You are listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair. In September, the River Cafe will be thirty six years old, and one of the great joys of having a restaurant for so long is watching the second generation and now even a third generation of her early customers grow up.
Adwa's parents, Charles Boa and Camilla Luther, have been part of the River Cafe family since reopened, and ad was gone from being a young child ordering pasta, butter and cheese and then playing in the garden space outside with her friends to a formidable woman focused on the political
and social issues relevant today. After her own struggles with mental health and to support young women's well being, she founded the organization Girls Talk, providing a safe space for girls to access resources, share experiences, create community, and feel less alone, a place to escape the chaos of the
every day. I think a beautiful phrase today. Ad was just come from the kitchen grilling scallops and frying zucchini, and she's going to tell us what she learned and read the recipe so you can cook this at home. It's both moving and exciting for me to have d we're here, Oh.
Oh so nice.
So you've been in the kitchen then in the River Cafe kitchen, which do you remember coming here all.
The time all the time Ronnie and Johnathan? Yeah, they used to take us all the time.
And you've just been in the kitchen, and so you watched your request for the recipe with scallops grilled scallops with chili and zucchini.
My name's Adriana and I'm a chepher at the River Cafe and today I'm cooking some scallops on the grilling.
That now, Joan, I'm not cooking anything. You can cook it with me if you want to. Okay, cool.
We put them in the center of the grill because that's the hardest place.
How long do you have to leave them on?
Not very long at all. So you just keep them, don't move them around, keep them where they are, and then he'll start.
Kind of coming off.
You can kind of look at the bottom and see how they're cooking, because if you move them too quickly then they'll stick.
Oh wow, and.
Then we're gonna get some pretty may I think, Harry, you're doing pretty right? Can you drop some pretty for us?
So we have two recipes. One I think it's really for the batter for the zucchini, and then quite simple the.
Scales, scallops and zucchini pretty four firm ripe zucchini, one litera sunflower oil for the batter. One cup all purpose flour, three tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. I get always get really confus use that the tablespoon and teaspoon.
There is a different.
Like the way it's written.
Yeah, because it's tablespoon tsp.
Isp three tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, three tablespoons warm water, three egg whites, scallops, sixteen shelled sea scallops, two lemons extra virgin olival Cut the zucchini into ovals, then into thick matchsticks for the batter. Sift the flour into a bowl, making a well in the center. Pour in the olive oil and stuff. Loosen the paste by slowly adding enough warm water to make a batter the consistency of heavy cream. Leave for thirty minutes. Heat the oil in a high
sided pan to three hundred and seventy five degrees. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter. Dip zucchini, then fry in batch in hot oil until golden and crisp. Serve immediately scallops. Heat the grill. Season the scallops very generously on both sides with salt and pepper. Actually she said only salt and then pepper at the end.
Don't put the pepper on, Yeah, don't, Okay.
It burns quickly, so put the pepper on after place on the grill until lightly brown and crisp. Then turn over the grill. On the other side. The scallop should be tender on the inside and crisp on the surface. Serve with lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. And I had some chili online. So do you have to place it all up? Yeah?
That's the really fun part about working here is that you get to plate all of your.
Food because where who would usually do that?
Like Anton, so you bring it up to the past and maybe someone on the pass would play it, but here you get to do it and it gives you. I mean, for me, it's really satisfying.
God wos.
Wow, I'm coming here for dinner.
Tell me about going to Vogue with Edward, because we did. When Edward Nfl became the editor, we did the party. Remember that we had a party for him That was a great party. You were the cover for his first year.
That was mad, that Vogue party. I remember that like it was yesterday. I remember us driving here and I, you know, Edward, and I still laugh about it now. It's like it wasn't naivety. I think it was just this we were just doing something that felt very special to both of us. It was like this, we were embarking on this new journey, and it wasn't necessarily that we were. We were completely naive to how the world was going to embrace it, you know, not only just
people in fashion, but worldwide. You know, it really went viral, do you I mean? I think? And so as we kind of pulled up. I pulled up, I can't remember who I was in the car with me. It was like my mom and dad and system. We pulled up the Shepherd's Bush roundabout and it was projected on Shepherd's Bush round about. What the hell is going on? And I looked on my phone and it was just like going mad and I actually like broke out into hives. I was like, oh my god, this is so much.
