November 23, 2021 • 21 mins
Ruthie is here with Edward Enninful, and he is the Editor in Chief of British Vogue, they are looking at the Thames, at the blue sky, and most of all, looking at people who’ve been unable to come to a restaurant for five months. Eating, talking, and having a wonderful time, and that’s what we are going to have – a wonderful time.
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/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/
Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to River Cafe table for a production of I
Heart Radio and Adam I Studios. Come with me into
the River Cafe. You see the pink wood oven in
the distance, the yellow kitchen, cocktails are being made for
Shuto is being sliced, and there's the quiet buzz at
(00:21):
the beginning of an evening, food and friends in a
beautiful space. Welcome to River Cafe, Table four with me,
Ruthie Rogers. I'm sitting here with Edward Nfl and you're
the editor of Vogue. Thank you for having me. We're
(00:44):
looking at the Thames, We're looking at the blue sky,
and most of all, we're looking at people who have
been not able to come to a restaurant for five months, eating,
talking and having a wonderful time. And that's what we're
going to have. Edward. We had your party, welcoming party
(01:05):
to London at the River Cafe to welcome you here.
It was a very beautiful party. I remember something about
that night, which was we were talking about whether we
could do ravioli as a premium, and there was a
conversation saying, well, you know, fashion people don't eat corps,
they won't eat pasta. Nobody's going to eat the ravel.
Not only did they eat it, they had seconds and
(01:28):
thirds and put on more early on the plate. It
was a really magical even one of my that's really
much cool evenings of my life. Because remember the issue
came out tell Us about tell Us About the first issue.
It was a love story really too great. Britain the
(01:50):
country that sort of took my family in and took
me in and we celebrated everybody from Naomi Campbell to
Steve McQueen to Kate Moss and we had a dual
on the cover. It was a beautiful night. And I
think people, you know, again, over food, over find the food,
you wanted to be sharing plates. You want people to
(02:11):
have antipasity. That's a misconception of fashion. People don't eat.
But that's not true. That's not true, and so what
do you feel about food and fashion? Is the idea
that in order to look good and clothes, you have
to be thin, or you have to look elegant, you
have to be a certain look or models have to
look a certain way, and that would mean denial of food.
(02:31):
It would say, in order to look that way, don't eat.
What's that story? You know? To be fashionable? When you
look at at least my Vogue anyway, it's everybody is welcome,
you know, all shapes or sizes, all colors. And what
I love now is three years later when you look
(02:53):
in all the other magazines, that everybody is also welcoming
in all the other magazines, that that that strict thing
of all being able to being a certain size, being
size zero is the perfect that doesn't exist anymore. Even
the idea of being a model's changed. How you can
be short, you can be covey, you can be you know,
(03:14):
you can be disabled. Literally, to watch that industry changed
for me, it's one of the great things about you know,
doing my job. Well, do your job, but you made that.
You did it at an empathy and sympathy and knowledge
of yourself. And so I think that you have to
take the credit for that, you know, in a beautiful way.
(03:34):
But hasn't been a struggle to get you make it
sound rather seamless that that this is what's happened in
another minute. But it hasn't been a struggle for stores
or for designers. I mean, designers now know that they've
missed out on the whole market mhm. From size fourteen
to sixty, they've they've missed out. Why would you want
(03:57):
to miss out on a section of a population that
can make your business even better. So now designers are
really sort of like, oh my god, they've wisen up. Okay,
I just knew that the world we lived in just
wasn't that just wasn't that world anymore? You know, you
have you have to be a certain size or or
(04:18):
a certain color or yeah, and I love the new generation.
I mean the new generation the chest. Yeah, you know,
so welcoming and so so open. So you know, the
industry has change, and it's not perfect, but at least
they now you know what happened last summer. You know,
(04:39):
black lives matter, and so now you know, companies are
now realizing, God, they have to hire people from diverse
backgrounds behind the scenes and not just so that to watch.
