From the Archive: David Beckham Special

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.

0:58We'll see you next time. at washablesofas.com. Authors are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. Welcome to River Cafe Table 4, a production of iHeartRadio and Atomize Studios. I'm sitting here in the River Cafe garden with David Beckham. He has just cooked an exquisite tagatelli with fresher rolls, butter, and parmesan. It's a bit much, really, as I don't go around scoring free kicks. I know David has a lot of friends, a lot of colleagues, and certainly a lot of fans. But when he comes to the River Cafe, it's with his family, Victoria and their four children, always sitting at table one, basking in family love, sharing food, and always having his favorite wine, Sassakaya.

1:50Thank you, David. You're welcome. Thank you, Ruthie. You were describing cooking as one of the great pleasures the other night. It's one of my biggest passions, you know, along with wine now. I love to cook. You know, I was in the kitchen the other day cooking for the kids and Victoria was like, can I help? What can I do? And I was like, honestly, sit down, have a vodka and tonic, relax, be with the kids. This is what I love to do. And I really relate to that because you kind of follow, there's a method, isn't there? But it's also creative and it's also you're doing it for your kids who you haven't seen all day and there's the anticipation.

2:26and I think that is something why you probably like to cook and I like to cook. It's just one of the main reasons why I love to cook because it's why I love Lego also, you know, because it relaxes me. You know, and I'm 47 years old and I still sit there on my own actually till 2, 3, 4 in the morning doing Lego because actually it relaxes me and it's the same cooking for the kids. I love to cook for my parents. I love to cook for my friends and I think that it's obviously come from my upbringing. Was your mother a cook? Who cooked with you? My mum cooked for me and my sisters every single night and I had hardworking parents, working class parents when my dad was out from six in the morning till seven in the evening.

3:09My mum was a hairdresser and still is a hairdresser. She used to spend her evenings obviously cooking for me and my sisters and then at about eight or nine o 'clock in the evening, some old ladies would arrive and she'd be doing their hair till 11 12 at night so yes my mom used to cook for us every evening every sunday lunch um and my grandma was exactly the same as well so that's really my childhood with my grandparents and my my granddad was jewish so every saturday when we turn up my gran would have this most amazing chicken noodle soup with the mozza meal yeah dumplings yeah matzo balls so i was like bought up that's what i was brought up on and the jelly deals one of the delights of being from the east end of london was pie mash and jelly deals and liquor that was what i was really brought up on it was it was the one treat that i used to go with my nan my granddad um we used to go down to chapel market there was the most amazing pie mash um shop there and we used to sit in there sawdust on the floor sat on, you know, wooden seats and eating our pie mash and jelly deals.

4:20What was in the pie? Actually, it's just mincemeat. It's just mincemeat. The pies are the most amazing pastry. And I always get them to turn them upside down on my plate. And then it's a big dollop of mash. And the mash is literally, there's hardly any butter in it. It's just salt and the potatoes. And then the liquor is this most amazing green sauce. It's made with parsley and stewed eels. And then I put some spicy vinegar over the top with a little bit of salt and lots of pepper. But the jellied eels are the thing that not many people that I know love the jellied eels. My gran used to like them stewed.

5:01I literally like them in the gelatin. So they come cut up in slices. So the eels are cut up and they come in this plastic pot. and I just pour vinegar and pepper on it and I have it at least once a week now. Many people that I talk to talk about the food of their parents, but the memory of their grandparents is really important to them. We used to go there every weekend because my dad's parents actually had passed away before we had all grown up. So we always used to spend weekends at my man and granddad's house, so my mum's mum and dad. And we used to turn up at their flats in London. And the first thing that I would do when I walked through the door in my gran's flat, I'd open the fridge.

5:51And there she'd have fresh strawberries. Every Saturday morning that we turned up, she'd have fresh strawberries and a big pot of sugar. It's interesting that you talk about that because my husband, Richard, designed a house which was a very strong root. from the park, through the garden, through the courtyard, into the house and into a garden. But my route, I always used to say, was from the courtyard into the house and into the fridge. My first stop was always at the fridge because, again, his mother always had food for us. Yeah, well, they had a very small flat. So as you walk in, literally the toilet was on your left and just a foot further was the fridge.

