Ruthie's Table 4: Victoria Beckham

being super super quick. So you know, as I began my life in the Spice Girls, we were eating out a lot, going to lovely restaurants, and that was something really quite new. A fashion designer, cosmetics entrepreneur, dancer, businesswoman, a mother for a singer. There are a few women who have seven or more adjectives attached to their name, and one of them is Victoria Beckham. When Victoria comes

to the River Cafe, there's no fuss or privilege. She comes in with just her family, her close friends and her colleagues. She arrives early so she is there to greet them, and the quiet time before they come is spent discussing with us what is on the menu, how it is prepared, and what she would like to order food, how it affects our performance, our health and happiness, and how it is shared is important to Victoria Beckham, and

Victoria Beckham is important to us. You are well. I mean, maybe I'll make more fuss when I come the next time if I'm that easy. You can, you can do whatever you want, but you are. And also I do think that there's other people, but very few, who always arrive before their guests arrive. And I think it's a real act of kindness. It shows that you're kind of putting your time this side so that you'll be there

to greet them. It's very very nice. I like it. Well, I'm not sure if it's an act of kindness or if it's just that we're a desperate to leave the house and have a night on our own, or be that we're just super excited to get here because we adore the experience of coming and the food is always incredible, and the wine is is wonderful and the people watching is just everything good. Well, we're also here to listen to you read the recipe that you've chosen for today. Okay,

so my recipe is roasted sea bass. So the ingredients are two kilograms of sea bass, scaled and cleaned, a hundred gram fennel seeds, two sliced lemons, a few parsley stalks, two fennel bulbs trimmed and sliced, the juice of one lemon, five tablespoons of olive oil, and seventy five million liters of white wine. So you preheat the oven to a hundred and ninety degrees centigrade, preheat the grill, put half of the fennel seeds inside the cavity of the fish,

and season generously. Brush the skin with a little olive oil and grill for about five to six minutes on each side until lightly charred. Place half the lemon, slices, parsley, fennel, and the remaining fennel seeds in a roasting tin. Lay the fish on top and cover with the remaining lemon, parsley, and fennel. Pour over the lemon, juice, olive oil and wine, and bake for about thirty minutes, or until the flesh is firm to the touch. Serve either hot or cold

with south of Verdi So Victoria. Of all the recipes that we haven are books and what you eat in the River Cafe? Why did you choose sea bus. I'm a very fussy eater. I like things to be cooked in a very simple way. I don't like oils and butters and sauces. So to most restaurants, I'm probably the worst nightmare. But you guys are always so accommodating and always cook the food exactly how I like it, very simple,

very clean, incredibly fresh and just perfect. And then you know, I love some steam vegetables on the side, some bald stomic vinegar, and then to season myself. Did you come to this way of eating or did your parents cook that way? Did you grow up with very healthy, clean food?

Oh gosh, no, quite the opposite. You know. I've always been to nice places with my parents and been taken on lovely holidays, but I'd never been to the level of restaurant I was going to when I was with the Spice Girls, and it was all very exciting, and very quickly I came to the conclusion that unless I adapted a very healthy way of eating, I would just be inclined to sit there and eat the entire contents of the bread basket, which when you're eating out regularly

is probably not the healthiest, not when you're on tour and you're expecting so much from your body. So I just decided from that point to really try and eat in a clean way. Lots of fresh vegetables, lots of fish. I don't have any dairy at all. I haven't eaten red meat since I was about seven years old. Before you even go to that, I'd love to know if your mother, do you think that she put her filing in the oven or didn't use the oven because she

was doing other things? Did she think cooking was just something she had to do rather than wanted to do? Do you think do you know she was always a great mom and a great wife, and she was always busy doing something, But you know, cooking was never really her thing. It's never really her passion, if you like, if she found her much better abuse of her of her oven and so rather myself. But did she do the cooking or did you have somebody else? No? No, she she did do the cooking. But you know, this

was when I was younger. This was, you know, when it was all about microwaveable Do you know it was a real thing. I remember when I was growing up so many adverts on the television. It was all about food that you could put in the microwave, fast, about hurt and get out of the kitchen. Being seven and vegetarian. Do you remember what made that happen? I do? I do. I was at school and I was in a home economics lesson and they were telling us about what was

I thing. I think it was either hamburgers or sausages or something like that, and I was absolutely horrified and haven't eaten me since that day. And I have to say, I mean, I don't miss it. I eat lots of fish and I have a very very healthy way of eating. But I haven't touched me since then. The children do, and David does. And it's not something that I did for any reason other than the fact that I just went off of it when I learned what was in it.

The shows are kind of determination of a child at that age to do that. It's a principle, it's a kind of view. So you must have been strong. I mean I am, and the way that i'm I'm very very disciplined, and I think you know, even Golden Ramsey, who's a very good friend of ours, has said he's never known anybody be as disciplined about the way that they eat, you know, because for me, it's just it's

who I am. I expect a lot from from myself, being you know, a working mom for children, and I work out a lot, and I eat very very healthily. That's just who I am. And it's just, you know, I'm not the most exciting eater. I like to have a drink with my dinner, and then I can become a very good dinner guest. I'm sure you don't need the drink to make you a good dinner dress else.

