June 21, 2022 • 19 mins
When Congressman Adam Schiff came to London, giving a dinner for him in our home was a great honour. On Episode 40 of Ruthie's Table 4, Ruthie and Adam talk about the food he grew up with, the food he cooks for his family, and the food he finds personally comforting.
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home.
On Ruthie’s Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.
Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks.
Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.
For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to River Cafe Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
and Adam I's studios.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
As an American living in Britain. A visit to London
by Congressman Adam Schiff is a big deal. That we
gave dinner for him and our house was a great honor.
Adam was on the way back from Ukraine meeting with Zulansky,
and over past and winter vegetables, he talked to us
about world we are living in, food shortages, child poverty,
(00:28):
and food insecurity. Today we'll continue, but also talk about
the food he grew up with, the food he cooks
for his family, the food he personally finds comforting. Adam,
will you begin by reading a recipe you've chosen from
River Cafe Cookbook thirty.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So I've got a wonderful recipe for spaghetti. I have
to love pasa and my favorite is spaghetti or angel hair.
So this is a perfect recipe for me to share
with you. Spaghetti brought tomato and arugula, or as you
you would say in Britain rocket rocket, So spaghetti three
(01:07):
and twenty grams plum tomatoes. You'll need four of those.
You'll need two garlic clothes dried chili. Just one dried
chili unless you like it really spicy, capers, two tablespoons
black olives three tablespoons. Now I'm in a huge olive fan,
but it does work great in spaghetti arugula. You'll have
(01:29):
three leaves and three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
So you will cut the tomatoes in half, squeeze out
the excess juice and seeds, and chop the flesh coarse thing.
Peel the garlic and squash with one teaspoon of sea salt.
Then you'll crumble the chili, rinse the capers, and stone
(01:52):
the olives. Then you'll roughly chop the arugula. Finally, combine
the tomatoes with all the ingredients except the rugula, seasoned generously,
add the olive oil and put aside for thirty minutes.
You cook the spaghetti and boiling salted water until all dante.
Then drain and stir the pasta into the tomatoes. Add
(02:14):
the rugula and toss to coat each strand season with
black pepper. Served with olive oil, and.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Delicious, beautifully read. Always think your recipe is half science
and half poetry, So there you go. You read it
as a poem. It was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Thank you glad I didn't read it as a scientist.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Beautiful. One of the things that I really love about
you is that I think you're a really good eater.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I wish I was not a good eater, but I
do love food.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I meet people from time to time that can kind
of take or leave eating. I don't understand them. I
think I think they're from another planet.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Tell me about growing up in the Schiff household. What
was it like food wise?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yes, I think this is why I love to go
out to eat, because when I was a kid, it
was such a rarity. And I always liked to claim
to my wife because you know, only a husband can
make this claim that I'm the ideal husband because I
don't want a homecook meal. I really love going out.
You're not distracted by the phone ringing, you're not distracted
(03:22):
by the TV or this kid wants to run off
to do homework instead of finishing the meal, and so
you're at a table. You're just focused on each other
and the food. But I think part of it is
that it was a rarity when I was growing up.
My mother was a good cook. But didn't like to cook.
But nonetheless, we ate at home all the time, and
(03:44):
my father was a traveling salesman in the shmata business
and helping business, and it was a big deal when
we could go out to one of our favorite restaurants.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I think that it's changed so much because I also
grew up where you went out to dinner if somebody
graduated from high school or there was a birthday or
an anniversary. Now having a restaurant, I just see people
eating all the time. They come with their children, they
come on a Friday night with their parents. They use
a restaurant in a very different way than we did.
(04:19):
I think.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I think that's right. And because my mother didn't like
to cook, a lot of our meals were very kind
of standard.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Fair tell me about them. What did she cook?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
You know, a lot of canned food, to be honest.
