Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach

You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.

When Greta, Gerwig and Noah Boundback wrote to say they were moving to London for a year, we decided to meet for Sunday lunch in the River Cafe. After that first lunch we made a date for the following Sunday, and after the second one, we agreed to meet for the one after that. On the third Sunday, Harold, their five year old son, turned to me and said, Ruthie,

For tradition?

And even that was a delicious tradition. This Sunday, Noah, Greta and I are here in the River Cafe to talk about food and live food and friendship, beautiful movies they've made for all of us. And when we're done, Harold will join us and I will have lunch. Three people I love and adore with all my heart. Now that's tradition. Oh, that was beautiful When we chose the recipe future, and then are all these complicated recipes of pastas and risottos and desserts. And I thought that Noah's

I love horse. Yeah, so we do that.

One hundred grams fresh horse radish.

One tablespoon white wine vinegar, half a lemon, two hundred and fifty mililters crem fresh.

Peel and great the horse radish on the fine part of the cheese grater.

Then add the vinegar and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, and gently stir in the crim fresh.

Add one more thing.

Make more of it than you think you'll need, because you'll want more. Or if you're me, you will steak four hundred RIBI steak about six centimeters thick, Sea.

Salt, extra virgin olive oil.

The trick is to have the confidence to leave the steaks on the grill for the full cooking time.

It means they will get those dramatic griddle markings.

It is vital to rest your meat, which makes it juicier and more full of flavor.

About thirty minutes before cooking, remove the steak from the refrigerator uncovered and let it come to room temperature.

Preheat a barbecue or a grill to a high heat.

Season the steak on both sides with salt and pepper.

Grill the steak on one side for twelve minutes. Turn over the steak with tongs and grill for another twelve minutes on the other side.

Put the steak on a warm plate, drizzle with oil, and rest for twenty minutes.

Slice the steak thickly on the diagonal and serve.

Like rest for twenty minute. Sounds like you take it.

You take a rest, yeah, but both of you could rest for twenty ran the steak.

One thing we talk about, it's the Nora Ephron one for the table. When she died, the New York Times for her obituary had there was like a list and it was things I'll miss and things I won't miss, and you realize it's things all miss from the world. But one of the things is one for the table. When you're ordering and you say, and just one for the table. One to the table, And I was like, oh, I will miss one for the table.

That's such a nice concept.

We'll get it, you know, maybe, yeah, the other world will have another.

One, another one for the table.

My hope is that it's all the vibe of the next one is just one for the table.

That's the well, that's the thing. And was it defending defending her life?

The Albert Brooks movie, you know, where they it's like they're in a kind of limbo where they're they're judging. Essentially, it's like to figure out where you're going to go, if you're going to go up or down, and they sort of go to court in a way and have to defend their lives. But while there it's him, it's our Brooks and Meryl Streep. And and while they're there they can eat anything they want because there's no consequences.

So there's a lot of good eating in that one as well.

In cinema, I was trying to think of the great scenes of movies about you know, there's obviously The Godfather where he's making good fellows who when they're in prison, and you probably my time, there was Tom Jones, which was Albert and Suside York and do you remember they were just eating. It was sex and seduction. And I was like.

Eryl Flynn in robin Hood. He comes into the Kings and he thinks, and he takes that.

Big or whatever their leg of something and and he sits back in the chair and he eats.

It really confidently.

But I remember thinking, I mean, I loved that movie, and I loved Robinhood, but I really thought that looked delicious. That the oh yeah, and then because then he kicked goes back in the chair when they anyway, it's really good.

When I made Little Women, my producer of Noah's producer Amy and Pascal, she loves food in movies like it's a thing. We did all this research of the kind of food at the time. We had like American cookbooks from the nineteenth century. And food was actually a big part of the Alcotts life because their father, he was one of the first vegans, and he moved them to a vegan commune called fruit Lands in Massachusetts. And it

Do you think about it when you make a movie where you're going to be and what that will be like most of your movies have been shot in California.

Well, no, it was a California, London and Massachusetts. Yeah, I like having cast and crew dinners before we start,

I when you're filming, do you resent having to stop for lunch?

Yes, he resents, I don't mind because.

I hear I didn't have to.

It's hard to come back equally strong.