I don't even know how to deal with this situation. I pulled up the River Cafe and Edwin and I just giggled. We could not stop laughing. I think we were both so overwhelmed by what had happened that we kind of just like could not stop laughing. It was mad. It still feels really mad.
We all had ravioli. We had this long discussion before whether all the Vogue people, the models and the actresses and the young beauties of today would actually have gluten carbs, cheese butter, and whether we would serve it. We did, and bo was actually really cool because we said, do you want to find out what people whyn't you? They get? Now we're done with that. We're done with you know, if you have a food preference, we're just going to do the menu and what they eat. They did, and
everybody had Reveali and everybody. A lot of people had seconds of viali. And yet the whole issue with the being a model about your body, talk about being a woman in a profession that requires you to be a certain shape besize.
I think I don't remember being worried. I think there were moments when I was at school where I was kind of worried about what I looked like. Sometimes I didn't I wasn't at a girls' school. But you know, I lived in a house full of women, so sometimes when someone would get a bit like weird with food or they'd have you know, issues, it kind of sometimes bleeds into everyone else within the community, you know what
I mean. We see that all the time. And I think when I started modeling, I don't again remember feeling that pressured about it. I think I just felt like incredibly painful in my own body in general, So it wasn't necessarily like kind of weight related. I think there's always been like parts of my body that I haven't like loved, you know what I mean, And I've had to grow to love.
Are you the kind of person that can eat but not gain weight.
Yeah, because I've always done lots and lots of sports.
But were other models that you were with? What did you feel that to be a model you had to be a Yeah.
I got weird with food for a period of time actually when I got sober, and they call it that transference, you know, I think I was just trying to control something else in my life. So I got a bit weird with food when I was about twenty two. I think it was just control, to be quite honest, And I think wait for me, you know, if I'm i selfer with anxiety, you know, and so when I'm anxious, it just falls off. Yeah, I'm not the type of person sometimes I am eating, but it literally just falls
off all the time. So sometimes I haven't even been like aware of like dropping way. I think. I've always done a lot of exercise and a kind of now do pilates, So I used to build a lot of muscles. So my body has changed, like you know, over the course of like many years, I think, And so I think because I think when I got started modeling properly, I decided there was a part of me that had that to do it, to really kind of walk into
it again, I had to take on. It was almost like a It wasn't necessarily that I felt like that, but I had to be like, this is who I am, do you know what I mean? Like take it or leave it, you know what I mean. I'm not gonna be sucked into this idea that I should be thinner or look a different sort of way for you to kind of appreciate me or want me. So I had to and that's not exactly how I felt all the time, but I had to sort of fake it to make it so it wasn't necessarily I think I've always I
don't know. I was speaking on my own podcast about this the other day. I think I wonder if my relationship with myself will ever be what I wanted to be. Whilst I model, I don't know if I have a to a certain extent a healthy relationship with myself, but I wonder if my relationship with my body will ever be what I wanted to be as long as I'm kind of within the industry. And yes, it has changed like drastically, do you know what I mean? The likes
of amazing people spearheading different sorts of movements. But you know, we only have to kind of look at certain photos or fashion shows and we see the kind of the pressure that's.
Playing, and I almost find it painful. I haven't been to that many catwalk shows. I think it probably when you see, you know how and kind of serious and all that. You know, I know, it's there to just showcase the clothes, and so it's opening at a hanger, but there is something as a woman to see women doing their job is a little.
