Nili Lotan is not only a brilliant designer, and an entrepreneur. A woman with strong values she has held onto since starting her own fashion company, she advocates for peace, she supports women and working mothers.
She and I both believe that great design, whether food or fashion, is about simplicity, precision, and timelessness. We talk about food and architecture, food and politics, food and family, food and fashion.
Ruthie's Table 4, made in partnership with Moncler.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Tonight, my friend Elizabeth Saltzman is hosting a dinner in
the River Cafe for the brilliant designer Nelie l'autan. Elizabeth
invited me to the dinner, but what's exciting is having
nearly here all to myself before we go in Nearlie
is a creative, an entrepreneur who knows how to work
(00:24):
and also knows how to have a good time. A
woman with strong values she's held on to since starting
her own fashion company. She advocates for peace. She supports
women and working mothers. She's authentic, having spent over thirty
years refining her sense of style and her sense of self.
(00:45):
She and I, a chef and a designer, have something
else in common, believing great design, whether food or fashion,
is about simplicity, precision, and timelessness. We're going to talk
about food and architecture, food and politics, food and family,
food and fashion, and then we get to have dinner too.
(01:08):
Lucky me, lucky me, Thank you. You were born then
in Israel.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
She came in nineteen forty seven. My older sister, nineteen,
was born nineteen forty nine, she has a miscarriage between
me and my sister. And then I was born in
nineteen fifty seven. Israel was still I mean, it's constantly
in conflict and wars, but it was still, you know,
(01:37):
a small country.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Everyone knew each other.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
And what did your father do.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
He was a developer, real estate developer.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
He did very well for himself, and we always moved
into the new house that he built, which most of
them were facing the Mediterranean, So I basically lived opening
the window and all I saw was the Mediterranean and
the horizon. So when I ended up in Crochton, I
was like, I'm home. It may not be the Mediterranean,
(02:06):
but I see the water. I was missing that in
the city. So you grew up there, grew up there.
Then I went to fashion school in Tel Aviv.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
There's only one fashion schoo wanted to do fashion.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
It was my mom's recommendation.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I didn't know if I wanted to do an architect
But then somehow this school opened up and it was
intrigued me because they it was textile and design and
just a very general but major in fashion. And I
did very well in school, and then they actually sent
me to New York.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
That was the first time you read I there.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
So I went to Europe when I was sixteen, to Florence,
to Paris, to the Netherlands. It was just like a
teenage group, you know. We were like traveling the group.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Boy.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I mean when I went on that airp my mom
had to prepare for me a suit because I thought
I would not be anything but Jackie Owe, who I've
seen in the papers, and I had to have my
suit and going up.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
With the steps and so I still walking up. Oh yeah,
I knew exactly what I wanted.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Did you have fashion magazines?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
So that was the only resource I had was fashion
magazine that I found at the hairdresser that my mom
did her hair. There were no fashion magazines in stores,
so she used to get it from her sister from Paris.
And that's how I learned about Saint Lauran and all
these beautiful closes. Late sixties then this is sixties. Yeah,
(03:49):
and so you traveled around. But then you went so
how did you Who did.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
You stay with when you went to New York?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Did you just I stayed in the ninety second y
I got my first job.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
For twenty three years.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I worked in the fashion industry, and then I opened
my own.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You worked for Ralph Florence.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I worked for Ralph in the nineties late nineties. Then
from Ralph I moved to Nautica. Ralph was my best experience,
Like if I ever, Ralph was the only design driven
company out of all the companies that I worked for.
He hes still is, you know, I think so unique
(04:27):
in his approach to women and dressing and women a
woman and consistency, perseverance and not being strayed by no trends,
just consistency, and I think I pretty much followed that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You know, Graydon Carter, he was the I was just
with him this weekend in France and he was talking
a lot about Ralph.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Lf is really.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Very unique, I think, from a marketing.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Genius to just being so consistent.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, and tell me about starting a business, because both
of us, I think, have actually started our own businesses.
I did it with my partner. I was thirty eight
and Rose was ten years older, and we started the
River Cafe with nothing and with a very simple idea.
But reading about what you did, you also started. Yeah,
(05:33):
did you do it on your own with a friend
or so?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
I actually worked at Nautika at the time.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
And then one day David Chu, the founder of Nautica, nonchalantly, like,
without any preparation, said to me, Hey, if you ever
want to start your own business, I'll financially back you up.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
I'm like, oh, really, but that means.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That God, I mean, if he went to you to
say that, he must have Yeah, you know, let's go here. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
So we started it to get.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And then a couple of weeks later he kind of
regretted the idea because he decided that he wants to
move to China, and so he left and I continued
it on my own, without having the means, without having
the financial without having a business plan, with a lot
(06:22):
of drive and confidence and a very simple idea.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
What was the idea?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So by then I was designing for twenty three years,
and I realized that at every company, whether it's clothing, food, music,
there is always few things that drive the business at
the end of the day. If you design a collection,
at the end of the day, there'll be five pieces
to drive the sales.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I'm sure it's the same thing in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So I said, I'm smart enough to figure out those
five pieces. Why should I design two hundred. Let me
just art with these five pieces, and that's it. They
were actually one of those items till today is my
best selling item. It's called the Sean pen Yes and
everyone owns it in five colors, and it's ridiculous because
(07:15):
it was right on Bingo. It all started with my
ex husband flight suit. My husband was a pilot in
the Israeli Air Force. I looked at the flight suit.
I actually any labor with I want her her at
the ninety second y and someone asked her, what do
you recommend to a young photographer, and she said, look
(07:38):
around yourself and find objects that are right near you.
