March 6, 2023 • 34 mins
Most nights, Jimmy Fallon and I have somewhat similar jobs. We’re both hosts, after all—Jimmy on The Tonight Show, me at The River Cafe. We both welcome guests and want them to feel at home. Of course, Jimmy’s reach is far greater than mine. I look after 180 people, Jimmy, 1.8 million. As a chef, my hosting is done through cooking; Jimmy sings dances and makes people laugh and open up in conversation.
Last November, in New York, I met with Jimmy at 30 Rock talking about memories and cooking. We sang a song and even found out we grew up in towns close by. A chef and a star, joined by the joy of food and each other.
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, 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/
Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/ruthiestable4
Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Ruthie's Table for a production of iHeartRadio and
Adami's Studios most nights, Jimmy Fallon and I are hosts.
We both have a number of people we'd reach out to.
For me one hundred and eighty for Jimmy one point
eight million. I am a pilot of a small plane
(00:22):
and Jimmy is an astronaut flying to the moon as
a chef. My hosting is through cooking in the River Cafe.
Jimmy sings, dances, talks and makes people laugh on the
Tonight Show. Over thirty five years, I can easily spot
a food lover, and from the first moment we met,
(00:45):
I knew Jimmy was one a food lover. Studies the menu,
ask questions, wants to explore the kitchen, and the people
they care most about meeting are the chefs. When they're
finished eating, often they want to start all over again.
Curiosity is the key for Jimmy to have interviewed thousands
of people over so many years. You don't just have curiosity,
(01:08):
you need to be a virtuoso of curiosity. So today,
on a gray winter day in New York, where he's
sitting here at thirty Rock two friends to talk about memories, cooking, children,
and more. A chef and a star, a pilot and
an astronaut joined by love of food and each other.
Do I interview you or do you? That's the question?
(01:32):
The hardest thing, Yeah I did you know? Somebody said
the thing about an interview with the is you can
interrupt your guests. So that's the hardest thing is yet
they have to listen. Yeah. My first ever interview I
ever did was Robert de Niro. He's a great guy,
so good. The thing about Robert he doesn't really talk.
(01:52):
He doesn't really like to talk. Okay, so if if
you ever talk to him, you're like, Robert, I can't
believe you're here, You're on the show. Welcome, thanks so much.
Uh you're you live in New York? Right yeah? And
he goes yep yep. I go wow, wow, Okay, well
that's the next question. I go the next question. You
you love Italian food? Right? And yepp okay, I'm going
(02:17):
to another page. You could hear the sweat flop sweat
forming on my head. I was like, oh my gosh,
he's the nicest guy. He just did me a favorite.
Because you couldn't book people. When I first started, you know,
it was a brand new show and no one knew
the shows me a flop or hit. So he did
me a sad and we've had him back many times.
Now he talks now, he now he SLAPPs you. He
said that it can be a technique with journalists. We
(02:39):
once had a journalist doing a profile of Richard and
he hung around the house for days. He would never
say anything, and so I would, you know, talk talk talk,
talk talk, because somebody's got a talk talkers. Do you
remember when I first I kind of came up to
you at your restaurant and I hopefully didn't attack you.
But I was such a fan of yours because I
collect cookbooks. Yeah, and one of my favorite cookbooks is
(03:01):
River Cafe, the one that's oh the silver one. Yeah
that's really easy. Yes, and it's one of my favorite
cookbooks for years. I love it. And I was like,
oh my gosh, can meeting you? And I'm like I'm
at the River Cafe. I'm like show me everything, and
you're like, well, we have a new book, and I
go let me look at the new book, and then
you will showing me how the restaurant has grown. Yes, yeah,
(03:24):
and I was like, this is unbelievable. You know, before
we even get to the food. The restaurant was awesome.
But that's you. I mean, we remember we talk about
the time that you know, Jimmy Fallon came in and
wanted to know everything. As I said, he wanted to
meet the chefs. You one, how do you put what
would you put in that wood? Over? And then yeah,
you make the pasta? Do you boil it? Because I
think also that I'd like to ask you a questions.
(03:46):
So how do you do a show? How does a
pilot you know, fireplane? How do you know that the
lamb comes out the same time as a possible? Yeah?
I want to know why did you choose the silverware? Yeah?
To go with this, you know, I know, but love that.
We love that curiosity you have You ever worked in
a restaurant? I never have. I don't know if I
could do it, to be honest, I don't know if
I have the patience you might as if a chef.
(04:08):
You were a chef, maybe maybe I could try. I
love to get in the cook and I loved different recipes.
I'm so I love it. It's a meditation for me.
Almost is it. Yeah, well that's a conversation. But for now,
should we start out with your recipe? Because that is
the idea that everybody reads a recipe, So reading it's
a recipe from the River Cafe Look Book, which is,
(04:31):
by the way, genius. Whoever thought of the idea, I'm
assuming it was you three of us. It is matching
art pieces with food on these photos. When I was
a kid, I remember my grandma used to do a
lot of babysitting for me, and I would go over
and she had one cookbook. It was a Betty Crocker
cook Yeah, and the pictures were so great. It was
(04:52):
like a cherry pie and it wasn't like we were
making them, but I would just look at the book
and flip through the pages and look at all the
awesome photos. And that was for a kid, that was
like my favorite book to read. So I think this
is brilliant. I'm honored to read a recipe. Now. Okay,
well what are you reading right? This is for lemon
ice cream, okay, which sounds to intimidated, no, but it's
the shortest recipes here. We go finely grated zest of
(05:14):
one and juice of three lemons. I can do that.
One cup castor and prencies super fine sugar, half a
teaspoon of sea salt. Tea needs a little bit. The
sea salt we use is what they call mold and salt,
which you can flake with your hands. It's a salty
other fancy salt. Yes, and then you have fifteen ounces
(05:37):
scant two cups double heavy cream. What a scant scat
means almost it's what do you say, sad scat mews smooth,
not measurable. It's like a scant, say you know, it's
like a little pinch pinch of two cups. That's a
big pinch. Two cups of double heavy cream. That's it.
That's the ingredients lemons, sugar, salt and cream exactly. Okay,
(06:02):
you need a lemon squeezer, you need a greater you
need a scale if you if you want measuring cups,
measuring spoons, bowl, spoon, freezer proof container, it's too you
have to do here. This is the only ice cream
we know that doesn't have to be churned. What, yes,
be sure to wash the lemons, roll the lemons before
you squeeze them to get the maximum juice. I do that,
by the way, you do that I'm a genonic dreer.
(06:24):
So I take my lime and roll it. Roll it limes,
particularly because yes, the juice out there, Yes you need it.
Nothing worse than like a pulpy, dry lime. Roll the
lemons before you get that maximum juice. In a bowl,
mix the lemon, zest and juice, sugar and salt with
a spoon. Slowly, slowly add the cream, carefully mixing with
the spoon. It will immediately thicken. Put the ice cream
(06:46):
mixture in a one liter at one quart freezer proof
container and freeze for two hours to harden. That's it.
That is it what I mean, honestly, it is because
of the lemon and the cream. Basically you're eating cream
with lemon and a spoon. It's delicious. Oh my gosh. Yeah,
tonight with kids, the kids will love it, fantastic. I
(07:07):
just want to say I love the colors on it.
You know, my husband did an airport in Madrid called
Baracas Airport. Have you ever been to Madrid? And every
he loved color, and so every beam is a different color.
It's like the rainbow and it just takes it. So
we thought, how do you follow those photographs? You know,
you follow them with color. Color. Every single page is
a different color, so it just makes it a bit even.
