Kate Winslet (Christmas Special)

0:13Welcome to the Off Menu Podcast, taking the ginger biscuits of conversation, leaving them on the fireplace hearth of humour and awaiting the Santa of friendship Santa's going to eat some biscuits leave some biscuits out for Santa James what do you leave out for Santa man that is it my name is James A. Custod together we only drink that good chat what do you leave out for Santa and every single year every single year what do you leave out for Santa every week we invite in a guest every single year no every single year we invite a guest in to ask them about their Christmas menu yes so you were right And we ask for their favourite ever, start a main course dessert, side dish, drink and Christmas dinner.

0:56Yes. Not in that order. Yeah. And this week, this year. He's had a nightmare. He's too excited. I am, because our guest is Kate Winslet. It's only Kate Winslet. Holy moly. Holy moly, man. This podcast has got out of hand. Now Kate Winslet's agreeing to come on. Add Kate Winslet to the list of people we thought we'd never ever meet, let alone interview. Yeah. I can't wait for this episode. What is going on? Yeah. I'm happy. I'm a happy guy. You're too happy. And I'm... Look, listeners to this podcast will know that your favourite film, is it fair to say? Yep. Is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

1:33Yes. So I'm worried because we've got the star of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind coming in. Yeah. And we've got to ask Kate her dream menu. We've got to ask her about her Christmas. We've got to do all of this. And I'm worried that you're going to try and make this a podcast exclusively about Eternal Sunshine. No, brother. I'm a professional. You know I am. I'm going to stick to the format. No, I don't believe you. When we've had actors on before, I don't bring up their stuff. That's all you do. And that's fine. It's fine to bring up their stuff. Kate's got an incredible CV of amazing things that she's been involved in.

2:12But I'm worried you're going to over-focus on one thing. What, Turn It On a Transponder? Yes, yeah, yeah. Favorite film? Yeah. It's Christmas. you know. Because we've got to talk to Kate about food, because that's what the podcast is. And we've got to talk to Kate about her new film, her directorial debut, Goodbye June. Which is in cinemas now, of course. Yes. And on Netflix on Christmas Eve. Yeah, Netflix, December the 24th, which is colloquially known as Christmas Eve. Just in case people don't know. If I said Christmas Eve, people wouldn't know when that is. Oh, well, you never know. The cast list of Goodbye June reads like, if you were putting together a football team for all the greatest actors in Britain.

2:55Yeah. Well, it's like if someone read out the cast list, it was like just these are the nominations for the best actors this year. Yeah. You'd be like, yeah, that makes sense. Tony Collette, Johnny Flynn, Andrea Risborough, Timothy Spall, Kate Winslet and Helen Mirren. And then you're looking at other cast members. Stephen Merchant, heard of him? Just popping up. He's not being on the podcast. Jeremy Swift, that's Higgins. Yeah, Higgins. Higgins is in this. Yeah. Emmy nominated Higgins. yeah yeah that's fun that's crazy man you can also watch this podcast on YouTube why wouldn't you no one's gonna stop you no one's gonna stop you watch it on YouTube listen to it just do as many things as you can yeah you won't hear this bit on YouTube though no that'd be crazy here's the thing Ed we're excited that Kate Winslet's on the podcast we're excited to talk about Goodbye June but if Kate Winslet says the secret ingredient an ingredient which we need to be unacceptable I don't know I don't want to do it this time We will have to kick her out of the dream.

3:51I'm afraid that is how it works. Oh, man. But what's the secret ingredient going to be? Clementine. Because that's her character's name in Eternal Sunshine. Stop it. You've got to calm down. I won't speak about it again unless she brings it up. That's the deal. No, I think even if she brings it up, you should say we're not allowed to talk about that. Oh, come on! Look, we are so excited. I don't know if you've worked it out. We're so excited to have Kate Winslet on the podcast. Yeah, just beyond excited. It's crazy. Ed's moved his flight I've moved my flight to Bergen of course because he's excited I would move you know I'd move heaven and earth to interview Kate Winslet yeah I'm very excited about this Ed this is a it's going to be dream come dream come right well let's get her on the pod this is the off menu menu of Kate Winslet I'm going to dream come

4:51Welcome Kate to the dream restaurant. Oh, it's very nice. Welcome Kate Winslet to the dream restaurant, but it's been a year for some time. Kate, my throat is like knackered and I was really worried about doing that bit. I've got to shout again later on. Have you? You must have good like throat tips. Throat tips? I don't think actors call it throat tips I don't know if they do call it throat tips but then what would we call it? Training? I don't have any training Vocal training? No, I've never done any of that I've never done any of that stuff You just sort of make it up as you go along Yeah? Yeah Look after your voice What if you're doing a film and your voice goes like this you must be like I need some lemon, sugar I just don't know I mean I wish I could tell you that I had all these like clever things I do but I really don't You just make it part of the character You sort of have to just kind of, yeah, you just have to kind of go with the flow.

5:44I don't know. I mean, you have to look after yourself because the hours are really intensely long. But not shouting at people always helps. And I certainly don't do any of that. Yes, that's good. That's good to hear. What of all your roles is the most amount of shouting you had to do on camera? Oh, my God. So I played a character called Elena Burnham. And she was a sort of a fictional chancellor in a fictional country. And she was pretty vile. and she did a lot of screaming at people. Yeah, so that was pretty hilarious. I actually did kind of quite love it as well. Yeah? Yeah, yeah. What was the film?

6:18It was a TV series for HBO called The Regime and it was my foray into comedy and I just absolutely loved it. She was outrageous and vile and, you know, treated people very badly. It's nice to have a sort of sanctioned reason to do that, right? You can just have a good old scream at people. Well, I've never really played a character like that and I just thought, well, this is something new I like to kind of mix it up and take risks and do things that might be a little bit unexpected hopefully you know I've got to stay in the game keep getting invited back to the party so hopefully that will continue because I do love it it's crazy because in the really early so yesterday just coincidentally this thing came up on my algorithm of James Cameron talking about all of his films and he talked about casting you in Titanic and the whole corset cape thing before that which I didn't know about that because for me now that's good That seems bananas.

7:09Bananas. That you would have been called that. Because you've done so many different things. It was the first time I'd heard it. Well, people do like labels. And I think, you know, starting out in some of those great early things, I was able to do like Sense and Sensibility and things like that. Yeah, people do like to sort of pigeonhole actresses and they don't really like it if you step outside of that framework that they have chosen that you're going to exist in. And so, no, I'm, yeah, weird. Corset Kate. It doesn't make any sense. And you were so young at the time. Mm. I think there's a lot of jealousy from other people.

7:43Probably. Giving you a nickname like that. But then, like... Yeah, probably. I just think, like, for me, you're just someone who's always done so many different things. Yeah. It's really weird to watch that and go, like, when did that happen? I know, it's bizarre. I think something that helped me kind of move beyond that was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Yeah. Which I remember thinking, okay, this is... Okay, this could be good. I could be stepping outside of that and doing something completely wild and different. And that whole experience actually of making Eternal Sunshine was so amazing.

8:13I mean, Michel Gondry, who directed it, he's just avant-garde and funny and bonkers. And it was a great experience. I loved playing that character. There's a lot of improvisation in that film. I'm glad you've brought this film up, Kate, because I had to message James when we confirmed that you were coming in and say, don't only talk about Eternal Sunshine in the Spotless Mind. Because he will talk about it for a whole episode with a guest who's not been involved in the film at all. Oh, it is a good one. Why? He's gone quiet. Yeah, because he's excited. He can't wait. It's my favourite film. We can talk about it as much.

