Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S14 Ep 14: Rita Wilson

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

She’s a Hollywood actress, a singer, a hugely successful film producer, and this week we managed to get Rita Wilson to New Cross to join us for lunch. Rita told us all about her love of everything Greek and her shared love of Skopelos (where they filmed her Mamma Mia films!), her new duets album ’Now & Forever’, her favourite dessert of Lime Jello mixed with cream cheese (!!!), and how she and the fabulous Nora Ephron would regularly swap their favourite recipes over dinner parties. We absolutely loved having you over Rita, we’ll let you know how our attempt at the lime jello pudding turns out! x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm here with Mum. And I'm just going to say, give a little hint, Cali Merida. We're going to meet someone who's essentially American but with a big Greek heritage. And a big fat Greek heritage. And also has sung with Jules Holland, has songs with Jools Holland, was just on the Royal Variety performance, was in some of our favourite films. And produced some of our favourite films.

Married to a quite well-known actor and is coming round for a little bit of lunch. What have you made, darling? Now, I'm not going to throw her under the bus, but as with many Americans that are on this show, they do have a few dietary requirements. And this lady hates a meat with a fruit. There aren't many meats with fruits that I eat. My better chicken.

It's like our favourite. Oh, yeah, I suppose so. I don't know. Lamb with prunes. You don't eat that every day, do you? No, but I think I cook quite a lot with fruit and meat. Anyway, so. You've realised that now.

It's off the menu. So what have I done? It is probably the coldest day in forever. There's still snow. Someone told me it was minus eight last night. Really? Well, it's minus one at the moment. The sun is out.

I think it's minus one in this house as well. Yeah, sorry. Sam's in charge of the heating. So we are doing something. And I feel like I now understand, mum. Yeah. I understand. It's quite stressful.

Yeah, it's pressurised. Thinking of different things. Because although this person hasn't had the dish that I'm making them, you listeners have heard me do this dish for other people. And so the pressure was on to always change it. And I'm sorry. You buggers don't have to cook for people every two like two three times a week yeah i'm going back to one yeah and it's a really easy one and it was producer alice that told me it it's really good i think i've done

it twice on this it's um so this is the third time yes well come on how many chicken soups have you done? Darling, that is a memorable dish that people crave. Thank you. Crave, darling. So, I'm doing a tray bake. Apologies. I've got my bat mitzvah in two days and I am quite stressed. So, I'm doing salmon tray bake with coriander, ginger, chilli, lime, lime zest, fish sauce, sesame and sesame and peanuts oh she's not got a peanut allergy or sesame allergy fuck um so that's what i'm doing oh don't say that now i'm stressing she

won't she would have told us that one okay tell you on the plane now you're not allowed to eat a peanut if anyone's got an allergy yeah of course not anyway so um i'm doing that with onion rice i know you i i i feel the listeners eyes rolling they're like oh my god the onion rice it's just easy and it's good so piss off and some spinach and then we're doing something that you told me to do i've got big old chocolate panettone yeah you know i'm not a baker so we're doing something that you had at soho house yeah you just put a little drop of baylis in with your cream do you whip the cream well no should i whip it no is it thick cream i think it's double cream yeah so just put a little drop of baylis in just to tittle it up well i tried this out last night

because I told Sam that I was going to do it and he was like well can I have some of the panettone so the panettone's kind of been cut through but that's fine

because there's loads of it and you need to cut it into little cubes yes and we did it without the cream we just dipped it into Baileys

and it was delicious yeah so yeah I do think it probably is the cream half and half do you toast the panettone

well they did but but I don't think you need to it's probably a bit stale that's why they did it that's what they do in the tavernas

when they've got stale bread in it so yeah that's what we're having yeah so Bailey's and panettone for pud

and a tray bake she's very glamorous Jessie yes she is so we've got Rita Wilson coming up on table now can't we? Rita Wilson you've walked in

I'd have to say there was an entourage Rita. By the way well we have all sorts of press that we're doing today. You're busy so you've got Glam Squad you've got yeah get it. I've got it all. Have you ever been to New Cross before? No. Is that where we are?

Yeah, you're in like... No, but you know, I might have been because I went to drama school here. Well, I'm very near Goldsmiths University, which is very artsy. Oh, okay. Yes, yes. I went to Lambda, which in the day was on... Oh, it was in Stockwell. No, back when I was doing it.

We're going back some years. It was in Earl's Court. So, I don't know. I took the tube everywhere. It's possible that I've been here before. You know what, though? Somebody that you love. You know Jules Holland lives very near here.

So you and Jules go back? Yes. Quite a way. No, not that far. We met about seven years ago okay and uh we met through a mutual friend olivia harrison george's widow do you remember oh yeah you know and she's an extraordinary person so um we met through olivia and then you started fantastic people yes we were actually this is gonna sound so crazy but olivia had put together an amazing trip to antarctica and on that trip jules was there and that's how we met did he bring his piano with him no but olivia brought a piano she brought a

keyboard because she said I know musicians and if they don't have their music to play they go a little stir crazy so she shipped down a keyboard wow there was a keyboard that's a good friend that's a good friend you know as a musician like wouldn't you go nuts if you weren't out if you couldn't play or compose I mean I don't know I'm rubbish and I don't play anything. I don't play anything either. But if somebody is there playing, you're going to sing. You're going to do something. Very generous.

And I'm wondering whether she actually was just orchestrating kind of like a writing song camp. No, but we wrote a song. So we wrote a song down there. Was that the song Cold? You're So Cold. You're So Cold. Yes. And we wrote it just as sort of like, okay, this is funny, because we're in Antarctica. And

you know, it was very cold, kind of like today in London. It's so cold. Actually, it's colder today than when we were in Antarctica. Because that was about 34 degrees. It was just like zero, let's say Celsius. And today I think is minus six. it's freezing right so anyway so we wrote this song you're so cold and then he ended up putting it on his album and he said i i'm gonna do this uh you know song for my album and i would love you to come on and sing with jose feliciano and jose feliciano was like my idol growing up. Is he the come on baby? Yes, he did that version, the really great version of it. So, you know, everybody was playing that back in the 70s.

So we ended up singing it together, which was a complete joy, all from just being cold in Antarctica. So what are some of your memories of going to Lambda, eating in London? Were you a fan of the food? Well, oh gosh, I loved going to school here. And I lived next door to the school. Right. It was just so lucky that I found an apartment and I lived with these two guys, Sam and Fernando. They were older and they had a one bedroom, but they would rent it out to students. And so I rented out the bedroom and they had another room that they were using, but we did get to use the kitchen. And for some reason, during that time I thought I would explore cooking how did that work out I somehow came across a recipe for ratatouille and I was just like a ratatouille cooking fool what year was this in

82 83 wasn't that when ratatouille was really having a moment it was a ratatouille moment they even made movies of a mouse called ratatouille. Yeah. I mean, it's all over the place. I used to cook Ratatouille all the time. Did you? Yeah, because I had a French boyfriend and it was the thing that you would have with grilled meat. Right. And then I would do a lovely little roast chicken and have the Ratatouille. People were very impressed. Like, wow.

Yeah, Ratatouille. An actor who can cook what my mom was a great cook though but you're so you're quite a bit greek aren't you yes are you no but we think we are okay good so i have a house i'm gonna call you greece so i have a little house in greece a greek island called skopelos oh Oh, that's where we shot Mamma Mia. Well, you're on one of the best islands. How did you discover that? 30 years ago, I went there just because I saw an advert in the back of a newspaper

about this little, an island and it had this accommodation that looked really nice. We went there and then we went every single year it's then i bought a house there you are so smart but that's the way because you know in greece you're never really in your house everything is done outside yeah you're in a cafe neo you're in a restaurant you're on the beach you're never inside yeah and it's jesse yeah you got married and actually now that i remember like me and my husband did a really naff mamma mia singing invitation to people we're like mamma mia we're getting married in scoppa ross and you're invited it was like really

naff like that yeah yeah my friends my friends loved it but it's very funny how the Scopolitis, like, dine out on, like, the people that were there. Oh, yeah. Piss Brosnan. Oh, yeah, Piss Brosnan. Piss, Piss Brosnan. Piss, Piss, Piss Brosnan. So there's a bar called the Blue Bar that everyone used to go to. Yes.

And Vangeli is notoriously rude. Oh. And he used to say to Piss Brosnan, Piss, Piss, clear the tables. We're getting, we're going to start dancing now. Piss, piss, they called him. You know what I thought? I thought you meant Vangelis, the Greek composer. No, no, no, not Vangelis.

I wish. Vangelis is rude. But you are Henri Greeks, aren't you? You and your husband. Yes, yes, we have our citizenship now. You are only Greeks, aren't you? You and your husband. Yes, yes, we have our citizenship now. We got our passports because of things like Mamma Mia

and my big fat Greek wedding and that my parents were Greek heritage. But, you know, we are, I literally have only the most amazing things to say about Greece and Greek people. So the Greek government was very gracious and sort of where they gave us an honorary citizenship. I speak a little bit of Greek. I speak just enough to get by. And I've all during the pandemic, I took lessons. So hard. It's it's

hard. But when you grow up with it, it was my first language. You sort of can bring it back. Yeah. so what was your childhood like was it full of greek food or was it did you go other places um with your cuisine with your family what oh yeah my mom was an excellent cook and we grew up with all the traditional foods so like on new year's day there's an amazing pita that you make it's um you know what a tiropita is right you probably had that a million times so it's a big round tiropita but you can make it with anything you want but they put a coin in the middle of it that's a good luck do you have that what culture are you from

we're jewish jewish from do you know like like r Okay. So you probably have food traditions like that on New Year's or whatever. So the coin would go in there and whoever got the coin had like great luck for the rest of the year. But she could make anything taste good. And one of the things that I learned from my mom was that I couldn't believe it. Like why was her peanut butter and jelly sandwich better than mine? Or a scrambled egg? Or, you know, a little hamburger or something? A salad?

And I realized it's because she put so much love into it. And I believe that. Cooking with love. Cooking with love. And she would take a salad and she would mix it with her hands, you know? And that always tasted better. So I think that's the thing. And now I find myself doing that too.

I'm like, I just put my hands in there. Get out. I mean, it's COVID, so we're very, very clean. Well, how many people were around that dinner table? Well, I have an older sister, a younger brother, my mom, my dad, my dad's brother, my mom's sister, her husband brother my mom's sister her husband my mom's uh brother and his daughter so it was yeah big old family yeah big old family and we didn't really we had very my parents had very few non-greek friends uh and my dad was bulgarian so he had bulgarian

friends and we would go to like Bulgarian dances and things like that. What was that like? A Bulgarian dance. It was just, you know, like they would rent a hall out, get a band and play Bulgarian music or Greek music. And people would get together and dance and have food. And the kids loved it because we had Coca-Colas on these nights. You know, it was like a big treat. Do you do Easter big?

Greek Easter is bigger than Christmas. We double down on the Easter. It's way bigger than Christmas. And that is like, oh boy, just the amount of going to church during Holy Week, it's intense. Do you eat that soup? I do not eat the soup. Explain the soup, Rita. The soup, I believe i i think it has brains in it or it's any trail it's something exactly i'm not going there not going there i'll eat all

the other stuff you know i'm not that oh fine i'm just checking on my my salmon i've got to make sure it's okay fine i think we'll see i don't know um so you seem like you're a good cook and you cook with love I cook with love I'm not a ratatouille a mean ratatouille back in the 82 cooked ratatouille in like 40 years now but maybe I'll revisit it um look I cook simply and um I know what tastes good yeah so I like that but i i don't know if i could make a souffle or something you know i can basic things so rita if you can read you can cook i believe i don't know though i've had friends who can read and cook and it doesn't taste good okay you know i think that's possible too too Maybe So we've read your dietary requirements

Okay, good And you don't like fruit with meat No It's a big no-no No, it is It's confusing to me It's like fruit is sweet And it's like candy

And it's like dessert And it's like putting like dessert with the main course So no cranberries with your turkey? I do the cranberries, but I do them separately. But if I go, let's say you go to a store and you say, I'd like a turkey sandwich. And then they put cranberry on it. You're already offended. No.

Love it. Rita. You've not had a Marks and Spencer's Christmas sandwich. Never going to happen. You've not lived. You've never going to happen. Marks and Spencer's Christmas sandwich. Never going to happen. You've not lived. You've not lived. Never going to happen. Marks and Spencer's Christmas sandwich.

It has cranberry sauce. It's just going so well. Stuff. Stuffing everything. By the way, I love Thanksgiving dinner. That's one of the meals I do every year. How do you deal with the sweet potato, Sitch? No, as long as they're separate.

Oh, she doesn't like them cooked together. You can't mix the sweet potatoes with like, can't be mixed with sweet potatoes. You can't put grapes in sweet potatoes. You know? But I do do the recipe that I use for sweet potatoes. It's actually not sweet potatoes. It's praline yams. I didn't know that there is a

difference between a yam and a sweet potato. You know this as a cook. Well, I didn't know this for many years years so people would kind of just go here it's a yam and it was really a sweet potato and i'd be like you don't look like a yam um but it was a recipe given to me by nora efron the writer yes we need to talk about this of course you know her but you know yes yes Nora Efron gave you a recipe and I gave her one of my recipes okay and did it give you heartburn no that was a joke that's so funny okay so let's talk about Nora's okay so it's called orange praline yams oh I love that woman the recipe has one pound of butter in it.

It's insane. Like when you whip the yams together, you put in sticks of butter. It's crazy. And then you separately do, in there you have brown sugar and whatever in the recipe. But on top, you have the pecans that are mixed with butter, a little bit of brandy, some orange zest. And you mush that separately. And then right before you bake it, you take the pecan, butter, brown sugar, brandy mixture and you spread it on top. And when it bakes, it just goes gorgeous, like spreads out.

It's amazing. And that's something you can heat up the next time. Did she write cookbooks? She didn't write cookbooks, but she always incorporated. There was in her books, her recipes. I will tell you what she did, though. What? I'm not sure if she did this when she knew that she was ill, but no one else knew,

because she had um a form of blood cancer for like seven years but no one when did she pass away in 2012 yeah and no one knew that she had it but what she did was because she had the most fabulous dinner parties and she cooked everything but she made her friends her own like binder of her recipes oh fantastic so i do use that and i will do recipes from there because they're they're basic things and there's also just nora things things that we all loved to have like are you going to be making your potatoes diana you know what those are right it's like sliced and you do them in a cast iron grill and you put them in the oven they get really toasty crispy good amazing but of course butter yeah the thing with nora was everything was butter

um key lime pie she could make but she had really good tricks too so she would say you should always have five things when you serve something you should have two mains and three side dishes well that's about right two mains two mains and three side dishes so what somebody doesn't like well like let's say you have a fish and a meat or something like that. That's a lot of effort. No, I know. But she loved to cook and her husband Nick would always help her. I think if it's a dinner party, you might do that.

Dinner party. Yeah, it's a dinner party. Have you followed this? Always buffet. Okay. Yes. And then she had these tricks. And the tricks were find the places that you know that have the best takeout or pre-made things.

the places that you know that have the best takeout or pre-made things like let's say somebody does the best chicken pot pie which she knew of in New York City then you can also bring out a little chicken pot pie because her idea was that everybody loved to have variety and then she'd have five desserts it's so funny because mum's always kind of over catered and we've always it's always been loads and I've inherited that and my friends when they come over they're like Jessie why like you've done like 10 different things like and now you're just running around like a blue ass fly and so I've tried to like strip back my cooking where I do something where I'm like bang this is it and it's far more simple but I feel like we both lend ourselves to the nora but that's i think that's because i don't know if it's just cultural but i feel like greek people if you go to somebody's

house and they just give you a salad or they came to your house you just gave them a salad they say oh Which means? Well, this poor girl, she doesn't know anything. We'll have to go out and get something to eat later. Sounds better in Greek. Oh, I love it. I love it. Yeah, I would feel embarrassed if I didn't.

Oh, she's going off. Time for food. She also had another rule. Go on. She did not like fish. Oh, no. Never. No, I told you I love fish. You like fish, yeah. That's why we're making fish. And I don't necessarily

agree with Nora's rule about fish, but she said, you eat it in 15 seconds, it's gone. The dinner's over. I agree. And she said, you need to be able to, it's gone. The dinner's over. And she said, you need to be able to cut something. You need to be able to chew something. Don't you think you could do that with fish? I agree with her in that way.

I understand that. And I felt like we would have gotten very, very well. You totally would have. I believe that if Nora were alive today, she'd probably do a podcast about food. Of course she would. She was just so, and yeah, she included recipes in some of her well, in Harper, she did.

Did she remarry? Yeah, she married Nick and they were together for decades. Okay, so she got over the breakup. Oh, yeah. Did you meet on Sleepless in Seattle? When did you meet? Did you make friends?

I believe we met briefly in passing before then. Right. But she did her first movie called This Is My Life, which starred Julie Kavanagh, who plays Mrs. Simpson in The Simpsons. Oh, right. That's her voice. And it was a story about a female stand-up comedian

it was so funny and so great and carrie fisher was in it and carrie fisher was also in when harry met sally which nora wrote and i just loved how she wrote women when harry met yeah let's all do the orgasm scene right now. Oh, that was just the best. Oh, my God. Go on. You first. No, you. No, you.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. I don't want to take. Oh. I know. I'll have what she's having.

Exactly. I'll have what she's having. So when the script to Sleepless came about and it was offered to Tom. I read the script and I was like, oh man, I love this role of Meg's best friend. And I thought, gosh, that's great. That's a great role. So we were invited to a party and she was there. And in my head, I thought she's going to give Carrie Fisher this role because Carrie would

be perfect for this. And I said to her, well, if Carrie doesn't take the role, I'd love to audition for you. So she brought me into audition. Carrie didn't take the role for whatever reason. I think she was writing a book. And she said, come in on audition. So I audition auditioned and she said, well, you know, we're going to give the role to Rosie O'Donnell. And she said, but there's another role that I'd like you to have. And that was the role that I ended up doing, which was the character that had the monologue about an affair to remember. And it was truly one of the best gifts of a role anyone could ever give you. And from that, then she cast me in a movie with Steve Martin and a bunch of people, Adam Sandler, called Mixed Nuts.

And it was a remake of a French film called Le Père Noël est un hors d'oeuvre which means Father Christmas is a piece of shit okay exactly so uh I got cast in that and we had a great time doing that movie it was really very fun so I I didn't really I always wanted kind of a mentor you know when I was a young woman. And I never really had that until Nora. But by then I was already in my 30s, you know. So she was really a person. What a mentor.

She was really incredible. What are you working on at the moment? I have a new album out called Now and Forever Duets. called Now and Forever Duets. It's cover songs from the 70s with amazing duet partners like Smokey Robinson, Elvis Costello, Keith Urban,

Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw, Vince Gill, Leslie Odom Jr., Josh Groban. I feel like I'm missing somebody. I'm missing somebody. Did I say Smokey Robinson?

Yeah. When's it coming? It came out at the end of September, so it's out right now. I'm also appearing at the Royal Variety Performance singing one of my songs for my album with Gregory Porter. Oh, wow. I love him. We've had Josh Groban as well.

We've had Gregory Porter, Josh Groban. Who else? I think we've had Josh Groban as well Josh amazing Who else did we I think we've had Elvis Costello on I think we've had at least four people And they all look the same all day Was it two weeks ago No we're talking about her album And all the people

That she's dueted with Yes Royal Variety we taped it A few weeks ago. I think it airs this week. I think it was about three weeks ago. Yes. So wait, what is... Well, it's the 20th of December when it airs.

Oh, that's Tuesday. That's Tuesday. Okay, got it. But then I'm also here because I produced a movie called A Man Called Otto that stars Tom Hanks. And it is based on a best-selling novel called A Man Called Otto that stars Tom Hanks. And it is based on a bestselling novel called A Man Called Ova. And there was also a Swedish film. It was started out in Sweden, but the book just kind of went on fire and people loved it. And it's translated into 44 languages.

Oh, my gosh. I've never heard of it. Oh, you would love it. Take it on your holiday with you. It's a perfect Ova. O-V-E. And who's it written by frederick backman okay oh this is delicious you know what i think i've cocked up why because i think it's bloody lightly smoked fish this wasn't supposed to be it was supposed to be salmon so good You know what, maybe I've just done a new creation of a world. Yeah, exactly.

You know what, I apologise. I know. You know what, it's a light lunch. Thank you. So you can, you know, go upon your way after. But I am, I was like, hang on, this tastes like smoked fish. Smoky. So this could work or it couldn't.

And I apologise in advance. I'm going to taste it right now and tell you. It's delicious. Really? Okay, fine. Are you going to do your right now and tell you. Is it okay? It's delicious. Really? Okay, fine. Are you going to do your Greek voice after and be like, poor girl, poor cat?

No. You know what? It's okay. Poor girl, this is not fish. It's something else. So you're really busy. Do you like being in London? I love it.

Does it feel like kind of like the third time after Greece? It feels like, yeah, because I went to school here. So when you go to school in a place, I think you really get to know it because you're taking the tube, you're walking, you're taking the bus, you go to the park. You live like a local. So that's nice. It's not like nowadays, you know, if we're here,

we're doing so many things that we're in a car, in a hotel, in a building. But like this trip, I'm here promoting A Man Called Otto, which opens, I believe, January 6th here. Okay, great. Do you take it? Okay, so can we tell your listeners that? I don't know, what are these little nuts in here?

They're peanuts. They're so good. You know if I'm good. No, I'm not. So I need to know which recipe you gave to nora okay i gave her i really want to say that it's kind of a joke but on thanksgiving because we were sharing thanksgiving recipes i gave her my sister's lime j. Now, when I say Lime Jell-O, this is a color that does not exist in nature. Maybe after a nuclear disaster, you'd find this color. But it's Lime Jell-O mixed.

You blend like marshmallows, cream cheese, Lime Jell-O together. And then there's crushed pineapple and walnuts in it it's the easiest thing in the world to make it takes literally five minutes but Nora was sort of obsessed with jellos and jello molds so she gave me an apricot jello recipe and a cranberry jello recipe which I have made on occasion for Thanksgiving but she became obsessed with the lime jello I wish I had a picture of it to show you it what what is the color you okay it was just strange and it has walnuts and pineapple walnuts pineapples marshmallows it's a traditional. Do children love it?

Yeah. Did you always do it at birthday parties? No, it was only Thanksgiving. Oh. I don't know why. I think we only did it Thanksgiving. It's stupid. It's so easy.

Who gave it to you? My mom. Oh, all right. My mom. Passed down through the generations. One of the things that I, this is so beautiful that you're doing this because my mom and then passed down through the generation one of the things that i this is so beautiful that you're doing this because my mom passed away and she had alzheimer's for like five years before

she passed away thank you but when she was still healthy and had it all together i'm like mom i'm taping you you're gonna cook all my favorite things and i'm gonna tape you because i need to know how you do it because she would make things but she never measured anything so it's like I need to know and so I have some of my favorite recipes of the things that she cooked that I taped her doing and then I would write it down like okay you actually put a teaspoon of salt in here or whatever but um yeah those are those are the family recipes that get passed down i love that whilst you finish your food just start thinking about your last supper rita starter main pud well dessert okay drink of choice now i've heard from your lovely assistant yes you like a whiskey i'll tell you when I have a whiskey.

Go on. I have a whiskey. If I'm performing and I'm feeling like there's just something in the throat, I will do a shot, not even a full shot, of like Maker's Mark

about 20 minutes before I go on. Have you ever done that? My voice coach told me to do that really yeah great voice coach jesse's voice coach and alcoholic jesse sucks steam in through a bone that's great that's really great do you know about the vibrator there are a lot of vocal coaches and this has been written about suggest getting a vibrator and what a vibrator that's usually for female pleasure exactly right got it so you're supposed to put it on the outside of your vocal cords and you know now we can go back to the Harry and Sally thing. Why does it,

what does it do? It relaxes your vocal cords. Oh, that's interesting. Like a massage. Well, mum, I think that's what I need for Christmas. For my vocal cords. Well, then what's it about? Sure.

Exactly. Okay, enough. Just tell your husband, he's like, I need it. It's really just for my vocal cords, honey, don't worry about it.

Yeah, absolutely. Brilliant. Thank you, Rita. Actually, and he don't worry about it. Yeah, absolutely. Brilliant. Thank you, Rita. Actually, since I've been doing less with my voice, I mean, I do a big warm-up before. There's this great guy on YouTube that I do. He's called Jeff, and he's just really good. Jeff the warm-up guy.

Yeah, he's really good. I love Jeff. From Mezzo Soprano. Which song did you sing at the Royal Variety Show? Christine McVie's Songbird. Oh. And it was the day after she died oh we oh did you interview her no amazing right what a songwriter I mean that song wow so

you sung that song was that already going to be the song that you were going to be singing yes it just happened to be it was that song and then she died the day before I really couldn't believe it but I did ask if I could say something beforehand so I said this is for Christine McVie I don't know if that will make it onto the broadcast but it was for the audience because everybody was just heartbroken that she passed away she's responsible for most of the hits uh for Fleetwood Mac you know and there's that story about how she wrote Songbird yeah but she woke up in the middle of the night uh-huh and had this whole song and sung it out loud and went downstairs and had like recorded it she's like I need to do it now, otherwise I'll forget it. I don't want to forget it. And then somebody told me that later that day,

she went into the studio to record it. Everybody else was all high and whatever, and she just put it down, and basically how we heard it, just with the piano and her vocals. So beautiful. So beautiful. But it's amazing that those songs from the 70s still last still get covered people still i heard an amazing cover of winner takes it all the abba song the other day and it

was sung like a ballad but like a very acoustic ballad i i'm gonna have to look up who it was. I tell you, I heard. Because we have Bjorn on. I just saw him yesterday. And this will tie into my last supper. Have you been to see the Abba voyage? Oh, yeah. It's extraordinary. It blows your mind, doesn't it? It's pure joy.

I know. It's pure joy. You cannot leave there and not be in the best mood ever. What was so strange? I mean, you completely believe they're there. Completely. You see their shadows. It's just incredible.

And at the end, everyone's giving them a standing ovation. I said, these are avatars we're standing up for. It's truly... It's uplifting, isn't it? It's uplifting, but the live band on stage is fantastic how about so many female that female drummer who's just crushing it yeah so many female musicians in the band but i just i i don't know it's just pure life giving it's such fun which is why you know when i saw the mamma mia, that's why I wanted to do the movie.

I was like, this would make a perfect movie because, okay, having Greek heritage, having my love of the Greek islands, and then combining it with ABBA, I thought, wow, this is it. So it took us five years, but we finally made the movie so let's talk about that last supper let's go starter first well are we having dessert today we are having a little something something is that okay yeah the fruit is separate from the main so i'm very happy okay it's actually it's going to be something that kind of made i guess this is i've adopted a nora an effron approach i've got a panettone oh good absolutely but we're gonna dip it in chocolate no because it's already got chocolate cream and a little bit bailey's

love it okay great okay good and have some coffee done and done that's very Nora S okay I love that she would do that so whilst I cut up the panettone can I get you a cup of tea coffee do you have decaf coffee or herbal tea I have I have herbal tea herbal tea is great do you want decaf herbal I've got white tea I've got a kind of fill new kind of aniseed thingy maybe. As long as it's like if you had just a decaf Earl Grey, that'd be fine. I have a decaf like English breakfast. Perfect. That's it. Do you want with milk in?

Yeah. Okay, let me see if I have a little bit of sugar. So you don't drink Greek coffee? No, I only drink decaf and I don't drink sodas. On the rare occasion I'll have a soda. Only because when I was trying to get pregnant with my second son, the doctor said, you know, you shouldn't drink caffeine. Why? Why is that? I don't know. I just listened to what the doctor said. And so you got used to it. And then I got used to it. It took me a month to get off of it because it's like withdrawal yeah yeah you get the worst headache you get like you think

your brain is in a vice so i i got off of it and i thought i'm done with it now did you drink a lot of coffee though well my yaya which is great yeah yeah my yaya when i was little she would make me coffee and she would do half coffee half milk two teaspoons of sugar who wouldn't love that so from like two no stop yeah that's amazing yeah because she died when i was four and i was like give me that coffee i need my coffee have you got any grandchildren i have three granddaughters are you you Yaya? I am. Yeah. I'm Yaya. Tom's Papu. Oh, they're amazing.

A six-year-old, a nine-year-old, and an eleven-year-old. Rita, we're going to need that last supper. Okay, last supper. So I was in Stockholm because I'm doing a promotion for a man called Otto, and my Swedish partner, Fred, Frederick Wickstrom-Nicostro

is Swedish. And he, the company that he works with is one of the oldest film studios in the world called SF Studios. And that is owned by the parent company is called Bonnier. And they do all sorts of publications as their media conglomerate. So Mr. Bonnier hosted us at his house. Nice. And for a traditional Swedish meal. So we had Swedish meat. Oh, the appetizer was kind of like a mac and cheese mixed with herring. Oh, I know what it was.

It probably was the bloody potatoes. Yes, that's what it was. Was it like matchsticks? Was it like a dauphinoise? Yeah, like that. Exactly. With like anchovies in it? Herring.

Herring. They put herring in it. Maybe I'm confused. Maybe it was anchovies in it? A herring. A herring. They put herring in it. Maybe I'm confused. Maybe it was anchovies, but it was herring and potatoes and cheesy deliciousness. It's Janssen's... Janssen's Revenge.

No, it's not Revenge. Janssen's Delight. Janssen's Temptation. Temptation. Oh, it's so good. And then they had different kinds of salmon as the appetizer.

So you could have a smoked salmon. You could have almost like a sushi-esque salmon. And then they had fish roe like in taramosalata. Yeah. But it was just in a bowl by itself. But wait, this was genius. I said, what is that? Because it's bright orange.

And little, fine, fine, fine little tiny eggs. Almost like the size of a grain, you know, a small grain like sand. And they said, oh, that's fish roe. And they said, but you have to mix it. And they had a little side of sour cream and a little side of chopped onions. So you would take your scoop of the fish roe, scoop of sour cream, scoop of onions, and mix it all together. And then you could put it on a cracker or something. Delicious. Was it delicious? As good as tarama?

Yeah. Yeah. It almost was more like in the caviar realm. Yeah. Okay. As opposed to the tarama. And it was cod roe? It was, I don't know what kind of roe it was.

Maybe it wasn't. It was orange. Bright orange. Maybe it was salmon roe. Could have been salmon ro was it was orange bright orange maybe it was salmon row could have been salmon yeah even a little bit of sugar yes please okay that was delicious that was the appetizer and then the main course was like swedish meatballs some venison i think it was venison there had all it was just it was traditional swedish there were a lot of things on there that i didn't take because it was a buffet it was a smorgasbord a smorgasbord hello that's where the word comes from yes i guess a big big choice yeah norah would have been happy

but i want to yes she would have been very happy but i want to set the scene because it's in this beautiful old house that's been in their family this family the bonniers it's the oldest publishing house that has stayed in the same family for something like 400 years amazing so it was this old house and on the walls were paintings of writers that had published for their house. So you have like Strindberg and you have, you know, all famous authors. So beautiful. But because it was the holiday season, they had carolers come in to sing Santa Lucia. Do you know that song?

No. Well, I don't know the words to it, but everybody knows the melody. It goes... Santa Lucia. Yeah. So all the carolers come in and they are all holding real live candles. But the main caroler, I guess to represent Santa Lucia, has a headdress on. And that's all live candles. Oh, yeah. They're wearing white dresses and red sashes.

And they're in stocking feet so they don't make noise when they sing. How gorgeous. It was really gorgeous. It was really beautiful um have we got your last supper did we get all of them no yeah so i did you're gonna have the appetizers was the salmon and then the the main course was like swedish meatballs and venison and some side vegetable dishes something that looked like a macaroni are we talking about your last supper being like the one you've just had or is this your like favourite thing you've ever had?

No, like the one I just had. Oh, okay. This is a new way, a new take on it. So we. Oh, you're about to. Oh, you're about to. You're about to be cast away. You're going to be like your.

But I do like, because I was like, God, you really like Sweden, don't you? You're not honouring your Greek heritage much, Rita. So this would be if you were going to a desert island for at least a year your last supper i can't bear to think yeah i can't on death row no no no no i think it's gonna be okay i'd bring my dad back and he would make his His delicious barbecued chicken, which is really just, he marinated it in olive oil, lemon, garlic, salt, and pepper. That was it. But marinated it overnight.

But cooked to perfection on the grill. Okay. So my dad was an amazing barbecuer. Did he joint the chicken or was it a whole chicken? A whole chicken. No, he would buy it like that all cut up already thank you this looks great no this is perfect thank you seeing as it's nearly christmas what do you want a little bailey's little no darling i don't think i'm sure no i think i will go into

the table this i'm trying it it's quite easy it's kind of you know this is good oh i dip it yeah just get going did you try it last night yeah we road tested it yesterday you did i mean we can't really go wrong it's cream and pan you know what i mean delicious easy bish bash bosh did you put something in the cream like baileys that's the baileys is that okay i didn't know if it was in the cake or in the Baileys. It's delicious. Yeah. Oh, it works. Are you a sweet? I'm more a salty person. Right, okay. These are all the things, basically, I don't allow myself to eat, so that would be... Okay, fine.

I'm leaving on the island now. Bye. I would have Haagen-Dazs vanilla Swiss almond ice cream. I've never had that one. Just the vanilla ice cream? I love it, too. It's the best vanilla out there. No, this one has the little, it's the vanilla, but it has little chocolate covered almonds in it.

What? Maybe they don't have it in the UK. Oh my God. Maybe it's a US Haagen-Dazs thing. Oh my God. I don't know. It's delicious. Okay.

And then I would have a cappuccino just because goddess and it was something. Celebrate Yaya. Mm-hmm. Do you think we need the lime jello? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, bring it on. I think we might need the lime jello. Rita, I know that... I'm just wondering...

You'll probably be able to catch fish with that. It's kind of neon. Just because we were thinking about last suppers and castaway. What's the bloody ball called Wilson after you? Yes. Oh, but here's why. You know, there's a couple of sporting goods manufacturers. There's Spalding.

Mm-hmm. There's Voight. Mm-hmm. And there's Wilson. But you had to be on it. It has a ring to it. Spalding! Or Voight!

Voight! No. Wilson has a ring to it. And that's quite a bit romantic too. Yeah. I like that. Besides the cappuccino, would you have any alcohol? So I'd probably have a Cure Royale to start.

And then I'd, because I'm going to be in Ireland, so, you know, I'm not going to drink for a while. I have a margarita. I'd have to have some tortilla chips and salsa along with that. Fresh salsa, fresh guacamole. Where do you go for your Mexican food in LA? Or do you just not really have it there? No, there's tons of Mexican food, but it's not really that good.

Like real Mexican food is very different from the Mexican food. But there's a little tiny place called, we call it Tacos Tacos. Tacos Tacos Taqueria. And it's just a little place place called taco we call it tacos tacos tacos tacos taqueria and it's just a little place but it's authentic everything that you know you want a burrito a tostada a taquito um chicken con mole things like that so i would go there champagne margarita there are no vegetables in there and when you said last supper i was like i love that when we got i wondered why she was she's really taking on the swedish method yeah and then i thought i thought you meant literally like what was the last meal you ate and so i was, do I really tell her that when we got to the hotel at two in the morning last night,

I called room service for a bowl of cereal? Because that's what I did. Bran flakes and bananas. I was starving, and I didn't want to eat anything heavy, so I just had that. Thank you for that important information. Thank you so much for being on this. This has been such a treat to chat to you. It's so much fun

jesse i've got one more question oh yeah oh okay do you like karaoke i do like karaoke but i have to admit i have a go-to song go on it's hip-hop hooray by naughty by nature wow i did not think that was going to come out of your mouth. So what is it? Okay, so the reason I know this song is because I had to learn it for a movie. It is a very detailed rap song from the 90s. I had to learn it for a movie called Boy Genius. My character had to perform it, and I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no. This is cruel and unusual punishment to give me this.

It was really hard to learn, so I would learn it in two lines at a time, almost like Shakespearean couplets. But then I realized that it very much had a Shakespearean vibe to it. Okay. Even if it wasn't in iambic pentameter, there is complete and utter rhythm, tempo, and storytelling to it. And for me, at the end of the day, what is a great song, but a great story told through melody and lyrics. And I earned a really huge respect for people who can write rap like that because it's really hard. And it's very different.

It was very hard for me to catch on to the rhythms because they would be changing all the time. And now your kids think you're really cool. Yeah. It's like your party trick. It's like, it's a little bit of a party trick. That's cool. I like to freak people out with it. Karaoke.

Like, what? You know? More likely than I would do, you know, an Olivia Newton-John song or an ABBA song or something like that. So we've got quite a few dates in the diary for our blossoming friendship. Okay, good. We're going to a Greek island. We're going to karaoke. You're coming to California.

You're making the lime jello. I'm making the lime jello. I'm going to send you that recipe. I need to. Give me your email. I will email it lime jello. I'm going to send you that recipe. I need to. Give me your email. I will email it to you. I think we will make it for a guest. It's so easy.

We'll say, this is Rita's lime jello. Oh, wouldn't that be great? We'll do it. And by the way, you make it the night before, so it settles in the mold. Maybe we should start asking all our guests for a recipe. Yeah, and we pass it on. What a great idea. This is a new year in revolution.

Kind of like an unexpected recipe. Like something that isn't like really fancy. Yeah, lime jello with walnuts and pineapple. And cream cheese. Pineapple and marshmallows. And marshmallows. And cream cheese, Jessie. Yeah, that's the kind of shit we need.

Don't forget the cream cheese. Cream cheese. I forgot about the cream cheese. But you know what? Here's the sick thing. It's actually delicious. No doubt. No doubt. You've got the crunch in there. You've got the creaminess. You've's the sick thing. It's actually delicious. No doubt. No doubt. You've got the crunch in there. You've got the creaminess.

You know what? I've just worked out. If it's got jelly in it, it's got gelatine. It's probably like a panna cotta. Panna cotta. But do you mix the cream cheese? Wait, does that? Oh, no. Panna cotta. Panna cotta, you know, like the little... Yeah, like the jelly thing.

Yeah, the cream. But do you not put the cream cheese on the top? Or you put it all in? No, it's all in. No, it's all... You blend it in the blender. It's blended. It's like a milk thing. Yeah, well, the cream, yeah. Do you not put the cream cheese on the top or you put it all in? No, it's all in. No, it's all, you blend it in the blender. It's blended, it's like a milk jelly. It's nothing. It's, you boil the jello on the stovetop, the jello mix with, you know, eight cups of sugar or something crazy,

a lot of sugar. Then you let that kind of cool a little bit. While you're doing that, you've got, you know, your marshmallows, your cream cheese, and your walnuts set aside. When it cools down, you put the hot-ish lime jello in the blender. Then you put the one huge cube of cream cheese and the marshmallows of cream cheese and the marshmallows only in the blender and the first time i did it i didn't cool it down so the entire blender exploded and i had lime jello all over the ceiling all over the counters total ghost bus that's the color ghostbusters okay fine it's gone we got there okay and uh so i've learned from my mistakes after it it comes out of the blender, you pour it into the mold,

which you've pammed, sprayed, so nothing sticks to it. Then you place your crushed pineapple and your walnuts. Some people put in maraschino cherries just to give a little red. I'd like that. You could. Red with the green. Yes, exactly. This sounds like very Christmassy.

And if you have a jello mould that has a design on it, you know, you could decorate it too with little things on top. Flowers. Fine. Noted. Yes. I'm really... It's so funny.

Is it a blancmange? No, darling. It's a jello. A milk jello. Okay, I've got to make this. A milk jelly. My kids like jello oh yeah yeah thank you for having me thank you this is really so nice honestly such a treat to meet you

enjoy the rest of your london christmas when you go back saturday yes i bet you're ready for the war it wasn't that warm there last week no I heard they're all complaining all my mates are complaining about the weather like you come here absolutely it was cold at night

really cold and during the day it was okay if you were in the sun yes but it wasn't okay out of the sun well that's the big myth

about Los Angeles people think that it's always warm there and I always say Nora Ephron said it's never warm in California you always need a sweater

and I'm like okay you're right Nora yeah but it is sunny the blue skies it is but it's alright today well it's beautiful today

yeah but yeah you bought it Rita thank you Rita Wilson thank you thank you thanks so much

thank you what a delight a force of nature glamorous charming funny has loads of anecdotes that's what we like on table manners warm really Warm. Really warm. Warm and lovely. And I felt like I'd known her forever. I have to say, she says she didn't name a vegetable in her last supper. She also didn't eat the bloody broccoli on the plate. No, she didn't like vegetables, darling. I quite like that about her. Greeks don't have many vegetables, you know.

Don't they? Unless it's a vegetable dish. What are you talking about? Greek salad? Yeah, but that's not a vegetable. It's a salad. Still, vegetable in the salad. Yeah, but that's not a vegetable. It's a salad. It's still vegetable in the salad. Yeah, but I don't call it vegetable salad.

Anyway, that was a really lovely lunch. I don't know if lightly smoked salmon works necessarily well with it. It was all right. It got away with it. It got away with it. Yeah. But I was slightly annoyed. That is us done for 2022. Next week is our last episode of this season of Table Manners.

And then we're going to have a little break, aren't we? Yeah. Let people miss us, you know, out of sight, out of mind, or absent makes the heart grow fonder. I want to have a few more adventures to talk about. Okay. Could I just tell you about my experience going through security at Los Angeles?

Yeah. Because I will make you laugh, I think. Okay. So we waited nearly an hour and a half to go through security because they only had two things open. When we got to me, I had to take my shoes off. And you know the capsule you go in and you hold your hands above your head? Yeah.

Well, I came out and they said, we'll have to... Frisk you. We found a hotspot. Guess where the hotspot was? My crotch. I said, I've not seen a hotspot there for a long time. The woman. Security.

The lady had a mask on and she had quite a strong Spanish accent so I didn't hear what she said which was would you like to be frisked you know um examined in private but I didn't hear her she had my jumper up she had my trousers down her hands down my trousers I said this is a bit not very private she said we we ask if you want to go in private. But I couldn't hear her. I don't know what that accent was. Well, it was kind of, I think it was Spanish. Okay, that was Greek and Russian. Yeah, and there was my hotspot up on the big screen,

the big red thing between my legs. Did you have that vocal trainer up there, Mum? I said, I've not got anything down there, duck. Oh, my God. It was so embarrassing. So how did they realise that you've not got anything down there duck oh my god it was so embarrassing so how did they realise that you didn't have anything down there by touching every bit of my yeah it was horrible are you sure? I was so

horribly delightful and everyone's walking past like I've got drugs up my drugs up my fan Lenny's hotspot Like, I've got drugs up my... Like you're a drug mule. Drugs up my fan. Lenny's hotspot. Lenny died! Right, so wish list. New Year's resolution, wish list.

Anyone from White Lotus. Anyone from White Lotus. Particularly Jennifer Coolidge. Yeah. Marcus Rashford. Please, Marcus. Gareth Southgate, I'd have. He may not be working for England

anymore. I don't care. He's someone I would love to talk to. Great. Who else? Keir Starmer. Keir Starmer. I think that could be interesting. I would like Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart. Who else would we like? Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman.

Big down under. Yeah, big down under. Now I've heard that from Alison, he was top of my list. Mum! With my hop spot. Oh my God. Okay, right. Thank you very much.

We hope you've had a lovely Christmas. Yeah. Go and have a lovely new year. I hope you make your resolutions and I hope you stick to them for more than just New Year's Day. We'll see you next week for our last episode

of this season and thank you very much to Rita Wilson.