January 22, 2024 • 39 mins
When Will Ferrell said he'd be my guest on Ruthie's Table 4, I expected some laughs, some great stories, but not ‘Happy Birthday’ in Swedish. Everyone seems to love Will, whether they worked with him or, of course, watched him on screen in those classic comedies, Elf and Anchorman and many more. We do have a mutual friend, Saturday Night Live creator and producer Lorne Michaels, but we first met last spring when I was invited to a lunch. Now, walking into a lunch party late can be awkward—conversations stop, chairs are adjusted, introductions made. But there I was, seated next to Will and all was right with the world. He was here in London filming Barbie and I was just off to New York, but we promised to continue the conversation. And that’s what we’re doing today, on Table 4.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When Will Ferrell said he'd be my guest on Ruthie's
Table four, I expected some laughs, some great stories, but
not happy birthday In Swedish.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yah more healeva inte who roto yaviska haaleva javiska haalevva
javiska hileeva inteh.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hurrah, Hurrah, hurrah hurrah. You have to say hooray four times.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
When I tell people that I'm doing a podcast with Will,
their faces light up. Everyone seems to love him when
they remember working with him, or, of course watching him
on screen in those classic comedies Elf and Anchorman and
many more. We do have a mutual friend, Saturday Night
Live creator and producer Lauren Michaels, but we first met
(00:48):
last spring when I was invited to a lunch Now
walking into a lunch party late can be awkward. Conversations,
stop chairs are adjusted, introductions made. But there I us
heated next to Will, and all was right with the world.
He was here in London filming Barbie and I was
just off to New York. But we promised to continue
(01:09):
the conversation.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Are you oh great? How are you doing well?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You're not allowed to go to the river cafe anymore
without me being there.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I know, so frustrating, keeping missing each other.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
All right, where are you, by the way, are you
in your house?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
No, we're in one of the studios here. Oh Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well would you like to read? Do you have it? There?
The recipe for.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I do so. This is a recipe for white truffle tagliarini,
not to be confused with tagliatelli.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Correct correct finer noodle.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
It serves four and you need at least one ten
gram fresh white ruffle. I guess you could have more
two hundred and fifty grams of dried Italian made taglierini
or fresh rich egg, pasta, sea salt and freshly ground
black pepper, and twenty grams of unsalted butter. So what
(02:19):
you're gonna do is you're gonna start by You're going
to clean the truffle. You don't want a dirty truffle,
trust me. Brushing the surface to remove any sand that
may be stuck in the crevices. You cool the tagle
arena until al dente.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, I think you cook it rather than cool it.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Oh yeah, you cook it. That makes no sense. See
I'm like, okay, yeah, you cook that's fine. Cook the
tagle arena in boiling salted water until al dente. Now
in a in a pan large enough to hold the pasta,
gently heat the butter until just soft, adding a pinch
(03:02):
of nutmeg and black pepper, and a few shavings of truffle.
And now after that you add the pasta to the
warm butter mixture and toss again and again to coat
each strand. And then once you've done that, you place
into hot plates and grate the truffle generously over each portion.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Sounds good, easy, Yeah, So tell me why did you
choose this recipe of all the recipes.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I chose it. I chose it because it seems relatively accomplishable,
doesn't seem too overwhelming. And I love a good truffle.
I love that flavor. I love black pepper. And it's
also just it's very comforting.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yes, it's comforting. And it's also it's such a luxury,
isn't I mean? The idea of having white truffle. It's
a very special. It's very short season you have it.
Can you get them? I guess you must be able
to get them in California? Of course they must send
them over from Italy. But did you live in Italy?
Did you have you ever spent any time there where
you would have white?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
You know, I've I've worked there once, which was great.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
What were you doing?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I was working on Zoolander two. I was working there
for five weeks, but I didn't have to work every day.
It was kind of perfect. So I'd get some time
off to go and explore and you know, have a
good meal.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And where were you were?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Just in Rome? Yeah, and that that's such a luxury
to get to do that, and it was. It was
up until that point i'd had I had had a
career of where you're always talking to everyone else who's
gotten to film in exotic places. And the most exotic
(04:55):
place I would get to film is you know, the
San Fernando v uh Or. And so finally this was
this was after after decades, I was finally shooting a
movie in Europe and it was so much fun. It
was great.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I did an interview with John McEnroe recently, and he
was saying that when he was playing tennis, or when
he was even performing at evand there was no time
to eat. You were just working, working, working, So you
know you're being able to go.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
That's usually Yeah, that's and that's usually the case. You're
you're a movie schedules in tens, there's long days and
you maybe have you know, you're catching up on your
rest on the weekend, so maybe have one night a
week ago. But this I had enough time off to
where I could kind of explore. But there was there
(05:48):
was also a really fun group of actors who uh
Christen Wigg was working at the time, and she would
organize these fun dinner parties and so that's that's another
when you can kind of combine great food with great company.
There's nothing better.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Do you think about a location that you're going to
be filming and wonder what the food will be like?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
No, it's I always am envious of people who've able
have been able to like write something specifically, you know,
like Mike White who did White Lotus as a genius.
His locations have been Hawaii, they've been you know, the
last one was Sicily, and then I think they're doing
(06:31):
a third one and it's going to be in some
beautiful location in Southeast Asia. So he's a smart he's smart,
smart guy.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So going right back, tell me about your family, Tell
about your mother and father and what food was what
meals times were like in your house.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Well, my folks divorced at an early age, so while
my dad did made a really good effort of still
being involved, my brother and I pretty much grew up
in a single parent household. Of course, my mom had
to work, and what did she do. She did a
(07:11):
number of various jobs, from landscaper to we used to
call her a plant lady at one point, which meant
she was worked for a company that took care of
plants in office buildings, so she'd go from office building
to office building and maintain the plants. And she was
(07:33):
kind of doing all these odd jobs while she finally
figured out she needed to go back to school and
get her master's degree and later went on to have
a great career in adult education teaching English as a
second language. But it's kind of remarkable to think about
(07:54):
now having been a parent myself, you know, being involved
with my wife and we we've always been able to
help each other, and we've always had help around the house.
But to think of the idea of just doing it
by herself, and the fact that she always got home
(08:15):
in time for dinner and made dinner, and she both
my folks are from North Carolina, so she she was
an amazing cook. Every night there would there would you know.
It's the reason why I still I like liver and onions.
It's because my mom would cook. Yeah. She would make
(08:37):
this amazing livered onions where she'd kind of see it
and grill, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
When she cook the onions right down, yeah, and very
soft onions.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
But she just kind of she'd just do it all
by feel, and she would make or she'd make great
kind of stews in a crock pot, or she'd one
of her great things that we would request that didn't
have and all the time were she'd make a fantastic
fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes that she did herself,
(09:07):
and green beans and sometimes and would make homemade biscuits
and things like that. So and I look back at that,
and my cooking skills are negligible at best. And I
was like, Mom, how did you do that? And She's like,
you know, you just didn't think about it. And I
was raised to learn how to cook, and I just
(09:30):
wanted to make sure you guys at least had that
one meal every night. And it was it was our
time to kind of uh to kind of sit down
and check in, which I'm sure is a common story
you probably have heard, where you get to check in
about how the day was and how your lives are
going and et cetera.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
When you think about what that memory for you of
sitting down at the table and that she provided that
and did that with you know, and maybe maybe also
cooking was a great pleasure for her also after I
used to come home after work and start cooking and
everybody would say, relax, stop cooking, And actually I found
it quite Do you find that that sometimes just the
(10:10):
thing of cooking is kind.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Of oh yeah, that the times we're kind of find ourselves.
