Ruthie's Table 4: Ian Wright

Welcome to Ruthie's Table four, a production of iHeartRadio and Adamized Studios.

Some weeks ago, Ian Wright and his beautiful family were sitting here in the River Cafe garden celebrating Nancy, his wife's birthday. Ruthie the Waiter said to me, please go and ask him to do a podcast, especially for all of us. We know he loves to eat, but we want to know more about him. He is our hero. Ian does a lot that I could never dream of achieving,

Yes, yesky, deep fried zucchini flowers Okay, twelve male zucchini flowers, sunflower oil for deep frying, two hundred and twenty five grams plain flour, four tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, four hundred millimeters of warm water sea salt. Freshly ground black pepper, four large egg white. For batter, you have to sive the flour in large bowl, pour the olive oil into a well in the center, and slowly stir with a wide spoon to combine the flour into the OIDs.

See.

These are the kind of things where because I'm not a great cook that I'm nervous about this. You had a little warm water until the batter is the consistency of double cream. Season and let it stand for at least two hours. Eat the sunflow oil to one hundred and eighty CENTI grade.

That's right. Wow.

Just before cooking, beat the egg white until stiff and fold into the batter.

Yeah. And I was speaking to Louis.

Oh yeah, he was telling me about how much he has to beat the egg whites up. So then when you know that they've don't you can turn it around and then they don't fall out, which I thought.

Was pretty cool. So over your head, yes, and it doesn't fall out.

Cool.

Hi, I'm Louis.

I'm a chef at the River Cafe, and today we're going to be making deep fried zucchini flowers with Ian Wright.

Nice one look forward to it.

So basically, what we've done is we've made a batter with zero zero flower olive oil and some like ice cold water, and then we'll fold through some whipped up egg whites. Yes that you want to whip them till they're you know, stay if you can hold a ball ups up above your head and they won't fall out, and that really helps her like puff up the batter and like makes them go. Helps with like the crispyness. We get these amazing zucchini flowers in from from Italy.

When I first saw them, I was like, what are those about? Yeah, and then you taste them, they almost like they kind of almost melt in your mouth like dissolve.

You know, They're very easy to continue just to eat in them.

It only makes yourcuini flowers. When we're we're in literaly because you get them, we go and pick them from the garden, right, and then we fry.

Them, and it's so beautiful.

One, it's so beautiful, and I think it's what children really love to do, because ultimately it sounds perhaps more complicated than it is, because basically what you're doing is you're making batter of folding the egg whites into that, and then you have the flowers. You dip them in and I like very little batter on them because the flower that's so delicate. And then I don't know what one hundred and eighty degrees is when I'm frying oil.

No, This is probably why I love eating out so much. I didn't actually start eating out until obviously, I think I'm probably twenty one. Yeah, I didn't have a lot of experiences of going to restaurants. And even when I started doing that, I only I started eating past the very late in my life. My mum never there wasn't a lot of variety. There's a lot of West Indians stew chicken. It was curry, golt, mutton, tripe, pigs, trotter's oxtail, white rice, rice with peas.

Boiled dumplings.

So it was that kind of food all the way up until that point. And I remember when I started playing football in Crystal Palace, I used to get very nervous about going to like we used to have to go to hotels. You just have to go to restaurants and communal eat all of us together. And I was very insecure about it because I did no I didn't know foods.

So and then we.

Had older players who were really they were quite mean. Let's say things like, you know, you know you've got duffin wires on there, you know you've got sour tae potatoes, And they'd say things like do you know you don't even have to spell duffing wair?

You know what I mean?

Do you know what potatoes ares? Can you afford steak? So what I would do is I would I would end up then getting my mum to make me something. I'd go down so the boss would see me, and then I'd say for a fire, and then I'd leave and get my food warmed up by the people in the kitchen, and I'd eat in my in my hotel room. And that's what we used to do when we was younger. We used to all eat either in the bedroom or in the living room in front of television or stuff like that.

So I was more comfortable doing that.

But my problem was insecurity about ordering the food.

So you know, it's intimidated.

It was, and it was intimating to the point where the manager I've done it a few a few times, about three or four times, you didn't see me at dinner. I remember in the morning he said, where are you? I'm not seeing you at the dinner. That's how I get together. And then I explained to him why, and then he kind of sorted that out for me.

He had a word with them. You know.

Obviously, you know it didn't help because obviously when people, yeah, it was, it was, it didn't help. But then I just I just blasted through it. And so offer the back of that, yeah, you know, you start to because you get into a situation where you can go to nice restaurants, and so when I love.

It, so when you talk about being excellent at your sport, being able to do what you do so well, and that you're on a team, and then going to a meal time was painful, And it was painful because you were made to feel unable to feel in theory.

To be honest, if I was about I was twenty one. In fact, I just turned twenty two when I joined Crystal Palace, so it was very late for me. A lot of my experiences started to come as learning on the job, about mixing with people, different people, worldly people, you know, know it, you know, even just the knife and forks from you know, outside in you know, knowing what to do.

You know, you sit there and you're nervous.

And so those were the kind of intimidating things about going to a restaurant or eating with people that used to really frighten me because I never we ate on our laps literally all the way through.

And it's obviously was.

Your mother working. Was there a table where you could sit.

No, the kitchen wasn't big enough for a table for the four of us, So it was it was my mom, my stepdad, my older brother, me and my sister. So you know, there wasn't enough space for all of us to sit and have that dinner and have that chat. We never done that, you know, that's something that's happened to me later in my life.

And your mother you were describing that the food that probably cook quite a lot of effort to cook. So would she cook that all day? Why would she have a job.

No, no, no, no, she didn't work, and she didn't work, but she did cook the food obviously from the morning. The thing is, we didn't eat a lot of food. You know, I didn't eat like breakfast, lug I could skip.

There was no problem was that because you couldn't afford it would.

Have been there, but like I wasn't used to having it, you know, and we could literally go up and you know, you can have cereal if you want, or for lunch. You know, you can have it if you want. But I found that probably because I was out playing football all day or doing so that all day. It didn't bother me to eat breakfast, eat lunch. But the dinner was something that was always there, and it was very repetitious of everything that we always have. You know, we

Why were they there? Was?

It was so blind, it was so so plain, and everything that my mom, my mom cooked with a lot of seasoning. So this is why, you know, as time went by, even when I'm sure we'll get onto it, when with Arsenal and Arson Venger, eating bland.

Food is very very difficult for me.

It has to be seasoned or some form of taste, you know, I need to have that. So you know, that is something that my mum done a lot. And so anyway I went to eat, if it wasn't seasoned properly, I could easily not eat.

Did you qualify for free school lunches?

Yes, we did, which was obviously again it had its own drawbacks, but I was I was never bothered about being teased for that, and you were that, yeah, you tease that because one of the things I always used to wonder what they why they did it was you had to cue up in a different line, you know, And it was always you know, you get people who you know, kids, the kids, aren't they just tease you

It, you know.

Was an inner city school.

I went to a school called Samuel Peeps in Brookolyn.

I love the school even though you had such yeah, because like you know my friends, you know, and I.

Could play football if you have a skill.

Because yeah, because my problem was when I was younger, was my attention spanning the classroom wasn't very good at all. And when I couldn't grasp what they were doing it, I'd get a bit disruptive.

And this is you know, that was much more recognized.

But then what they used to do, they say, if you don't start paying at mentioned moreis and you know, you're not going to be able to play football that way. Yeah, And so that was another massive worry for me, because it wasn't because I was just being disruptive for being disruptive, It's just I couldn't grasp lesson as quickly as other people.

So you know, now I understand it more.

But like, yeah, the food again, going back, one of the things I did love about school was desserts and after us because we never had anything like that. You might have had digestive biscuits when we were younger, and chocolate biscuits every now and then, but it wasn't very We didn't have them a lot. You know, you go to your friend's house and they would have all sorts of like stuff in their larder and their kitchen, but

And then I remember one day I.

Just said to him, I'm just going to taste it because I never tasted it, you know, And then I tasted it with the cusses, and I just I said, I can't give it to you.

Did your mother grow up in poverty?

Yeah, she could in Jamaica. It's very tough and grew up with like seven eight siblings. You know, it's quite tough. She had to me and she had to move out and go and live with my aunts who didn't treat her very well. And that was one of the things as well. I didn't get to to really find out the deep rooted problems with my mom's, with my mom's like mental health and everything, what she went through, because you'd be sitting down just watching the television and then

You know.

When she used to tell the stories, she burst into tears talking about that sort of stuff.

So that kind of abusively scars it, does, you know. And I think that was maybe the way she had trouble expressing her love because you spoke about you know, but the.

Thing of it is ruf.

She always made sure there was a meal on there for us, you know, we you know, we didn't have like the greatest closing, but the clothes are clean.

Everything was nice, you know, ours was presented. Everything was nice.

But you know, she she just didn't have much.

You talk about your Jamaican family, your mother coming from Jamaica, leaving her family in Jamaica or did they come with her? They left? So she left, she left.

How old was she She probably was when she came out. She came up in the Windrush generation, so she came here in I think it's fifty eight, you know, so, and she came on her own.

How old was she My mum was born nineteen thirty three.

In fact, she might have been born earlier than thirty three then because when she died she was ninety four. But like she came in that generation, you know, and she came and stayed with friends and it just went from there. So she had no family, not here, just like friends and acquaintances. There was a couple of long distance cousins who were here as well that came in and around the same time, and so they met up.

That's where everybody everybody.

Did you ever go back to Jamaica? Have you been back?

Yeah?

I used to go a lot when I was at Crystal Palace in eighty five. You know when I started when I was able to afford to do that, because the first time I went on on an airplane was with Crystal Palace. You know, I was twenty, I was just turned twenty two and we act finally we went to Qatar. It was amazing, did you Yeah, it was unbelievable. But we flew over the Alps and that, and it was like obviously the first time I was on a plane,

Stay up here?

I still think that.

You know, And I remember, like again, like we had those those the older guys who obviously they.

Knew, you know, this is first time.

All this experiences was new to me, and like, I think back on these experiences and they were amazing, but it's it's always tinged with their nastiness because I remember one of the things that they said to me, which I'll never forget, was you have to be You're most afraid when you're on a plane, the thirty seconds before you take off and the thirty seconds before you land. And to this day, I still have anxiety about that.

Can I ask you if when you were started out was the bullying that was it? Racist players?

Yeah?

There was me, Tony Finnigan, Andy Gray, Henry Houghton was there at the time as well. But yeah, the racing was pretty bad. It was very it was accepted. It was nowhere near what it's like now.

The cruelty was from the white players.

It was from the white players and the older players, you know, Obviously the younger guys who were in and around the same age as us sympathizes with us. They didn't like it, but it wasn't a time where you could stand up to that kind of that kind of presence in the dressing room because those guys that would have been eighty five, between eighty five and you know, eighty five.

Until Yeah, has it changed.

Yeah, it's changed a lot, because now what's happened is that there's allies. Yeah, you know, black people don't don't want racism. You know, if it was up to black people for racism to stop, it wouldn't be there, you know. But what you have to understand is is that without white people, white white allies, you're not going to shift that you're not going to make a move on the dial.

One of the great great memories, and I'm much older than you, but one of the really defining memories of my life was watching the Olympic Games in Mexico when the Three ran, and that taught me. I mean, my parents are already you know, they went south, you know, the civil rights My brother was arrested in Mississippi. We were very liberal thinking family, but seeing the power of that solute and their lives were rude, absolutely rue. They never ran again.

Never ran again when they went back, like ostracized back in America. You know, it was it was a sad state of affairs, but like it was a tragedy really, but when you look at what it's done and that symbol and how powerful that symbol is. You know, you look at the guys now they're taking the knee, the girls as well, where they're playing, they're.

Taking the knee.

And people say, well, it's it's run its course, it doesn't it's got no it's got no effect. People are not taking it. What has when you talk about racism, you know what has had an effect and you have to look at and you have to say you have to let people still know that you will stand against it. And this is what's happening.

Now.

You've got kids at their little football matches, they will take the knee. They'll do it on their little football pictures because they are aware of.