It's changed slowly. It's quite great. You know, conversations that
are being had now never would have been had out
(05:00):
ten years ago. We deal with sort of topics that
real women are passionate about. Because you grew up in Ghana,
So tell me about the food of Ghana. What do
you spent my first twelve years in Ghana? And I
remember everything being spicy. I remember everything being peppery. I remember,
(05:25):
you know, lots of sort of carbohydrates and lots of soups,
lots of gharians. Stoops are very different because you need
actual meats in them, so like a chicken stup or
a lamb soup. You know, I remember just literally cheering
through bounds and skin and and that's really comforting for me. Yeah,
(05:50):
I think food. You know, we always talk about food
being a connection, food being delicious, food being adventurous and exciting,
but it is comfort and it's and and the memories
that you have. Who would your mother, would your mother
cook for you? My mother, my mother didn't cook so
much for my grandmother did so growing up in Ghana,
my grandmother would always cook, and she'd always cooking these
(06:12):
huge I think that's why I love going to restaurants.
She'd always cooking these huge pots and she did. She
would never cook for just the family. It would be
aunts popping in, uncle's popping in. There's something about gharam.
The minute food is ready to go, all of a sudden,
your aunts and uncles a pear out of nowhere. So
food for me became sort of a way of socializing
(06:33):
and that's a very very shy kid. Until this day,
you know, going out come to the river cafe just
just fills me with I don't know happiness. Really, did
your grandmother live with you? She lived with us, um
and then we moved to England. She didn't live with
us when we moved to England. But when we got
to England, my brother took over cooking duties. And again,
(06:54):
you know, it was always sort of fair and meaty. Yeah,
and your mother didn't cook. She was a seamstress. She
was busy working, just busy making club. I mean pretty
much what I do now, just worked all the time.
My brother would cook sometimes and my sisters would take time.
(07:16):
What about your father never cook? I never. I don't cookie.
Somehow I missed the cooking gene. Okay, but I can
really eat eating. I think if you had the eating
gene very often, if you had the eating gene, then
you do need to learn to cook, because sometimes if
(07:37):
you don't have somebody to cook for you, you're in restaurants.
You do. But yeah, and that's why you love restaurants.
Food is love and love is food. Did you grew
up in the city. I grew up in love with
growth West London. What about in Ghana? You grew up
(07:57):
in the military base called Burma Camp. Was your father
in the military, So it was really weird growing up
in Africa but not really living in the city, but
living in a military base because my dad was in
the army. So it was kind of a surreal kind
of upbringing. Um. And then we moved to London and
(08:17):
we lived um. First we lived in sort Victoria for
a few months, opposite the Chelsea Barracks. Then we moved
to Loverok Grove and that's when life really began. Oh
my god, Jamaican food, rice and peace chicken. I mean,
so that exposure, it's right. It's interesting how people leave there. Yeah,
(08:40):
we've talked with lots of people in these conversations who
say that they had the home cooking for the first
you know, the student years are growing up, their memories
of their parents and then and then there was a
kind of explosion of food and adventure and trying, trying.
But did you before we leave Ghana, did you bring
Ghanian food with you? What was that the food that
(09:01):
you still late when you came with you to a
foreign country. How old were you when you came twelve
are you were twelve? But I remember I always say
I felt a sift. I lived in two countries. I mean,
if anybody who's been in an immigrant will you know,
we'll attest to this. You're literally are at home and
you're eating the flavors of Ghana and you're having things
(09:23):
like full full and it's like a dough sort of
made out of a lot of pop so like you know,
corn start into parp with soups. So you're having that,
and then the minute you leave your house you're in
England where you have sausage road and you have chips
(09:46):
and you have um pope pie. So I just love
this duality and this is really the person I am
today is made from that duality in every aspect of mine.
And it started with food, so gone I felt, you know,
at home, I was eating garne in food and folk garnet,
you know, parents speaking Garnet. And then the minute I
(10:07):
left the house, out be in England with food that
I loved, comfort food. So yeah, my life just been
like that. And would you bring friends home to experienced?
Bring friends home? But gone in food is quite specific.
You either take to it or you don't and friends
(10:27):
will coming. They always love jello f rice. I don't
know if you know what jelof rice is. It's this famous.
