Stanley Tucci:
I don't mean to be pushy and I don't mean to be method, but I really think we need to cook together.
Kerry Diamond:
Hey, Bombesquad, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe. I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Brooklyn, New York. We have a special treat for you today. It's Ina Garten and Stanley Tucci, yes, in conversation from the Julia Jubilee, Cherry Bombe's virtual conference dedicated to the life and legacy of Julia Child. These two met for the very first time over Zoom for a chat about the film Julie & Julia, in which Stanley of course, played Julia's husband, Paul.
Kerry Diamond:
They also talk about cooking with Meryl Streep, their love of Nora Ephron, and what they would make for Julia Child if she stopped by for dinner. Ina even drops a little surprise about her pre-Barefoot Contessa days. If you missed the event with Stanley and Ina, here's your chance to listen in. If you're a new listener to Radio Cherry Bombe, you might not know this, but we have a magazine in addition to our podcast, and I am the editor of the magazine.
Kerry Diamond:
Cherry Bombe magazine comes out twice a year and is all about women and food. Our recent Julia Child issue sold out, but we just reprinted it, and you can order a copy right now. Swing by cherrybombe.com to buy the Julia issue, a back issue or to subscribe. Today's episode is sponsored by Crate & Barrel, one of my favorites. I love their couches, love their cookware, love everything Crate & Barrel does.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm going to make a prediction here. I'm not really going out on a limb on this one, but summer 2021 is definitely going to be the summer of the picnic. Crate & Barrel not only has all your indoor dining essentials, they have your outdoor ones, too. Picnic baskets, wheeled coolers, outdoor wine glasses and my personal favorite, the Table In A Bag. Trust me on this one, the Table In A Bag and yes, that's what it's called, is perfect for the beach, for the park.
Kerry Diamond:
Sling it over your shoulder or toss it in your trunk. It's only $59.95 and lets you al fresco it anywhere. Visit crateandbarrel.com for more, and thank you so much to Crate & Barrel for being a sponsor of the Julia Jubilee and Radio Cherry Bombe. Now, here's Ina and Stanley.
Ina Garten:
Hi, Stanley. I'm so happy to see you, even if it's just digitally.
Stanley Tucci:
I know, me, too. This is a real pleasure to finally meet you.
Ina Garten:
You must be the busiest guy on the planet. So first you've got a new movie coming out, Super Nova, with Colin Firth, your friend. And of course, we all want to be friends with Colin Firth, right?
Stanley Tucci:
Good guy to be friends with, yeah.
Ina Garten:
You've got a new book called Taste, which is a food memoir, which sounds amazing, and you've got a fabulous series on CNN called Searching for Italy, which I think has gotten rave reviews. I loved it, I absolutely adored it.
Stanley Tucci:
Thank you.
Ina Garten:
And because you didn't have enough else to do, you decided you'd do a few videos of you making cocktails that went crazy. You just were bored and you were sitting around in the pandemic?
Stanley Tucci:
Yes, I just wanted to show everyone how much my wife and I drink, that's all. That was just a fluke, that.
Ina Garten:
Isn't that crazy? Because I did a Cosmopolitan and I thought, "Oh, those will just be fun. I'll just put it up," and no idea that people were desperate for a drink or to see somebody having fun making cocktails.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, exactly. It's really a needed thing now in the space.
Ina Garten:
That's right. It was really great. So we promised these guys we'd talk about Julia Child, so can we do that, and then we can just go on about our obsession with food?
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Ina Garten:
So how did the role of Paul Child come to you?
Stanley Tucci:
Well, so I was at a friend's Christmas party. Our friend, Meryl and I, a friend, Natasha Richardson. She's actually passed away, but if you want to talk about a great cook, she was an amazing cook. So we were at her annual Christmas party and Meryl said, "Would you like to play Paul Child in this movie I'm going to make with Nora about Julia Child?" And I said, "No, are you kidding? Why would..." I said yes, of course.
Ina Garten:
First time you'd say no to Meryl Streep.
Stanley Tucci:
To say no? Yeah.
Ina Garten:
Or to Nora Ephron.
Stanley Tucci:
To Nora, and also I loved Julia Child. In fact, I wrote about her in the book.
Ina Garten:
Did you know her?