The one version that works, I think, and I got this from David Lynch, if you meditate during lunch, it gives you a second morning. If you just take twenty minutes and you meditate during lunch. She says, that's that was his.

Would you tell that to the crew We're not going to have lunch.

Could you imagine?

No, I'll go meditate. But actually it's funny if you say I'm going to go meditate for twenty minutes. Actually it kind of I think. I mean David Lynch says this, but people kind of say, oh, in a way, they're like, well, maybe I should do that, Like just or whether it's formal meditation or not, but like almost a chance to recharge a little bit and to allow yourself to go inside before you have to keep making decisions. But I think on film sets, when you're making decisions, when it's

There's a great story of Tom's Stoppard and Mike Nichols on the set of the I mean on the They were doing the play The Real Thing in the eighties, and Stoppard visited the rehearsals and while they were talking, somebody held up to chairs to Mike, and Mike just offhanded, just looked quickly and pointed at one and then just

Yeah, that's directing, that's you know, yeah, I think it's But I also find on movies sets I revert to really juvenile food habits.

I eat Cheetos in sort of like astonishing quantities Cheetos and diet coat. But I think mine connects to childhood, and there's some part of in a way dioretic movies out of childhood.

So you want things, I.

Think it puts it well.

I do think what I do do is put things of mine in the movie. So I have a relationship with I mean some movies. It's even the squid in the Whale might he you know, Jeff was wearing my dad's clothes, but that that was very direct.

Even on something like Barbie, which is like, well Barbie existed, is like even the version of because Barbie Barbie's been around since nineteen fifty nine, that logo has gone through a few different versions and now Barbie is a corporation is back around to the original nineteen fifty nine script version.

Imagine Estate bottled olive oil chosen and bottled for the River Cafe, arriving at your door every month. Our subscription is available for six or twelve months, with each oil chosen personally by our head chefs and varying with each delivery. It's a perfect way to bring some River Cafe flavor into your home or to show someone you really care for them with the gift. Visit our website shop the Rivercafe dot co UK to place your order. Now, Oh, here's our pizza. This is a good tradition.

Okay, we have lots for everybody. There's lots of pizza here.

Oh my godness, looks so good. My dad was the cook in our family. He's still a good cook.

He actually comes to one tradition we still have as my parents come to New York Everythan's Giving and they cook the whole thing, and it's very stressful for them, but they do it, and we gather the ingredients and he makes this stuffing once a year, which is the Julia Child stuffing, and it's really good and it has olives in it and it's delicious.

Did your dad cooked? Is that seene and squid in the wild? Then he says, but I cooked and.

Hamburgers, hamburger one time when you were sick.

When you were.

He well, he more post divorce.

He had a few things that he felt he could handle. He made blueberry pancakes with his big He was very proud of those and he would do like a real cutlet, and he would do the pamburgers.

Certainly, isn't it?

Because I had talked to Matthew Parson. I think he met him, did you was the ambassador here, and he was saying that his father never cooked until they were divorced, and his cure that forced you, but also in a nice way, he wanted to reassure his son that things were still kind of oh they weren't the same because he cooked, but that there was a safety, you know, and there was love that he was showing him that he could cook for them and that was his way of taking care of them.

Or a friend of mine keeps threatening to do a Divorced Dad cookbook, which I think is a good idea.

A meal it was, it's called he called it special meal, special meal.

Special put that marriage story. Actually the special.

Meal, special meal.

It's ground it's a potato. It's like a potatoes, ground beef, onions and peas.

Yeah, like all ground up together, and it would be like Dad, which I recreated.

Actually that in the marriage story. I recreated that special meal.

But I remember eating like we we were with this friend said, when there was a hurricane in New York and we ended up walking to Brooklyn because we didn't have any power, and he made special meal for all of us and we like loved it.

We ate so much special meal. It was like but it was like, it's it's definitely it would be good. It would be a featured item in the cookbook.

I wanted to. There was a point and my life.

I kept going to magazines when then magazines they were all these brides magazines, wedding magazines, and I thought, everybody I know is getting divorced. So friend of mine and I would do a a magazine called Divorce. And you could have like the car column, you know when you had to buy a car for you know, sort of that let few children, the dating column, the taking your kids out to lunch column, the cooking column.

