From The Archive: Keira Knightley & James Righton

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1:34You are listening to Ruthie's Table 4 in partnership with Montclair.

1:41One of the many things I love about cooking is collaboration. Sourcing, prepping, presenting, delighting, and healing each other with the food we choose to eat or to cook. Ask any of the friends of Keira Knightley and James Ryden, as I did, or people have worked with them, as I did, and they talk of them as almost one person. How they parent their children, Edie and Delilah, bringing music and acting into their home, immersing themselves in the communities they live in, and most appealing to me, investing a large amount of time in deciding what and where they're all going to eat. Kira and James love, and they are loved.

2:22We've seen Kira's jewels, Bendy Like Beckham, Elizabeth Bennett, Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenna, Collette. We've listened to James as a keyboardist of indie rave sensation, The Klaxons. He's now a solo artist working in TV, film, theater, recently helping Benny and Bjorn create ABBA Voyage. Two worlds joining together, music and theater. I last saw Kira and James a few months ago in the River Cafe with our close friends Erdem and Joseph. after an evening of non-stop talking, how to raise children in a tumultuous world, the movies we've been watching and above all, where and what we've been eating.

3:01We vowed to meet soon. Schedules, families, work and travel got in the way. But here we are on a Monday morning in the River Cafe, three friends together. Now that's the best collaboration. Oh, good. I mean, how do we speak after that? So we do talk a lot about food, but you did choose of all the recipes in all 12 cookbooks. Spaghetti a la vongole, and Imogen is here to bring us the recipe. Did you make it, Imogen? Do you want to just tell us about this? What do we have here? We've got fresh taglarini, which has just been made now with eggs and flour and semolina, and the clams, the vongole is from Cornwall, very fresh.

3:45and this is one of my absolute favourite dishes. It's finished off with butter and our lovely olive oil and it's got a little bit of lemon and it's cooked with fiano white wine. Yum. Now, can I ask everybody, if you've got the vongole, you're the professional, do you use the shell to take the clams out or do you just get it with the fork? Yeah, I mean, they normally sort of fall out as you cook them. That's delicious. Wow. Thank you. They're so sweet, the clams. Yeah, they're gorgeous, aren't they? Initially, we cook them with fresh chili parsley stalks, which are really sweet. And then once you've got them coated in the lovely olive oil, we finish it with the fiano white wine and just let them steam open.

4:32Oh, God. They always say in Italy, you know, take the pasta out of the cupboard and then decide what sauce you're going to have with it because they're very clear about different sauces. and also but it works so well and then we just love it with the tag and so we've broken the rules a few times there's so many rules to break but it's not actually then you find out it's not breaking a rule you know because spaghetti vangole comes from the south and so you know butter is really no it's the north so you know but it just makes that sauce a bit richer doesn't it all right let's read the recipe then so we have the recipe no I'm going to do the list of things and then you're going to read the difficult bit okay I find recipes one of the most, with dyslexia, that it all bounces.

5:18That's why I don't cook. Okay. Spaghetti a la vongole for six. 75 grams butter. Extra virgin olive oil. Two garlic cloves, peeled and chopped. One dried red chilli, crushed. One kilogram, small clams, washed. Half a bunch, fresh, flat, leaf parsley. Picked and chopped. 250 millilitres vermentino wine, 400 grams, dried spaghetti. Check over the clams and discard any that are not closed. Place half the butter in a wide pan with two tablespoons of olive oil, the garlic and chili. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Fry for a minute and add the clams and parsley and toss over the heat. Add the wine and cover with a lid.

6:05Cook for about five minutes, shaking the pan from time to time. Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling water until al dente. When the clams are open, discard any that remain closed. Mix them with the drained spaghetti and toss in the remaining butter. Serve. There you go. There you go. Beautifully read. Just like that. Beautiful. So, growing up in your house, what was food like? Did you sit down? She was? Yes. Was she a full-time mother? No, she's a writer. Yeah. So, she's a writer. My dad's an actor. But my mom was the cook. And it was very 70s. We were not allowed sugar. It was very, like, brown ricey.

6:46But it was very, very good. Mum's bastard pasta sauce. He was very... When he's gone for his, like, you go for your purest moments and you go very anti my mother's bastard pasta sauces. It's delicious. But it's delicious. It's delicious. Yeah, yeah. It's delicious. What do you love about it? What is it? It's everything that I wouldn't do. That's why I love it. Onions and garlic. What's in it? Yeah, what's in it? Like, literally everything. Me and my brother ate everything. There were roast chickens, there was fish, there was fish cakes, there was, I remember she made a green sauce with fish cakes.

7:15But we had a very tiny kitchen, so you could never cook with her. But it meant that I think for her, the private time was the cooking time. So I never learnt to cook from her, because you couldn't both be in the kitchen cooking. Did you cook with Europe? No, no, I was a different kind of, I grew up with my dad, who had a little kind of business that he ran at the same time. And so I grew up on, you'll probably kill me for saying this, but it was Marks and Spencer's Carbonara ready meals in the microwave. Fair enough. Which is, you know... But I have to say, he makes one of the best shepherd's pie.

7:46Incredible shepherd's pie. Every time we go back, I ask for his shepherd's pie because it's sensational. It's really good. It's really great. But my nan would cook for me a lot. She was kind of a real old school, lots of lard, I imagine. Was she the mother of your father? No, no, my mother's mother. Your mother's mother. But it was a lot of kind of sausage rolls and that kind of British kind of pastry. Where were they from? What area? Stratford-upon-Avon. Right. And so was this a kind of cooking that she'd grown up with, do you think? I think so, yeah. Lots of pastries, lots of cakes, sausage rolls, cheese on toast was the big thing.

8:16Cutting the crust off the cheese on toast. The whitest of white bread with cheddar. It was amazing, though. I still kind of feel, I still miss that. I still don't know how she made that cheese on toast taste. Did she ever let you go in the kitchen? Yeah, we could just hang out there. But she didn't. I have to say, when we first met, you've always made an amazing roast. And that was her. She made amazing roast dinners, Yorkshire puddings, you know, classic. They were always incredible. And I had a job where I worked on a boat on the River Avon, so I'd be a boat boy. And these mini cruise ships that do these half-hour tours of the River Avon.

8:51And every time I'd always go under a bridge, she'd be at the top with these sausage rolls in a little kind of Tupperware, and she'd drop them, and I'd have to catch them. And with my mum, I just remember being this kind of, I mean, she's amazing, my mum. But a lot of my food phobias stem from kind of her slightly chaotic but wonderful kind of kitchen. What was it like? There were a lot of kind of jars of things, like Hellmansey jars that were kind of oozing. He has condiment issues. Yeah, massive condiment issues. This is one of the main reasons I like the River Cafe is there's no condiments. In America, I think I heard the word condiments.

9:32Well, we just had probably ketchup and mustard were just made courses. They're condiments. They would be condiments that are out. Anything, mayonnaise, any A's. So mayonnaise, mayonnaise. So you don't like. Anything with A's at the end of it. Mustard, can't stand it. Ketchup, butter. Butter? There was a what? No, butter you'll have when it's melted, but not if it's a solid form. Which makes sense because it can't get you. And when did you begin having condom issues? Like I said, I think it was maybe because I don't want to blame my mum for it. Did she have a refrigerator? Yeah, but it was just...

10:08Did she put it in the refrigerator? Yeah, but I don't, you know, it was kind of like that Hellmansey mustard thing and it was oozing out. Hellmansey, it's mayonnaise. Yeah, mayonnaise, that one. That one. All the same. I band them all together in this. But so this was when we first got together and I really found out about the issues and I knew that it was serious when he very seriously turned around to me and said, you know, if you want to keep mayonnaise in the fridge, you can. And I was like, wow. You knew it was the one. Wow, that was it. Yeah, I get it with the mayonnaise and the ketchup and the mustard and all that.

10:46But it's interesting that you have butter. It is a shame. Yeah, but this is it as well. like a ketchup, you know when you see on a table, like mayonnaise that's had some ketchup in it and it's that swirl of like... No, but this is your dad. Your dad, you've got a big, there's a butter and jam issue, which I found out again when I stayed with his dad. And like, you must, now maybe you agree with this, but you must never use the same knife. The butter and the jam must never meet. Oh, yeah, probably. I'd say that's logical. Yeah, logical. You see, I don't have my issue. Thank you. I don't have the issue.

11:19I never noticed. I've got one knife maybe I can I don't know I would never be disproving of it at all you can do anything you want well no I've now got I've got big I now really I'm very careful about the separate do you think you could ever fall in love with somebody who didn't care about food no no no no and did you ever go out to restaurants yeah we did I remember one of my best my favourite Christmases was dad took us to the local Chinese for Christmas dinner and it was just dark did you go out to restaurants as a child? We had the local Indian restaurant which I loved and then the local Chinese restaurant which I remember the name of it was called Walk This Way I always thought it was brilliant yeah it was amazing well done by so we do I mean it was definitely like treats but we'd go once a week to the Indian restaurant which I loved it's still a family thing isn't it I mean you guys whenever I'm there it's an Indian takeaway all the way is it?

12:12yeah yeah 100 % yeah and I remember I have a love of spicy food a deep love of spicy food but it was all from being 10 and being there with my brother who is five years older and his friend and them daring me to eat a spicy curry. And me just like being, I'm going to eat this. And just sweating, but eating it. And every week after that, I'd go for the spiciest thing. You still do? I mean, I love it. It's like the crazy spice. I do love it. You do love it? I do love it.

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13:16What was it like when you left? How old were you when you left home? By the time I was 16, I was working away a lot, and then 18, I was properly out. Did you know that you wanted to act? I'd wanted to act from the age of three, and my mum and dad had not let me because they did not want a child actress in the family. Were they involved in theatre? Yeah, so one's a writer, one's an actor. and they didn't want me doing it at all because they wanted me to be a kid, you know, I think. But I was absolutely desperate and then finally the school said, well, look, she can't read at all and we need a carrot to dangle in front of us so do you know, is there something that she wants?

13:54And they said, well, she wants an agent. They said, no, I want an agent because they always had agents calling and I remember answering things, you know, we had a landlord and it would be, it's your mum's agent, can I speak to her? So I think it was like, well, if you've got an agent, why don't I have an agent? This is so unfair. But also I'd be with them, you know, a lot backstage at theatres. So my dad, if they didn't have any childcare, then I'd be sitting in his dressing room and he'd go on stage, you know. I mean, and that was how it was. So I wanted to be a part of that. Anyway, so they said, right, there's your carrot.

14:25And it was always, if you read, if your grades go up, you're allowed to keep on acting. But if they go down, then it stops. It did go up, though. It did go up. It was a carrot. Yeah, it worked. You memorised it, didn't you? You memorised a lot of... Well, yeah, this is the thing. So it's still sight reading I find really hard. It really bounces. But I listen to it again. I mean, basically I record it and listen to it and listen to it and listen to it, and that's how I learn it. But now we have a dyslexic kid, and she's doing the same thing. Her memory is absolutely amazing. She'll look at books.

14:53She'll have memorised the book, basically. Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. So you left home at what age then to be an actor? Well, 16. So were you living at home? So Bend It Like Beckham I did at 16, but I was living at home. But I really remember on that one, because we had a lot of Indian actors and their families would come and they brought food. Wow. And I remember Gurinder Chadha's family, she was the director, bringing this amazing Indian food. Did you have your own apartment? When did you have your own apartment? 18, I had my own apartment. What was that like? You know, I was doing quite well, so it was very nice.

15:28Yeah, yeah. A really nice apartment. Yeah, and I lived with my brother and his then girlfriend and she was a great cook and we had a lot of Indian takeaways. Oh, okay. Back to Indian takeaways. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Would you entertain? Would you have friends over? We would. We had a lot because at that point I was ridiculously famous and I couldn't get outside. And so the only way to see people was to have them round at my apartment. So we had big, yeah, big parties were always round at mine. When did you leave? So at 18 I went to uni in Cardiff and then I spent a year in Madrid, which was a kind of fun year.

16:04After graduation? Yeah, and then I moved to London. Well, tell me about Madrid. What was that like? What was food like in Madrid? For me, it was like, I get this beer and then I get free food with it. This is amazing. I'm just going to go where that is. Cheese and ham as well. Cheese and ham. Cheese and ham. That's what you like. You know, pretty minimal condiments, you know. I can deal with this. So I went there for a year and taught English, which was really fun. And just ate. Were you playing music at that point? Played music since I was a kid. I think I was 10 or 11 at primary school. There was this band at primary school, like the other kids in my year, who were the coolest kids.

16:39They were just amazing. They were into Nirvana. This was just, at the time, I think Kirk Mayne just died, basically. And my dad is a brilliant musician. Oh, is he? Yeah, he studied. He got a scholarship at Durham, clarinet, piano, guitar. He just plays everything. So you had a lot of music in the house. Yeah, always. Yeah. And I remember in the house, being in my dad's car, just listening to The Stranglers and Golden Brown. and it was just music always. And so then I was away, you know, and then at uni and in Madrid, I just kind of made music on my own. But, yeah, it was just always something I wanted to do.

17:10So Madrid was exposure to food, to tapas, to... Yeah. Did you ever live in a foreign country? Were you when you were... Not for as long as a year. We were always on set. I mean, I was always on set, so it's sort of... But, like, early on, Rome and, I mean, America a lot and the Caribbean a lot. I think catering on film sets is the hardest thing to do because you've got to be there so insanely early. And then often we do these things called running lunches, which basically means that you have to have all the food ready for like this three-hour period where it just sits there and you grab it. So it's an incredibly difficult kind of thing.

17:45But I don't think that you get a love of food from it. Although there was the amazing guy, do you remember? Run it through the garden. Run it through the garden. This guy is great. In America, they famously have much better catering. And, you know, there's just more. So they always had, like, a guy that would do, like, an omelette stand or something. You know, like, he'd be the guy making the omelette. And he had this thing, if you wanted, like, vegetables in it, and he'd say, do you want it run through the garden? That was his thing, his line. I always remember that. That was the best line. Do you want it run through the garden?

18:12Yeah, run it through the garden. But it's really hard. And then break it for lunch. And then you go back. You go back. And you're always slower when you go back. Are you? Yeah, yeah, much slower. That's the word of music. You shouldn't do a take. You should always do it on an empty stomach. What? A vocal take, any takes as a band. Yeah, yeah. You don't want to eat and then do a gig. You know what I mean? You'd be full. No one likes burping on the mark. I mean, no one's going to appreciate that. So you were in Madrid, and then you came back. Yeah, and then I started this, I was in this band. Oh, yeah, let's talk about that.

18:40So we did that for, I started that in 2005. And you were touring a lot. Touring a lot for 10 years. All over. Everywhere. Asia? Asia, everywhere. Australia. And what did that feel like food-wise? Unbelievable. That was my favourite bit about touring, was to go to... He's an amazing traveller. No, but you are. I do love it. It's a skill. So he used to be in the band, and we'd get on the tour bus. So you'd only ever have, what, a couple of hours in each place to do things. And everybody else would sort of stay, and they'd be on their computers, or they'd be watching a film. And he has researched the top things to do in the city, and the top places to eat in the city.

19:18And he's like, right, in three hours, we can hit this, and we can get that, and we can get that. Yeah, it was amazing. And his band called it Fear Tours because you never quite knew if you were going to die. We almost did die in Buenos Aires. Oh, do you know why? I didn't know this, but I was told there's a really good steak place near La Boca in Buenos Aires. So I convinced the band to all follow me on this magical mystery tour to the restaurant. I didn't know La Boca is quite a heavy area of Buenos Aires. We were all dressed like Duran Duran or something with our cameras out. And then from out of nowhere, some guy came over and whacked our drummer with something and his camera went flying.

19:56And we ended up in a police car going around. Actually, a police escort to the restaurant. But this happens quite a lot with him. You do end up in police cars. He's had our two-year-old in a police car as well. What happened five minutes before you went into the police car with your two-year-old? Well, it's quite embarrassing, this one. But I was in... Can I just say, I was working in Boston. He's looking at the six-year-old we put in school. It was COVID. It wasn't the best. But anyway, so he's with the two-year-old. Winter in Boston. Winter in Boston. Very cold. Yeah, cold. I'm on set and all I get is I get an assistant coming here going, don't worry, but James and Delilah are in a police car.

20:34And I was like, why? Why are James and Delilah in the police car? They were fine. They were like, we're all good. Well, basically, I'd heard in Boston that there was this place that did pizza. Pizza. It opens at like 8am and the minute it sells out of the pizza, it shuts. But it sells out by 10am. But by 10am, so I was like, okay, Delilah, our youngest, who's then one, I said, you know, today, the daddy adventure, we're going to go get pizza. So we drive at like 7am in the snow to this Italian district of Boston. It's like minus 20. Wrap her up. We get out the car. It's like a blizzard. storm into this pizza place order a couple of slices of cheese pizza we sit there, we have a lovely slice of pizza for breakfast then I get out of the restaurant or the pizza place and I walk down left like this, walk down there's no car, walk down the other way back the other, there's no car there go back into the restaurant but what I love is what he leaves out, he's very vocal right, so there wouldn't have just been oh I'm chilled out because I can't find the car But it's more like, I'm with my two-year-old.

21:41It is for somebody's taking our car. Somebody's taking our car. Oh, you drove there in your car. Yeah, and then, you know, the police came. I went out, I saw a policeman. I said, look, I've had my car stolen. They said, all right, get in the car. So get in this car. And it's like plastic seats with the one-year-old. And we just, you know, so then, and they've got the Boston accent, the thick Irish, you know. And we drive out. We drive a little bit round the corner, just walk a little bit. and they've got the key and they're pressing. I didn't know you can press a button on a car remote and hear the beep.

22:13It was there. It hadn't been stolen. But our now four-year-old still goes, Dad, I do remember when we were in the back of the police car in Boston. Wonderful memories. Yeah. I was like, yes, yes. It was really fun.

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23:16Plus, they're earth-friendly and trusted by over 200 ,000 happy customers. It's time to upgrade to a stress-free, mess-proof sofa. Visit washablesofas.com today and save. That's washablesofas.com. Offers are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. Can I just very simply ask you how you met? Where did we meet? We met at Dew Street Townhouse in London, which was, okay, so that week my agent said to me, I've had this dream, I was single, I've had a dream that you're meeting your future husband this week. And I was like, oh, that's exciting. So I got invited out to loads of things. And I have to say I'd met a load of people that week.