Ruthie's Table 4: Jimmy Fallon

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

Most nights, Jimmy Fallon and I are hosts. We both have a number of people we reach out to. For me a hundred and eighty for Jimmy one point eight million. I am a pilot of a small plane and Jimmy is an astronaut flying to the moon as a chef. My hosting is through cooking in the River Cafe. Jimmy sings, dances, talks and makes people laugh on the Tonight Show. Over thirty five years, I can easily spot a food lover, and from the first moment we met, I knew Jimmy

Do I interview you or do you? That's the question. That's the hardest thing about it.

Yeah, did you know somebody said the thing about an interview with these you can interrupt your guests. So that's the hardest thing is they have to listen.

Yeah.

So something My first ever interview I ever did was Robert de Niro. He's a great guy, so good. The thing about Robert DeNiro is that he doesn't really talk. He doesn't really like to talk. Okay, so if you ever talked to him, you're like, Robert, I can't believe you're here. You're on the show. Welcome, thanks so much. Uh're you live in New York?

Right? And he goes yep, yep, wow, wow, Okay, what's the next question? I got the next question? You you love Italian food? Right?

And he goes yepp, Okay, I'm going to another page. You could hear the sweat flop sweat forming out my head. I was like, oh my gosh, he's the nicest guy. He just did me a favorite because you couldn't book people when I first started, you know, it was a brand new show and no one knew that shows me a flop or hit. So he did me a solid and we've had him back many times. Now he talks now, now he slaps across.

He said that it can be a technique with journalists. We once had a journalist doing a profile of Richard and he hung around the house for days. He would never say anything, and so I would, you know, talk talk talk, talk talk, because somebody's got to talk. Yeah, we're talking.

Do you remember when I first kind of came up to you at your restaurant and I hopefully didn't attack you. But I was such a fan of yours because I collect cookbooks. Yeah, and one of my favorite cookbooks is River Cafe, the one that's.

Oh the silver one, yes, yeah, that's easy, yes.

And it's one of my favorite cookbooks for years. I love it.

And I was like, oh my gosh, were meeting you and I'm like I'm at the you know, River Cafe, and like show me everything. You're like, well, we have a new book, and I go, let me look at the new book. And then you're showing me how the restaurant has grown, Yes, and I was like, this is unbelievable. Before we even get to the food. The restaurant was awesome.

But that's you. I mean, we remember we talked about the time that you know, Jimmy Fallon came in and wanted to know everything. As I said, he wanted to meet the chefs. You want how do you put what wood do you put in that wood of? And then we make the pasta? Do you boil it? Because I think also that I'd like to ask you questions. So how do you do a show? How does a pilot you know fireplade? How do you know that the lamb comes out the same time as a possible tree?

Yeah? I want to know why did you choose this silverware to go with this?

You know, I know what we love that. We love that curiosity. Do you have you ever worked in a restaurant?

I never have.

I don't know if I could do it, to be honest, I don't know if I have the patience.

You might if a chef. You were a chef. Maybe you don't have a chef.

Maybe I could try to do I love to get in that cook and I love I loved Yeah, different recipes. I'm so I love it. It's a meditation for me.

Most is it.

Yeah, well that's a conversation. But for now, should we start out with your recipe? Because that is the idea that everybody reads a recipe recipe read.

It's a recipe from the River Cafe Look Book, which is, by the way, genius.

Whoever thought of the idea? I'm assuming it was you.

Three of us.

It is matching art pieces with food on these photos. When I was a kid, I remember my grandma used to do a lot of babysitting for me, and I would go over and she had one cookbook. It was a Betty Crocker cookbook. Yeah, and the pictures are so great. It was like a cherry pie and it wasn't like we were making them. But I would just look at the book and flip through the pages and look at all the awesome photos. And that was for a kid, that was like my favorite book to read. So I

Now, okay, well what are you reading right?

This is for lemon ice cream, which sounds to intimidating.

No, but it's the shortest recipes here we go.

Finally, grated zest of one and juice of three lemons.

I can do that.

