients were, the classic kind of so what do
you think guys did a pesta pie that's you know,
(14:08):
cheese whatever, And he said, you've missed an ingredient now
and I was like, what have I missed out? And
what's your Is that water? Yeah? That was that was
It was like, you need to have a little bit
of water to make so good.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
We are now officially expecting a heat wave, okay this week,
and so we've got to think about what when we
order what what are we thinking about.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
When it gets hot and I know that we're gonna
it'll be hot in the kitchen, you sort of think
about the well being of the team because it's kind
of I remember a few summers ago where we had
a proper mega heat wave in London and we ran
a sweep steak on how hot it was going to
get above the grill and the person who got the temperature.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Right and we bought we bought big blocks of ice
and we brought these people buy to like calve, just
to have them like hanging around.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
We don't have air conditioning.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
No, probably try and do the cooking early on in
the morning when it's cool, and then turn the ovens off.
So you like you guys say like we do, like
the wild trout cooked in sea salt, or turbert in
sea salt, and do vitello tonato, seabast cupacchos cold longestings
with ioli.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
I really like fish Cookbook one.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Yeah, and think about I always think about the customer
sitting outside with a cold glass of rose that always
looks so appetizing, and then like what food goes with what?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
You know?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
That kind of thing, isn't it. You kind of think
do you want to eat finely chopped up raw veal
on a boiling hot day? I don't know, you sort
of think maybe not, so you probably don't be careful
with rosottos on hot days. We don't often serve rosotto
just because of the rice being a bit something you
might not fancy on a hot day, although.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
There's tomato rosottos sometimes. Summary this is thank you, thank
you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with
Montclair
Host
Ruth Rogers
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