But my favorite meal that my mother used to make
was something that she made using these little boneless chicken
pieces that she breaded. You made it with a sign
of spaghetti and they were breaded with cheese on them,
so it was kind of like a mini chicken permeshan
(04:53):
with spaghetti. But I guess my strongest memories in childhood
of food were of the high holidays. When we get
together my grandparents and they would make a great, big meal.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Were they born in the United States or were they
immigrants from another country.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
My father was an immigrant from London. His parents immigrated
from Eastern Europe. My other grandparents were born in the
United States, but their parents, my great grandparents, all came
from Eastern Europe. But when we get together for the holidays,
it would be a lot of manzibol soup and holly,
(05:30):
bread and brisket, and it was quite a feast. Telling
a lot of that. I didn't want to go near
like chocol ever, Yeah, that'll do it. There is an
eternal debate in Jewish households about whether manzibal should be
light and fluffy or should be the kind that when
you drop them they go through the floor. I just
(05:52):
want to state, unequivocally, without hesitation, they need to be
the kind that fall through the floor.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That suspense was killing me as you were telling this,
I was going to think, what is he going to
go for falling through the floor or light and fluffy.
I did think you might choose light and fluffy, but
I will it has to be that really heavy sinking feeling. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
As a politician, sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. Yes,
I know, and I am firmly in the camp of
the very very heavy monster ball that you know, when
you've eaten it and it doesn't get lost in the broth.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
You interested in eating? Were you interested in cooking?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
When I did cook, it was frankly as a kid
and through adulthood at the barbecue.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Ah, that's very male. That's that's kind of I always
think when men feel that they can cook, is the barbecue. Yes,
funny barbecued. What did you do?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
You know? My cooking pre pandemic was pretty basic.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Fair, And what happened in the pandemic, well.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
You know, we not going out to eat, and it
was a huge lifestyle change, among other things. So I
got myself a few gadgets. You know, I think this
is also a male thing. You like to cook with gadgets?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, gadget. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I got an air fryer, and I got a pressure cooker.
I started making curry tofu and the pressure cooker with
vegetables and potatoes, and it seemed to be a pretty
fail safe device in terms of coming out well and
likewise the air fryer. I have to tell you a
(07:35):
funny story. I had a political event in Los Angeles
and I gave my speech, and then a brand new
assembly member went up to the microphone, real sharp up
and comer. He was saying some nice things about me,
and then he said, and I got some of the
most important advice from Congressman Shift when I was getting started.
(07:58):
So the most important advice I've forgotten. And I was
waiting to hear what sage political advice I'd given him,
and he said, he told me to get an air fryer.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You've just come back from Ukraine. Did you experience the
food shortage challenges we did.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
We discussed this with the President Zelenski when we sat
down with him. This was a congressional delegation that Speaker
Pelosi led, as it turned out, the first congressional delegation
to Ukraine since the war. And one of the things
that was apparent to us before we left, but became
much more apparent as we discussed the issue is that
when the Russians blockaded Odessa, they were not only trying
(08:45):
to cripple Ukraine's economy, but as Ukraine has been the
bread basket of Europe, a lot of the grain to
Africa and other places as well. The Russians were also
blockading food that a lot of people will need it
to survive, and it caused not only a great increase
(09:06):
in food prices, but also risks starvation in many places
that really have relied on Ukraine for their grain. And
so part of the appeal that Zelensky was making for
the weapons that he needs to sink that Black Sea
fleet and the equipment he needs to do de mining
was this is important to Ukraine, it's important to our economy,
(09:30):
but it's also important to the rest of the world
because the real food shortage.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Issue, Well do you think it will be like in Egypt,
in North Africa? What is going to happen when they
can't get their food?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
You know, it certainly risks great instability, and just in
its own right, of course, it risks starvation. And I
think it's one of the reasons we have to do
everything we can to try to bring this war in
Ukraine to an end. You know, sadly it's hard to
see that path. I think it does require us to
(10:05):
give Ukraine what needs to defend itself. To increase the
costs on Russia, so the Russian people see the folly
of what their dictator has done. But this tragic war
has had a lot of repercussions, and one of those
I think the world at least understands is the impact
(10:27):