One cup castor in pentzes, super fine sugar, a half a teaspoon of sea salt, teeny little bit.

The sea salt we use is what they call molden salt, which you can flake with your hands. It's a bit salt together, fancy flaky salt.

Yes, and then you have fifteen ounces scant two cups double heavy cream. What a scant?

Scat means almost What did you say said? Scat means smooth?

You're not measured.

It's like a scant, you say, you know, it's like a little.

Pinch, like a pinch of two cups. That's a big pinch. Two cups of double heavy cream.

That's it.

That's the ingredients, lemons, sugar, salt and cream exactly. Okay, you need a lemon squeezer, you need a grater, you need a scale, if you want measuring cups, measuring spoons, bowl, spoon, freezer proof container.

Let's what you have to do here.

This is the only ice cream we know that doesn't have to be churned. What, yes, be sure to wash the lemons, roll the lemons before you squeeze them to get the maximum juice.

I do that, by the way. I'm a gen and tonic, so I take my lime and.

Roll it limes particulate.

Now the juice out there, Yes, you need it. Nothing worse than like a pulpy dry lime. Roll the lemons before you get that maximum juice. In a bowl, mix the lemons, zest and juice, sugar and salt with the spoon. Slowly, slowly add the cream, carefully mixing with the spoon. It will immediately thicken. Put the ice cream mixture in a one liter one quart freezer proof container and freeze for two hours to harden.

That's it.

That is it what I mean, honestly, it is because of the lemon and the creep. Basically you're eating cream and a spoon. It's delicious.

Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm doing.

This tonight with kids.

The kids love it, fantastic. I just want to say I love the colors on us.

You know, my husband did an airport in Madrid called Barakas Airport. Have you ever been to Madrid? And every he loved color, and so every beam is a different color. It's like the rainbow and it just takes it so we thought, how do you follow those photographs? You know, you follow them with color. Color Every single page is a different color. So it just makes it a bit even.

You think about that when you do not only your cookbooks but your restaurant everything.

I think, I think, you know, I think color. I look like you were saying lighting. I trained as a graphic designer. So even the food. While you put food on the plate, not in that fancy arty way.

With a little squeege you.

Are that kind of thing. We don't do that. But if you're going to put a piece of sea bass on the plate, and you're going to put a lemon on the plate, and you're going to put some spinach or cannellini beans or whatever, baked tomatoes, you really think about how you play that. And it's very interesting to see the way young chess plate.

You know, do you reactions when the plate comes to.

The always yeah, I mean I try, you know, because you know, we have an open kitchen, so to you know, it's a live performance. It's like you when you get up there and you have your audience, and of course we don't get applause and we go get booze. What I always look for is to see if they share, so then you can see the reaction. You know, they go. If you can do this on audio, Yeah, how do you make it?

Yeah? If you tuning in, they're not.

What's going on exactly?

Money. Welcome back to.

So we could go back to the grandparents in the yard. Living with your grandparents. Tell me about your grandmother.

She was Norwegian and Irish and she was my mom's mom and she lived with us.

She was she lived in our back.

Yard, in the back I had to tell you that. I was with my seven year old granddaughter. We're going down the street and I said, you know, I used to live on the street. And she went, oh, poor you. And I said why, I said, that's a really nice street to live on. She said that you had to live on the street.

No, no, I'm sorry. They didn't live in my backyard.

Your poor grandmother was in the bag.

We fed them so they were well fed.

But they were in a little cottage in our backyard, but shared our address, so they were basically our neighbors, you know.

So they helped raise me.

Actually, so I go over there and there really is no good Irish cuisine. Unfortunately, I could say that as an Irish person. That's why you never you never see an Irish cookbook because everything is boiled. Tatoes boil, boil it, owed me a boilet toilet?

Yeah, what you got there?

Cabbage boil it, boil it with the with the corn beef. Okay, this is the worst cook So that's why you never see that. So but so we kind of tried to steal from other CUIs means. We had Italian neighbors that were great Polish neighbors, and then my grandmother Norwegian, so we had a lot of like meatball type of things. My grandmother would always be you know, she had that rule if you drop it on the floor, not only is the five second rule, you're allowed to eat it, but Jimmy would eat it.