I think cooking a lot more in the summertime, and
it really can be I'm kind of more of the
Soux chef to Vivoca to my wife. So I'm like,
tell me what, tell me what to do now? Okay,
(10:32):
let me shop this, Okay, what do I do?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Now?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Watch that? Yeah, and you get in a rhythm and
you put the baseball game on and you pour a
glass of wine and it's really nice. It's nice. Yeah, Yeah,
it matters.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And when you would see your dad, would he cook
for you? Would you?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah? Dad would we'd kind of see our dad. And
then Dad started getting into cooking and he he was
he loved kind of you know, I feel like he
was always grilling a breast of chicken. Yeah, like that
was the main and or he'd there was a local
(11:09):
market with like a really good butcher section and he
would get like sweet Italian sausages and make some pasta
with sausages. And then of course there's the one infamous
time where we were eating something. We're like, Dad, what
is this? He's like, just try it, and he had
cooked us rabbit. The only problem was he just didn't
(11:32):
connect the dots that at that time, my brother had
a pet rabbit and we were like, Dad, what why
are you serving rabbit? And I think he got mad
at us for not trying the rabbit, but mad at
himself for not thinking that that would feel weird to us.
But that was a that was an emotional evening and.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
We had that. We had that in Tuscany this summer
because we have always get rabbits for the little kids,
and they had them in occasion. Then night, you know,
there was a rabbit, you know, and that that wasn't
too good. But do you think that he kind of
wanted to cook or do you think he wanted to
show you that he was taking care of you as
a as a parent.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
He I think it was both. I think he learned
to enjoy it and he became pretty good at it.
And there was a stretch over the holidays. We still
laugh about it today where and he would listen to
the local cooking show on like AM radio and KBC
(12:37):
out here in Los Angeles, and it was and he
was like, you know what I want. I want to
cook a Christmas.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Goose at Christmas at Christmas.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And he worked so hard and we we and it
was just as tough as like leather.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
It was just goose is challenge, really hard.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
It was so bum like, yeah, it's okay, it's okay,
you tried your best.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
We'll just yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
We'll order a pizza. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, but that's that sort of thing of cooking as
a performance. Yeah. I feel that in the restaurant because
we have an open kitchen and I serve something and
then I always look to see the expression of something. Oh,
I'm sure when they were eating it.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
And I would think you are genuinely seeing a positive expression. Yeah, Okay, Yeah,
I do.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
It's kind of nice when they say, you know, try this,
and then you see them, you know, sharing it. And
sometimes people send things back now they don't like it,
and that's fine, right, you know, you just redo it
or cook it differently or whatever. But it is it
is a bit of a before. I always feel a
bit sorry for somebody's cooking for a dinner party and
bringing it out and they've been working all day trying
(13:52):
to get it right.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, yeah, no, he my dad would get very perfectionistic
about timing things out and has to go in at
a certain time. And yeah, but but I I've seen,
like we spend our summers in Sweden. My wife was
born there and we we over the years, we we've
always gone every summer and and we have a place
(14:15):
out there that's way out in the middle of nowhere
along in this collective of little summer cottages next to her. No,
it's actually, yeah, we're not anywhere near the ocean. We're
we're we're kind of in the woods, and we have
a couple of beautiful lakes around us and that sort
of thing. But it's I know, that pressure that my
(14:37):
debt because and we tend to grill a lot, and
the Swedes are all the Swedes are annoyingly good at
everything with and they don't really try, and they're they're
good bakers and and uh, my wife's cousins will come
and you know that pressure of someone watching over your
(14:57):
shoulder while you grill something, and they'll they'll be like,
you might want to take that off. I'm like, really, okay.
And I always listen to them and they they they'll
just walk right up and go like, no, I do
two minutes longer, okay, wow. And they don't use thermometers
or timers or anything. And sure enough, every time I
listen to them, it's delicious, and it was it was
(15:19):
the right it was the right temperature and the right time.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think of what
sweets maybe can they do comedy? Are they funny? I
think if Igmar Bergmann and all those kind of they
weren't exactly a lot.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Of they're not considered culturally funny, but I think they're
like a little little, you know, sneaker upper type there.
They're very dry with their humor, very sarcastic, and they're
they're very clever, and they love to they love to
tease in a very gentle way, and so I find
them really kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, I don't want to lose my Swedish listeners.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
So right, Stockholm.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
I've been to Stockholm and we ate really really well
in Stockholm. There's a real food culture now in Sweden,
you know, and they're all foraging and it's a very
foody place.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah, we're always trying to if we hear of a
new restaurant, we'll go, try to go a couple of
nights into the city and explore. There's an amazing hotel
we've stayed at a couple of times called at Hem,
and their restaurant there is as good as any I've
ever been. They have an excellent group of chefs there
(16:37):
and it's a very cozy place. It's like sitting in
someone's living room.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Do you eat Swedish at home? Does Vivica cook well Swedish?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
It's funny because Swedes, for the most part, their day
to day kind of menu or died is fairly just continental. Yeah,
and the only time you really eat specific quote unquote
Swedish food is usually around the holidays. So we always
host a big Swedish Christmas party, which is called a
(17:05):
yule Fest. And we have found this lovely couple, Mark
and Lena who have a restaurant out here in La
called open Face, which is all these types of open
face sandwiches and it's a small kind of pop up place,
but the main part of their business is catering. And
(17:25):
she's Danish, I believe, but we found her years ago
and she knows how to cook all the Swedish food.
So that's our big night where you have all the
herrings and they cook a ham and Swedish meatballs with
the lingenberries and all the cheeses and the kaneki bread.
(17:47):
So that's like our big night to have Swedish food,
and we invite it's a party for eighty people, so
all of our friends. We've been doing it for over
a decade now and everyone. In fact, there was one well,
there was one year we couldn't do it. I think
we were out of town and people were people were
upset and thought we'd left them off the list, so
(18:09):
created quite an outrage. But no, that's that's our big
night to eat Swedish food. And then the other big
kind of Swedish meal is is what's called a creft weaver,
which is in August, and that's when you eat crayfish.
And that's really fun too, you know, you just boil
all these crayfish with the cheese. And of course it's
(18:30):
all done with aquavit and songs.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
And yeah, sing me a Swedish song.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I can sing you happy birthday in Swedish.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Okay, okay, yah more.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yoh more yah moreva into yaviskav javiska. I live Javiskava. Hurrah, Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
You have to say hooray four times.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I never expected to have a different too. I thought
that sounds like a kind of marching salt of us.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It's the funniest. The funniest lyrics in English is like
I hope you live. I hope you live. I hope
you live for a hundred years, but if you don't,
but if you don't, we'll still drink to you. It's
something like that. Yeah, so it's this very The sweets
are so funny with how they accept life and death.