it has on people's ability to get enough to eat
in many parts of the world.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
What do we do now? What are your major concerns
in terms of poverty and equality?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
You know, I think that we have experienced the revolution
in the economy and the global economy as a function
of globalization but also automation, and the result is that,
you know, millions of people in a million in the
middle class are at risk of falling out. A lot
of working families have to work harder than ever to
try to get in the middle class. At the same time,
(11:01):
these structural changes in the economy have produced very great
concentrated wealth. So while we have students in our colleges
who can't get enough to eat, we have captains of
Jutury literally flying into space on tourist trips.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I agree, you are very vocal and very concerned and
very politically engaged in food inequality. When I think it's
seventeen million of our children in the United States faced
with hunger every day.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
It really is extraordinary. And I had a meeting some
years ago, this before the pandemic, with a group of
community college students for my district, and they were talking
to me about and it came up in a kind
of an offhanded way about the food banks they had
on campus for students, and I was astonished that each
(11:54):
of them, and they were going to three different community colleges,
all had food banks on campus. This was still before
the pandemic. So the economy was strong, far stronger than
during the recession and fully recovered, and yet the hunger
was greater than ever. And it really pointed to me
of some strong structural problems in the economy that even
(12:17):
when it was doing well, it wasn't doing well for
millions and millions of people, to the point that college kids,
you know, not only at community college, but the state
colleges of the private universities, were going hungry. So I
introduced a bill to try to expand the free and
(12:38):
reduced lunch program that we have in K twelve up
through community college, and that was the genesis of the
Food for Thought Act, and we've been working to get
that passed ever since and trying to address broader issues
of hunger and homelessness as well.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
In Britain in the pandemic, what became very clear was
that when schools were c there are enormous a number
of children who not having lunch and therefore had depended
on lunch as their meal for the day. Did you
find that in the United States as well?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Absolutely, And what we discovered is that schools, these kindergarten
through high schools, were one of the major providers of food,
as it turned out, to low income families. And when
those schools closed and people went to remote learning, suddenly
these families didn't have meals. Yeah, these didn't have meals.
So what a lot of our schools did. And I
(13:34):
visited so many of these sites in my own district
and participated is they would prepare meals and families would
drive up in their car. We would ask how many
kids did they have, and we would give them the
number of meals for the kids and their family that
they would have had if they were in school.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
About the road from being a barbecue of meat and
fish to being vegan, what is your vegan story.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Well, my cholesterol has been high and I tried medication
like Satin's, but they didn't sit well with me. I
couldn't tolerate them very well. So my wife, was a
very healthy eater, suggests that I tried being vegan. And
I've been vegan for about three days. When I was
in my district and I was at an event, and
(14:27):
of course, at any event in Los Angeles, you talk
about food. I was talking about a great restaurant i'd
been to, called Crossroads, and the person I was talking
to recognize it was a vegan restaurant, and she said
to me, can I tell people here you're vegan? And
I thought that was kind of a strange question. Why
would people be interested in that? Then I realized where
(14:49):
I was. I was in West Hollywood at an animal
welfare event. Oh oh, yes, I guess that is a
big deal at an animal welfare event. And I said, well,
I've only been vegan, to be honest for three days,
and if you tell people, I'm going to be pretty
locked in. But you know I need the incentive go
ahead and tell people. So that was six years ago,
(15:09):
and you know, I do allow myself to cheat from
time to time.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
The truth be told when you cheat, what do you
go for.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Usually cheat when I'm traveling because it's hard for me
to always find vegan food, so I try not to
be too tough on myself. I also cheat during Thanksgiving
because I had my first Thanksgiving as a vegan and
it was just an awful experience.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You had just cranberry sauce and vegetables and no turkey.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
We were actually out at a place in Pennsylvania, nice
little place for the weekend. Our kids were with us,
and we had ordered in advance two vegan meals and
then two traditional turkey dinners. You know, our family is
kind of isolated in DC. We don't have other family there,
so we often have Thanksgiving out or at friends. And
(16:00):
they brought these two beautiful plates for our kids, and
then they got our own plates and it looked like
someone had opened the Gerber's baby food jar and poured
it on the plate, and it was not at all satisfying.