6:33So you open the fridge and there was, you know, the most amazing fresh strawberries every Saturday morning, every Saturday morning. Because my grandfather used to go to work at about 11 o 'clock in the morning. So what we do is we'd arrive really early, like nine o 'clock. My gran would have this thick, freshly cut bread. She'd make the most amazing sandwich. I'd sit and watch like the football on a Saturday morning before my gran had left. and then he'd go to work and then go and watch Spurs play. What did he do? He was in the print. So, yeah, he was in the print. And he worked up until he was 81, 82.

7:12He still went to work. And, yeah, he's an amazing man and he was a Tottenham fan. So he used to go and watch Tottenham in the afternoons. And that's when my gran and my mum used to take me down to Chapel Market and we used to go and have pie and mash. How old would you have been? Oh, my God. We went there from, as long as I can remember, I mean, two, three years old and up until they passed away. So your mother, that's interesting, that she worked all day. Yeah. Then she cooked for you at night, served for you, sat at the table and then worked again. Would she have done a weekly shop or would she stop at the market or how would she do all that, do you think?

7:55I mean, she'd do, she'd probably do a weekly shop, I'd say. But, you know, my mum, like I said, she'd drop us to school in the mornings. Then, you know, she'd do hairdressing throughout the day, pick us up from school, bring us home, cook us, you know, whatever we were going to eat that evening, which was either, she used to make the most amazing gammon and chips, which again, it's one of those things that I still have now. It was amazing gammon, fried egg, pineapple from a tin, coleslaw and chips. And it was one of my favorite meals. And she still cooks that for me now. So, yeah, that was one of the things that I used to love.

8:35When you left home and you no longer had your mother to cook, but you also had such a love for food and an understanding of the connection of food and the importance of sitting at a table. What was that like when you left that? I was actually quite excited because I left home when I was 15 years old to move up to Manchester. 15? When I was 15. Wow. And then I was in lodgings. So I was in lodgings for about four years and then I bought my first house. And actually I was quite excited about it because in all honesty, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with my mum, you know, helping her with the dinners.

9:14And then when she would do her hairdressing in the evenings, I used to make the cups of tea and bring the biscuits or the cake for all my mum's ladies that she was doing their hair. So I used to love that kind of thing. So getting my own house, having to cook for myself, actually, I was very excited about. Would you entertain? Would you cook for friends? I would entertain. I'd have a few friends around. You know, I did like to go out for dinner, but my favorite evenings were and still are, you know, cooking for the kids, cooking for friends. you know and especially when I have when I have like a lot of time you know pretty recently I was in isolation actually for five days because I'd just been to Italy so I came back and on one of the last days Victoria's parents had a party and I couldn't actually go to it so everyone was out the house and I actually secretly loved it so I literally had two most amazing cuts of meat and one was a t-bone and i had some english wagyu i poured one glass of the most amazing red wine that i treated myself to because i was on my own feeling sorry for myself looking forward to watching the football in the afternoon on my own i set the barbecue up and i think there's there's nothing better than when you have time to get everything right you have you know i had a nice tomato and onion or schlott salad and I literally had the meat and a glass of wine and it was the most amazing meal that I'd had for a long time so those are my perfect afternoons or evenings it was actually quite thick I don't like to brag but I cooked it to absolute perfection what's your idea of a perfect table well I'd been watching chef's table that morning and it gave me the idea of obviously doing you know the the the barbecue in the afternoon so i'd been watching the butcher there's an italian butcher on the chef's table so i put it on the grill cooked it for six or seven minutes either side and it was quite a thick piece um bit of salt bit of pepper and I like my meat.

11:29I like it rare, medium push, but rare, more rare. And it came out perfect and it was only me in the house, so I ate it all. I like it when it's, if it's thick enough, then you can get it really black on the outside. Yeah. Not black, but you're really, so there's that contrast. Yeah. If you think of the raw meat inside and the strong. So that's what it was like that day. So it was the perfect day. and I had a bottle of Italian Masetto, so I coravan'd it and poured a couple of glasses for myself, which was nice. Tell me, we've been talking about food. What do you feel about wine? You know, I'm at the end of the day, I'm from the east end of London, so really I only saw my mum and dad drinking either, you know, Blue Nun or Lambrisco, and that was as good as it really got.

12:17Really, yeah. So then when me and Victoria actually first started dating, we used to go to this restaurant in the Midland Hotel in Manchester called the French restaurant and it was very fancy and we used to go in there and we used to sit in the corner and we used to order the most expensive bottle of champagne and the most expensive bottle of wine not knowing what we were drinking we were just wanting to have a nice night out and know that we were drinking something great even though we had no idea what we were drinking and I think that was my first introduction into tasting a great wine one of the first things what it was remember i i want to say it was either a 62 or 67 um latour and that was my first introduction into tasting something that i thought was great even though i had no idea whether it was great or not i knew that i was tasting something special so at that point obviously I was still you know a professional player so I never really I was never a big drinker I used to have a glass of wine or you know every now and again but I never really drank throughout my career but then I really started loving wine when we first moved to LA and we used to go to Napa Valley a lot and I used to sit with people like bill harlan or ann colgan and i think that there's nothing better than actually sitting at a table with someone that knows what they're talking about and what they're drinking and what they're smelling and what they're tasting um annoyingly victoria is very good on that that is annoying it is annoying actually she does she has she can say this wine tastes of cigarette smoke yes and that's exactly what she can say and i'm like yeah it really does and i'm like i don't taste that but um no but uh annoyingly she's very good at that and uh she she'll never admit it she'll always say well david's the expert then then you know all of a sudden she'll come out with all that smell that tastes a little bit smoky and you know so yeah but you know i i love wine does it matter to you if you order a wine that you might not be happy with it um you know what i have i how does it make me feel actually i think it can make or break an evening in my opinion i really do think it does even though you know that you're going to get great food in the restaurant wherever you are for me if i have picked the wrong wine wrong glass of wine or the wrong bottle of wine i wouldn't say it ruins my evening but yeah it does ruin my evening and I get quite emotional about food and wine you know when I'm when I'm eating something great I want everyone to try it you know and that's unfortunately I'm married to someone that has eaten the same thing for the last 25 years since since I've met Victoria she she only eats you know grilled fish steamed vegetables she'll very rarely deviate away from there the only time that she's ever probably shared something that's been on my plate was actually when she was pregnant with harper do you remember and it was the most amazing thing it was it was my one of my favorite evenings i can't remember what it was but i know that she's not eating it since

15:51the river cafe cafe our all-day space and just steps away from the restaurant is now open in the morning an italian breakfast with cornetti ciambela and crostata from our pastry kitchen in the afternoon ice cream coupes and river cafe classic desserts we have sharing plates Salumi Misti, mozzarella, bruschetta, red and yellow peppers, vitello, tonado, and more. Come in the evening for cocktails with our resident pianist in the bar. No need to book. See you here.

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17:14That's why over 200 ,000 happy customers have made the switch. Upgrade your space today. Visit washablesofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washablesofas.com. 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. To be honest, I've been so lucky because in a way when I left Manchester and I had to leave Manchester United, I was obviously devastated at the time, but it really educated me in living in different countries, eating different foods, trying different things.

18:05And when I was playing in Italy for 11 months, I was on loan at AC Milan. So I'd train in the morning and in the afternoon, I decided to take a culinary course in Italian cuisine. And I absolutely loved it. So I did that for that. Was it a private lesson or was it in a class? I had a few private lessons and then it was in a class, but everybody was very, you know, focused on what they were all doing. So they weren't even bothered that I was obviously at the time it's a big deal to be playing for an Italian team so I did the culinary course because my kids favorite food is Italian so I wanted to perfect making the perfect ragu I wanted to perfect doing the perfect risotto I always had it in my head that doing a risotto making a risotto was difficult actually it turns out not to be that difficult so um what did they teach you about making a perfect risotto obviously the the stock is really most important and literally you're stood there for 20 minutes kind of making sure that you're keeping an eye on everything that's not going too dry that it's not going it's not got too much liquid in it and then obviously the ending is the part where everything comes together with the parmesan you know so that i i just loved that time because i got to perfect the perfect well i think It's the perfect ragu making fresh pasta from scratch and obviously the risotto.

19:35So that was one of the things that I loved about living in Italy. You know, and it's the one thing that I love about Italians and the Italian food and the culture, because for a start, it's all about family. It's all about food and the wine, of course. But whether you go into a small cafe on the side of the street or you're in the middle of Tuscany with an old Italian mama making the most amazing pasta. Everything that I ate and I have always eaten in Italy has always been astonishing. Everything. I always say when you say that it's family, I always tell the story that I was once in a room in a house with Richard and with his family in Tuscany.

20:20And I heard this huge argument going on downstairs in Italian. And I thought, oh no, what's going on? And so I kind of made my way downstairs. And there were two sisters. And they were in the kitchen. And they were having this unbelievable argument about whether or not with a papa pomodoro, which is a bread soup of just bread and tomatoes, one wanted to add a bit of water at the end and the other one didn't. And, you know, so it's not even village to village, family to family, region to region. It can be sister to sister, you know, that there's the right way to do it. And they care so much. They care so much.

20:55and even when they're not arguing, it sounds like they're arguing because they're so passionate about it.

21:04I hope we'll cook together more. They loved having you in the kitchen today. I loved being in the kitchen. It's good, isn't it? It's amazing. Yeah, so we'll plan that.

21:18OK, let's get the show on the road, shall we? David Beckham. So she's head chef, what are you? Everything, okay. Whatever you want me to be.

21:34Want a job? Beckham, want a job? I would love a job, I need a job at the moment actually, I'm not busy now. You need a job, we need a job. So I'm here today with Sean Wynne-Owen, the head chef in the River Cafe, and my friend David Beckham. And it's now 20 to 6 and people are coming in suit. So the two of you better get going. What are you gonna make? We are making tagliatelle. Are you happy with that chef? I'm more than happy with that. Chef David. Chef David is gonna cook this. I've been called worse. Okay.

22:10Give it a really good shake. Shake it, shake it. And a bit of parsley. What do you like cooking at home David? What do I like cooking at home? Well, to be honest, my kids are obsessed with Italian food. They love it. So, majority of the time, they get me to make like a ragu. Yeah. Because the kids love ragu. I could tell when you were shaking the pan that you weren't just a novice.

22:45Quite impressive. Well, you made it. Oh, yeah. Am I hired? Are we done? Is it hard to say? Yes, I think we could turn him into quite a useful chef, and he has done a cooking course. It transpires. Bon joe. In Milan. In Milan, I know. I'm really impressed by that, actually. So that was good. Now it's time to talk. Stop eating, and we'll talk. Can I take it with me? Yeah, you can finish. Why don't you sit down and eat it? I'll take it with me. You want to sit down and eat it? I'll take it with us. OK.

23:18we have an open kitchen and uh one of the great pleasures for me is being able to see the reaction of people eating you know whether they love it or they don't love it whether they share it or they don't share it whether they talk about it you know it's part of the whole joy of eating out and i love open kitchens you know i like the interaction that you can have with you know what's going on around you. You know, I like to see what the chefs are doing. I like to see what, what's being prepared. To be honest, I've been so lucky because I lived in Spain for four years. Then I moved to America. Then I spent 11 months in Italy and then I was back in America.

23:58And then I moved to Paris for six months. So I had all of this kind of education in, you know, living in different places, eating different foods, trying different things. You know, when I was living in In Paris, I was, again, Victoria and the kids, kids were going to school in London, so they obviously couldn't live there with me. They'd come out on the weekends. So, again, one of my favourite restaurants in the world is Lamy Louis. Yeah, I agree. I absolutely agree with you. It is literally, I would say it's probably one of my favourite restaurants in the world for atmosphere, food, enjoyment, everything about it.

24:40you know from the moment i walked in and you know all the waiters are dressed in those white jackets and whether you're wearing a bomber jacket or whether the most elegant lady walks in and the chanel coat they take your coat off they fold it up and they throw it above the head on the on the train carriage it's like a train carriage and my record for eating escargot is i've eaten 32 two escargotes at one dinner. To the listener, can I tell you, those are big escargot. I've had them many times. They're big and they come on trays of six or nine, I think. And they come and I was in there for about four hours with Victoria once and we had the most amazing wine and everything about that restaurant.

25:25And I used to go in there and I shouldn't have done because obviously I was a professional athlete and I tried to watch what I eat, but I just made sure I ran harder the next day so I used to go in there once a week they used to let me come in at first the service was at 7 30 I think it was in the evening that was no one was there at 7 30 either so I used to turn up at 7 and by the time the first people were coming through the door around quarter to eight eight eight o 'clock I was walking out so I used to do that once a week I used to go on my own I didn't care that I was on my own I just didn't drink the wine but I just sat there and I ate the most amazing food.

26:02I love it. And the pomfrit, the little potatoes and the potatoes. The bread and everything about it. It's just unbelievable. Creme fraiche at the end. They bring that tub of creme fraiche out and they just dollop it on the plate. The tartare-tas. The small strawberries. One of the high points of my career is you know the head waiter there, the one with the black hair. He's not called Louis, I can't remember his name. And he came to the River Cafe for lunch. Amazing. With his family, with his wife and his children and I was really such a it was such a moving experience for me to have them there so you actually had the experience of living in Milan in Milan Madrid and Madrid yeah so I lived in Madrid when I first moved to Spain I was 27 years old and I lived there for four years um and I became really obsessed by wherever I would live in the world I decided in my head okay this is where I'm going to be for the rest of my life.

27:01Because I had to look at it like that, because I wanted to throw myself into the culture, into the language, into the food, into everything that I was doing in that country. So Spain was a big, you know, food kind of family kind of culture. You know, for a start, I couldn't believe how long the lunches went on for. You know, we'd start lunch at two and still be sat there at seven and then they'd go for a sleep and then we'd come back and have dinner at 11 and I'd be like falling asleep at dinner but I loved everything about Spain you know from the jamón to the lomo to you know to everything that I ate in Spain I loved bácebes what's that it's like the it's the barnacles oh and you put them in uh hot boiling water only for not for long yeah uh and then you kind of twist the end off and it's like it's very chewy but very salty uh so they're called batheres um and uh yeah they're barnacles and they're very difficult to to get um literally the the guys tie themselves onto the side of these rocks they then wait for the waves to go out they go down get them and then come back up before the wave comes in So it's quite dangerous.

28:27And still now, every time that I go to Spain, every time that I go to Madrid, I always come back with a leg of jamon. Do you? Yeah. Always. It goes in the middle of the kitchen island and every time that the kids walk past, they slice a piece off. So, yeah.

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29:28Visit 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. But how was it being an athlete with a discipline? How did you marry your passion for food with the discipline of having to be absolutely fit for a game?

30:14Did food affect you? Did you eat a certain diet? To be honest, I was lucky. Food never really affected me. But I did, you know, as much as I am sat here saying, you know, the creme fraiche, the escargot, the, you know, everything that I've talked about, I still try to eat in the most healthy way. Because obviously being an athlete, I have to eat in the right way. But then I think the dietary requirements now for athletes, especially in football, have totally changed over the last 20 years. In what way? When I first joined Manchester United, you know, the canteen was all about having steak and chips and beans and then you'd have a jam roly-poly or you'd have a slice of chocolate cake.

30:56No, like after training. Okay. So you'd have a slice of chocolate cake with chocolate custard. But now it's totally different. What is it like now? Now it's totally different. Now, well, it depends where you play, what manager, you know, you're playing under. You know, there were certain managers that would only want us to eat boiled chicken, which is disgusting, but that's how they felt that we should be eating, you know, no ketchup. High protein. You know, and then you have the opposite. When I was living in Milan, I was kind of thinking, how am I going to be fitness wise because I'm going to be eating a lot of pasta, a lot of olive oil, a lot of, you know, whatever.

31:37but it was actually one of the fittest that I'd ever been when I was playing in Milan because I think the produce is so clean, it's so good. The quality of it was just incredible. So over the years, it's definitely changed for sportsmen. You know, I've been lucky that I could kind of eat whatever I wanted but I've always been careful knowing that I can't have a glass of wine four days before a game because I don't want it to affect anything that I'm doing at the weekends even though it was only a glass. You know, so I'd always be very disciplined on that. And do you think that athletes now are much more?

32:13Very. Yeah. I think that that's part of the culture now. I think if you start it early enough, then it becomes part of your life and part of your culture. It's what we try and do with our kids. You know, we try to educate them that, you know, if they eat the right things and drink the right things and look after themselves now, you know, at such a young age, then they'll continue it through their lives. and I think it's an important part of life. It's education, isn't it? And I guess I could ask you a question of George Best, couldn't I, about one of my great memories of the Parkinson, was it Parkinson?