Bit yeah, And also when you know that someone's like kind of unwell, yeah, whatever that looks like for different people. When you know someone's kind of suffering with and you know, disordered eating, but they are praised and celebrated within the industry and they work even more. It's that in itself is an uncomfortable thing to get your head around. I
think that's where sometimes the pressure for me. Lies. It isn't I want to be onwell, it's just the fact that I see people doing well because of it, you know what I mean. And that's a that's that's a mad thing to get your head around, you know what I mean. And it's and I don't think that kind of breeds healthy ways of looking yourself. You know, if you're being told that you are better for being thin, and.
I suppose the other you know, we haven't talked about We've talked about body image and modeling. We haven't talked about race. And I think that there is also the issue of what it was like to be or what it is like to be a woman of color in very What was it thanks to Edward? It's it's not so much and people like Edward, but how that affected you.
I think that's something that I'm really delving into at the moment is how a lack of understanding about my own identity has really kind of hindered certain aspects of my growth, do you know what I mean? And having been brought up in a predominantly white space, that how that has affected me, How the things that I've tolerated, the things that I've kind of brushed off. And I think because of the resurgence of Black Lives Matter, the conversations that they were having it kind of it really
kind of shook people's core. It wasn't that we were just talking about slavery something that happened, you know, years and years ago when people were I know, but for certain people, like they weren't around where they happened when that happened, so they were like, oh, I wasn't part of that. I mean I would, I didn't do anything
like that. And I think Black Lives Matter kind of brought it, made it current and suddenly you were kind of they were speaking about things that you had to check yourself on and I had to suddenly was I think validated in a lot of experiences and feelings that I had surrounding my own race and how I'd had to kind of navigate certain situations. And also I think I was also my privilege. You know, we talk about colorism within the community as being someone who's like mixed
race and lighter skin. The way that I was treated compared to my cousins who are you know who who were a lot darker skinned than me. You know, I think that's a conversation that we don't have enough either. But for me, I think it was great. You know, when Edward started doing what he was doing, what he does and continues to do and sets the bar so high continuously. I think for me it had always been
unspoken how uncomfortable I'd felt in certain situations. It was almost that I didn't want to give it a name. It's like I felt that there were certain reasons why my career hadn't taken off. You know, when I'd started with certain people, you know, who look very different to me, I think I still was searching for something that was
completely unattainable. Different hair, different body shape, you know, sometimes even like you know, different colored skin, you know, And so I think I didn't want to blame it on something like that. I was like, why, you know, I started at the same time as car I started at the same time as so many girls, and they kind of reached such great heights and I was like, why
is that? Do you know what I mean? I think it was quite nice when Edward There was many things that were beautiful about it, but like having him come in and be like, we got to change that. This is what is going on, you know what I mean?
Were you born here?
Yeah? Yeah, born in London and your father's yeah gone in he was born in Akras.
So going back was part of your childhood.
Yeah, very much. So it was always something that we did. Sometimes my mum came and sometimes it was just the three of us, and I think it felt quite alien at that time. And as I grew older and kind of my career changed and obviously I became like a grown up, my relationship were gone to very much change.
I felt like kind of instead of just the kind of traveler, someone who'd like been born in London and who'd come back to Ghana, I felt like they really claimed me, which was really like a kind of beautiful experience, you know. I think especially after the British Vogue cover, you know, it was like they call you a Brunei, which means like a kind of traveler. Because I'm obviously
a little like paler skin than most gone ears. And I think after that I felt very much like kind of claimed by the people there, which was really really amazing. But I have the most amazing memories of Ghana. We always used to stay at my grandma and granddads. It's just a modest house next to a nursery, so there were always like kids playing outside. My grandma has always had a little kind of like corner shop, so we go in there get all like cold bottles of like
coke and like biscuits. Then we'd sit there and watch her and my aunt Mary, all three of them and live together, so we watch them.
Did you cook? Did she cook for you?
Yeah? She cooked, and then she had a woman who also helped her comfort.
What is gonna and food?
