Ridley Scott

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0:48That's why over 200 ,000 happy customers have made the switch. Upgrade your space today. Visit washablesofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washablesofas.com. Offers are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. You are listening to Ruthie's Table 4 in partnership with Montclair. Like knowing where you were when you heard a song you love, where you were when you shared a meal with one of your children, or where you were when you discovered a painting that stayed with you forever. I know where I was when I saw Blade Runner, London, Thelma and Louise, Harris, and Napoleon a few months ago in L.A.

1:30I also know that I was in this room in the River Cafe three years ago, writing to Ridley Scott and asking him to be my first guest for this idea I had for a podcast about food and memories. Ridley wrote back saying, Yes, Ruthie, but I'm directing Gucci. A year later, Yes, Ruthie, but I'm directing Napoleon. A year later, Yes, Ruthie, but I'm directing the Bee Gees. Then a few days ago, sitting in the River Cafe Garden with his family, celebrating the Knight Grand Cross he'd been awarded at Windsor Castle, he drew a beautiful drawing on the wine list with the words, Ruthie, how about next Tuesday?

2:11In preparation, his son Jake and I met to talk about his father, how he exposed him to every food possible, cheese with maggots in Sardinia, seps in the Dordogne on the set of Duelists, and the magical experience of producing wine at their vineyard, Maste and Fermiere. Like knowing where you were when you saw a movie, I know that in years to come, I'll remember exactly where I was, Hammersmith, when I sat with Ridley Scott, talking about food and memory, food and family, food and wine, food and love. Yes, Ridley? Thank you. How do I answer that? I'm honored. We would love you to read the recipe for...

2:55Asparagus and anchovy butter with parmesan. Wow. Rinse dry and roughly chop the anchovies. In a bowl, mix together the anchovies with lemon juice and black pepper. And with a fork, mix the butter. Boil the asparagus in salted water until tender. Drain, season and drizzle with olive oil. Place the asparagus on warm plates, spoon over the anchovy butter, and scatter with Parmesan shavings. And my jaw is dripping with salaga. You know, I used to come by here. The famous Italian dish, which is the funny little piece. Like farinata? No, no, it's like a soup. Oh, yeah, the Tuscan bean soup, cannellini bean soup.

3:45So I got so taken with it. Every time I'd drive past, I'd pop in for lunch. And the guy said, I know what you want. He said, do you want to? Yes, please. And then eventually the chef, because I had two bowls, and the chef came and said, you really like this stuff. I said, yeah. I said, what's the secret? Because I wish I was a cook. He said, it's pretty simple. He said, you bring that to the boil. I said, he said, and I take one carrot, chop the carrot, drop it into that. Don't overcook it. I said, what are the black pieces? He said, that is the secret. That is bitter black cabbage. Cavalodaro.

4:19He says, there you got it. I said, can I have another bowl? It's a very simple look. But I like simple food. It says everything about Tuscany. It says, you know, the beans, the olive oil, and the cabbage. And that's it. You know, I'm from the north of England. I know. It took a long time for me to discover. My mother was a good cook, but as a child, we were on rationing. So my mother made the most of what she could. And the thing I used to love most was mince and dumplings in the mince. Okay, I loved that. Well, she made something that she called beef olives. It was cheap beef, slender beef, which she'd roll into something in the middle.

4:59It was magic. So my mom always bred enough, always good food, but very plain. Then I'm at college, and at college you can't afford very much at all. So there's no restaurants for me at the Royal College of War. And I then became known pretty fast. I got into advertising, and I went off like a bolt of lightning. And suddenly I had money to spend because good restaurants, unlike other places in the world, can be expensive. And so at that time, there was this big, fashionable, small restaurant in Kings Road called Alvaro. And right there, for the first time in my life, I tasted what was called, came on the heading of Italian terrazza food.

5:43And Alvaro, did you ever meet her? I did. I think he came here when we opened in the 80s. And then Alvaro then evolved really fast and became very fashionable. He had like white tiles in the restaurant. Yes. The place was tiny. Yeah. And he moved so quickly, evolved so quickly, he opened a club, discotheque and restaurant just across the road, down the street. and in there would be the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney even Warren Beatty so I'd eaten there regularly because I could afford to that's where I came across prosciutto and things and the magic of pasta the story is he got so successful the mafia approached him they wanted a piece they scared him off, he stopped completely and then opened years later in a restaurant at World's End in Chelsea San Lorenzo I've known for years and years and years Mara Was it Mara?

6:37Yeah. And Mara, they were Sardinian. And so on their advice, I had one of the best holidays ever. I went up the coast to a small village that some Italian prince had built like a fake fishing village. And we enjoyed the Sardinian food. Is that where Jake told me that you bought the cheese and you took it home and it had maggots in it? That's right. And then you took it back and the man said that's what it's supposed to be? Yes. But I also love the Sardinian wine. I kind of like the food. Yeah, I like the food. I like the food from Sardinian. Do you have Batarga? Yeah, of course. You have that fish roe and everything they put it on.

7:19But then the evolution into America, I tend to lean towards Italian cuisine always. I don't know why. It's the most baked. Maybe it's simple. Well, if you like that bean soup, it has three ingredients. Simple. And it's simple. I don't like hamburgers and steak. I tend to now, as I've got older, to drift towards being nearly vegan. Oh, yeah, really. Yeah, so, but I like curries. Yeah. When I was at college, the cheapest restaurant near me was an Indian restaurant. Indian restaurant. And I'd go in there. There I discovered that they're very careful about what meat they have, the vegetables they use, and the food was great.

7:59Because let's go back to your parents, your mother and her cooking. I always remember her cooking was really excellent. And would your brothers, Tony and Frank and you, would mealtimes be very important? Yeah, we liked her food. And she liked the fact that we liked her food. And it tended to be stews, whatever we could have. Because you lived in Germany as well. Do you remember that at all, living in Germany and eating German food? In 1947, 1952, my dad became important in Germany. Why? My dad at the end of the war was an acting brigadier general. Right. And he was there for the Marshall Plan, and he was initially involved in D-Day and designing something called Mulberry Harbour, which is how he got all the troops in the Normandy landing.

8:46So when 1947 came around, he said, the war ends in September 1945. He said, we're going to Germany, and I was 10. I went, wow, I love the idea of that. And we went to Hamburg first. Hamburg was as if we dropped a hydrogen bomb. I was going to say, was it completely flattened? It was like we dropped an H-bomb. And then he worked there briefly and said, I'm now going south to Frankfurt and Mainz and be working in Eisenhower's office at the Eger Farm Building. Do you remember food there? Did you remember? Here's where it comes. He said, I'm going to show you something. He took me and my Frank. Tony was about to be born.

9:31and he took me to the American PX, which, of course, is a supermarket. I didn't know what that was. And I'd been on rationing. And he said, this thing is called a soda fountain. He said, and they got out there, he's the soda jerk. He said, I advise that you have a raspberry milkshake. He said, oh, by the way, do try that Coca-Cola. How old were you? Ten. So I got hooked on Coca-Cola when it was in the glass bottle, small glass bottle and I'd do six bottles a day to me I've still got my teeth and so in there was hamburger and it was the American food the American way of life so there was no immersion into German culture no I loved what I saw because everything is shiny and large and the supermarket had apples redder than in Snow White right and they eat them they're tasteless just bigger the taste doesn't matter But, you know, I didn't get over that for a while because I was very impressed by the American way of life.

10:34And then you came back to England. And then we settled down. Was rationing still going? No, no, no. That was over by then. But my dad had to, suddenly the war is over. Right. And all these guys who enjoyed the high-ranking positions suddenly had to join the real world and get a job. And so my dad ended up getting a job in Socknonties, north of England. and we were there for the next 18 years. Were they excited that you were going to the Royal College? Were they excited that you were going to be an artist? No. Because I traveled so much with my father as an army officer growing to become a high-ranking person, I did 10 schools.

11:18So I was academically inept. In those days, parents would say, you'll catch up. Of course, we never did, because you move from one school to the other. Teachers don't care. And teachers in that time, in my generation, hated the pupils, and the pupils hated the teacher. But you knew you could draw. I did nothing but draw since I was three years old. I will draw you in three seconds, okay? Yes. All right. Okay. And there you got it. Ruthie. I'll keep that. Thank you. and so what happened was when I came to this this decision what do I do university what my dad said go to art school he did he said you go to art school do what you love to do draw he said you'll probably be an art teacher be an art teacher but you were thrust into the world of London as he was describing the yeah the the world of artists and art and and Indian food and and different cultures and the ability to, how did that?

12:22But the Royal College eventually really opened me up because you're on your own. Yeah. Did you have money? No. There was no grant. So I'd work task-like. I'd lay runways. I'd concrete. Wow. I'd work in ICI, Imperial Chemical Industries, where I'd pack night shift, dry cold, which it dries from the ammonia plants. And I'd do post office work every Christmas. And then go to school every day? And then they were the holidays. Now save that money. Right. And it would enable me to then, my dad at that time would be on a magic salary of 25 pounds a week. People can't believe that. And the magic salary of 1 ,200 pounds a year.

13:05When I started BBC, I started on a salary which would take more than my father earned in his lifetime. So I started BBC as a designer, 1 ,200 pounds a year. 1 ,200. Yeah. And look at these. It's gastric, I believe it. You spend more than that on breakfast. So that food, again, going back to that culture, if you couldn't afford to eat out, but you could eat it, you discovered Indian restaurants and probably Greek and Italian. I was good with baked beans and toast. Did you cook yourself? Yes. Yeah, you would cook. So you knew what good food was and you wanted to eat it. I think if I want to, I'd be a good chef because it's about being precise.

13:43Yeah. It's also having a good sense of taste. Yeah. I would say if you want to eat well and you can't afford it, you have to learn to cook, don't you? And so even when I was in West Hartlepool Art School, there'd be the day, and then I'd have night school, there'd be a two-hour gap. So instead of getting fish and chips, I'd go to the local shop and buy good cheese, some good bread, and go and have half a pint of cider. That's a meal. But it was selective. It was selective, yeah. Yeah, very selective. and I never ate badly as a student you didn't? no, I mean mum made sure of that she said do this, do that and make sure you don't and she did, don't eat wonderloaf and stuff like that that's it, well did you educate your children that way as well do you think?

14:33I didn't have to, they're all great cooks Jake is an almost professional cook yeah when he came to see me the other day he had just bought red mullet and so we had a long conversation of how he was going to cook the red mullet whether to grill it, whether to do it. He's really good. And he was a serious cook. And his daughter is a cook. And Luke is a serious cook as well. And your granddaughter, Cuba, apparently is going to come cook with me here. You'll be in shock. Why? She is so clever. Yeah. So you, so, and the women that you married, did you, did you? My first wife was Mother Auster. And that's why when I was 18, I was wooing my wife, would be my first wife, 18, 19, 20, so I went to the Royal College.

15:20And I'd go up, she lived in this town called Peter Lee in the north of England, just north of Hartlepool. Her mum was Austrian. That's the first time I tasted garlic. And I thought, God, the garlic is wonderful. And I'd go home, my mum said, what's that terrible smell? Are you eating garlic? And that's how I was introduced to garlic. So she cooked and then... She was a very good cook. And I didn't dare say to my mum, actually, better than she was. Maybe married into a... Well, and Felicity could always cook. So Felicity was the mother of Jake and Mary. Yeah, he said that his mum was a great cook.

15:55And from that, it all evolved. They could both cook.

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17:18Plus, 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. 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. In advertising, you were making... Building a company. Building a company. So were you like in Mad Men, were you the sort of Don Draper of London?

18:00Did you have those long martini lunches and a bar in your office? No, no, no. We opened the office in London and it took off. And then I opened an office in Paris and it took off. Did you eat well in Paris? Yeah, I loved, preferred Paris then. Yeah. I don't know why, what happened? To Paris now? Yes. Paris then, there were a lot of brasseries. Yeah. Either because it was fresh and new to me, because I really enjoyed the French cuisine at that point. I'm not sure I enjoy it as much now. There's still a very strong culture of food in France. You can get into a taxi cab and the guy will tell you how to cook a sea bass.

18:41I think there is. It's probably changing, but I think there is. But didn't things kind of slightly modernize? And I noticed that the modernization of the French food is better than the... It becomes more interesting when it's done properly, when they lose all the sauces and things like that. Yeah, yeah. We were just talking about the three ingredients. Too much sauce. There's a lot of... And you have to, you know, if you're going to have three ingredients, they have to be really good, don't they? Well, when you're good with sources, that's another story. You can't, yeah. So you were with Alan Parker and David Putnam.

19:11We were so competitive, we weren't friends. It was highly competitive. And there used to be this thing called Monday Morning Newcomers, and I'd sit there with a cup between a cigarette and say, who did that? Adrian Knight. Damn. Who did that? Alan Parker. Damn. in reality at that moment there'd be Alan Parker Adrian Lyon and me then we were the leader of the pack we all had our own production company we were a separate company we were absolutely in competition and so and the English advertising and they called the English light got leaked into France and leaked into America so then I shipped out frequently to America to shoot just commercials in America and that's when I then opened an office in America So agencies would come to you and say...

19:58Yeah, they'd look at the real... What was it like? If we can, we can talk about one ad, which was about bread, food. Yes. So tell me about Hovis. Hovis was, they'd come to me and say, we have a campaign, a series, and I would look... I think I'm blessed with a good eye. I have a very good eye. And when I was doing commercials, I discovered it was better to be in a kitchen the chef can stir his own concoction. to me it was better to operate so i'm a very good camera operator so i did camera operating on two and a half thousand commercials everything handheld the whole goddamn nine hours so then when i do the duelist that's me on one camera when i do alien that's me on one camera blade running me so all all this evolved into the exercise and art of that and and photographing um and in advertising We were so successful that a lot of very good over-the-top lunches, we'd have at the lunch, Bloody Mary, followed by a bottle of wine and go back to work.

21:03Yeah. Which is not a good idea. It doesn't work. Do you do that now? No. You said that you made an advertisement like a feature film. The 30-second commercial I regard as a film, and you could tell a big story in 30 seconds if you know what you're doing. I did Steve Jobs' first commercial. I know, the Mac. I met the agency. They came in the sheet of paper and said, George Orwell, at the end, it says, we're going to show you how 1984 ain't going to be like 1984. And I said, what is this? What's it for? They said, well, it's a computer. So we don't talk about a computer. You don't show a computer.

21:41No. I said, well, who's this girl running down a corridor? Well, that's freedom. She's being pursued by Orwellian threatening people. I said, oh, it's George Orwell. OK, what's it for? Computer, for what? Domestic computer. I said to the Zwas and Steve, I said, what, you need a computer, right? Shopping list? What's the matter with a pad and pencil? He just laughed. I was on a film set the other day, and George Clooney was there and Adam Sandler, and they did, you know, take after take. I've never been on it. He gave me a little part. Hint, hint. He gave me a part in this movie. So Ridley, Ridley.

22:23Yeah. He gave me a little part in his movie. So next time, we'll have a little Ruthie Rogers cameo. I said not one word, but it was really interesting to see. I do two takes. Think about it. I'm casting a good actor. Yeah. And he's got a script. He's had the script for a month or two. He is, she is prepared what she's going to do. There's nothing worse in the morning than they walk in and the director starts to talk about the meaning of life. They want to just get on with it. And how are you on set? Is it fun to be on a Ridley Scott movie? Is it charming? I think they are. They keep coming back.

23:03I'd like to talk about food in movies. So we can remember Blade Runner and the noodles. We can remember Alien. Well, that was, yeah, grain, dried food. So would you talk to me about movies and film? Well, making a movie is all to do with research, and I have a great team. And so I've worked with my costume designer, Giante, since the first Gladiator, but before that there were other costume designers. Arthur Maxx I've worked for. He's a production designer since just after Thumb and Louise. I've worked with different people, and over the years it's simply easier to take up reins with people you know because we are so fast as I finish I'm already prepping the next one you're prepping Bee Gees now I haven't quite delivered the gladiator so that for me is normal but it means it's practical, I hold on to the team I let it go they're gone and I need the team keeping my team makes me more efficient and they like it because they never stop working and so when you're thinking about let's take one movie, take a movie and talk to me about the food in one of your movies oh Alien would be what do people eat in space it would have to be dried food it would have to be water that somehow you generate from condensation in the ship is there condensation in the ship?

24:37there is now because Harry Dean Stanton died in a landing leg room was dripping with water. So I made that up to him. That was all bullshit. He said, what is it? Conversation. From what? He said, well, you know. And I think also by then you'll have learned to absorb your chemicals from your own body which will be turned in reconsumption. Now, in space, that packaging is edible. So all the packaging is light but it's there to be cooked. and actually Martian to me is one of my favourite recent films in a way because it's a comedy in a way because Fox said a comedy I said yes a comedy why he said well anybody survives by eating their own shit it's got to be comedy that'd be funny hello he said you're right okay so but I think it was such a blow by blow logical piece of science and yet it was amusing I thought it worked perfectly it's a good film he said to me when he squeezed it Matt Damon he said with tomato ketchup I love tomato ketchup he said should have ordered more ketchup because he was living on potatoes so he had to eke out the ketchup potatoes and ketchup why are potatoes so marvellous?

25:59I will let you answer that question well there can be chips creamed potatoes boiled potatoes because it's no wonder it's a marvelous staple. It's a great food, isn't it? And the food is gladiator? What did they eat, gladiators? Eggs, chicken, grain. If you're upper class, that's another story. You have what you want. Eating everything from probably, and I think probably the Italians were healthier than the Brits who would eat hung meat, which is rotting without vegetables because they didn't like vegetables. Do you think about food? When you wake up in the morning, do you think about what you're going to eat that day?

26:39No, it's a plan. It's a plan. I got blueberries, cherries. That's your breakfast, is it? Breakfast with Greek yogurts, espresso. That's it. And lunch? Lunchtime, protein with salad. Evening, only vegetables, and vegetables cooked in some clever way. How long have you been on this? I like curried vegetables. How long have you been on this regime? About ten years. Ten years. And it works. It's good for you. I'm still here. I'm 87. And I do drink after dinner. You drink after dinner. I don't drink with it, you know. But when you go to a restaurant, do you break the rules? No. No, I tend to stick with the rule book, yeah.

27:19And when you travel, do you think about, like, where are you shooting the Bee Gees? Oh, probably England. The Bee Gees. A lot of time in England. I've got to do Miami. What's your favourite Bee Gees song? Massachusetts.

27:38If you like listening to Ruthie's Table 4, would you please make sure to rate and review the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.

28:00Let's be real. Life happens. Kids spill. Pets shed. And accidents are inevitable. Find a sofa that can keep up at washablesofas.com. Starting at just$699, our sofas are fully machine washable inside and out. So you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry-free living. Made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics. They're kid-proof, pet-friendly, and built for everyday life. Plus, changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want. Need flexibility? Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa anytime to fit your space, whether it's a growing family room or a cozy apartment.