She was talking about how she started. She photographed her dad,
and so I looked around. I found my husband's zoomsuit,
the flight suit, and I dissected it and basically created
a pant out of it and a jacket out of it.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Five items. That's it.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I did it in a very special technique which I
actually make the garments and when it's done, I dip
it into color. So from a business perspective, it's a
very smart thing to do because one of the problems
that you come across in fashion, and it's the same
(08:23):
in food the life shave is very short, so in
close when you make clothes, you know it doesn't get
bad food. But people just want the newest thing, so
you can't stay with too much inventory. So by dipping
it by demand, I never have leftovers. I basically always
(08:49):
cut and sew in deep by demand. That was great
till I opened my own shops, because when I was
basically answering other people's orders, I could do. But once
I had to plan for my own retail stores exchange.
But in any event, it was very smart, little, clean,
tight concept that financially allowed me to invest very little
(09:13):
and to grow.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
The company organically.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I started from there, and then I started to add
things pieces to it and categories to it. By now
we have bags, swim where, Men's, Women's Way beyond those
five pieces. But I think it's a smart thing to
do to start with something.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
That you really feel believe in.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
And the proof is that that piece is still my
number one selling pants, so I know, yes, I knew
what I was doing.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I always when chef's leave and I say they're going
to start their own restaurant, what advice do I have?
And I always for me, I like to start small
and grow. That's what we did. Whether it's the you know,
the restaurant, whether it's doing parties for the people, whether
it's starting a little cafe, it's all been part of
a process. I never had, Oh, I have an idea,
(10:04):
let's do that. You know, it's always my husband used
to say that he's an architect. He used to say,
I never had an idea. It's not about an idea.
It's about you know, you you know we you know,
we make an almond tart in the winter with pairs,
but then in the summer were making the strawberries. You know,
it kind of it just grows.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
I think design I always tell this to my designers,
but also to more of the business side of things.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Design is a process. Yeah, cooking is a process. A process,
you know. I start with something and then it evolves.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
And then people say, but it's it's you know, when
when you have people involving your business and they start
to start, you get your sketches early on, and they said,
but wait, this is what you did, but why are
you here? I said, because it's a process. I only
know when I start, I don't know where I end.
And I think it's it's hard for people who are
(10:55):
not creative to understand that the design it's a living thing.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
And or when you're.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Ready to say okay, I'm done, by the way, you
never you never stop because it just I always say
that my collection is one collection that I started the
two thousand and three and it just keeps growing and evolving.
And that's why it's a play on the same theme.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It's like, how do you take a white shirt and
make it better and better and better? How do you
take you know, any element that in your wardrobe, a
pea coat, and how do you make it better and
better and better? And it's so great to know that
you can make it actually better.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
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Cafe flavor into your or to show someone you really
(12:02):
care for them with the gift. Visit our website shop
the Rivercafe dot co dot uk to place your order.
Now zucchini that you're having tonight is an antipasity, So
I thought that would be something that you might like
to listen to. Read.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
Zucchini three four lati twelve small zucchini, trimmed, three tablespoon
olive oil, two garlic cloves, one twenty five milligram of
boiling water. That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I didn't know a handful of fresh mint or basil
leaves roughly chopped.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I'm going to make this.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Cut each zucchini at angle into three to four slices.
Hit the olive oil in a large frying pan at
the garlic, then zucchini, and cook slowly for fifteen minutes.
So you put the garlic and then immediately the zucchini,
pour in the boiling water and steer scraping up the
(13:03):
mixture that will have formed on the bottom of the pan.
Who until all the water has been observed and zucchini
are soft at the mint of basil and seasoned with
sea salt and black pepper. Delicious as an antipacity with
prosciutto deparma or mozzarella.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Wow, by the way, zucchini, I don't know if you're
familiar with it. So my mom used to grate zucchini
and then she soted it. No, she sotted with dial
still yeah. Yeah, and then she would serve it with
a little bit of sour cream like I've never seen
anything like that anywhere, but it was delicious.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Did she grate it and then get the water out?
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Yeah, and so that is meal, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
And then she would also state and then throw some
eggs over it like she did a lot of zucchini
wild recipes that are not in any I.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Didn't know that he was very Hungarian. I guess I
should know.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
That I grew up with Eastern European cookine. Mom is
the Hungarian one. I think in your end it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Was my father's, your father's family.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, and so I have very much of a zucchini
part of the.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, it was it was your It was your grandmother.
Do you remember your grandmother?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
You know I didn't because they were Holocaust survivors, So
they're the only one that came. My father's Russian, my
mom Hungarian, same combination. They immigrated to Israel after the war.
They came on the boat. They were dropped in Haifa.
They grabbed the first driver that they could grab. They
didn't have any money and one little suitcase and landed
(14:43):
on my uncle who lived on the dunes on the
beach of Nethania, which is a town twenty minutes from
Tel Aviv north, and they just landed here we are.
They didn't have money, so he had to pay for
the driver and then they stayed there and then, you know,
little by little, my dad did very well for himself.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So your mother and father met in Hungary.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
They met in Austria in a refugee camp. So my
mom escaped Hungary as the you know, Hungary was the
last country for the German to invade, and so the
German came from one sign and the Russian from the other,
and they were like kind of they the Jews in
(15:27):
Hungary were killed literally in weeks, and so they were
able to escape to Austria to an unra refugee camp.
My dad escaped from Russia. He was studying law in Sorbonne,
and when the war studied, he went back home to Russia.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
And studying law at Yeah, and then.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
He went to Russia and then realized that that's not
he didn't have parents. His mom passed away when he
was five. That passed away right then, So he started
to move towards Austria. I knew that he had a
brother in Israel, so he was trying to get there.
Met my mom two weeks later, got married and moved,
(16:14):
so she didn't even know him.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
She knew him for two weeks.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
And yeah, when you think that, you know what she
went through and then to get iry foreign country. Have
many children, you.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
So me and my sister who's eight years older than me.
So she was born nineteen forty one and I was born.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Eight years later. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
No, it's been basically the story of the establishment of Israel.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
You know my parents.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
What the age did she leave Hungary?
