From The Archive: Laura Dern

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2:11We have good news. Ruthie's Table 4 is launching on YouTube, where you'll find full episodes, clips, and some of my favorite moments from the series. Guests like Cate Blanchett, Francis Ford Coppola, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana, and many, many more. To watch, go to youtube.com slash at symbol Ruthie's Table 4 pod. I can't wait to see you there. You are listening to Ruthie's Table 4 in partnership with Montclair. Thinking about Laura Dern coming here today, I found myself scrolling through three years of text messages. It's kind of a story about making plans to meet, our excitement at the thought of seeing each other in L.A.

2:56or London, choosing restaurants to go to, and even sending photographs of a fundraiser I gave for Nancy Pelosi. As usual, most of our ideas were aspirational, adapting around our close families, movies, cooking, travel. Laura is loved by me and many others. She's fun, she's curious, she's smart. She hangs with the crew on set, passionate about her children, Jaya and Ellery. She has strong memories of her grandmother and describes her parents as heroes. Laura fights for human rights, social values, and is a bold and brave spokesperson for women in the film industry. Directors and writers consider her first when making a movie.

3:39Renzo Piano, the architect for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in L.A., remembers that as a trustee, she was a rigorous and remarkable client. He asked me to give her a hug. Laura Dern loves to eat, and she cares about food and the politics of feeding people safely and sustainably. Today, we're here in the River Cafe to talk about all this and more. And after I give her the hug from Renzo and another one from me, that's what we're going to do. So, tell me about your cooking with Sean. First of all, just being in the kitchen here was incredible. And I was thinking about tracking my memories over the last probably seven years of making movies here in London.

4:28My memories with my collaborators, my great memories are here at the River Cafe. This is where we plot and create and invent and over the course of a meal that's always remembered. So then I was on set with Noah Baumbach this week, and we'd had dinner here together, the two of us talking about what it's feeling like and how it feels different for him than the last movies in his life. And as we're describing it, we're describing like, oh, my God, wasn't that wine incredible? Can you believe that salad? What was the artichoke? How did she make that artichoke? And we're just, you know, it becomes this organic part of memory, food and art.

5:18And you've created this sustainable, inventive place for art and artists that is forever seeped in my memory. So already it's such a gift and it means so much. And now our friendship, which is growing and evolving and we're getting finally getting time together. But also being in the kitchen and watching a great chef's kitchen and it feels rigorous and stressful. I walk away from it saying, that's such a terrifying space. And there's something even cold about it. And the minute you walk in, first of all, the warmth of the kitchen as part of the room, that the chef is not separate from the client.

6:05that we're all eating and creating and inventing this day together. That's what's so beautiful about the space you've created. And then Sean's energy is so beautiful. And that she wants to teach as much as she loves to cook is so amazing. And my son, we were sharing, Ellery has really, through the pandemic, discovered his love of cooking. And he always had that innate instinct. Even as a little boy, you know, putting something together, he knew how to kind of close his eyes and pick the right flavors for something. But now he cooks. And I was sharing with Sean. He said, you know, the only thing that I've ever experienced that feels like making music is making a meal.

6:54And to make a meal alongside other people is like when you're collaborating in the studio. You don't know what's going to happen or how we're going to invent together to create this same goal, this piece of art. But everyone has their unique rhythm. Hi, I'm Sean, and I'm making Potatoes Alporno with Sage with Laura Dern. The potatoes are done in the wood oven, but you don't need to have a wood oven in your house tonight. Okay, good. You might have one. No, I don't. I would. Oh, yeah. So this is your recipe that you've chosen, I believe. Yeah. And so it's just thinly sliced waxy potatoes. And then they've been tossed with garlic and sage and covered and cooked for about 45 minutes.

7:50And then just browned in an oven. It's really, really simple. And let's say traditional oven. What would you do? You just put it in 45 minutes. Yeah. So when you read the recipe, you'll see just slice the potatoes, garlic sage, cover it, and then you uncover it and brown it, and it will turn out like that, I promise you. And you'd only use the fresh sage leaves, right? Yeah, or you can use anything. It's thyme, rosemary, yeah. It's really nice with fish or meat, anything. It's so beautiful. This is my son's obsession also with upkeep. There's a beauty to the irregularity and there's a beauty to the shaving.