(07:29):
You think about that when you do not only your
cookbooks but your restaurant everything. I think, I think, I
think color. I think, like you were saying, lighting, I
trained as a graphic designer. So even the food. While
you put food on the plate, not in that fancy
artive way with a little squidge you are that kind
of thing. We don't do that. But if you're going
to put a piece of sea bass on the plate,
and you're going to put a lemon on the plage,
(07:52):
and you're going to put some spinach or cannellini beans
or whatever, baked tomatoes, you really think about how you
played that. And it's very interesting to see the way
she young chefs to plate. You know, do you watch
reactions when the plate comes to the Always? Yeah, I
mean I try, you know, because you know, we have
an open kitchen, so we're too you know, it's a
live performance. It's like you when you get up there
(08:13):
and you have your audience, and of course we don't
get applause and we get boozed. What I always look
for is to see if they share, so then you
can see the reaction. You know, they go, well, I
don't know if you can do this audio? Yeah, how
do you make it? Yeah, if you were tuning in,
(08:37):
they don't know what's going on exactly. Welcome. So we
could go back to the grandparents in the yard. Yeah,
living with your grandparents. Tell me about your grandmother. She
was Norwegian and Irish and she was my mom's mom,
(08:58):
and she lived with us. She was she lived in
her back yard, in the back, in the back, not
in the ten. I had to tell you that. I
was with my seven year old granddaughter. We're going down
the street and I said, you know, I used to
live on the street. And she went, oh, poor you.
And I said why. I said, that's a really nice
street to live on. She said, but you had to
live on the street. No, no, sorry, they didn't live
(09:21):
in my backyard. Your poor grandmother was in the backyard. Ten. Yeah,
we fed them, so they were well fed. But they
were in a little cottage in her backyard, but shared
our dress so they were basically our neighbors, you know.
So they helped raise me. Actually, so I go over
there and there really is no good Irish cuisine. Unfortunately.
I can say that as an Irish person. This way,
you never you never see an Irish cookbook because everything
(09:44):
is boiled. Tatoes boil boilet, old boil it boilet. Yeah
when he got there, cabbage boil it, boil it with
the with the corn beans, boi whatever, and you're okay,
this is the worst. So that's why you never see that.
So but so we kind of tried to steal from
other cuisine. Beans. We had Italian neighbors that were great
Polish neighbors, and then my grandmother Norwegian, so we had
(10:05):
a lot of like meatball type of things. My grandmother
would always be you know, she had that rule. If
you drop it on the floor, not only is the
five second rule, you're allowed to eat it. But Jimmy
would eat it. She would feed me whatever fill on
the floor. I would Yeah, I got all the scraps. Yeah,
but I loved it, and I loved the way she cooked.
And I just washed her hands. And my mom too.
They always had like something on them. My mom always
(10:27):
had like hamburger meat or something. She would answer the
phone with something on her hand and then hang up
and I go, Mom, you gotta wash. Yeah, I can't
pick up the phone after you if you'd keep it on. Yeah, oh,
oh my god, I was disgusting. But living with your
grandparents is quite something, though, isn't it, Because you have
the cooking is shared. It's very family style cooking. Yes,
we always ate how many of you? It was me
(10:49):
and my sister. That's it. I had one sister, my
mom and dad and your mom work or did she
stayed at home and raised us? There was a lot
of a lot of my mom cooking stuff like that,
and always experimenting and trying stuff. Did she experiment it? Also?
She would also lie to us too, a lot. I
mean she said, like, we had a meal every year,
(11:10):
almost every day of my life called pastava pastava zul? Oh,
that's isn't that a song hits It's like a big
pizza pie. That's when your mom lies to you says
it's passive zul But it's not because it's not. It wasn't.
(11:33):
She was, so, is it kind of it's an Italian
soup and it wasn't. When I was growing up, it
was basically like macaroni noodles, ground beef and pasta and
beans and garlic and garlic powder and song. Like, what
did she lie about? Loved it. Well, that's not that's
not what passive zul is. Pastave azul is a soup,
(11:54):
right like soup, but we did sand soup. It was
like a really chunky soup. There was no there's no
liquid dry almost. It was actually almost like I would
call it gruel. Yeah, I had to name it for her.
That was her thing. And then I remember what she
was like. She has a very kind of knee laucky voice, like, Jimmy,
do you want to grilled cheese? I got, thanks, Tom.
(12:14):
And I knew that she made it because I would
hear her scraping the burnt off the toast before she
gave it to me. She always burned my grill chees.
But she's hilarious. My mom and my dad were Did
your father cook? I don't remember him cooking, not even
like kind of man things like barbecues and no, I
mean barbecue. He would arrange the briquettes, you know, and
(12:36):
like that like it was a big masterful thing, like
really that it's just a pile of brie. Always the
barbecue that yeah, yeah, what was the kitchen like? Was
that out in the art as well? Yeah? At open
space in our house? Yeah, we lived. You know. Our
kitchen was where we would have the parties yea, and
everyone would always drink there and hang big house. No,
(12:57):
it was tiny country house, but our kitchen was red
and red and blue. It was like, oh man, I
lived there basically. I mean every big event was in
the kitchen. Birthday parties, hanging out after school with my friends,
we'd all just go in the kitchen. We'd hang out
with my parents. We drink with my parents, uh and
hang with them. And the music was in there. We'd
(13:18):
always listen to music. My dad always loved duop music
and yeah, like like doo do do so we would
listen to duop music. And he served in Vietnam. He
was in there navy. What so how long was her
wife for? He was gone for I mean, I just
(13:41):
before he had me, but it was three years, I
want to say, on the ship. But he loved duop
and he would always play these real to real tapes
of him in this group singing on the ship and
they'd sing like, yeah, they sing all these songs, and
I go, oh cool. And when I got older, I
watched these movies about you know, Vietnam war or something,
(14:02):
and they never played duop music. They would play Jimmie Hendrix,
they'd play you know, stuff that I go they're missing
the everyone listening. Turns out my dad was just a nerd.
I think I know more duop songs than I do
modern songs. But I remember he had me as a
kid climb up. We lived in upstate New York, and
you had me climb up into the house and put
wires all over in the attic just we can get
(14:22):
reception of this radio station, WCBSFM, and in Brooklyn, New York.
It was probably terrible for me and Gloria with all
the radiation from those wires. But did you did you
have males family, males around the table? Would you sit
down in the that beautiful kitchen of yours. We would
sit in the living room, a dining room. We had
a dining room that would use on Thanksgiving, Yeah, in Easter,
(14:43):
I think, yeah, yeah, basically only the only time we
went to church we would use that room. But you
know the kind of big events, you know, we would
have in the dining room. But are most of the
time we had dinner together every night without watching TV,
watching TV, and we'd had those TVs tables fold up
TV tables and with their cheap metal things, and you
(15:05):
click them together and set it up, and everyone make
a dish and then come out and you eat together
and watch TV. You watch Barney Miller or whatever. Would
you do homework? Then I do homework and then yeah,
and then they watched TV the rest of the night.
We do the dishes or whatever like that. But sounds
kind of nice. I love that, sounds nice. I love that.
I loved hanging out with family and eating and talking.
Like again, my mom just loved food and just always
(15:29):
there was always something cooking somewhere, either her or my grandmother.
Just again, sloppy hands, things everywhere, sauces being made. It
was good and like just yeah, I think an experiment again,
trying different things. And I would always try to do
something every Thanksgiving, Like I go, I'm making braids fennel
this year? Did you I tried? Did you make fennel?
(15:53):
Say you grew up in Solertias? Yes? I grew up
in Woodstock. What about it? What are you talking about?
I have a Woodstock girl. No cool you went to?
Oh I'm sorry? Is high all the cool kids went to.
I think there was a summer school there either there
was a choice where we could have maybe gone to
(16:14):
Socrates or gone to Unto you imagine. But Untira was great.
But it was like a forty five minute ride from
Woodstock to but we used to go to the movies
and Sogers on Sunday, Sunday night, No way, that was
my first movie. Everything better. I used to I went
to summer school. I should say it like I'm proud
of it. But I went to summer school in Woodstock
(16:34):
And what's what start the elementary school right by the green,
right on the green, so you know that golf course. Yes,
that's where my father we lived on Chestnut l Road.
What was the place that there were all the bands,
super Cliff that used to go to the this bird
Cliff there was up on the mountain. You mean that
the outside Maverick There was Mavericks. It's a good bar almost.
(16:57):
It was a good bar. Like Rim would show up
there and like, yeah, when I went, you know, I'm
pretty old. So when I went there, that was just
after Dylan because when my parents went there, it was
an artist colony. You remember that when you would come
into Woodstock from Soberties, there's a Arts Students League. Yes,
and course like Philip Guston was there, A lot of
great artists were there, and then Bob Grossman, you're interviewing me.