She would feed me whatever fell on the floor. I would I got all the scraps. Yeah.

But I loved it, and I loved the way she cooked. And I just washed her hands and my mom too. They always had like something on them. My mom always had like hamburger meat or something like that. She would answered the phone with something on her hand and then hang up and I go, Mom, you gotta wash.

I can't pick up the phone.

After you if you keep it on.

Yeah, O, my god, it's disgusting.

Living with your grandparents is quite something, though, isn't it? Because you have the cooking is shared.

It's very family style cooking. We always ate how many of you.

It was me and my sister. That's it.

I had one sister, my mom and dad, and yeah, you know.

She stayed home to raise this.

So there was a lot of a lot of my mom cookingtuff like that and always experimenting and trying stuff.

Did she experiment?

Also? She would also lie to us too a lot.

I mean she said, like, we had a meal every year, almost every day of my life called pasta pasta.

That's isn't that a song?

It's your like a big pizza smo.

When your mom lies to you, says it's passive, but it's not because it's not.

It wasn't.

She was, so is it kind of it's an Italian soup and it wasn't When I was growing up. It was basically like macaroni noodles, ground beef and pasta and beans and garlic, garlic powder, and.

So what did she lie about?

I loved it?

Well, that's not that's not what passive pastaool is a soup very like so, but we did stand soup.

It was like a really chunky soup.

There was no there's no liquid dry almost it was actually almost like I don't call it gruel.

I had to name it for her. That was her thing. And then I remember she was like she has.

A very like kind of new yawky voice, like, Jimmy, do you want to grilled cheese?

I got, thanks, Mom.

And I knew that she made it because I would hear scraping the burnt off the toes before she gave it to me. She always burned my girl cheese. But she's hilarious. My mom and my dad were.

Did your father cook?

I don't remember him cooking, not.

Even like kind of man things like barbecues.

I mean barbecue.

He would arrange the briquettes, you know, and like that like it was a big masterful thing, like really that it's just a pile pile always the barbecue.

Yeah. What was the kitchen like? Was that out in the yard as well? Yeah?

Open space in our house? Yeah, we lived, you know. Our kitchen was where we have the parties and everyone would always drink there.

Big house was tiny country.

House but our kitchen was red and red and blue.

It was like, oh man, I lived there basically, I mean every big event was in the kitchen. Birthday parties, hanging out after school with my friends, we'd all just go in the kitchen.

We'd hang out with my parents. We'd drink with my parents and hang with them.

And the music was in there. We'd always listen to music. My dad always loved do wop music and yeah, like like bo do doo doo do. So we were listening to dou wop music. And he served in Vietnam. He was in the navy.

What so, how long was her wife for?

He was gone for I mean just before he had me, but it was three years, I want to say, on the ship. But he loved do wop and he would always play these real to real tapes of him in this group singing on the ship and they'd sing all like glory, they sing all.

These songs, and I go, oh cool.

And when I got older, I watched these movies about you know, Vietnam war or something, and they never played do wop music. They would play Jimi Hendrix. They would play you know something that I go, they're missing the everyone's listening. Turns out my dad was just a nerd. I think I know more do wop songs than I do modern songs. But I remember he had me as

But did you have meals? Family meals around the table? Would you sit down in that beautiful kitchen of yours?

We would sit in the living room.

Do you have did you have a dining room?

We had a dining room that would use on Thanksgiving, in Easter, I think, yeah, you know, basically only the only times we went to church we would use that room. But you know the kind of big events, you know, we would have in the dining room. But are most of the time we had dinner together every night, watching.

TV, watching TV.

And we'd had those TVs tables, Yes, those pulled up TV tables, and they're cheap metal things and click them together and set it up and everyone make a dish and then come out and you eat together and watch TV. You watch Barney Miller or whatever.

Would you do homework?

Then I do homework and then yeah, and they watched TV the rest of the night, we do the dishes or whatthing like that.

But sounds kind of nice.