It's almost like a tomato rice. And there's a competition
between Garnians and Nigerians that's called the gelof wars. Who
makes the best gelo friends? So friends will come and
they will eat that. But rice with tomatoes, did you say?
With tomatoes and spices and sting. The colors sort of orange,
(10:50):
like an orange color. But it's very famous. And what's
the Denigerian version? Nigerians think there's tastes better than gard
literally whole wars going on about said that would have
said that? He would say, Nigerian, I have to have
a little rice off. And I remember a lot of
okry and everything, and I never had I never ate
(11:12):
salads growing up. Every kind of you know, Garnian vegetable
was always cooked, you know, cooked and stirred and beaten
to an end of his life, so eating salads was always.
But would you go to the market? Would there be markets?
Would you get off these go to mother every Saturday,
(11:32):
We'll take me to Brixton Market. They had a sort
of big African you could buy meat, you could buy
you know, fish, you could buy clothes, and every weekend
was spent with my mom. Were very close in Brixton.
And I remember just Bob Marley, the music of Bob
Marley and Peter Touch. That's that really made up my
(11:53):
early teenage years. But and then my mom will be
looking through the meats, essentially trying to find the best
cuts and the best I think that, as you say,
every immigrant, my my family came from Eastern Europe and
the you know, to the United States, to New York,
and they cooked the food of their country. And food
is culture. It tells you the story when you arrive
(12:15):
in a country and you go to the market, it
tells you about the culture. Welcome back to River Cafe,
Table four. In each episode, my guest reads a recipe
they have chosen from one of our cookbooks. I'm going
(12:38):
to read the recipe for the veal shin slow cooked
with Barrollo and sage. Serves eight people. You need to
veal shins, extra virgin olive oil, a bunch of fresh sage,
four bay leaves, four garlic clothes peeled, one bottle of
(13:01):
Burrello grams peeled plump tomatoes, drained of their juices. Very important.
The longer this cooks, the better. You need to preheat
your oven to two degrees centigrade. Heat an ovenproof pot.
(13:23):
Then you season the shins with sea salt and black pepper.
Add five tablespoons of olive oil and the shints to
the pot and fry until brown, all over, turning the
shints every few minutes. Add the sage bay and garlic.
Pour in the wine. Put the shins in facing down,
(13:48):
Add the tomatoes and cover with greaseproof paper. Transfer the
pot to the other After one hour, turn the shints
over and reduce the temperature to a hundred and fifty
degrees centigrade. Cover and cook for a further two hours,
based in the shins a couple of times to keep
(14:09):
the meat moist. The Valians are ready. When the meat
falls away from the bone, serve with the morrow from
the bone. Thank you beautifully read. So if all you
know the recipes that you've cooked from the River of
Cafe book, and that you've eaten in the River Cafe,
(14:31):
I think you have had feel a lot. You do
have it when you come in. But was there something?
Was it? The comfort? What was it that made you
choose this recipe amongst all the others. I mean, I
find feel very comforting anyway, Like I love comfort food,
you know, whether it's veal or I'm definitely a carnival.
(14:54):
But it reminds me great memories of my grandmother and
my mother sort of, you know, cooking always meets did
I think that, as you say, every immigrant. My my
family came from Eastern Europe and you know, to the
United States, to New York, and they cooked the food
of their country. And and I think that you bring.
(15:15):
It's interesting that you said that, because you do bring
the food is culture cure. It tells you the story
when you arrive in a country and you go to
the market. It tells you about the culture. And you know,
as an immigrant, maybe particularly first generation, will bring it
with them. We never went to restaurants where there were
so many. There were six of us, so I remember
(15:35):
the first time I went to a restaurant. I think
it must have been about sixteen, when I started modeling,
and I remember thinking, oh my god, this is what
you do here, being quite frightened. But was a restaurant
you remember, Do you remember the restaurant? It was in
labor growth. Definitely. It was a Chinese restaurant. Um, it
(15:56):
happen two seats. It was next to the next to
the chief stage in Love Grow Up Tuesdays, and I
can't remember the name. It was really famous. It was
then about thirty years and you know, you've got a
little take when you sat and it wasn't probably a
proper restaurant, but you said, you have three tables and
you sit there and it felt so glamorous. Yeah, god,
I was. I think that it's interesting if we look
out side here and we see the ease at which
(16:18):
you know, people are sitting in a restaurant where they
bring their children. And for me as well, it was
a special occasion going to a restaurant. I lived an
upstate New York. You went for somebody's birthday anniversary. And
I think it's been such a radical change for you know,
for for us that we see the way restaurants are used.