(17:21):
By the way it happened, It just happens. So this
is what it is. It ends up. I knew I
was gonna do it. I got you. I'm always supposed
to talk about food. So I didn't meet Dylan in
a in a bar just when he got in the
motorcycle accident. Yeah, he got the motorcycle accident of the
wood stock. My mom, I went to a cyle brain.
Back to food I went to when I got sarent
Live and started to get famous, I would go home
(17:42):
to say how to you know my parents, and she
always wanted to go out to eat and show me off,
you know, but I wanted to eat homemade cooking. You know.
I don't want to go out to every night. I
live in New York City. So but she's like, let's go,
let's go out and go all right, let's go out.
I tell make a big guesction. I'm not going to
make a big deal. I go. I know sometimes you do,
and just like, don't I want to? I just want
to go and you know, all right, let's just got.
(18:04):
So we went to Woodstock. It's a great restaurant, and
there we walk in. They sit us at this one
table and she goes, I don't know if I like
this table. I go, don't start, don't start something. You start.
She goes, I'm not starting. I'm not starting anything I got.
You're raising your voice. So let's just have fun. Let's
have a good time. Don't make a big deal. So
we get drinks. Well as you orders, what are you gonna, goes,
I'm gonna have the lamb the lamb chaps. You're great.
(18:27):
I ordered, my dad orders. Were sitting there. The food comes,
hers doesn't come, so she's like, where's my lamb chaps.
Don't don't make it. Don't make a big deal. You
promised that. She goes, I'm not. I'm just I'm not
making meat, you know it. I'm just not gonna eat.
I go that's a big deal. That's a big deal.
Now what are you doing? So when the lamb chops come,
you're not gonna eat the food? She I'm not gonna
(18:49):
eat it. This is exactly what I'm talking about. This
is making She was, Oh, look it's coming now. So
it comes now, like she's matches, I'll eat a bit,
and she's cutting it all mad and angry, and she
takes it first by it and my kidding. She goes,
I go, you're kidding me? Are you choking? She's like,
my dad puts his finger down my mother's throat and
(19:12):
she's going like and he's doing gagging her trying. Woman
runs from down the restaurant. She goes, I'm a nurse.
I'm a nurse, knocks over, stops like banging in and
knocking into everything, the tables getting knocked over, going over
to my mom and she grabbed my mother, and my
mom made these noises I'd never heard of make before.
Not She's going oh oh, oh, oh oh, and then
(19:38):
a ball of lamb flies out of her mouth and
hits the wall. She sits down. She's crying, and my
dad says thank you. And I looked at my mom
and go, this is not making a big deal. Exactly
what I asked you did. Your mother was right, she did.
She shouldn't have eaten. She looking back on the stake
(20:02):
that lady nurshould mind her own business. Did you eat?
(20:26):
But did you eat out in restaurants? Was the family
occasions to go out to restaurants was a big deal
growing up because we didn't have that much money, so
Pizza Hut was a big deal. Pizza Hut would have
indoor seating and it was like a big deal. They
used to give you the sizzling pan of pizza special handling.
It was so hot. And there was a video game
table you could play pac Man and Caterpillar, so me
(20:47):
and my sister would play pac Man while we're waiting
for the pizza. There was a salad bar. I mean
remember salad bar? Of course, yeah it was. And so
going to the Pizza Hut was for an occasion that
was would it be somebody's birthday or somebody's on a ver,
someone did good on a test or night. Pizza was
a big deal. And then there was another place called
(21:08):
the Ground Round that was like a new restaurant in
a mall in Kingston and we used to go there
and there was a guy named the balloon Man who
was a creepy guy a weird mustache, and you used
to wear a cape and a T shirt that said
the Balloon Man, and he would go out to the
little kids like how old are you? You know, he
was definitely a little scared. He probably drove a van,
(21:29):
you know what I'm saying. And so I got, I go,
how old are you? And then need to let the
air out of the balloon and you do all his
tricks and he's like, are you married yet? Oh my god?
And so we'd try to dodge the balloon man while
we go in what age would that be, I'd said
that that was my teenage years, I'd probably say thirteen years.
We're going to the mall. We loved hanging out the mall,
which Amazon has made sure that there are no malls anymore.
(21:52):
But it was fun hanging out the mall. And when
you started going to restaurants, was that a revelation when
you went to a restaurant and you didn't have the
salad bar or the balloon? Yeah? My first revelation was
when I had to pay for my food. Yeah, And
I'll never forget it. I did stand up at this place,
something Harbor, and I was by myself and I did
stand up. I was probably eighteen, barely driving. I drove
(22:13):
myself at this gig and did the gig and you
get paid, you know whatever, it is, fifty bucks And
I got paid and after the gig, I did well,
and the owner said, Jimmy, you did really well. That
was great. I want to give you a little bonus,
and gave me another fifty bucks. It's one hundred dollars. Yeah,
it's the best thing in my best day of my life.
So I go, oh my gosh, I'm gonna go buy something.
(22:35):
And so across from where I was staying at this
tiny you know, comedians condo. They usually have a condominium
where the comedians live and stay. You live with the
other comedians. Very weird. But I went across the street
to this diner and they had pumpkin pancakes. I had
never had pumpkin pancakes, and I go, I like, I
like to have that, you know. I looked at the
menu as a special and they brought it and I
(22:56):
knew I was paying for my own money. And it
just tastes like the great I just think I ever
tasted in my life. I'll never forget it. Anytime I
see pumpkins bye latte and I make jokes about it
or pumpkin anything I go, I always think those pumpkin pancakes.
And that was like a game changing for me. Like,
but that is food and memory, isn't it. I mean
that you can remember that feeling. I'll never ever forget it.
(23:17):
You didn't tell me about the stand up or about
the place. You talk about the food. Yeah, and you're
not alone. You know, a lot of these interviews are
with people who were not entitled, whether it's Michael Kine
after the war living in a little, tiny hot or
Paul McCartney said that he remembers the first time he
was able to buy himself good food to eat. That
(23:37):
was a big moment. That was one of the reasons
I used saw his success, almost his success in terms
of what food he could eat. I thought, that's interesting.
When I used to play the improv in Los Angeles.
You know, I do a bunch of comedy clouds. But
when I ever played the improv, my mom would love
it because they fed you as well. They paid you
seven dollars, but they fed you anything on the menu.
(23:59):
So my mom I would call my mom's like, you
tell Bud Freeman, thank him for feeding my baby. I'm
so happy you're go doing the improv. You know. She
was always so proud. I remember my first Saturday night
that I got to perform at the improv which is
a big deal. I'm waiting to go on. I'm brand new,
and Jerry Seinfeld walks, sits down and go and this
is the peak of Seinfeld. Yeah, and I go, oh
(24:20):
my gosh. I went out to a pay phone and
I called my mom one hundred collect because I had
no money. I called her collect and she goes out like,
I go, mom, Jerry Seinfeld's here saying, oh my god,
she is he gonna do stand up? I go, I
don't think he's gonna do anything. He's just here eating
right now. And I was like, oh, so weld. So
I go in. She was only I have fun. Was
so exciting. So I go in and this is Saturday night,
(24:41):
it's a big deal, and of course he decides to
go on. So Jerry Seinfeld goes on. He does all
of his bits, like what's the hell, let's do this
whole giant thing standing ovation crushes. It's the best stand
up I've ever seen. And then they go all right,
who's next is Bob? And Bob goes, I'm not gonna
fallow Seinfelt and they are who's uh, where's Kevin? Is
(25:02):
you gonna go Kevin? Like I'm a following Jerry side
phone and they go, all right, who is who is
Jimmy Fallon? And I was like, that's to me. It's
like you're a kid, You're up. So they introduced me.
I had to follow Jerry Seinfeld on my first Saturday
night at the Improv, and it worked out because I
didn't impress him. Jerry. Yeah, so I had like a
doll and I did like, had you always thought of
(25:23):
doing that anyway? Or you just had it? I just
hadn't think about it. Yes, since he was there, I'm like,
how would I follow this? But I had to fall home?