Speaker 4 (16:47):
She was twenty two, twenty three.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So she really had that.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
She had a little recipe she brought with her.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
I do, but it's in Hungarian and I can read it,
but I do keep it.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
She can translated. I always say that I remember them
all with John. Quite a few of them have had
books from their mothers when they went to university, from
their grandmothers, and I think that having those recipe books
is really, you know, part of the history, part of
the tradition. Tell me more about the book.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
So I actually used to watch her where she was cooking,
so it's all in my head. I can't read her book,
but I can imagine what's in it. I'm sure there
is more than what I remember, but I remember it
was pretty much a routine, like she didn't experiment much.
She cooked the classic dishes. And then we had a
(17:43):
grandma in our building. She was a Romanian, and she
taught her a lot of bakery, you know, like baking goods.
So she experimented all these cakes, which one of them
might carry. And I think they're actually giving the recipe
of that cookie tonight. It's almond crescents cookies that she
(18:03):
used to make. I just added some lemon to it
and so I twisted it a bit, and then I
pretty much I do the stuffed peppers from her recipes,
ground meat with rice, cuman or a lot. She used
to do a lot of paprika. And she was basically
cooking most of the time. My dad was busy from
(18:27):
six to eight, but he would come in at twelve
to eat the main meal, and I would come back
from school at two, So literally from twelve to three
she was basically serving food. She very happy, Yeah, she
was very happy. I mean she loved being in a
country that she felt free.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
She was very disappointed.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You know, living her home land, you know, in such consequences,
and she kept reminding us, you know, what is it
to be in your own place?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Did she have a kosher house? No?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Most Eastern European Jews that came after the war lost
their religious faith because of the Holocaust, and we're not observing.
So actually as a child, I've never been to a synagogue.
They were completely secular liberal that.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
She brought the food with her.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
She brought the food with her, and food is I
teach my daughters. You know, I think there's something about
if there's no religious there is food. I think that's
something to hand from one generation to the other.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
And I think it has said because when I when
we talk to people, it's very many many people who
we talk with remember the food of their grandmother. Yes,
maybe sometimes more than their mother. And I'm very touched
by the idea of this book that your mother had
and did she make it for you or did she
make it for yourself?
Speaker 3 (19:59):
So she that was herself for herself I made. Now
I'm actually in the process of me and my daughter,
we're writing the same book. She writes it in English
and I write it in Hebrew.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
And none of my kids.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
So it's just all the recipes that I ended up
doing because I've collected so many. So, as I said,
born with my mom cooking mostly Hungarian. My dad injected
his did he cook? He didn't cook. He made a
delicious salad.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
That was his thing. And then you have to tell
him how delicious it.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Is because when he was done so and.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
If you didn't tell him, it was the most delicious thing.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
But you know, there is that that's the reason why
you doing. Yeah, I totally advertized with your father. I'm
sitting we have an open kitchen, and I watch people
in their handed a plate, you know, and you could
see the response or you can see them look at
each other or you see them you know, joying it
or giving some or not enjoying it. You know, but
(21:01):
the response to through is very very important.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
There's something cooking that it's the language of love, you know.
It's a way of extending of giving. And I find myself,
you know, over the weekend mostly cooking and baking. So
it's my husband. My husband is the best. So David
is a musician and he loves cooking very good musician,
(21:28):
is very well known actually, and he grew from the
age twelve to eighteen in Madrid, so his vocabulary his.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Mom, I don't think.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I think she cooked, but he wasn't really much influenced
by it. So really the years in Spain is what
influenced him. So he does everything on the plantcha everything
is very very quick, so he brought that into the
world of us. So we basically go into the kitchen
together and cook together. But we both, you know, very
(22:01):
much influenced by Israel, so that whole spices come from
that region, and then we mix it with the Hungarian
and the Spanish and the whole thing is amazing. The
difference between David and I need to know what I'm cooking,
I need to prepare for it, I need to make
sure that everything is there. David just goes into the
(22:23):
kitchen and whatever he finds, it just throws boom boom boom,
and it's delicious and he remembers haste. So like if
you would go to a restaurant and I like something,
he said, Okay, there is this in it, this and
that and this and that, and then he'll try to
make it. So he's naturally very talented in cooking.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
With your children, you how did you bring them up?
Did you all sit down to dinner as a family
or did you all.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yeah, now the kids are out of the home. You know,
our kids are anywhere from twenty nine to forty. And
we don't cook during the week eat out. There's two
restaurants that we.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Religiously go to.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
We go to Bar Pity at least three times a week.
We basically just crossed everybody's line and just walk in
and sit in our chair and table and all they own,
because it's just super convenient.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
It's right there.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
We live right next door, so that's it. We don't
want to know about any other restaurant. We don't care
about any other restaurant. And then on the weekend we cook,
so we stop at Citarella. We buy the fish, the meat.
David makes the best steak ever as he basically put
(23:36):
it on the plancha with a lot of butter butter. Yeah,
and then he actually somehow pours the butter on the steak,
so it's like if you didn't have enough butter, there
comes more butter.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I empathize. I love butter relicious.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, I mean I've never had and I didn't eat
meat from age eighteen till I met David. From till
I met David, which was in my forties, yea, And
all we needed to do is one steak which I
tasted and that was the end. Now I eat steak
almost at least once a week.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
An open kitchen in the River Cafe means we as
chefs are able to talk to our guests dining in
the restaurant, and now we're bringing that same ethos to
our podcast, a question and answer episode with me and
our two executive chefs. Send a voice note with your
question to Questions at Rivercafe dot co dot uk and
(24:36):
you might just be our next great guest. On Ruthie's
Table four, what do you feel about the other side
of fashion, which is to make a new collection every season,
to make an enormous amount of choice. I am exhausted
(24:58):
by choice, whether it's an and a supermarket or a
and when I go to buy clothes, you know, when
you're confronted with an array of options, it's very I
also it's unsustainable, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (25:11):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
I think that we are in a certain cycle that
I think since COVID, I think this industry is trying
to break to break through. But it's not happening for
some reason. It's not sustainable it. You know, I have
a very different It was a poet, a very big
poet in Israel, and he kept asking me why.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
I don't understand. Why do you have to do four collection?
Why not too? And I said, what will the people
do in between? So it's it's you kind of keep
their jobs going. That's one of the reasons, because trust me,
I would be so thrilled if I could do two
collections a year and rest in between, or cooking between,
(25:51):
or do other things in between, the architectural project in between.
But you have a team of people that what do
you do with them?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah? So I think this is one one obstacle. Uh yeah,
I think that's more to me, that's what it is.
Otherwise I would certainly stop it because it's far too
much clothes. The world doesn't need that much clothes.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I was interviewed by a woman who we were talking
about clothes, who was an article for the newspaper about something.
And I said, I can't remember how he got onto fashion,
but I said, how often you know? Do you wear
the same thing?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
You know?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
And she said once every three weeks and I'm like
I would have said, every day I try that, I
just wear you know that. But I guess it's it's
that concept that if it's so inexpensive, you can just
buy so many things.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
There's a book that I'm constantly looking at it and
how I translate it into a fashion concept.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
It's called Sarah's Closet. I don't know if you you
came across it.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
It's uh was a Holocaust survivor and she was the
grandma of the person who's actually put the book together.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
And she had a very tight closet.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Everything was white and it was maybe twenty five pieces
in her closet.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
That's it done.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
And since all white, there wasn't any room for mistakes.
There is another believe this was. Was it Georgia O'Keefe
recently I saw her closet too. I am there's something
that I want to do about it from a business perspective,
because I think, you know, one of the things that
(27:39):
I do is I what I offer is what I
call ward up foundation, which is really those things that
you need. And so I always differentiate between what you
need and what you want. The things that you need
you probably wear them at least twice a week or
three times a week or more.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
It's just things you need.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
This is what makes you feel good, this is what
you comfortable in. The Things that you want, you actually
don't need. You want them, so that's fine. If you
have the money and that gives you pleasure and it
makes you feel good about yourself, go ahead, But you
don't really need them. So I kind of differentiate my
collection between the pieces that you need and the pieces
(28:22):
that you want. And to your point, you know, I
wish we could just stick to the things that we need.
And it is fifty percent of my business. It's just
the same things over and over again and since I started,
and it's the bread and butter of my business.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
And it never changes and it never goes on sale.
It's what it is.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I was married to an architect. He's an architect. I
often think that I look at our house and I
realized the other day that we actually have very few closets.
I've actually very little space for keeping anything really, So
if you buy something, you throw give something away, you know,
if you do that. But I think also for women,
it's you know, you you designed for men as well. Yeah,
(29:11):
this is your thought process.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
It's pretty much the same.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
I actually so when I work for rap I work
for men for the men's area. So my thoughts about
culture of dressing is actually coming from men where there's
not that much access, uh, and it's really coming from
functionality rather than access. And also when I think when
(29:37):
a man likes most men, when they like something, they'll
come back and buy the same thing over and over again. Uh,
and they kind of depending on it. And I think
women experiment a little more.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
So.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
The very first wardrobe foundation that I did is actually
came from the concept of men of what are the
pieces that you must have and then and offer it
in seven colors so you can come back to it.
But in terms of materials and language of design, it's
(30:10):
pretty much the same for me. Yeah, it's very classic,
understated and a spice of rock and rolling.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
It. We love it. During COVID, you started some well
I think either Elizabeth or Alison bells and loves I
did a podcast. Yeah, and she's a great friend and
loves you.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
She said that you.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
I think she told me little bit you did. During
COVID you did a food yes.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
So so basically the social media was my outlet to
the outside. I was in the house morning till night,
working and at eight o'clock I would drop everything, go
take a shower, and go to the kitchen, move David
away because he usually takes over the kitchen, moved him away,
(30:57):
and start cooking. Every night, I asked him to film me,
but to film only my hands. I started with my
mom's and then all the Hungarians started to write me, Oh,
I'm Hungarian too, and my mom.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Used to do it this way.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
My mom used to do it that way, and I
started with that, and then starting to move into exploring
other things. And basically I'll put down the recipe and
the process of how I made it and posted and
gained a whole crowd of women who either not familiar
(31:33):
with me and just familiar with my food or what
I've been told that a lot of women it wasn't
even about the food, that there's something about the way
my hands managed the food.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Made them feel calm and comfortable.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, oh, spare of now talking. You use the word comfortable.
And at the end of every podcast, I always ask
people a question, which is if f is the food
is about we decide about sharing? Food is about love?
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Love?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Because you know, the people that we love we want
to take care of. Food is about hunger and surviving,
but it's also it is about comfort. And so I say, well,
if you think about your food and your memories and
your language and what you like to cook when you
need comfort, is there a food that you would go to?
Speaker 3 (32:26):
I go straight to my mom, share your mom, straight
to my mom.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
I love with that.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
I think it just be the stuffed pepper, especially when
it's it's first of all, it's being cooked for a
long time, so the preparation takes a long time, and
then the day after it's even the best and it's
just the meat and the rice and the tomato sauce
and the pepper. All the tastes get mixed together. I
(32:53):
think because she did it a lot, so it kind
of reminds me of her. It's not so much the
food itself, but the taste and the smells reminds me
of her. I think most people's comfort food come from
their mama or their grandma, and that's so beautiful about
(33:14):
That's the beauty about food to me, that it holds
so much more than just food and hunger.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
And I think it's the same thing with clothes.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
By the way, I think clothes is such so beautiful
by handing, passing on clothes, but people don't tend to do.
But I think the act for me of making clothes
is the same thing of cooking.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
You know, I give my love with my with my clothes.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
I realized mostly during COVID and then that I'm not
even interested in clothes, that the clothes for me is
a tool to give, to give comfort, to give sense
of confidence, to give a woman, you know, the jewels
(34:03):
for her to express herself. It's not about the clothes.