And so after that first experience in restaurant and you
(16:39):
love it, and then what happened. I mean I was
a model, and so then I thought, you know, sort
of traveling and sort of having new friends and you know,
living with Judy Blame and so my whole life change.
But I remember those first few sort of times I
my house. I would did you travel to when you
(17:01):
were modeling? Where did you get? Paris? And yeah, the
first place I went towards New York sort of buggers
and oh my god, New York with some with milkshakes
and those huge steaks that they have steaks. And then
I've got to Paris and French cuisine was incredible. Always
(17:25):
found for cuisine was delicious, but a little too what's
the word for me? Heavy? Yeah, And I loved Italian
food when I discovered Milan. My loved Italian food. I
loved everything about it. I love Italian food. Do you
see restaurants and places where you work do you work
over food? You know? Okay, I like them? Never what
(17:47):
for me to put those two together? For me, work
as work and when I'm in a restaurant, I just
need to have fun, enjoy myself, not have to worry. So,
you know, even going out to a restaurants very special
for me. I always dress up. I'm never walking to
a restaurant and not dressed up. Look at you, look
(18:09):
at you, look at you dressed up? So what was that?
Growing up a dad was like to get on a plane,
you have to dress up. To go to a restaurant,
you have to dress up. So you've never see me
in a restaurant not dress up. That's nice, that's nice.
I mean I don't mind what people were when they come.
And either they can come in a pair of you know,
jeans and a T shirt. But there there are people
(18:30):
who and you see, especially in the evenings, you do
see people. And I sometimes say that to the waiters.
I say, you know, people put a lot of effort
sometimes to look really beautiful here, and so we also
have to, you know, the effort that we make it.
So what do you do when you're on a shoot
or you're working, you know, jus to say, okay, guys,
(18:50):
we'll see you in a couple of hours. Or do
you take a little break. Yeah, you sit and you
eat and then you go back to I don't. I
don't eat and look at pictures or anything like a
lead that moment to It's one of the few times
in the day that I have to enjoy myself. You know.
Do you find that you can go out to lunch
and to dinner, you might go You just love it.
(19:12):
When I lived in New York. I lived in New
York for a while. I would be out lunch, sometimes
breakfast too. I just love the whole experience. Yeah, I
really do. I really love it. And I love looking
at people, seeing what people are wearing, seeing just people
having fun and enjoying themselves. It's almost like therapy for me.
(19:35):
It's therapy to what did you do during lockdown? And
we couldn't go to restaurant um the first few weeks.
Alec my partner cooked and he's very healthy, sort of
sort of salads and sort of meats, and that was great.
And then we discovered banana bread. Made about banana bread.
(19:55):
Out of the blue, Alec learn how to make banana
bread and it was such a novelty. We ate it
every single day for a month and now I can
never look at it ever again. Yeah. Yeah, you started
with the comfort of your grandmother cooking for you. And
so if I were to ask you the question that
(20:16):
I asked at the end of every interview, which is
what is your comfort food? If you were feeling like
life is tough, I've had a bad day, I've had
I need, I need to eat something. Is there a
typical food that you would go to that. Would you
just know if I have this, it would make me
feel better? So many Yeah, they can tell us a
(20:40):
few that it doesn't have to be one. It doesn't
have to be you know, something of rice and beans
and chicken or something very just really comfort because my
grandmother would make whenever I wasn't feeling well. She loved
you through probably many ways, but through food, through my
(21:01):
memories about just cooking. Yeah, that's all I remember. It's
wonderful to visit the online shop of the River Cafe.