I love it.

Sounds nice.

I love that.

I loved hanging out with family and eating and talking with Like again, my mom just loved food and just always there was always something cooking somewhere, either her or my grandmother. Just again, sloppy hands things everywhere, sauce is being made. It was good and like just yeah, I think and experiment again, trying different things. And I would always try to do something every Thanksgiving, Like I go, I'm making Brais fennel this year.

Did you I tried? Did you make fennel? You grew up in Solgerties? Yes, I grew up in Woodstock. What about it?

What are you talking about?

What'stock girl? No?

I went to your cool You went to hone your I'm sorry high all the cool kids went to your I think.

The school there ei there was a choice where we could have maybe gone to Sogerty's or gone to to you imagine to your was great, but it was like a forty five minute ride from Stock. But we used to go to the movies in Sogers on Sunday, Sunday night, no way.

Yeah, that was my first movie theater. So everything that I used to I went to summer school. I should say it like I'm proud of it. But I went to summer school in Woodstock.

And what's what's the elementary school.

Right by the on the green, right on the green, so you know.

That golf course. Yes, that's where my father we lived on Chestnut Road.

What what was the place that there were? All the bands used to cliff?

I used to go to the bird cliff. There was up on the mountain. You mean that the outside Maverick. There was Maverick.

It was like a bar almost. It was a good bar like r. E. M. Was your there.

And when I went you know, I'm pretty old. So when I went there, there was just after Dylan because when my parents went there, it was an artist calling me. You remember that. When you come into Woodstock from Soberties, there's the Art Students League, like Phil Gustin was there, a lot of great artists were there and then Bob Grossman, you're interviewing me. By the way it happened.

See, it just happens. So this is what it is. It ends up. I knew I was going to do it. I got you.

I'm only supposed to talk about food, So I didn't eat Dylan in a.

In a bar just when he got in the motorcycle accident.

Yeah, he got the motorcycle accident of in wood Stock.

My mom, I went toole bringing back to food I went to when I got started live and started to get famous. I would go home to say to, you know, my parents, and she always wanted to go out to eat and show me off, you know, but I wanted to eat homemade cooking. You know. I don't want to go out every night. I live in New York City. So but she's like, let's let's go out. I go, all right, let's go out.

I go. We don't make a big gest I'm not going to make a big deal. I go.

I know sometimes you do, and just like, don't I want to? I just want to go, and you know, all right, let's just go. So we went to Woodstock. It's a great restaurant in there. We walk in, they sit us at this one table.

And she goes, I don't know if I like this table. I go, don't start, don't start, you start. She goes, I'm not starting. I'm not starting anything. I order.

You're raising your voice. So let's just have fun. Let's have a good time. Don't make a big deal. Great, so we get drinks. She orders, what are you gonna.

She goes, I'm gonna have the lamb the lamb chops. You're great, I ordered, my dad ordered. Her.

Sitting there, the food comes, hers doesn't come, so she's like, where's my lamb chops? Don't make it. Don't make a big deal. You promised it.

She goes, I'm not. I'm just I'm not making beats. You know what.

I'm just not gonna eat. I go, that's a big deal. That's a big deal. Now what are you doing? So when the lamb chops come, you're not going to eat the food? She I'm not gonna eat it. I go, this is exactly what I'm talking about. This is making it. She was, Oh, look it's coming now. So it comes. Now she's met. She with I'll eat that bitch, and she's cutting it all mad and angry, and she takes her first bye and my kiddy, she goes, I go, you're kidding me?

Are you choking?

She's like, my dad puts his finger down my mother's throat and she's going like, and he's doing gagging her trying.

Woman runs from down the rest of she goes, I'm a nurse. I'm a nurse, knocks over, stops like banging in and knocking into everything. The table's getting knocked over.

Going over to my mom and she grabs my mother, and my mom made these noises I'd never heard it make before. Not She's going, oh, oh oh, and then a ball of lamb flies out of her mouth and hits the wall. She sits down, she's crying, and my dad says thank you.

And I looked at my mom. I go, this is not making a big deal.