(19:33):
It's just like, I hope you live, but if you don't,
don't worry, We'll still think you don't.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
You'll be okay, all right, but on your birthday it's
your birthday. But let's just you know, maybe it's not
going to be forever.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
It could be, but maybe it's not. And but anyway,
the point is we're here and let's have a drink.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, it'd Swedish accent. Did you know The River Cafe
has a shop. It's full of our favorite foods and designs.
We have cookbooks, linen, napkins, kitchen were tote bags with
our signatures, glasses from Venice, chocolates from Turin. You can
(20:10):
find us right next door to the River Cafe in
London or online at Shopthrivercafe dot co dot uk. When
you left your home and you had all those meals
together with your brother and your mother and then your
(20:32):
father and then did you go to college? Did you
eat out or did you eat in the dorm? Yeah?
I think was it a rude awakening?
Speaker 4 (20:40):
No, it was.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
It was pretty good dorm food. I was just happy
to have three square meals, but probably not by freshman
sob As I moved out of the dorms into more
of an apartment situation, That's where it was a little
more bleak.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That's what it changed.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
That's where it changed.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, And was that in college.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
I was in college and then and then later after college.
You know that those are some pathetic moments in my
food life where I was like, you know, the struggling
actor and I working in a desk job that doesn't
pay a lot, where literally have twenty bucks that has
(21:24):
to last me the rest of the week. I remember
my my roommate at the time, who had a better
job and a little more money. I was literally sitting down.
I think my dinner one night was was pasta with
and the only thing I had was some mustard, and
I put the mustard on.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
That's I don't think that is a far cry from
pasta with white truffles.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
And my friend Chare Jerry was like, you can borrow
some of my tomato sauce. I'm like, oh no, I
like I prefer them. Yeah, yeah, but anyway, and.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Then you went to New York? Did you move to
New York?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Moved to New York when I was hired for Stay
Night Live, And I know I told.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I told Lauren that we were doing this, and he
was usually Lauren self saying how much he loved to sea.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, you know, that's such a you spend so much
time in that studio and then those offices, and at
that show, you're not really sitting down in your apartment
for a meal. But that was getting to kind of
go to some of these New York restaurants. That was
That was seven years of getting to explore. In fact,
(22:41):
there was a there was a great place down in
the village on Commerce and Barrow, and I don't think
it's there anymore. It's called Grange Hall, and we had
so many meals there where my my folks would fly
in that week to come see the show and we go,
(23:02):
like on a Thursday night to go eat at Grange
Hall and it was like the amazing, very cozy, neighborhoody
place where they I just remember always ordering the Hangar steak,
which was like cooked really well and great atmosphere and
just a very I was like, oh, this is the
typical New York place, which Lauren would always point out.
(23:26):
It's funny, he would always he made a great observation.
He was like, you can tell like restaurants it's all
about lighting. And I was like, you're right, yeah, if
the lighting works, it's inviting and you want to sit down.
And I also had a really funny meal once with
Lauren at pastise at the old Pastise before he moved
(23:47):
and where Lauren kept saying that that Mic Jagger may
stop by, and I was like, uh huh, yeah sure,
and the meal was almost done, and then all of
a sudden, Lauren was like, oh, he's here, and then
we were both I don't see Lauren get nervous very much.
(24:08):
And then we both were incredibly nervous, and he was like,
will you sit there? Wait, no, hold on, I'll have
him sit here, and then you sit across from here,
and then okay, oh, hello, Mick.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
And then and there I was, you know, sitting next
to Mick. I didn't contribute to the conversation at all
because I just sat there. And but Mick Jager couldn't
have been nicer to me and kept he kept pulling
me in and everything like that, but I was too
scared to say anything.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, he was in the restaurant here two ya and
he was and he said, Ruthie, how are you? And
I said, I am so excited because David Letterman is here.
And then I realized I was not the thing you
say to the Jagger I was. I was really excited
that David. And then he's a guy. He's a nice person.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
That's so funny.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Do you think that getting to eat in good restaurants
almost was a measure of your success when you when
you were able to go to a good restaurant or
be taken to a good restaurant.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Yeah, I think to some extent. I mean definitely, you're
definitely all of a sudden in this this new category.
And Lauren, part of the ritual and the schedule of
the show is his big Tuesday night dinners where he
has the host and he invites members of the cast.
So that would either be at Orso or Latanzi or
(25:40):
all the you know sometimes occasionally Joe Allen's and all
these kind of venerable New York restaurants, And that was
really eye opening to be Yeah, you kind of felt like,
you know, country mouse in the big city all of
a sudden that hadn't been so uh my folk. I
(26:02):
wouldn't say we grew up. You know, we were very
very much lower middle class. We didn't have a lot.
They still would splurge on occasion and take us to
the interesting restaurant that had just opened up, you know
where we lived, and so they still gave us an
(26:24):
appreciation for I wouldn't say fine, but like, what is
kind of different in terms of culinary thing experiences and
force us to try different types of foods and this,
that and the other. So I definitely had a little
bit of that in my kind of dining background.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Did you ever work in a restaurant? Were you ever
a waiter?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I never did.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I avoided that because I knew I would be fired,
yeah immediately, I'm.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Not why would they fire? Oh yeah, carry plates?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Or I would have been the one that how many
tables does a waiter usually handle? What? Four to five tables?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Yeah? Maybe because maybe we don't well, we don't like
to have we share it around. So every waiter has
a section which is about three or four tables, and
then everybody helps, you know, we all you know, you
see managers changing the table class right, everybody does everything.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
So you guys have a real team effort. But you know,
if I just I would watch waiters and I'd be like,
I could never keep track of everything. I need. I
need a long I need a long grace period. I
would eventually get it down. So I knew that wasn't
an area that would be a strong suit for me.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
It's a really hard job, you know, you send food out,
and the way all these young you know, sometimes I
get impatient at somebody on the grill to say, where
is that sea bass? Where is that? And I thought,
you know, when I was their age, I couldn't cross
the street, you know, and they're they're amazing the way
they can, you know, send out food. And the mind.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
When waiters just memorize it the order and they don't
write it down.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
We write everything down, okay.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Because when you go to a restaurant and the waiters like, yes,
go ahead, and I'm like, I get stressed out for them.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, but you memorize lines, right, you can do that
or not?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, yeah, you obviously. So maybe that's a muscle you
develop if you're.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
But you would be good, probably because you could be
really nice to people. I think you can get away
with a hell of a lot, you know, if you
are kind of nice, if you're not going to get
annoyed with people, then if you basically like people, then
it's okay.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
You know. Well, some of the jobs I worked and
I did survive with with charm and with with confronting
my mistakes in such an open way that it was
almost disarming. And when they when they said, you never
finished this one thing, and I would say, you are
absolutely right. I didn't and I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And I worked as I worked as a waitress one
summer and I promise you my last day there, I'd
worked there for two months. I was still telling people
it was my first day. It's just like, I'm really sorry,
I forgot that. But I just started this sporting, you know,
so if you get people on your side, you walk
into that room and you're serving people, it's like an audience,
(29:24):
you know.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Bartending is the one thing I thought maybe I could
handle because it's all kind of yeah right there in
front of you. Yeah, And I thought maybe I could
do that. But anyway, yeah, I somehow avoided that.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
You're not but you like going to and you go, well,
you come to the River Cafe and you like going out.