But I love the Improv because you see it to eat. Yeah,
they gave you the food. They gave me food. Yeah
it was there to be chicken fingers or whatever it was,
but I remember it was something, but that's chicken tendons.
And when did you go to your first real restaurant
where you felt that you were that you could afford
(25:45):
to eat? Was that that was a problem? Sarent Live?
I think Sarah Live. I started going out with Lorne.
He would take the cast out, so then you kind
of go, oh, this is what restaurants are like. This
would have to dress like and understand the whole thing
and appreciate all of it. And I remember going to
like some fancy restaurants and like per Se. Oh yeah,
big deal. That's intimidating My wife. At the time, we
(26:08):
were dating and she was living in LA and she moved.
She came to New York to visit, and she was
I was going to ask her to marry me. I
was going to propose and surprise her in Gramercy Park
and she came. I had already asked her dad for permission.
She came, and I go, hi, honey, she goes Hi.
She goes, I have a surprise for you. And then
my head, I'm like, hope, it was a mess with
my surprise because I haven't I have a real surprise. Yeah,
(26:30):
I have a ring waiting for you. So she goes,
I got us reservations at per Se. I go, oh,
my gosh, that's the place I'm dying to go to.
I mean, it's Michelin starts unbelievable. So I go, um, okay, um,
I'll do it. I'll do it. After in my head,
I go with this cut to fourteen courses later. Yeah,
fourteen tasting those men. I was fourteen. I was wasting yeah.
(26:51):
I was out of my mind drunk. I was like,
I didn't even know that the last two courses were
I'm like, this is and I was eating the apkin.
I mean, I was just terrible. I was just a disaster.
So I get home. I can't ask her to marry me. Now,
I'm a mess and might call my brother in law
now and I go, he goes, did you do it?
I go, I didn't. I went to Persee. He's like,
(27:12):
why don't you do it at per Se? I'm like,
I thought in my head, like what if Persee closes?
And now it becomes like a I don't know, a
strip joint or something, or a laser tag place. I
don't want to tell my kids. That's where I asked
her mom to marry me in the strip club. You know,
so you never know if thank thank you. I have
to say, that is very kind of future I wants.
(27:34):
So then I didn't ask you for park There was
no chance of that happen. He goes, go to the bar,
go to Molly's. Go to the bar right now and
ask her. I go, okay, hold on the go, honey,
do you want to? And she was in pea do
you want to have another drink. She goes, you want another?
You want another drink? Like, do you have a problem? Like,
I'm not going to start off my marriage like this.
So I passed out, why did you do it? And
(27:56):
I waited six months? Six months? Oh really this? And
she said do you know people I didn't know? You
can hear someone roll their eyes over there? Yeah, but
that is that is six months. It's a long time.
So and itways, I ended up getting married with my wife. Yeah.
I go to the doc and I said, don't cry.
(28:17):
Because I'm very emotional person. I said, let her cry
first if you're going to cry, because it's a big deal.
I have a ring in my pocket and wearing my
bathing suit. I took out the ring and as soon
as I got down on one knee, I totally started crying.
And I was like, when two people love each other,
when two people us. She thought I was having a stroke.
She's like, oh my god, you okay, but what did
(28:39):
you use your wedding? Did you have a wedding with food?
We had a whole weekend of food, so we want
to make did you get married ready for noodies? No? Okay?
Sort of cool? Niagara fALS cooler, cooler than Niagara Falls,
adam On decks bigger, bigger than they addam On Canada
(29:00):
now bigger than Canada. Lauren is from here Laurada. Forget
I'm saying because in Canada, Neckar Island. Oh, Neckar Island?
How did we get up there? Then Neckar Islands? Some
thinking big? Just think of anything? Oh? I thought it
was Richard Branson's place where dam Like, what were we doing?
You said up? Oh you didn't mean upstage? Money wise?
(29:23):
I don't thinking how expensive? And when can you get
Richard Branson? And I yes, I went to his spot. Yeah,
and it was the best. Yeah, he hasn't ye. It
is so fun that they had sushi chefs in the pool. Wow,
we were the most boring people to ever stay at
Richard Branson's island. He's so fun and he says, he's like,
Flon's good morning. Would you like to go race in
(29:45):
the submarines? You know? Really? No, thanks, We're happy in
the pool. Yeah. It's like or would you like to
fight each other? And you know with blow torches? And
you go or what I go? No, We're good, Richard,
Thank you very much that these are really do you
want to zip line over your dad and he gets
attacked by alligators. They go, no, thanks, dad, I'm sorry.
I just want to get I want to get married
with my dad's fine over here. Thank you very much, Richard.
(30:07):
We were the most boring people. We had a blast.
My famous story is that somebody once ordered a cake
and they said, would you write will you marry me?
(30:28):
On the cake? So we made the nut chocolate Nemesis
and we wrote will you marry me? And halfway through
the meal, he came up and said, cancel the cake.
I know, I know, I know, I promise. It's amazing.
What happened that he canceled the cake. We never found out. Yeah,
(30:48):
I cancel the cake. And then who did you get
the cake to? Because we probably hated ourselves. He got
married for very private things, you know, in public space,
so you know, idea of proposal. Yeah, I didn't want
to do it there, maybe not, so I waited did
you do it? And then her family has a summer
house in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesake. It's gorgeous, unbelievably
(31:10):
beautiful and means a lot to her. You know, this
family summer house. So I have the ring. Everyone knows
I'm gonna do it, and I go, okay, I go,
I'll just have a cocktail with her on the dock
and I'll do it. But it was a cocktail. Remember
this is a food program, yes, and which I started
drinking because of going to England. I stayed at a
place called did you had Your First? It was a
(31:33):
B and B. Yeah, it was all a lot of
cool kids would say, yeah, very cool. So I went
there and Martin Miller was the owner, and so he
goes up, Jimmy, if you'd a part in the accent? Uh, Jimmy,
if you like to come down to the living room
before we go out to dinner. We like to have
all guest here and just have a cocktail. And I
go sure, of course, it's great. So I went down
to have a cocktail. He's like, you made it. He's like, oh,
(31:53):
would you like, hey, yeah, gin and Tonic, And I
go no, no, thank you, because I was like, I
threw up in it when I was in high school
and I can't even near the stuff. And I could
tell he was upset, and he's like, I got to
a hupset you. He goes, no, it's just that you know,
we've we've got ranked like, you know, ninety nine out
of one hundred and gin magazine or something. I go whatever.
(32:14):
You make me yea some magazine, so I go whatever.
But he made me a gin Tonic was the most refreshing,
best thing I ever had in my life, Martin Miller's gin.
I still drink it to this day. I made timber
Lake drinks it because now it's the best. I love
that and still and now my wife drinks it too.
Just two questions. When you go to a city, right,
can you go to London in Paris or Los Angeles
(32:38):
or Buenos Aurs Do you think about what you're going
to eat in that city? Oh? Exactly, I do. I
do research ahead of time. Yeah, if I'm going to DC,
I gotta go to Ben's Chili Bowl, Okay, you know
London River Cafe always, I mean, we have to. It's
it's if you're anywhere, if you can also tell do
you ever go to the markets and see what's there?
(32:59):
Do you see? Because that's a nice way to know
a city, to walk around and see what's that? Say? So,
I'm going to just say that I love you and
you are so sweet to do this and if you
think about food, this is the question. I was told
him in podcast school that you you have one question
to ask everyone. And so the one question I chose
(33:22):
is that food is alleviate hunger, and food is communication,
and food is getting around the table, and food is love.
It is also comfort. And so if you had to
go to a food when you needed comfort, what would
that food be? And I can tell you that Jeff
Goldum said a bowl of cereal, and Brian said a
bar chocolate, or somebody says pasta. So you can think
(33:45):
about I'm offline now right, you can just think for
a minute. Comfort for me, there's so many I would
My immediately thought was pizza. I know it's such a
New York American thing to say, but a slice of pizza,
It's just always there. I'd loved it since I was
a kid. I love it now. You know, good pizza,
bad pizza doesn't matter to me. As long as I've
(34:06):
got a slice, I fold it in half and I
eat it, usually get it with pepperoni. But it's the
greatest thing. Yeah, pizza is my comfort food. I will
run to you a pizza. Let's go have pizza. Let's
go okay, thank you, Thank you for listening to Reefe's
(34:29):
Table for If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure
to rate and review the podcast on iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Ruthie's Table for a production of iHeartRadio and
Adami's Studios most nights, Jimmy Fallon and I are hosts.
We both have a number of people we'd reach out to.
For me one hundred and eighty for Jimmy one point
eight million. I am a pilot of a small plane
(00:22):
and Jimmy is an astronaut flying to the moon as
a chef. My hosting is through cooking in the River Cafe.
Jimmy sings, dances, talks and makes people laugh on the
Tonight Show. Over thirty five years, I can easily spot
a food lover, and from the first moment we met,
(00:45):
I knew Jimmy was one a food lover. Studies the menu,
ask questions, wants to explore the kitchen, and the people
they care most about meeting are the chefs. When they're
finished eating, often they want to start all over again.
Curiosity is the key for Jimmy to have interviewed thousands
of people over so many years. You don't just have curiosity,
(01:08):
you need to be a virtuoso of curiosity. So today,
on a gray winter day in New York, where he's
sitting here at thirty Rock two friends to talk about memories, cooking, children,
and more. A chef and a star, a pilot and
an astronaut joined by love of food and each other.
Do I interview you or do you? That's the question?
(01:32):
The hardest thing, Yeah I did you know? Somebody said
the thing about an interview with the is you can
interrupt your guests. So that's the hardest thing is yet
they have to listen. Yeah. My first ever interview I
ever did was Robert de Niro. He's a great guy,
so good. The thing about Robert he doesn't really talk.
(01:52):
He doesn't really like to talk. Okay, so if if
you ever talk to him, you're like, Robert, I can't
believe you're here, You're on the show. Welcome, thanks so much.
Uh you're you live in New York? Right yeah? And
he goes yep yep. I go wow, wow, Okay, well
that's the next question. I go the next question. You
you love Italian food? Right? And yepp okay, I'm going
(02:17):
to another page. You could hear the sweat flop sweat
forming on my head. I was like, oh my gosh,
he's the nicest guy. He just did me a favorite.
Because you couldn't book people. When I first started, you know,
it was a brand new show and no one knew
the shows me a flop or hit. So he did
me a sad and we've had him back many times.
Now he talks now, he now he SLAPPs you. He
said that it can be a technique with journalists. We
(02:39):
once had a journalist doing a profile of Richard and
he hung around the house for days. He would never
say anything, and so I would, you know, talk talk talk,
talk talk, because somebody's got a talk talkers. Do you
remember when I first I kind of came up to
you at your restaurant and I hopefully didn't attack you.
But I was such a fan of yours because I
collect cookbooks. Yeah, and one of my favorite cookbooks is
(03:01):
River Cafe, the one that's oh the silver one. Yeah
that's really easy. Yes, and it's one of my favorite
cookbooks for years. I love it. And I was like,
oh my gosh, can meeting you? And I'm like I'm
at the River Cafe. I'm like show me everything, and
you're like, well, we have a new book, and I
go let me look at the new book, and then
you will showing me how the restaurant has grown. Yes, yeah,
(03:24):
and I was like, this is unbelievable. You know, before
we even get to the food. The restaurant was awesome.
But that's you. I mean, we remember we talk about
the time that you know, Jimmy Fallon came in and
wanted to know everything. As I said, he wanted to
meet the chefs. You one, how do you put what
would you put in that wood? Over? And then yeah,
you make the pasta? Do you boil it? Because I
think also that I'd like to ask you a questions.
(03:46):
So how do you do a show? How does a
pilot you know, fireplane? How do you know that the
lamb comes out the same time as a possible? Yeah?
I want to know why did you choose the silverware? Yeah?
To go with this, you know, I know, but love that.
We love that curiosity you have You ever worked in
a restaurant? I never have. I don't know if I
could do it, to be honest, I don't know if
I have the patience you might as if a chef.
(04:08):
You were a chef, maybe maybe I could try. I
love to get in the cook and I loved different recipes.
I'm so I love it. It's a meditation for me.
Almost is it. Yeah, well that's a conversation. But for now,
should we start out with your recipe? Because that is
the idea that everybody reads a recipe, So reading it's
a recipe from the River Cafe Look Book, which is,
(04:31):
by the way, genius. Whoever thought of the idea, I'm
assuming it was you three of us. It is matching
art pieces with food on these photos. When I was
a kid, I remember my grandma used to do a
lot of babysitting for me, and I would go over
and she had one cookbook. It was a Betty Crocker
cook Yeah, and the pictures were so great. It was
(04:52):
like a cherry pie and it wasn't like we were
making them, but I would just look at the book
and flip through the pages and look at all the
awesome photos. And that was for a kid, that was
like my favorite book to read. So I think this
is brilliant. I'm honored to read a recipe. Now. Okay,
well what are you reading right? This is for lemon
ice cream, okay, which sounds to intimidated, no, but it's
the shortest recipes here. We go finely grated zest of
(05:14):
one and juice of three lemons. I can do that.
One cup castor and prencies super fine sugar, half a
teaspoon of sea salt. Tea needs a little bit. The
sea salt we use is what they call mold and salt,
which you can flake with your hands. It's a salty
other fancy salt. Yes, and then you have fifteen ounces
(05:37):
scant two cups double heavy cream. What a scant scat
means almost it's what do you say, sad scat mews smooth,
not measurable. It's like a scant, say you know, it's
like a little pinch pinch of two cups. That's a
big pinch. Two cups of double heavy cream. That's it.
That's the ingredients lemons, sugar, salt and cream exactly. Okay,
(06:02):
you need a lemon squeezer, you need a greater you
need a scale if you if you want measuring cups,
measuring spoons, bowl, spoon, freezer proof container, it's too you
have to do here. This is the only ice cream
we know that doesn't have to be churned. What, yes,
be sure to wash the lemons, roll the lemons before
you squeeze them to get the maximum juice. I do that,
by the way, you do that I'm a genonic dreer.
(06:24):
So I take my lime and roll it. Roll it limes,
particularly because yes, the juice out there, Yes you need it.
Nothing worse than like a pulpy, dry lime. Roll the
lemons before you get that maximum juice. In a bowl,
mix the lemon, zest and juice, sugar and salt with
a spoon. Slowly, slowly add the cream, carefully mixing with
the spoon. It will immediately thicken. Put the ice cream
(06:46):
mixture in a one liter at one quart freezer proof
container and freeze for two hours to harden. That's it.
That is it what I mean, honestly, it is because
of the lemon and the cream. Basically you're eating cream
with lemon and a spoon. It's delicious. Oh my gosh. Yeah,
tonight with kids, the kids will love it, fantastic. I
(07:07):
just want to say I love the colors on it.
You know, my husband did an airport in Madrid called
Baracas Airport. Have you ever been to Madrid? And every
he loved color, and so every beam is a different color.
It's like the rainbow and it just takes it. So
we thought, how do you follow those photographs? You know,
you follow them with color. Color. Every single page is
a different color, so it just makes it a bit even.
(07:29):
You think about that when you do not only your
cookbooks but your restaurant everything. I think, I think, I
think color. I think, like you were saying, lighting, I
trained as a graphic designer. So even the food. While
you put food on the plate, not in that fancy
artive way with a little squidge you are that kind
of thing. We don't do that. But if you're going
to put a piece of sea bass on the plate,
and you're going to put a lemon on the plage,
(07:52):
and you're going to put some spinach or cannellini beans
or whatever, baked tomatoes, you really think about how you
played that. And it's very interesting to see the way
she young chefs to plate. You know, do you watch
reactions when the plate comes to the Always? Yeah, I
mean I try, you know, because you know, we have
an open kitchen, so we're too you know, it's a
live performance. It's like you when you get up there
(08:13):
and you have your audience, and of course we don't
get applause and we get boozed. What I always look
for is to see if they share, so then you
can see the reaction. You know, they go, well, I
don't know if you can do this audio? Yeah, how
do you make it? Yeah, if you were tuning in,
(08:37):
they don't know what's going on exactly. Welcome. So we
could go back to the grandparents in the yard. Yeah,
living with your grandparents. Tell me about your grandmother. She
was Norwegian and Irish and she was my mom's mom,
(08:58):
and she lived with us. She was she lived in
her back yard, in the back, in the back, not
in the ten. I had to tell you that. I
was with my seven year old granddaughter. We're going down
the street and I said, you know, I used to
live on the street. And she went, oh, poor you.