That's exactly what I asked you.

Your mother was right, she did she didn't have eaten.

Looking back at that, ladies, your own business, Yeah.

Did you eat? But did you read out? In restaurants? Was the family occasions to go out to restaurants.

A big deal growing up because we didn't have that much money, so Pizza Hut was a big deal. Pizza Hut would have indoor seating and it was like a big deal. They used to give you the sizzling pan of pizza special handling, it was so hot. And there was a video game table you could play pac Man and Caterpillar, so me and my sister.

Would play pac Man while we were waiting for the pizza.

There was a salad bar, I mean remember salad bars.

Of course that was big, it was, And so going to the Pizza Hut was for an occasion that was would it be somebody birthday or somebody's on a versio, if.

Someone did good on a test or you and pizza is a big deal. And then there was another place called the Ground Round that was like a new restaurant. It was in a mall in Kingston and we used to go there and there was a guy named the balloon Man who's a creepy guy, a weird mustache, and he used to wear a cape and a T shirt that said the Balloon Man and he would go up to little kids like how old are you? You know,

Oh my god. And so we try to dodge the balloon man while we go in.

What age would that be, I'd say that that.

Was my teenage years. I'd probably say thirteen. Or we're going to the mall. We loved hanging out the mall, which Amazon has made sure that there are no malls anymore.

But it was fun hanging out the mall.

And when you started going to restaurants, was there a revelation when you went to a restaurant you didn't have the salad bar or the ballue. Yeah.

My first revelation was when I had to pay for my food. Yeah, and I'll never forget it.

I did stand up at this place, something Harbor, and I was by myself and I did stand up. I was probably eighteen, barely driving. I drove myself to this gig and did the gig and you get paid, you know whatever, it is fifty bucks And I got paid. And after the gig I did well, and the owner said, Jimmy, you did really well.

That was great.

I want to give you a little bonus, and gave me another fifty bucks. It's one hundred dollars. Yeah, it's the best thing in my best day of my life. So I go, oh my gosh, I'm going to go buy something. And so across from where I was staying at this tiny, you know, comedian's condo. They usually have a condominium where the comedians live and say that you live with the other comedians.

Very weird.

But I went across the street to this diner and they had pumpkin pancakes. I had never had pumpkin pancakes, and I go, I like to have that, you know, looked at the menu as special, and they brought it, and I knew I was paying for my own money. And it just tastes like the I think every tasted in my life. I'll never forget it. Anytime I see pumpkins bice latte and I make jokes about it, or pumpkin.

Anything, I go, I always think of those pumpkin pancakes. And that was like a game changing for me.

Like, but that is food and memory, isn't it. I mean, you can remember that feeling.

I'll never forget it.

You didn't tell me about the stand up or about the place. You talk about the food and you're not alone. You know, a lot of these interviews are with people who were not entitled, whether it's Michael Caine after the war living in a little, tiny hot or Paul McCartney said that he remembers the first time he was able to buy himself good food to eat. That was a big moment. That was one of the reasons I used to saw his success almost his success in terms of

Used to play the improv in Los Angeles. You know, I do a bunch of comedy clothes, but whenever I played the improv, my mom would love it because.

They fed you as well. They paid you seven dollars, but they fed you anything on the menu, so my mom. I would call my mom.

She's like, you tell Bud Friedman that thank him for feeding my baby.

I'm so happy you're doing the improv, you know. She was always so proud.

I remember my first Saturday night that I got to perform at the Improv, which is a big deal. I'm waiting to go on Brand New and Jerry Seinfeld walks in, sits down and go and this is the peak of Seinfeld, and I go.

Oh my gosh.

I went out to a payphone and I called my mom to collect because I had no money. I called her collect and she goes like, I go, mom, Jerry Seinfeld.

Oh my god. She goes, is he gonna do stand up?

I go, I don't think he's gonna do anything. He's just here eating right now. And I was like, it was so wild.

So I go in. She goes, only I have fun. It was so exciting.

So I go in and this is Saturday night, It's a big deal, and of course he decides to go on.