Like, it's amazing. I mean, you've got the joll Off rice, You've got lots of different kind of fish, You've got food food, so it's like a kind of dough that you dip into a soup. The spice there is kind of like it's like an oily one. It's amazing.
And chili, yeah, a lot of chili.
Yeah yeah yeah, really, spike yeah yeah.
Yeah, did you go to the market.
To the markets are mad mad, like insane, just like bustling food, clothes, people wandering around. It's like mental but amazing.
And how long would you stay?
We'd stay for like two weeks. I have some cousins who usually stay there a bit longer. Dad and my sister there this year. My dad goes back all the time all the time. My granddad's not alive anymore. My aunt Mary, she's not alive anymore, but my grandma very much still there and my aunt Tina lives with her. So yeah, thats what.
Was it like growing up in your house? You have memories of meals, you know, for cooked.
My house has always been a place that is kind of people are in and out at all times, you know, I very much grew up with Maybe it was someone who had to move in for a bit, you know, my godfather would move in, or someone in you know, distress would be upstairs living in the upstairs room. There were always parties and dinner parties and lots of different people kind of in and out of the house. You know. My mum has always been like an entertainer, my dad
as well. The home has always been one that kind of it feels like sacred, but they're not precious about it. You know, a place that people want to Geah, the carpets are rolled up when a party happens. But you know, they've never been kind of like prim and Popper, prim and proper about their their places.
But were you kids part of it? Yeah, you kind of. You weren't sitting on the steps watching the party. We were down there.
We do like things like co check yeah yeah, and we like charge everyone money and then they find all their coats just piled off on one bed, pretending like we'd organized them. Or we'd be like sat on the staircase watching everyone get up to whatever mischief they were getting up to. And then later on we were just joining in.
Would you go out a lot? Would you go out? Yeah?
We do such amazing things, you know what. That's the thing about growing up in London is like, I mean, I wouldn't want to bring my children out anywhere else. I loved it. Galleries and restaurants and they took us everywhere. It was never about separation. It was like you want to sit with the grown ups. You learn how to sit with the grown ups. You you know, learn how to converse and listen and talk to whoever might be
next to you or in front of you. But it was never like my parents were never into the idea of like putting you on the kids stay. Yeah, you know, if we were younger, it was like come out, enjoy yourself. When you get tired, just sleep under the table, do you know what I mean? And then we'll go out.
And then you went to the boarding school. Yeah, yeah, what was that like? The food yeah, horrible, horrible? And Milfields?
Was it?
Millfield? Yeah, be rather proud of it. It was.
You know what, maybe this is my snobby side. I'm not great with a buffet. I think school kind of like traumatized me from that. I mean some days it would be good, like the salad station was like banging, like that was good. But to be quite honest, I lived off dominoes for like five years. No, you weren't. We weren't allowed, but we'd like sneak it in and then in prep we'd like run out and get the pizza and like bring it back in and all share it.
On Fridays we were allowed like to order in Indian or a Chinese Yeah.
Interesting, So that must have been quite shocking to go from a house that was full of people and friends and good food.
Yeah, I think it was also. I mean there were certain days where it was good. Chinese day, wasn't that bad? Indianigh, it wasn't that bad.
How old were you thirteen to eighteen five years? Yeah? Yeah, then you'd come back weekends or would youday?
Well, you were only allowed what do they call it? I can't remember what they used to call xia. Yeah, you were only allowed a certain amount of x yats. But I had the best house mistress on the face of the planet, missus Orton, and she I was really homesick. Yeah, I mean I kind of got over it, but it wasn't my favorite of years being at that school. I had some great friends, but I was just desperate to come back to London.
Then from Millfield you went to university, went to what was that like, Brunell?
Yeah, where is Brunel? That's an Oxbridge. I mean I tried to get into Goldsmith's. I've failed my English exam. I can't remember which one it was. Because you realize that it really doesn't matter, I mean, try your best, do all the things for the list.