Stanley Tucci:
No, I didn't. I was invited to her... I don't know what birthday it was. It might have been her 90th birthday or something and I couldn't go, and I was so sad that I couldn't go. But I remember watching her when I was a kid with my Mom. My Mom was a huge fan of hers and so she was such an inspiration for me. She, along with, oh God. What's his name? That wonderful British Keith Floyd.
Ina Garten:
What's his name?
Stanley Tucci:
Keith Floyd.
Ina Garten:
Yes.
Stanley Tucci:
Keith Floyd, and those two are just the most brilliant sort of TV cooks. They were incredible. Anyway, I just loved Julia Child and of course Meryl and Nora, and we ended up doing it about a year later.
Ina Garten:
You mentioned her 90th birthday. I always remember her being on Larry King for her 90th birthday, and he said, "So, Julia, what's the secret of life to you? Of your long life?" And she said, "Well, I have lots of different things in very small quantities and I have a very good time." And I thought, "That's just what we all need to do."
Stanley Tucci:
She's right.
Ina Garten:
She was absolutely right.
Stanley Tucci:
She knew how to do it, yeah. Yeah.
Ina Garten:
There are two scenes in the movie that I just adore, and I know you've probably talked about the movie ad infinitum, in Julie & Julia. One is when you're in the restaurant, that iconic thing where Julia tastes the sole meuniere, and she's trying to decide what to do. Do you remember how the conversation went?
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, I do. We actually shot that scene down in The Village.
Ina Garten:
Oh, you did?
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, it was one of the first scenes we shot, if I'm not mistaken. First of all, I love sole meuniere.
Ina Garten:
Yeah, I do, too.
Stanley Tucci:
It was absolutely delicious that day. This fellow was making it left and right and I do remember it and it was just so much fun. It was a great way to sort of start off things because we really got to eat and Nora was great about letting you play around with stuff, too. So once you tasted something, and it really tasted good. It wasn't like most movie food, which tastes terrible. It was real and you couldn't help but react organically, spontaneously.
Ina Garten:
So you said she was trying to figure out what to do, and you said to her, "Well, what do you like to do?" And she said, "Well, I like to eat." And you said to her, "Well, you're very good at it."
Stanley Tucci:
Very good at it.
Ina Garten:
Was that in the script or was that…?
Stanley Tucci:
No, no. No, I made it up.
Ina Garten:
It's such a wonderful moment. It felt like you might have.
Stanley Tucci:
Yes, I made it up.
Ina Garten:
I'm so glad it ended up in the script.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, me, too. Me, too. We laughed. It was one of those movies that you just... Not every movie you make is fun to make.
Ina Garten:
Of course.
Stanley Tucci:
You know this.
Ina Garten:
There's a chemistry and organic thing that happens.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah. Yeah, with this, the wonderful group of people. I mean, I never got to work with Amy or Chris, sadly.
Ina Garten:
Yeah, that's right. They were two different movies.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, I know. I know, but working with her again after Devil Wears Prada, and we were becoming more friendly, was just the greatest experience. And she so completely embodied Julia Child.
Ina Garten:
It's extraordinary, just extraordinary.
Stanley Tucci:
It's a really hard thing to do, because she was so mimicked by Dan Ackroyd, which is actually in the movie. Everybody did. Everybody did that.
Ina Garten:
I mean, I just did it.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, I know! I mean-
Ina Garten:
And the thing about it is, it's one thing to create a character that's fictional because you can really kind of get into it, but in this case, she's creating a character where everybody just adores her and knows her, so it's very hard to do, I'd imagine.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, it's really, really, really hard to do.
Ina Garten:
Of course, Paul was less well known, but I mean, you were just such a gorgeous, gorgeous support for her.
Stanley Tucci:
Oh, thanks. Well, it was so much fun, and Paul had a very, by all accounts... I got to meet his nephew or great-nephew.
Ina Garten:
Who wrote the book about Julia?
Stanley Tucci:
Alex.
Ina Garten:
Yeah.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, Alex Prud'homme, who is a really, really wonderful guy and incredibly helpful to me. And he said he had this real Boston Brahmin accent.
Ina Garten:
Oh, seriously?