Go to shop the River Cafe dot co dot uk.
River Cafe Table four is a production of I Heart
(21:21):
Radio and Adam I Studios. For more podcasts from I
Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to River Cafe table for a production of I
Heart Radio and Adam I Studios. Come with me into
the River Cafe. You see the pink wood oven in
the distance, the yellow kitchen, cocktails are being made for
Shuto is being sliced, and there's the quiet buzz at
(00:21):
the beginning of an evening, food and friends in a
beautiful space. Welcome to River Cafe, Table four with me,
Ruthie Rogers. I'm sitting here with Edward Nfl and you're
the editor of Vogue. Thank you for having me. We're
(00:44):
looking at the Thames, We're looking at the blue sky,
and most of all, we're looking at people who have
been not able to come to a restaurant for five months, eating,
talking and having a wonderful time. And that's what we're
going to have. Edward. We had your party, welcoming party
(01:05):
to London at the River Cafe to welcome you here.
It was a very beautiful party. I remember something about
that night, which was we were talking about whether we
could do ravioli as a premium, and there was a
conversation saying, well, you know, fashion people don't eat corps,
they won't eat pasta. Nobody's going to eat the ravel.
Not only did they eat it, they had seconds and
(01:28):
thirds and put on more early on the plate. It
was a really magical even one of my that's really
much cool evenings of my life. Because remember the issue
came out tell Us about tell Us About the first issue.
It was a love story really too great. Britain the
(01:50):
country that sort of took my family in and took
me in and we celebrated everybody from Naomi Campbell to
Steve McQueen to Kate Moss and we had a dual
on the cover. It was a beautiful night. And I
think people, you know, again, over food, over find the food,
you wanted to be sharing plates. You want people to
(02:11):
have antipasity. That's a misconception of fashion. People don't eat.
But that's not true. That's not true, and so what
do you feel about food and fashion? Is the idea
that in order to look good and clothes, you have
to be thin, or you have to look elegant, you
have to be a certain look or models have to
look a certain way, and that would mean denial of food.
(02:31):
It would say, in order to look that way, don't eat.
What's that story? You know? To be fashionable? When you
look at at least my Vogue anyway, it's everybody is welcome,
you know, all shapes or sizes, all colors. And what
I love now is three years later when you look
(02:53):
in all the other magazines, that everybody is also welcoming
in all the other magazines, that that that strict thing
of all being able to being a certain size, being
size zero is the perfect that doesn't exist anymore. Even
the idea of being a model's changed. How you can
be short, you can be covey, you can be you know,
(03:14):
you can be disabled. Literally, to watch that industry changed
for me, it's one of the great things about you know,
doing my job. Well, do your job, but you made that.
You did it at an empathy and sympathy and knowledge
of yourself. And so I think that you have to
take the credit for that, you know, in a beautiful way.
(03:34):
But hasn't been a struggle to get you make it
sound rather seamless that that this is what's happened in
another minute. But it hasn't been a struggle for stores
or for designers. I mean, designers now know that they've
missed out on the whole market mhm. From size fourteen
to sixty, they've they've missed out. Why would you want
(03:57):
to miss out on a section of a population that
can make your business even better. So now designers are
really sort of like, oh my god, they've wisen up. Okay,
I just knew that the world we lived in just
wasn't that just wasn't that world anymore? You know, you
have you have to be a certain size or or
(04:18):
a certain color or yeah, and I love the new generation.
I mean the new generation the chest. Yeah, you know,
so welcoming and so so open. So you know, the
industry has change, and it's not perfect, but at least
they now you know what happened last summer. You know,
(04:39):
black lives matter, and so now you know, companies are
now realizing, God, they have to hire people from diverse
backgrounds behind the scenes and not just so that to watch.