Here we're here with a friend of mine's daughter and the Hedgehead executive chef's daughter Pearl. Helena Pearl joined us today because she's a fifteen year old aspiring actor. She's an enormous admirer of your work and so.
There.
Yeah, and so we were talking about whether university matters. So what was that like?
Obviously wanted to save money, so lived at home.
We have.
Yeah, I had the best time because I think it was just I was back home. I was back in London. I was back. It was more it was predominantly I mean, Millfield was very kind of like intersectional do I mean in many ways, but it was predominantly white. And I think coming back to London, it wasn't just the kind of necessarily race. It was also a boiling pot of people who've grown up differently, you know what I mean. It was like I'd grown up completely different to a
lot of the people in my kind of class. But I was I just felt I felt like that was just more me. I just wanted to be amongst that.
Yeah, So living at home, did it come back? Did it feel like before you went to.
It was very weird. I wouldn't say it was a great time for my mine and my parents' relationship. I think, you know, I think they thought sending me to Boiling School there would be more rules. But actually, when someone doesn't know you, like a teacher, you can get around them. Do I mean, like, actually, you've kind of weirdly got more space to Rome and so coming back to London,
obviously there were certain rules. But I think if I was honest and I've you know, I've spoken to about this anyway, I think coming back home after five years, I was a bit like, you can't really tell me what to do, do you know what I mean? Like, we haven't lived together for five years, so I think that dynamic was quite hard on our relationship. I think I probably regressed. I think I wasn't used to the fact that I was back living under their roof, and I was like very much a different person.
I remember once saying to my father. I might have said this one before, saying to my father when I was thirty or twenty eight or whatever, and I've been living in London and working, and my parents lived in the upstate New York and would start and I once went home and I was said to my dad, Oh, I'm going to leave the baby and going to New York tomorrow. And he said, I don't think you should do that. And I said, you know what, I live in London and I work and I don't have to
ask anybody's you know, nice way said provision. But it's interesting that when you know, I go home, I don't know whether I'm a child or I'm an adult. And he said, I'll make it really easy for you with you the minute you walk in that door, you're a child. And it was actually quite nice because I thought, that's kind of why I like going home, you know, is it suddenly somebody's saying, you know, no one you stay here or whatever. It was just interesting.
It's like a dance, isn't it. You have to learn how to live with each other again.
The River Cafe Cafe are all day space and just steps away from the restaurant. Is now open in the morning an Italian breakfast with cornetti, chiambella and cristata from our pastry kitchen. In the afternoon, ice creamed coops and River Cafe classic desserts. We have sharing plates Salumi, misty mozzarella, brisqueto, red and yellow peppers for Tello, tonato and more. Come in the evening for cocktails with our resident pianist in the bar. No need to book. See you here when
you went to Brune. What were you think of majoring? What was your theata?
Yeah, that's why I finished, That's why I majored it.
Yeah. Did you eat out a lot? Did you party?
Did you? Yeah? I went out all the time, all the time. I mean we were so here was this? I was eighteen.
Yeah, and we were born in nineteen nineteen ninety two. Yeah.
So what did I finish school twenty ten? Yeah? Yeah, we had the best time. I worked as soon as I kind of finished school, mardeling. There were bits and modeling, but it wasn't there was like a different time, do you know what I mean? So I worked in the shop, I worked as a nanny. But we were so we had so much fun, do you know what I mean? We was like I don't know how it is for you, Pearl, but we just we were so carefree and mad and doing our thing and we yeah, and we all pile
our money. Yeah, I mean just but I just mean being young, do you know what I mean? It's like we weren't bothered about kind of what clothes we were wearing or anything like that. We didn't have the pressure of like social media or anything like that. It was just about being in a gang, do you know what I mean, and roaming the streets and.
Most was it.
