From The Archive: Will Ferrell

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1:08Xfinity. Imagine that. When Will Ferrell said he'd be my guest on Ruthie's Table 4, I expected some laughs, some great stories, but not happy birthday in Swedish.

1:27I will live, I will live, I will not be able to live. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! You have to say hooray four times. When I tell people that I'm doing a podcast with Will, their faces light up. Everyone seems to love him. When they remember working with him, or of course watching him on screen in those classic comedies, Elf and Anchorman, and many more. We do have a mutual friend. Saturday Night Live creator and producer Lorne Michaels, but we first met last spring when I was invited to a lunch. Now walking into a lunch party late can be awkward. Conversations stop, chairs are adjusted, introductions made, but there I was seated next to Will and all was right with the world.

2:14He was here in London filming Barbie and I was just off to New York, but we promised to continue the conversation. How are you? I'm great. How are you doing? Well, you're not allowed to go to the River Cafe anymore without me being there. I know. So frustrating. We keep missing each other. All right. Where are you, by the way? Are you in your house? No, we're in one of the studios here in Hollywood. Well, would you like to read? Do you have it there, the recipe for? I do. So this is a recipe for white truffle tagliarini, not to be confused with tagliatelle, correct? Correct. Finer noodle. It serves four.

3:06And you need at least one 10-gram fresh white truffle. I guess you could have more. 250 grams of dried Italian-made tagliarini or fresh, rich egg pasta, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and 20 grams of unsalted butter. So what you're going to do is you're going to start by, you're going to clean the truffle. You don't want a dirty truffle, trust me. Brushing the surface to remove any sand that may be stuck in the crevices. You cool the tagliarina until al dente. Okay? I think you cook it rather than cool it. Oh, yeah, you cook it. That makes no sense. See? And I'm like, okay, yeah. You cook.

3:56Okay, that's fine. You cook the tagliarina in boiling salted water until al dente. Now, in a pan large enough to hold the pasta, gently heat the butter until just soft, adding a pinch of nutmeg and black pepper and a few shavings of truffle. And now after that you add the pasta to the warm butter mixture and toss again and again to coat each strand. And then once you've done that you place into hot plates and grate the truffle generously over each portion. Sounds good. Easy. Yeah. So tell me why did you choose this recipe of all the recipes? I chose it because it seems relatively accomplishable.

4:50It doesn't seem too overwhelming. And I love a good truffle. I love that flavor. I love black pepper. And it's also just, it's very comforting. Yes. It's comforting and it's also, it's such a luxury, isn't it? I mean, the idea of having white truffles is very special. It's a very short season. You have it. Can you get them? I guess you must be able to get them in California, of course. They must send them over from Italy. But did you live in Italy? Have you ever spent any time there where you would have white truffles, Tagliarini? You know, I've worked there once, which was great. What were you doing?

5:30I was working on Zoolander 2. I was working there for five weeks. But I didn't have to work every day. It was kind of perfect. So I'd get some time off to go and explore and have a good meal. Where were you? Just in Rome, yeah. And that's such a luxury to get to do that. And it was up until that point I'd had a career of where you're always talking to everyone else who's gotten to film in exotic places. and the most exotic place I would get to film is, you know, the San Fernando Valley. And so finally, this was, after decades, I was finally shooting a movie in Europe and it was so much fun. It was great.

6:23I did an interview with John McEnroe recently and he was saying that when he was playing tennis or when he was even performing in a band, there was no time to eat. You were just working, working, working. So, you know, you're being able to go to Rome and explore. Yeah, and that's usually the case. A movie schedule's intense. There's long days, and you maybe have, you know, you're catching up on your rest on the weekend. So maybe you have one night a week and go. But this, I had enough time off to where I could kind of explore. But there was also a really fun group of actors who Kristen Wiig was working at the time, and she would organize these fun dinner parties.

7:07And so that's another, when you can kind of combine great food with great company, there's nothing better. Do you think about a location that you're going to be filming and wonder what the food will be like? No, I always am envious of people who have been able to write something specifically. You know, like Mike White, who did White Lotus, is a genius. His locations have been Hawaii. They've been, you know, the last one was... Sicily. Sicily. Sicily. And then I think they're doing a third one, and it's going to be in some beautiful location in Southeast Asia. So he's a smart guy. I know. So going right back, tell me about your family.

7:54Tell about your mother and father and what food was, what meal times were like in your house. Well, my folks divorced at an early age. So while my dad did, made a really good effort of still being involved, my brother and I pretty much grew up in a single parent household. Of course, my mom had to work. What did she do? She did a number of various jobs from landscaper to, we used to call her a plant lady at one point, which meant she worked for a company that took care of plants in office buildings. So she'd go from office building to office building and maintain the plants. And she was kind of doing all these odd jobs while she finally figured out she needed to go back to school and get her master's degree and later went on to have a great career in adult education, teaching English as a second language.

9:00but it's kind of remarkable to think about now having been a parent myself you know being involved with my wife and we we've always been able to help each other and we've always had help around the house but to think of the idea of just doing it by yourself and the fact that she always got home in time for dinner and made dinner. And both my folks are from North Carolina. So she was an amazing cook. Every night there would, you know, it's the reason why I still, I like liver and onions. It's because my mom would cook it. Yeah. She would make this amazing liver and onions where she'd kind of sear it and grill.

9:53But she'd cook the onions right down, so very soft onions. But she'd just do it all by feel, or she'd make great kind of stews in a crock pot, or one of her great things that we would request that didn't happen all the time, she'd make a fantastic fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes that she did herself and green beans, and sometimes would make homemade biscuits and things like that. And I look back at that, and my cooking skills are negligible at best. And I was like, Mom, how did you do that? And she's like, you know, you just didn't think about it. And I was raised to learn how to cook, and I just wanted to make sure you guys at least had that one meal every night, and it was our time to kind of sit down and check in, which I'm sure is a common story you probably have heard where you get to check in about how the day was and how your lives are going and et cetera.

11:00When you think about what that memory for you of sitting down at the table and that she provided that and did that with, but maybe also cooking was a great pleasure for her. Also, I used to come home after work and start cooking and everybody would say, relax, stop cooking. And actually I found it quite, do you find that, that sometimes just the thing of cooking is kind of relaxing? Oh, yeah, the times we're kind of find ourselves, I think, cooking a lot more in the summertime. And it really can be, I'm kind of more the sous chef to Vivica, to my wife. So I'm like, tell me what to do now. Okay, let me chop this.

11:43Okay, what do I do now? Watch that. And you get in a rhythm and you put the baseball game on and you pour a glass of wine and it's really... It's nice. It's nice. Yeah. It matters. And when you would see your dad, would he cook for you? Would you go out to dinner with him? Yeah, dad would... We'd kind of see our dad and then dad started getting into cooking. And he loved kind of, you know, I feel like he was always grilling a breast of chicken. I feel like that was to me. Or there was a local market with like a really good butcher section and he would get like sweet Italian sausages and make some pasta with sausages.

12:30And then, of course, there's the one infamous time where we were eating something. We're like, Dad, what is this? He's like, just try it. And he had cooked us rabbit. But the only problem was he just didn't connect the dots. At that time, my brother had a pet rabbit. And we were like, Dad, why are you serving rabbit? And I think he got mad at us for not trying the rabbit, but mad at himself for not thinking that that would feel weird to us. But that was an emotional evening. Yeah, we had that in Tuscany this summer because we always get rabbits for the little kids, and they have them in the cage.

13:10And then one night, there was a rabbit, and that wasn't too good. But do you think that he kind of wanted to cook, or do you think he wanted to show you that he was taking care of you as a parent, though he wasn't there? I think it was both. I think he learned to enjoy it, and he became pretty good at it. And there was a stretch over the holidays. We still laugh about it today. And he would listen to the local cooking show on AM radio on KABC out here in Los Angeles. And he was like, you know what? I want to cook a Christmas goose. At Christmas. Yeah, at Christmas. And he worked so hard, and it was just as tough as, like, leather.

14:06It was just really hard. Yeah, it's very dry. And he was so bummed out. We're like, Dad, it's okay. It's okay. You tried your best. We'll just order a pizza. I don't know. Yeah. That's that sort of thing of cooking as a performance. I feel that in the restaurant because we have an open kitchen, and I serve something, and then I always look to see the expression of somebody. Oh, I'm sure. When they're eating it. And I would think you are generally seeing a positive expression. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I do. It's quite nice when they say, you know, try this, and then you see them, you know, sharing it.

14:45And sometimes people send things back now they don't like it. And that's fine. Right. You know, you just redo it or cook it differently or whatever. But it is a bit of a before. I always feel a bit sorry for somebody who's cooking for a dinner party and bringing it out. And they've been working all day trying to get it right. Yeah, yeah. No, my dad would get very perfectionistic about timing things out. And this has to go in at a certain time. Yeah, but I've seen, like, we spend our summers in Sweden. My wife was born there. And over the years, we've always gone every summer and we have a place out there that's way out in the middle of nowhere in this collective of little summer cottages next to her cousin.

15:33Is it on the sea? No, it's actually, yeah, we're not anywhere near the ocean. We're kind of in the woods and we have a couple of beautiful lakes around us and that sort of thing. But I know that pressure that my dad, because, and we tend to grill a lot, and the Swedes are all, the Swedes are annoyingly good at everything, and they don't really try. And they're good bakers, and my wife's cousins will come and, you know, that pressure of someone watching over your shoulder while you grill something. Yeah. And they'll be like, you might want to take that off. I'm like, really? Okay. And I always listen to them.

16:16And they'll just walk right up and go like, no, I do two minutes longer. Okay, wow. And they don't use thermometers or timers or anything. And sure enough, every time I listen to them, it's delicious. And it was the right temperature and the right time. I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think of what Swedes maybe can. Can they do comedy? Are they funny? I think of Ingmar Bergman and all those kind of Swedish. They weren't exactly a lot of laughs. They're not considered culturally funny, but I think they're like a little sneaker-upper type. They're very dry with their humor, very sarcastic, and they're very clever and they love to tease in a very gentle way.

17:03And so I find them really kind of funny, yeah. I don't want to lose my Swedish listeners. Right, right. Stockholm. I've been to Stockholm. And we ate really, really well in Stockholm. There's a real food culture now in Sweden. And they're all foraging. And it's a very foodie place. Yeah. We're always trying to, if we hear of a new restaurant, we'll try to go a couple nights into the city and explore. There's an amazing hotel we've stayed at a couple times called Et Hem. and their restaurant there is as good as any I've ever been. They have an excellent group of chefs there and it's a very cozy place.

17:49It's like sitting in someone's living room. Do you eat Swedish at home? Does Vivica cook Swedish food? Well, it's funny because Swedes, for the most part, their day-to-day kind of menu or diet is fairly just continental. Yeah, and the only time you really eat specific, quote-unquote, Swedish food is usually around the holidays. So we always host a big Swedish Christmas party, which is called a Yulefest. And we have found this lovely couple, Mark and Lena, who have a restaurant out here in L.A. called Open Face, which is all these types of open face sandwiches. and it's a small kind of pop-up place.

18:34But the main part of their business is catering and she's Danish, I believe, but we found her years ago and she knows how to cook all the Swedish food. So that's our big night where you have all the herrings and they cook a ham and Swedish meatballs with the lingonberries and all the cheeses and the kaneki bread. And so that's like our big night to have Swedish food. And we invite, it's a party for 80 people. So all of our friends, we've been doing it for over a decade now. And everyone, in fact, there was one year we couldn't do it. I think we were out of town and people were upset and thought we'd left them off the list.

19:18So it created quite an outrage. But no, that's our big night to eat Swedish food. And then the other big kind of Swedish meal is what's called a kreftweaver, which is in August, and that's when you eat crayfish. And that's really fun to, you know, you just boil all these crayfish with the cheese. And, of course, it's all done with aquavit and songs. And, yeah. Sing me a Swedish song. I can sing you happy birthday in Swedish. Okay. Okay. Jag må ha leva, jag må ha leva, jag må ha leva, inte hur drat det håll. Jag viska ha leva, jag viska ha leva, jag viska ha leva, inte hur drat det håll. Hurra!

20:10Hurra! Hurra! Hurra! You have to say hurray four times. I never expected to have a different tune. Yeah. That sounds like a kind of marching song of us, right? And it's the funniest lyrics in English. It's like, I hope you live. I hope you live. I hope you live 400 years. But if you don't, but if you don't, we'll still drink to you. It's something like that. Yeah. So it's this very, the Swedes are so funny with how they accept life and death. It's just like, I hope you live. But if you don't, don't worry. We'll still think of you. But if you don't, you'll be okay. Yeah, you'll be okay. We'll think of you.

20:50It's all right. But on your birthday, it's your birthday, but let's just, you know, maybe it's not going to be forever. It could be, but maybe it's not. But anyway, the point is we're here and let's have a drink. Good Swedish accent.

21:08Did 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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22:24It'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. When you left your home and you had all those meals together with your brother and your mother and then your father, and then did you go to college? Did you eat out or did you eat in the dorm? Yeah, I think... Was it a rude awakening? No, it was pretty good dorm food. I was just happy to have three square meals.

23:01But probably not by freshman or sophomore. as I moved out of the dorms into more of an apartment situation, that's where it was a little more bleak. That's when it changes, doesn't it? Yes, that's when it changes. And was that in college? Yeah, it was in college. Or was that when you went to? And then later after college, you know, those are some pathetic moments in my food life where I was like, you know, the struggling actor and I'm working in a desk job that doesn't pay a lot where I literally have 20 bucks that has to last me the rest of the week. I remember my roommate at the time, who had a better job and a little more money, I was literally sitting down.

23:46I think my dinner one night was pasta with, and the only thing I had was some mustard. And I put the mustard on it. That is a far cry from pasta with white truffles. And my friend Jerry was like, you can borrow some of my tomato sauce. I'm like, oh, no, I prefer the mustard. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway. And then you went to New York. Did you move to New York? Moved to New York when I was hired for Saturday Night Live. I know. I told Lorne that we were doing this, and he was usually Lorne's self, saying how much he loved you. Oh, sweet. Yeah. Yeah, you know, that's such a – you spend so much time in that studio and in those offices and at that show, you're not really sitting down in your apartment for a meal.

24:42But that was getting to kind of go to some of these New York restaurants. That was seven years of getting to explore. in fact there was a there was a great place down in the village on Commerce and Barrow and I don't think it's there anymore it was called Grange Hall and we had so many meals there where my folks would fly in that week to come see the show and we'd go like on a Thursday night to go eat at Grange Hall and it was like the amazing, very cozy neighborhood-y place where they, I just remember always ordering the hanger steak, which was like cooked really well and great atmosphere. And just a very, I was like, oh, this is the typical New York place, which Lauren would always point out.

25:38It's funny. He would always, he made a great observation. He was like, you can tell like restaurants, it's all about lighting. And I was like, you're right. If the lighting works, it's inviting and you want to sit down. And I also had a really funny meal once with Lauren at Pastis, at the old Pastis. Oh, yeah, Keith McDowell in 13th Street. Where Lauren kept saying that Mick Jagger may stop by. And I was like, uh-huh, yeah, sure. And the meal was almost done and then all of a sudden Lauren was like, oh, he's here. and then we were both I don't see Lauren get nervous very much and then we both were incredibly nervous and he was like will you sit there, wait no, hold on I'll have him sit here and then you sit across from here and then okay hello Mick, hi and then there I was you know, sitting next to Mick I didn't contribute to the conversation at all because I just sat there but Mick Jagger couldn't have been nicer to me and he kept pulling me in and everything like that.

26:45But I was too scared to say anything. He was in the restaurant, Gertuga, and he said, Ruthie, how are you? And I said, I am so excited because David Letterman is here. And then I realized that was not the thing you say to Mick Jagger. But I was. I was really excited that David had thought he's a good guy. He's a nice person. That's so funny. Do you think that getting to eat in good restaurants almost was a measure of your success when you were able to go to a good restaurant or be taken to a good restaurant? Yeah, I think to some extent. I mean, definitely. You're definitely all of a sudden in this new category.

27:34And Lauren, part of the ritual and the schedule of the show is his big Tuesday night dinners where he has the host and he invites members of the cast. So that would either be at Orso or La Tansy or all the, you know, sometimes occasionally Joe Allen's and all these kind of venerable New York restaurants. and that was really eye-opening to be, yeah, you kind of felt like, you know, country mouse in the big city all of a sudden. That having been said, I wouldn't say we grew up, you know, we were very much lower middle class. We didn't have a lot. They still would splurge on occasion and take us to the interesting restaurant that had just opened up, you know.

28:30where we lived. And so they still gave us an appreciation for, I wouldn't say fine dining, but like what is kind of different in terms of culinary experiences and, and force us to try different types of foods and this, that, and the other. So I definitely had a little bit of that in my kind of dining background. Did you ever work in a restaurant? Were you ever a waiter? I never did. I avoided that because I knew I would be fired immediately. I'm not a great multitasker. Yeah, why would they fire you? Oh, yeah. Would you have carrying plates? I would have been the one that, how many tables does a waiter usually handle?

29:14What, four to five tables? Yeah, maybe. Maybe more? Maybe. Well, we don't like to have, we share it around. So every waiter has a section, which is about three or four tables. Yeah. And then everybody helps. You know, we all, you know, you see managers changing the tablecloth and stuff. Right. Everybody does everything. So you guys have a real team effort. But, you know, if I just, I would watch waiters and I'd be like, I could never keep track of everything. I'd need a long, I'd need a long grace period. I would eventually get it down. So I knew that wasn't an area that would be a strong suit for me.

29:53It's a really hard job. You know, you send food out. And the way all these young kids, you know, sometimes they get impatient at somebody on the grill and say, where is that sea bass? Where is that? And I thought, you know, when I was their age, I couldn't cross the street, you know. And they're amazing the way they can, you know, send out the food and the mozzarella and take it. And I forget when waiters just memorize it, the order, and they don't write it down. Oh, no, we write everything down. Okay. Because when you go to a restaurant and the waiter's like, yes, go ahead. And I'm like, I get stressed out for them.