And so I thought, Okay, on Thanksgiving, I'm going to
make an exception.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Do you know when I talked to Paul McCartney who
about being a vegetarian. When he and Linda, his late wife,
became vegetarians, they said that the first Christmas they had
they made a macaroni and cheese, but they shaped it
into a turkey and carved.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I have a challenge for your listeners if I can,
okay on behalf of vegans the world over, and that
is how to make a good vegan pizza. I really
have yet to find one that I really like because
most of the places you go to use a kind
of a dyet cheese which is made of coconut oil.
It doesn't taste anything like the real thing. So I
(16:59):
put this up there with the Heart Lung Machine. If
somebody can invent.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Pizza, we do just beauty, you know, cooked tomato sauce
with a pizza. You don't have to have a cheesy pizza.
I don't know how you substitute cheese for cheese. I
think substitutes are tricky, aren't they. One of the things
about this restaurant is we're really good for vegetarians and
for vegans because the Italian diet that we serve is
(17:24):
so vegetable based. So when you come in there are
big huge plates of you know, braised artichokes or charred
or pumpkins, whatever the season is. And so if somebody
says I'm vegan. It's actually that sounds wonderful, so we'll
do that. And so I suppose my last question to
you is that if food is love, and food is sharing,
(17:46):
and food is alleviating hunger, it also is comfort. What
would be your comfort food?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
I think my comfort food, to go back where we
started with the original recipe, is pasta. I think pasta
is hard to beat. I have so many fond memories
of it as a kid, through adulthood, having pasta when
I travel, and there's nothing more comfortable than a great
(18:15):
Italian meal with some wine and some bread and worrying
about the carbs tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Okay, And so when you come to London in September,
we'll have pasta together. N lots of love to you,
Thank you, Adam, Thanks such lots of love. But tell
me about what an air frier is, because actually I'm
(18:44):
not sure I know this gadget.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Well, an air fryer has a pot that circulates air.
The device circulates air around the basket or the pot,
and it is like deep frying, but you're using air,
so there's boy. So it's kind of a healthy version
of fry.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
To visit the online shop of the River cafe go
to shop Therivercafe dot co dot.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
UK, River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio
and Adami Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to River Cafe Table four, a production of iHeartRadio
and Adam I's studios.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
As an American living in Britain. A visit to London
by Congressman Adam Schiff is a big deal. That we
gave dinner for him and our house was a great honor.
Adam was on the way back from Ukraine meeting with Zulansky,
and over past and winter vegetables, he talked to us
about world we are living in, food shortages, child poverty,
(00:28):
and food insecurity. Today we'll continue, but also talk about
the food he grew up with, the food he cooks
for his family, the food he personally finds comforting. Adam,
will you begin by reading a recipe you've chosen from
River Cafe Cookbook thirty.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So I've got a wonderful recipe for spaghetti. I have
to love pasa and my favorite is spaghetti or angel hair.
So this is a perfect recipe for me to share
with you. Spaghetti brought tomato and arugula, or as you
you would say in Britain rocket rocket, So spaghetti three
(01:07):
and twenty grams plum tomatoes. You'll need four of those.
You'll need two garlic clothes dried chili. Just one dried
chili unless you like it really spicy, capers, two tablespoons
black olives three tablespoons. Now I'm in a huge olive fan,
but it does work great in spaghetti arugula. You'll have
(01:29):
three leaves and three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
So you will cut the tomatoes in half, squeeze out
the excess juice and seeds, and chop the flesh coarse thing.
Peel the garlic and squash with one teaspoon of sea salt.
Then you'll crumble the chili, rinse the capers, and stone
(01:52):
the olives. Then you'll roughly chop the arugula. Finally, combine
the tomatoes with all the ingredients except the rugula, seasoned generously,
add the olive oil and put aside for thirty minutes.
You cook the spaghetti and boiling salted water until all dante.