Everybody can make clothes, everyone can make food. It's the
love that you put in the pocket that what they
receive and they respond to it.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
So I think there's something similar.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Thank you, thank you
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
with Montclair
You are listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Tonight, my friend Elizabeth Saltzman is hosting a dinner in
the River Cafe for the brilliant designer Nelie l'autan. Elizabeth
invited me to the dinner, but what's exciting is having
nearly here all to myself before we go in Nearlie
is a creative, an entrepreneur who knows how to work
(00:24):
and also knows how to have a good time. A
woman with strong values she's held on to since starting
her own fashion company. She advocates for peace. She supports
women and working mothers. She's authentic, having spent over thirty
years refining her sense of style and her sense of self.
(00:45):
She and I, a chef and a designer, have something
else in common, believing great design, whether food or fashion,
is about simplicity, precision, and timelessness. We're going to talk
about food and architecture, food and politics, food and family,
food and fashion, and then we get to have dinner too.
(01:08):
Lucky me, lucky me, Thank you. You were born then
in Israel.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
She came in nineteen forty seven. My older sister, nineteen,
was born nineteen forty nine, she has a miscarriage between
me and my sister. And then I was born in
nineteen fifty seven. Israel was still I mean, it's constantly
in conflict and wars, but it was still, you know,
(01:37):
a small country.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Everyone knew each other.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
And what did your father do.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
He was a developer, real estate developer.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
He did very well for himself, and we always moved
into the new house that he built, which most of
them were facing the Mediterranean, So I basically lived opening
the window and all I saw was the Mediterranean and
the horizon. So when I ended up in Crochton, I
was like, I'm home. It may not be the Mediterranean,
(02:06):
but I see the water. I was missing that in
the city. So you grew up there, grew up there.
Then I went to fashion school in Tel Aviv.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
There's only one fashion schoo wanted to do fashion.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
It was my mom's recommendation.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I didn't know if I wanted to do an architect
But then somehow this school opened up and it was
intrigued me because they it was textile and design and
just a very general but major in fashion. And I
did very well in school, and then they actually sent
me to New York.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
That was the first time you read I there.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
So I went to Europe when I was sixteen, to Florence,
to Paris, to the Netherlands. It was just like a
teenage group, you know. We were like traveling the group.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Boy.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I mean when I went on that airp my mom
had to prepare for me a suit because I thought
I would not be anything but Jackie Owe, who I've
seen in the papers, and I had to have my
suit and going up.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
With the steps and so I still walking up. Oh yeah,
I knew exactly what I wanted.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Did you have fashion magazines?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
So that was the only resource I had was fashion
magazine that I found at the hairdresser that my mom
did her hair. There were no fashion magazines in stores,
so she used to get it from her sister from Paris.
And that's how I learned about Saint Lauran and all
these beautiful closes. Late sixties then this is sixties. Yeah,
(03:49):
and so you traveled around. But then you went so
how did you Who did.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
You stay with when you went to New York?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Did you just I stayed in the ninety second y
I got my first job.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
For twenty three years.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I worked in the fashion industry, and then I opened
my own.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You worked for Ralph Florence.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I worked for Ralph in the nineties late nineties. Then
from Ralph I moved to Nautica. Ralph was my best experience,
Like if I ever, Ralph was the only design driven
company out of all the companies that I worked for.
He hes still is, you know, I think so unique
(04:27):
in his approach to women and dressing and women a
woman and consistency, perseverance and not being strayed by no trends,
just consistency, and I think I pretty much followed that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You know, Graydon Carter, he was the I was just
with him this weekend in France and he was talking
a lot about Ralph.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Lf is really.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Very unique, I think, from a marketing.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Genius to just being so consistent.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, and tell me about starting a business, because both
of us, I think, have actually started our own businesses.
I did it with my partner. I was thirty eight
and Rose was ten years older, and we started the
River Cafe with nothing and with a very simple idea.
But reading about what you did, you also started. Yeah,
(05:33):
did you do it on your own with a friend
or so?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
I actually worked at Nautika at the time.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
And then one day David Chu, the founder of Nautica, nonchalantly, like,
without any preparation, said to me, Hey, if you ever
want to start your own business, I'll financially back you up.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
I'm like, oh, really, but that means.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That God, I mean, if he went to you to
say that, he must have Yeah, you know, let's go here. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
So we started it to get.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And then a couple of weeks later he kind of
regretted the idea because he decided that he wants to
move to China, and so he left and I continued
it on my own, without having the means, without having
the financial without having a business plan, with a lot
(06:22):
of drive and confidence and a very simple idea.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
What was the idea?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So by then I was designing for twenty three years,
and I realized that at every company, whether it's clothing, food, music,
there is always few things that drive the business at
the end of the day. If you design a collection,
at the end of the day, there'll be five pieces
to drive the sales.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I'm sure it's the same thing in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So I said, I'm smart enough to figure out those
five pieces. Why should I design two hundred. Let me
just art with these five pieces, and that's it. They
were actually one of those items till today is my
best selling item. It's called the Sean pen Yes and
everyone owns it in five colors, and it's ridiculous because
(07:15):
it was right on Bingo. It all started with my
ex husband flight suit. My husband was a pilot in
the Israeli Air Force. I looked at the flight suit.
I actually any labor with I want her her at
the ninety second y and someone asked her, what do
you recommend to a young photographer, and she said, look
(07:38):
around yourself and find objects that are right near you.
She was talking about how she started. She photographed her dad,
and so I looked around. I found my husband's zoomsuit,
the flight suit, and I dissected it and basically created
a pant out of it and a jacket out of it.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Five items. That's it.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I did it in a very special technique which I
actually make the garments and when it's done, I dip
it into color. So from a business perspective, it's a
very smart thing to do because one of the problems
that you come across in fashion, and it's the same
(08:23):
in food the life shave is very short, so in
close when you make clothes, you know it doesn't get
bad food. But people just want the newest thing, so
you can't stay with too much inventory. So by dipping
it by demand, I never have leftovers. I basically always
(08:49):
cut and sew in deep by demand. That was great
till I opened my own shops, because when I was
basically answering other people's orders, I could do. But once
I had to plan for my own retail stores exchange.