But I think that it is interesting to hear that trajectory as well, that you you know, and the discipline, so you don't because we've all been on diet and we all know what it's like to deny ourselves food. And I know that you know when you hold back sometimes on food, you hold back sometimes on fun or conversation. But that I think it your description of your discipline rings true. I absolutely don't deny myself anything. You know, if I wanted something, I have it, you know, I

just it's just who I am. You know, I had this healthy way of eating that works for me when I was growing up. I used to have really bad skin as well, and I went to see numerous dermatologists over the years, and no one could ever figure out what was wrong with my skin where I had such terrible, terrible skin. And again that all just cleared up when I started eating in this very clean, healthy way as well. And also I feel that I have great energy, and so I just figured out, you know, and I'm happy

the way that they are happy. And what about when you were growing up? Where would you eat? Would your family all eat together? Did you have family meals? Did you sit in a living room or in the kitchen or the dining room? What were meals at the Adams house? But we always sat together and we eat in the kitchen. You know, meal time has always been important. It's an important time when when you're you know, when you're together

reflecting on your day. And that's something that we do even now, you know, unless my myself or David are actually traveling, we always make sure that we are home at the same time and that the kids are always there, and that's the time when we eat together and we discussed our days. And I think it's very important. And that's how it was when we were growing up. You know, I was always starting in and out and dancing lessons

and singing lessons. You know, my mom was a taxi driver when I was younger, literally running myself and my brother and sister around all the activities. You know, my mom was a real hands on mom. That's probably part of the reason why she loved the microwave meals because she was always so busy driving us around and then sitting down to the meal. So I think whether the meal comes from the microwave or or from the oven, or from you brought in the actually the idea that

you were sit around the table and talk. My memories of my people always asked me as a chef, you know what did my mother cook? And she was a good she just simple cook. But she was a teacher so she would come back from work. But what I remember as a conversation, you know, I remember the idea that we got around that we had talk around the table, you know, politics or the day, what you did during the day and the time to do that. You know,

did you go out to restaurants with your parents? Would be special occasion restaurants or would you go up My mom and dad used to love you know, on a Friday night, it was probably the treat to go to the local Indian restaurant. You know, my mom and dad loved Indian food, they loved Chinese food and so and we traveled quite a lot, so we was always very lucky to go on nice holidays and experience different kinds of foods. You know, we go to Spain most summers.

My parents at a house in Spain, so we were lucky enough to be able to go there and and have you know, foreign holiday. Every year. We go to Press. We were lucky enough to go to America a couple of times. Actually, we laughed a lot and we had some great experiences together. And it's nice now that I can do that with my parents, you know, me and the kids and David love to take my mom and dad out. You know, it's it's a real treat. Family

time is so so important something that we cherish. I was quite touched when you said that the pleasure that you gave from actually being able to take out your parents, because there is that moment you as you're sort of growing up, when you realize that you can actually, after years and years of them taking care of you, that you can take care of them, and so is that something that you associate also with taking them out to restaurants?

And yeah, because as you said, you know, if you have three children, you know it's expensive to go out and eat and go on holiday. And I think that my parents they were wonderful, wonderful parents. So now the fact that we can treat them, we can take them on holiday, and we can take them to lovely restaurants really means a lot. That's something that me and David really do enjoy with his parents as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

both sides are very very close. Going back into the trajectory of your childhood and teenage years, how old are you when you left home? So I did my GTSC. So I was sixteen and I moved to Epsom in Surrey. I wanted to be a dancer and a singer. I wanted to go into musical theater actually, and I took a place at Lane Theater Rance in Epsom in Surrey. So I was nervous about that and I didn't enjoy

that part of it. I was always a little bit I wouldn't say socially awkward, but I was always quite shy when I was a child and as I was growing up. I loved the dancing and the singing. But again I never really fitted in that well. I don't think I really knew who I was. It wasn't until I met the Spice Girls and kind of accepted who I was, and they brought me out of my shell. If you like that, I really became who I am.

Now do you remember what you ate when you were at Oh gosh, yes, I used to eat super noodles. I mean very very student style super noodles that you put in there. We go again, the microwa. But yes, when I was at college, I would eat super noodles. I would have frosties, remember the series Frosties, bowls and bowls of frosties with skimmed milk. And I used to eat those yogurts, you know, those muller like when you peel the corner off and you dump a whole load

of sugary you know what into it. Yeah, I used to eat a lot of it. But you know, this was the nineties when I feel that it was sort of rammed down our throats. You know, fat free, fat free, fat free. So we used to eat a lot of fat free food without realizing how much sugar we were eating, and I think that that probably didn't help my skin. Back in the day, you know, there was so much attention on eating fats free, and now what we know is a complete opposite. Actually, I mean, my diet now

consists of a lot of healthy fats. I mean numerous avocados, for example, and seeds and nuts. And now we know that fats are good, good fats. But back in the day, we were terrified of them. It's crazy. And like I said, I think that that probably really didn't help my skin as I was growing up, but we didn't realize it then when you joined the spice Fields, what was food like there? Well, you know, I mean it was so much fun. But again, you know, we lived in a

house together and we ate like students. You know. I think I was probably still on the frosties and the super noodles and all those kinds of all those kinds of things, sharing the food and fighting over the food that was in the fridge, like all kind of students do. And when I interviewed Paul mccurrently last week, he was describing that was a very touching story about going with John Lennon to Paris, for the first time they ever had a glass of wine, because he grew up in

