Michael and Kim McCarty

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1:39If you're in London, I'd really recommend heading to their beautiful brand-new flagship store in Marlebone, which opens on the 29th of October. There is one email I cannot wait to receive each year, and it always starts like this. Ruthie, Kim and I are coming to London. Can we have a table at the River Cafe? And will you be there? Answer to the first is yes. And to the second, well, yes. When Michael McCarty walks in, he immediately fills the room with his warmth and his kindness. He knows what working in a restaurant means. Introducing himself, recognizing staff from his last visit, and checking out the customers.

2:18Sean Owen, our executive chef, told me that on Monday night, he walked up to her at the pass and praised in detail the grouse he had just eaten. Restaurants are, of course, what he knows best. When he and Kim opened Michael's in Santa Monica in 1979, they brought California cuisine to the world. Artichokes, asparagus, tomatoes, and peaches grown in the sun and eaten under the sun. Ten years later, California came to New York when they opened Michael's in midtown Manhattan. When my brother, Michael also, and his wife Bianca married in New York, there was only one restaurant they wanted to celebrate in.

2:56We are family. And when Michael and Kim leave, I'll say goodbye, knowing there will be another email in a few months' time saying, Ruthie, we're coming. Will you be there? And the answer will be yes. so here we are here we are you're here in the river cafe and the sun is coming you brought it was gray and grim so what we'll do if you're happy to do that is start by reading the recipe for the grouse that you ate the other night well the roast grouse this has all of my favorite ingredients in it oh good what are they the pancetta the thyme garlic butter we love butter Always butter. Yeah. Four slices, thin pancetta, two large fresh thyme, one garlic clove peeled and chopped, 25 grams of unsalted butter, 250 milliliters, aletico di puglia, one grouse plucked and cleaned.

3:58So you start, preheat the oven to 230 degrees. We're in England, so it's the opposite, 230. Place the thyme sprig on the breast of the bird, cover with pancetta slices, and tie the legs together. Put the grouse in a roasting tin and cook, depending on the size and how rare you like the grouse. We serve them slightly pink. The easiest way to test for doneness is to pull the leg away from the body at the thigh. It's still blue. Cook for a little longer. Grouse vary in roasting time because they differ so much in size. Remove from the oven and leave to rest two to three minutes and untie the string.

4:41Put over a medium-high heat. Add the wine, reduce by half. Return the bird to the pan and coat in the juices, then serve. This is delicious served with cabello nero. Do you serve game in Michael's? We don't. We serve quail, squab, but they're all farm-raised. Beautiful, though. Duck, of course. We have great duck. But our squab is spectacular. Squab is the pigeon. You're a pigeon here. And the quails are sensational. That's about it. To me, I find pheasant, unless it's perfect, is too dry. I mean, that grouse last night was spectacular. So tell me about growing up in the McCarty household. Was eating important in your parents' life?

5:26Yes, it was very interesting. I grew up in New York. Where? In the Hudson Valley in a little town called Briarcliff Manor. My dad commuted 30 years to New York. What did you do? He worked with General Electric. He was the founder of the corporate communications for GE in the late 40s, right after the war. And he graduated from Michigan with my mother. And they moved to Schenectady, New York, which is where you go there. The building is still there. Yeah. And my father was put in a room, and the guy who hired him said, this is going to be your partner in doing this. Turned out it was Kurt Vonnegut.

6:07So my father and Kurt spent five years in that. Kurt Vonnegut worked at GE? Yeah, and they were there. If you look at some of his beginning books, they were all in place at Scenectady. And then in about 1950, he went on to become a full-time writer, and my dad moved to New York City. But we remained friends all the way up until my father passed away. But, yeah. At any rate, the whole crowd of my parents' friends loved to party. Party. They entertained all the time. Okay. All seasons. We had a little beach shack in Miss Quamacate, Rhode Island. We were there and in Vermont in the winter. and everywhere we went, you know, we learned quickly, you know, what was growing there and how to cook it and what were the traditions.

6:55And my mother and father, you know, it's not like today where everybody eat until lunch really talks about food. You know, it was more like... This is what year? This would have been in the 50s and the 60s. Yeah. But the thing is, I really got into this because the allure was the entertainment aspect. So they would have fun. Oh, my God. They had huge parties. Huge parties. One party called the 10 to 10. Yeah. And there were people that stayed from 10 in the morning until 10 at night. And there were like five different menus throughout that whole time. Were you participating or did you sit on the steps and watch all the grand?

7:31Both, both. Yeah. You know, after a while I was in the kitchen with my mother and she'd make her beef straganoff or she'd make, you know, my father would make these like really good barbecue pork tenderloins and grill them and, you know, and the whole thing. Again, it was always very simple. Yeah. Tell me about the house with the kitchen. Was it a big kitchen? Well, my father worked for GE. Every house we moved to. Had appliances? She'd tear out the garden and she'd tear out the kitchen. Those were the two things. Yeah. And so she always had the latest GE. You know, like I remember in New York at the one house we lived in, she put in the beginning of the modern sort of Jensen, George Jensen, and super modern refrigerators hidden and this and the that.

8:15Always. But they always had a barbecue outside. She did have a collection of cookbooks? I gave her the, well, she cooked basically from the New York Times cookbook. Right. A cookbook. Oh, very good. Yeah, don't you think? In the 50s, 60s, 70s. Yeah, that. That was the good cookbook. I introduced her to Julia Child after I got back from France, and we got her the double whammy, you know, the two cookbooks. Yeah. And she poured over them. She passed away recently. I'm sorry. We got all the cookbooks back. You got them back. We have them in a room, in a box right now. We went through them once. Yeah.

8:52But, yeah, a lot of mementos. Before we leave home, tell me about your growing up in your house, Kim. My household was very different because when I was born in Los Angeles, my parents were from Youngstown, Ohio, We moved abroad to outside of Geneva, a little area called Conch, when I was five. Why was that? My father said he couldn't get a job anywhere. He was a chemical engineer, and he kind of figured out this paint company. So he was a great salesman going around places. So we, my mother being from the Midwest, she saw, you know, all this fresh salad in Geneva and all this stuff, but it had bugs in it.

9:29And they were very post-war, you know, 50s, 60s. So we had to go to, like, we were like army brats. We went to the canteen and got Chef's Boyardee and iceberg lettuce and American candies. And that's what we would eat. Well, fair enough. I mean, she was in a foreign country. She didn't know the place or the language, probably. And so she looked for safety. So we were always at the dentist because we had so many cavities. and yes, it wasn't until much, much later that we realized that all the nutrients that were in these, you know, fresh... And probably good food, good cheese to be in Switzerland.

10:08Excellent, excellent. And for the, I mean, I was there from five to 16. And was it the same, did they entertain? Did they have... They did, they did not that much, not that much because my father was one of those men who were always traveling, always traveling. So we did not, it was very, very different. Because Michael's family was all about food. My family, I was a family of three girls, him a family of four boys. So we always had to be on diets, you know, because my father was very strict that way. They're pickers. They pick all day. Oh, I see. Little bits all day. Little bits all day. Did you leave home at an age to go to college?

10:50Or was that when you went to France? I went to France as a junior in high school. So I'm 16, and I got accepted to this program, school year abroad. They had one in Rennes, Brittany, and one in Barcelona. Yeah. And 50 young kids each. From all over the United States. From all over, and we would go, and they put you in a family, and you spend the year there, and then your brain is still clean, so you really pick up the fluency of the language. But the night before I got on the boat, my parents took me to Laurent, which was one of the classic, you know, le's and la's in New York. And it looked like Maxime's and it was September and it was everybody was stunning and everybody dressed up in those days and they were all tan and they were all eating and having a big time going, my God, this is just like my parents' parties.

11:39About halfway through the meal, in walks the owner and the whole electricity level in the room ratcheted up like there was no tomorrow. He started working the tables like we do, you know, and you're greeting all your friends and your guests and you're meeting new people and it's a riot and everybody's going crazy about the food and all of that. And then at the end of the meal, we had this glorious meal, and at the end of the meal, you know, they bring a check. And I said, well, now this makes sense because my father, a businessman, you know, I go back and forth, I go, wow, this is a throw party and then give everybody a check, you see.

12:13So it's a business. The next day I get on the boat and it is the SS Aurelia, which was his last voyage, but it had 1 ,500 school year abroad students. Most of them, except for the 50 of us, were in college, and it was run by the Italians. And it took 11 days to get to Laharv. 11? 11. Wow. It was like, do, do, do, do, do, do. Wow, I went, it was five, I think. Yeah, no, no, this was a tanker. And at any rate, you know, they had five meals a day. They had booze. Yeah. So it was. And you were 16? I was 16. Wow. Yeah. So it was pretty rowdy 11 days. But then I landed in La Herve, and I went to put in my family, and my family was a very interesting Breton family, you know, classic folklore, love Britney.

13:02Guess what they did all the time? Eat. Eat, party. Party, party, eat. They had a house on the beach. What a match. Like we did. They had one in the country. They had a 900-year-old chateau that had never seen repairs and maintenance for 860 of those years. One open bathroom. I mean, it was completely crazy, but I'd go down and there'd be the person that grew all the vegetables, the one who did the chickens, the one who did the beef, the pork. And that's who explained to me the École Hotelière, the French Hotel and Restaurant School, if you wanted to be a chef. We didn't have those in America. So then I went back to Paris, spent the first half of the 70s in Paris, and that did it.

13:40You studied cooking there. Yes, I graduated. Did you want to cook or did you want to be an owner of a restaurant? Well, I realized early on, I wanted to have a restaurant. And I realized early on that you had to be a good chef. It helps. It helps. Well, you know, you have the classic idea. Your chef walks out of you on a Saturday night. What happens? So it was sort of that ingrained in the fact. But I really got into it. I mean, living in Paris. What year were you in Paris? 72, 3, and 4. That's when I was there. Were you? Yeah, because Richard was building the Pompidou. That's right. That's exactly when it was happening.

14:13Yeah, we were. So we must have. Because Léa was still there. That's right. And where did you live in Paris? I lived in several places. I lived right next to the Rue Mouftal, the market. Yeah, the Mouftal, yeah. And then I lived on Il San Luis in the beginning. And what were you doing? Did you work in restaurants? I worked one night in a three-star restaurant. It was La Serre. La Serre, that's on the right bank. Yeah, and after working one day there, I said, this is not for me. You know, I can learn more eating in this restaurant in one meal than I can spending, you know. This was still the old archaic way of running restaurants.

14:55What was that? You know, where you are sentenced to the potatoes for six months. Yeah, no. And then you move on to the mushrooms. You know, it was still, remember, this was the beginning of the Nouvelle Cuisine Revolution. Oh, I know. And you had the Gonne Mio had just opened. And I was taught at the Cordon Bleu, which I went through for two and a half years. Oh, you did? Oh, yeah. And that's where I met Julia in 1972. Julia. Child. You know, she had come back. And Madame Brassard, who's this little tiny owner, she said, Michael, I think you need to meet this lady. And so we went to lunch. And it was at 2 o 'clock.

15:32And by 7, we finished lunch. Lucky Julia. And so we became pals for the rest of her life. So you studied restaurant? I studied, that was cooking. That was entirely cooking. And then at the École Hotelier, you study, in the three years, you study all three. You study cooking, mostly, then management, and then dining room. My first restaurant was actually in Anil Saint-Louis. It was a totally illegal. Gosh, I could have come. It was as big as this room. It sat little 20 people. Yeah. And, you know, Il San Luis was a different town in those days. It was more like a village. It had two fish guys, three fish guys.

16:11Great cheese shop. Oh, fabulous cheese shop. Several. Great chef. Excellent chef. My cooking school got out at about 7 every night. So I would pre-order the night before from everybody there. Wow. And then it would be on my doorstep when I got there so I could cook for my 30 or 40 people. And what did you cook? Was it French classic? Well, that was the beginning of how I sort of created what the modern American, new American food. Again, like you did last night with the grouse. You take a protein. Go to the market. You've got really simple herbs. You use butter. You use salt and pepper. And you accompany it with a little pasta or a little vegetables.

16:48But very simple. And stunning fish. Everything we did. We began to compose the salads. It was a good fish stop as well on the hill. Because we lived in the Amare. We lived on the Ruta Seine. Then we lived in the Plastavos. And honestly, I used to get my laundry done on the St. Louis. There was that laundromat. Yeah. And I chose it because, you know, you'd cross the Seine every day to get your laundry. And I thought, what other city would there be that you could cross the Seine to have your sheets washed? It was amazing. Yeah, that was an amazing thing. The first half of the 70s in Paris was...

17:23How long was your... How did your restaurant exist? Well, it was totally illegal and totally fake. And they let you do it? It was in the bottom floor of a friend's building. Okay. And I just ran it that one year. And then you came back to... And then I graduated, while I was in school. Once I graduated in 74, I came back. And that's sort of where I learned what it means to run a restaurant.

17:49The 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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19:12If 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. Did Michael cook for you? Well, actually, this is an interesting story, if I can just say, that the first meal in my apartment, he said he's going to bring me dinner.

19:53So I had a little cat. I was then doing my design projects all night, and he comes and he knocks on the door, and he has two live pheasants. And it's like, what? Live. Live. And he lets them fly around the apartment, and they're going nuts, nuts. So I grabbed my cat, I shut him, lock him in the apartment, and I fled. You left him in the apartment. All right. I was a flying bird. That's what I said earlier. You told her that this was a kid. I was doing two ways of preparing them. Wow. But I had to start with, you know, part of the theory was how do you prepare them? She ate it when she came back.

20:35No, I did not eat it. I did not eat it. And was there a dessert? No, no. No, the dessert was in the final exam. No, the dessert was when we were going to school in Boulder, Colorado, and Michael was teaching cooking in French. My roommate who said for the final, you know, they would be bringing a raspberry souffle. And then I was just in. I was in. Food is seduction, don't you think? It is. It is. You know, so many people can remember. Bob Iger, our friend, said in his podcast that he remembers cooking for Willow, the first thing he cooked for her. Yeah. You know, there's Michael Caine's movie, The Ipcrest File, where he's, you know, cooking and chopping.

21:15And I think food for, you know, male or female is part of, it's very seductive, especially, I think, for a woman to have a man cook. Absolutely. It's pretty sexy, don't you think? Absolutely. But at that time, again, just going back to 40, now 48 years, no young college person was a cook. Male was a cook. Yeah. So everybody was extremely, extremely suspicious. My family, what? A chef? You're kidding. Now it's a very elevated thing. So we actually haven't started with Michael's because Michael's was your first major restaurant. Major restaurant, yes. It's still there. Yeah, 45 years later. It's a restaurant that really brought the world a kind of way of looking at a restaurant which could be delicious food, credible ingredients, and fun.

22:08It wasn't intimidating. It didn't make you feel stupid if you didn't know the wine. And so you did that at Michael's. Yes. Sort of, they called us California cuisine. Yes. And really, California cuisine was basically the first regional American food, you know, which doesn't sound as sexy. But that's what happened in California. That then moved to France. That moved to Italy. And it moved to England, where instead of everybody cooking, you know, remember, I said, He was taught Escoffier cooking, but the Nouvelle Cuisine Revolution was going on. So you could waver back and forth. And learning the Escoffier method was extremely important to me because that's the Latin of French cooking.

22:50And if you learn that fluently, you can speak 10 other languages. It's like knowing poetry before you write free verse. Exactly. And so that is what, you know, when we sourced everything, we had to convince probably 45 different farmers to switch over to growing, you know, broadleaf arugula. They didn't have basil. You wanted spices in those days. You went to the supermarket to the dry spice rack. You know, there was nothing unless you grew it in your house. but it you know again and then that I mean I remember the French chefs coming over and they were going you know what Nouvelle Cuisine sort of gave us the push you know out of the nest yeah but now we're going to go back and we're going to go back to our grandmother's food you know and we're going to remember where we grew up in Perigord or in Brittany or wherever and we're going to begin to go focus on that I remember Michel Garrard we're eating at the Bouteau Fou and he says I'm moving yeah and I said where are you going he says My wife has this cool place down outside of Bordeaux.

23:54He goes down there in the middle of nowhere and creates this whole thing based on that environment down there. And it was just this beginning of that. Did you find that it was tough in the beginning? Did people come to the restaurant and say, wow, this is amazing? Or was it hard to get that? It was. People were surprised that it was so, I mean, Michael was 25 when we opened. Did you have investors? No. Oh, yeah. I mean, things didn't cost. I had an SBA loan. Unfortunately, things did not cost what they cost now to build out a place. But also, one thing about Los Angeles and the way of dining is that everything was very dark and dank.

24:34It was like the speakeasy feel, that you would go to Dominic's. So to have a restaurant that had a garden in Los Angeles was like. They couldn't leave to eat outdoors. Whoa. In LA. Whoa. And then to not have the waiters wear tuxedos. Yeah, yeah. You know, I just wear, you know, Ralph Lauren polo shirts, you know. I told Jerry Magden, who was in the food business, in the art business, and in the clothes business, his father owned iMagnets. And he's, I said, I'm not putting him in tuxedos. Do you have a little young American, everything is about America. Do you have a young American designer that we could utilize?

25:09Just come over to my shop. Tell me, said Ralph Lauren. And he goes, see in the corner over there? That big? Yeah. That's Ralph Lauren. Yeah. He calls it polo. I said, great. So we still, New York, in New York, use the pink polo shirt with the rep tie and the khaki pants. And so your role in the restaurant was to be both of you front of house. Yeah. And did you change the menus? Oh, I wrote the menus. Did you? And then with our original crew, we had like a stunning roster. Yeah. And Nancy Silverton. Yeah. She worked with you. She was the night cashier. Was she? And she said, I want to do that pastry prep thing.

25:51And so she did that at night, and then she came in today, and then I sent her to France to work at Le Notre in Poilin. And she came back and was our pastry chef. And she fell in love with the grill guy, Mark Peel. Yeah, Mark Peel. And they opened Campanile together. But before that, they went and opened Spago for Wolfgang. Then they opened Campanile. Wolfgang was amazing, too. Oh, yeah. Very much so. If you think, I remember going to Malmaison. and the idea that this French restaurant, it was great. The car park, wasn't it? Oh, yeah. It was fun. But his next restaurant was basically a pizza place.

26:32A pizza place. It was shocking. Yeah, that was it. And he did that. Were you all friends? Oh, yeah, from the beginning. We ate of Rammies all the time. The only thing I think is that when you start a restaurant, You know, everybody tells you how competitive, and you have a thought throat. And what Rose and I found was people were so kind, you know. And when Rose died, the place was full of, I think they were all calling each other and saying, you better get down there and help Ruthie. But, I mean, I never knew that. Right. But I've never found it, that cutthroat. Maybe it's just the people that we deal with, people that we like to be with, the kind of restaurants we run.