Yeah, mostly I've always been a girls girl. And we'd all put our money together and like share one meal, like poor restaurants where we'd just sit for hours and hours and hours outside kind of coffee shop, sharing one coffee between like five of us, and they're like, can you leave? If you're not going to buy anything, can you leave? Or we'd go to like kind of my friend Josh Delissa, who might as well be my brother, he had a restaurant called Boomberger. We'd go in there
get cheap prices. We had some Mexican restaurants around the area, and we'd all put our money together to share like kind of one plate of food. Because I mean we were quite naughty. We were spending our money on like alcohol, going out, so we didn't really have a massive interest in spending our money on food.
So modeling, when did that happen? I mean, how did that happen?
I mean I've been modeling on and off since I was probably since I left school. So since I was eighteen now, I did a few bits and pieces like before, but my mom was very strict about and my dad as well about finishing school. Modeling kind of took quite a long time to kind of take off. So that's why I kind of worked.
Did you enjoy it?
Yeah, I think I've learned to like it more. I learned to like it when I it's cheesy. Is this sounds when I started to like myself, to be quite honest, you know, I mean, that's when it became more fun. And yes, there are days when I'm on my period or I'm a bit exhausted, when I'm like, this is literally the last thing I want to do, you know
what I mean. There's be like kind of showcased in front of a bunch of people, and then kind of it's like Instagram have to kind of and then I start picking apart my kind of who I am, you know what I mean, face value, not who I am as a person actually, But I can ask questions what made you want to do a podcast? I think it goes back to this this idea of storytelling, I think, and the information out there on what lived experience does in regards to stigma reduction and suicide reduction, and so
I couldn't think of a better place. There's something about an honest conversation and honest chat. Yeah, there's so much like intimacy within that and to just listen to some And I think it really was that it's like to talk to someone, to hear their side of a story, to hear where they've come from and where they're at and where they hope to be. I think that's definitely the essence of having the podcast, is that idea that when we hear someone else's story, we're going to feel less alone.
Yeah, so you will be talking about Girls Talk. Tell me when the next series that you're so excited about is coming out?
So podcast, I'd say, just keep a lookout. It will be towards the end of the year. Keep a lookout for September. How do we look for it? Yeah, so just our Instagram handles Girls Talk and My Girls Talk, gu are Ls Talk.
Do you listen to Girls Talk?
Yeah?
I but to you, like, I love listening to things that say, like you know, I lovely things. It's just like, yeah, that so should be said, that should be spoken about more, you know what I mean? People sphere of speaking out stops them from strengths like saying the truth, you know, as I really like about it, you know, like speaking about grievouses or trauma or like mental health, like all those type of things are just not talked about enough.
And I think I can't wait for the new season to come out. I feel more grown up and even more opinionated and even more confident. I find, and I don't know if this is because of social media or cancel culture, that sometimes we're quite agreeable with each other, and I want to have conversations that aren't always with
people that I agree with. I want to also learn about things that I have no idea about, and I want to sometimes have those uncomfortable conversations where I'm not only kind of not necessarily agreeing with the other person, but I'm also being checked about what I don't know and the ways that I think about things. Do you know what I mean? And so we've kind of changed that and it's going to be really cool. We've got some megapeople on the podcast.
Yeah.
I love hearing people's stories, you know. I love meeting people, you know who I like different backgrounds exactly.
Everybody comes in with a story. Look around it. I've had people come in and say, ah, you know, look at how this fabulous restaurant and I've had such a hard time lately, And like if you went to every table, everybody would have a story a story about Yeah. But you know people, you know, we all think that you see all these people and their lives are perfect, and then you find out one that's just been divorced, or they've had a kid with addiction, or they have everybody.
Has a story.
And so those smiling, happy faces, whether you see them on Instagram or hear you know that that everybody has a story. And as you say, I love walking around and just hearing a bit of the story saying hello. Do you think peril that? Do you think that's when? When Daware talked about social media pressure, do you think that exists now a lot?
I think, especially hearing about what you were saying about how when you were a kids and used to like it's to be much different to its now because you have social media. I think ever really affects more how people look at themselves because your Instagram and you've got TikTok, and you've got all these things, and if you don't have it, you're like not in with the times. But if you do, then you're just making yourself feel worse
by yourself. But you can't be like like for example, and people are like, oh, I don't want social media.
