Welcome to River Cafe, Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and Adami Studios.
Okay, let's get the show on the road. David Beckham, So she's head chef. What are you everything?
Okay, whatever you want me to do.
I want a job, Beckham, I would.
Love to job.
I need a job.
Job, you need a job. So I'm here today with Sean Winowen, the head chef, and the River Cafe, and my friend David Beckham.
And it's now twenty.
To six and people are coming in soon. So the two of you better get going. What are you going to make?
We are making? Tell me Kelly, you're.
Happy with that, chef.
I'm more than happy with that.
Yeah, David.
Okay, let's check Vid.
It's going to cook, okay, Okay, right, give it a really good shake, yeah, maake it shaky and a bit of parsley.
Oh yeah.
What do you like cooking at home?
David?
What do I like cooking at To be honest, my kids are obsessed with Italian food, So the majority of the time they get me to make like a raggedy because the kids love I.
Could tell when you're shaking the pane that you weren't just in office.
Quite impressive.
You made it.
Yeah, I think we could turn them into quite useful shop. And he has done a cooking course, it transpires, La, I'm really impressed by that. Actually, So that was good.
Now it's time to talk. Start beating and we'll talk.
Can I take you with.
Me, journey, take it with Okay. We have an open kitchen and one of the great pleasures for me is being able to see the reaction of people eating, you know, whether they love it or they don't love it, whether they share it or they don't share it, whether they talk about it. You know, it's part of the whole joy of eating out.
And I love open kitchens, you know.
I like the interaction that you can have with you know, what's going on around you, you know. I like to see what the chefs are doing. I like to see what's being prepared. To be honest, I've been so lucky because I lived in Spain for four years, then I moved to America. Then I spent eleven months in Italy, and then I was back in America, and then I moved to Paris for six months. So I had all of this kind of education in you know, living in
different places eating different foods, trying different things. You know, when I was living in Paris, I was again Victoria and the kids kids would going to school in London, so they obviously couldn't live there with me. They'd come out of the weekends. So again, one of my favorite restaurants in the world is Lammy Luis.
Yeah, I agree, I mean absolutely agree.
It is.
Literally I would say it's probably one of my favorite restaurants in the world for atmosphere, food, enjoyment, everything about it. You know, from the moment I walked in, and you know, all the waiters are dressed in those white jackets, and whether you're wearing a bomber jacket or whether the most elegant lady walks in and the chanelle coat. They take your coat off, they fold it up and they throw it above the head the on the it's like a
train carriage. And my record for eating es cargo is I've eaten thirty two es cargoes at one dinner.
To the listener, can I tell you those are big?
I've had them any They're big, and they come on trays of six or nine I think, and they come and I was in there for about four hours with Victoria once and we had the most amazing wine and everything about that restaurant. And I used to go in there, and I shouldn't have done, because obviously I was a professional athlete, and you know, I tried to watch what I eat, but I just made sure I ran harder the next day. So I used to go in there
once a week. They used to let me come in the first The service was at seven thirty I think it was in the evening. That was. No one was there at seven thirty either, So I used to turn up at seven and by the time the first people were coming through the door around called it to eight o'clock, I was walking out. So I used to do that once a week. I used to go on my own. I didn't care that I was on my own. I just didn't drink the wine. But I just sat there and I ate the most amazing food.
I love it, and the pond feed, the.
Bread and everything about it's just unbelievable. Crim fresh at the end, that tub of crem fresh air and they just dollop it on the plate.
And the small strawberries.
One of the high points of my career is, you know, the headwaiter, they're the one with the black hair. It's not called Louis. I can't remember his name. And he came to the River Cafe with his family, with his wife and his children, and it was really it was such a moving experience for me to have them there. So you actually had the experience of living in Milan in my marriage and Madrid.
Yeah, I lived in Madrid when I first moved to Spain. I was twenty seven years old and I lived there for four years, and I became really obsessed by wherever I would live in the world. I decided in my head, Okay, this is where I'm going to be for the rest of my life, because I had to look at it like that, because I wanted to throw myself into the culture, into the language, into the food, into everything that I
was doing in that country. Spain was a big you know, food, kind of family, kind of culture, you know I have. For a start, I couldn't believe how long the lunches went on for. You know, we'd start lunch at two and still we sat there at seven, and then they'd go for a sleep, and then we'd come back and have dinner at eleven, and I'd be like falling asleep at dinner. But I loved everything about Spain, you know, from the ham on to the Loma to you know,
to everything that I ate in Spain. I lovedbz. It's like the it's the barnacles and you put them in hot boiling water only for it not for long, yeah, and then you kind of twist the end off and it's like it's very chewy but very salty. So they're called buthebes and yeah, they're they're barnacles and they're very difficult to to get. Literally, the guys tie theirselves onto the side out of these rocks. They then wait for
the waves to go out. They go down get them and then come back up before the wave comes in. So it's quite dangerous. And still now every time that I go to Spain, every time that I go to Madrid, I always come back with a leg of ham on.
Yeah.
Always.
It goes in the middle of the kitchen Ireland and every time that the kids walk past, they slice the piece off.
So yeah, But how was it being an athlete with a discipline? How did you marry your passion for food with the discipline of having to be absolutely fit for a game? Did food affect you. Did you eat a cera?
To be honest, I was lucky.
Food never really affected me, but I did, you know, as much as I am sat here saying, you know, the cram fresh, the escal go, the you know, everything that I've talked about, I still try to eat in the most healthy wow, because obviously being an athlete, I have to eat in the right way. But then I think the dietary requirements now for athletes, especially in football,
have totally changed over the last twenty years. When I first joined Manchester United, you know, the canteen was all about having steaking chips and beans and then you'd have a jam roly poly or you'd have a slice of chocolate cake. No like after training so you'd have a slice of chocolate cake with chocolate custard.
But now it's totally different, you know. Now it's totally different.
Now, Well, it depends where you play, what manager you know you're playing under. You know, there were certain managers that would only want us to eat boiled chicken, which disgusting, but that's that's how they felt that we should be eating. You know, no ketch up, you know, and then you have the opposite. When I was living in Milan. I was kind of thinking, how am I going to be fitness wise because I'm going to be eating a lot of pasta, a lot of olive oil, a lot of
you know whatever. But it was actually one of the fittest that I'd ever been in when I was playing in Milan, because I think the produce is so clean, it's so good. The quality of it was just incredible.
So over the years, it's definitely changed for sportsmen. You know, I've been lucky that I could kind of eat whatever I wanted, but I've always been careful knowing that I can't have a glass of wine four days before a game because I don't want it to affect anything that I'm doing at the weekends, even though it was only a glass, you know, So I'd always be very disciplined on that.
And do you think that athletes now are much very I think that that's part of the culture now.
I think if you start it early enough, then it becomes part of your life and part of your culture. It's what we try and do with our kids, you know. We try to educate them that, you know, if they eat the right things and drink the right things and look after theirselves now, you know, at such a young age. Then they'll continue it through through their lives. And I think it's an important part of life.
It's education, isn't it. And I guess I could ask you a question of George best goodn't I about One of my great memories of the park was at Parkinson and the two of you there, and I think, you know, I probably fell in love with you that night because you were so respectful and so generous to him that you know, I think there was a point in the interview.
I don't even know when that was, but Richard and I watched where Parkinson asked you a question and you said, I'm in the presence of you know, this man, and I think we should let him talk. And that was very, very moving to me. But he wasn't really taken care of, was.
He in the way?
But I think that he was part of a culture, you know, and I was part of really the start of my career, and a culture that was totally different to what is right now these days, you know. But you know, George was the most amazing player, the most amazing talent, and the most amazing person and as well, you know, I think that I was. I felt so honored to even be sat, you know, on the same sofa next to him in his presence, and he's such a special person. He was, you know, he was one
of my dad's heroes. My dad was always a Bubby Chilton fan, but obviously George Best.
You know, he's a Manster United fan.
At the end of the day, my dad, so having me on the same program as George Best probably was one of the highlights of my dad. One of my most favorite restaurants is he's in Clyn, New York, and it's this old pizza place that's been there for a long time called Luki's, and it's run by Mark and he owns he owns Lucali's and it's just simple, simple pizzas. He doesn't sell any alcohol in there. So you turn up and he brings these amazing muscles out, amazing clams.
He makes this spicy rigatoni, and then he brings the pies, they call him pies. And I always take like a great bottle of wine because I love eating pizza with great wine. I do like to go to fancy places from time to time, but I'm more about the family style, you know, sitting there great atmosphere. You know, it doesn't, like I said, it doesn't have to be fancy, doesn't have to be the most expensive meal in the world, doesn't have to be the most amazing bottle of wine
in the world. Just has to be good people around the table, good food, and you know, atmosphere is important.
That's it. When we thought when we opened the River Cafe, there was this feeling in the eighties that you either had the choice of eating really, really well but being terrified that you were dressed well enough that you might be late, that you might insult the chef, that you didn't know the wine, the so may make you feel stupid, but you would have a good meal, or you could go to the local and have a fantastic atmosphere but maybe not the greatest food. And it wasn't just Rose
and myself. There was Alice Walters, and there was Roly Lee and Wolfgang Puck, and there was a whole generation that said, why can't we do both? You know, I don't want a dress code in my restaurant, but I want to serve really good food. And I don't want an intimidating wine waiter, but I want to have really great wine. You know that you could have both, and that you can have fun and have the drama and eat really well.
I think that's what's so special about here, in all honesty, you know, I think the atmosphere, you know, you're you're going to always eat great, the menu is constantly changing. You're not intimidated. Whereas you know, I suppose in the early days, where I wasn't used to going to great restaurants or eating great food or drinking great wine, I suppose there was a certain part of me that felt intimidated.
But this is a place where you walk in and there's not one part of you that feels worried about ordering a bottle of wine or order in a glass of right wine or ordering the wrong wine, or you know, it's special.
I know what I want the people who work for me, or how I want them to eat, and how I want to make them come to work in an environment where they can look out a window, where they can feel that there rest, you know, in the end, where they want to come to work. Do you feel that that is a responsibility to people who are.
In management, without doubt, you know, I think that I've been lucky over the years to have been part of some great teams, you know, obviously with the teams that I've played for, playing for my country, representing my country, I've been very lucky to be around great management, great teams, great support, you know, with my family and my friends. And now I have my own team within my own office. And I want them to be as happy, you know, as they are at.
Home and when they come to work.
I think that's a really important part of running a business. And I tried to do the same as Victoria tries to do the same with the kids as well. You know, we want them to be happy, we want them to be healthy.
Do they cook with you?
They do?
They do, Actually, Brooklyn Brooklyn actually loves cooking. He posts a lot of the moment about things that he's making, things that he's creating.
But all the kids actually love it, you know.
And I think in the last eighteen months, with all the lockdown and everything that has been happening, you know, whether we were baking and wherever we were, you know, creating herb gardens, Me and Harper you know, built our own herb garden, you know, with whether it was a rocket and we had some mint and we had some rosemary, So we'd kind of created that, and actually we got
very excited when we saw it all come together. And then you know, every time that Nana has a gin and tonic, you know, Harper goes out into the herb garden, she cuts some rosemary off and puts rosemary into the glass. So it's we had a little bit of fun with that.
We've you know, talked about so much about food as love as food as a connection. But I suppose before we say goodbye and I go, what would be David Beckham, You're a comfort food?
After me talking about all of this great food that I taste and all of these great restaurants that I go to, you know what my comfort food would be?
A packet of sort of vinegar discos. Ah good, I think that's what it would be.
Maybe a toasty made in the brevel toaster with baked beans.
Think about that?
Is that so the.
Brevel toaster that you So I put the bread in a little bit of butter on the outside actually so it doesn't stick, and then I put the baked beans in brevel toaster for about four or five minutes, open it up, and it's so that actually that in a packet of discos, no cheese discos.
After all this great food that we'll talk.
That's the comfort, isn't you know? Comfort is I'm more of a crisp man than makes you feel like, oh, thank you David. It is wonderful.
Thank you, You're welcome. Love you too.
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River Cafe Table four is a production of iHeartRadio and Adamized Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.