8:32And he was like when you have a true frittata in Spain. And he's like, Americans try to make it. And you never get the texture of it right. So there's still like a density, like al dente in pasta. Yes, exactly. And I wonder whether it's something to do with the potato. Because it's actually like a waxy potato. By the end of today, you'll know how to make that. You can impress your son. Okay. You know where you're going with it now. Okay, great. I'm going to attempt it. I think, like, when you get really good at cooking, I think you don't need to cook with your eyes. You cook it with other senses.

9:09I reckon you can cook with your ears because you can hear how it's cooking, can't you? And then you can obviously smell, and you've just got it, like, somewhere in your intuition. Yeah, that's so beautiful. I wonder what your son thinks. I love it. I'll have to ask him because that's very musical. Because I really think you don't need your eyes. You know when you're, like, frying garlic or something? Yeah. And when it goes into oil, it's sort of making a noise. But as it browns, it starts to change in the sound. I reckon you can tell when it's brown just by the sound. Oh, that's so beautiful. Yeah, I'm really into it.

9:38I'm really into it. Can you put it without your eyes? Yes, I reckon you can. That's amazing. Oh, I love that. If he wants to come and have a look around the kitchen anytime. Oh, my God, I have to bring in it. It would be incredible. You can do a day with us. Are you kidding? Yeah, no. Oh, my God, that would be amazing. We can talk about... Should we read the recipe first? Why don't you read the recipe? Okay, so the recipe is potato al forno, four tablespoons of olive oil, four garlic cloves peeled and finely sliced, 20 sage leaves. We spoke a lot about the sage because the sage is beautiful now that spring is here.

10:20850 grams rosevale or similar yellow waxy potatoes peels. sea salt and freshly ground pepper. You preheat the oven to 190 degrees. You heat the oil in a frying pan, stir in the garlic. Slice each potato lengthways down the middle so that you are left with two thick slices. Place in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Toss together with olive oil and sage, put in a baking dish, cover with foil, and you cook in the oven for 40 minutes. About 20 minutes before the end of cooking, remove the foil so that the surface of the potatoes become brown. Now, the sage looked so fresh, which I think is a key, and she was saying these amazing waxy potatoes are from Italy, and I don't even know how I find those waxy potatoes in California or what they translate as.

11:24I can't answer that, but we can find them. You can find great potatoes. I mean, the extreme for potatoes was when I went to Peru. You just see all these, you know, different, different, different potatoes. But I bet if we went to a market in LA, we could find the right potatoes. We'll give you a Roosevelt potato to take home and you can show it to the Amazing. Amazing. We'll fry two potatoes. But I also was so touched, especially because I said I want to make it for Ellery, by not only the lengthways, but the beauty of irregularity that Ellery doesn't like the precise look of things. It's even like in filmmaking, something being off-center, you know, that there's something so beautiful about the way it looks.

12:14And I was really touched by that. And he always comments on that, like when we've been in Spain and you have a frittata and the potatoes, the density, like he was comparing it to al dente and pasta, like there's a little bite to them and they can be very, potatoes can be very mushy. Well, that's why I think the Roosevelt are, when she said waxy, they're not flowery. When you have a baked potato with sour cream or whatever you have with it, you want it to be quite flowery. And if you have mashed potatoes, you want them not to be waxy. But these hold their shape and they kind of are defined. And Ellery sounds better and better.

12:52Where is he? I know. We've got to get him over here. If he's concerned about the way the potatoes are sliced and I want him here tomorrow. Is Ellery, he's a musician? He's a musician, yeah. What does he do? guitarist, singer-songwriter, and now he's just started producing his first record for an amazing artist, a female singer-songwriter. And so I think sound and instinct is everything, you know? It's really, yeah, it's beautiful. But over food, talking over food, food and sharing a meal and creating also really happens together, doesn't it? So much. I was just saying to a girlfriend, she was like, what is the thing that makes you know?

13:32And I said, if anyone mistreated a waiter, I could never. It's a deal breaker. Oh yeah. A million percent. Yeah. We're pretty lucky in the restaurant that people are really nice. Also being raised between Los Angeles and New York. Yeah. I was raised by actor parents and most waiters are often actors in Los Angeles and New York or musicians. And so their respect at the presentation of the specials, I was taught that, you know, not only the focus and regard, but actually honoring their performance of the specials as high art. And so the performance of specials was given deep and high regard. It takes a long time.