Then drain and stir the pasta into the tomatoes. Add
(02:14):
the rugula and toss to coat each strand season with
black pepper. Served with olive oil, and.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Delicious, beautifully read. Always think your recipe is half science
and half poetry, So there you go. You read it
as a poem. It was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Thank you glad I didn't read it as a scientist.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Beautiful. One of the things that I really love about
you is that I think you're a really good eater.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I wish I was not a good eater, but I
do love food.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I meet people from time to time that can kind
of take or leave eating. I don't understand them. I
think I think they're from another planet.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Tell me about growing up in the Schiff household. What
was it like food wise?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yes, I think this is why I love to go
out to eat, because when I was a kid, it
was such a rarity. And I always liked to claim
to my wife because you know, only a husband can
make this claim that I'm the ideal husband because I
don't want a homecook meal. I really love going out.
You're not distracted by the phone ringing, you're not distracted
(03:22):
by the TV or this kid wants to run off
to do homework instead of finishing the meal, and so
you're at a table. You're just focused on each other
and the food. But I think part of it is
that it was a rarity when I was growing up.
My mother was a good cook. But didn't like to cook.
But nonetheless, we ate at home all the time, and
(03:44):
my father was a traveling salesman in the shmata business
and helping business, and it was a big deal when
we could go out to one of our favorite restaurants.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I think that it's changed so much because I also
grew up where you went out to dinner if somebody
graduated from high school or there was a birthday or
an anniversary. Now having a restaurant, I just see people
eating all the time. They come with their children, they
come on a Friday night with their parents. They use
a restaurant in a very different way than we did.
(04:19):
I think.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I think that's right. And because my mother didn't like
to cook, a lot of our meals were very kind
of standard.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Fair tell me about them. What did she cook?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
You know, a lot of canned food, to be honest.
But my favorite meal that my mother used to make
was something that she made using these little boneless chicken
pieces that she breaded. You made it with a sign
of spaghetti and they were breaded with cheese on them,
so it was kind of like a mini chicken permeshan
(04:53):
with spaghetti. But I guess my strongest memories in childhood
of food were of the high holidays. When we get
together my grandparents and they would make a great, big meal.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Were they born in the United States or were they
immigrants from another country.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
My father was an immigrant from London. His parents immigrated
from Eastern Europe. My other grandparents were born in the
United States, but their parents, my great grandparents, all came
from Eastern Europe. But when we get together for the holidays,
it would be a lot of manzibol soup and holly,
(05:30):
bread and brisket, and it was quite a feast. Telling
a lot of that. I didn't want to go near
like chocol ever, Yeah, that'll do it. There is an
eternal debate in Jewish households about whether manzibal should be
light and fluffy or should be the kind that when
you drop them they go through the floor. I just
(05:52):
want to state, unequivocally, without hesitation, they need to be
the kind that fall through the floor.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That suspense was killing me as you were telling this,
I was going to think, what is he going to
go for falling through the floor or light and fluffy.
I did think you might choose light and fluffy, but
I will it has to be that really heavy sinking feeling. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
As a politician, sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. Yes,
I know, and I am firmly in the camp of
the very very heavy monster ball that you know, when
you've eaten it and it doesn't get lost in the broth.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
You interested in eating? Were you interested in cooking?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
When I did cook, it was frankly as a kid
and through adulthood at the barbecue.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Ah, that's very male. That's that's kind of I always
think when men feel that they can cook, is the barbecue. Yes,
funny barbecued. What did you do?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
You know? My cooking pre pandemic was pretty basic.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Fair, And what happened in the pandemic, well.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
You know, we not going out to eat, and it
was a huge lifestyle change, among other things. So I
got myself a few gadgets. You know, I think this
is also a male thing. You like to cook with gadgets?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, gadget. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I got an air fryer, and I got a pressure cooker.
I started making curry tofu and the pressure cooker with
vegetables and potatoes, and it seemed to be a pretty
fail safe device in terms of coming out well and
likewise the air fryer. I have to tell you a
(07:35):
funny story. I had a political event in Los Angeles
and I gave my speech, and then a brand new
assembly member went up to the microphone, real sharp up
and comer. He was saying some nice things about me,
and then he said, and I got some of the
most important advice from Congressman Shift when I was getting started.
(07:58):
So the most important advice I've forgotten. And I was
waiting to hear what sage political advice I'd given him,
and he said, he told me to get an air fryer.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You've just come back from Ukraine. Did you experience the
food shortage challenges we did.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
We discussed this with the President Zelenski when we sat
down with him. This was a congressional delegation that Speaker
Pelosi led, as it turned out, the first congressional delegation
to Ukraine since the war. And one of the things
that was apparent to us before we left, but became
much more apparent as we discussed the issue is that
when the Russians blockaded Odessa, they were not only trying
(08:45):
to cripple Ukraine's economy, but as Ukraine has been the
bread basket of Europe, a lot of the grain to
Africa and other places as well. The Russians were also
blockading food that a lot of people will need it
to survive, and it caused not only a great increase
(09:06):
in food prices, but also risks starvation in many places
that really have relied on Ukraine for their grain. And
so part of the appeal that Zelensky was making for
the weapons that he needs to sink that Black Sea
fleet and the equipment he needs to do de mining
was this is important to Ukraine, it's important to our economy,
(09:30):
but it's also important to the rest of the world
because the real food shortage.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Issue, Well do you think it will be like in Egypt,
in North Africa? What is going to happen when they
can't get their food?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
You know, it certainly risks great instability, and just in
its own right, of course, it risks starvation. And I
think it's one of the reasons we have to do
everything we can to try to bring this war in
Ukraine to an end. You know, sadly it's hard to
see that path. I think it does require us to
(10:05):
give Ukraine what needs to defend itself. To increase the
costs on Russia, so the Russian people see the folly
of what their dictator has done. But this tragic war
has had a lot of repercussions, and one of those
I think the world at least understands is the impact
(10:27):
it has on people's ability to get enough to eat
in many parts of the world.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
What do we do now? What are your major concerns
in terms of poverty and equality?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
You know, I think that we have experienced the revolution
in the economy and the global economy as a function
of globalization but also automation, and the result is that,
you know, millions of people in a million in the
middle class are at risk of falling out. A lot
of working families have to work harder than ever to
try to get in the middle class. At the same time,
(11:01):
these structural changes in the economy have produced very great
concentrated wealth. So while we have students in our colleges
who can't get enough to eat, we have captains of
Jutury literally flying into space on tourist trips.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I agree, you are very vocal and very concerned and
very politically engaged in food inequality. When I think it's
seventeen million of our children in the United States faced
with hunger every day.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
It really is extraordinary. And I had a meeting some
years ago, this before the pandemic, with a group of
community college students for my district, and they were talking
to me about and it came up in a kind
of an offhanded way about the food banks they had
on campus for students, and I was astonished that each
(11:54):
of them, and they were going to three different community colleges,
all had food banks on campus. This was still before
the pandemic. So the economy was strong, far stronger than
during the recession and fully recovered, and yet the hunger
was greater than ever. And it really pointed to me
of some strong structural problems in the economy that even
(12:17):
when it was doing well, it wasn't doing well for
millions and millions of people, to the point that college kids,
you know, not only at community college, but the state
colleges of the private universities, were going hungry. So I
introduced a bill to try to expand the free and
(12:38):
reduced lunch program that we have in K twelve up
through community college, and that was the genesis of the
Food for Thought Act, and we've been working to get
that passed ever since and trying to address broader issues
of hunger and homelessness as well.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
In Britain in the pandemic, what became very clear was
that when schools were c there are enormous a number
of children who not having lunch and therefore had depended
on lunch as their meal for the day. Did you
find that in the United States as well?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Absolutely, And what we discovered is that schools, these kindergarten
through high schools, were one of the major providers of food,
as it turned out, to low income families. And when
those schools closed and people went to remote learning, suddenly
these families didn't have meals. Yeah, these didn't have meals.