It, and that changes.

That is how it changes.

You know, education is the way because if someone's ignorant to something, they're going to be they're going to be against it. When you teach them what's going on and they understand it, you can no longer be ignorant to it. You know, Racism is ignorance. If you reach people, teach people, they'll lose their ignorance.

When did you think it really started changing? Was it when when they were realized that players were really.

I think I think when it really caught hold of the world and people really started to say, well, well enough is enough. Obviously Colin Capane taking the knee for injustice and inequality, but like George Floyd, the death of George Floyd really brought it to people's attention that none come on now, you know, come on.

Only places that you wouldn't.

Play in respects of There's no way that I wouldn't play because I feel that again, you have to play. You know, I've been in stadiums where people have targeted you. I've watched my son being targeted at my friends. It's happened to me in stadiums in England and abroad, and there's no way I wouldn't play. But I must say that if I was playing now and it happened like we're seeing it happen now, they should walk off. But you can't walk off yourself. Your team has to walk

There was a very long time ago there was a presented, you know, Michael Parkinson, Yes, and you've probably seen it on YouTube, but there was an interview between him, Mohammad now with David Beckham and George Best. Okay, George Best was comparing or actually David Beckham very respectfully said I'm not going to talk on this couch. I want you know, George Best, he should, He's the person we want to

No, but it will because you have to have that belief because there's enough people out there fighting for it. You know, It's totally different when you look at what George Best went through adulation, Beckham, we're looking at someone now who.

Can Jack Greedish.

It's going through the same You're just hoping that you know, we saw what Gaza went through and how it kind of like what the effects it had on Gaza. But when you're getting that kind of adulation, that kind of love, that can affect you in a certain way. I think David Beckham obviously you know, he's dealt with it very very well, unbelievably unfortunately, you know, Gaza I didn't deal with it so well. George Best was the first, like the fifth bet or he didn't. He was, he was paving the way.

You know, we were going to talk about Muhammad Ali. Well, I you were going to and I asked you and you know, again another hero.

Not the thing with Ma'amad Ali. I remember when I was younger.

It was the interview he had and I even saw it again the other day with Michael Parkinson and how you know, listening to somebody that everybody loved white people, everybody loved him the greatest, and listen to how he navigated that interview with Michael Parkinson and twisted him with intelligence. And I remember one of the things that stuck out in my mind was in my memory, sorry, was him saying, listen, I can't you can't beat me mentally and you can't

They are grilled marinated peppers, which are They're one of my favorite things that I've just really starting to do, knowing the menu every day now. So you blacken them off on the grill, steam them with a you know, let over, and heel them back, and then you them with loads of vinegar and.

Is that just ready to go? Now? Ready? We might we might.

Definitely give you a Harry no pressure, thankfully, So.

When you were growing up and you were in school and you were having school food and you were having difficulties, did you turn to any kind of food that would make you feel what comfortable.

I'll tell you what I did, absolutely adore is sometimes you might go around to your friend's house on a Sunday, maybe after football, and we didn't have roast, because like I say, we had we had the rice and peas and chicken every Sunday without fail, to the point where I remember smelling the peas in the morning and just burst into tears because I.

Get the same thing.

That's why I kind of went off kidney beans for many, many years, because I just I just didn't like the size of them, I didn't like the color of I just I just ate them too much, to the point I used to separate them from the rice. When we were younger, I remember going to my friend's house, my white friend, Johnny's house, and he had Yorkshire pudding. I never tasted anything so nice in my life. I couldn't

But then when you start.

To kind of branch out with your with the world that I'm now traveling with the football club and You're going to different places, different culture, you start to eat different things. So now you know, I will try everything in like the same with NaNs, I have to try something new.

One of the things of doing these podcasts and he's talking with people, does that many of them do measure success through their ability to have choice of food. So they can go to a restaurant, can order a good glass of wine, they can order and it's quite gratifying to see that no one is entitled. You know, that people did not grow. Sam Taylor Wood and Sam Taylor Johnson now describes exactly like you being in a different queue for school food, which we know shockingly still goes

Well, this is why you know, I mentioned like emins and I've got a campaign with minscent. The reason I like them so much is because they're making it very easy for people to know what's healthy.