Have your kids ever worked? Have they worked yet in
a restaurant?
Speaker 3 (29:45):
They haven't? They should? Yeah, that would be a nice
wake up call.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
It's not a bad it's not a bad job for
kids because it's so collaborative.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I always say if you do something, if you don't
do your job, then it's not your boss that gets upset.
It's your you know, the person who's depending on the
carpet being swept or the parsley being chopped. It's it's
not a bad idea. If you like listening to Ruthie's
Table for would you please make sure to rate and
(30:18):
review the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Should I
ask you your favorite food scene in the movie that
you've been in. Is there one?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
The one that's kind of sweet that I'm asked about
the most, probably is eating the spaghetti and maple syrup
and in elf. Yeah, because that we didn't really plan
out what. They just put a bunch of stuff in
front of me and I just kind of improvised that
and then ate as much as I could. And so
(31:03):
hundreds of kids every year ask me, what does that
taste like? Uh, that's the one that stands out probably.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
The most great movie, great scene. What are you working
on now? What's what's happening now?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Still kind of on a holding pattern?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Is that with the strike? After the strike? Because did
you eat more when the strike was going on? Did
you have time to be at home cooking.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Oh yeah, we're still We just were. I mean we
were just out last night at an amazing place in
La called The japan House, which is two chefs who
were formerly the chefs for the the Japanese Ambassador to
the US. They've started this restaurant and it's yeah, really extraordinary.
(31:55):
But yeah, I've been at home more and uh, you know,
kind of waiting for the next thing to kind of,
you know, happen.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
When did you start cooking? When did you actually cook?
Or don't you really cook?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
I can't. I can't lie and say that I'm that's okay,
really cook that much?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Your boys? Three boys? Do they cook?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
The boys? Yeah, the boys. Our oldest is a sophomore
in college, so I think he's he'll he'll cook a
little bit. It's a really our middle son, who is
the big he's the big foodie of the three. He
really will love to get in there. And he's like, Dad,
(32:40):
should I make smash burgers? I'm like, do it?
Speaker 1 (32:43):
And what's a smash burger?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Yeah? That's where you take the patty and you you
smash it down on the skillet. Yeah, and then you
don't leave it on too long. Then you flip it
and smash it. So they're they're really kind of thin
and kind of you have a nice char on the outside.
And then but he's he's he's the one who's like,
(33:06):
if we are traveling, he'll look up, Yeah, he'll look
up like restaurants we should go to and he just
loves all those experiences and through through food and and
he'll just occasionally I think he also finds it really comforting.
Our youngest boy likes it. He's like, Mom, should we
(33:28):
should we bake a cake?
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Let's do it, And.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
They'll just want to spend the couple hours, you know,
doing something like that.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I think you should just demand that your next movie's
made in London. We can sit in the river cafe garden,
or we can take a walk, or we can have
food at home, or we can love and maybe I'll
see you in New York. So the last question, and
thanks so much for taking so much time, is if
you had a food that you would go to for comfort?
(33:59):
Is was it the liver and onions your mother made
or is it something that you cook or a Swedish
birthday celebration gake? What would be your comfort food?
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Oh, it's such a good question. Yeah, I mean, we've
touched on some of them, but the other one that
pops to my mind is I guess it's connected to
we have a chicken coop at our house, and there's
nothing more satisfying than going and getting the fresh eggs.
(34:32):
And I don't know if scrambling up eggs is the
hardest thing to do from a cooking standpoint, Probably not,
but it is. That's one of those connective moments of
when you know, if one of my boys we have
to get them up early on the weekend because they've
(34:52):
got a soccer game or a basketball game, that to
go ahead and grab some of those eggs and just
kind of gently scramble them and maybe put a little
parmesan cheese on the top, and toast a couple pieces
of bread and just sit and kind of talk as
we have Breakfast's that's very special to me, and so
(35:13):
I love the connection of all of that together.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Food and love. Well, thank you, and I hope that
we can see each other soon. Yeah, somewhere in London,
New York.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
That would be great. I would love it. Ruthie, thanks
coming on.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
We miss you, Sean and I are here. So Will
Ferrell chose for his recipe Tagulerini with butter and white truffles.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
I mean, it's such a luxury ingredient. Really. All the
chefs get really excited when the tuffle season begins and
you slice your first truffle and smell it and they're like,
oh my god, that's amazing. When a lot of people
are having truffles in the River Cafe and the air
is filled with smell, it's really intoxicating.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
People feel like people maybe.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Getting high on the smell.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
There's also the I think, well, there's there's a choosing
them as well when you have that. You know, they
bring in the white truffles and they sit at the
table and you look at them for their shape and
their firmness and how they how many holes there are
and where the cracks are, and how they will be
to clean and how they will be to shave. But
it is that sort of smell, you know. We always
(36:23):
just sort of worry that maybe they put truffle oil
on the box to make sure that they could smell
that strong. But that's why we're really careful if we
buy them from.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Because it's such a sort of high value ingredient. It's
open to people. When I was a younger chef. Maybe
not quite so much now, but people used to bring
them around London in their sort of wheelie cases and
then two judge dodgy guys would arrive at the back
door of a restaurant and ask if you want to
see what's in their suitcase and you'd be like, what
(36:53):
we let the guess alve in for? And then you'd
have to sift through, you know that We had one
man turned up with something that literally, I think was
a potato filled with truffle oil, and we were like,
we can't buy that.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
I think the other thing about truffle is that because
it's such a luxury, it's so expensive, so you're careful.
People try to be very very careful. You measure, you
sell it by the gram, so you sell you know,
two grams or five grams or ten grams. And then
there's you know, you have to weigh them. We weigh
them when we get them, we weigh them, have to service,
(37:28):
we make sure that we have it. But on the
other hand, when you're actually doing it, you just want
to give more and more and more, don't you. I'm
really the worst person because that thing of having to
judge it do you judge it or do you weigh
it when you're I freestyle.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Actually, I shouldn't really say that. I've never I've never
undercut people. No, I just always probably go a bit over.
But it's the only time you see a little tiny
scales on the past.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
What's that for.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
I got one of the biggest bollockings of my career
when I was a young chef. God, I thought I
was going to get sacked. Literally, I got taken to
the chef's office and I was literally like torn down
the strip. But it was really like because often you
wrap the truffle in the tissue, don't need to stop
it from getting whatever. And he left the truffle in
(38:18):
the tissue on the front pass and so I was
obviously cleaning down was soapy water, and he was like,
where's the truffle And I was like, oh God, I
haven't seen it. And then I realized I looked on
the floor where all the water and all the guys
were cleaning.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
The floor ands with trodden on it in the water.
It's really cool that Will Ferrell chose that living in California,
and but he just said that he just loved that
was white trefles.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Ruthie's Table For is produced by Atami Studio for iHeartRadio.
It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.
This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Nigel Appleton. Our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore, and our production coordinator
is Bella Cellini.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
This episode had additional contributions by Sean Wynn Owen. Thank
you to everyone at The River Cafe for your help
in making this episode
When Will Ferrell said he'd be my guest on Ruthie's
Table four, I expected some laughs, some great stories, but
not happy birthday In Swedish.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yah more healeva inte who roto yaviska haaleva javiska haalevva
javiska hileeva inteh.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hurrah, Hurrah, hurrah hurrah. You have to say hooray four times.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
When I tell people that I'm doing a podcast with Will,
their faces light up. Everyone seems to love him when
they remember working with him, or, of course watching him
on screen in those classic comedies Elf and Anchorman and
many more. We do have a mutual friend, Saturday Night
Live creator and producer Lauren Michaels, but we first met
(00:48):
last spring when I was invited to a lunch Now
walking into a lunch party late can be awkward. Conversations,
stop chairs are adjusted, introductions made. But there I us
heated next to Will, and all was right with the world.
He was here in London filming Barbie and I was
just off to New York. But we promised to continue
(01:09):
the conversation.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Are you oh great? How are you doing well?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You're not allowed to go to the river cafe anymore
without me being there.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I know, so frustrating, keeping missing each other.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
All right, where are you, by the way, are you
in your house?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
No, we're in one of the studios here. Oh Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well would you like to read? Do you have it? There?
The recipe for.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I do so. This is a recipe for white truffle tagliarini,
not to be confused with tagliatelli.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Correct correct finer noodle.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
It serves four and you need at least one ten
gram fresh white ruffle. I guess you could have more
two hundred and fifty grams of dried Italian made taglierini
or fresh rich egg, pasta, sea salt and freshly ground
black pepper, and twenty grams of unsalted butter. So what
(02:19):
you're gonna do is you're gonna start by You're going
to clean the truffle. You don't want a dirty truffle,
trust me. Brushing the surface to remove any sand that
may be stuck in the crevices. You cool the tagle
arena until al dente.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, I think you cook it rather than cool it.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Oh yeah, you cook it. That makes no sense. See
I'm like, okay, yeah, you cook that's fine. Cook the
tagle arena in boiling salted water until al dente. Now
in a in a pan large enough to hold the pasta,
gently heat the butter until just soft, adding a pinch
(03:02):
of nutmeg and black pepper, and a few shavings of truffle.
And now after that you add the pasta to the
warm butter mixture and toss again and again to coat
each strand. And then once you've done that, you place
into hot plates and grate the truffle generously over each portion.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Sounds good, easy, Yeah, So tell me why did you
choose this recipe of all the recipes.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I chose it. I chose it because it seems relatively accomplishable,
doesn't seem too overwhelming. And I love a good truffle.
I love that flavor. I love black pepper. And it's
also just it's very comforting.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yes, it's comforting. And it's also it's such a luxury,
isn't I mean? The idea of having white truffle. It's
a very special. It's very short season you have it.
Can you get them? I guess you must be able
to get them in California? Of course they must send
them over from Italy. But did you live in Italy?
Did you have you ever spent any time there where
you would have white?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
You know, I've I've worked there once, which was great.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
What were you doing?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I was working on Zoolander two. I was working there
for five weeks, but I didn't have to work every day.
It was kind of perfect. So I'd get some time
off to go and explore and you know, have a
good meal.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And where were you were?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Just in Rome? Yeah, and that that's such a luxury
to get to do that, and it was. It was
up until that point i'd had I had had a
career of where you're always talking to everyone else who's
gotten to film in exotic places. And the most exotic
(04:55):
place I would get to film is you know, the
San Fernando v uh Or. And so finally this was
this was after after decades, I was finally shooting a
movie in Europe and it was so much fun. It
was great.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I did an interview with John McEnroe recently, and he
was saying that when he was playing tennis, or when
he was even performing at evand there was no time
to eat. You were just working, working, working, So you
know you're being able to go.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
That's usually Yeah, that's and that's usually the case. You're
you're a movie schedules in tens, there's long days and
you maybe have you know, you're catching up on your
rest on the weekend, so maybe have one night a
week ago. But this I had enough time off to
where I could kind of explore. But there was there
(05:48):
was also a really fun group of actors who uh
Christen Wigg was working at the time, and she would
organize these fun dinner parties and so that's that's another
when you can kind of combine great food with great company.
There's nothing better.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Do you think about a location that you're going to
be filming and wonder what the food will be like?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
No, it's I always am envious of people who've able
have been able to like write something specifically, you know,
like Mike White who did White Lotus as a genius.
His locations have been Hawaii, they've been you know, the
last one was Sicily, and then I think they're doing
(06:31):
a third one and it's going to be in some
beautiful location in Southeast Asia. So he's a smart he's smart,
smart guy.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So going right back, tell me about your family, Tell
about your mother and father and what food was what
meals times were like in your house.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Well, my folks divorced at an early age, so while
my dad did made a really good effort of still
being involved, my brother and I pretty much grew up
in a single parent household. Of course, my mom had
to work, and what did she do. She did a
(07:11):
number of various jobs, from landscaper to we used to
call her a plant lady at one point, which meant
she was worked for a company that took care of
plants in office buildings, so she'd go from office building
to office building and maintain the plants. And she was
(07:33):
kind of doing all these odd jobs while she finally
figured out she needed to go back to school and
get her master's degree and later went on to have
a great career in adult education teaching English as a
second language. But it's kind of remarkable to think about
(07:54):
now having been a parent myself, you know, being involved
with my wife and we we've always been able to
help each other, and we've always had help around the house.
But to think of the idea of just doing it
by herself, and the fact that she always got home
(08:15):
in time for dinner and made dinner, and she both
my folks are from North Carolina, so she she was
an amazing cook. Every night there would there would you know.
It's the reason why I still I like liver and onions.
It's because my mom would cook. Yeah. She would make
(08:37):
this amazing livered onions where she'd kind of see it
and grill, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
When she cook the onions right down, yeah, and very
soft onions.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
But she just kind of she'd just do it all
by feel, and she would make or she'd make great
kind of stews in a crock pot, or she'd one
of her great things that we would request that didn't
have and all the time were she'd make a fantastic
fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes that she did herself,
(09:07):
and green beans and sometimes and would make homemade biscuits
and things like that. So and I look back at that,
and my cooking skills are negligible at best. And I
was like, Mom, how did you do that? And She's like,
you know, you just didn't think about it. And I
was raised to learn how to cook, and I just
(09:30):
wanted to make sure you guys at least had that
one meal every night. And it was it was our
time to kind of uh to kind of sit down
and check in, which I'm sure is a common story
you probably have heard, where you get to check in
about how the day was and how your lives are
going and et cetera.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
When you think about what that memory for you of
sitting down at the table and that she provided that
and did that with you know, and maybe maybe also
cooking was a great pleasure for her also after I
used to come home after work and start cooking and
everybody would say, relax, stop cooking, And actually I found
it quite Do you find that that sometimes just the
(10:10):
thing of cooking is kind.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Of oh yeah, that the times we're kind of find ourselves.