So what a lot of our schools did. And I
(13:34):
visited so many of these sites in my own district
and participated is they would prepare meals and families would
drive up in their car. We would ask how many
kids did they have, and we would give them the
number of meals for the kids and their family that
they would have had if they were in school.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
About the road from being a barbecue of meat and
fish to being vegan, what is your vegan story.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Well, my cholesterol has been high and I tried medication
like Satin's, but they didn't sit well with me. I
couldn't tolerate them very well. So my wife, was a
very healthy eater, suggests that I tried being vegan. And
I've been vegan for about three days. When I was
in my district and I was at an event, and
(14:27):
of course, at any event in Los Angeles, you talk
about food. I was talking about a great restaurant i'd
been to, called Crossroads, and the person I was talking
to recognize it was a vegan restaurant, and she said
to me, can I tell people here you're vegan? And
I thought that was kind of a strange question. Why
would people be interested in that? Then I realized where
(14:49):
I was. I was in West Hollywood at an animal
welfare event. Oh oh, yes, I guess that is a
big deal at an animal welfare event. And I said, well,
I've only been vegan, to be honest for three days,
and if you tell people, I'm going to be pretty
locked in. But you know I need the incentive go
ahead and tell people. So that was six years ago,
(15:09):
and you know, I do allow myself to cheat from
time to time.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
The truth be told when you cheat, what do you
go for.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Usually cheat when I'm traveling because it's hard for me
to always find vegan food, so I try not to
be too tough on myself. I also cheat during Thanksgiving
because I had my first Thanksgiving as a vegan and
it was just an awful experience.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You had just cranberry sauce and vegetables and no turkey.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
We were actually out at a place in Pennsylvania, nice
little place for the weekend. Our kids were with us,
and we had ordered in advance two vegan meals and
then two traditional turkey dinners. You know, our family is
kind of isolated in DC. We don't have other family there,
so we often have Thanksgiving out or at friends. And
(16:00):
they brought these two beautiful plates for our kids, and
then they got our own plates and it looked like
someone had opened the Gerber's baby food jar and poured
it on the plate, and it was not at all satisfying.
And so I thought, Okay, on Thanksgiving, I'm going to
make an exception.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Do you know when I talked to Paul McCartney who
about being a vegetarian. When he and Linda, his late wife,
became vegetarians, they said that the first Christmas they had
they made a macaroni and cheese, but they shaped it
into a turkey and carved.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I have a challenge for your listeners if I can,
okay on behalf of vegans the world over, and that
is how to make a good vegan pizza. I really
have yet to find one that I really like because
most of the places you go to use a kind
of a dyet cheese which is made of coconut oil.
It doesn't taste anything like the real thing. So I
(16:59):
put this up there with the Heart Lung Machine. If
somebody can invent.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Pizza, we do just beauty, you know, cooked tomato sauce
with a pizza. You don't have to have a cheesy pizza.
I don't know how you substitute cheese for cheese. I
think substitutes are tricky, aren't they. One of the things
about this restaurant is we're really good for vegetarians and
for vegans because the Italian diet that we serve is
(17:24):
so vegetable based. So when you come in there are
big huge plates of you know, braised artichokes or charred
or pumpkins, whatever the season is. And so if somebody
says I'm vegan. It's actually that sounds wonderful, so we'll
do that. And so I suppose my last question to
you is that if food is love, and food is sharing,
(17:46):
and food is alleviating hunger, it also is comfort. What
would be your comfort food?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
I think my comfort food, to go back where we
started with the original recipe, is pasta. I think pasta
is hard to beat. I have so many fond memories
of it as a kid, through adulthood, having pasta when
I travel, and there's nothing more comfortable than a great
(18:15):
Italian meal with some wine and some bread and worrying
about the carbs tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Okay, And so when you come to London in September,
we'll have pasta together. N lots of love to you,
Thank you, Adam, Thanks such lots of love. But tell
me about what an air frier is, because actually I'm
(18:44):
not sure I know this gadget.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Well, an air fryer has a pot that circulates air.
The device circulates air around the basket or the pot,
and it is like deep frying, but you're using air,
so there's boy. So it's kind of a healthy version
of fry.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
To visit the online shop of the River cafe go
to shop Therivercafe dot co dot.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
UK, River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio
and Adami Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Host
Ruth Rogers
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