Francis Ford Coppola: Part 2

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1:09Italy is an interesting place because it was for so long these city-states. There was the Vatican, of course, for thousands of years, which was Rome, dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. And then there were, you know, in the north, There was a tremendous influence from German and French food. In Ciamonte, you have butter. Then Genoa, they were fishermen, of course, because they were on the sea. Did you know that the Neapolitans make something called pasta alla Genovese, which is a Neapolitan dish called pasta alla Genovese, and it's made 100 % with onions. And the point, the reason they call it alla Genovese is because the Neapolans think that the Genovese are real cheapskates.

1:54They are. Apparently, well, I shouldn't say that because one of my best friends is Genovese. Yeah, and so Neopolisans make the cheapest dish they can, which is onions, and they call it Genovese. And, of course, as you know, every region of Italy has a different specialty, certainly its own pasta. So in the south, in Puglia, they have Orecchiette, which are the little ear-like pastas. and then in Bologna they have tortellini or whatever. The story I like to tell about pizza because people think that pizza is this American staple, but the truth of the matter is when I was a little kid, you know, before I was about five years old, we used to go to a pizzeria and have pizza, and no one knew what that was.

2:41Where was this, in Queens? In New York. Did you grow up in Queens? We lived in Queens, but my father would take us to a restaurant I remember called Luigi Gino's, and it was a very authentic... And this is what, in the 40s? This would have to be, yeah, in the 40s, you know, 44, but no one knew in America, no one had ever seen a pizza, knew what a pizza, kids said, what are you going to a pizzeria, what's that? And in fact, I remember for 50 cents that he would even make a little pizza that I would get. Pizza, of course, was a Neapolitan dish, But the American soldiers came up in World War II through North Africa and went right through Naples.

3:25So they brought Coca-Cola and they brought back pizza and they brought pizza back to America. And then two years later, pizza was the rare new thing. As a kid, everyone knew what pizza was. So what was the food like in the 40s? So you grew up in a family that cooked Italian food. I think that there's a big difference between Italian food and Italian-American food, don't you? Well, none of my family, the region we come from, not my mother's side, that was Naples, but my father's side and my grandfather's side, and he dominated what kind of food his wife would cook. And he loved the classic Benraldez food, which is Lucania.

4:09Lucania is, if you look at Italy as a map, the arch of the, that's Lucania. Between Puglia and over here is Calabria. And then in the center on the water in what's called the Metaponto is this region where we're from. My grandfather wanted to eat vernalese food. So my grandmother didn't know how to cook that food because, believe it or not, She was from South Italy, but she wasn't born there. Her father was from South Italy, and he went to Tunis because Tunis was a new city built in 1900, and it was all built by Italians. And so he went there and had three girls, my grandmother, and then Tunis, you had to be in cahoots with a French partner because Tunis was a French protectorate, and the French partner double-crossed him, and he got mad and left and took his daughters and went to New York.

5:13So there were these three girls, very well-educated. They spoke Italian because they were from an Italian family. They spoke French because Tunis was a French. They spoke Arabic because their school was Arabic, and they spoke English because they were going to go to America. So my grandmother, this wonderful grandmother, was actually born in Tunis, but she married my Italian grandfather and he wanted to eat this type of food. It turned out that in the railway station of this region, the guy who cooked at the railway also went to New York and that man's son taught her how to cook all this authentic, what we call, vernacular food.

5:58And these are very strange dishes. There's one I'll describe to you called numeride. Numeride. Numeride. What a numeride is, is you take all the sort of sweetbreads and lungs and awful. Yeah, awful. And then you package it in something with a, you know, and then. Like the membrane, the very thin. Yeah. And you make these numerides, which then you cook on a grill. Is it like a sausage? It's like androise. You know in France, you have androise. It's not like an androise. It's more like haggis. Oh, yeah, haggis and androise. It's not haggis, but numaride is numaride. There's only someone who knows that says this is numaride, this is not numaride.

6:44Also something called figatio, where you take the lining of the stomach that looks like lace, and you put a pork liver and a bay leaf, and then you wrap it. Sounds delicious. It is delicious. So they ate that kind of food, even though back in Italy that kind of food was getting co-opted and changed by modern influences. In Rome, there's a restaurant that has been around for centuries which only cooks offal. They give you spinal spaghetti sauce. The tragedy is in America, the food and the authorization have just blanketly refused to approve any offal whatsoever. So you really have to go to the butcher on your own and say this is just a personal.

7:34When I lived in Paris, Francis, if you wanted to eat brains, they would bring you up the head of the veal. Well, we have that in our town. It's called capuzel. And capuzel is literally the half of a lamb's head split with the eye and everything in it. and then it's made oregano like sort of oregano would be with oregano and breadcrumbs and stuff in the oven roasted and as a kid we would be they would bring this and I was funny because the big challenge was no one that I knew even my big brother who was daring and my grandfather no one I ever knew did I ever see eat the eye the eye but I would eat the brain that might be challenging but I would eat I don't think I've eaten eyes.

8:23I would eat the brain because I thought if I ate the lamb's brain that I would become smart. You ever heard of something called l 'ambrachione? No. What it is is in reality the bulb of a hyacinth. And it's a dish that looks like a little onion, but it's not an onion. It's l 'ambrachione. We called it l 'ambrachione. There's 200 ways of cooking them. What's your favorite way? Well, the favorite one is when you sort of, you barboil them and then you score them and then you put them in hot oil and they burst into flowers. What I want to talk about as well, there's so many things we should meet again.

9:03I'd like to know, why did you buy a vineyard? You directed all these movies, you did great things. Why would you go and buy a vineyard and start a great vineyard? You want to know why I bought a vineyard? Yeah. Okay, because when I was, I'm Italian-American. which means I never saw a table that didn't have wine on it. Yet, the United States had prohibition. But there was a rule in prohibition that few people know about, is that wine-drinking families, if you were European or Italian or French or Hungarian or German, you were allowed to buy the grapes. And if you made it in your home, you could make two barrels of wine in your own fermenter in your home.

9:45so most Italians continued drinking wine during Prohibition but did so by buying the grapes and making the wine themselves my grandfather did but my grandfather had nine boys and no girls so I had all these uncles and these uncles told me of the fun of having the grapes come because they used to steal the grapes because they didn't have fruit a poor family like mine would take one orange and give each kid a segment of the orange. So all I heard was how much fun it was when Grandpa made the wine in Italian Harlem. So when I made the Godfather and had a little bit of money, I suggested to my wife, let's buy a small house in Napa with grapes, and we'll have like an acre of grapes, and we'll make wine and give it to the family.

10:41so we went with an agent and the agent told us this isn't for you but they're going to auction the most beautiful wine property in the Napa Valley and it's a chance to see it because it's not what you want to do it's much more money but it's the home of the family who used to own Ingle Nook because Ingle Nook was getting broken up at that time so we went and looked at it What year was this? Well, what year was this? this must have been after with the godfather what was the huh so we went to see this place and it had two things that had a mountain a whole mountain beautiful mountain it had a hundred acres of wine and then there was the rest that was that was where the owner lived and it was separate from the winery and it had a what had been a lake that was now with a dam but it was sort of dried up and had a little swing on a tree.

11:40And I thought my daughter Sophia could swing on that swing. So I just, my wife thought I was crazy, but I made an offer for it and we didn't get it. Then everything we looked at seemed ridiculous compared to this gorgeous thing. So someone said that the people who did get it were going to build 60 homes on the mountain, but they ran into trouble with Napa's agricultural zoning. So I went, before I was going to make Apocalypse, I went to them and said, you know, I heard that your owners can't build these 60 homes. Would you be interested in selling it to me? And they said yes. And I said, okay.

12:22And asked, so we'll borrow the money. It was about a million and a half dollars, which was a lot of money for me, but I had made the Godfather. So they gave me the loan, and I went and made Apocalypse Now. Do you think that having a vineyard and producing wine had parallels to making and producing a movie? When I came back, I had tried to buy an island in the Philippines, and my wife said wisely, you'll never come back here again. It takes nine hours. And besides, you bought a winery, and they're all asking, what do you want to do with it? So I said, oh, you're right. So it had 100 acres of vineyards.

13:02and in Napa people come and try to put a contract on. In other words, other winemakers want to get those grapes and they'll say, okay, we'll pay for it and we'll pay you a month. So I said, well, if everyone wants our grapes, maybe we shouldn't sell them, maybe we should make wine ourselves. And she said to me, well, how do you know how to make wine? I said, I don't know how to make wine, but I don't know how to make films either. And so I decided to keep the grapes and make the wine and that's the wine you have there. Yeah, we have it here, what you want to do. I want to taste this, and I want to smell it is what I want to do.

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15:41You don't want it to smell a vanilla? No, I don't want that. I just want to appreciate it so I enjoy it. So this is Oscar, our sommelier. I've got the Rubicon, which is a Cabernet blend. It's probably 97 % Cabernet, 3 % Merlot, something like that. Smell it. Put your nose in. Oh, is this mine? Are you going to have one too? So you look at it, it has a beautiful color. It's just red. What do you smell when you smell? Well, beautiful bouquet. A real wine guy goes, this is my laboratory. You're pointing to your nose. Yeah, this is a classic bouquet. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And new Bordeauxs are not, they don't want a lot of alcohol, you know, like less than 14 % alcohol.

16:27I was going to ask you, what is a classic Bordeaux? So a classic Bordeaux is blending of Cabernet with Merlot and then sometimes some others. So Petit Bordeaux. This was actually made, the man who makes Chateau Margaux. Oh, fantastic. Is the Gérard of Chateau Margaux, is our head of our wine. Oh, fantastic. He does both. But this is a baby. Okay, so this is the... The 2019. 2019. Do you think it is too soon to be drinking? Oh, for sure. For sure. When would you drink it then? In 20 years. In 20 years. Okay, I'll meet you here. But it's good. Should we just have a little shake that we'll see you here?

17:0120 years. So what are you drinking now? What year would you be drinking now? 2005. 2005. Let me tell you how to drink it. Okay. Smell it. Yeah, okay, I'm going to smell it. Then when you take it, you put enough of it so your mouth is full, but don't swallow it and you judge the mouth feel. That's a pleasure. Then slowly you let it go and you see how long the finish is. A good wine takes a long time to finish. So this has a nice nose, pretty color. Now the mouth feel. Mmm.

17:44And a long finish. So that will become much softer in four years. It will become softer if you just... I think it's good now. Oh, it's enjoyable now. Don't you think it's a freshness? I think I'm so used to drinking Italian wines. Let me tell you something incredible. Okay. I had a taste of 1783... 1783. 73. 73.83 Margot, which was a wine that Thomas Jefferson drank. And you know what? There you go. It was unbelievable. Where did he drink? He lived in Paris. Margot had a big tasting in L.A. years ago. Yeah, okay. And I tell you, this wine was incredible. And then also I tasted 1910, same tasting.

18:34I want to go back to the 1783 wine. So they would have taken that wine out of the bottle many, many times. No, not really. It was obviously kept at Bargo, so it was imperfectly. They may have recooked it a few times. Now, this is an interesting wine here because this was... Say what it is. Name it. That's a 1979 Nibam Kobl. So that was the first wine I made when I told my wife that I was going to make... You want to taste it? Yeah, of course. This is 1978. This is a 78 pecan. Okay. That's 78? Yeah. That's the first one we made. I bought it last night. Beautiful wine store. It would be interesting to compare that with this because this is made by a master winemaker in perfect conditions and that was made by a jerk me back who didn't know anything when I bought.

19:30But the grapes will, I mean, the terroir tells. Yeah, yeah. If the grapes were great, the wine will be great. How are you finding climate change effect? So far, our last years have been wonderful, but climate change is coming, and there's going to be some devastating events. That's what... I wonder how Trump is going to explain... You know, he's saying it's a hoax. I don't know how he's going to explain some of the disasters they're going to have. Already having. But the wine... I was talking to people that we buy wine from in Chianti, and, you know, it's agriculture, and it's just changing. But you buy the Super Tuscans, right?

20:09Yeah, we do. They are competing with these. That's the Tignanello and the Sassica. They actually came to the Sassica, Tignanello, Fontori, Velsina. But a lot of those young winemakers came to you to learn. Their fathers were farmers, and the new Italian winemakers are coming to California to learn what you're doing in that book. But also, you know, there was a lot of wine made in areas like Salento or down in Lecce that they used to put in the Super Tuscans and benefit them now that they're coming out as wines from Salento, you know, from the south. Have you had the wines from Etna, from Sicily?

20:49No. Do you like them, Oscar? I love the Etna wines. They're growing the wine on the slopes of Etna. This has just been opened, but if you find that if you let this sit open all day, I bet you this could go either way. And we don't know. This is the 78? This is the one I made. Okay. Okay. Let's see. Pour some for yourself. Do you want...

21:19Wow, look, it's got a lot of nose. Yeah. And you see immediately the color is so much brown. See, when I invited you to come and do this, you didn't know you'd be drinking. It's got a beautiful nose. This is really, this is fantastic. You get sort of wooden tobacco. Now how old is it? If it's 78, 88, 98, it's 40 years old. None more. 46. Wow. 46 years old. And it still has this sort of herbal freshness to it. And we just opened it. It's quite herbal. Yeah, yeah. And we just opened it. This is so much, this augers well. Imagine when this is 40 years old. Somebody brought me a 1948 bottle of Saint-Emilion, and he wouldn't decant it.

22:05He just opened it up, poured it out, and said, just let's drink it right now. I feel with some of these... He said, it doesn't need to breathe. That whole decanter myth, as he said, is a myth. Well, it's not a myth. It only pertains to Cabernet. Oh, okay. I mean, if it's these other grapes, Syrah or whatever you're drinking, It doesn't have Rhone wines. This is a pretty good fruit, haven't you? Drinking beautifully. This was the wine that I told my wife, well, I don't know. We should keep this then. Yeah.

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23:36Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Right now, you can shop up to 60 % off store-wide with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Shop now at washablesofas.com. Add a little... to your life. Offers are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. Parking shouldn't slow you down. ParkWiz gives every driver a shortcut. Book ahead, save up to 50 % and skip the hassle of circling the block. Park smarter, park faster. ParkWiz. Download the ParkWiz app today and save every time you park. The thing to understand about me and cooking is that I love to eat. I just, that's the most wonderful thing in the world and I was very poor.

24:19So rather than be able to go to a restaurant or I couldn't afford that, So whenever I wanted to eat something, I would call my mother and say, Mom, how do you make spaghetti with clams? And she would tell me how to make spaghetti with clams. And then I developed a technique of every time I loved something, whether it was in a restaurant, I would always, if I loved it, I would go back and say, how do you make it? So if I went to a Moroccan restaurant and they had a bastille, you know what, a bastille? Yeah, of course. I said, how do I make it? And I learned how to make bastille. With the almonds and the...

24:52Yeah. So in other words, over the years, all my favorite dishes I knew how to make. Most of my life I was much heavier than I am now. But there was a time when Anthony Bourdain visited a palazzo I have in the south of Italy in the region of Basilicata. And it was filmed and I was part of it. I was there. My granddaughter was there. And I tell you, I looked like a whale. and I looked at myself in this Anthony Bourdain segment and all I could see was the enormity of myself and I said, well, I have got to do something about that. How long ago was this? This was, well, about four years ago, I guess, five years ago.

25:38And he passed away since then. And, you know, my wife was very petite when I married her and she was through the 60 years of our marriage and she was always telling me, you know, you've got to do something about your weight because, you know, it's a life threat. We all know you don't see many 300-pound, 85-year-old men walking around because they don't survive. So seeing myself so gigantic, I went to a wonderful place that existed in North Carolina, part of the Duke schools. It was the Duke Fitness Center. And it wasn't really a spa. It wasn't like you go there and get pampered and get massages and stuff.

26:18It's more like going to college and taking your major in health so that you're taking courses in nutrition, in psychology. There's a lot of psychological reasons why you might be obese. Your culture, your family, what your traditional food is of your, in my case, I'm Italian-American, so there's a lot of pasta and pizza. It was a fabulous experience. I was there almost four months and had a very interesting system. You learn a lot about the different food groups and what they contribute and the balance between them. And then you sort of decide what your caloric intake is going to be. You yourself say, well, I'm going to live on 2 ,000 calories or 1 ,800 calories, whatever it is.

27:10And you make your own menu a week before, and you say, I'm going to have, you see the options and you make your menu and then you hand it in. And when you hand it in the next week, when you go for your meals, because you all eat together with the other people in the program, they give you exactly what you had specified. And you can't say, well, give me a little bit more of that or a little of this. And instead, you can't fudge with it. You did it and you have to stick to it. And so you become accustomed to what you have decided is the sensible. and you have advice. I mean, you have a balance of elements.

27:49And basically, you start, you know, at first you lose a lot of weight because most of it's water. And then you start traditionally losing weight. And then over what was four months, I lost about 45 pounds and continued. And this is also in gahoots with an exercise. So part of the day you do exercise part of the day. you go to classes part of the day. The psychological aspects are very interesting because there's some logic of why you might keep yourself overweight that you never may have considered. There were people there who were over 400 pounds, and it was so heartbreaking because you know that they're not going to live, and they're prisoners of this addiction to eating.