Liverpool never had had wine. But he said that there was a point when George Martin took them to a restaurant called their Uh in London, which was a kind of a microt fancy French restaurant, and then he knew what good food and good wine was. Was there a moment when you were as a measure of your success,

when you realized what food could be. Got absolutely when we signed our record deal with Virgin Records, they took us too lovely restaurants and I remember actually when we signed our record deal, you know, they opened a bottle of Christal champagne. And again this was the nineties, and it was like, wow, that champagne. How much? I mean, this was just insanity but so much fun and not something that any of us had experienced. And I was the posh one and I came from a lovely, lovely family.

It wasn't as paras people thought. I'd never had any anything like that in my life, and it was incredibly luxurious and we were going to wonderful restaurants and eating wonderful food, um and experience that I'll never forget, not just in England, but you know, we traveled all around the world. You know, we were we were selling records in America, in in Japan, we spent time in China. We traveled the whole world, and I feel so blessed that I visited the most incredible restaurants in the world.

Would you eat afore a show or would you after it? Again a question I asked people about actors. Do you eat for them if you're doing a mat name, would you have lunch before breakfast? It was their discipline and rigor to the way you ate and performed. I mean, not with us, but then you know, we we kind of just did our own thing, Ruthie. You know, I mean I remember once they introduced us to a choreographer and we were like, what do you mean you're going

to tell us what to do? Just going to get on stage and we're just going to jiggle around and we're just going to do our own thing. So, you know, yeah, we ate before the show, we ate during the show, and we ate off the show. During the show that in the middle of quick changes, you know, I mean, Melanie c was the most disciplined for sure, but not so much. I'm much more disciplined now than I was then.

You know, I was twenty years old and we were on the road and we were having fun, um, you know, and I was so much more naive than I am now, nive and and just ready to just as you say, have fun and not be not be held back by any you know, but also with a huge rigor. I mean, you put on those shows. You were not the twenty year old just you know, having fun. You were working a lot of work. We were working work, Yeah, we were.

We were working really we were working really really hard, and we did have a lot of fun we did. And then in the trajectory again of food and work and discipline and rigor, you started a business, a business of fashion and fashion and food and employing people is something major, isn't it? Because you find the eating and the food and the discipline and the rigor of being

an entertainer. Did that also go into being a businesswoman? Yeah, you know, at that point then I did start to become more conscious of what I was eating because I knew that I was sort of demanding a lot from myself, and so I was much more disciplined then because you know, like I said, I'd go into the stadium in a pencil skirt and blouse and carrying a bark in And then I walked into the dressing room and put on you know, a PBC cat suit if you like. And then I was a spice girl at night. And I

knew that I was demanding a lot from myself. And so therefore I think, you know, I'm a I'm a big believer of if it's not just what you wear and what you put on your skin, obviously, I mean it's about what you eat and being healthy as well. And when you have a show, when you have the new finish, do you celebrate, do you go and have food, you go out to dinner, do you have food brought in? Or do you just everybody kind of so exhausted, you know,

it depends. It depends. I mean, actually, after my last show, I came here actually with a few of my team members and my mom and dad and my friend and my sister. So we actually came here to River Cafe to celebrate. But I'm looking forward to I'm looking forward to the next show and business getting back on track. Nothing more. Well, we're in the process of working on a pre collection at the moment um, and then we'll

have our main collection in September. But I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal because I think socializing and and eating and um and drinking with friends and colleagues is so so important in my Victoria. Yeah, it's been it's been a hell of a year, right, Yeah, And so we think about you know, we've talked about food and family and food and love and your parents and exposure to new new places and travel. Food also

can give us comfort. And so my last question to you on this very flusterry River Cafe day is to ask you what is your comfort food? And this is where I sound even more boring in the food department. You're not boring in the food department. You're interesting in the food. Okay, what do I like? You know? I like whole grained toast with salt on it? Good? Is that really boring? You know? Is that carby thing? Isn't it? Is that carbohydrate that makes you feel comforted? And I

love salt. I'm a slavery person is supposed to a sweet person? Yeah? I think that sounds like a very good comfort food. And it's been a very very lovely conversation thank you, thank you so much, thank you. It's great. Is this for me? That's nice? What is it? I think it might be fall Contina very nice. Is that what you're having? There? We go? I am both having nice. Let's go in the afternoon is my kind of day. To visit the online shop of the River Cafe. Go

to shop the River Cafe dot co dot uk. River Cafe Table four is a production of I Heart Radio and Adam I Studios. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.