And I said why. I said, that's a really nice
street to live on. She said, but you had to
live on the street. No, no, sorry, they didn't live
(09:21):
in my backyard. Your poor grandmother was in the backyard. Ten. Yeah,
we fed them, so they were well fed. But they
were in a little cottage in her backyard, but shared
our dress so they were basically our neighbors, you know.
So they helped raise me. Actually, so I go over
there and there really is no good Irish cuisine. Unfortunately.
I can say that as an Irish person. This way,
you never you never see an Irish cookbook because everything
(09:44):
is boiled. Tatoes boil boilet, old boil it boilet. Yeah
when he got there, cabbage boil it, boil it with
the with the corn beans, boi whatever, and you're okay,
this is the worst. So that's why you never see that.
So but so we kind of tried to steal from
other cuisine. Beans. We had Italian neighbors that were great
Polish neighbors, and then my grandmother Norwegian, so we had
(10:05):
a lot of like meatball type of things. My grandmother
would always be you know, she had that rule. If
you drop it on the floor, not only is the
five second rule, you're allowed to eat it. But Jimmy
would eat it. She would feed me whatever fill on
the floor. I would Yeah, I got all the scraps. Yeah,
but I loved it, and I loved the way she cooked.
And I just washed her hands. And my mom too.
They always had like something on them. My mom always
(10:27):
had like hamburger meat or something. She would answer the
phone with something on her hand and then hang up
and I go, Mom, you gotta wash. Yeah, I can't
pick up the phone after you if you'd keep it on. Yeah, oh,
oh my god, I was disgusting. But living with your
grandparents is quite something, though, isn't it, Because you have
the cooking is shared. It's very family style cooking. Yes,
we always ate how many of you? It was me
(10:49):
and my sister. That's it. I had one sister, my
mom and dad and your mom work or did she
stayed at home and raised us? There was a lot
of a lot of my mom cooking stuff like that,
and always experimenting and trying stuff. Did she experiment it? Also?
She would also lie to us too, a lot. I
mean she said, like, we had a meal every year,
(11:10):
almost every day of my life called pastava pastava zul? Oh,
that's isn't that a song hits It's like a big
pizza pie. That's when your mom lies to you says
it's passive zul But it's not because it's not. It wasn't.
(11:33):
She was, so, is it kind of it's an Italian
soup and it wasn't. When I was growing up, it
was basically like macaroni noodles, ground beef and pasta and
beans and garlic and garlic powder and song. Like, what
did she lie about? Loved it. Well, that's not that's
not what passive zul is. Pastave azul is a soup,
(11:54):
right like soup, but we did sand soup. It was
like a really chunky soup. There was no there's no
liquid dry almost. It was actually almost like I would
call it gruel. Yeah, I had to name it for her.
That was her thing. And then I remember what she
was like. She has a very kind of knee laucky voice, like, Jimmy,
do you want to grilled cheese? I got, thanks, Tom.
(12:14):
And I knew that she made it because I would
hear her scraping the burnt off the toast before she
gave it to me. She always burned my grill chees.
But she's hilarious. My mom and my dad were Did
your father cook? I don't remember him cooking, not even
like kind of man things like barbecues and no, I
mean barbecue. He would arrange the briquettes, you know, and
(12:36):
like that like it was a big masterful thing, like
really that it's just a pile of brie. Always the
barbecue that yeah, yeah, what was the kitchen like? Was
that out in the art as well? Yeah? At open
space in our house? Yeah, we lived. You know. Our
kitchen was where we would have the parties yea, and
everyone would always drink there and hang big house. No,
(12:57):
it was tiny country house, but our kitchen was red
and red and blue. It was like, oh man, I
lived there basically. I mean every big event was in
the kitchen. Birthday parties, hanging out after school with my friends,
we'd all just go in the kitchen. We'd hang out
with my parents. We drink with my parents, uh and
hang with them. And the music was in there. We'd
(13:18):
always listen to music. My dad always loved duop music
and yeah, like like doo do do so we would
listen to duop music. And he served in Vietnam. He
was in there navy. What so how long was her
wife for? He was gone for I mean, I just
(13:41):
before he had me, but it was three years, I
want to say, on the ship. But he loved duop
and he would always play these real to real tapes
of him in this group singing on the ship and
they'd sing like, yeah, they sing all these songs, and
I go, oh cool. And when I got older, I
watched these movies about you know, Vietnam war or something,
(14:02):
and they never played duop music. They would play Jimmie Hendrix,
they'd play you know, stuff that I go they're missing
the everyone listening. Turns out my dad was just a nerd.
I think I know more duop songs than I do
modern songs. But I remember he had me as a
kid climb up. We lived in upstate New York, and
you had me climb up into the house and put
wires all over in the attic just we can get
(14:22):
reception of this radio station, WCBSFM, and in Brooklyn, New York.
It was probably terrible for me and Gloria with all
the radiation from those wires. But did you did you
have males family, males around the table? Would you sit
down in the that beautiful kitchen of yours. We would
sit in the living room, a dining room. We had
a dining room that would use on Thanksgiving, Yeah, in Easter,
(14:43):
I think, yeah, yeah, basically only the only time we
went to church we would use that room. But you
know the kind of big events, you know, we would
have in the dining room. But are most of the
time we had dinner together every night without watching TV,
watching TV, and we'd had those TVs tables fold up
TV tables and with their cheap metal things, and you
(15:05):
click them together and set it up, and everyone make
a dish and then come out and you eat together
and watch TV. You watch Barney Miller or whatever. Would
you do homework? Then I do homework and then yeah,
and then they watched TV the rest of the night.
We do the dishes or whatever like that. But sounds
kind of nice. I love that, sounds nice. I love that.
I loved hanging out with family and eating and talking.
Like again, my mom just loved food and just always
(15:29):
there was always something cooking somewhere, either her or my grandmother.
Just again, sloppy hands, things everywhere, sauces being made. It
was good and like just yeah, I think an experiment again,
trying different things. And I would always try to do
something every Thanksgiving, Like I go, I'm making braids fennel
this year? Did you I tried? Did you make fennel?
(15:53):
Say you grew up in Solertias? Yes? I grew up
in Woodstock. What about it? What are you talking about?
I have a Woodstock girl. No cool you went to?
Oh I'm sorry? Is high all the cool kids went to.
I think there was a summer school there either there
was a choice where we could have maybe gone to
(16:14):
Socrates or gone to Unto you imagine. But Untira was great.
But it was like a forty five minute ride from
Woodstock to but we used to go to the movies
and Sogers on Sunday, Sunday night, No way, that was
my first movie. Everything better. I used to I went
to summer school. I should say it like I'm proud
of it. But I went to summer school in Woodstock
(16:34):
And what's what start the elementary school right by the green,
right on the green, so you know that golf course. Yes,
that's where my father we lived on Chestnut l Road.
What was the place that there were all the bands,
super Cliff that used to go to the this bird
Cliff there was up on the mountain. You mean that
the outside Maverick There was Mavericks. It's a good bar almost.
(16:57):
It was a good bar. Like Rim would show up
there and like, yeah, when I went, you know, I'm
pretty old. So when I went there, that was just
after Dylan because when my parents went there, it was
an artist colony. You remember that when you would come
into Woodstock from Soberties, there's a Arts Students League. Yes,
and course like Philip Guston was there, A lot of
great artists were there, and then Bob Grossman, you're interviewing me.
(17:21):
By the way it happened, It just happens. So this
is what it is. It ends up. I knew I
was gonna do it. I got you. I'm always supposed
to talk about food. So I didn't meet Dylan in
a in a bar just when he got in the
motorcycle accident. Yeah, he got the motorcycle accident of the
wood stock. My mom, I went to a cyle brain.
Back to food I went to when I got sarent
Live and started to get famous, I would go home
(17:42):
to say how to you know my parents, and she
always wanted to go out to eat and show me off,
you know, but I wanted to eat homemade cooking. You know.
I don't want to go out to every night. I
live in New York City. So but she's like, let's go,
let's go out and go all right, let's go out.
I tell make a big guesction. I'm not going to
make a big deal. I go. I know sometimes you do,
and just like, don't I want to? I just want
to go and you know, all right, let's just got.
(18:04):
So we went to Woodstock. It's a great restaurant, and
there we walk in. They sit us at this one
table and she goes, I don't know if I like
this table. I go, don't start, don't start something. You start.
She goes, I'm not starting. I'm not starting anything I got.
You're raising your voice. So let's just have fun. Let's
have a good time. Don't make a big deal. So
we get drinks. Well as you orders, what are you gonna, goes,
I'm gonna have the lamb the lamb chaps. You're great.
(18:27):
I ordered, my dad orders. Were sitting there. The food comes,
hers doesn't come, so she's like, where's my lamb chaps.
Don't don't make it. Don't make a big deal. You
promised that. She goes, I'm not. I'm just I'm not
making meat, you know it. I'm just not gonna eat.
I go that's a big deal. That's a big deal.
Now what are you doing? So when the lamb chops come,
you're not gonna eat the food? She I'm not gonna
(18:49):
eat it. This is exactly what I'm talking about. This
is making She was, Oh, look it's coming now. So
it comes now, like she's matches, I'll eat a bit,
and she's cutting it all mad and angry, and she
takes it first by it and my kidding. She goes,
I go, you're kidding me? Are you choking? She's like,
my dad puts his finger down my mother's throat and
(19:12):
she's going like and he's doing gagging her trying. Woman
runs from down the restaurant. She goes, I'm a nurse.
I'm a nurse, knocks over, stops like banging in and
knocking into everything, the tables getting knocked over, going over
to my mom and she grabbed my mother, and my
mom made these noises I'd never heard of make before.
Not She's going oh oh, oh, oh oh, and then
(19:38):
a ball of lamb flies out of her mouth and
hits the wall. She sits down. She's crying, and my
dad says thank you. And I looked at my mom
and go, this is not making a big deal. Exactly
what I asked you did. Your mother was right, she did.
She shouldn't have eaten. She looking back on the stake
(20:02):
that lady nurshould mind her own business. Did you eat?
(20:26):
But did you eat out in restaurants? Was the family
occasions to go out to restaurants was a big deal
growing up because we didn't have that much money, so
Pizza Hut was a big deal. Pizza Hut would have
indoor seating and it was like a big deal. They
used to give you the sizzling pan of pizza special handling.
It was so hot. And there was a video game
table you could play pac Man and Caterpillar, so me
(20:47):
and my sister would play pac Man while we're waiting
for the pizza. There was a salad bar. I mean
remember salad bar? Of course, yeah it was. And so
going to the Pizza Hut was for an occasion that
was would it be somebody's birthday or somebody's on a ver,
someone did good on a test or night. Pizza was
a big deal. And then there was another place called
(21:08):
the Ground Round that was like a new restaurant in
a mall in Kingston and we used to go there
and there was a guy named the balloon Man who
was a creepy guy a weird mustache, and you used
to wear a cape and a T shirt that said
the Balloon Man, and he would go out to the
little kids like how old are you? You know, he
was definitely a little scared. He probably drove a van,
(21:29):
you know what I'm saying. And so I got, I go,
how old are you? And then need to let the
air out of the balloon and you do all his
tricks and he's like, are you married yet? Oh my god?
And so we'd try to dodge the balloon man while
we go in what age would that be, I'd said
that that was my teenage years, I'd probably say thirteen years.
We're going to the mall. We loved hanging out the mall,
which Amazon has made sure that there are no malls anymore.
(21:52):
But it was fun hanging out the mall. And when
you started going to restaurants, was that a revelation when
you went to a restaurant and you didn't have the
salad bar or the balloon? Yeah? My first revelation was
when I had to pay for my food. Yeah, And
I'll never forget it. I did stand up at this place,
something Harbor, and I was by myself and I did
stand up. I was probably eighteen, barely driving. I drove
(22:13):
myself at this gig and did the gig and you
get paid, you know whatever, it is, fifty bucks And
I got paid and after the gig, I did well,
and the owner said, Jimmy, you did really well. That
was great. I want to give you a little bonus,
and gave me another fifty bucks. It's one hundred dollars. Yeah,
it's the best thing in my best day of my life.
So I go, oh my gosh, I'm gonna go buy something.
(22:35):
And so across from where I was staying at this
tiny you know, comedians condo. They usually have a condominium
where the comedians live and stay. You live with the
other comedians. Very weird. But I went across the street
to this diner and they had pumpkin pancakes. I had
never had pumpkin pancakes, and I go, I like, I
like to have that, you know. I looked at the
menu as a special and they brought it and I
(22:56):
knew I was paying for my own money. And it
just tastes like the great I just think I ever
tasted in my life. I'll never forget it. Anytime I
see pumpkins bye latte and I make jokes about it
or pumpkin anything I go, I always think those pumpkin pancakes.
And that was like a game changing for me. Like,
but that is food and memory, isn't it. I mean
that you can remember that feeling. I'll never ever forget it.
(23:17):
You didn't tell me about the stand up or about
the place. You talk about the food. Yeah, and you're
not alone. You know, a lot of these interviews are
with people who were not entitled, whether it's Michael Kine
after the war living in a little, tiny hot or
Paul McCartney said that he remembers the first time he
was able to buy himself good food to eat. That
(23:37):
was a big moment. That was one of the reasons
I used saw his success, almost his success in terms
of what food he could eat. I thought, that's interesting.
When I used to play the improv in Los Angeles.
You know, I do a bunch of comedy clouds. But
when I ever played the improv, my mom would love
it because they fed you as well. They paid you
seven dollars, but they fed you anything on the menu.
(23:59):
So my mom I would call my mom's like, you
tell Bud Freeman, thank him for feeding my baby. I'm
so happy you're go doing the improv. You know. She
was always so proud. I remember my first Saturday night
that I got to perform at the improv which is
a big deal. I'm waiting to go on. I'm brand new,
and Jerry Seinfeld walks, sits down and go and this
is the peak of Seinfeld. Yeah, and I go, oh
(24:20):
my gosh. I went out to a pay phone and
I called my mom one hundred collect because I had
no money. I called her collect and she goes out like,
I go, mom, Jerry Seinfeld's here saying, oh my god,
she is he gonna do stand up? I go, I
don't think he's gonna do anything. He's just here eating
right now. And I was like, oh, so weld. So
I go in. She was only I have fun. Was
so exciting. So I go in and this is Saturday night,
(24:41):
it's a big deal, and of course he decides to
go on. So Jerry Seinfeld goes on. He does all
of his bits, like what's the hell, let's do this
whole giant thing standing ovation crushes. It's the best stand
up I've ever seen. And then they go all right,
who's next is Bob? And Bob goes, I'm not gonna
fallow Seinfelt and they are who's uh, where's Kevin? Is
(25:02):
you gonna go Kevin? Like I'm a following Jerry side
phone and they go, all right, who is who is
Jimmy Fallon? And I was like, that's to me. It's
like you're a kid, You're up. So they introduced me.
I had to follow Jerry Seinfeld on my first Saturday
night at the Improv, and it worked out because I
didn't impress him. Jerry. Yeah, so I had like a
doll and I did like, had you always thought of
(25:23):
doing that anyway? Or you just had it? I just
hadn't think about it. Yes, since he was there, I'm like,
how would I follow this? But I had to fall home?
But I love the Improv because you see it to eat. Yeah,
they gave you the food. They gave me food. Yeah
it was there to be chicken fingers or whatever it was,
but I remember it was something, but that's chicken tendons.
And when did you go to your first real restaurant
where you felt that you were that you could afford
(25:45):
to eat? Was that that was a problem? Sarent Live?
I think Sarah Live. I started going out with Lorne.
He would take the cast out, so then you kind
of go, oh, this is what restaurants are like. This
would have to dress like and understand the whole thing
and appreciate all of it. And I remember going to
like some fancy restaurants and like per Se. Oh yeah,
big deal. That's intimidating My wife. At the time, we
(26:08):
were dating and she was living in LA and she moved.
She came to New York to visit, and she was
I was going to ask her to marry me. I
was going to propose and surprise her in Gramercy Park
and she came. I had already asked her dad for permission.
She came, and I go, hi, honey, she goes Hi.
She goes, I have a surprise for you. And then
my head, I'm like, hope, it was a mess with
my surprise because I haven't I have a real surprise. Yeah,
(26:30):
I have a ring waiting for you. So she goes,
I got us reservations at per Se. I go, oh,
my gosh, that's the place I'm dying to go to.
I mean, it's Michelin starts unbelievable. So I go, um, okay, um,
I'll do it. I'll do it. After in my head,
I go with this cut to fourteen courses later. Yeah,
fourteen tasting those men. I was fourteen. I was wasting yeah.
(26:51):
I was out of my mind drunk. I was like,
I didn't even know that the last two courses were
I'm like, this is and I was eating the apkin.
I mean, I was just terrible. I was just a disaster.
So I get home. I can't ask her to marry me. Now,
I'm a mess and might call my brother in law
now and I go, he goes, did you do it?
I go, I didn't. I went to Persee. He's like,
(27:12):
why don't you do it at per Se? I'm like,
I thought in my head, like what if Persee closes?
And now it becomes like a I don't know, a
strip joint or something, or a laser tag place. I
don't want to tell my kids. That's where I asked
her mom to marry me in the strip club. You know,
so you never know if thank thank you. I have
to say, that is very kind of future I wants.
(27:34):
So then I didn't ask you for park There was
no chance of that happen. He goes, go to the bar,
go to Molly's. Go to the bar right now and
ask her. I go, okay, hold on the go, honey,
do you want to? And she was in pea do
you want to have another drink. She goes, you want another?
You want another drink? Like, do you have a problem? Like,
I'm not going to start off my marriage like this.
So I passed out, why did you do it? And
(27:56):
I waited six months? Six months? Oh really this? And
she said do you know people I didn't know? You
can hear someone roll their eyes over there? Yeah, but
that is that is six months. It's a long time.
So and itways, I ended up getting married with my wife. Yeah.
I go to the doc and I said, don't cry.
(28:17):
Because I'm very emotional person. I said, let her cry
first if you're going to cry, because it's a big deal.
I have a ring in my pocket and wearing my
bathing suit. I took out the ring and as soon
as I got down on one knee, I totally started crying.
And I was like, when two people love each other,
when two people us. She thought I was having a stroke.
She's like, oh my god, you okay, but what did
(28:39):
you use your wedding? Did you have a wedding with food?
We had a whole weekend of food, so we want
to make did you get married ready for noodies? No? Okay?
Sort of cool? Niagara fALS cooler, cooler than Niagara Falls,
adam On decks bigger, bigger than they addam On Canada
(29:00):
now bigger than Canada. Lauren is from here Laurada. Forget
I'm saying because in Canada, Neckar Island. Oh, Neckar Island?
How did we get up there? Then Neckar Islands? Some
thinking big? Just think of anything? Oh? I thought it
was Richard Branson's place where dam Like, what were we doing?
You said up? Oh you didn't mean upstage? Money wise?
(29:23):
I don't thinking how expensive? And when can you get
Richard Branson? And I yes, I went to his spot. Yeah,
and it was the best. Yeah, he hasn't ye. It
is so fun that they had sushi chefs in the pool. Wow,
we were the most boring people to ever stay at
Richard Branson's island. He's so fun and he says, he's like,
Flon's good morning. Would you like to go race in
(29:45):
the submarines? You know? Really? No, thanks, We're happy in
the pool. Yeah. It's like or would you like to
fight each other? And you know with blow torches? And
you go or what I go? No, We're good, Richard,
Thank you very much that these are really do you
want to zip line over your dad and he gets
attacked by alligators. They go, no, thanks, dad, I'm sorry.
I just want to get I want to get married
with my dad's fine over here. Thank you very much, Richard.
(30:07):
We were the most boring people. We had a blast.
My famous story is that somebody once ordered a cake
and they said, would you write will you marry me?
(30:28):
On the cake? So we made the nut chocolate Nemesis
and we wrote will you marry me? And halfway through
the meal, he came up and said, cancel the cake.
I know, I know, I know, I promise. It's amazing.
What happened that he canceled the cake. We never found out. Yeah,
(30:48):
I cancel the cake. And then who did you get
the cake to? Because we probably hated ourselves. He got
married for very private things, you know, in public space,
so you know, idea of proposal. Yeah, I didn't want
to do it there, maybe not, so I waited did
you do it? And then her family has a summer
house in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesake. It's gorgeous, unbelievably
(31:10):
beautiful and means a lot to her. You know, this
family summer house. So I have the ring. Everyone knows
I'm gonna do it, and I go, okay, I go,
I'll just have a cocktail with her on the dock
and I'll do it. But it was a cocktail. Remember
this is a food program, yes, and which I started
drinking because of going to England. I stayed at a
place called did you had Your First? It was a
(31:33):
B and B. Yeah, it was all a lot of
cool kids would say, yeah, very cool. So I went
there and Martin Miller was the owner, and so he
goes up, Jimmy, if you'd a part in the accent? Uh, Jimmy,
if you like to come down to the living room
before we go out to dinner. We like to have
all guest here and just have a cocktail. And I
go sure, of course, it's great. So I went down
to have a cocktail. He's like, you made it. He's like, oh,
(31:53):
would you like, hey, yeah, gin and Tonic, And I
go no, no, thank you, because I was like, I
threw up in it when I was in high school
and I can't even near the stuff. And I could
tell he was upset, and he's like, I got to
a hupset you. He goes, no, it's just that you know,
we've we've got ranked like, you know, ninety nine out
of one hundred and gin magazine or something. I go whatever.
(32:14):
You make me yea some magazine, so I go whatever.
But he made me a gin Tonic was the most refreshing,
best thing I ever had in my life, Martin Miller's gin.
I still drink it to this day. I made timber
Lake drinks it because now it's the best. I love
that and still and now my wife drinks it too.
Just two questions. When you go to a city, right,
can you go to London in Paris or Los Angeles
(32:38):
or Buenos Aurs Do you think about what you're going
to eat in that city? Oh? Exactly, I do. I
do research ahead of time. Yeah, if I'm going to DC,
I gotta go to Ben's Chili Bowl, Okay, you know
London River Cafe always, I mean, we have to. It's
it's if you're anywhere, if you can also tell do
you ever go to the markets and see what's there?
(32:59):
Do you see? Because that's a nice way to know
a city, to walk around and see what's that? Say? So,
I'm going to just say that I love you and
you are so sweet to do this and if you
think about food, this is the question. I was told
him in podcast school that you you have one question
to ask everyone. And so the one question I chose
(33:22):
is that food is alleviate hunger, and food is communication,
and food is getting around the table, and food is love.
It is also comfort. And so if you had to
go to a food when you needed comfort, what would
that food be? And I can tell you that Jeff
Goldum said a bowl of cereal, and Brian said a
bar chocolate, or somebody says pasta. So you can think
(33:45):
about I'm offline now right, you can just think for
a minute. Comfort for me, there's so many I would
My immediately thought was pizza. I know it's such a
New York American thing to say, but a slice of pizza,
It's just always there. I'd loved it since I was
a kid. I love it now. You know, good pizza,
bad pizza doesn't matter to me. As long as I've
(34:06):
got a slice, I fold it in half and I
eat it, usually get it with pepperoni. But it's the
greatest thing. Yeah, pizza is my comfort food. I will
run to you a pizza. Let's go have pizza. Let's
go okay, thank you, Thank you for listening to Reefe's
(34:29):
Table for If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure
to rate and review the podcast on iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
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Host
Ruth Rogers
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