So Jerry Seinfeld goes on. He does all of his bits, like what's the new?

Is his whole giant thing standing ovation crushes It's the best stand up you've ever seen.

And then they go all right, who's next? Is Bob some of it?

And Bob goes, I'm not gonna fallow Seinfel and they are who's uh, where's Kevin?

Is you gonna call it?

Kevin's like I'm following Jerry side felt. They all right, who is Who's Jimmy Fallon? And I was like, that's me. He's like, all right, kid, you're up. So they introduced me. I was had to follow Jerry Seinfeld on my first Saturday night at the Improv, and it worked out because I didn't impression him.

Jerry.

Yeah, so I had like a doll and I said, like.

Had you always thought of doing that anyway? Or you just had I just.

Didn't think about it.

Yes, since you was there, I'm like, how did I follow this? But I had to follow him. But I love the Improv because you see.

It to eat.

Yeah, they gave you the food.

They gave me food.

Yeah, it was there to be chicken fingers or whatever it was, but I remember it was something, but that's chicken tans.

And when did you go to your first real restaurant where you felt that you were that you could afford to eat?

Was that that was the problem.

Sarent Live? I think ye, Sarah Live. I started going out with Lorn. He would take the cast out. So then you kind of go, oh, this is what restaurants are like, this is what I have to dress like and understand the whole thing and appreciate all of it. And I I remember going to like some fancy restaurants and like per se.

Oh yeah, yeah, I know, big deal.

That's intimidating my wife at the time. We were dating and she was living in LA and she moved. She came to New York to visit, and she was I was going to ask her to marry me. I was going to propose and surprise her in Gramercy Park. And she came and I already asked her dad for permissions. She came and I go, hi, honey.

She goes, Hi. She goes, I have a surprise for you.

And then in my head, I'm like, hope it doesn't mess with my surprise because I have a real surprise. Yeah, I have a ring waiting for you. So she goes, I got us reservations at per Se. I go, oh, my gosh, that's the place I'm dying to go to. I mean, it's Michelin Star. It's unbelievable. So I go, okay, I'll do it.

I'll do it. After in my head, I go with this show cut to fourteen courses later.

Yeah, fourteen those.

I was wasting. I was out of my mind drunk.

I was like, I didn't even know that the last two courses were I'm like, this is a and I was eating the apkin. I mean, I was just terrible. I was just a disaster. So when I get home, I can't ask her to marry me. Now I'm a mess, and I call my brother in law now and I go, He goes, do you do it? I go, I didn't. I went to per Se. He's like, why don't you do it at per Se. I'm like, I thought in

I don't want to tell my kids.

That's where I asked her mom to marry me in the strip club, you know, so you never know.

I's so forward, thank you, thank you. I have to say that is very kind of future class.

So then I didn't ask.

You for a park. There was no chance of that.

He goes, go to the bar, go to moll. He's go to the bar right now and ask him. I go, okay, hold on, I go, honey, do you want to And she's in ja Do you want to have another drink? She goes, you want another? You want another drink? Do you have a problem. I'm like, I'm not going to start off my marriage like this. So I passed out.

Why did you do it?

I waited six months.

Six months? Oh really, she said, people.

I didn't know you could hear someone roll their eyes over there over the radio.

Yeah, that is. That is six months.

It's a long time.

So anyways, I ended up getting married with my wife.

I go to the doc and I said, don't.

Cry, because I'm very emotional person, just let her cry first if you're going to cry, because.

It's a big deal. I have the ring in my pocket where my bathing suit.

I took out the ring and as soon as I got down on one knee, I totally started crying. And I was like, when two people love each other, when two people.

She thought I was having a stroke. She's like, oh my god. Okay, but yeah, did you your wedding?

Did you have a wedding with food?

We had a whole weekend of food. So we want to make where did you get married? Ready for this?

No? No, okay, let's see us of cool Niagara Falls, cooler, cooler than Niagara Falls at around decks, bigger, bigger than they ad around Canada.

No bigger than Canada.

Lord is from Lauren Laura Canada. Forget what Canada? Necker Island, Oh, Necker Island. How did we get up there, then Necker.