You know.

They they have an eat well flower sticker. You can go into the shop, you see that stick and you know that that is an healthy option for you. And so that's why you know, I mean I kicked onto that because I didn't even realize when I was younger, eating healthy for me was not even I was eating because you're hungry and you're eating to satisfy that hunger to be full.

But now, like I say, with the.

Options, you can go there and you can you can pick out something that is healthy because it's got the flower on it. You don't need to read through because it's you know, and that is another thing. You know, Nancy went through that my wife Nancy went through all that.

That's alwaysn't that they don't want you to see him exactly, you know, something that it was.

Just something we have to we have to everybody. You have to make sure that we were shining a light on that because we're getting the ab the obasicity rates what they're talking about. But by twenty thirty are going to be where apparently in England we're going to be like the most obese in Europe. We need to do something about it.

And obesity as very often related to poverty. It's not as you don't see if you don't walk it down in Belgravi, you don't see people who are overweight. If you go into a poorer section, Yeah you see people, you do. And that's because fast food is which is cheaper, has huge calories, you know, they pulk it up. So I think it's it's very important. Would you tell me about Arsen Venger.

Wow.

The thing with him, Ruphi is that he was can I say a visionary?

A visionary in the way he came and changed the diet.

Are we talking about nineteen ninety six, ninety five ninety six when he got there, and you know, food for Arsen Vanger was fuel to perform. He came in and he changed the diet from steak and chips and anything you wanted to proper food, like everything that is good for you. But the thing what it was with all the vegetables and the rice and the chicken steamed, you know, no seasoning, no salt, no salt, no seasoning, no nothing. All we could do is drink water and eat this bland food.

Where was he from?

It's kind of Ostrin French, it's on that border. And when he came in, it's the first time I realized that it's not about liking what you're eating. It's the fact that you have to be eating this for that slow sugar release that you need when you're performing at a level where you need your energy, and your energy has to be there constantly. This is why sweet things and certain things that to shoot you up like that during the game, you'll have to come down, because if

They do the same at home.

Then all of a sudden, you're realizing this is for us to perform to the best of our ability, to the point where when you go to restaurants you'd almost feel guilty to have anything that wasn't going to enhance you, you know, as some vengers. He had no problems after the game for you to have a sugar rush like a donut or something. But then Monday is that you've got to be back on that.

Tell me about a day when you know that you're going to have a very very important game and you wake up, you open your eyes.

First you wake up, and there's always water because with arsen Venger, you had to have water with you all the time, right. You had to have very low fat milk, you know, it's just very skimmed milk. You could have cereal, you could have yogurt, you know. So I'd have something like that, you know, no juices, nothing, nothing, sugar, nothing sugary,

And then you know, what would we have.

We'd all sit together and we'd have we'd have fish, which we'd have steak, and you'd have rice, and you'd have loads of like vegetables and water. Yeah, so you'd eat that and then that just starts to release and just go into your system. And then you're just topping that up with water.

And then as three you are on the pitch and you don't do nothing except water.

Water, and maybe one of those Lucas ad drinks to give you a little bit of a sugary boost or stuff. But like the main thing was to was to drink water. I can't emphasize how important it.

Is to drink a lot.

Of Yeah, I try, I try. I still don't drink as much as I should.

Now do you lose weight when you're when you're a football.

Yeah, yeah, but you're you're lean your trim because remember you're doing all those that training, You're doing weights, you're doing the gym, You're.

When do you do that every day? Every day?

Every day?

So when you go to training again, you have that for your breakfast and then you're obviously you train from ten thirty to maybe one o'clock two o'clock, depending on what stage of the season it's at. You train really hard, it's tough, tough, and then what happens is is that you realize that if you're not eating right, you're not taking the vitman's right. You will see that you are, you're lagging behind the guys who are doing it religiously, to.

The point where again you go into a dressing.

Room rufie and you know it is very competitive, very competitive, especially when you go into a dressing room where you're trying to attain and achieve. Everybody there's the margins are very small. Yeah, we'd practiced and we're trained to a level where we say, well, they better be training as hard as we are because if not, we are going to destroy them.

And that is what we were striving for.

And when mister Benger's influence did that reach other teams, something that everybody else what you eat was what you are.

Well, what happened, Ruthie is that when we started to meet up with the guys when we went to England, you know, to select players from our team and then from Chelsea and from Liverpool and from Man United, and when you all met up, they all wanted to know what are you doing, what are you eating, what you're taking because our physio at the time was it was was our physio was the England physio as well, and Alex Ferguson was quite upset about it because he didn't

The day I was starting with a friend of mine who's an actor, and that there are actors who have to gain a huge amount of weight for a part or put on bulk. A friend of mine is going to be in a Marvel movie this summer and he has to eat eight thousand calories a day to bulk up. You know, but it's so scientific, you know that. It's not like you can have an ice cream Sunday, or you can have whatever you can have, but it's nutrition

Yes, profit, discipline, roof to continue to do it because you know, you see these these great actors. You do that method and they starve themselves or like you mentioned, they bolt themselves up and like the regime for that is exactly what we do for nine months, because again it's the margins of what you're trying to achieve. And you know, I mean, like you mentioned, you know they've

You have to have to and tell me what you're doing. Now, tell me what is in right day?

Well, it depends, like when the season's on, you know, it depends if you have to go and do much of the day up in Manch, or you have to go to Uxbridge to do the Premier League, or you have to go and do the work with the brands that I work with. You know, it's the typical days like for instance, let's say I have to go to do match of the day, so the car will come and get you at eight o'clock. You've got all your research stuff that you read on the way up in

Funny enough up there.

I'll have that, or I'll have salad, some good vegetables, some nice rice and stuff like that, some fish.

What about as a family, do you sit down?

No, absolutely that Lance would do the food. So we probably eat in and around a six thirty ish, six thirty seven ish, and you know what I mean, By the time, it's all that way, we sit down around the table and we eating. It's something where we get to talk about what's going on, what's happening in school, what you're doing, Why are you so moody today, why are you so miserable?

What's going on? You know what I mean? And I love it.

I love that, Yeah, I love that that we do sit down and we eat now And I didn't realize when I was younger, how important that was. But obviously friends used to do that a lot, and you know you took it for granted that that is something that is a necessity.

So you've just described a family that sits together, eats together, talks about their moods, talks about their emotions, asked questions about what they're feeling. And that comes from not a role model that you had growing up, but for something that you announce you've created yourself. And tell me how that journey is.

Well, that's something that I think back about it, Rufie, and it makes me quite sad because I look at obviously my mum, my relationship, I should say, with my brothers and sisters, you know what I mean, we're if we see each other, we see each other, try and speak, you know, especially my brother Morris speaks to him a lot, not so much with my brother Nicki, and I don't speak to my sister Dion at all. You know, we

You're describing is something that you're doing for many many young people who listen to you, who watch you, who need your words and your social impact. As I said, for the very very beginning from people the young people who work in the restaurant. They're not easily impressed, I have to say, but they really love it when you come in when they see you and your kindness, and

At the moment with the like I mentioned naming this earlier on but they recently, especially the last I'd say eight nine months. Briefly, I'm like obsessed with fitter rolls and cream.

I cannot stop.

Do you like to buy the ice cream inside.

And not cream inside with just just just double cream or single cream and for me to just have in the car which Nancy will hear about it now. I buy those Cabres mini rolls with the raspberry and those two at the moment, no matter how much have eaten, if somebody offered me a mini roll, I'll take it and if somebody like if if if we're having lunch in one of the girls leave, I won't leave a fitter roll on its own. It's like leaving a soldier behind. If my girls don't eat it, I'll say, you can't

I will remember that. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you that's really nice. And what a great, great hour we've had. And I hope we have many more hours together. You know what, I'm going to ask you a favor? Will you take me to a football game?

Absolutely, you've got to come. And you know what, it's good because we're in the Champions League.

Weeeople want to come. I take you to the to Arsenal Champions League.

Guy, I have covered.

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