I think cooking a lot more in the summertime, and
it really can be I'm kind of more of the
Soux chef to Vivoca to my wife. So I'm like,
tell me what, tell me what to do now? Okay,
(10:32):
let me shop this, Okay, what do I do?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Now?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Watch that? Yeah, and you get in a rhythm and
you put the baseball game on and you pour a
glass of wine and it's really nice. It's nice. Yeah, Yeah,
it matters.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And when you would see your dad, would he cook
for you? Would you?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah? Dad would we'd kind of see our dad. And
then Dad started getting into cooking and he he was
he loved kind of you know, I feel like he
was always grilling a breast of chicken. Yeah, like that
was the main and or he'd there was a local
(11:09):
market with like a really good butcher section and he
would get like sweet Italian sausages and make some pasta
with sausages. And then of course there's the one infamous
time where we were eating something. We're like, Dad, what
is this? He's like, just try it, and he had
cooked us rabbit. The only problem was he just didn't
(11:32):
connect the dots that at that time, my brother had
a pet rabbit and we were like, Dad, what why
are you serving rabbit? And I think he got mad
at us for not trying the rabbit, but mad at
himself for not thinking that that would feel weird to us.
But that was a that was an emotional evening and.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
We had that. We had that in Tuscany this summer
because we have always get rabbits for the little kids,
and they had them in occasion. Then night, you know,
there was a rabbit, you know, and that that wasn't
too good. But do you think that he kind of
wanted to cook or do you think he wanted to
show you that he was taking care of you as
a as a parent.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
He I think it was both. I think he learned
to enjoy it and he became pretty good at it.
And there was a stretch over the holidays. We still
laugh about it today where and he would listen to
the local cooking show on like AM radio and KBC
(12:37):
out here in Los Angeles, and it was and he
was like, you know what I want. I want to
cook a Christmas.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Goose at Christmas at Christmas.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And he worked so hard and we we and it
was just as tough as like leather.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
It was just goose is challenge, really hard.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
It was so bum like, yeah, it's okay, it's okay,
you tried your best.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
We'll just yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
We'll order a pizza. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, but that's that sort of thing of cooking as
a performance. Yeah. I feel that in the restaurant because
we have an open kitchen and I serve something and
then I always look to see the expression of something. Oh,
I'm sure when they were eating it.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
And I would think you are genuinely seeing a positive expression. Yeah, Okay, Yeah,
I do.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
It's kind of nice when they say, you know, try this,
and then you see them, you know, sharing it. And
sometimes people send things back now they don't like it,
and that's fine, right, you know, you just redo it
or cook it differently or whatever. But it is it
is a bit of a before. I always feel a
bit sorry for somebody's cooking for a dinner party and
bringing it out and they've been working all day trying
(13:52):
to get it right.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, yeah, no, he my dad would get very perfectionistic
about timing things out and has to go in at
a certain time. And yeah, but but I I've seen,
like we spend our summers in Sweden. My wife was
born there and we we over the years, we we've
always gone every summer and and we have a place
(14:15):
out there that's way out in the middle of nowhere
along in this collective of little summer cottages next to her. No,
it's actually, yeah, we're not anywhere near the ocean. We're
we're we're kind of in the woods, and we have
a couple of beautiful lakes around us and that sort
of thing. But it's I know, that pressure that my
(14:37):
debt because and we tend to grill a lot, and
the Swedes are all the Swedes are annoyingly good at
everything with and they don't really try, and they're they're
good bakers and and uh, my wife's cousins will come
and you know that pressure of someone watching over your
(14:57):
shoulder while you grill something, and they'll they'll be like,
you might want to take that off. I'm like, really, okay.
And I always listen to them and they they they'll
just walk right up and go like, no, I do
two minutes longer, okay, wow. And they don't use thermometers
or timers or anything. And sure enough, every time I
listen to them, it's delicious, and it was it was
(15:19):
the right it was the right temperature and the right time.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think of what
sweets maybe can they do comedy? Are they funny? I
think if Igmar Bergmann and all those kind of they
weren't exactly a lot.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Of they're not considered culturally funny, but I think they're
like a little little, you know, sneaker upper type there.
They're very dry with their humor, very sarcastic, and they're
they're very clever, and they love to they love to
tease in a very gentle way, and so I find
them really kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, I don't want to lose my Swedish listeners.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
So right, Stockholm.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
I've been to Stockholm and we ate really really well
in Stockholm. There's a real food culture now in Sweden,
you know, and they're all foraging and it's a very
foody place.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah, we're always trying to if we hear of a
new restaurant, we'll go, try to go a couple of
nights into the city and explore. There's an amazing hotel
we've stayed at a couple of times called at Hem,
and their restaurant there is as good as any I've
ever been. They have an excellent group of chefs there
(16:37):
and it's a very cozy place. It's like sitting in
someone's living room.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Do you eat Swedish at home? Does Vivica cook well Swedish?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
It's funny because Swedes, for the most part, their day
to day kind of menu or died is fairly just continental. Yeah,
and the only time you really eat specific quote unquote
Swedish food is usually around the holidays. So we always
host a big Swedish Christmas party, which is called a
(17:05):
yule Fest. And we have found this lovely couple, Mark
and Lena who have a restaurant out here in La
called open Face, which is all these types of open
face sandwiches and it's a small kind of pop up place,
but the main part of their business is catering. And
(17:25):
she's Danish, I believe, but we found her years ago
and she knows how to cook all the Swedish food.
So that's our big night where you have all the
herrings and they cook a ham and Swedish meatballs with
the lingenberries and all the cheeses and the kaneki bread.
(17:47):
So that's like our big night to have Swedish food,
and we invite it's a party for eighty people, so
all of our friends. We've been doing it for over
a decade now and everyone. In fact, there was one well,
there was one year we couldn't do it. I think
we were out of town and people were people were
upset and thought we'd left them off the list, so
(18:09):
created quite an outrage. But no, that's that's our big
night to eat Swedish food. And then the other big
kind of Swedish meal is is what's called a creft weaver,
which is in August, and that's when you eat crayfish.
And that's really fun too, you know, you just boil
all these crayfish with the cheese. And of course it's
(18:30):
all done with aquavit and songs.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
And yeah, sing me a Swedish song.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I can sing you happy birthday in Swedish.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Okay, okay, yah more.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yoh more yah moreva into yaviskav javiska. I live Javiskava. Hurrah, Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
You have to say hooray four times.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I never expected to have a different too. I thought
that sounds like a kind of marching salt of us.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It's the funniest. The funniest lyrics in English is like
I hope you live. I hope you live. I hope
you live for a hundred years, but if you don't,
but if you don't, we'll still drink to you. It's
something like that. Yeah, so it's this very The sweets
are so funny with how they accept life and death.
(19:33):
It's just like, I hope you live, but if you don't,
don't worry, We'll still think you don't.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
You'll be okay, all right, but on your birthday it's
your birthday. But let's just you know, maybe it's not
going to be forever.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
It could be, but maybe it's not. And but anyway,
the point is we're here and let's have a drink.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, it'd Swedish accent. Did you know The River Cafe
has a shop. It's full of our favorite foods and designs.
We have cookbooks, linen, napkins, kitchen were tote bags with
our signatures, glasses from Venice, chocolates from Turin. You can
(20:10):
find us right next door to the River Cafe in
London or online at Shopthrivercafe dot co dot uk. When
you left your home and you had all those meals
together with your brother and your mother and then your
(20:32):
father and then did you go to college? Did you
eat out or did you eat in the dorm? Yeah?
I think was it a rude awakening?
Speaker 4 (20:40):
No, it was.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
It was pretty good dorm food. I was just happy
to have three square meals, but probably not by freshman
sob As I moved out of the dorms into more
of an apartment situation, That's where it was a little
more bleak.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That's what it changed.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
That's where it changed.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, And was that in college.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
I was in college and then and then later after college.
You know that those are some pathetic moments in my
food life where I was like, you know, the struggling
actor and I working in a desk job that doesn't
pay a lot, where literally have twenty bucks that has
(21:24):
to last me the rest of the week. I remember
my my roommate at the time, who had a better
job and a little more money. I was literally sitting down.
I think my dinner one night was was pasta with
and the only thing I had was some mustard, and
I put the mustard on.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
That's I don't think that is a far cry from
pasta with white truffles.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
And my friend Chare Jerry was like, you can borrow
some of my tomato sauce. I'm like, oh no, I
like I prefer them. Yeah, yeah, but anyway, and.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Then you went to New York? Did you move to
New York?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Moved to New York when I was hired for Stay
Night Live, And I know I told.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I told Lauren that we were doing this, and he
was usually Lauren self saying how much he loved to sea.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, you know, that's such a you spend so much
time in that studio and then those offices, and at
that show, you're not really sitting down in your apartment
for a meal. But that was getting to kind of
go to some of these New York restaurants. That was
That was seven years of getting to explore. In fact,
(22:41):
there was a there was a great place down in
the village on Commerce and Barrow, and I don't think
it's there anymore. It's called Grange Hall, and we had
so many meals there where my my folks would fly
in that week to come see the show and we go,
(23:02):
like on a Thursday night to go eat at Grange
Hall and it was like the amazing, very cozy, neighborhoody
place where they I just remember always ordering the Hangar steak,
which was like cooked really well and great atmosphere and
just a very I was like, oh, this is the
typical New York place, which Lauren would always point out.
(23:26):
It's funny, he would always he made a great observation.
He was like, you can tell like restaurants it's all
about lighting. And I was like, you're right, yeah, if
the lighting works, it's inviting and you want to sit down.
And I also had a really funny meal once with
Lauren at pastise at the old Pastise before he moved
(23:47):
and where Lauren kept saying that that Mic Jagger may
stop by, and I was like, uh huh, yeah sure,
and the meal was almost done, and then all of
a sudden, Lauren was like, oh, he's here, and then
we were both I don't see Lauren get nervous very much.
(24:08):
And then we both were incredibly nervous, and he was like,
will you sit there? Wait, no, hold on, I'll have
him sit here, and then you sit across from here,
and then okay, oh, hello, Mick.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
And then and there I was, you know, sitting next
to Mick. I didn't contribute to the conversation at all
because I just sat there. And but Mick Jager couldn't
have been nicer to me and kept he kept pulling
me in and everything like that, but I was too
scared to say anything.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, he was in the restaurant here two ya and
he was and he said, Ruthie, how are you? And
I said, I am so excited because David Letterman is here.
And then I realized I was not the thing you
say to the Jagger I was. I was really excited
that David. And then he's a guy. He's a nice person.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
That's so funny.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Do you think that getting to eat in good restaurants
almost was a measure of your success when you when
you were able to go to a good restaurant or
be taken to a good restaurant.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Yeah, I think to some extent. I mean definitely, you're
definitely all of a sudden in this this new category.
And Lauren, part of the ritual and the schedule of
the show is his big Tuesday night dinners where he
has the host and he invites members of the cast.
So that would either be at Orso or Latanzi or
(25:40):
all the you know sometimes occasionally Joe Allen's and all
these kind of venerable New York restaurants, And that was
really eye opening to be Yeah, you kind of felt like,
you know, country mouse in the big city all of
a sudden that hadn't been so uh my folk. I
(26:02):
wouldn't say we grew up. You know, we were very
very much lower middle class. We didn't have a lot.
They still would splurge on occasion and take us to
the interesting restaurant that had just opened up, you know
where we lived, and so they still gave us an
(26:24):
appreciation for I wouldn't say fine, but like, what is
kind of different in terms of culinary thing experiences and
force us to try different types of foods and this,
that and the other. So I definitely had a little
bit of that in my kind of dining background.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Did you ever work in a restaurant? Were you ever
a waiter?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I never did.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I avoided that because I knew I would be fired,
yeah immediately, I'm.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Not why would they fire? Oh yeah, carry plates?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Or I would have been the one that how many
tables does a waiter usually handle? What? Four to five tables?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Yeah? Maybe because maybe we don't well, we don't like
to have we share it around. So every waiter has
a section which is about three or four tables, and
then everybody helps, you know, we all you know, you
see managers changing the table class right, everybody does everything.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
So you guys have a real team effort. But you know,
if I just I would watch waiters and I'd be like,
I could never keep track of everything. I need. I
need a long I need a long grace period. I
would eventually get it down. So I knew that wasn't
an area that would be a strong suit for me.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
It's a really hard job, you know, you send food out,
and the way all these young you know, sometimes I
get impatient at somebody on the grill to say, where
is that sea bass? Where is that? And I thought,
you know, when I was their age, I couldn't cross
the street, you know, and they're they're amazing the way
they can, you know, send out food. And the mind.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
When waiters just memorize it the order and they don't
write it down.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
We write everything down, okay.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Because when you go to a restaurant and the waiters like, yes,
go ahead, and I'm like, I get stressed out for them.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, but you memorize lines, right, you can do that
or not?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, yeah, you obviously. So maybe that's a muscle you
develop if you're.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
But you would be good, probably because you could be
really nice to people. I think you can get away
with a hell of a lot, you know, if you
are kind of nice, if you're not going to get
annoyed with people, then if you basically like people, then
it's okay.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
You know. Well, some of the jobs I worked and
I did survive with with charm and with with confronting
my mistakes in such an open way that it was
almost disarming. And when they when they said, you never
finished this one thing, and I would say, you are
absolutely right. I didn't and I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And I worked as I worked as a waitress one
summer and I promise you my last day there, I'd
worked there for two months. I was still telling people
it was my first day. It's just like, I'm really sorry,
I forgot that. But I just started this sporting, you know,
so if you get people on your side, you walk
into that room and you're serving people, it's like an audience,
(29:24):
you know.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Bartending is the one thing I thought maybe I could
handle because it's all kind of yeah right there in
front of you. Yeah, And I thought maybe I could
do that. But anyway, yeah, I somehow avoided that.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
You're not but you like going to and you go, well,
you come to the River Cafe and you like going out.