Island, somethinking big, just think of anything?

Oh, I thought it was Richard Branson's place, right, yes, Like what were we doing? You said up Oh you didn't mean upstate?

Money wise?

I'm how expensive? And when can you get Richard Branson?

Yes?

I went to his spot and it was the best he hasn't island. It is so fun that they had sushi chefs in the pool.

Wo.

We were the most boring people to ever stay at Richard Branson's island. He's so fun and he's like, fallins, good morning.

Would you like to go race and the submarines? You really? No? Thanks, We're happy in the pool. Yeah.

Would you like to fight each other and you know with the blow torches and you go or whatever?

I go. No, we're good, Richard. Thank you very much for these are really do you want to sit line? Oh? Be your dad? Well he gets attacked by alligators. I go, no, thanks dadam so I just want to get I want to get married with my dad's fine over here. Thank you very much, Richard. We were the most boring people. We had a blast.

My famous story is that somebody once ordered a cake and they said, would you write will you marry me? On the cake. So we made the net chocolate nemesis and we wrote will you marry me? And halfway through the meal he came up and said, cancel the cake. Oh I know, I know, I know, I promise. It's amazing. What happened that he canceled the cake? Oh we never found out, no way cancel the cake?

And then who did you give the cake to? He got married, very.

Private things, you know, in public space, so you know the idea proposed?

Yeah, I didn't want to do it there, maybe not?

Did you do it?

Then?

Her family has a summerhouse in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesake. It's gorgeous, unbelievably beautiful and means a lot to her. You know, this family summerhouse. So I have the ring. Everyone knows I'm going to do it, and I go, Okay, I go, I'll just have a cocktail with her on the dock and I'll do it.

But it was a cocktail. Remember this is a food program.

Yes, Gin and Tonic, which I started drinking because of going to England. I stayed at a plast call.

You had your first It was a B and B.

Yeah, a lot of cool kids would say.

So I went there and Martin Miller was the owner, and so he goes, Jimmy, if you'd pardon the accident, Jimmy, if you like to come down to the living room before we go out to dinner. We like to have all the guests here just have a cocktail. And I go but sure, of course it's great. So I went down to have a cocktail.

He's like, you made it. He's like, would you like Gin and Tonic? And I go, no, no, thank.

You, because I was like, I threw up in it when I was in high school and I can't even near the stuff.

And I could tell he was upset. And he's like, I go to an upset you.

He goes, no, it's just that you know, we've we've got ranked like, you know, ninety nine out of one hundred and gin magazine or something. I go, whatever, you make me, yeah, some magazine, So I go whatever. But he made me a Gin Tonic was the most refreshing, best thing I ever had in my life, Martin Miller's gin. I still drink it to this day. I made Timberlake drinks it because it's the best. I love that and still and now my wife drinks it.

To just two questions. When you go to a city, right, can you go to London in Paris or Los Angeles or Buenos Aires? Do you think about what you're going to eat in that city?

Always? I do? I do research ahead of time. Yeah.

If I'm going to DC, I got to go to Ben's Chili Bowl, you know London? Yeah, Rivery Cafe always, I mean we have to. It's it's if you're anywhere, if you.

Do you ever go to the markets and see what's there, because that's a nice way to know a city isn't walk to walk around and see what's on sale. So I'm going to just say that I love you and you are so sweet to do this. And if you think about food, I asked this is the question I was told in podcast school that you you have one question to ask everyone. And so the one question I chose is if food is alleviates hunger, and food is communication, and food is getting around the table, and food is love.

Comfort for me, there's so many I would My immediately thought was pizza.

It's such a New York American thing to.

Say, but a slice of pizza is just always there for I'd loved it since I was a kid.

I love it now.

You know, good pizza, bad pizza doesn't matter to me as long as in Gata slice I fall in half and I eat it. I usually get it with pepperoni. But it's the greatest thing. Yeah, pizza is my comfort food. I will run to you pizza.

That's good to have pizza.

Let's good.

Okay, thank you.

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