You know, it could be a sort of nobody ever know.

You could do it with like link links now to and you know, like and also like things maybe they're selling off.

Yeah, And also if you knew you were going to be on the cover of divorce, you might not be so sad about divorced. Oh. He wanted to call it goodbye as opposed to Hello, we have We had this whole plan, but you know, it was down to one of those projects that never never got se But so eating, so you're both your father's cook before we have memories.

My dad was more.

And your mother.

My mother was more of like a sush.

She would prepare, she would chomp and prepare everything, and my dad would cook.

She would clean up while you're still eating.

Well my mom, yeah, no, my mom is like you put a glass down and you're like, oh, it's just it's been washed.

It's like it's done.

She was like a very like a prep and clean up person, and she would do breakfast. But my dad was better at like making omelets, like you'd do the flip and everything.

So it's like men and barbecues.

I always think that that is the kind of thing, but I think it's probably changed now. But it's a lot of work feeding. How many were you and your family?

Well, it kind of like expanded and contracted because I have a brother and sister who were older, so at times it was just me, but then at times it was all of us plus their friends, and there was always some extra person living with us, Like we had a woman who was dancing in the Sacramento Ballet who lived with us for a while, another woman who was a teacher at the college who lived with us for

Cooking for volume.

My mom always had me eat eggs. She was concerned that no one was getting enough protein.

And all I wanted.

For breakfast when I was growing up was dry cereal with milk, and I wasn't allowed to have it.

What about moosley?

Were you allowed at if I put it on yogurt with fruit?

Oh?

I see the protein thing.

Yeah, but she was like, you have protein, so and I just all I wanted was like a bowl of plain cheerios with milk.

And then when I finally got to.

College, that's all I ate for a solid year was just plain cheerios with milk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

And I got very ill, like it was bad for me.

So what was it like in your house? Did your mother shop and cook and she all sat down? How many of you were there in your family?

Brother?

Well? Yeah, my brother was five and a half years younger than me, but we would we would generally all sit for dinner the day, talk about the day, and.

Did your mom work? Did she have a career?

Well, she was, she taught and then she was a writer, but she was not she didn't have a mostly did not have a like a job that.

Took Yeah, so she could kind of plan the dinner.

Yeah.

She's still a good cook.

Yeah, cook right.

And I was always a little bit self conscious about her cooking because I had friends who I'd go over there and it was like you'd eat very basic things that I craved because we didn't we didn't do.

That at home.

But like macaronians, Yeah, like macaroni and cheese, and like a sandwich that had like a double decker or something, you know, like there'd be those those things that you'd see pictures and magazines.

I would I would always would be was like a whole wheat.

And yeah and some kind of like something. Yeah exactly. So I would go to other places to like people are.

Always usually always better enough. Once called me up, he went to the American school. I never keep a lot in my fridge. I don't know if you had fridges for you, but I've never had any. Once called me up and he said, can you just come to my friend's house around the corner and why and he said, well, they were American, you know, they'd moved here from whatever, and that is I just like to show you what a good mother's fridge looks.

Yeah, and I think, yeah.

Did you have a fridge packed with food?

We didn't have. We had a lot of Oh god, I just keep eating pizza.

But okay, I knew I was going to well also know and I would say, we have no ability.

We're eaters more.

Yeah, we eat.

Voracious, voracious.

Did you have grandmothers in your lives?

My grandparents both were in southern California during the Depression and grew up really poor, and that kind of the cuisine of that was very much in what they were. But my grandfather there were like walnut farms, almond farms, and he'd come and he'd just bring always these big bags of just nutsy you'd have to crack open, and you'd sit with him and you would just play cards. This is what I think when he was divorced, and you just sit with Grandpa Ralph play cards and crack

Did you go to restaurants.

Before we do restaurants?

I was gonna say, well, I just was thinking that my friend I got from my grandfather, my mom's dad, who would have a big salad for dinner the painter.

No, this is my mom's dad.

Who volunteered for World War he.

Can listed in World War two and he was decorated. He but I my mom found it, so I do this now I do.

He has a big salad.

When I'm not eating everything on the menu here I come at home, I have I have a big salad.