Have your kids ever worked? Have they worked yet in
a restaurant?
Speaker 3 (29:45):
They haven't? They should? Yeah, that would be a nice
wake up call.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
It's not a bad it's not a bad job for
kids because it's so collaborative.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I always say if you do something, if you don't
do your job, then it's not your boss that gets upset.
It's your you know, the person who's depending on the
carpet being swept or the parsley being chopped. It's it's
not a bad idea. If you like listening to Ruthie's
Table for would you please make sure to rate and
(30:18):
review the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Should I
ask you your favorite food scene in the movie that
you've been in. Is there one?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
The one that's kind of sweet that I'm asked about
the most, probably is eating the spaghetti and maple syrup
and in elf. Yeah, because that we didn't really plan
out what. They just put a bunch of stuff in
front of me and I just kind of improvised that
and then ate as much as I could. And so
(31:03):
hundreds of kids every year ask me, what does that
taste like? Uh, that's the one that stands out probably.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
The most great movie, great scene. What are you working
on now? What's what's happening now?
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Still kind of on a holding pattern?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Is that with the strike? After the strike? Because did
you eat more when the strike was going on? Did
you have time to be at home cooking.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Oh yeah, we're still We just were. I mean we
were just out last night at an amazing place in
La called The japan House, which is two chefs who
were formerly the chefs for the the Japanese Ambassador to
the US. They've started this restaurant and it's yeah, really extraordinary.
(31:55):
But yeah, I've been at home more and uh, you know,
kind of waiting for the next thing to kind of,
you know, happen.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
When did you start cooking? When did you actually cook?
Or don't you really cook?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
I can't. I can't lie and say that I'm that's okay,
really cook that much?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Your boys? Three boys? Do they cook?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
The boys? Yeah, the boys. Our oldest is a sophomore
in college, so I think he's he'll he'll cook a
little bit. It's a really our middle son, who is
the big he's the big foodie of the three. He
really will love to get in there. And he's like, Dad,
(32:40):
should I make smash burgers? I'm like, do it?
Speaker 1 (32:43):
And what's a smash burger?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Yeah? That's where you take the patty and you you
smash it down on the skillet. Yeah, and then you
don't leave it on too long. Then you flip it
and smash it. So they're they're really kind of thin
and kind of you have a nice char on the outside.
And then but he's he's he's the one who's like,
(33:06):
if we are traveling, he'll look up, Yeah, he'll look
up like restaurants we should go to and he just
loves all those experiences and through through food and and
he'll just occasionally I think he also finds it really comforting.
Our youngest boy likes it. He's like, Mom, should we
(33:28):
should we bake a cake?
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Let's do it, And.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
They'll just want to spend the couple hours, you know,
doing something like that.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I think you should just demand that your next movie's
made in London. We can sit in the river cafe garden,
or we can take a walk, or we can have
food at home, or we can love and maybe I'll
see you in New York. So the last question, and
thanks so much for taking so much time, is if
you had a food that you would go to for comfort?
(33:59):
Is was it the liver and onions your mother made
or is it something that you cook or a Swedish
birthday celebration gake? What would be your comfort food?
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Oh, it's such a good question. Yeah, I mean, we've
touched on some of them, but the other one that
pops to my mind is I guess it's connected to
we have a chicken coop at our house, and there's
nothing more satisfying than going and getting the fresh eggs.
(34:32):
And I don't know if scrambling up eggs is the
hardest thing to do from a cooking standpoint, Probably not,
but it is. That's one of those connective moments of
when you know, if one of my boys we have
to get them up early on the weekend because they've
(34:52):
got a soccer game or a basketball game, that to
go ahead and grab some of those eggs and just
kind of gently scramble them and maybe put a little
parmesan cheese on the top, and toast a couple pieces
of bread and just sit and kind of talk as
we have Breakfast's that's very special to me, and so
(35:13):
I love the connection of all of that together.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Food and love. Well, thank you, and I hope that
we can see each other soon. Yeah, somewhere in London,
New York.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
That would be great. I would love it. Ruthie, thanks
coming on.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
We miss you, Sean and I are here. So Will
Ferrell chose for his recipe Tagulerini with butter and white truffles.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
I mean, it's such a luxury ingredient. Really. All the
chefs get really excited when the tuffle season begins and
you slice your first truffle and smell it and they're like,
oh my god, that's amazing. When a lot of people
are having truffles in the River Cafe and the air
is filled with smell, it's really intoxicating.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
People feel like people maybe.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Getting high on the smell.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
There's also the I think, well, there's there's a choosing
them as well when you have that. You know, they
bring in the white truffles and they sit at the
table and you look at them for their shape and
their firmness and how they how many holes there are
and where the cracks are, and how they will be
to clean and how they will be to shave. But
it is that sort of smell, you know. We always
(36:23):
just sort of worry that maybe they put truffle oil
on the box to make sure that they could smell
that strong. But that's why we're really careful if we
buy them from.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Because it's such a sort of high value ingredient. It's
open to people. When I was a younger chef. Maybe
not quite so much now, but people used to bring
them around London in their sort of wheelie cases and
then two judge dodgy guys would arrive at the back
door of a restaurant and ask if you want to
see what's in their suitcase and you'd be like, what
(36:53):
we let the guess alve in for? And then you'd
have to sift through, you know that We had one
man turned up with something that literally, I think was
a potato filled with truffle oil, and we were like,
we can't buy that.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
I think the other thing about truffle is that because
it's such a luxury, it's so expensive, so you're careful.
People try to be very very careful. You measure, you
sell it by the gram, so you sell you know,
two grams or five grams or ten grams. And then
there's you know, you have to weigh them. We weigh
them when we get them, we weigh them, have to service,
(37:28):
we make sure that we have it. But on the
other hand, when you're actually doing it, you just want
to give more and more and more, don't you. I'm
really the worst person because that thing of having to
judge it do you judge it or do you weigh
it when you're I freestyle.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Actually, I shouldn't really say that. I've never I've never
undercut people. No, I just always probably go a bit over.
But it's the only time you see a little tiny
scales on the past.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
What's that for.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
I got one of the biggest bollockings of my career
when I was a young chef. God, I thought I
was going to get sacked. Literally, I got taken to
the chef's office and I was literally like torn down
the strip. But it was really like because often you
wrap the truffle in the tissue, don't need to stop
it from getting whatever. And he left the truffle in
(38:18):
the tissue on the front pass and so I was
obviously cleaning down was soapy water, and he was like,
where's the truffle And I was like, oh God, I
haven't seen it. And then I realized I looked on
the floor where all the water and all the guys
were cleaning.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
The floor ands with trodden on it in the water.
It's really cool that Will Ferrell chose that living in California,
and but he just said that he just loved that
was white trefles.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Ruthie's Table For is produced by Atami Studio for iHeartRadio.
It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.
This episode was edited by Julia Johnson and mixed by
Nigel Appleton. Our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Our production manager is Caitlin Paramore, and our production coordinator
is Bella Cellini.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
This episode had additional contributions by Sean Wynn Owen. Thank
you to everyone at The River Cafe for your help
in making this episode
Host
Ruth Rogers
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