But in any event, it was very smart, little, clean,
tight concept that financially allowed me to invest very little
(09:13):
and to grow.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
The company organically.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
I started from there, and then I started to add
things pieces to it and categories to it. By now
we have bags, swim where, Men's, Women's Way beyond those
five pieces. But I think it's a smart thing to
do to start with something.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
That you really feel believe in.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
And the proof is that that piece is still my
number one selling pants, so I know, yes, I knew
what I was doing.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I always when chef's leave and I say they're going
to start their own restaurant, what advice do I have?
And I always for me, I like to start small
and grow. That's what we did. Whether it's the you know,
the restaurant, whether it's doing parties for the people, whether
it's starting a little cafe, it's all been part of
a process. I never had, Oh, I have an idea,
(10:04):
let's do that. You know, it's always my husband used
to say that he's an architect. He used to say,
I never had an idea. It's not about an idea.
It's about you know, you you know we you know,
we make an almond tart in the winter with pairs,
but then in the summer were making the strawberries. You know,
it kind of it just grows.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
I think design I always tell this to my designers,
but also to more of the business side of things.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Design is a process. Yeah, cooking is a process. A process,
you know. I start with something and then it evolves.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
And then people say, but it's it's you know, when
when you have people involving your business and they start
to start, you get your sketches early on, and they said,
but wait, this is what you did, but why are
you here? I said, because it's a process. I only
know when I start, I don't know where I end.
And I think it's it's hard for people who are
(10:55):
not creative to understand that the design it's a living thing.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
And or when you're.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Ready to say okay, I'm done, by the way, you
never you never stop because it just I always say
that my collection is one collection that I started the
two thousand and three and it just keeps growing and evolving.
And that's why it's a play on the same theme.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It's like, how do you take a white shirt and
make it better and better and better? How do you
take you know, any element that in your wardrobe, a
pea coat, and how do you make it better and
better and better? And it's so great to know that
you can make it actually better.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Imagine a state bottled olive oil chosen and bottled for
the River Cafe, arriving at your door every month. Our
subscription is available for six or twelve months, with each
oil chosen personally by our head chefs and varying with
each delivery. It's a perfect way to bring some River
Cafe flavor into your or to show someone you really
(12:02):
care for them with the gift. Visit our website shop
the Rivercafe dot co dot uk to place your order.
Now zucchini that you're having tonight is an antipasity, So
I thought that would be something that you might like
to listen to. Read.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
Zucchini three four lati twelve small zucchini, trimmed, three tablespoon
olive oil, two garlic cloves, one twenty five milligram of
boiling water. That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I didn't know a handful of fresh mint or basil
leaves roughly chopped.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I'm going to make this.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Cut each zucchini at angle into three to four slices.
Hit the olive oil in a large frying pan at
the garlic, then zucchini, and cook slowly for fifteen minutes.
So you put the garlic and then immediately the zucchini,
pour in the boiling water and steer scraping up the
(13:03):
mixture that will have formed on the bottom of the pan.
Who until all the water has been observed and zucchini
are soft at the mint of basil and seasoned with
sea salt and black pepper. Delicious as an antipacity with
prosciutto deparma or mozzarella.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Wow, by the way, zucchini, I don't know if you're
familiar with it. So my mom used to grate zucchini
and then she soted it. No, she sotted with dial
still yeah. Yeah, and then she would serve it with
a little bit of sour cream like I've never seen
anything like that anywhere, but it was delicious.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Did she grate it and then get the water out?
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Yeah, and so that is meal, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
And then she would also state and then throw some
eggs over it like she did a lot of zucchini
wild recipes that are not in any I.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Didn't know that he was very Hungarian. I guess I
should know.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
That I grew up with Eastern European cookine. Mom is
the Hungarian one. I think in your end it.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Was my father's, your father's family.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, and so I have very much of a zucchini
part of the.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, it was it was your It was your grandmother.
Do you remember your grandmother?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
You know I didn't because they were Holocaust survivors, So
they're the only one that came. My father's Russian, my
mom Hungarian, same combination. They immigrated to Israel after the war.
They came on the boat. They were dropped in Haifa.
They grabbed the first driver that they could grab. They
didn't have any money and one little suitcase and landed
(14:43):
on my uncle who lived on the dunes on the
beach of Nethania, which is a town twenty minutes from
Tel Aviv north, and they just landed here we are.
They didn't have money, so he had to pay for
the driver and then they stayed there and then, you know,
little by little, my dad did very well for himself.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So your mother and father met in Hungary.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
They met in Austria in a refugee camp. So my
mom escaped Hungary as the you know, Hungary was the
last country for the German to invade, and so the
German came from one sign and the Russian from the other,
and they were like kind of they the Jews in
(15:27):
Hungary were killed literally in weeks, and so they were
able to escape to Austria to an unra refugee camp.
My dad escaped from Russia. He was studying law in Sorbonne,
and when the war studied, he went back home to Russia.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
And studying law at Yeah, and then.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
He went to Russia and then realized that that's not
he didn't have parents. His mom passed away when he
was five. That passed away right then, So he started
to move towards Austria. I knew that he had a
brother in Israel, so he was trying to get there.
Met my mom two weeks later, got married and moved,
(16:14):
so she didn't even know him.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
She knew him for two weeks.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
And yeah, when you think that, you know what she
went through and then to get iry foreign country. Have
many children, you.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
So me and my sister who's eight years older than me.
So she was born nineteen forty one and I was born.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Eight years later. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
No, it's been basically the story of the establishment of Israel.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
You know my parents.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
What the age did she leave Hungary?