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, and I thought, "No, I can't do this, because if I do that and she's doing Julia Child, it would just be too many different accents and too much going on," and since nobody knew what he sounded like-
Ina Garten:
Exactly, yeah.
Stanley Tucci:
It was fine. Really it was about just the support that he gave her.
Ina Garten:
Well, I mean, I'm assuming this is what Paul was like because this is what my husband Jeffrey's like, is he never tries to fix anything. He never tries to say, "Do this" or "Do that." He just always kind of reflects what I want to do and just supports it and encourages it, and that's what it felt like Paul did. Was that true to the character?
Stanley Tucci:
Absolutely.
Ina Garten:
True to the person?
Stanley Tucci:
No, absolutely. I think there were times when people have said he could be quite cantankerous and a bit grumpy and cranky, but I don't necessarily know with her. I think he's the one who really felt that she could do all the things that she ended up doing and helped in any way he could. He used to wash dishes after the television shows and carry her kit and all this stuff, for years.
Ina Garten:
Remember, this was a different time, when men weren't the second... They didn't share the spotlight with a woman.
Stanley Tucci:
Absolutely.
Ina Garten:
So it's even more extraordinary in that time.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, and he was older than she was, too. And he ended up going into a nursing home, I think, in his '70s.
Ina Garten:
Yeah, I remember that.
Stanley Tucci:
He was in there for quite a long time. She went to visit him all the time but that was a profound love that they had.
Ina Garten:
Yeah, and I loved the playfulness of it. I mean, the thing in the bathtub for Valentine's Day. That was hilarious, just hilarious.
Stanley Tucci:
I mean, you know she was funny. I mean, you just know from those shows and I so remember watching them as a kid and just thinking, "That's just the greatest person in the world."
Ina Garten:
Yeah, because she was exactly who she was and that's what works on film.
Stanley Tucci:
Yes, exactly.
Ina Garten:
It's really wonderful. I love Nora. I knew Nora.
Stanley Tucci:
I know. I know you were friends. I know.
Ina Garten:
Tell me what it was like working with her.
Stanley Tucci:
She bragged about it.
Ina Garten:
What?
Stanley Tucci:
She bragged about being your friend.
Ina Garten:
She did?
Stanley Tucci:
Yes, she did.
Ina Garten:
She actually told me she gave Meryl Streep one of my books when she was doing that. It was really so, so lovely. So tell me what it was like working with Nora. I imagine she created a set that was like a party.
Stanley Tucci:
Well, it was. It was like a party. It was just fun. There was nothing not fun about it. She was very exacting. She never over-directed you, but she was still very exacting. She wanted it to be this way, "This is how we're going to shoot it, and it's going to be like this." And I personally love that because-
Ina Garten:
You know what to do.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, you know what to do. There's nothing worse than watching a director flounder around, sort of going and you're like, "Can we go now because... Go eat dinner." But of course, she wrote it so she was very specific, and yet still there was a lot of room to play, a lot of room to play. And for Meryl and I, who both like to improvise and have no issue with that at all. Some actors don't like to do it, but I love to do it. She was really great about it. And then she knows, it's her movie. If she doesn't like it, she'd just cut it out later.
Ina Garten:
Yeah, that's great. So can I tell you my favorite Nora story about food?
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah.
Ina Garten:
It was I don't know how many years ago. I'm thinking eight, she and Nick Pileggi, decided to go to Turkey sometime around Christmas, and they were coming back through Paris. And she called to say, "Are you in Paris?" And we were, so we made a date to have lunch together. It was the day of Christmas Eve, so we were meeting at noon or one o'clock in the afternoon to have lunch together.
Ina Garten:
And we took them to a restaurant called Le Récamier, which is famous for its soufflés. It's the kind of place that the top government officials hang out. The Obamas went there when they were in Paris. It's just such a wonderful place. So here we are at this table in Récamier. It was a gorgeous, sunny, cold day in Paris, having lunch, drinking champagne, eating soufflés, just having the most hilarious time, because you can only have an hilarious time with Nick and Nora.
Stanley Tucci:
Oh, my God.
Ina Garten:
And at some point during the lunch, Nora raises her champagne glass and says, "To quote Warner LeRoy..." who was the great restaurateur in New York, "To quote Warner LeRoy, 'To better times.'" And of course, there wasn't a better time. So all of us fell over laughing hysterically. It was a moment. And then six months later, she died. And only six months later did I realize, she had just found out that there was nothing they could do for her.
Ina Garten:
And it was so Nora, in this terrible time, she wanted to make sure everybody was having a wonderful time. And I don't know whether it was denial and she was just having a wonderful time herself, but everybody at that table beside us, of course, knew that it was a terrible time. So it was such a [crosstalk 00:15:29] irony and joy and all of those layers that she was so extraordinary.
Stanley Tucci:
She was so beautifully ironic and-
Ina Garten:
And it just shows in that moment to me exactly who she was.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah.
Ina Garten:
If Julia and Paul Child were coming to dinner, what would you make for them?
Stanley Tucci:
Well, I certainly wouldn't make anything French, that's for sure.
Ina Garten:
I certainly wouldn't, yeah.
Stanley Tucci:
No, I wouldn't, no.
Ina Garten:
You want to make what you love.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, I would make what I love and what I know. I wouldn't experiment with them.
Ina Garten:
No, I wouldn't, either.
Stanley Tucci:
No, no. I wouldn't even make a roast chicken for her, something supposedly very simple, but actually in some ways it isn't very simple.
Ina Garten:
Really, it isn't.
Stanley Tucci:
No. No, it isn't, and it's one of the greatest things in the world, but you have to know how to do it, otherwise it's dry or it's whatever it is.
Ina Garten:
It's awful, yeah. And it's so easy to make a good one. You just have to, as you say, know how to do it.
Stanley Tucci:
Yes, you just have to know how to do it, but I think I would probably make either pasta alle vongole.
Ina Garten:
Oh, that's so special.
Stanley Tucci:
Which is just so simple. It's three ingredients, it's nothing. Or maybe I would even do a cioppino, do you know what I mean?
Ina Garten:
I love cioppino.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, something like that, a simple dish stew.
Ina Garten:
Really rustic.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, with toasted bread and then maybe something simple for an appetizer and a salad, and that's it. That's it.
Ina Garten:
That sounds good.
Stanley Tucci:
And lots of wine.
Ina Garten:
Lots of wine, and she would love it. She would be so happy.
Stanley Tucci:
Supposedly, Julia Child said that she sort of dismissed Italian cuisine at one point.
Ina Garten:
She did, actually. I've heard that. I don't know whether it's true or not.
Stanley Tucci:
I read it somewhere and I was horrified, but then I think it was Alex who said to me, he goes "She loved it, are you kidding? She just ate anything. It was just to get people... She loved Italian food.
Ina Garten:
What I had read, and I have no idea whether it's true or not, is that she dismissed Italian cooking because she goes, "It's not cooking." And that's exactly what we love about it.
Stanley Tucci:
I know.
Ina Garten:
Because it's about good ingredients that are just prepared and put together like the pasta alle vongole. It's three ingredients, but they're really good ingredients.
Stanley Tucci:
Right, I mean having made, well, actually Meryl and I made the blanquette de veau one day.
Ina Garten:
On the film?
Stanley Tucci:
No, we did it when we were getting ready for the film. I was in New Zealand making The Lovely Bones and I talked to her on the phone and I said, "Look, I don't mean to be pushy." And she was working on something and we had this very limited period of time where we could sort of be together before we started filming. And I said, "I don't mean to be pushy and I don't mean to be method, but I really think we need to cook together just once, in the kitchen. We'll cook, we'll make a meal" for my late wife Kate and a mutual friend of ours. And she goes, "All right, okay." So "Make one of Julia's recipes."
Stanley Tucci:
"All right, okay."
Ina Garten:
Oh, how wonderful.
Stanley Tucci:
So we picked blanquette de veau and she made a tarte Tatin, which was delicious, but of course, we didn't have all the ingredients. We thought we had everything. She said she thought she had everything. She didn't, so then we had to go shopping and then this, and then it got late, and then it got this. We were supposed to eat at 8:00, we ate at 10:00, but the blanquette de veau was really, really, they're quite complex. I'm calling her Julia, but her recipe for beef bourguignon is like.
Ina Garten:
It's four pages long. I know that recipe very well.
Stanley Tucci:
It's four pages long, you know it. And I was like, "Are you kidding? It can't be that complicated."
Ina Garten:
I took that recipe, actually, and simplified it, and I also found that when Julia was making it, the beef was really tough so you had to cook it forever. If we cooked our beef forever, it gets kind of dry and stringy.
Stanley Tucci:
I know, it's horrible.
Ina Garten:
So I started taking it out of the oven after three hours and then I made another one, took it out after two-and-a-half hours. Hers cooks for four hours and it doesn't. It cooks in two-and-a-half hours and I swear to God it takes less time to make my recipe than it does to read hers. I mean, it's just so complicated and it's really much simpler now.
Stanley Tucci:
Every third step is "And then add butter," and you're like.
Ina Garten:
Well, I don't have a problem with that.
Stanley Tucci:
I got to where at one point I thought, "I cannot add more butter to this." And I have this apron that Nora gave us all.
Ina Garten:
Oh, do you? Oh, what a…
Stanley Tucci:
I wear it all the time, that says "Is there anything better than butter?"
Ina Garten:
That's so Nora. Isn't that great? I love that. So will you tell me the story of how you met Felicity? Because I think it was at a wedding, right?
Stanley Tucci:
Yes, it was at Emma's wedding. Yeah, it was at Emily's wedding. Well, I actually had met her at The Devil Wears Prada premiere.
Ina Garten:
You had, yeah.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, just briefly. And then after Kate died, I took the kids to Italy and my parents and Kate's Dad, and we went to Italy for a few weeks to Tuscany, because we'd always wanted to do that with the kids and we weren't ever able to. So we went and Emily's getting married at George Clooney's house, because everyone gets married [crosstalk 00:21:57]
Ina Garten:
Because everybody gets married at George Clooney's house. Why not?
Stanley Tucci:
That was the reason. So I said, "I'm going to go to the wedding," and I took the train from Florence and I went there and it was such a beautiful wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding, and Meryl was there, too, and it was gorgeous, gorgeous. And I met Felicity and we hit it off. We talked about food. We just talked about food.
Ina Garten:
Didn't she just eat more than you'd ever seen anybody eat in your life?
Stanley Tucci:
Never seen anything like it.
Ina Garten:
You thought, "This is the woman for me."
Stanley Tucci:
No, she spoke, that was it. I mean, it's amazing. It's amazing. I will send you a picture of our pantry. We're both voracious eaters and she's tall and slender and I was like, "How do you put it away like that?" So yeah, we met and then I was coming to London to do a film and I said, "Okay, well let's get together and have dinner." And then that was it. I was like, "Wow! That's incredible." And she knew every great restaurant and it wasn't like, "Oh, this is the fanciest restaurant," it was "This is a great restaurant."
Ina Garten:
Yeah, I don't like the fancy restaurants. I think that I mean, the way you feel about Italy is the way I feel about France. My family came from a shtetl, not from Paris, but your family actually came from Italy. Where in Italy did they come from?
Stanley Tucci:
They came from Calabria, which is where Nick's families came from.
Ina Garten:
Oh, is that right?
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, Nick and Gay Talese, their family is from Calabria as well. Incredibly poor, which is why so many Italians from basically Naples down-
Ina Garten:
Came here.
Stanley Tucci:
Came here, because the poverty was staggering. I mean, you had these what they used to call seigneurs, actually the French word for a land owner and you were basically an indentured servant.
Ina Garten:
Incredible.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, and so-
Ina Garten:
And yet they ate well.
Stanley Tucci:
But they ate really well. But that's the genesis of the cuisine is because it's the cucina povera, but even up in Piemonte, even up in Lombardy, they were wealthier parts but still, most of the people were incredibly poor. And so they relied on whatever was available to them and they learned how to cultivate things that nobody would be able to cultivate in those climates or those regions. Amazing.
Ina Garten:
Yeah, well that's one of the things about your series Finding Italy, which is so extraordinary. I mean, Americans think of pasta and pizza. It's certainly not the cuisine. I mean, it's part of the cuisine, but also the different areas and how unique they are. I mea. I watched the show on Bologna. I just wanted to get on a plane and go there immediately. Not to mention Massimo Bottura. Isn't he a doll? Isn't he just wonderful. He's like an overgrown child, he's so light and he's just thrilled with everything. That must have been really fun to go around with him.
Stanley Tucci:
I love him. I love him, I love him, and you've met him.
Ina Garten:
Actually, I've never met him in person, but he did a wonderful dish for me on a Thanksgiving show that I did and he just felt like a six-year-old, just having so much fun cooking and I could see it with you, too. It was just adorable. Yeah, we kind of emailed each other but I've never had a chance to meet him.
Stanley Tucci:
He's a really lovely guy and his wife is from-
Ina Garten:
She's American.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah.
Ina Garten:
Where is she from?
Stanley Tucci:
She grew up right where I grew up. She grew up in Bedford.
Ina Garten:
Really?
Stanley Tucci:
I grew up in Katonah.
Ina Garten:
Oh, I grew up half a mile in Connecticut from Bedford so when I meet her, we'll-
Stanley Tucci:
Oh, you did?
Ina Garten:
Yeah, I did. Yeah.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, she is amazing. Amazing, incredible woman. She told me, she said "I was a waitress at the Friendly's in Mount Kisco."
Ina Garten:
Isn't that great? We all had starter jobs that don't have anything to do with…
Stanley Tucci:
Oh yes, yes. I love that.
Stanley Tucci:
Really?
Ina Garten:
I don't think I've ever said that out loud before, Stanley, so we'll keep it with us, right?
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, they might have to edit that out.
Ina Garten:
So, in your travels around Italy, you saw so many products. Was there one in particular that you just adored, that was surprising to you?
Stanley Tucci:
Oh, yeah. That's interesting. I think that the cheese in Lombardy, the Bitto cheese, which is a cheese that's sort of akin to Parmigiana but is aged for even longer. It can be aged up to 18 years.
Ina Garten:
Wow!
Stanley Tucci:
And it has a little bit of goat's milk in it, which allows it to be aged longer for some reason.
Ina Garten:
So is it a little tangier and a little sharper?
Stanley Tucci:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah and this guy.
Ina Garten:
It's a lot tangier and a lot sharper.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, and this guy makes it in a traditional way that the European Union changed the rules, but he makes it in the old-fashioned way, and some of these wheels will sell for thousands and thousands. It's the most expensive cheese in the world and it's made by this guy in this little place. It's absolutely incredible cheese.
Ina Garten:
Tell me the name of it again.
Stanley Tucci:
Bitto, B-I-T-T-O.
Ina Garten:
Wow! That sounds fabulous.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, that was it. I've never heard of anything like it and they use it in pizzoccheri. We would normally use Parmigiana in it because we don't have access to Bitto, but it's traditionally, because it's from that area, as is pizzoccheri, that's what they use. That's what they use.
Ina Garten:
Isn't that fabulous, because I mean, an aged Parmesan can be just extraordinary, really so nutty and sharp and just extraordinary, yeah.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah, the one I tasted with Massimo was extraordinary. The Bitto is on another plane. It's a very different cheese, but it has the hints of Parmesan.
Ina Garten:
That sounds fabulous. Wow!
Stanley Tucci:
Can I ask you one question?
Ina Garten:
Sure.
Stanley Tucci:
Is there a show that you did that you think, "Oh, I loved doing that show." Certain shows, you go "Yeah, that's okay." Is there one that you go, "Oh, I loved that."
Ina Garten:
Well actually, interestingly, it involved Emily because Rob Marshall and John DeLuca came to me and said they were doing Mary Poppins Returns. They'd just finished filming, and could we do a show together? And I was like, "Who would say...?" I mean, it's like Meryl asking you if want to be Paul Child. No, I'm not interested.
Stanley Tucci:
There you go.
Ina Garten:
But as the time got closer and closer and Rob said to me, "What I'd love for you to do is come into New York and see the movie before we actually do the show together, so you'll know about Lin-Manuel and Emily and you'll know what the setup is for the movie." So I went into New York and they put me in a screening room, I thought by myself, to watch the movie before it had ever been shown. I mean, there were tears in my eyes the entire time and I was just singing along and dancing, and having such a good time.
Ina Garten:
And then after the movie was over, I got up and turned around to leave and I realized there was the screening guy behind me watching me. I was so embarrassed. But then I came back and we decided that we would make a meal together, so everybody was supposed to bring one thing or make one thing for the meal. So Emily said she was going to make her roast potatoes that her family always made at Christmas time.
Ina Garten:
Rob and John were going to make a cocktail and Lin-Manuel, who doesn't cook at all, we decided that we would ask him to roast. So Lin's roasting and he goes, "I don't know." He's filming himself in the car, he goes "I don't know. I'm supposed to cook something. I have no idea what it is." I'm there showing him how to roast... I mean, it's basically string beans with olive oil, salt and pepper. You put it in the oven.
Ina Garten:
I mean, even Lin-Manuel Miranda can make that and Emily comes over to him and she says, "Oh, olive oil, you know what that is, right?" And he goes, "Of course, it's Popeye's girlfriend." And the relationship and the fun between the four of them, Rob Marshall, John DeLuca, Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel was so clear from having made the movie together, and it was so much fun doing that show and putting that meal together that I actually for the first time forgot I was filming anything. We were just having a wonderful time. And so it's so funny that you would ask me that question because it was about your sister-in-law. Absolutely heaven.
Stanley Tucci:
Oh, my God. I'm very happy to know that. Let me tell you something, you are incredible. You're so amazing to watch. It's so effortless.
Ina Garten:
Oh, thanks. Thank-you.
Stanley Tucci:
It's also effortless to watch. Sometimes you watch somebody and you're like, "Uh, this is hard work watching that person." But you're like, "Do they know what they're..."
Ina Garten:
It's not hard work watching you.
Stanley Tucci:
Oh, you're very kind. But it really is, it's just so great, and you've done it. You've done it so well for so long.
Ina Garten:
Almost 20 years, isn't that crazy? Almost 20 years.
Stanley Tucci:
I can't believe it's been that long.
Ina Garten:
I can't believe anybody's still watching.
Stanley Tucci:
But it's great. It's really amazing, and very few people have that thing now but you do. It's great.
Ina Garten:
Well, I kind of do less. I never want to over-saturate it so when Food Network say "Can't you do another 60 shows?" I'm like, "No, I don't think so." I want people to be less wanting more, not less.
Stanley Tucci:
That's the thing. It's like when you do a play, and you have these very, very long runs, but I always like to do a shorter run, because you should always be left on an inhale. You should always be left not hating the play. You should be left loving it.
Ina Garten:
Should we leave this conversation right there? Leave the audience not wishing we'd said less, not more? Can we promise to make dinner together sometime? After the pandemic is over?
Stanley Tucci:
My God! You have no idea how much I would love that.
Ina Garten:
I would love that. I would absolutely love it. I'll be your sous-chef.
Stanley Tucci:
Please, no, likewise. I'll do whatever you want. I'll be your Paul Child.
Ina Garten:
And I'll play Julia. I don't think so. I think there's only one Julia.
Stanley Tucci:
Yeah. Yeah.
Ina Garten:
Stanley, I've just loved talking to you. Thank you so much. I love your joy. I love your interest in food and I love, really, everything you do. It's just wonderful.
Stanley Tucci:
Well, I feel the same about you, and thanks so much.
Ina Garten:
Thank you. It's so good to see you. And give my love to Emily.
Stanley Tucci:
I will, of course, yeah.
Ina Garten:
Okay, ciao.
Stanley Tucci:
Bye-bye.
Ina Garten:
See you soon.
Stanley Tucci:
See you soon.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's episode. Thank you so much to Ina Garten and Stanley Tucci for their wonderful conversation. How much do you love these two? Check out Ina's latest cookbook, the bestseller Modern Comfort Food. It is very comforting. And check out Stanley's CNN series, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. The show is amazing. If you haven't watched it yet, you really need to and you will thank me later.
Kerry Diamond:
If you missed the Stanley and Ina Zoom event, make sure to sign up for the Cherry Bombe newsletter. Learn about our events, special programming, radio episodes and more. Sign up at cherrybombe.com. Radio Cherry Bombe is produced by Cherry Bombe Media and this show was edited by Jenna Sadhu. Thank you for listening everybody. You are the bombe.
Harry from When Harry Met Sally:
I'll have what she's having.