It's changed slowly. It's quite great. You know, conversations that
are being had now never would have been had out
(05:00):
ten years ago. We deal with sort of topics that
real women are passionate about. Because you grew up in Ghana,
So tell me about the food of Ghana. What do
you spent my first twelve years in Ghana? And I
remember everything being spicy. I remember everything being peppery. I remember,
(05:25):
you know, lots of sort of carbohydrates and lots of soups,
lots of gharians. Stoops are very different because you need
actual meats in them, so like a chicken stup or
a lamb soup. You know, I remember just literally cheering
through bounds and skin and and that's really comforting for me. Yeah,
(05:50):
I think food. You know, we always talk about food
being a connection, food being delicious, food being adventurous and exciting,
but it is comfort and it's and and the memories
that you have. Who would your mother, would your mother
cook for you? My mother, my mother didn't cook so
much for my grandmother did so growing up in Ghana,
my grandmother would always cook, and she'd always cooking these
(06:12):
huge I think that's why I love going to restaurants.
She'd always cooking these huge pots and she did. She
would never cook for just the family. It would be
aunts popping in, uncle's popping in. There's something about gharam.
The minute food is ready to go, all of a sudden,
your aunts and uncles a pear out of nowhere. So
food for me became sort of a way of socializing
(06:33):
and that's a very very shy kid. Until this day,
you know, going out come to the river cafe just
just fills me with I don't know happiness. Really, did
your grandmother live with you? She lived with us, um
and then we moved to England. She didn't live with
us when we moved to England. But when we got
to England, my brother took over cooking duties. And again,
(06:54):
you know, it was always sort of fair and meaty. Yeah,
and your mother didn't cook. She was a seamstress. She
was busy working, just busy making club. I mean pretty
much what I do now, just worked all the time.
My brother would cook sometimes and my sisters would take time.
(07:16):
What about your father never cook? I never. I don't cookie.
Somehow I missed the cooking gene. Okay, but I can
really eat eating. I think if you had the eating
gene very often, if you had the eating gene, then
you do need to learn to cook, because sometimes if
(07:37):
you don't have somebody to cook for you, you're in restaurants.
You do. But yeah, and that's why you love restaurants.
Food is love and love is food. Did you grew
up in the city. I grew up in love with
growth West London. What about in Ghana? You grew up
(07:57):
in the military base called Burma Camp. Was your father
in the military, So it was really weird growing up
in Africa but not really living in the city, but
living in a military base because my dad was in
the army. So it was kind of a surreal kind
of upbringing. Um. And then we moved to London and
(08:17):
we lived um. First we lived in sort Victoria for
a few months, opposite the Chelsea Barracks. Then we moved
to Loverok Grove and that's when life really began. Oh
my god, Jamaican food, rice and peace chicken. I mean,
so that exposure, it's right. It's interesting how people leave there. Yeah,
(08:40):
we've talked with lots of people in these conversations who
say that they had the home cooking for the first
you know, the student years are growing up, their memories
of their parents and then and then there was a
kind of explosion of food and adventure and trying, trying.
But did you before we leave Ghana, did you bring
Ghanian food with you? What was that the food that
(09:01):
you still late when you came with you to a
foreign country. How old were you when you came twelve
are you were twelve? But I remember I always say
I felt a sift. I lived in two countries. I mean,
if anybody who's been in an immigrant will you know,
we'll attest to this. You're literally are at home and
you're eating the flavors of Ghana and you're having things
(09:23):
like full full and it's like a dough sort of
made out of a lot of pop so like you know,
corn start into parp with soups. So you're having that,
and then the minute you leave your house you're in
England where you have sausage road and you have chips
(09:46):
and you have um pope pie. So I just love
this duality and this is really the person I am
today is made from that duality in every aspect of mine.
And it started with food, so gone I felt, you know,
at home, I was eating garne in food and folk garnet,
you know, parents speaking Garnet. And then the minute I
(10:07):
left the house, out be in England with food that
I loved, comfort food. So yeah, my life just been
like that. And would you bring friends home to experienced?
Bring friends home? But gone in food is quite specific.
You either take to it or you don't and friends
(10:27):
will coming. They always love jello f rice. I don't
know if you know what jelof rice is. It's this famous.
It's almost like a tomato rice. And there's a competition
between Garnians and Nigerians that's called the gelof wars. Who
makes the best gelo friends? So friends will come and
they will eat that. But rice with tomatoes, did you say?
With tomatoes and spices and sting. The colors sort of orange,
(10:50):
like an orange color. But it's very famous. And what's
the Denigerian version? Nigerians think there's tastes better than gard
literally whole wars going on about said that would have
said that? He would say, Nigerian, I have to have
a little rice off. And I remember a lot of
okry and everything, and I never had I never ate
(11:12):
salads growing up. Every kind of you know, Garnian vegetable
was always cooked, you know, cooked and stirred and beaten
to an end of his life, so eating salads was always.
But would you go to the market? Would there be markets?
Would you get off these go to mother every Saturday,
(11:32):
We'll take me to Brixton Market. They had a sort
of big African you could buy meat, you could buy
you know, fish, you could buy clothes, and every weekend
was spent with my mom. Were very close in Brixton.
And I remember just Bob Marley, the music of Bob
Marley and Peter Touch. That's that really made up my
(11:53):
early teenage years. But and then my mom will be
looking through the meats, essentially trying to find the best
cuts and the best I think that, as you say,
every immigrant, my my family came from Eastern Europe and
the you know, to the United States, to New York,
and they cooked the food of their country. And food
is culture. It tells you the story when you arrive
(12:15):
in a country and you go to the market, it
tells you about the culture. Welcome back to River Cafe,
Table four. In each episode, my guest reads a recipe
they have chosen from one of our cookbooks. I'm going
(12:38):
to read the recipe for the veal shin slow cooked
with Barrollo and sage. Serves eight people. You need to
veal shins, extra virgin olive oil, a bunch of fresh sage,
four bay leaves, four garlic clothes peeled, one bottle of
(13:01):
Burrello grams peeled plump tomatoes, drained of their juices. Very important.
The longer this cooks, the better. You need to preheat
your oven to two degrees centigrade. Heat an ovenproof pot.
(13:23):
Then you season the shins with sea salt and black pepper.
Add five tablespoons of olive oil and the shints to
the pot and fry until brown, all over, turning the
shints every few minutes. Add the sage bay and garlic.
Pour in the wine. Put the shins in facing down,
(13:48):
Add the tomatoes and cover with greaseproof paper. Transfer the
pot to the other After one hour, turn the shints
over and reduce the temperature to a hundred and fifty
degrees centigrade. Cover and cook for a further two hours,
based in the shins a couple of times to keep
(14:09):
the meat moist. The Valians are ready. When the meat
falls away from the bone, serve with the morrow from
the bone. Thank you beautifully read. So if all you
know the recipes that you've cooked from the River of
Cafe book, and that you've eaten in the River Cafe,
(14:31):
I think you have had feel a lot. You do
have it when you come in. But was there something?
Was it? The comfort? What was it that made you
choose this recipe amongst all the others. I mean, I
find feel very comforting anyway, Like I love comfort food,
you know, whether it's veal or I'm definitely a carnival.
(14:54):
But it reminds me great memories of my grandmother and
my mother sort of, you know, cooking always meets did
I think that, as you say, every immigrant. My my
family came from Eastern Europe and you know, to the
United States, to New York, and they cooked the food
of their country. And and I think that you bring.
(15:15):
It's interesting that you said that, because you do bring
the food is culture cure. It tells you the story
when you arrive in a country and you go to
the market. It tells you about the culture. And you know,
as an immigrant, maybe particularly first generation, will bring it
with them. We never went to restaurants where there were
so many. There were six of us, so I remember
(15:35):
the first time I went to a restaurant. I think
it must have been about sixteen, when I started modeling,
and I remember thinking, oh my god, this is what
you do here, being quite frightened. But was a restaurant
you remember, Do you remember the restaurant? It was in
labor growth. Definitely. It was a Chinese restaurant. Um, it
(15:56):
happen two seats. It was next to the next to
the chief stage in Love Grow Up Tuesdays, and I
can't remember the name. It was really famous. It was
then about thirty years and you know, you've got a
little take when you sat and it wasn't probably a
proper restaurant, but you said, you have three tables and
you sit there and it felt so glamorous. Yeah, god,
I was. I think that it's interesting if we look
out side here and we see the ease at which
(16:18):
you know, people are sitting in a restaurant where they
bring their children. And for me as well, it was
a special occasion going to a restaurant. I lived an
upstate New York. You went for somebody's birthday anniversary. And
I think it's been such a radical change for you know,
for for us that we see the way restaurants are used.
And so after that first experience in restaurant and you
(16:39):
love it, and then what happened. I mean I was
a model, and so then I thought, you know, sort
of traveling and sort of having new friends and you know,
living with Judy Blame and so my whole life change.
But I remember those first few sort of times I
my house. I would did you travel to when you
(17:01):
were modeling? Where did you get? Paris? And yeah, the
first place I went towards New York sort of buggers
and oh my god, New York with some with milkshakes
and those huge steaks that they have steaks. And then
I've got to Paris and French cuisine was incredible. Always
(17:25):
found for cuisine was delicious, but a little too what's
the word for me? Heavy? Yeah, And I loved Italian
food when I discovered Milan. My loved Italian food. I
loved everything about it. I love Italian food. Do you
see restaurants and places where you work do you work
over food? You know? Okay, I like them? Never what
(17:47):
for me to put those two together? For me, work
as work and when I'm in a restaurant, I just
need to have fun, enjoy myself, not have to worry. So,
you know, even going out to a restaurants very special
for me. I always dress up. I'm never walking to
a restaurant and not dressed up. Look at you, look
(18:09):
at you, look at you dressed up? So what was that?
Growing up a dad was like to get on a plane,
you have to dress up. To go to a restaurant,
you have to dress up. So you've never see me
in a restaurant not dress up. That's nice, that's nice.
I mean I don't mind what people were when they come.
And either they can come in a pair of you know,
jeans and a T shirt. But there there are people
(18:30):
who and you see, especially in the evenings, you do
see people. And I sometimes say that to the waiters.
I say, you know, people put a lot of effort
sometimes to look really beautiful here, and so we also
have to, you know, the effort that we make it.
So what do you do when you're on a shoot
or you're working, you know, jus to say, okay, guys,
(18:50):
we'll see you in a couple of hours. Or do
you take a little break. Yeah, you sit and you
eat and then you go back to I don't. I
don't eat and look at pictures or anything like a
lead that moment to It's one of the few times
in the day that I have to enjoy myself. You know.
Do you find that you can go out to lunch
and to dinner, you might go You just love it.
(19:12):
When I lived in New York. I lived in New
York for a while. I would be out lunch, sometimes
breakfast too. I just love the whole experience. Yeah, I
really do. I really love it. And I love looking
at people, seeing what people are wearing, seeing just people
having fun and enjoying themselves. It's almost like therapy for me.
(19:35):
It's therapy to what did you do during lockdown? And
we couldn't go to restaurant um the first few weeks.
Alec my partner cooked and he's very healthy, sort of
sort of salads and sort of meats, and that was great.
And then we discovered banana bread. Made about banana bread.
(19:55):
Out of the blue, Alec learn how to make banana
bread and it was such a novelty. We ate it
every single day for a month and now I can
never look at it ever again. Yeah. Yeah, you started
with the comfort of your grandmother cooking for you. And
so if I were to ask you the question that
(20:16):
I asked at the end of every interview, which is
what is your comfort food? If you were feeling like
life is tough, I've had a bad day, I've had
I need, I need to eat something. Is there a
typical food that you would go to that. Would you
just know if I have this, it would make me
feel better? So many Yeah, they can tell us a
(20:40):
few that it doesn't have to be one. It doesn't
have to be you know, something of rice and beans
and chicken or something very just really comfort because my
grandmother would make whenever I wasn't feeling well. She loved
you through probably many ways, but through food, through my
(21:01):
memories about just cooking. Yeah, that's all I remember. It's
wonderful to visit the online shop of the River Cafe.
Go to shop the River Cafe dot co dot uk.
River Cafe Table four is a production of I Heart
(21:21):
Radio and Adam I Studios. For more podcasts from I
Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Ruth Rogers
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