Speaker 4 (16:47):
She was twenty two, twenty three.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So she really had that.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
She had a little recipe she brought with her.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
I do, but it's in Hungarian and I can read it,
but I do keep it.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
She can translated. I always say that I remember them
all with John. Quite a few of them have had
books from their mothers when they went to university, from
their grandmothers, and I think that having those recipe books
is really, you know, part of the history, part of
the tradition. Tell me more about the book.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
So I actually used to watch her where she was cooking,
so it's all in my head. I can't read her book,
but I can imagine what's in it. I'm sure there
is more than what I remember, but I remember it
was pretty much a routine, like she didn't experiment much.
She cooked the classic dishes. And then we had a
(17:43):
grandma in our building. She was a Romanian, and she
taught her a lot of bakery, you know, like baking goods.
So she experimented all these cakes, which one of them
might carry. And I think they're actually giving the recipe
of that cookie tonight. It's almond crescents cookies that she
(18:03):
used to make. I just added some lemon to it
and so I twisted it a bit, and then I
pretty much I do the stuffed peppers from her recipes,
ground meat with rice, cuman or a lot. She used
to do a lot of paprika. And she was basically
cooking most of the time. My dad was busy from
(18:27):
six to eight, but he would come in at twelve
to eat the main meal, and I would come back
from school at two, So literally from twelve to three
she was basically serving food. She very happy, Yeah, she
was very happy. I mean she loved being in a
country that she felt free.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
She was very disappointed.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You know, living her home land, you know, in such consequences,
and she kept reminding us, you know, what is it
to be in your own place?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Did she have a kosher house? No?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Most Eastern European Jews that came after the war lost
their religious faith because of the Holocaust, and we're not observing.
So actually as a child, I've never been to a synagogue.
They were completely secular liberal that.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
She brought the food with her.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
She brought the food with her, and food is I
teach my daughters. You know, I think there's something about
if there's no religious there is food. I think that's
something to hand from one generation to the other.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
And I think it has said because when I when
we talk to people, it's very many many people who
we talk with remember the food of their grandmother. Yes,
maybe sometimes more than their mother. And I'm very touched
by the idea of this book that your mother had
and did she make it for you or did she
make it for yourself?
Speaker 3 (19:59):
So she that was herself for herself I made. Now
I'm actually in the process of me and my daughter,
we're writing the same book. She writes it in English
and I write it in Hebrew.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
And none of my kids.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
So it's just all the recipes that I ended up
doing because I've collected so many. So, as I said,
born with my mom cooking mostly Hungarian. My dad injected
his did he cook? He didn't cook. He made a
delicious salad.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
That was his thing. And then you have to tell
him how delicious it.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Is because when he was done so and.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
If you didn't tell him, it was the most delicious thing.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
But you know, there is that that's the reason why
you doing. Yeah, I totally advertized with your father. I'm
sitting we have an open kitchen, and I watch people
in their handed a plate, you know, and you could
see the response or you can see them look at
each other or you see them you know, joying it
or giving some or not enjoying it. You know, but
(21:01):
the response to through is very very important.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
There's something cooking that it's the language of love, you know.
It's a way of extending of giving. And I find myself,
you know, over the weekend mostly cooking and baking. So
it's my husband. My husband is the best. So David
is a musician and he loves cooking very good musician,
(21:28):
is very well known actually, and he grew from the
age twelve to eighteen in Madrid, so his vocabulary his.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Mom, I don't think.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I think she cooked, but he wasn't really much influenced
by it. So really the years in Spain is what
influenced him. So he does everything on the plantcha everything
is very very quick, so he brought that into the
world of us. So we basically go into the kitchen
together and cook together. But we both, you know, very
(22:01):
much influenced by Israel, so that whole spices come from
that region, and then we mix it with the Hungarian
and the Spanish and the whole thing is amazing. The
difference between David and I need to know what I'm cooking,
I need to prepare for it, I need to make
sure that everything is there. David just goes into the
(22:23):
kitchen and whatever he finds, it just throws boom boom boom,
and it's delicious and he remembers haste. So like if
you would go to a restaurant and I like something,
he said, Okay, there is this in it, this and
that and this and that, and then he'll try to
make it. So he's naturally very talented in cooking.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
With your children, you how did you bring them up?
Did you all sit down to dinner as a family
or did you all.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yeah, now the kids are out of the home. You know,
our kids are anywhere from twenty nine to forty. And
we don't cook during the week eat out. There's two
restaurants that we.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Religiously go to.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
We go to Bar Pity at least three times a week.
We basically just crossed everybody's line and just walk in
and sit in our chair and table and all they own,
because it's just super convenient.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
It's right there.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
We live right next door, so that's it. We don't
want to know about any other restaurant. We don't care
about any other restaurant. And then on the weekend we cook,
so we stop at Citarella. We buy the fish, the meat.
David makes the best steak ever as he basically put
(23:36):
it on the plancha with a lot of butter butter. Yeah,
and then he actually somehow pours the butter on the steak,
so it's like if you didn't have enough butter, there
comes more butter.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I empathize. I love butter relicious.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, I mean I've never had and I didn't eat
meat from age eighteen till I met David. From till
I met David, which was in my forties, yea, And
all we needed to do is one steak which I
tasted and that was the end. Now I eat steak
almost at least once a week.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
An open kitchen in the River Cafe means we as
chefs are able to talk to our guests dining in
the restaurant, and now we're bringing that same ethos to
our podcast, a question and answer episode with me and
our two executive chefs. Send a voice note with your
question to Questions at Rivercafe dot co dot uk and
(24:36):
you might just be our next great guest. On Ruthie's
Table four, what do you feel about the other side
of fashion, which is to make a new collection every season,
to make an enormous amount of choice. I am exhausted
(24:58):
by choice, whether it's an and a supermarket or a
and when I go to buy clothes, you know, when
you're confronted with an array of options, it's very I
also it's unsustainable, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (25:11):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
I think that we are in a certain cycle that
I think since COVID, I think this industry is trying
to break to break through. But it's not happening for
some reason. It's not sustainable it. You know, I have
a very different It was a poet, a very big
poet in Israel, and he kept asking me why.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
I don't understand. Why do you have to do four collection?