It's bad.
People are down.
On you for it.
But maality, it's much better if you didn't have it, Like for you're probably happier in those times than that kids are now, oh one.
Hundred percent, because it's there's one thing, you know, getting to know yourself and figuring out who you are over those like thirteen to eighteen and then onwards, do you know what I mean? It was like such a confusing time and that that's already like you know, I was talking to these girls the other day, like thirteen to fourteen, and that was a question like what would you say
to your younger self? And I would be like, I used to scrutinize every single thing I did, the shoes I wore, the way I wore my eyeliner, the way my hair was, the way I carried my bag, the way I walked, you know what I mean. I was like always on my case about every single movement. And I think I would tell everyone that you don't need to do that. I wish I'd stop putting so much pressure on myself because you realize when your world gets bigger than none of them truly matters, do you know
what I mean? And I think to add in the pressure of having to kind of be perceived by other people, it's like I already was kind of self conscious, so to then have to kind of portray a person that I maybe wasn't hadn't become yet, do you know. I mean something that was maybe just kind of performative would have been like an added pressure at that time.
And you know what happens at any age, you know, I can, you know, for talking women's My husband died a year and a half ago, and sometimes I just look on Instagram and go, you know, another happy family, you know, and the beach resorder, another grandparents with their grandear.
I mean, I have that life, but you know, it's very You can look at it in terms of whether you're thin enough, whether you're you know, whether your hair is as beautiful, whether you're a certain type with the clothes you're wearing, the way you carry a handbag, or you can look at it families and you can see you know, it just feels that there's I really I never post from a vacation. I really knew that a
long time. But there's nothing worse than a day like today working and then you see somebody on there you know.
It's I do it.
There's a Is it acting what you wanted to do when you went to Brunel?
Yeah, that's what. From thirteen until eighteen, I did that at school and then I went on to study that at Brunel and then kind of life took a different direction, not only kind of personally, and then it became something you know, then I kind of fell into modeling and that started taking over. So I kind of jumped on that bandwagon and that led me to where I am now.
And then I think just before COVID, I made a kind of decision that I wanted to give it another go, you know, I wanted to put one in it and see where it would take me, because I think when I first left university had a different head of my shoulders and my priorities were warped and I wasn't a very happy person. So I didn't, you know, have the the capability to give it one hundred percent. So that's where I'm at now, I'm I'm on that journey and
I absolutely love it. It's just ridiculously hard. Respect to Allah. I would love to do theater one day, but at the moment it's it's TV infel. Yeah.
And now you're living in your own apartment. How is that? Oh?
It's really nice.
Do you have an open kitchen as well? What's it like?
Kitchen? It's my kitchen's yellow, blue and white tiles, I mean, describe it. It's very much open, and I've got an island in the middle that has like a kind of heart boner engraved in it that my friend Jeff did. It's got a massive, big, like kind of teak table with matching chairs that I've polstered in like leopard brint.
How you like your parents? Do you like people coming to you instead of you going to that?
Yeah? I love it. I mean I think to a certain extent. I grew up in an African household, so the idea that we were going to spend the night at other people's houses was like something that was like my dad just did not understand. He's like, you have a bed, you have a house, Like, why do you need to go and stay at someone else's house. There were certain people that we went to, but like eating at home and sleeping at home has always been like a kind of a priority with a house, you know,
I was talking to Pearl about it. Actually, I mean I actually eat in a lot. I now spend a lot of time between London and la And when I was working before COVID, I didn't really have the time to cook. It wasn't necessarily a priority of mine. So I used to order a lot of takeaway. And I think after COVID, I started really prioritizing what was important, so I did have more time. And so my boyfriend's are really good cook My sister lives with me and she's an amazing cook. I like cooking if it's like
family or people who are really close to me. I don't feel the pressure. I'm not the idea of cooking for like ten people or something that doesn't excite me. If I'm cooking for myself, it's like simple things like fish and vegetables or eggs, soup, you know, stuff like that. No I don't eat eat No, No, I haven't eaten.