14:19A friend of mine had their two children who were like 8 and 10. We were all having, they were journalists, we were all having lunch in a restaurant. And his daughter turned to him and said, blue, daddy. And then the son later on said, brown. And I said, what are they doing? He said, oh, we've taught them to learn the color of the eyes of the person who's waiting on their table so that they look at them. And I thought that was really a nice way of doing it, that they just met somebody in the eyes and said, brown, blue, blue, brown. That's amazing. It was nice. Yeah. Let's go back, okay, because we've talked about your son.

14:59We haven't talked about your daughter. Is she interested in food? She is like me. We love food and we appreciate food. And she is a fierce young activist. So she definitely cares deeply about sustainability and the politics of food, particularly in the U.S. And so we have a lot of conversations about where the food is coming from, carbon emissions, how to support it, regenerative farming, the soil itself. And she was a really beautiful supporter of a series of films. And I've been a producer on the most recent, which is Kiss the Ground and now a film we made, Common Ground, which is sort of the sequel to that about regenerative farming.

15:45And so she's learned a lot about the question of overtilling and pesticides and big food industry, the industry of it. And obviously the laws in the UK and EU are very different than in the US, in which chemicals are somehow God in the US, which is tragic and hopefully changing more and more with independent farmers. And so she is deeply interested in it, which is really beautiful.

16:19Did you know the River Cafe has a shop? It's full of our favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks, linen napkins, kitchenware, tote bags with our signatures, glasses from Venice, chocolates from Turin. You can find us right next door to the River Cafe in London or online at shoptherivercafe.co.uk.

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17:31If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping or restocking fees. Every penny back. Upgrade now at washablesofas.com. Offers are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. I'm a grandmother now, and I think there is something about wanting to cook for your grandchildren in a way that you were maybe as a working mother not able to do or to do enough. And tell me about the role that your grandmother played in your childhood. My mom being a single parent when my parents divorced and a working actress because of travel, my grandmother raised me when she was gone working.

18:15So majority of my time was with my grandmother, Mary, who's from Alabama, and she gave birth to my mom in Mississippi. And so the roots of my family are so tied to food and tradition in the South. Southern cooking is the region, isn't it? When we think about France and Italy and Britain having, you know, the north of France has a very different cuisine from the south of France. And Piemonte has a very different cuisine from Sicily. And then you think about American food and you think, well, is the food of Vermont really different from the food of Ohio? But the food actually of the south has such a strong identity.

19:00So strong. And what's beautiful is you watch the DNA of those traditions and where they came from. Just like in the Great Lakes, you know, a very Scandinavian-focused American cuisine. And in the South, I mean, particularly in New Orleans, obviously there's so much French influence. But there's also the influence of the American farmer. And what was incredible was in lower-income families, the food was simpler and from the land that you had. But my grandmother was getting what she could from her fellow friends and farms locally. Did she move to L.A. to take care of you? Yeah. Oh, she did? Yeah.

19:45So it was very based in broad beans, kidney beans, okra, collard greens, rice. And, you know, that was sort of the staple of your meal. But when she was in the South, especially when they were on the farm, the major meal of the day was breakfast, which was so wild. They would have like really like an early morning breakfast and then go out and work in the fields and then come back and have this huge breakfast at like 10 in the morning because they'd already been working since 4 a.m. And I remember as a little girl when I would go visit my grandfather in Mississippi, and at 10 a.m., it was cornbread and eggs and bacon and grits and collards and a coconut cake.

20:40And a cake. A coconut cake for breakfast with your coffee. But would this be weekdays as well or every day? For them, every day. But the Los Angeles version is like Sunday breakfast was like a big thing. Was your father in the kitchen? Never. Although my mom just told me that when they were first together in New York, he would cook on Sundays for all the unemployed actors and do like a big pasta, spaghetti and meatballs, or lamb chops, or some kind of Sunday meal to help feed the other actors. And whoever was working would feed everybody. My father was raised in Chicago with a very influential and wealthy family.

21:28Your grandfather. Kind of aristocratic family. Was he the husband of your grandmother who came to look after you or a different side? No, my dad's side. The Dern side. Yeah, the Dern McLeish side. And it was Secretary of War under FDR, Polit laureate of the U.S. Was that Archibald McLeish? Yeah. No. Yeah. Now, how are you related to Archibald McLeish? That's my dad's uncle. Archibald McLeish was the poet laureate under FDR, while his grandfather on his father's side, George Dern, was secretary of war under FDR. So, war and a poet. Eleanor Roosevelt, his godmother. Who was? Eleanor. I mean, I've lost now.

22:07It was my dad's godmother. Bruce Stewart's godmother was Eleanor Roosevelt? But in that family, no one cooks. the kitchen. You have someone cooking. And so he didn't grow up with it at all, but he loved it. I was saying if you don't have any money, then probably you have to learn to cook if you want to eat well. But if you do, then there are probably quite a lot of men and women who never went into a kitchen. And also my mom tells so many stories of literally hungry actors in New York City. My mom came to New York with$20 in her pocket and a little cardboard suitcase to become an actress from a tiny town in Mississippi, knowing no one.

22:45And she said, you know, you used to go in and if you ordered a beer, they would suggest, you know, order a beer because it'll fill your stomach and the bartender would give them bread and butter. But coming out of this family where your grandmother cooked for you, where your mother cared about food, your father came from a food culture, was there a time when you went off on your own and suddenly there was not that comfort food? Oh, a million percent. I mean, I started acting at 11, and I was on location by myself at 16 on. And working on movies meant eating on the run and eating poorly and eating in small towns everywhere.

23:35And so it became what is provided to small-town America, which was fast food eating, tragically. This was in what year? Starting in the late 70s. And I only discovered the gift of the connection between eating beautifully and food becoming a part of my artistic experience in the last decade because of heroes like you. Would you think that you could work or act or do what you do better if you actually had healthy food on a film set? Or do you think it doesn't matter? Well, there are heroes in this movement. And I mean, in music, I am so impressed. Thanks to Maggie, Billie Eilish's mom, who is working so hard in terms of how to feed crew on music productions and touring.

24:34And there is a new model that a lot of incredible companies that are looking at zero waste are looking at sustainable models for catering. It's shifting. And so we're trying to figure out on film production how to do that more and more. Cate Blanchett cares so deeply about this as well. We've been having conversations about, you know, making sure there is a model that production follows more and more. I know that Wes Anderson, when he did a podcast, and his dream, and there are a few directors who would say not to stop at all, that sitting down to a meal, let's do that at the end, we'll all go out to dinner, we'll do this.

25:16But he tried it. He tried giving everyone soup. And, of course, there was a rebellion, especially amongst the crew, saying we can't do the lighting, the this, the that, on a bowl of soup. And it's deeply possible I've seen it done here, And I've seen it done in Italy when I've worked and you're not taking a lunch. So as people are free, you're feeding that group of people when camera's taking a break, when the actors are taking a break, so that you have a shorter day so that everybody has the time to be with their family. Yeah. And then you have time for a meal with your family or your collaborators, which I think works beautifully.

26:00I mean, I've worked on a couple productions now where there's a certain amount of meat and it's on order. So the day before, if you're someone who wants a meal that involves meat, you're pre-ordering. So you're not wasting that day of food. And then also working with local communities so that you're taking the food and giving it to the community. And there's no waste because the waste is shocking.

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27:15Plus, our pet friendly stain resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years. Don't compromise quality for price. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your living space today with no risk returns and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Get up to 60 % off plus free shipping and free returns. Shop now at washablesofas.com. Authors are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. What was it like with David Lynch? Because you talk about him a lot and you've worked with him a lot. What was food-wise? What was David's? What is David? Food really matters. It matters to him, doesn't it?

27:49Yeah, it matters to him, and sharing a meal matters to him. And from the first time I worked with him, which was on Blue Velvet, I was 17. And those meals are some of my favorite memories, which was at night we go and we eat together. We find a couple of chefs in that town that become friends. They know what we love, and we learn what they make. And at the end of the day, we'd always have a meal together. What about food in movies? When you do a food scene, are there food scenes that you remember? Yeah, the one I remember the most was on this experimental film, Inland Empire, that we made some of that movie literally just the two of us.

28:34And we shot several days in Paris. You and David Lynch. Yeah. Inland Empire is this radical journey movie. I think it's more of a meditation than a linear film. And it was an amazing experience. We shot over almost three years. Three years? Yeah. And he wanted to make a film so that everyone could be inspired to make a movie. He's like, if you're 17 years old and you're in Phoenix, Arizona, and you've got your grandparents' Sony camcorder, you pick that up and you make a movie. And now you can do it with your iPhone. But we did a scene in a hotel room in Paris, and it was this very long monologue, me on a phone call.