Why not too? And I said, what will the people
do in between? So it's it's you kind of keep
their jobs going. That's one of the reasons, because trust me,
I would be so thrilled if I could do two
collections a year and rest in between, or cooking between,
(25:51):
or do other things in between, the architectural project in between.
But you have a team of people that what do
you do with them?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah? So I think this is one one obstacle. Uh yeah,
I think that's more to me, that's what it is.
Otherwise I would certainly stop it because it's far too
much clothes. The world doesn't need that much clothes.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I was interviewed by a woman who we were talking
about clothes, who was an article for the newspaper about something.
And I said, I can't remember how he got onto fashion,
but I said, how often you know? Do you wear
the same thing?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
You know?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
And she said once every three weeks and I'm like
I would have said, every day I try that, I
just wear you know that. But I guess it's it's
that concept that if it's so inexpensive, you can just
buy so many things.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
There's a book that I'm constantly looking at it and
how I translate it into a fashion concept.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
It's called Sarah's Closet. I don't know if you you
came across it.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
It's uh was a Holocaust survivor and she was the
grandma of the person who's actually put the book together.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
And she had a very tight closet.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Everything was white and it was maybe twenty five pieces
in her closet.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
That's it done.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
And since all white, there wasn't any room for mistakes.
There is another believe this was. Was it Georgia O'Keefe
recently I saw her closet too. I am there's something
that I want to do about it from a business perspective,
because I think, you know, one of the things that
(27:39):
I do is I what I offer is what I
call ward up foundation, which is really those things that
you need. And so I always differentiate between what you
need and what you want. The things that you need
you probably wear them at least twice a week or
three times a week or more.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
It's just things you need.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
This is what makes you feel good, this is what
you comfortable in. The Things that you want, you actually
don't need. You want them, so that's fine. If you
have the money and that gives you pleasure and it
makes you feel good about yourself, go ahead, But you
don't really need them. So I kind of differentiate my
collection between the pieces that you need and the pieces
(28:22):
that you want. And to your point, you know, I
wish we could just stick to the things that we need.
And it is fifty percent of my business. It's just
the same things over and over again and since I started,
and it's the bread and butter of my business.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
And it never changes and it never goes on sale.
It's what it is.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I was married to an architect. He's an architect. I
often think that I look at our house and I
realized the other day that we actually have very few closets.
I've actually very little space for keeping anything really, So
if you buy something, you throw give something away, you know,
if you do that. But I think also for women,
it's you know, you you designed for men as well. Yeah,
(29:11):
this is your thought process.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
It's pretty much the same.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
I actually so when I work for rap I work
for men for the men's area. So my thoughts about
culture of dressing is actually coming from men where there's
not that much access, uh, and it's really coming from
functionality rather than access. And also when I think when
(29:37):
a man likes most men, when they like something, they'll
come back and buy the same thing over and over again. Uh,
and they kind of depending on it. And I think
women experiment a little more.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
So.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
The very first wardrobe foundation that I did is actually
came from the concept of men of what are the
pieces that you must have and then and offer it
in seven colors so you can come back to it.
But in terms of materials and language of design, it's
(30:10):
pretty much the same for me. Yeah, it's very classic,
understated and a spice of rock and rolling.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
It. We love it. During COVID, you started some well
I think either Elizabeth or Alison bells and loves I
did a podcast. Yeah, and she's a great friend and
loves you.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
She said that you.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
I think she told me little bit you did. During
COVID you did a food yes.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
So so basically the social media was my outlet to
the outside. I was in the house morning till night,
working and at eight o'clock I would drop everything, go
take a shower, and go to the kitchen, move David
away because he usually takes over the kitchen, moved him away,
(30:57):
and start cooking. Every night, I asked him to film me,
but to film only my hands. I started with my
mom's and then all the Hungarians started to write me, Oh,
I'm Hungarian too, and my mom.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Used to do it this way.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
My mom used to do it that way, and I
started with that, and then starting to move into exploring
other things. And basically I'll put down the recipe and
the process of how I made it and posted and
gained a whole crowd of women who either not familiar
(31:33):
with me and just familiar with my food or what
I've been told that a lot of women it wasn't
even about the food, that there's something about the way
my hands managed the food.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Made them feel calm and comfortable.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, oh, spare of now talking. You use the word comfortable.
And at the end of every podcast, I always ask
people a question, which is if f is the food
is about we decide about sharing? Food is about love?
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Love?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Because you know, the people that we love we want
to take care of. Food is about hunger and surviving,
but it's also it is about comfort. And so I say, well,
if you think about your food and your memories and
your language and what you like to cook when you
need comfort, is there a food that you would go to?
Speaker 3 (32:26):
I go straight to my mom, share your mom, straight
to my mom.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
I love with that.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
I think it just be the stuffed pepper, especially when
it's it's first of all, it's being cooked for a
long time, so the preparation takes a long time, and
then the day after it's even the best and it's
just the meat and the rice and the tomato sauce
and the pepper. All the tastes get mixed together. I
(32:53):
think because she did it a lot, so it kind
of reminds me of her. It's not so much the
food itself, but the taste and the smells reminds me
of her. I think most people's comfort food come from
their mama or their grandma, and that's so beautiful about
(33:14):
That's the beauty about food to me, that it holds
so much more than just food and hunger.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
And I think it's the same thing with clothes.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
By the way, I think clothes is such so beautiful
by handing, passing on clothes, but people don't tend to do.
But I think the act for me of making clothes
is the same thing of cooking.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
You know, I give my love with my with my clothes.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
I realized mostly during COVID and then that I'm not
even interested in clothes, that the clothes for me is
a tool to give, to give comfort, to give sense
of confidence, to give a woman, you know, the jewels
(34:03):
for her to express herself. It's not about the clothes.
Everybody can make clothes, everyone can make food. It's the
love that you put in the pocket that what they
receive and they respond to it.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
So I think there's something similar.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Thank you, thank you
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
with Montclair
Host
Ruth Rogers
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