Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.

0:30Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing. The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity, and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime. Check out washablesofas.com and get up to 60 % off your Anabay sofa, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If 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. You are listening to Ruthie's Table 4 in partnership with Montclair. When Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach wrote to say they were moving to London for a year, we decided to meet for Sunday lunch in the River Cafe.

1:18After that first lunch, we made a date for the following Sunday, and after the second one, we agreed to meet for the one after that. On the third Sunday, Harold, their five-year-old son, turned to me and said, Ruthie, is this the meaning of tradition? And from that moment on, our Sunday lunches became known between the four of us as tradition. As in, what time are we meeting for tradition? Will you be here next week for tradition? And even, that was a delicious tradition, wasn't it? This Sunday, Noah, Greta, and I are here in the River Cafe to talk about food and live food and friendship, beautiful movies they've made for all of us.

2:00And when we're done, Harold will join us and I will have lunch with three people I love and adore with all my heart. Now that's tradition. Oh, that was beautiful. When we chose the recipe for you to read, and there are all these complicated recipes of pastas and risottos and desserts, And I thought that Noah's thing is to order a steak to share, right? We have a steak for the table. For the table. And then I put in the horseradish sauce because I know we always order extra horseradish. Extra horseradish. I love horseradish. Yeah, so we do that. 100 grams fresh horseradish. One tablespoon white wine vinegar.

2:40Half a lemon. 250 milliliters creme fraiche. Peel and grate the horseradish on the fine part of the cheese grater. Then add the vinegar and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and gently stir in the creme fraiche. And I'll add one more thing. Make more of it than you think you'll need because you'll want more. Or if you're me, you will. Steak. 400 ribeye steak, about 6 centimeters thick. Sea salt, extra virgin olive oil. The trick is to have the confidence to leave the steaks on the grill for the full cooking time. It means they will get those dramatic griddle markings. It is vital to rest your meat, which makes it juicier and more full of flavor.

3:23About 30 minutes before cooking, remove the steak from the refrigerator uncovered and let it come to room temperature. Preheat a barbecue or a grill to a high heat. Season the steak on both sides with salt and pepper. Grill the steak on one side for 12 minutes. Turn over the steak with tongs and grill for another 12 minutes on the other side. Put the steak on a warm plate, drizzle with oil, and rest for 20 minutes. Slice the steak thickly on the diagonal and serve. I like it. Rest for 20 minutes sounds like you take a rest. Sounds like you take a rest. I know. But both of you could rest for 20 minutes.

4:02Everybody could rest. You and the steak. One thing we talk about, it's the Nora Ephron, One for the Table. When she died, the New York Times, for her obituary, there was like a list, and it was things I'll miss and things I won't miss. And you realize it's things I'll miss from the world, but one of the things is one for the table when you're ordering and you say, and just one for the table, one for the table. And I was like, oh, I will miss one for the table. That's such a nice concept. Maybe we'll get it. You know, maybe in the other world we'll have another one. Another one for the table. My hope is that it's all the vibe of the next one is just one for the table.

4:46That's the thing in Defending Your Life, the Albert Brooks movie, you know, where they're in a kind of limbo where they're judging. Essentially it's like to figure out where you're going to go, if you're going to go up or down. and they sort of go to court in a way and have to defend their lives. But while they're there, it's Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep, and while they're there, they can eat anything they want because there's no consequences. So there's a lot of good eating in that movie as well. In cinema, I was trying to think of the great scenes of movies. There's obviously the Godfather where he's making the tomato sauce.

5:25Oh, my God. Goodfellas when they're in prison. And you probably, in my time, there was Tom Jones, which was Albert Finney and Susanna York. Tony Richardson, yeah. And do you remember they were just eating, it was sex and seduction. I always liked Errol Flynn in Robin Hood. He comes into the King's things and he takes that big leg of Venice or whatever, the leg of something. And he sits back in the chair and he eats it really confidently. But I remember thinking, I mean, I loved that movie and I loved Robin Hood. but I really thought that looked delicious. Yeah, that turkey leg. Yeah, and then because then he goes back in the chair.

6:05Anyway, it's really good. When I made Little Women, my producer, Noah's producer, Amy Pascal, she loves food in movies. Like it's a thing. We did all this research of the kind of food at the time. We had like American cookbooks from the 19th century, and food was actually a big part of the Alcott's life because their father, he was one of the first vegans, and he moved them to a vegan commune called Fruitlands in Massachusetts, and it went fine in the 1850s. And it was fine in the summer because things grew, and then they basically starved in the winter because there was no, I mean, it was like root vegetables and what they could store, but it was terrible.

6:52Food was a big thing. And I just, this is one of the movies that I was pregnant on. The woman who did all of the food styling and made all the things, she would make all this sample of like, this would be the kind of breads that were around and this would have a nice family or they'd have like this kind of cake. So there's a scene where the Lawrences send Christmas to them and the ice cream and the peppermint ice cream. And anyway, she would make cakes and different things. for me ostensibly just to look at to say, oh, yes or no. And then she realized I was just so hungry, and she would start giving me cakes, and then I'd have 19th century cakes that I would eat all weekend.

7:37And I was just gradually getting bigger and bigger, and I just wore these big coats, and no one knew I was pregnant. They thought I just liked the cakes. Do you think about it when you make a movie, where you're going to be and what that will be like. Most of your movies have been shot in California or London. Well, no, California, London, and Massachusetts, yeah. I like having cast and crew dinners before we start, like long dinners, big dinners. I think one of the reasons I love making movies is because it's these communities that spring up and there's like a common purpose and it's all kind of impossible.

8:18And the idea of like eating with your community, your makeshift temporary group of merry band is so great. And you're all doing something kind of outrageously vulnerable together. And it's like, let's all have a meal. Let's all eat together. And when you're filming, do you resent having to stop for lunch? Yes. You do? He resents. I don't mind because. But here I didn't have to. It's hard to come back equally strong. The one version that works, I think, and I got this from David Lynch, if you meditate during lunch, it gives you a second morning. If you just take 20 minutes and you meditate during lunch, he says that was his one.

9:06Would you tell that to the crew? We're not going to have lunch today. You're all going to meditate. I'm going to go meditate. Could you imagine? No, I'll go meditate. But actually, it's funny. If you say, I'm going to go meditate for 20 minutes, Because actually it kind of, I think, I mean, David Lynch says this, but people kind of say, oh, in a way they're like, well, maybe I should do that. Like just, or whether it's formal meditation or not, but like almost a chance to recharge a little bit and to allow yourself to go inside before you have to keep making decisions. But I think on film sets when you're making decisions, when it's all going well, it doesn't feel like decisions.

9:46It feels like it's all kind of coming together. And it's just, you're not torn between two things. You're like, well, obviously it's the red hat. When it's going badly, you're like, I don't know what hat it is. But when it's going well, it's like everything kind of just follows. There's a great story of Tom Stoppard and Mike Nichols on the set of the, I mean, they were doing the play The Real Thing in the 80s. and Stoppard visited the rehearsals. And while they were talking, somebody held up two chairs to Mike. And Mike just offhanded, just looked quickly and pointed at one and then just kept talking.

10:26And then Stoppard said, see, I could never do what you do because they look almost exactly the same to me. Like you knew exactly which one you wanted. And Mike said, I had no idea which chair. I just have to look decisive so they think I'm in charge. He's like, I can always change my mind later. That's a decision-making. That's leadership. That's a big part of directing. That's directing. That's what you do. But I also find on movie sets, I revert to really juvenile food habits. I eat Cheetos in sort of like astonishing quantities. Cheetos and Diet Coke. But I think mine connects to childhood and there's some part of, in a way.

11:11You direct movies out of childhood, so you want things. I think it puts, well, I do think, what I do do is put things of mine in the movie so I have a relationship with, I mean, some movies it's even the squid and the whale. Jeff was wearing my dad's clothes, but that was very direct. Even on something like Barbie, which is like, well, Barbie existed, is like even the version of, because Barbie's been around since 1959, the logo has gone through a few different versions, and now Barbie as a corporation is back around to the original 1959 script version. But the Barbie from my childhood, which was the Barbie from, it was like the big bubble letters.

11:55The big thick bubble letters. And I just, I remember there was like a moment when I had to decide what is the Barbie I want to do, and I'm going to ask Mattel if we can use this Barbie for the movie. I was like, I want the one that meant something to me. The one that, when I went to Toys R Us and looked at the Barbies, it was, and it's personal to me. I also think it's a good logo, that big bubble letter one. But I also was like, it's nothing if not, if it's not personal, what does it matter? It could be made by anyone. It was like, this was mine. I was born in 83. These were the Barbies I saw.

12:28This is what I'm interested in.

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13:55If 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 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 Here's our pizza This is a good tradition Okay. Let's see if we can. We have lots for everybody. There's lots of pizza here. There we go. Oh, my God.

14:35This looks so good. They're going to bring some cloth. My dad was the cook in our family. He's still a good cook. He actually comes to one tradition we still have is my parents come to New York every Thanksgiving, and they cook the whole thing. And it's very stressful for them, but they do it. And we gather the ingredients, and he makes this stuffing once a year, which is the Julia Child stuffing. And it's really good, and it has olives in it, and it's delicious. Did your dad cook? Is that scene in Squid in the Wild when he says, but I cooked? Hamburgers. Yeah, hamburgers. Is it hamburgers? I made you hamburgers in one time.

15:18When you were sick. Yeah, when you were sick, I met you. Did he cook? Well, more post-divorce, he had a few things that he felt he could handle. He made blueberry pancakes was his big, he was very proud of those. And he would do like a veal cutlet and he would do a pan burger, certainly. Isn't it because I had talked to Matthew Barson, I think you met him, did you mean he was the ambassador here? And he was saying that his father never cooked until they were divorced. And forced to. that forced you, but also it was his way, in a nice way, he wanted to reassure his son that things were still kind of, well, they weren't the same because he cooked, but that there was a safety, you know, and there was love, that he was showing him that he could cook for them and it was his way of taking care of them.

16:08A friend of mine keeps threatening to do a divorce dad cookbook. Which I think is a good idea. There was a meal, he called it special meal. Oh, yeah, it was special meal. I put that in Marriage Story, actually, the special meal. Special meal. It's ground. It's kind of like a hash. It's like potatoes, ground beef, onions, and peas. Yeah, just sort of all ground up together. And it would be like dad peas. Which I recreated, actually. In Marriage Story, I recreated that special meal. But I remember eating. We were with this friend when there was a big hurricane in New York, and we ended up walking to Brooklyn because we didn't have any power.

16:53And he made special meal for all of us, and we, like, loved it. We ate so much special meal. It was like, but it was like, it's definitely, it would be a featured item in the cookbook. I wanted to, there was a point in my life, and I kept going to magazines, when they had magazines, there were all these brides' magazines, wedding magazines, and I thought, everybody I know is getting divorced. so a friend of mine and I were going to do a magazine called Divorce and you could have like a car column, you know, when you had to buy a car for, you know, sort of the few children, the dating column, the taking your kids out to lunch column, the cooking column, you know.

17:35It could be a sort of, but nobody ever, you know. Yeah, you could do it with like links now too and, you know, like and also like things maybe they're selling off. Yeah, and also if you knew you were going to be on the cover of Divorce, you might not be so sad about being divorced. Oh, he wanted to call it goodbye as opposed to hello. We had this whole plan, but it was down to one of those projects that never got seen. But so eating, so both your fathers cooked before. You have memories of your family. My dad was more, it was not a cook. My mom was really the cook. And your mother? My mother was more of like a sushi.

18:11She would chop and prepare everything, and my dad would cook. And sort of clean up while you're still eating. Well, my mom is like, you put a glass down and you're like, oh. I know, it's just been washed. It's been washed. It's like, it's done. No, she was like a very, like, a prep and cleanup person. And she would do breakfast. But my dad was better at, like, making omelets. Like, he'd do the flip and everything. The trauma. It's like men in barbecues. I always think that that is a kind of thing. But I think it's probably changed now. But it's a lot of work feeding. How many were you in your family?

18:45Well, it kind of expanded and contracted because I have a brother and sister who are older, so at times it was just me, but then at times it was all of us plus their friends. And there was always some extra person living with us. We had a woman who was dancing in the Sacramento Ballet who lived with us for a while, another woman who was a teacher at the college who lived with us for a while. So my memory of childhood was always, it wasn't just immediate family. It was always like more. And so there was a lot of cooking for volume. My mom always had me eat eggs. She was concerned that no one was getting enough protein.

19:30And all I wanted for breakfast when I was growing up was dry cereal with milk, and I wasn't allowed to have it. What about muesli? Were you allowed that? If I put it on yogurt with fruit. Oh, I see, the protein thing. Yeah, but she was like, you have to have protein. And all I wanted was like a bowl of plain Cheerios with milk. And then when I finally got to college, that's all I ate for a solid year was just plain Cheerios with milk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I got very ill. Like it was bad for me. So what was it like in your house? Did your mother shop and cook and you all sat down?

20:10How many of you were there in your family? Your brother. Well, yeah, my brother was five and a half years younger than me. But we would generally all sit for dinner. And talk about the day. Talk about the day. Did your mom work? Did she have a career? Well, she taught and then she was a writer, but she was not, she didn't have a, mostly did not have a job that took her out of the house. A schedule, yeah. So she could kind of plan the dinner. Yeah. She's still a good cook. Yeah, she's a good cook, right? Yeah. And they live in Italy. And I was always a little bit self-conscious about our cooking because I had friends who I'd go over there and it was like you'd eat very basic things that I craved because we didn't do that at home.

20:50Like what? Like macaroni and cheese? Yeah, like macaroni and cheese and like a sandwich that had like a double-decker of some kind. You know, like there'd be those things that you'd see pictures in magazines. Oh, a big sandwich. I would always, it was like whole wheat and some kind of like. Hummus or something. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I would go to other places to like have a ham sandwich. But other people's houses are always usually. Always better. Always better. Rue once called me up. He went to the American school. I never keep a lot in my fridge. I don't know if you had like fridges full, but I never had.

21:21And he once called me up and he said, can you just come to my friend's house around the corner? And I went, why? And he said, well, they were American, you know, and they'd moved here from whatever and that. He said, I'd just like to show you what a good mother's fridge looks like. It's just packed with things. Ice. Did you have a fridge packed with food? We didn't. We had a lot of, oh, God, I just keep eating pizza, but okay. I knew I was going to. Also, Noah and I would say we have no ability. We're eaters. Yeah. We eat. It's so nice. We're voracious. Voracious. Did you have grandmothers in your lives?

22:04My grandparents both were in Southern California during the Depression and grew up really poor. And that kind of the cuisine of that was very much in what they were. But my grandfather, there were like walnut farms, almond farms. And he'd come and he'd just bring always these big bags of just nuts that you'd have to crack open. And you'd sit with him and you'd just play cards. This is, I think, when he was divorced. And you just sit with Grandpa Ralph, play cards and crack nuts for hours. And he was great. And the agricultural valley was such a thing. Farmers just sold stuff on Sundays, but it wasn't like a fancy farmer's market.

22:51It was just trucks that came in, and they were selling stuff because everything grew. Did you go to restaurants? Before we do restaurants, I was going to say one thing. I just was thinking this of my friend. I got from my grandfather, my mom's dad, who would have a big salad for dinner. The painter. No, this is my mom's dad who... Volunteered for World War II. He enlisted in World War II, and he was decorated. But my mom found a telegram. So I do this now. I do for dinner. He has a big salad. When I'm not eating everything on the menu here, I come at home, I have a big salad. And his mom found a telegram from his grandfather.

23:32From my grandfather coming back from the war. And it says, you know, there's one telegram which is sort of like leaving this. I should be back sometime around late July. And then the next telegram is like he'd arrived in America but wasn't there yet. He's like, I'll be there Thursday. Can you make me a big salad? You said the telegram? And the telegram. You paid by the word, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I had sort of always liked that he did that.

24:08The River Cafe Winter Set Lunch is now running from Monday to Thursday. Reserve a booking on www.rivercafe.co.uk or give us a call.

24:24Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? Washablesofas.com has your back. featuring the Anabay Collection, the only designer sofa that's machine washable inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices. That's right, sofas start at just$699. Enjoy a no-risk experience with pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and changeable slipcovers made with performance fabrics. Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing. The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity, and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime. Check out washablesofas.com and get up to 60 % off your Anabay sofa, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

25:08If 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. 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. And when you two met, did you fall in love knowing that you both love food? Would it have been impossible if you had somebody you liked but they didn't care about food?

25:49That would be hard. Well, you get together to have food. Somebody didn't care about food, yeah. No, you get together to have food and talk about music and movies. There's a point when I see most plays where I'm sort of, even if I'm really loving the play, where I will sort of enjoy just taking a moment to think about what I'm going to get it or so afterwards. I know. Well, there was a lot of moments. Many, many, many, like the whole of the last act. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's sort of like, is it late for a burger? No, no. But it's even part of the play for me. You told me, because I read, because you love that Andre Agassi book, Open.