8:46I love talking about it. I mean, it was an amazing shoot. And yes, there was a lot of improvising. I remember there was one night when I was at home asleep and it was two o 'clock in the morning and the phone rang and it was Michelle Gondry and he was like, you have to come, you have to come. I said, what are you talking about? He said, there is this circus, it's coming into town, and they have all this elephant, all this elephant, they are coming down Fifth Avenue, you have to come. I said, okay, okay, when are we doing that? He said, now it's happening. Now, right now, you have to get in the cab and you have to...

9:19I was like, oh, my God. And of course, you get in a cab, and of course you turn up and then improvise an entire scene with a load of elephants coming down Fifth Avenue. And it was really amazing. And that's one of the lovely things about making films, is that sometimes you do get to work with people who were brave enough to do these kind of crazy things. But thank God it was a great film, right? Thank God. Because imagine if it was just a crazy guy and the film was awful. Yeah. Like, get up at two o 'clock, come and improvise with these elephants. I know. But you watch it. It was all a bit of a mad risk, but, you know, that's what life's about, I think, isn't it?

9:51Well, let's talk about your latest film because you're directing this as well. Your debut as a director. Yeah. Goodbye June. Yeah. First of all, a lot of sadness for a Christmas film, and I like that. But you say that, I mean, you say that, and the thing is, it is also, though, it is very warm and there's a lot of humour. And I think it's just such a real and relatable story about family, really. I mean, it's less about a woman who's sort of slipping away and much more about a family coming together because of that event. And I think it doesn't matter what family looks like to you. we all have to deal with loss at some point in our lives.

10:33And actually, I think in this country, we're not very good at dealing with it and talking about that stuff. And I remember when my own mum passed away, sitting with my dad and thinking, what do we do now? And actually Googling coffins. Like, how do you, I mean, and there's no manual for any of it. And so, I don't know, there's something about the kind of messy navigation that this family of disparate people has to process in order to kind of come to terms with, A, what's happening, but B, how they're all going to stick together and put aside past grievances and make it okay. And there's something to me that's just very, very real and human about that.

11:12Totally. Those discussions don't... Is it something British, do you think? Because I've been in those situations before where my mum or someone will go, well, here's what I want. And then you go, no, no, no, we don't talk about that sort of thing. We don't need to. You're bumming me out now. Well, I don't know. I mean, I think, I don't know if it's a British thing or just, is it a culture, is it a Western thing? I mean, I think when you look at other cultures, there are so many ways in which they process loss and even letting that person go and what they then do afterwards. And I just think in this country, there's a very standard way of dealing with when you lose a parent or a loved one in particular.

11:52And I just, I don't know, I think making something that perhaps ignites a bit of conversation around that stuff, I think it's helpful. How was directing for the first time? Because obviously you've worked with some incredible directors. did you like draw techniques and little tips from them the people you'd worked with across the years wake everyone up at midnight I definitely didn't wake anyone there's an elephant at the hospital Kate I'm not falling for this again I loved I honestly I loved every single second of it I loved being with the actors I loved all the prep I loved every day of the shoot I never wanted it to finish I loved sort of pulling people together and creating a story that you know felt resonant and humorous and warm and and even the edit and the sound mix and the music and the great all of it I just I loved every second of it and I think I have been lucky I have worked with some incredible people and you know some directors are really all about the actors and others are more about the visual side of things and perhaps don't necessarily have the language available to them to be able to communicate something with an actor and I think having learned a lot over this 33 years of of this career that I've been so lucky to have I've I've certainly I've certainly observed and felt myself you know what is helpful to an actor and what simply isn't and could actually kind of fuck people up yeah and so um so staying away from the things that I know don't work was something that I I kept at the forefront of my mind the The cast is bananas.

13:27Bananas. Like every character that walks on the screen, you're like, oh my God, it's another national treasure. Yeah. It's insane. I know, it's funny. We sort of didn't, we just thought only of, when I say we, I mean myself and Joe Anders, the writer who happens to be my son, but he so didn't really believe that I was serious, that we could turn this into a film, this script that he had written, having never written a screenplay before. I kept saying to him, right, okay, let's sit down. and we're going to put together our just dream list of people who would play these parts, which crew we would go to and everything.

14:00And we came up with this list of extraordinary actors, and we never thought that really any of them were going to say yes, and they all did. So the trick then was casting people of that caliber in these amazing roles and making them disappear and making it feel like a family. And I think a lot of that is helped by the brilliant children that we had. I was going to say as well, like on top of all of these incredible actors, you've got quite a lot of children involved in the production as well. Seven kids, which I was never, actually it was eight because the six month old baby was identical twin girls.

14:36But I've never been afraid of working with children. And actually, as an actress, I've always really loved it. And interestingly, back to that thing of like how other directors handle things, a lot of directors are scared of how do you direct children. And the reality is you can't really teach a child unless they're very gifted. You can't really teach a child how to act. You can just encourage them to be. And so I did spend a lot of time trying to work out how I could create an environment that the children just sort of felt like they were all on a play date with their friends. And so that started with we have two five-year-olds in the film.

15:13And one of those children is a little boy with Down syndrome. and beautiful little boy named Ben Shortland. And Ben's character was actually called Benji. And it was just really fortunate that we found this child. So I never had to teach him how to think of himself as a different name because that probably just would have been too many things for him to have processed. And so I thought, well, hold on a second. This is a great strength. We've got this gift. We have this child whose name is Ben. Everyone else should just think of themselves as their character names. And so all of the children, I just very gently said, particularly to my two teenagers, I said, look, let's just all call ourselves in our character names.

15:53And that's what the children did. They introduced each other to one another as the characters that they were. So there was never any, A, confusion, but B, it meant that when we were on set and in this sort of very playful environment, they were completely off script and would be calling each other in character names. And everything then, therefore, for me, was totally usable. and when I never forget an extraordinary thing I thought my god this really did work when the little boy who plays Tybalt we still all still call him Tibby his name is actually Elias but when I walked him onto set to meet Helen Mirren for the first time she started a couple of weeks into our shoot and we were already into a flow and she was there in the hospital room and I said do you know who that lady is and I full-on absolutely thought he was going to say that's Dame Helen Mirren or the Queen or something like that.

16:44And he said, yes, that's Nana June. Oh, wow. And he was, I was like, okay, and my work is done. And so it just meant that I was able to roll the cameras without the children knowing. And we as adult actors would be established in a state of make-believe that they would just fold into and follow along. So it was really about playing for them. And that definitely helped in terms of bringing the joy because children bring the joy and uh in everything in every situation in life and um it made a really big difference in terms of just them feeling relaxed and being able to improvise very freely with the children we pretty much abandoned any scripted lines and i would say don't learn anything please and they'd be like what you know the older ones particularly having been very studious and learned all of their dialogue really well and i said and please make lots of mistakes we love mistakes okay go and they were like mistakes because then it's just giving them permission to be and be really free and uh and all of those lovely natural things that they came out with were captured and made it into the film and i mean are you ready for this to like be brought up to you once a year when it's christmas time like i mean you've got that with the holiday already i still get it with the holiday yeah yeah so now you're gonna get two i have no i just have no idea i I mean, it's such an amazing feeling that we even made the film and so special to have gone through this with my son.

18:06You know, he's always written all of his life. I mean, our fridge is still covered in poetry that he wrote when he was seven or eight years old. And so I think it didn't really surprise me that he declared that he was thinking about maybe writing scripts and he got a place on a film writing course at the National Film and Television School and was asked to write a screenplay. and he was encouraged, write what you know. And so he took inspiration from the most significant thing that happened in his life, which was the loss of his grandmother when he was a teenager, my mum. And he was so struck by how everyone in this huge family of ours was able to come together and just geographically how unusual that was to all be in this same space.

18:49And we gave her a really great passing that, frankly, she could only have dreamt of. And he remembers thinking, my God, we're all here because we all somehow came from this one woman. And he took that as his emotional backdrop and from there created this fictional story about a fictional family who are going through the same thing. It was amazing, really. It was such an... If I never get to do it again, I just feel so proud, actually, that in this 50th year of my life, when it is much harder, I think, for actresses to transition into directing than it is for our male counterparts, I just feel really, really proud that we've done it and we're very proud of the film.

19:28we all start with still a sparkling water on the podcast with your dream meal I'm tempted though because we've already brought up eternal sunshine to start with dessert and go backwards and forget each one as we go on that's fine, I think we should do that it's good to mix it up Benito looks absolutely gutted he doesn't want us to do it so he won't do it but just so you know, if I'm things my way that's what I'd do but still a sparkling water it's going to be still still every time yeah I don't like but I don't like bubbles with my meal I feel like my stomach starts to feel full before the food's gotten there and I want my stomach to be full of food yes yes I don't want it to be full of bubbles unless it's champagne in which case it's a whole other conversation oh my god I'm really sounding like a wanker now we've had much bigger wankers on the podcast don't you worry yeah us two yeah us two for a start you're dealing with two wankers to start When we did our menus, Jesus.

20:25Disagree. We did our dream menus and basically we do it every 100 episodes. And you can plot the timeline of how much more pretentious we've become every couple of years. This guy started, he was salt of the earth when we started this podcast. Total wanker now. Covered in Michelin stars. This is ridiculous. Oh, my God. Is there a particular still water you would like? Is it bottled? Is it tap? If it's tap, where's it from? I don't know. I do usually, I have to say I do usually go tap. just because I don't like plastic or even glass wastage if you don't have to have it. So, yeah, I'm often the one who says a tap's fine.

21:04Straight out of tap. Yeah, I think so, yeah. Where's got the best tap water in the world? Oh, my God, that is asking. Oh, I don't know, really. Probably Cornwall. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think so. Although a lot of Cornish people, I'm sure, would beg to differ because rumour has it there's apparently quite a lot of tin in Cornish water from all the tin mining from years ago. Really? Apparently so. I really have no idea if that's true or not. It's pure speculation, and I'm sure my publicist is sitting there like, please don't keep that in. Maybe you've just got a taste for tin. Yeah, because if you like it, if you like the tin water, then maybe it must do something for you, right?

21:41Yeah, if it's your dream meal, if you like, we can add some extra tin to the water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if I want that to happen to me. I don't know if I want to have added tin. I'm not sure how I feel about added tin, actually. Thanks for tin. We'll get you the Cornish water, though, and we'll test it for tin beforehand just to make sure. Thank you. We'll filter it or something. Pop it on the door, bread! Pop it on the door, bread, Kate Winslet! Pop it on the door, bread! Quite loud. Yes. Bread, definitely. It was a bit loud, wasn't it? Every time. Yeah. Love bread, love it. Oh, my God, love it, especially with butter, thick butter.

22:13Love. How thick are we talking in terms of proportion to the bread? Well, if it was a piece of cheddar cheese, just imagine the thickness of that slice. That would probably be the thickness of the butter that I'd put on the bread. Fantastic. Yeah. I think, you know, when I'm in public, I'll have to just calm myself down with the amount of butter I'm putting on stuff. I sometimes feel actually I have to slightly hide it from people, especially if I'm in America. Oh, really? Yeah, particularly LA, where people are not too crazy about the amount of fat that they eat. but I quite like eating fat it was delicious especially in the form of slabs of butter yeah it makes me it brings me great joy yeah yeah on warm crusty bread at home all bets are off for me at home I'm just standing up in the kitchen thicker butter than the bread sometimes I take I love breadsticks and sometimes I will just stand with a packet of breadsticks and just stab it straight into the butter and scrape it off that's good shove it in and you're standing as well I like that there's no time to sit down and enjoy it.

23:16No. Just get in there. Yeah, just get in there. Absolutely. That could be your bread course. We can add some breadsticks if you like. That would be nice, actually. You just put a big thing of butter on your table. Yeah, that's it. You've got your warm, crusty bread and breadsticks. And you can just go between the two of them, sit and stand and sit and stand. Which I would. I would very much go between the two. Yeah. Yeah, my kids would be fighting me for it. And we're talking like a baguette kind of bread? Oh, God, you can't go wrong with a baguette, can you? I actually remember when we were little, my family never really had any money.

23:49So holidays were usually driving in cars. And usually it would be a secondhand car that was borrowed from somebody because we were a family of six. But our car was never, ever big enough. So and I do remember holidays where we'd we'd get on the ferry, Dover to Calais and then drive through France and camp. And it was absolutely brilliant. And it would always be the middle of the night ferry at sort of three in the morning because it was the cheapest. and I think at one point kids could go for like a pound. And I remember going into tiny French markets and just being over the moon. My mum would be able to, you know, get us all a huge French stick and we'd split it between us and, oh, heaven, the best.

24:28That's great. It is. I mean, we always ask this question on the pub when baguettes come up, but if you're buying a baguette, you're taking it home, are you biting the end off before you get home? I've bitten the end off before I've even paid for it. 100%. It's gone. I get strange looks from the women on the checkout. Yeah, yeah. Your dream starter. Okay, so my dream starter, and I have thought long and hard about this, it's going to have to be, I think, a sort of a pasta with truffle and a big mound of shaved parmesan on the top, which I think is probably controversial, the amount of parmesan.

25:07but the reason I have opted for that is that when I was in my early 20s living in North London and Titanic had come out and my this is the story that you're hoping I was going to tell properly and my life changed overnight in in many many many great ways but in also some ways that were quite alarming for Kate from Reading who never expected to be a famous person anyway and I suddenly couldn't go out. I mean, I really couldn't leave the house, whether it was photographers there or, you know, just fans, it was mad. And this was just my little two bedroom flat in N7. My neighbours, who I got to know very quickly and were very, very kind, were Giorgio and Plaxy Locatelli.

25:54And Giorgio Locatelli, wonderful, very well known, highly regarded Italian chef. and at that point he ran a restaurant in in south london but he didn't have his own restaurant so he wasn't the giorgio locatelli of who he then later became and they saw very quickly that i couldn't go out so their concern was how she's going to be able to go to waitrose we have to feed her and so they would they would call me and they'd say okay so listen giorgio's just come back from work and he's managed to bring back some leftovers or some extras or whatever it was and there was one day when they called and they said he's got a truffle and he's made some fresh pasta and would you like some and they're crying into the phone i was like yes yes please and they say okay well in about half an hour we'll just put it on the wall and it'll be there for you and i would go out into the little alleyway that ran down the side of my house and there was a very high seven or eight foot wall that would divide our two properties and there on the wall was a steaming bowl of the most beautiful delicious linguine with truffle and a glass of red wine and I felt fitter for things let me tell you and I have never ever forgotten it and then later on I've remained very good friends with them to this day and later on he showed me how to actually make that and so that is why that would be my dream starter I mean you're like that was the story we're hoping to get that is incredible I don't know if I'd leave a bowl of pasta on a wall in London not these days this was back in the Titanic days but it was all hidden from the street between their sort of side gate and my side gate we couldn't be seen from the road not hidden from foxes though Kate foxes or cat or stray cats yeah I know maybe why are you trying to ruin the story sorry sorry but that was my first story it was a beautiful story and then you were just bringing in a wife of foxes it was a nice story if you think Kate's going to walk into the other way there's a Beatrix Potter a type fox eating it just standing on its hind legs with a waistcoat on eating it with a fork well that would be nice I'd like that yeah I'd like that it's quite a nice comforting image actually if it's a fox in a waistcoat yeah and that fox probably hasn't seen Titanic yeah do you know what I mean just treat you like a normal person yeah that's right it's good that it was hidden I think because with all the paparazzi it would have been awful if there'd been a shot of you taking some pasta off a wall well especially when at the time they were all talking about you know what recent diet I was on yeah yeah it was really not good yeah not good she's eating wool pasta well that's exactly or she's eating glue I mean they were sometimes I mean anyway let's not go into it but that was a pretty weird time but that is a beautiful that's a beautiful story yeah what a lovely what a lovely thing for them to do well I think it just also I mean for me you know as I go through life food becomes increasingly more important whether it's just simply because you're hungry and you have to remember to sit down and eat something but aside from anything else it can be it's comfort complete comfort And sometimes it can also be getting to know someone or connecting.

28:53And, you know, when I'm really, really busy, I love nothing more than going, OK, right, on this Saturday or that Sunday, what are we going to eat? And there'll be a conversation about the food that we're going to plan and who's going to cook which bit of it and who's going to come for lunch. And, you know, it just there's something, you know, endlessly grounding for me about sitting down with a good meal.

29:21your dream main course. Well, look, I know this is a Christmas episode and I know that we're talking about Christmas food anyway at some point today. But I have to be honest, my dream main course really would be Christmas dinner. Yeah. I do love Christmas. It's my favourite meal of the year. I love it. My mum used to make the best roast potatoes. To this day, I sometimes reach for the phone to go and ring her and say, mum remind me how long do you do the fat for before you take the potatoes into the pan and it's the great sadness to me is that I can't call my mum and say how did you how did you cook this how did you do that how long for what temperature blah blah so I do love a really amazing Christmas dinner what are the essentials in the Christmas dinner for you red cabbage and every year I make it to my mum's recipe and every year I cry because of the smell I'm like she's not here anymore and actually my older two children know that it's going to happen so as soon as they start to smell the red cabbagey smells they hover in the kitchen she's gonna go and she's crying and uh and so i would never be able to go without that um how's the red cabbage made what else are you putting in the red cabbage um apple red onion cranberry sauce goes in as well towards the end a little bit of brown sugar plenty of cloves cinnamon sticks things like that I love red cabbage on Christmas Day it's such a it feels so Christmassy but I'm not I'm not eating that the rest of the year no I would never touch it the rest of the year I know it's weird isn't it and I do always think why don't we eat turkey throughout the year it's so it's so extraordinary I have taken to brining mine oh yeah great which I think I could never go back on now it's the way forward for me yeah 100 % Yeah.

31:11So you're wet brining the turkey? I am, yeah. So you've got a huge tub that you're putting this in? I've got a huge tub that I'm putting it in, this is correct, and the whole thing gets submerged into there and it always looks very alarming. Very, very alarming. A sort of huge thing floating in a bunch of, you know, sort of autumnal leaves and rubble from the gutter. But no, it's not rubble at all. So, yeah, God, there's so many things that go in. oranges, cloves, cinnamon sticks always of course, bay leaves, mace tons of things, tons of peppercorn salt, lots and lots of salt and about 5 litres of water, but it's become a bit of a ritual in our house, the brining of the turkey And are you doing this all by yourself?

31:55No, my kids usually help particularly my son Joe he loves to cook as well so he tends to get involved now as well which is fantastic. You could make him do so much more this Christmas, you'd be like, I directed your bloody film Yeah, I directed a bloody film. You're doing the turkey. But I do always get roast potato fear because my mum was so brilliant at roast potatoes. Luckily, my mother-in-law, Rosie, she is a fantastic roast potato queen. So if they're joining us, that's always her job. And I'm very grateful for it because they're delicious. I was going to say, how many people are over for Christmas?

32:31How many people are you doing for? It's usually a minimum of about 10, but it can be up to sort of 14, 16, depending on who's around. Any other celebs ever tagged along for the Winslet Christmas dinner? No. Jack Black? No. You've had Jack Black around one year. Yeah, I haven't. I haven't at all. You want that to be true, right? Yeah, I want it to be the holiday for real. No, we're not really... Jack Black comes out. We don't really... We're not really like that as a family. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've got some really great friends from the work that I've done over the years, but we don't really have celebrities come for Christmas.

33:07Christmas is not for celebrities coming over. I don't think it is. If you were told one year your Christmas dinner is just you and the cast at the holiday, that's it. Oh, my God. Who do you want to sit next to? Oh, my God. I'm quickly thinking. I'm like, okay, don't make the answer controversial, Kate. Who would I want to sit next to? I definitely want to sit next to Jack. Yeah. Because he's just gorgeous and hilarious and, you know, he's great fun. Also loves food. How much has that changed the Christmas season for you since that film came out? Like every time it's Christmas, are you going, okay, people are going to come up and bring that up a lot more now?

33:45Yes. So Christmas is a bit different. I do have to slightly pick the time of day that I go to Waitrose from about now, mid-November onwards, which is mid-November that we're actually recording this podcast. From about now onwards, I do have to choose my time of day. because if I go sort of early evening or kind of middle of the day, people will stop me. And it is actually lovely and it's something very unexpected. So it's mothers and daughters. Mothers and teenage daughters or grown daughters. They will come to me and they say, oh, is it you? And I'll say, I think it might be me. And then they say...

34:21It's such a difficult question. And then they just say, we have to say. We just have to say our favourite film. And I'm thinking, bless you, you think that you're the only people for whom this is a ritual. and actually there's this ritual that has emerged between mothers and daughters and at some point over Christmas they send everyone off to the pub and they sit down and they order a takeaway and they watch the holiday and then they have a big box of chocolates and it is a thing. Yeah, yeah. And it is so lovely. I have to say, it's very gratifying and heartwarming that that happens, yeah. But you still can go to Waitrose.

34:51It's not like the old days. I go to Waitrose all the time. Nobody's putting a brine turkey on a wall for you. No, no, no. Yeah, yeah. No, believe me. I go to Waitrose all the time. I do everything like normal. Take the tube, get the train, do all that. Personally, for me, I just like having something to do at a dinner table. If it gets a bit quiet, I can do the napkin. Mr. Napkin Head. I can do Mr. Napkin Head. Do you do Mr. Napkin Head? Yeah, of course. It's good fun, though. I do Mr. Napkin Head, especially when Bear, my youngest, who's about to turn 12, when he was little, we've got lots and lots of videos on phones of us doing My name is Mr.

35:22Napkin Head all over the world in various different places whenever I was filming. and no, it's a good one. That was a Jude Law improvised. Was it a riff? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's full of, that's, that's. He's got to be pleased with that. Yeah. Great life skill. Yeah. Yeah. So we'd normally now ask you your dream Christmas dinner. Yeah. But that is your main course anyway. It is really. I mean, I think if I was forced to kind of go off piste and really think of a main course that I'd go for, I mean, I do love a pie. Yeah. I do love a bit of pastry. I'm more pastry than filling, actually. So when people eat a pie and they leave the crust, I just think...

36:05Well, it's crazy. You're just eating like a castle. Are you mad? I mean, I would take a crust off a stranger's plate if I thought it was going to end up in a bin. Yeah, I'm very serious about it. He's never been more serious about anything. Why? Yeah, just eating a castle. Yeah. You're not eating a pie then? No, it's not. Well, what are you doing? What's the point? Might as well have soup. Yeah. You might as well have soup or quiche. Absolutely. They probably wouldn't eat the crust of a quiche either, these people. They're just eating scrambled egg. See, and I would take the crust of a stranger's plate of a quiche as well.

36:34Do love it. So, yeah, I love a good old pie. I'd always reach for that in any restaurant. What's your preferred fill-in for the pie? Well, it's probably sort of a chicken and veg type vibe, something like that. I don't eat a huge amount of meat, actually. I'm talking about all meat things, but I don't really eat a huge amount of meat. My husband, Ned, is completely vegan. And so I have had to become really good at doing lots of interesting vegetable dishes. And I don't think I'm actually very good at it. And I could certainly be better. So at Christmas, I do do a pie day, actually. And so for Ned, I always make a lentil and mushroom and walnut.

37:14Wellington. Which he's very covetous of. and yet everybody's like, oh, what are you having? And he's like, mine, mine. I might need it for tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Don't ask me what it is. He can get a whole week out of that Wellington. But yeah, huge fan of pastry. And it also reminds me a bit of my grandmother, my mum's mum. She was a brilliant cook and she was that generation of like, you know, dripping bread and dripping. And if she got a cold, she would just eat half a raw onion and then she'd be absolutely fine. Stinking, of course. but she'd be absolutely fine and she used to she used to go to the fish monger every friday you know back in the day when you'd have you would have meat once a week and you'd have fish on a friday and the milk was delivered and the cream on the top was thick and the foil and oh my god i loved it but she would get fish on a friday and she and she would make sometimes just for herself because it was a moment of zen for her a beautiful piece of fish and she would make five fat chips just five always five don't know why maybe it was because she could get five out of one potato and uh and i do have a memory of that and then she'd always make a pie usually some kind of pie over the weekend and there would always be shortening in that in that pastry and it god it was the absolute best and i certainly can't make pastry the way that she did definitely not well we can have the pie that she's made the pastry if you want for the dream yes please and would you like your mum to have made the red cabbage as well for the dream yes and and the potatoes and the potatoes yeah definitely but i would do my turkey which is controversial because to say out loud i think my turkey is better than my mum's turkey but she would almost cry she'd slice into that turkey she'd go oh it's dry that's part of the ritual it's dry again it's again roger it's dry again it's dry again i'm gonna have to give you leg i love that what are you what are you doing with your leftovers i think this is a big this is a big christmas question so i i'm not a fan of a turkey curry i do love curry but i'm not a fan of a turkey curry somehow that seems very um ad hoc and doesn't make any sense to me so i i slice it all off i don't leave it sitting on the on the bone for days in the fridge i slice it all off and I usually freeze some of it and typically I will make some sort of a huge vegetable soup vegetable and turkey soup I'm a big fan of of stock yeah or it's the more popular name now is bone broth which I but I'm a huge fan of a stock so in fact not very long ago I did just make a very big soup at home using my frozen turkey stock from Christmas so I freeze big batches of it and and we'll use that a lot, especially if someone's feeling not very well.

40:03Yeah. I will often just cook up a big soup and that will go in there. I love that. Yeah. Are you having Christmas pudding? Are you having a dessert for your Christmas dinner? So we're very, very lucky in that since my mum, since we lost my mum, my dad met someone else and he has a wonderful relationship with a great lady named Chris Gale. She's a gorgeous, gorgeous jazz singer and she used to bake and she had a little cake stall when she was younger and she makes an extraordinary Christmas cake. So her contribution now is that she brings a Christmas cake. And actually I've started doing Christmas puddings less because I want for Chris's beautiful cake to always take a special place on the table.

40:46So we lean more towards Christmas cake now. I'm so into Christmas cake now. I used to hate it when I was a kid. Sure. Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, I could not understand it. No, I couldn't either. Now. What's with the hiding of the money that you just know has been dropped a million times in the street and weed on. Why? No need. No need for that. But I'll tell you something in our house, though, that we really can't go without is mince pies, because my husband, Ned, he starts eating mince pies, I think at around Halloween, actually, if he can find them. He's just, yeah, addicted. He sees it as his, yeah.

41:19Yeah, when you first see him on the shelves in shops, it's very exciting. It's mince pie season. No, well, I just start finding them in the shopping basket. I'm like, I don't know if I said, not that we go shopping together, actually, because that makes it sound quite sad. But we don't. That's not sad. It's not sad. But if he does do the shop, which is often, actually, we're very good at sharing those jobs. He'll always come back with mince pies. And I'll be like, what are these? It's the 2nd of November. And he's like, yes, I know. I know. But it's cold outside and it's time for a mince pie. And he's definitely had one on the way home as well.

41:53A thousand percent, if not two. Yeah. like Christian and Guru Murthy with the custard tarts yes he eats them in the car so his wife doesn't find out

42:08your dream side dish is the next question but obviously Christmas dinner is a hard one to add a side dish for you're sorted for sides on Christmas dinner I feel like we're pushing more food on you well I do love I do love bread sauce so that's a side but that's not really a side dish is it it's sort of something that you just kind of have to have but a side dish I mean I don't know are we allowed side dishes that could also be considered starters type of thing I think so because we've got pasta to start so I do love an oyster I do love but only the little ones and I have two stories around my consumption of oysters which is that forever I would think oh my god way too gynecological looking can't be doing that and then I was lucky enough when I was about 30, 31, to be invited at a dinner.

43:00It was a small dinner in New York. I lived in New York for 10 years. And it was a small dinner with a group of people who my husband at the time, Sam Mendes, he had just worked with, Paul Newman and Tom Hanks. Wow. And somehow I found myself having a meal with them. There were maybe seven or eight of us. and Paul Newman ordered 24 oysters. And I was sat beside him and they were passed around the table. He's a very, very generous man. It's the only time I met him. Passed around the table. Would you like an oyster? Would you like one? Would you like one? I'm thinking, oh God, he's going to offer me a buck, an oyster, and I'm going to have to say no.

43:42The plate came to me. And how about you? Would you like an oyster? And I said, no, thank you. And I looked at his eyes and I went, actually, yes. because I thought if I eat this oyster, I will always be able to say, Paul Newman gave me my first oyster and I had the oyster and I loved it. And so on occasion, I will order oysters and they're just delicious. Do you think about Paul Newman every time you have an oyster? I do actually. I do. And then I tell the story that I just told, but I don't think I've ever told it on a podcast. Yes. Wrote to petition? Exclusive. Wrote to petition. Exactly right.

44:19That film, yes. Sorry. there's a point in the video where people will see that you mentioned that they work together and I go like this I don't want people to think watching it that I wasn't interested in what you were saying it was that I went I have to remember what the film was great great film really really great film and then years and years and years later in 2011 at the beginning of the next chapter of my life which I'm currently very very happily immersed in I met my husband Ned and again we found ourselves in New York and it was at the very beginning of our relationship. And Chelsea Market is a great market in the city and there's an amazing fish shop in there, really spectacular.

45:07And Ned and I were just having one of those kind of early romantic days out wandering around New York City and I said, oh, should we get some oysters? And he said, well, I don't know if I've had oysters before. and I'm sure I then told them about the Paul Newman story and we bought these oysters and we took them back to the flat where I lived at the time and I know how to shuck oysters and so I shucked all these oysters and we had the oysters and had some champagne and then we're still together and moving on you've got to say that that's a baller move on a date if I was on an early date with someone and they were like, I'm going to shuck you an oyster.

45:47I'd be like, right, well, we're getting married. Yeah, yeah. That's absolutely brilliant. There was no question as to whether or not we were going to be together forever. I knew that as soon as I met him. I was like, oh, it's you. Oh, it's you. I know it sounds super soppy, but I really did, yeah, I really did think that. That's nice. Good old man. Good old man.

46:11Well, you've mentioned champagne a few times, but your dream drink. To me, there is something very special about a glass of champagne. I don't drink champagne all the time. I actually am not. I love a drink, but I'm not a really big drinker. I don't like getting drunk. I just, I don't know, the feeling of being out of control and probably the fear that someone's going to take a photograph of me falling over and showing the world my knickers. Although I feel like I've shown the world my knickers a million times given all the different parts that I've played, so I don't know what I'm worrying about.

46:41Well, that's the knickers you're in control of that. That's wardrobe's knickers. It's not your knickers, that's wardrobe giving you those knickers. So it's not as personal when they see that one. They probably were mine, I believe. Oh, okay. That's the scoop. Spontane. They were always Kate's knickers. All of the films. Knicker flushing. But I do like a glass of champagne. And I'm not a fan of, what do you call it? Prosecco. I'm not a fan of Prosecco, I have to be honest. It's just not the same. But I do love a glass of champagne. not fussy love a bit of verve love it love my way I mean but I yeah there always has to be there always has to be a reason to have it yeah are there people drinking it on the daily or as their regular drink I'm sure there are it would lose all sense of occasion it's really funny actually because as I'm hearing myself say this I can I can hear the voices of a couple of my friends saying Kate you don't drink champagne on occasion you drink it whenever you're offered it and actually to be perfectly on through that's also true I would imagine, yeah.

47:44So that is your dream drink? It is my dream drink, yeah. What sort of glass do you want it in? Oh, thanks, I'm not fussy. I'm not fussy. He's a fussy. It could be a clean jam jar. It could be a plastic tub. I don't care. No, I'm not fussy. Not in the brining tub. You can't have it at the brining tub. No, but you could have it in a sort of a plastic picnic cup. Don't mind about that. My favourite glass is done now. What? My favourite glass is done. Broken? Not broken. and the boiler man used it to put all the sludge in it. Didn't even ask me. That's very upsetting. Didn't even ask me. The boiler was acting up.

48:20I was like, let me know if you need me. I'm in the other room. It's like, yeah, it's all done. It's like, yeah, basically I had loads of sludge. You've got to empty the condenser. I've done it. And then I looked and there's my favourite glass, just full of grey, disgusting stuff. It got out the boiler. Oh, no. I was like, that's it. Brother, just ask me. Just shout in the next room. Hey, I need to empty the sludge. you've got something that you're not going to drink out of every day. Oh, my God. Just use my glass. Use my favourite glass. That's really upsetting. Yeah, really upsetting. That's done.

48:49I think, you know, one thing I will say, I'm not precious about glasses because they get broken. They do all the time. And if people ever come to stay or they're staying in our house, if we're away, I'll just say, don't worry about breaking anything. Nothing's precious. There's nothing out that, you know, is too important not to be broken. because I just don't think you can live like that. I don't want people to ever come into my house and feel like they can't touch anything. But you'd say if you're coming over to maybe put sludge in stuff, maybe I'll leave out a sludge glass for you. I'll leave out a sludge glass for you just in case you need to put some sludge in it.

49:25Yeah, I'd be clear about that. A friend of ours, Stuart Laws, who's a comedian, had a routine that I was quite jealous of about the glass that you use to catch a spider with and then you always remember that that's the spider glass. It's a spider glass. And then you give it to guests that you don't like. We used to have, when we were growing up, we used to have what we would call a silver fish dish. And they were these kind of terrible little sort of 20p from a jumble sale, sort of small metal boat type dishes that, you know, my mum would put, you know, a blob of ice cream if we were lucky into.

49:53And I remember that there was actually, you know, this little silver fish that crawl around the skirting boards. It would always be silver fish that would sit in these dishes in the cupboard. They'd just hang out. Yeah, so they would become the silverfish dishes. And that was also your ice cream dish? It was also the ice cream dish, yeah. But there was no backup, so we had to just plough on and continue to use the dish. Wouldn't stop me from eating ice cream, you know that, brother. If it was crawling with silverfish, I'd still be eating it if it was all over the scoops. Did you have a sick bowl at home?

50:23Yeah. We had a sick bowl. Actually, it was a sick bucket. It was orange, and it lived under the sink. That's better for sick, I'd say, because the bowl situation, you're like, are you going to use this bowl for anything else? I just don't know if we had any bowls that were big enough, quite honestly. The only bowl that we would have had would have been the bowl of the salad spinner. That might have been big enough, and that was brown. You don't want to be sick in a salad spinner, though. You definitely don't. You definitely don't. Jesus. Don't want to be sick into a salad spinner, no. But if we had an orange sick bucket with a white handle.

50:54Remember Stuart Laws who I mentioned a minute ago? Yeah. Guess where he went recently and sent me videos of his whole trip there. Oh, God. I'm going to pronounce it wrong even though Montauk Montauk the place in the saddle of sunshine that you go to he went there and he was really excited about it because he knew I'd like it so he sent me videos of his whole trip he was at the station that you guys were at oh yeah went to all the different locations it was absolutely it was brilliant out there I loved it and it was it was very very cold and it wasn't meant to snow and you know there's that scene I don't need to tell you I don't need to tell you do I where they wake up they wake up in a bed on the beach in the snow.

51:33Okay, wasn't meant to snow. And we got there late one night, the whole crew and cast we'd all travelled out there, woke up in the morning literally three foot of snow everywhere. So I called Michelle and I said, oh god what are we going to do? He was like, what do you mean? This is fantastic. We are going to shoot in that. And then there we are, you know on the beach, in the bed, in the snow completely, I mean I don't think you'll ever see that again anywhere because what are the chances? and it was freezing but yeah completely amazing i loved montauk there was a cafe um that that i would go to on the way to work and i would always get a coffee and a really delicious thick doorstop sized um it was in a sort of like an oatmeal raisin cookie with loads of uh lovely ground spices in it and patmeg and things and uh yeah see i love food my kids always say to me you always remember the places we went by the food that we ate quite right absolutely yeah yeah i really do yeah i went on david cross's podcast and i really annoyed him by asking him how many times a week does he think to himself i was in eternal sunshine the spotless mind and he was like never i don't think that carrie i'm making a birdhouse i quoted that to him on his podcast he did not like it he remembered it he was wasn't impressed by me for shouting that i did exactly what you've just done.

52:50And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, come on, man. What a line. It's a funny line. But have you seen those such brilliant scenes as well in Waiting for Guffman? You've seen Please tell me you've seen Waiting for Guffman. Oh my God. That's one of our favourites. There's that scene. I've been coming out to this landing site. The temperature is always the same. So, yeah, he's genius. He's so, so talented. Well, he doesn't like his genius being brought up to him, I'll tell you that much. Oh, okay. But it's fun. Fun to wind him up. he's a curmudgeon so it was really fun you know winding him up on his own podcast about how much I love Eternal Sunshine he was not happy not happy I would ask you how often you think I was in Eternal Sunshine but I imagine probably not much well it's been coming up a lot recently and what I think is amazing is how that is turning into a bit of a cult classic and that there's a whole other a little bit like Titanic you know there's another generation of young people who are discovering it largely because of the music because the soundtrack is so incredible but that's I just I never would have expected that you know and people will quote to me that line I'm just a fucked up girl who's looking for my own peace of mind it is a great line written by the great Charlie Kaufman she was such an extraordinary character incredible and those wigs I mean my god they were all wigs oh were they yeah I did get to keep a couple of them which is pretty cool yeah it was just an amazing character to play and I really did feel like I could be quite free and experimental and learned a lot about myself as an actor through that process and sort of being brave and just trying stuff.

54:27That thing of like, you know, just making mistakes. That was positively encouraged by Michel Gondry. Was there anything in particular that you did? I just made my last Eternal Sunshine question. I don't believe you, but okay. Now I can see why David Cross cut you off so quickly. He was furious. I'm not going to cut you off, darling. Go. Go on. Is there anything particularly that you did that was taking a risk that made it in the film and you were like, I'm really glad that I did that? Yeah, I think there's that line when... In that hilarious sequence where the memories are erasing and there's a bit where the Joel character is being bathed in the kitchen sink by his mum and then there's that perspective set where he's under the day that's so genius.

55:12And when I went, my crotch is still here. Look, just as you remembered it. And I flashed my knickers. That was definitely spur of the moment. Yeah. Your knickers? Your knickers or wardrobes? No, they were wardrobes. I seem to remember they were pink. I don't think I'd ever wear pink knickers. Not in real life. Actually, I've got one more question. Okay, go on. It links to another film and stuff. Does it link to food, which is what this podcast is supposed to be about? Come on, come on. Did you and Elijah Wood talk about being directed by Peter Jackson at a completely different time from his career?

55:40No, because he didn't. He was just about to go away. He hadn't done it yet? No. he was just about to go and start shooting Lord of the Rings from memory from memory he was he hadn't gone yet maybe I'm wrong about that I am wrong about that no he had done some of it Elijah had done some and he was going back I think to do additional shooting or reshoots or something like that and no he didn't talk about it very much actors on the whole don't talk about other jobs to each other just because it's just the work because it's private. I mean, I'm sure you don't talk about, you know, that show you did last night.

56:18We do, all the time. It's the only thing we talk about. We texted each other last night about our gigs as they were happening. Saying how great you both were. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And how funny you were. And how much we love doing stand-up and how we really respect our audiences. And how you're never scared at all when you walk out onto the stage. Yeah, yeah. And we love the reaction we get and the audiences are perfect and they're lovely. Okay. Yeah, yeah. We're so grateful. Great, weirdos.

56:42Your dream dessert. So I had to think long and hard about this because it is a toss-up between two, but I am going to go with my own apple crumble. Love that. And the reason for that is because I cook or bake my crumble topping first. So you know you get excited about a crumble and then you realize that half of it's stuck to the roof of your mouth because the flour and buttery sugar mixture actually has just steamed on the top and might have gone a bit crunchy in certain areas around the edges. So I part bake mine and it just goes all biscuity and lovely. So the crumble topping is baked separately on a flat baking sheet.

57:25And then I'll cook my apples a little bit first with some cinnamon and sugar. I feel like I've talked about cinnamon a lot. I guess I probably use it a lot. It's the season for it though, right? It is the season for cinnamon. And so then the apples will go in a baking dish and then I'll put my delicious crumbly topping all over the top and that will go in for another 15 minutes. And I would have that. So Ned would have custard. He absolutely loves custard and he says, flood it, flood it. But I actually love a big dollop of clotted cream. Nice. Proper Cornish clotted cream. Shout out to Cornwall again.

58:02Shout out to Cornwall again. Cornwall's really coming out of this episode good. Spend my life shouting out to Cornwall. The problem is there's a lot of tin in the clotted cream in Cornwall. Stop talking about it. stop talking about it because the cows are drinking the water aren't they so they're drinking the tin and it's coming out in the milk you would be the one to be told stop talking about it this episode second time the tin's come up stop talking about it yeah eternal sunshine 50 times eternal questions eternal questions about tin and clotted cream eternal questions of the obsessed mind because you said that you said there's tin in the water well I don't know if there is I just said rumour has it yeah rumour has it Ed sorry sorry rumour has it so that would be that would actually be my dessert and that was a tough one for me because I'm such a fan of cheese so I could easily go with a great cheese board well that's good that that is James gets really angry if guests pick a cheese board instead of dessert whereas I love it I'm the cheese boy are you?

58:57what's your favourite cheese? I am curious actually the thing is I would probably go with a British cheese and my go-to would just be a very very mature cheddar I think you can't beat a very mature cheddar yeah but then also if we're have you tried sussex charmer no oh it's chalky it's crumbly it's sharp it's delicious and it's sold in a it's like a sort of almost like a wax paper wrapping which i love and uh and it comes in a perfect cube yeah it's delicious it's delicious sussex i'm gonna check that out yeah every year for christmas my mother-in-law buys me the godminster cheddar nice like all the varieties so they do a truffle one that is out of this world and then a chilly one and then just the normal one I love that stuff but then love Stilton as well Colston Bassett Stilton obviously I do too and then sure Manchego Comte an aged Comte lovely we could do a whole separate episode on cheese yeah we should do I mean you can pick cheese for your dessert if you wanted no I'm not going to do that he's making a face yeah we can direct the internet camera for the whole of his cheese chat I worked in a delicatessen but a proper delicatessen with like you know beautiful epicurean foods and James Kate's telling a story now I'm telling a story you're not listening I was looking into the camera he's bored he's bored of me I was furious I won't talk to you about Turned Sunshine anymore oh tell me about the delicatessen but I used to I used to work on the cheese counter with this delicatessen dream job I did get to know all my cheeses and yeah love a good cheese you can have a cheese board after the meal if you like Yeah, but they're too full and I think I prefer the crumble first.

1:00:36We can just leave it on the side and you can just nibble on it later on. On the wall? There's a delicious French cheese called... What did she say? Put it on the wall? Put it on the wall for you. A little cheese board on the wall? Could do, yeah. There's a delicious French cheese called Charosse that I absolutely love, which is, it's sort of, it's almost the colour of a goat cheese with a rind that is also pale like a goat cheese, but it's not. It's made with cow's milk and it's not as kind of stinky and runny as a camembert. It's really smooth, delicious with like a sort of a fruit bread or something like that.

1:01:13It's really delicious. I'm so excited for Christmas now because I'm going to go absolutely cheese crackers. Yeah. You're going to go cheese crackers? I'm going to go crackers and cheese cheese crackers. Truffle brie. Oh, yeah. God, you've got to have a nice triple cream truffle brie. Oh, thank God. I'll do that that way. Yes, I can't wait to. But this crumble also sounds delicious, and I like that it's your crumble. Because like you say, your mum's roast potatoes were the best. Do you think the crumble is going to be the thing that you pass down to your children? They're going to be like, my mum's crumble was the best.

1:01:41Well, there is something else that my children would prefer I pass down to them, which is that it's a very decadent bread and butter pudding that they do request that I make at Christmas as well. And this has become a new thing. we were in uh we were in vancouver for christmas several years ago and in this particular area of vancouver there's a wonderful donut shop and it's quite a famous donut shop i don't particularly eat donuts but these things are so good what's it called it's called honey's donuts this donut shop and it is in no it's in a tiny little place called deep cove in in vancouver in north vancouver and the owners very kindly when we were there gave us a huge box of probably i don't know 12 or 16 donuts and i really thought my god what are we going to do with these things i made the two day old donuts into bread and butter i just know james is losing his mind it was unbelievably delicious and my kid and now my kids do say mom come on you got it and now in england we don't have honey's donuts of course but you know panettone leftover croissants or cruffins a cruffin you know the big sort of swirly things with the kind of crusty top with the sugariness all over them um so yeah so rather than going with actual bread i will try and find some sort of cake and put that into this very very decadent bread and butter pudding and they that that they they would in fact last year my daughter was like you got you had you're gonna have to show me how to do it yeah um it's delicious were all the donuts like plain donuts no so here so some of them have a slight caramel topping some of them have chocolate and i was like okay just break them up shove it in so every spoonful you're getting like you might get a different flavor donut in every bite that's pretty special pretty delish yeah i think i'm adding that to my dream menu really really like ridiculously good i always think we should do like an episode where we only can make our menus off of things that other guests have picked yeah and i'd pick that yeah I'll make it for you but I don't think it's on Cates that's not going to happen but the fact that the offer's there no I will yeah we've had we've had people come on this podcast before and they've said they'll make anything and they never make you know they make promises they say let's go for a cocktail at that place I'm a woman of my word okay cocktails you see I'd have to go for a Negroni if we were going out for a cocktail although I did someone did make me a very very strong one this summer and I loved it and I loved it so much that I had a second one and the next day I swear to god I thought I had brain damage I honestly I was like completely I felt like a bag of smashed crabs what's that what's happened to me I'm up in street yeah I love that I'll be using that amazing I'll be taking smashed crabs a bag of smashed crabs absolutely loves it okay I'm going to read you your menu back now go on see how you feel about it by the way you've said French Airlines today and French Cheeses and I was trying to come up with a paint me like your French girls thing and I couldn't do it just so you know No, I did try, but sometimes we fall short.

1:04:48No, no, no. It was a good try though, James. Just so you know, I tried and I couldn't do it. No, okay. I'm not on my best form today. Okay. Still a sparkling water you want still, tap water from Cornwall. Popped arms of bread you would like, warm crusty bread and breadsticks with thick butter. Yeah. Starter, pasta with truffle and shaved parmesan. Lovely story. Main course, Christmas dinner with your own turkey, your mum's roast potatoes, mum's red cabbage, with bread sauce, with chicken and vegetable pie as well, with grandmother's pastry, and Christmas cake. Side dish, oysters, the little ones.

1:05:23Drink champagne, dessert, your own apple crumble with Cornish cottage cream. Yep. That sounds great. Yeah. It does actually, doesn't it? That sounds really nice. Nothing overly fancy, apart from, well no, actually I lied, the truffle and the oysters and the champagne. What am I talking about? I'm somebody I didn't think I was, clearly. Yeah, but you've still got the Christmas dinner in there and the red cabbage and the pie yeah and the pie I think it's a good mix grounding foods and look it's mid-November like we say it's the first time I've felt Christmassy this year oh good and that's because of your menu there you go I feel quite Christmassy actually and there's a little Christmas tree next to you yeah that's not a Christmas tree no it's a plastic thing with tipex on the ends of it yeah Benito what the hell are you playing at Benito what is your problem what the fuck are you putting that next to Kate Winslet for a little gingerbread house a little sweet gingerbread house you see that's That's designed for a tea light.

1:06:15Why are they called tea lights? I don't know, actually. I've never known why they're called tea lights. Why are they? I don't know. Yeah, they're rubbish, aren't they? They are rubbish and they always go out. Yeah. It's the battery-operated ones you have to get. But I do like a little sort of house with a little candle in it. Yeah, that's a nice touch, actually. Oh, and the screen says Christmas special on it. I didn't even notice that. I didn't realise that. He does so much for us. But why is there a chopped octopus leg? Yes. Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it? That's not Christmassy, is it? That's not Christmassy.

1:06:43At all. I know it's a food podcast, but it's a Christmas special. Yeah, think about like Christmas food. Don't have chopped octopus leg for Christmas. Maybe they do in Spain or something, but is that a cabbage or a brain, Benito? It's a butter sprout, I reckon. It's a poo, actually. It's a poo. It's a shit. You put a shit in an octopus leg. Merry Christmas. We've got Kate Winslet on the podcast. You put a shit on the screen. It is a petrified poo. Yeah. Yeah. So sorry. So sorry, Kate, for what he's done today. That's all right, I don't mind. Sorry, Kate. It's okay. We were good, though, right?

1:07:11You were great. you were great yeah we were good you were nice you were relaxed you were kind and you were funny yeah pretty funny yeah yeah didn't ask too many questions about a tunnel sunshine I thought I was quite funny you were very funny was I surprisingly funny no you've been funny in film did you not know what you were going to get and you're relieved to discover that no I think I knew you'd be a funny and warm and open interviewee okay good yeah I've seen you I was never worried I was never worried about when you were coming in okay Sometimes people come in and we're like, I don't know how this is going to go.

1:07:45And sometimes we're right. And when we finish recording, you're going to tell me who was the scariest person. Robert De Niro. Robert De Niro. Oh, I don't think he's scary, is he? No, not scary, just intimidating as a prospect. Intimidating, yes. Yeah. Yes, I can see that. That might be a surprise to the guests. And he's very... To the guests, to the listeners. Very comfortable with not giving answers. Oh. Oh. Oh, that can maybe... Okay. It was a funny episode, though, because our listeners know us and they like to hear us flail sometimes. Oh. Yeah, but that's, sorry to tell you, but that was an option.

1:08:15Well, there hasn't been a hint of flailing today. We've not needed to flail. Good. It's been fantastic. Thank you so much for coming to the Dream Restaurant, Kate, and Merry Christmas. My pleasure, and you. Thank you very much.

1:08:31James. I'm sorry. That was a dream cut joke.

1:08:37what's the dream come true she was brilliant how good was that I did talk about A Turn of Sunshine I broke my promise but she brought it up she did bring it up which you know and brought it up quickly as well I was like oh we're in trouble I couldn't believe it we are in trouble I was really restrained until a certain point yeah until towards the end when it was maybe I thought I've got to get them all in now the problem is James and you know this about me is of course I've seen A Turn of Sunshine multiple times but I don't remember anything that happens in any film ever I've ever watched. I go to films, I go, that's brilliant.

1:09:07I'm going to remember this is one of my favourite films. And then you asked me about it three days later, I could not tell you who's in it. I could not tell you what the storyline was. Also, I just go and see films and I go, that was good. I thought that was good. I better Google to check to see if I was right. Yeah, yeah. So when I do stuff like that to you, you've got to just sit there. I've got to sit there, but it's really interesting watching you interview Kate Winslet about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And occasionally I would go, I like cheese yeah dream come true oh yeah have a sick bowl at home yeah yeah that was good you jumped to the sick bowl stuff Kate didn't say Clementine either no thank god even in reference to the character she didn't even say the word yeah well she knew you didn't need to know the name of the character she knew she knew this guy knows everything about this what a joy watch Goodbye June it's in cinemas now and on Netflix on Christmas Christmas Eve.

1:10:03December 24th. December 24th, for those of you who don't know that that's Christmas Eve. Watch it on YouTube. You can watch this on YouTube. You can watch this on YouTube. You can't watch Goodbye June on YouTube, but you can watch this on YouTube. This podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. First talking to Kate Winslet. Yeah, yeah. On YouTube. Yeah, I wonder how many shots there will be of me looking back and forth as, uh, we should release a whole different version where it's just my shot while they're talking about Eternal Sunshine. Well, my shot when you're talking about cheese. Yeah, well, yeah, that'll be in it.

1:10:32so rude funny for the first bit and then she starts telling an anecdote about working in a delicatessen I could not believe when I looked around and you were still doing that that's really rude yeah yeah really rude stuff really rude but luckily she was lovely and what a brilliant interview yeah yeah I mean I absolutely loved every second of it thank you Kate if you're listening smash it out the park adieu cacha adieu cacha thank you so much for listening all year but the year is not done for off menu because we will of course be releasing our best of the year episodes the compilations yeah and we'll be back for a new series of Off Menu in January and what a way we're kicking that off what a way we're kicking it off Merry Christmas happy seasonal period have a good December happy new year goodbye bye

1:11:34Hello, I'm Amy Gledhill. And I'm Harriet Kemsley. You might remember us from when we were guests on Off Menu, where I tried to find where I got seaweed mash, and we had to call my mum. And I talked about how my mum was worried that I might drown in my own body. That's cool. And we've got some exciting news. We've sorted your Valentine's Day plans again, as we're doing a special live recording of the podcast on Valentine's Day. aka Saturday the 14th of February yes we've got a lovely venue it's at the Underbelly Boulevard in Soho, London we had so much fun at the last Valentine's Day show yes and we both absolutely overshared will we do it again?

1:12:15You'll have to come along and find out okay yes, yes we will so that's Saturday 14th of February at Underbelly Boulevard and you can get tickets on the link in our bio and our Instagram