You're not weirdly, I've started like I think I've just been listening to my body a bit more, and so like if it's the time of the month or something like that, I'm like, oh, I kind of really feel like some met and I've never had that before. So I kind of am listening to my body a bit more. But it's still very much like kind of in when I'm cooking at home, especially in LA. We have like a tiny, tiny kitchen, so we're not gonna cook fish because it would just make the whole house smile, like
fish the little flat we have. So we cook a lot of vegetarian stuff in LA, and then at home, you know, I have more space and so we cook lots of different things and have people around. I wish I I've grown up in a household full of amazing cooks. My cousin's amazing cook, my aunt and my uncle everyone. You know, they have recipes that were handwritten by my grandma about certain things. Yeah. That and I think I
remember my mum always say my mom's mom. Yeah, I always remember my mom, Like I mean, there were there are many things that were kind of sad when her mom died. But I think she always thinks about, you know, when she needs on on certain recipes. She always thinks about the idea of calling my grandma, and my dad is an amazing cook as well, and so I should be more interested in it.
Well, i'm the cleaner.
I'm the cleaner.
Yeah, that's fine. I think everybody figures out I do the dishes.
Well, that's fine.
Do you remember when it became possible for you to go out to you to not think about how much it cost.
Yeah, that's a really good question, I think. So I moved twenty seventeen. I moved to LA when I got sober, But I don't I wasn't eating out that much, to be quite honest, I didn't have the money I was. I'd kind of taken a year off and my mum and dad were supporting me for the first time in a long time, which I found like kind of incredibly uncomfortable. So I kind of was under certain budget, do you
know what I mean? And I think probably maybe when I really could just like go to the restaurants and come here and like pay for myself. I probably was about twenty five.
Had come from modeling or to acting.
Or yeah, modeling, Yeah, yeah, that was a big change. Yeah, moving to New York. So I moved to New York when I was twenty four, had my twenty fifth birthday in New York, and that's probably when it started to change. You know, that's when I could like order a takeaway or like go to this restaurant called Lucy n and like or get my friend a meal or pay.
You're not alone in that, you know that. It was something that I was talk When I talked to David Beckham, he said he remembered when he took Victoria and they could actually you know, I have to completely look at the prices on the right hand side. Or Paul McCartney saying that he thought wine was a horrible drink because he could only afford the cheapest, cheapest, cheapest wine because
we know it's pretty. Wine was a horrible drink until he went out with Brian you know Epstein, who was his manager, and they ordered a fantastic puddle of the feet and oh that's what wine is.
The main thing is is I've never tried a good glass of wine. Well never, yeah, no, But but I got sober when I was twenty. I got sober when I was twenty two, so I wasn't like spending the money and like we were going to the corner shop and getting like a Casaillio dabble, you know what I mean, and like a cheap bottle of tequila with a hat on it.
Yeah.
So, and so I've never actually, you know, I've never had a like stunning cocktail. I've never had a like beautiful glass of wine. And it's fine, but it is mad to think that I've never actually because and to be honest, like that's why I could probably like go and eat out, do you know. I mean, I've never had the expense of having to kind of buy alcohol.
And I suppose you know, for me, that is you know, we all have reasons why we eat the food we eat. Food can be something you have when you're hungry, could be something that you have when you want to cook or you want to entertain. It can be food can be alleviation of pain or sadness. So I suppose that my last question to you is what would you turn to if you needed food for comfort?
I go home, definitely. I don't know if it's anything in particular. I think it would just be something cooked by my mom and dad. Anything that was put in front of me would feel comforting.
That's beautiful and a beautiful wait to end a wonderful thank you. I love you, I love you. Yeah, we love you. Pl. Thanks, thank you, Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair eight