And my mom found a telegram from his grand from my grandfather coming back from the war, and it says, you know, there's one telegram which is sort of like.

Leaving this I should be back sometime around late July. And then the next telegram is like he'd arrived in America but it wasn't there yet.

He's like, I'll be there Thursday. Can you make me a big salad? By the word yeah, yeah, yeah. But I had sort of always liked that he did that.

The River Cafe When You Said Lunch is now running from Monday to Thursday. Reserve a booking on www. River Cafe dot co dot uk or give us a call. And when you two met, did you fall in love knowing that you both love food? Would have been impossible if you had somebody to you liked but they didn't care about food.

That would you get together to.

Care about food? Yeah?

You get together to have food and talk about music and movies.

Yeah.

I like there's like a point in most when I see most plays where I'm sort of, even if I'm really loving the play, where I will sort of enjoy just taking a moment to think about what I'm going to get it.

Or so well, there was a lot of.

The whole of the last act.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, This sort of like do I is it late for a burger?

No?

No, but it's it's even part of the play for me.

You told me because I read it, because you loved that Andrea.

Augusty book open.

There's a thing, There's there's.

And I read it and then you were like, I relate to something in this.

But did he say, well, he's like there's a point in the book he's serving. He's serving in the middle of a serving, the middle of a set at the US Open, and he's just thinking about what he's going to have for dinner afterward at this restaurant. And they are going to this place in the village, and you know, and an Italian restaurant in the village. And I often do that. I mean I do that when I'm directing

A lot of people see success, their own success and being able to order what you want. Did you feel that financially.

I'm absolutely able to not to, like, I mean, having spent my entire childhood like watching my father burrowed brow looking at the check for about five minutes, you know, after.

Every and to not look at it and worry about you know, who ordered the pecan.

Are allowed to have two courses?

Yes, I mean, can we have two courses? I think I know you don't need that.

That's enough. It's a very they're very big, so we'll just have one for the like that kind of ordering.

Yeah, I've rebelled against.

I felt that in the grocery store because when I was in college and then in my twenties, food is expensive, and good food is expensive. And when you bought like nice vegetables or nice good fruit, good even like the more expense slightly more expensive beans, and not be like, well, these beans are on sale when wassa I think, honestly, for me, not until I was like twenty eight, Like, when you stop measuring out how many dollars a day do you need to eat to keep going?

That's a big thing.

What about the movie that we just made in Italy?

In Italy?

Tell us about filming in Italy because you were in Tuscany.

Weren't you right?

Yeah?

And how did that enter into the film?

It did? I'm trying to think about how food entered into it, because it's this is the movie I just made with Ruthie Rogers and George Clooney.

Yeah, and lord during several people, several wonderful.

Don't really care about food, don't they?

Yes?

And it was sort of reverse engineered in some way.

Its like I want to film in Italy to have to have something happen, And it definitely did. I mean certainly for the story. It adds this whole other element, but there was I loved it.

So food is community if you're sharing, food is love, Food is family and remembering and feeling that you're liberated from growing up and you can make your own decisions. Also comfort, Is there a food that you would go to for comfort?

Well, I would say my funny answer, but my salad is like a comfort dinner for me, Like I know, because I don't have to make a decision.

I know what it is, and.

That is a comfort for you.

Yeah, yeah, like I look forward to it.

Yeah, that's so Noah.

The fact that your comfort is salad everything, it's like you're the most he really is the most effortlessly disciplined person I know.

And it's just so annoying not.

To take the said a rigor we could call it. I like the word vigorous.

I know what is yours a macaroni and she's cast role. It's also my friend Sarah because she she makes a great macaroni, and she's cast role and she makes it just perfect. And my birthday is in August, and she has we used to in our early twenties. We all together in this tiny apartment that had no air conditioning, and she made me a macaroni and she's castrole for my birthday in August in the heat, and I was like, she loves me. She loves me because who does that makes a roue and.

Does all this stuff and gets the crust just right.

And then in the pandemic, she made one for my birthday and got it to me, Like I feel like that if it's the food itself is comforting, and also like the fact that she made it.

It's like it I think that's my food.

I would also say the steak here I look forward to.

Let's go have something.

Yeah, okay, great, yay.

Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair