Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - Zoe Saldana

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

This week we have an absolute mega star on the podcast, the gorgeous Zoe Saldaña! Fresh from her Golden Globe win for Emilia Pérez, we sat down for brunch to chat about everything before she heads off to the BAFTAs & Oscars later in the month. We heard all about her growing up in the Dominican Republic and learning to cook from her grandma, how Emilia Pérez made it to the big screen, the wonderful story of how she met her husband (and asking for a day off from Guardian’s of The Galaxy for their wedding!), and we learn that Zoe judges people by the quality of their rice! Plus she share's some delicious Dominican recipes and tips that we can’t wait to try. Sending you all our luck and best wishes for the award season Zoe, we’ll get the Chinese noodles on standby for after the win! Emilia Pérez is available to stream now on Netflix. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners, I'm Jessie Ware, it's a Sunday morning, spring, quite springy. Springy as frost, Jessie! It's fucking freezing actually. It's freezing! And we have... We've got spring flowers, that's it. Yes, we have daffodils on the tables and what's those ones?

Hysins. Hysins that smell nice, don't they? What are they? I'm not a green-fingered gal. They need to be green. I do like them. I, erm, we have Oscar nominee Zoe Saldana on. I'm so excited to meet her.

And the weirdest thing happened last night, I went to see You, Me, Bum Bum train, which is not... Stop showing off, Jess. Listen, I've been trying to see this show for 15 years. I managed to get a ticket. I went last night. I finished it. Read up on it. I can't explain this right now, and also I'm sworn to secrecy.

But who comes out straight after me? Zoe Saldana. And I said, Zoe, I hate to interrupt you, but I'll see you at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. She was just... I think she was in a bit of a daze. She went, OK, fine. So So anyway, we can't talk about it even though that's all I want to talk about because we're sworn to secrecy and we signed an NDA.

So, but me and her can go into a secret room and talk. You signed an NDA? Yes. And you paid to go and see it? Yes. It's very exciting. Anyway, Zoe Saldana is coming on. She's up for an Oscar for Emilia Perez.

You'll know her from maybe you know her from Crossroads, maybe you know her from Avatar, maybe you know her from Guardians of the Galaxy. But she is celebrating her nomination as Rita in Jacques Odier's film Emilia Perez, which is on Netflix and I really enjoyed. She was fantastic in it. I need to ask her whether Emilia Perez is based on a genre of Mexican film where you sing in it, but it's not really a musical. There is singing, but I would not call that a musical, or would you call it a musical? I mean, I don't think it's a Mexican genre. No, I just wonder, anyway, I'll ask her. What have I cooked?

Well, it's a Sunday morning, and I've done a green shakshuka, which I've never made before. It looks lovely. Which looks nice. It's lots and lots of herbs in. Gorgeous. It's leeks, peas, spinach, and it's got coriander,

Which herbs? Coriander, mint mint and parsley. And I'm going to put eggs in it and you serve it with harissa. Oh yeah. I've done labneh instead of yogurt. Nice. And I'm going to do some halloumi.

Mom, lovely. And then I've done a fruit platter and I have made some gluten-free chocolate, double chocolate chip cookies. Thank Angela Hartnett recipe, they are quite sweet but delicious, absolutely chewy and delicious, a bit like macarons. Anyway, I've got those to go with it and everyone can take some home. Amazing. Yeah, pretty amazing. Yeah, been up since 7.00, darling, just in case. we'll let Zoe know that in a minute.

Yeah, I'll let her know. Okay, cool. And I did think I needed a facelift this morning. Why? Because it's all- You look amazing. It's all dropped, darling. It's all gone that way.

Mum, you look very good. Thank you, darling. Is it because you've been looking at my skin? No. Because I'm investing in it so much. I was thinking that I need a collagen facial every time that we do a podcast. You should just drink collagen. Can I just say one thing?

I was at our local pub at the Abbeville on Friday and two people came up to me and said Lenny and I think I know them when they go, Lenny. And I go, turn around and I think, do I know you? And then they say, we're such fans of the podcast. So please to anyone who does come up to me and says, Lenny, and I look like I'm a bit confused. Thank you very much for recognizing the podcast, but I'm embarrassed and I did blush twice.

And I was with a group of friends who were also embarrassed on my behalf. So what, you want them to come and say hi to you with a disclaimer that says I am a fan of the podcast Lenny? No, I just want them to... I'm really thrilled that people love our podcast and come up. But please respect my privacy. No, it's nothing to do with that. Are you going chapel or master?

I don't need to respect anything. Oh, Lenny's got chapel on her. Oh, someone's at the door. Now listen, I've been saying your name wrong forever. Is it Zoe Saldana? It is, yeah. Have you got a squiggle? No, on my birth certificate. I was born in New York, New Jersey, and on my birth certificate they didn't put it on. So, so I'm technically Zoe Saldana. Was that a mistake that they didn't put it on in the, in the, you know, the birth certificate

department? I think that back in the day, it was an entitlement of like, well, this is America, this is English, that doesn't exist. So we're not going to put it in versus like now there's just, there's this mindfulness of how do you wanna be called? How are you, what is your name? And that I truly appreciate that gave me permission to make that choice, come into that awareness of like, wait a minute, this is not my full name. My full name is Zoe Saldana.

And I just, I'm like, I'm no, it's no longer my job to help you pronounce my name, but it I'm like, I'm no, it's no longer my job to help you pronounce my name. But it's also like, it's also my job not to take it personally if you can't. So you know what I mean? Well, hold on. How'd you say you'll do Zoe? Oh, and the way that my family says it in Spanish is soy. Soy.

Soy. Okay. Soy. Soy. And then the, and then the accent on the E. Soy. Soy. Okay. Do you think your name means? It's Greek. It means life.

It means life. So I just, yeah, because I actually was going to say it means life. How do you know that? Just know that Zoe means life. Oh, right. In Greek. But I just wonder, is that why they chose it? My mom was liking that name a lot.

And from what I hear, my mom and my dad, they were really young parents and they either were making love or they were fighting, you know, love. And I guess that throughout my pregnancy, my mom and my dad were at each other's wits and they couldn't decide on a name because my dad wanted to name me Jadira, which is my second name. And then when my mom learned that it was based on an old girlfriend of his, she's like, I'm not gonna name my kid with you

the name of some ex-girlfriend that you still, they're like, fuck you. So they named, and she liked Zoe. She, there was something about Zoe, Zoe, Zoe, and that she was orbiting that name because where we grew up in New York, in Queens, And she liked Zoe. There was something about Zoe, Zoe, Zoe. And that she was orbiting that name. Because where we grew up in New York and in Queens and also in New Jersey at the time, it was a very Greek, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Brazilian, Indian like neighborhood, you know?

And so then they made peace. I'm born. They give her a book of names. She goes straight to the Z, finds it, she goes, if the name is here, it's going to be Zoe, and she found it, and it's like, it's going to be Zoe, and it's just Z-O-E, no Y, no I-E, or whatever, it's just Z-O-E, and then she told my dad, because they made peace, she was like, and we can name her Jadira as your second name.

There you go. So it's Zoe Jadira. Okay, let's talk about, well congratulations, you're up for everything. Thank you. Thank you. And you've already won one. Yes, yes, we're up for a lot, yes. And we love Rita.

Thank you. It was such a, I mean, okay, mama has a question about the musical aspect. I wondered, is it a genre of Mexican film that there is singing, but I wouldn't call it a musical. Would you call it a musical? No. But I wondered if it's a genre of Mexican filmmaking.

No, no, no, I think not. Okay. Not that I'm aware of, though I'm sure that films in Mexico have been musicals before because the Mexican cinema is so rich and so beautiful. And I grew up watching Mexican cinema. Talented people like Cantin Flas, who was sort of the Charlie Chaplin in a way of Mexico. La India Maria was this prolific comedian actress that did great movies that were funny and humorous, but also thought provoking.

And I've seen black and white cinema. I've seen silent movies in Mexico, so from of Mexico. But this movie didn't really feel, I have to say, it felt Mexican, but also it didn't. It felt very dystopian, hyper real, set upon a world that was, there was inspiration from Mexico taken into consideration, but it wasn't, it's an experience. I don't even call it a musical, I don't call it a drama.

It's a compilation of so many things. I do believe that what Jack was attempting to do was break the mold of genres and break the mold of manuals, like art manuals. This is the formula when you're going to do a musical or this is the formula when you're going to tell a drama. He just wanted to kind of give himself that freedom. It's like an experience, you know? Can we, we will talk about Amelia Perez a bit more later, but can we bring it back to your childhood?

You lived in New York, you lived in, your heritage is Dominican. Have you got Colombian in you as well? No, no, Little Puerto Rican. Little Puerto Rican. Puerto Rican and three-quarters Dominican So what was a traditional dish that you would eat around the dinner table together or one of your favorites around the dinner table? Um, and who was there you can plantains are our potatoes

So you can have plantains in the morning at noon and also, know, at night. That's a very heavy dinner. Sometimes it was just, right, arroz con leche, which is, it's just milk, it's like a rice, a risotto. Like conchi. A risotto done in milk, with milk. But not sweet. You can have it sweet, or you can have it savory. And it's savory because you can put

some Parmesan cheese on top, or you can put like sugar on top. And I remember that I would put sugar and cinnamon powder on top. So it's like a porridge. Yeah. And you do it at night because the milk and the rice, the starchness of the rice, it's very soothing and I guess it just, it relaxes and puts you to sleep. Who was cooking? Everybody. It just it relaxes you and puts you to sleep. Who was cooking? Everybody. It's in my, at least in my households, there were some, all the women, it was, I grew up in a mainly

matriarchal kind of structure. They were husbands always around. Great-grandpa, grandpa, dad, dads, you know, because I've had, I have two fathers. The one I lost and the one that I was gifted again to have. And then a lot of uncles and aunts, but it's mainly the women that are in the kitchen. Did you all speak Spanish to each other? Yes, that's our first language. That's your first language? And then you've got English, you speak French.

No, I've picked up Italian because of my husband. Italian because of... and what other languages? That's it. Through my Italian, I'm able to sort of understand French. Yeah. When the French want to be understood. Okay. Because then, Paris is kind of like New York, is kind of like London, where there's, the slangs are actually much more prominent and colloquially spoken over the formalities of their language. So I'm able to pick up 30 to 50% sometimes of French and then Brazilian Portuguese, not Portuguese that's spoken in Portugal. Wow.

Wow. But remember, I speak a romantic language. So within that, I'm able to sort of dabble. I can get by in all the other four. I'm so jealous. But your Spanish is slightly different from European Spanish as well. Oh, yes. The way you say the C and the Z.

Yes, exactly. So when did you... You were born in New York. Were you born in New York? In New Jersey, New Jersey. I want to be always honest because I like... I dig New Jersey, but we're New Yorkers through and through. But so the cultures you were talking about, Greek and some of these other cultures that

were around, what was some of the food that you were eating if you were around your friends or what was memorable dishes from some of those like neighbours? Well, we, I come from a very just culturally diverse family. So from the from our inception, so my my grandpa worked at a pizzeria, and it was an Argentine pizzeria. So I grew up eating Argentine pizza and also like New York pizza. And they were doing empanadas and focaccia's and at my grandpa's pizzeria where he worked. What was it called? I don't remember.

Where was it? It was in Jackson Heights. Okay. Like maybe three blocks from where we grew up. Okay. And his days off were Mondays and on Mondays he would make una salo argentino and they would drink wine. So I remember being... What's that? What is it? Una salo is like, you know, it's like, it's they grill all the meat. It's a very Argentine way of eating. It's like meats and potatoes and cheese on the side. And then all the neighbors would come. And sometimes the Argentine partners of him

at the pizzeria would come. So I grew up in a neighborhood that was very Colombian, Puerto Rican, Brazilian, Greek, black. So it was a melting pot of all these things. I remember the very first time I tasted like fried chicken and waffles, which is a very African American way of eating or Southern way of eating. And I was just like so amazed that I'm like, well, this is the perfect definition of brunch in my mind, you know, because we didn't really brunch. We don't have like sweet

breakfast. Yeah, sometimes we would have like an American breakfast, but I was a daughter of immigrants and in our house, it was very Dominican. It was just very Dominican and Caribbean. So, but on the weekends, if people were going to like a diner to have pancakes, you know, with their families, we were going to Chinatown or in Flushing, which is a big, big Asian diaspora.

And we were having dim sum or, you know Flushing, which is a big, big Asian diaspora, and we were having dim sum, or if we wanted to go for Chinese. If we wanted Japanese, we would have shabu-shabu. If we wanted Korean, we would have the barbecue. So it was... I grew up just always understanding cultures through their foods. Or we would have Indian, because just 20 blocks from where we lived, just one train stop away from us, was a very big Indian diaspora. So sometimes my mom, my grandma, they would want their goat stew, and they would go to

this Indian restaurant that was kind of like a buffet, and I would eat like all the sac paneer and the chicken tikka masala, and I would have lentils there. And I remember thinking, like after my grandmother's's rice my second favorite rice is the Indian rice Let's talk about rice actually. Please. You've got you've got a really I'm glad we didn't do rice today because I've heard you're very Judgmental about rice. Oh my god. Yeah, I read a condiment. I would have kept it to myself No, you say you really judge a person on their rice cooking. I do I do because it's it's like what is I mean? I would ask you guys. What is your simple dish that you really have to be like, to eff it up, you know? You judge somebody on their chicken soup and matzo balls. You do. You absolutely, you do.

You'll compare the hardness of the ball and you will. And the flavor of the, the, the, the broth. Yes. Exactly. The depth of the broth. Yes. I, the, the, the bra. Yes. Exactly. The depth of the bra. Yes. I, I, I believe that. So I've had big matzo balls and I'm like, I don't like the dense, you know? So how is Zoe cooking her rice? Okay.

So we saute our rice before we put the water in it. Okay. We don't just put water on a pot and then throw the rice in there. Okay, I'm learning. It's a couple of steps. So what are you sauteing it with? What oil or butter? Just olive oil.

No, I do not cook rice with butter. That's very Italian. I learned that after I married the Italians and I'm very much like butter in my rice unless I'm making that milk risotto. But okay, so you put olive oil and you add the salt. You wait for that oil to sort of, you know, to start getting warm or hot.

And then while you're doing that, you're rinsing your rice over and over and over again. When I lived in Dominican Republic, I would sit down with my great grandmother right on the floor next to her chair and we would spread the rice and clean it because the rice would come straight from the field into once it was processed basically dried dehydrated or whatever it would be put in a sack of rice so you would get these sacks we ate I grew up eating very farm-to-table very

homestead that's why I'm a little picky eater but now that you know we're living in an era of everything is so processed, you know, and you would pick all the rocks out of it and all the rice that looked different from each other. If you wash the rice a couple of times and then you rinse it and then when the oil is hot you put it in there and you have to hear it does that little sizzling sound, you know, and then you saute it and then for a couple of minutes and then you add your water. But you don't add so much water. You add enough water that if you put a spoon or a fork or a knife it can still stand. You

don't want you don't want pasty sticky rice unless that's your intention. If that's your intention. Sometimes jasmine rice is a bit stickier. Well it just has to do with the level of water, but here's the trick. Come on. You don't just cover it at high heat or whatever, or lower the heat and cover it and forget about it, because that takes too long, and then the rice then spends too much time

soaked in that water. You keep it at high heat, you wait for that water to evaporate, and when the water is evaporated, then that's when you cover your rice and you lower your heat. So you have, you'll get that grainy, delicious rice. Every little grain is oily. It's really good.

Wow. Yeah. However- That's like a whole bum bum train experience with rice. It is, I'm telling you. But let's say sometimes my stepdad wants coconut rice. So my mom, you know, then you have to make it a little sticky.

Yeah. Because it's, you know, it has a cream. You just put coconut cream in. It's a very Caribbean thing to do. Well, when we live in the Caribbean, you get the coconut, you grate it, you squeeze it. That milk goes in there. Which bit of the Dominican Republic were you? I grew up in Santo Domingo, in the capital.

I thought it was beautiful. It's so lush. It's just the vegetation. It's just gorgeous. Well, it's beautiful. And a beautiful piece of history is that we share the island with Haiti. Yeah.

And Haiti was the very first nation in the Americas to be completely independent. Oh, really? Yes. And after that, then Dominican Republic, then other Caribbean islands, and then South America and Central America, and then inherently

the United States. But poor old Haiti gets such a bad rap and it doesn't have the tourism that Dominican Republic has. It does and my experience, I can only speak from my experience, I, because very proud, my family has always been very understanding and lived peacefully side by side with Haiti. They are two very different nations, two different cultures, even though we share geographical land. How did they come to share an island? I just had to do with colonisation. Yeah, oh right, and they said, well put those people there and these people here. No, not really, it's just when they discovered, when the Europeans came,

if France went to one portion, Spain went to another, and the English went to another, the Dutch went to it, and they started killing each other for the land because the lands were full of gold. So when you go to churches in Spain, a lot of them are filled with gold that comes from stolen land. So to know our history means everything to us.

We embrace all of our components to our composition. We embrace our Iberian heritage. We embrace our African heritage and our Indigenous. So was it when you got... Sorry, mom. Should I put the phone down? No, I'll do it. Oh, wait a minute. Can I help? No. Why? You need to sit. By. Oh, wait a minute. Can I help? No. Why?

Because I'm unidistict. By the way, it's a very Dominican thing. If my mom were here or my grandmother, she'd be like, get up, go help. No, I'll tell you if I need to. Sorry, Mum. What were you going to ask, though? Well, I wanted to ask... Get on the mic. ...where you got married and whether it was a Dominican cuisine or an Italian cuisine.

I got married here in the UK. What? Of course you did. I Italian cuisine. I got married here in the UK. What? Of course you did. I read that. You got married in London. Proudly. Whilst you get the eggs on, I'm going to ask about what was on the menu at your wedding? Oh my god. It was so delicious. And why did you do the UK?

Because I was working here. You just had to fit in the wedding quickly. Well, because my husband and I were very fast and furious in everything that we do. It's like love the hard way, love the fast lane way. And I was shooting a movie here and it was mainly my idea. Marco is more of like the feminine spirit. He's the flower and I'm the thorn. But just remember too, like flowers need thorns because that's how they're protected. Okay. So we always have this agreement. I'm very hard and very New Yorker and I'm like that, and Marco's very like,

I'm Italian, I love everything, I'm kind, ba-ba. So he wanted to sort of like plan it and invite like a thousand people. And I literally wanted to do it right then and there. Cause I'm like, we're working on location. What were you working on? We'll send the invites to a lot of people because it's so last minute,

many won't be able to come and that's okay. And we'll have a dinner and a party afterwards. But I want to just, I have a lot of sensory, modulatory particularities. I'm very dysregulated often. And I get very overwhelmed in big places, especially if I'm the center of attention, I have to entertain and for like a long extended amount of time and I didn't really know these things about me until I finally just

became a mom and I having to deal with regulating my children all the time. I realized that and I get really emotional about this. I was dysregulated for, I'm dysregulated for a good chunk of the day and I think that art is a way of me regulating myself. So my husband didn't know but he's just so accommodating. So I, it was just like, I don't want a lot of people. I don't want this and I don't. And he's like, well, what do you want? He's the first person in my life that when I met him, he started always asking me, he's like,

okay, we just spent 30 minutes, you telling me what you don't want, what you don't like. What do you want? And that's kind of like the never ending story theme, right? It's like, start wishing, what do you, I wish, you know? And it's like, I just want the people that make me feel safe. To when I look from the altar at them, I just want people that make me feel safe. It's like, well, then let's do that list.

Who are those people? And it was just a, you know, like 50 people. And out of those 50, 35 of them were able to last minute change everything and be there because I'm like, when I look back, I want to look into their eyes and I want to feel their light back to me. I want to feel their blessings. I don't want to feel somebody kind of going,

hey, you know, because you just, and that's pressure. I don't want to be pressed, pressured into inviting people. I want a desire. I want to feel pleasure and love and security. And it was, you know, and there were a couple of strays there that we picked up like last minute, but they were also good folks, you know, and we did it at the Babington House, which is a wonderful place. Oh, lovely. Gorgeous. And it was very private, owned by a friend of ours, my husband's best friend,

who basically last minute said, well, just do it here. And we called and they were so accommodating. friend of ours, my husband's best friend, who basically last minute said, well, just do it here. And we call and they were so accommodating. And I did it on a Sunday because they didn't have availability on a Saturday. And I was shooting Guardians of the Galaxy here and I was working on Monday. So when we found out last minute that I couldn't do it on a Saturday and it had to be on that Monday, I was like, Oh God, I don't want to come straight from work. And I've never done this before and I've never done this before,

and I've never done it after. I went up to the AD and I said, is it okay if I ask for Monday off? And they're like, well, why? You never do that in a production. And I said, well, the thing is, I said, you're a person. I'm getting married on Sunday? And I remember his face.

He was such a wonderful AD, passed away, but a really wonderful man. And he was kind of like, okay, all right. And I remember he had like an internal conversation with himself of all the moving pieces that he had to do. And then he finally told himself in front of me, it must be done, it must be done. Don't worry, darling, I got, I got you.

And I was just like crying, I'm like, thank you so much. And then the director came like, are you kidding me? Of course you're getting married. Oh my God. And they were all invited to the wedding. So when was the wedding? It was in 2013. Yeah.

So you've been married a long time. An old married woman. 12 years. Very happy. And you have three children. And I met him just six months before by the way. Oh wow. How did you meet? I mean on a plane.

On a plane at 6.30 in the morning. A long haul one or a short? It was from LA to New York. Long enough to get to know each other and fall in love. Were you sitting next to each other? Kind of within a couple of aisles from each other. Well who made the first move? Who like?

Oh he did, he's so Italian. Italians are so confident, like they're like caramela all that thing and I'm from New York I'm like stop. Yes use your voice use your manly voice because he my husband's really gentle and he's like ciao amore. I'm like tuck like grounded and he's always like don't be unkind to me okay I'll speak to you like this. So I was always very, very hard, but maybe that's what he liked about me, I don't know. I just, hold on, I just need to know. So he made the first move.

Did he ask to swap seats? How did he, did he wait for you to go to the loo? No. I don't know how he chats you up. Look, she's so gorgeous. His eyes must have magnetized towards her. I was traveling with my makeup artist who's from Argentina. And the reason why I say this,

it doesn't matter where she's from, but I love the fact that she's from Argentina because she speaks like, no! Argentinos speak very much like this, and ba-ba-ba. And she calls me, because we were traveling together for a work thing, and she had arrived at the airport before I did and says, Balula calls me.

How far are you? And I'm like, I'm like 10 minutes away. Oh my God, come quick. There's an Adonis. Ah! On the parallel queue to us. Come quick before he leaves. So then I'm like, oh, excuse me sir,

can you please get there about. And as I'm like, oh, excuse me sir, can you please get through about. And as I'm walking towards her, she does this thing. Oh, and then goes like this. So then my eyes look at her and go exactly where she's staring at. And he's right there parallel to her on the neighboring queue. And something told me, like I just heard this voice, I was like, what the fuck was that?

You love him. Like I just heard like a voice within me that said, you love him, and I was like, and I look at him like, obviously the most gorgeous, because Italians can be really easy on the eye. You know, just so fucking Mediterranean and just, I don't know, with that nose and those, I don't know, and those big hands.

Oh. And big feet. Oh. Anyway. So then he looks at me, but he gives me that little player look, like that little boy look, and that just irritated the fuck out of me. Because I can already tell that he knows he's beautiful. Yes.

You know what I mean? I like when somebody doesn't know that they're beautiful, and they're clumsily beautiful, but he just knows it. And he owns it, and he's been banking on that shit since he was 14. You can totally tell. OK. So I made this whole history about him. Yeah.

And then at the newspaper stand, once we're past the security, he comes up to me, he says, we met. We always cross paths. What? And I'm like, no, he goes, with so and so and so, and we realized that we do have friends in common. And I did meet him. And I remember that I told myself, forget you ever laid eyes on this.

I met him at a yacht party in Cannes three years before. I love this. And he was sitting with Corrine Naratfield, who back then was the editor in chief of Vogue magazine, Franz. And she was one of the people on the list that I was told you have to go meet her. Schmeezy lose.

And go, thanks so nice to meet you, I hope you like me. And she was talking to someone that appeared to be this gorgeous, tall blonde thing. Turns out that it's a man and it was my husband with long hair. My husband has long hair and and she's like, nice to meet you Zoe, this is Marco. And I said nice to meet you and he did this. He goes, piacere. And he does this little Italian little high-pitched thing that the Italians do. Which bit of Italy is he from? Some little boys do, some men do. Which bit of Italy is he from? He's from the north. He's from La Garda. So he's very gentle and very soft-spoken just like his mom. And his dad is from Milan.

Ciao a tutti, belli e brutti. Like that's Ezio. You know, so the combination of that made Marco Berrigo. And I remember thinking, oh, so beautiful. Probably the most gorgeous thing I'll ever lay eyes on. What a player. So I made this whole thing. I'm like, I'm a pirate. Stay away from a pirate. And then he reminded me, no, we met a couple of years ago.

And so he gives Vera, my makeup artist, he gives her his information, because I wasn't going to take it on the flight. We did talk and I realized like just reluctantly liking him. I just like, I'm like, God, he's just so easy on the eye and so gentle. I'm like, it's all fake. It's all fake. I'm such a New Yorker.

I'm really, I have a very hard shell, had. And New York dating is quite tough as well. I mean, I don't know if you found it tough, Mary, because you're much. Well, but you know what? I'm 46. I've heard from so many younger people that dating today is just difficult. We're living in such an era where social media gives you the permission to be so different from yourself. So some so most of the times, people sort of weaponize the fact that they can hide behind these devices to just

spew so much hatred and intolerance and inflexibility. And sometimes you reinvent yourselves and you can be quite superficial in the way that you're approaching love or dating, right? So back in the day, we relied on face presence, right? And what you saw in that very moment was what was gonna get you past first base. I liked him and everything about him, but I just felt like maybe he wasn't gonna be this nice. And then I called him maybe three weeks after that flight. Are you cold? You didn't? No text?

I emailed him and I said, I heard that I know that you have a studio because you told me that you have an art studio. What did he do? He's a multi-disciplinary artist. So back then Marco was a sculptor and a painter and a conceptual artist. He's so attractive. You know what? But he's not perfect. Okay. There's so many things I'm like, Marco enough. You know, like we're, we're just, we're, we're kind of yin to each other as yin. Did you do some ceramics together? We did, we did. Oh my gosh.

And he taught me how to make like mushroom risotto and tiramisu and you know. Have you put this in to a production company and you're making your own romcom that you can star in? I don't know, we always love telling the story of how we met and we also, we love even more hearing how others met. Because that really just inspires you.

We're actively pursuers of friends that are sort of, and harmoniously together. We like to surround ourselves with harmonious people together. Because it feeds you. It really feeds you. and then you keep each other encouraged to keep going because love isn't easy. Love is like, you know, we get up and we eat leaner

and we go exercise. We work so hard on our image and how we wanna feel healthy but we become really cavalier with love. Love is a muscle, man. You gotta, you gotta always like, it's in the letters, it's in the effort that you do for that partner if you know their love language. It's in the way you know that something makes them so happy

even though you hate doing it. So you'll do it, you'll budge, you know, and vice versa. And it's in the way you are honest, even when it hurts, but you do it with so much kindness, which I'm still learning. And I will forever, will forever be a student of that going on because I fail so miserably.

Wait, what is this? I made a shachshuka. Get on the mic, mum. I love it. Sorry, but green. Okay. I never had a green shachshuka. Okay.

So let's hope. And there's some halloumi that can be with it. I love halloumi so much. I've never had a green tea choco pie. Okay. So let's hope. And there's some halloumi that can be with it. I love halloumi so much. Great. And then we've got some gluten-free rolls for you if you need that. Thank you so much. Let's go there. And that's the Agner. Oh, okay.

So strained kind of, you know, yoghurt. And then mum's made some gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. You guys are incredible. Well, I've done nothing. So whilst mum is sorting out the, I think, the eggs and the halloumi, thanks mum, appreciate you. Thank you mum. Last supper, we ask everybody there, Last Supper. You can be going to a desert island where you're not gonna have your delicious comforts

and favorite food for a very long time. So this would be the Last Supper before you go there. An appetizer, a main, a dessert, and a drink of choice. What are you gonna go? You can think about this for a bit or you can just hit me with it. I'm a Gemini, so I can't just choose one thing. I love noodles.

I'm a sucker for Asian noodles. Okay. I love udon, I love jache, and I love wonton noodles and everything, but if I had to pick just one, I would say my great-grandmother's food from beginning to end. Okay, where would we start?

We would start with maybe a little shot of espresso, cafecito. Um, cause even though I don't drink coffee, I would drink hers any minute. Why was it so good? Just because. It was just great. I think when you grew up in Latin America, we just make our cafecito so like, you know, you can have a cortadito, which is what they call in Cuba. You just put a little dash of milk, but it's just tiny and it's just an explosion of just energy. But it's okay if you're with your grandparents

because you can explode on each other, you know? I would have a cafecito. How old were you when you started drinking cafecitos? Young. Five, four, five. I couldn't be putting my three year old having a cafecito. Huh? You eat two.

I'll eat two. I'll eat two. Because they would give you, your grandparents are drinking and they get that little teaspoon and they just kind of like give you, start giving it to you. Even though your parents are like, oh, come on, no, mama, don't give her that, don't. And then you learn, you learn that as long as your parents don't see you, your grandmother,

it'll go from two teaspoons to a whole little shot of cafecito. Oh my, that's true. So, but maybe we'll end with a cafecito. That always brings forward so many great conversations with your grandparents. So we would start maybe with a caramel tea or just like Coca-Cola. You just have a soda. But back in the day growing up in Dominican Republic, they had their own soda companies. And there was this brand called Country Club Sodras and the merengue one, which was, I think it was a ginger one, I would start with that.

And then we would have her food, which is just rice and her beans from scratch that she soaked overnight, kidney beans, red kidney beans. And her... There's harissa there. Do you want harissa? It says to serve it with a little... Sure....harissa. Is it spicy? kidney beans and, and her, her. There's harissa there. Do you want harissa? It says to serve it with a little. Sure.

Harissa, so. Is it spicy? Harissa's slightly spicy. Bring it on. Okay, fine. I was like a bit worried. You was like, is it spicy? I was like dolloping it on.

This looks great, mum. I'm not like a yogurt savory fan. I like my yogurt with granola and honey. Got it. This is delish, mum. Thank you so much. It's kind of more interesting than the tomato. I'm not mad about shakshuka with the tomato.

I love it like that. This is delish. Well, can I ask you something? It's peas, not peas. It's leeks, right? It's leeks, peas, coriander, spinach, mint and parsley. Can I get this recipe? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Whilst you're here, how long are you in London for? I'm here until tomorrow. I arrived three days ago. Oh, God. Have you eaten well whilst you've been here? I always eat great here. The food here is so delicious. I love, I loving an English breakfast,

the bangers and whatever you call it. The bangers, yeah. I love that. The eggs and, how The bangers and whatever you call it. The bangers, yeah. I love that. The eggs and, how do you call it? What is it? Bangers. They're sausages, yeah. But your sausages are different to yours.

Very different. I like when things are different. Because you're, I'm a very curious person and I feel like you get to know a lot about a culture and people through their food. And you feel the energy. When food is done with love, is made with love. You feel that energy and it feeds you, it nourishes you, right? But also you guys have a huge West Indian and Caribbean melting pot here.

And I, that would be like, if I can close my eyes and admit it's like, I love Chinese food, like, like from, you know, Hong Kong, like I like that kind of area of food in China. And I love Caribbean food. So I'll eat an oxtail and a beef patty from the Jamaicans. I'll have some rice and peas. I'll have arroz concre from the Cubans. I'll have pernil from the Puerto Ricans. I'll have like my roasted chicken

with my rice and beans. I just, I love Caribbean food. It's so good. How do you roast your chicken? Okay, so in every Dominican household, right next to the stove, you would need to have like a wood pillar like this. Yeah.

And with like a big like hammer. That's part of like, it was carved from like caoba, which is like our very strong wood. Yeah. And that every day you make your sofrito with oregano, garlic and salt. So you start mashing that until you create like a paste. Right.

And that's like the base. You put it on your oil, you do that, and then you cook everything. When you're making roasted chicken, you wash your chicken, you dry your chicken, you drill holes around your chicken, and then you stuff it with that paste you have throughout and then you rub it on top of it

and you start cooking that in the oven. It's the most delicious. Did anyone want ice cream? I'm okay. Do you want some water? I'm okay. Can we go back to your grandma's... Speaking about your grandma's recipes

it wasn't great grandma, it was grandma, wasn't it? And back to that last supper. So we're starting with, did we get a starter from your grandma for the last supper? We don't really do starters. Okay, fine. Maybe sometimes.

Sometimes they'll make arepitas out of corn, little corn fritters or something, or bacalao, which is salted codfish. They'll do like little fritters of like bacalao or something and then you can start with that. But usually we just go straight into the main dish. And what would that main dish be? Rice, red kidney beans, that roasted chicken that I told you about.

The oregano garlic one. A cabbage salad, a shredded cabbage salad. Like a coleslaw? Yeah but not but not with the mayonnaise. Okay so what's in it? Yeah it's just shredded cabbage with beets and sometimes it may have carrots. Doesn't it all turn it all red? Yes. And is it raw beet? No they're cooked. Okay. They're cooked. So cabbage, beets and onion? No, they're cooked. Okay, they're cooked. So cabbage, beets and onion? And maybe on the side. Okay. Maybe on the side and and and I don't know and then the marinade is always like lemon based. It's like a lemon vinaigrette. So you have your vinegar or your lemon, your salt and your oil. And with the kidney

beans are they literally just kidney beans or is she doing any spices with them? Oh my god, it's a ritual. Like we are masters at making our beans. Some people bake them, some people do this. You've got to cut them well. It's the only time in my life I got food poisoning and ended up in hospital because kidney beans have a poison in them that should boil them completely. That's why they're pros. You have to soak them overnight. Soak them overnight. That way they release that enzyme. And that's why when you wake up, the water gets really slimy.

You rinse that water out, you soak them some more. If you're really eating dry, good, good beans, and then you cook them in the pressure pot. So the ritual, I mean, is there, so would there be any seasoning that goes in? Yes. So what is it? The base is like your sofrito, which is the ritual, I mean, is that, so would there be any seasoning that goes in? Yes. So what is it? The base is like your sofrito, which is the garlic, the oregano.

So it's the same as the chicken. And the salt. And you put that as a base. You put a whole onion into the pressure pot, celery and onion, celery and pepper. Okay. Either a green or a and pepper. Okay. Either a green or a red pepper. Oh, wow.

And you blast that in the pressure pot. Then you take all these things out. You can either mash them and then you create like a broth, right? Like now you have this broth. And then you add a pumpkin, a piece of pumpkin. You have to peel it. Why?

Because that's a starch. That's gonna be the base. It's gonna thicken your, we don't thicken the base. It's going to thicken your... We don't thicken our bases. It's pumpkin available all year. Not in England. Cabocha. We do like cabocha or we do what we call...

We call them aoyamas. Aoyama is like our Caribbean pumpkin and it's very pungent. It has a very strong taste. It tastes very much like a pumpkin. But that's what's going to thicken because we don't use flour. We don't use gluten. A lot of these countries, you know, before bread, like we were primarily gluten-free.

Like we ate, our starches came from like root vegetables, provisions, what you call that. Yucca, yautia, ñame. So this pumpkin. So then you start cooking it, like it's a soup. And you're putting your pumpkin in there and you put all the mashed up vegetables that you put with it in the pressure pot because they're super soft. And that you let that boil down.

When the pumpkin gets really cooked, you take it out and you mash it with some of the beans, not all of the beans, because we don't eat very, our Mexicans, they mash all the beans sometimes. We like our beans. So you take it out, you mash it, and then you, they mash all the beans sometimes. No, no, we like our beans. So you take it out, you mash it, and then you put it back into the broth. That will thicken the broth. Sometimes if you want more flavor, you can add a bouillon cube, or you can cook your beans in chicken stock, if you make chicken stock from scratch. This sounds great. Which I do.

This sounds amazing. It's really interesting. I tried to get bouillon cubes in the States. You can only get them in the Mexican section. It was weird. I tried to get bouillon cubes in the States, can only get them in the Mexican section. It was weird. That was the only place, couldn't find them anywhere else. So, and would you finish with the sweet rice pudding?

Anything, no. Because that would be more like a dish. That would be like a meal. Something with coconuts. Or if our fruits, if we have any kind of fruits in season, we like to caramelize them. We like to cook them down in like sugar and like vanilla and baking soda. And then you'll just have a little bit with your like your cafecito. So we have these berries that all through Latin America that

they're called cerezas. They're kind of like cherries or they're like cherries. Our Caribbean cherries are called cerezas or cereza. Yeah, if you're in Spain. Cereza is cherry in Spanish. Yeah. Yeah, cereza. Okay. And you take them, but you can cook them, you caramelize them, you cook them down with sugar. Why the baking soda? I've never done that before. Oh, because the baking soda. Yeah, they use it a lot. Yeah. What does it do? I wonder. It releases something I don't know. Does it make it more syrupy? I don't know. It's like when you're baking you know like you use baking soda a lot when you're baking. Yeah. You know so I don't know I'll find that out for you. You can't put too much because then you taste that. Yes. It's just an invisible little pinch of it. I think it makes it open up the flavour. I just wonder

whether it's just some chemical in it. So then would you have that with yogurt or would you just have it on its own? So it's kind of like a not a compote but it's just a little blast. Or they'll make like if the guavas, guayabas are in season they'll make like a jam or like a jelly kind of made of guava and you can eat that with like a cheese that they have they'll make like a jam or like a jelly kind of made of guava. And you can eat that with like a cheese that they have that is not like a feta cheese because it's like a ricotta. Oh, nice. It's like a form of ricotta

but it has a thicker kind of texture. And you just take a slice of that and we call it queso crema or crema san Juan. And you eat that with like your guava jam. Yum. And your cafecito, isn't it great? That sounds great. But usually we don't have our dessert right after our meal.

You have like your coffee there, because we drink coffee like six times a day. That's probably why you don't drink it anymore, babe, and you feel jittery. I'm done. But like around two or whatever, you'll have like what you call merienda. You call like a little snack. And what's the, that's the snack?

That's the jam with the queso crema, and all that stuff. That's kind of like our afternoon tea, I guess. That's it, and biscuits, or like you have like, yeah. Lovely. And then drink of choice, so that would be, would that be the soda? Yeah, that's how we have been Americanized

and kind of thing where you just, you've introduced instant ways of cooking. So now you have the bouillon cubes versus like the chicken broth that you made from scratch right so we would have soda but it was really good and in a glass bottle and we always felt like grown-up kids like drinking soda from a glass bottle you know these are gluten-free chocolate yeah are you serious they look great mom they look like brownies yeah they look great girls oh my They look like brownies. Yeah, they look great. Girls, oh my God, girls, what the F?

Mm, delicious. Oh my God. Oh my God, the new order just came out. You heard me, right? Girls, girls. That is delicious. They're so good. Lenny, can I take some with me?

Yes. Please, I'm so happy. These are wicked, mum. Do you like them? You could do them for Passover, because they're doing free. But it's very sweet. I want to know who's going to the Oscars with you.

Well, it's the whole family going, because I imagine you move like an amoeba. I'm trying. My mom came to the Golden Globes, and my sisters did too, because of Arianna and of Ariana Grande's mom. Because we had lunch with them at one of those luncheons, the award luncheons, and she sat with my sisters and she was like, you guys have to go to the Globes.

And then she goes straight to all of our publicists. Listen, you gotta get her tickets. They have to go to the Globes. And then my sisters were able to go to the Globes. I love that. Because we never dared to ask. We always think it's too much, but you know what? Ask and it's the worst. Ask and it's the worst. So this time I sent a list this big.

Good. And I'm like, my husband will be my date. Yeah. Because he's cute, looks good. Yes, and he's just the best thing that's ever happened to me. And then, if you ever cheat on me. You're dead, mate. You know. Tu sai como sono. Tu sai como yo sono. Sono mata. Sono mata. Anyway, he loves

when I talk to him like that. I just told him, I'm like, you know how I am crazy. I think it means cheat on me and you're dead. Exactly. He'll be tickled by this. He'll be like, that's intense. Um, so he's going to be my date, but I requested tickets from, from my dad and my mom and, and, and also for my reps. Like they, they, they're so, they're the ones that are day in and day out on this every single day for me and so many of me like me, and I just, I want to be able

to celebrate it with them too. Yeah. Are you, what are you going to eat after after? Are you gonna do the in and out burger? Stop. No. No. Oh. I do that every day with my kids. Yeah. Fine. Okay. Stop. I think usually to me my favorite thing is just chicken tenders and french fries for room service because every hotel can master that and it's always good. That's a good idea actually. It's always good. It's chicken tenders. When in doubt, if you kind of go on and on and on, man. Chicken tenders, they won't, they won't.

They're frozen, they deep fry them unless they make them from scratch, it's amazing. But I think I want to have noodles. Noodles. So where I have an obsession with noodles. I love Asian noodles. Don't you go to all the parties afterwards. And specifically, I want to have Chinese Korean noodles.

They're the ones in that black bean sauce. I want you to wear a bib, please. I will. I'll take off the dress. You know what? I'll eat it naked. Okay, stunning, and I want photographic evidence, please. I think Demi would eat it naked, yeah. 13 nominations is...

Is 13 a record or is it...? No, no, no. 14 is a record. I believe so. Oh, okay. You're almost there. We're right there. And a film about women and Spanish, an opera, a tragedy, like everything about it just...

I adored it. ...is aligned with me. You know, and I loved it. It was a wonderful experience to be a part of. It was a wonderful challenge that I took upon myself and I feel proud of myself. Usually I'm very hard on myself, but I feel proud. And then just the reception of it has been really positive. I thought you were just completely phenomenal.

You were. Thank you. Yeah, I adored you in it. Thank you so much. And it was just just completely phenomenal. You are, thank you. Yeah I adored you in it and it was just a wonderful part. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much. It's been such an honour and pleasure. Thank you. You are heaven on earth. I can't wait to see you naked with noodles and your piggy bank. I'll send you a picture of the dress, like, laid on a chair and my legs. Having dinner with Oscar. I love it. I'll send you a picture of my husband. Yeah, OK, sure. OK.

I'm in love with Zoe Saldana. She's gorgeous. Zoe. Zoe Saldana. I love her. She's great. She's so warm. She was a top notch table manners guest. She's someone you'd want to be your best friend. I really loved her. I loved her stories. I loved how enthusiastic she was about food. I loved that she's just taken a ziplock of the cookies. She wanted the tin. They weren't bad though, were they? They were fantastic. Yeah, they were dead easy. She's going to need them. She's going to keep on talking about Emilia Perez for another

month. Thank you so much, Zoi. You can go and watch Emilia Perez on Netflix now, or probably see it in the cinema maybe still. I don't know. Yeah, I can't wait to see what she does next. Me neither. She was fantastic. She was great, absolutely wonderful. Well done mum, that was really delicious. Did you like it? I was slightly worried I had spinach or parsley or coriander in my tea. I've got a cumin seed there. Oh. Oh it's just come out. Great. We'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening.