Zoe Saldaña

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 https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

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• 2:08Speaker 05

  Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware. It's a Sunday morning. Spring, quite springy.

• 2:13Jessie Ware?

  Springy is frost, Jess.

• 2:15Speaker 05

  Fucking freezing, actually.

• 2:16Jessie Ware?

  It's freezing.

• 2:17Speaker 05

  And we have...

• 2:18Jessie Ware?

  We've got spring flowers, that's it.

• 2:19Speaker 05

  Yes, we have daftills on the tables and what's those ones? Hyacinths that smell nice, don't they?

• 2:24Jessie Ware?

  What are they?

• 2:25Speaker 05

  I'm not a green-fingered gal. I do like them. We have Oscar nominee Zoe Saldana on.

• 2:33Jessie Ware?

  So excited to meet her.

• 2:35Speaker 05

  And the weirdest thing happened last night. I went to see You Me Bum Bum Train, which is not...

• 2:41Jessie Ware?

  Stop showing off, Jess.

• 2:43Speaker 05

  Listen, I've been trying to see this show for 15 years. 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.

• 2:56Speaker 05

  But who comes out straight after me? Zoe Saldana.

• 2:59Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god.

• 3:00Speaker 05

  And I said, Zoe, I hate to interrupt you, but I'll see you at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. And she was just, I think she was in a bit of a daze. She went, okay, fine. 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.

• 3:18Jessie Ware?

  You signed an NDA?

• 3:19Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 3:19Jessie Ware?

  And you paid to go and see it?

• 3:21Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 3:21Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 3:22Speaker 05

  It's very exciting. Anyway, Zoe Saldana's coming on. She's up for an Oscar for Amelia 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 Odegaard's... Jacques Odiad?

• 3:44Jessie Ware?

  Odiad.

• 3:45Speaker 05

  Odiad. His film Amelia Perez, which is on Netflix. And I really enjoyed. She was fantastic in it.

• 3:51Jessie Ware?

  I need to ask her whether Amelia 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?

• 4:06Speaker 05

  I mean, I don't think it's a Mexican genre.

• 4:09Jessie Ware?

  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.

• 4:19Speaker 05

  Looks lovely.

• 4:20Jessie Ware?

  Which looks nice. It's lots and lots of herbs and it's leeks, peas. Spinach and.

• 4:28Jessie Ware?

  Coriander, mint and parsley. And I'm gonna put eggs in it and you serve it with harissa.

• 4:35Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 4:35Jessie Ware?

  I've done labna instead of yogurt.

• 4:38Speaker 05

  Nice.

• 4:38Jessie Ware?

  And I'm going to do some halloumi.

• 4:40Speaker 05

  Mum, lovely.

• 4:41Jessie Ware?

  Done a fruit platter and I have made. Some gluten free chocolate, double chocolate chip cookies, thank Angela Hartnett recipe. They are.

• 4:52Speaker 05

  Delicious.

• 4:53Jessie Ware?

  Quite sweet, but delicious, absolutely chewing delicious, a bit like macarons. Um, anyway, we're, I've got those to go with it and everyone can take some home.

• 5:04Speaker 05

  Amazing.

• 5:05Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 5:06Speaker 05

  Um, I.

• 5:06Jessie Ware?

  Pretty amazing, yeah. Been up since I was seven, darling, just in case.

• 5:10Speaker 05

  We'll let Zoe know that in a minute, yeah, okay, cool.

• 5:12Jessie Ware?

  And I did think I needed a facelift this morning.

• 5:15Speaker 05

  Why?

• 5:15Jessie Ware?

  Cause it's all.

• 5:16Speaker 05

  You look amazing.

• 5:17Jessie Ware?

  It's all dropped, darling. It's all gone that way.

• 5:20Speaker 05

  Mum, you look very good.

• 5:21Jessie Ware?

  Thank you, darling.

• 5:22Speaker 05

  Is it because you've been looking at my skin, because I'm investing in it so much?

• 5:26Jessie Ware?

  That I need a collagen facial every day, every time we do a podcast.

• 5:30Speaker 05

  You should just drink collagen.

• 5:32Jessie Ware?

  Can I just say one thing?

• 5:33Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 5:34Jessie Ware?

  Lo- I was at, at our local pub, at the Abbeyville 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, 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.

• 6:07Speaker 05

  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?

• 6:14Jessie Ware?

  No, I just want them to, I'm, I'm really thrilled that people love our podcast and come up.

• 6:19Speaker 05

  Respect my privacy?

• 6:19Jessie Ware?

  No, it's nothing to do that.

• 6:21Speaker 05

  Are you going chapel or last night?

• 6:22Jessie Ware?

  Need to respect anything.

• 6:23Speaker 05

  Chapel or not.

• 6:24Jessie Ware?

  Oh, someone's at the door.

• 6:33Speaker 05

  Now, listen, I've been saying your name wrong forever. Is it Zoe Saldana?

• 6:38Jessie Ware?

  It is, yeah.

• 6:39Speaker 05

  Have you got a squiggle?

• 6:40Jessie Ware?

  No, on my birth certificate, I was born in New York, New Jersey.

• 6:45Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:45Jessie Ware?

  And on my birth certificate, they didn't put it on. So I'm technically Zoe Saldana.

• 6:50Speaker 05

  Was that a mistake, that they didn't put it on?

• 6:52Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 6:52Speaker 05

  In the, you know, the birth certificate department?

• 6:54Jessie Ware?

  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 gonna put it.

• 7:04Speaker 05

  Interesting.

• 7:05Jessie Ware?

  Versus like now, there's just, there's this mindfulness of how do you wanna be called? Yes. What is your name? And that I truly appreciate, that gave me permission to make that choice. Coming to that awareness of like, wait a minute, this is not my full name. My full name is Zoe Saldana.

• 7:25Speaker 05

  Oh, it's good.

• 7:25Jessie Ware?

  And I, and I just, 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.

• 7:34Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 7:34Jessie Ware?

  So, you know what I mean?

• 7:36Speaker 05

  Well, um, hold on, how do you say your Zoe? You do Zoe?

• 7:39Jessie Ware?

  Oh, and the way that my family says it in Spanish is soi.

• 7:44Speaker 05

  Soi.

• 7:44Jessie Ware?

  Soi.

• 7:45Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 7:45Jessie Ware?

  Soi. Soi, and then the, and then the, and then the accent on the E.

• 7:48Speaker 05

  Soi, soi.

• 7:50Jessie Ware?

  So what do you think your name means? Is it got to mean? It's Greek. It is Greek. And it means life. It means life.

• 7:56Speaker 05

  We have Greek in the name.

• 7:56Jessie Ware?

  So I do, yeah, so yeah, cuz I, actually I was gonna say it means life.

• 8:00Speaker 05

  How do you know that?

• 8:01Jessie Ware?

  Just know that Zoe means life.

• 8:03Speaker 05

  Oh, right.

• 8:03Jessie Ware?

  In Greek.

• 8:04Speaker 05

  Right, fair enough.

• 8:05Jessie Ware?

  But I just wonder, is that why they chose it? Um, my mom was liking that name a lot.

• 8:11Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 8:12Jessie Ware?

  And from what I hear, my mom and my dad, they were really young parents and they, they either were making love or they were fighting.

• 8:20Speaker 05

  No, love and and um and I guess that throughout my pregnancy, my mom and my dad were at each other's wit's end. And um they couldn't decide on a name because my dad wanted to name me Jadera, 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, I'm not gonna name my kid with you. The name of some ex-girlfriend that you still, they're like, fuck you. Yeah. So um they na- and she liked Zoe. She she, there was something about Zoe, Zoe, Zoe. And 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, in Indian like neighborhoods, you know.

• 9:02Speaker 05

  And um so then they made peace, I'm born, they give her a book of names. She goes straight to the Z, finds, she goes, if the name is here, it's going to be Zoe. And she found it's go- and and it's like, it's gonna be Zoe, it's and it's just Z O E, no Y, no I E or whatever, it's just Z O E. And um and then my, and then she told my dad, because they made peace, she was like, and we can name her Jadera as your second name. There you go. So it's Zoe Jadera. Okay, let's talk about, well, congratulations, you're up for everything. Thank you.

• 9:32Jessie Ware?

  And you've already won one.

• 9:34Speaker 05

  Yes, yes, we're up for a lot, yes. And we, you were, we love Rita. Thank you. It was such a, I mean, okay, mom has a question about the musical aspect.

• 9:43Jessie Ware?

  I wondered, be- 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?

• 9:51Speaker 05

  No.

• 9:52Jessie Ware?

  But I wondered if it's a genre of Mexican filmmaking.

• 9:55Speaker 05

  No, no, no, I think that.

• 9:56Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 9:57Speaker 05

  Um, not that I'm aware of, though I'm sure that films in Mexico have been, you know. Been musicals before because the Mexican cinema is so rich and so beautiful. And I grew up watching Mexican cinema, um, uh, talented people like Cantinflas. Who was sort of the 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 um thought provoking and um and and I've, I mean, I've I've seen black and white cinema, I've seen silent movies in Mexico. So uh uh from of Mexico, um.

• 10:40Speaker 05

  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 um from Mexico, taken in into consideration, but it but it wasn't, i- i- 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 what Jack was attempting to do was break it, was break the mold of just like, oh, of genres and break the mold of, you know, like manuals, like art manuals of like, this is, this is the, this is the formula when you're

• 11:23Speaker 05

  gonna do a musical, or there's the formula when you're gonna tell a drama. He just wanted to kind of give himself that freedom. It's like an experience, you know?

• 11:31Jessie Ware?

  Can we, we we we'll talk about Emilio Perez a bit more later, but can we bring it back to your childhood? You lived in New York, you lived in Dominican, your your heritage is Dominican. Have you got Colombian in you as well?

• 11:44Speaker 05

  No, no, a little Puerto Rican.

• 11:46Jessie Ware?

  Little Puerto Rican.

• 11:47Speaker 05

  Puerto Rican and three quarters Dominican.

• 11:50Jessie Ware?

  So what was a traditional dish that you would eat around the dinner table together? Or one of your favorites?

• 11:56Speaker 05

  Around the dinner table, um.

• 11:58Jessie Ware?

  And who was there?

• 11:59Speaker 05

  You can, plantains are our potatoes. So you can have plantains in the morning, at noon, and also, you know, at night. That's a very heavy dinner. Sometimes it was just right, um, arroz con leche, which is, um, it's, it's just milk, it's, it's a, it's like a rice, a risotto. A risotto done in milk.

• 12:22Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, but not sweet.

• 12:23Speaker 05

  You can have it sweet or you can have it savory. And it's 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.

• 12:35Jessie Ware?

  It's like a porridge, yeah.

• 12:37Speaker 05

  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 it puts you to sleep.

• 12:47Jessie Ware?

  Um, who was cooking?

• 12:49Speaker 05

  Everybody. It's in my, at least in my households, um, there were some, all the women, it was, I, I grew up in a mainly matriarchal kind of structure. There were husbands always around, great grandpa, grandpa, dad, dads, you know, cause I've had, I have two fathers. Um, the one I lost and the one that I, I was gifted again to have and, and then. Uh, and a lot of uncles and aunts, but it's mainly the women that, that are in the kitchen.

• 13:16Jessie Ware?

  Did you all speak Spanish to each other?

• 13:18Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's our first language.

• 13:19Jessie Ware?

  That's your first language? And then you're, you, you've got English, you speak French?

• 13:25Speaker 05

  No, I've, I've picked up Italian because of my husband.

• 13:27Jessie Ware?

  Because, and what other languages, that's it?

• 13:30Speaker 05

  Through my Italian, I'm able to sort of understand, uh, French.

• 13:33Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 13:34Speaker 05

  Uh, when, when the French want to be understood, cause then there, New Paris is kind of like New York, it's kind of like London. Where there's, the slangs are actually much more prominent and colloquially, you know, spoken over, over the formalities of, of their language. So, um, I, I've, I'm able to pick up thirty to fifty percent sometimes of French. And then Brazilian Portuguese, not Portuguese that's spoken in Portugal.

• 13:59Jessie Ware?

  Wow.

• 14:00Speaker 05

  It isn't, but, but, but remember, like, I'm, I'm, I speak a romantic language. So, um, uh, we- within that, I'm able to sort of dabble, I can get by in all the other four.

• 14:10Jessie Ware?

  So jealous. But your Spanish is slightly different from European Spanish as well, where you say the C and the Z.

• 14:17Speaker 05

  Yes, exactly.

• 14:18Jessie Ware?

  So when did you, uh, were you, you were born in New York, were you born in New?

• 14:22Speaker 05

  Uh, New Jersey, New Jersey, I wanna be always honest, cause I'm, I like, I dig New Jersey, but we're, we're New Yorkers through and through.

• 14:29Jessie Ware?

  But so, so the cultures you were talking about, Greek and, and some of these other cultures that were around, um. Uh, what was some of the food that you were eating, if you were around your friends, or what, what was memorable dishes from some of those like neighbors?

• 14:41Speaker 05

  Well, we, I come from a very just culturally diverse family, so from the, from our inception, so. My, um, 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.

• 14:59Jessie Ware?

  Yep.

• 14:59Speaker 05

  And they were doing banadas and focaccias and, and at, at my grandpa's, uh, pizzeria where he worked. I don't remember. Where was it? Um, it was in Jackson Heights. Okay. Like maybe three blocks from where we grew up. Okay. And and his um hi- his days off were Mondays and on Mondays he would make una saldo argentino and and they would drink wine. So I remember being. Una saldo is like, you know, I it's like it's they grill all the meats. It's a very Argentine way of eating. It's like meats and potatoes and and cheese on the side and and you know. So and then all the neighbors would come and sometimes the Argentine, you know, uh, partners of him at the pizzeria would come.

• 15:38Speaker 05

  So I grew up in a in a and I grew up in a neighborhood that was very Colombian, Puerto Rican, Brazilian, Greek, black. Um, so it was a melting pot of all these things. I 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. 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 I was a daughter of immigrants and in our house. Uh, it was very Dominican. It was just very Dominican and Caribbean.

• 16:18Speaker 05

  So um, 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, 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 I grew up just always understanding cultures through their foods. Or we would have Indian because just twenty 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 sakpanir and and and the chicken tikka masala.

• 17:02Speaker 05

  And I would have lentils there and I and I remember thinking, like, after my grandmother's rice, my second favorite rice is the Indian rice. Let's talk about rice, actually. You've got you've got a right. I'm glad we didn't do rice today because I've heard you're very judgmental about rice. Oh, my god. I read a content. 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 I mean, I I would ask you guys, what is your simple dish that you really have to be like? To F it up, you know.

• 17:35Jessie Ware?

  You judge somebody on their chicken soup and matzo balls. You do, you absolute, you, you do. You'll compare the hardness of the ball and you will. And the flavor of the, the, the.

• 17:47Speaker 05

  The broth, right?

• 17:48Jessie Ware?

  Exactly, the depth of the broth.

• 17:50Speaker 05

  I, I, I believe that.

• 17:52Jessie Ware?

  So I.

• 17:52Speaker 05

  I've had thick matzo balls and I'm like, I don't like the.

• 17:55Jessie Ware?

  You've got to get the good ones.

• 17:56Speaker 05

  Dense, you know?

• 17:57Jessie Ware?

  So, so how is Zoe cooking her rice?

• 18:03Speaker 05

  Okay, so we saute our rice before we put the water in it.

• 18:06Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 18:06Speaker 05

  We don't just put water on a pot and then throw the rice in there.

• 18:09Jessie Ware?

  Okay, I'm learning.

• 18:10Speaker 05

  It's, it's, it's a couple of steps.

• 18:12Jessie Ware?

  So what are you sauteing it with? What, oil or butter?

• 18:14Speaker 05

  Just olive oil. I, no, I do not cook rice with butter.

• 18:17Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 18:17Speaker 05

  That's very, 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 so, 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, I grew up eating very farm to table, very homestead.

• 19:03Speaker 05

  That's why I'm, 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, um, and you would pick all the, all the rocks out of it and all the, 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, 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 a couple, 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.

• 19:43Jessie Ware?

  Sometimes jasmine rice is a bit stickier.

• 19:46Speaker 05

  Well, it's, it just has to do with the level of water, but here's the trick.

• 19:49Jessie Ware?

  Come on.

• 19:50Speaker 05

  You don't just cover it at high heat or whatever. Or, or lower the heat and cover it and forget about it because that takes too long and then that, the rice then spends too, 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.

• 20:15Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 20:16Speaker 05

  However.

• 20:17Jessie Ware?

  That's like a whole bum bum train experience with rice.

• 20:19Speaker 05

  It is, I'm telling you, but let's say sometimes my my stepdad wants coconut rice. So my mom, you know, my it it's then you have to make it a little sticky.

• 20:28Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 20:28Speaker 05

  Because it's, you know, has a cream.

• 20:30Jessie Ware?

  Coconut cream.

• 20:31Speaker 05

  It's a very Caribbean thing to to do. Well, when we lived in the Caribbean, you get the coconut, you you.

• 20:39Jessie Ware?

  Which bit of the Dominican Republic were you?

• 20:41Speaker 05

  I grew up in Santo Domingo, the capital.

• 20:43Jessie Ware?

  It was beautiful.

• 20:46Jessie Ware?

  It's just the vegetation, it's just gorgeous.

• 20:49Speaker 05

  Well, and it's beautiful and and beautiful piece of history is that we share the island with Haiti.

• 20:54Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 20:54Speaker 05

  And Haiti was the very first nation in the Americas to be completely independent.

• 21:01Jessie Ware?

  Oh, really?

• 21:02Speaker 05

  Yes, and after that, then Dominican Republic, then other Caribbean islands, and then South America and Central America, and then inherently.

• 21:10Jessie Ware?

  The United States. He gets such a bad rap. And it doesn't have the tourism that Dominican Republic has.

• 21:16Speaker 05

  It it does, and I and and my experience, I can only speak from my experience. I uh because very proud, my family has always been very um. Understanding and lived peacefully side by side with Haiti, but they are two very different nations, two different cultures. Even though we share.

• 21:40Speaker 05

  I just had to do with colonization.

• 21:42Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, oh, right. And they said, we'll put those people there and these people here.

• 21:46Speaker 05

  No, not really. It's just, it's just when 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, 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. From stolen land. So it's it's to know our history um means everything to us. And we we embrace all of our components to our composition. We embrace our. Iberian heritage, we embrace our African heritage and our indigenous.

• 22:24Jessie Ware?

  So when you got. Sorry, Mum, should I put the food down? No, I'll do it.

• 22:28Speaker 05

  Oh, wait a minute, can I help?

• 22:29Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 22:29Speaker 05

  Why?

• 22:30Jessie Ware?

  No, because I'm, you need to sit.

• 22:32Speaker 05

  By the way, the very Dominican thing, like how if my mom were here or my grandmother, she'd be like, get up, go help.

• 22:37Jessie Ware?

  No, I'll tell you if I need to.

• 22:39Speaker 05

  Sorry, Mum, what were you gonna ask, though?

• 22:41Jessie Ware?

  I, well, I wanted to ask.

• 22:42Speaker 05

  Get on the mic.

• 22:43Jessie Ware?

  Where you got married and whether it was a Dominican cuisine or an Italian cuisine.

• 22:48Speaker 05

  I got married here in the UK.

• 22:49Jessie Ware?

  Of course you did, you got, I read that, you got married in London. Whilst you get the eggs on, I'm gonna ask about what, what was on the, what was on the menu at your wedding?

• 22:58Speaker 05

  Oh, my God, it was so delicious.

• 23:00Jessie Ware?

  And why did you do the UK?

• 23:01Speaker 05

  Um, because I was working here and.

• 23:04Jessie Ware?

  You just had to fit in the wedding quickly?

• 23:05Speaker 05

  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 um, 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.

• 23:25Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 23:25Speaker 05

  So we always have this agreement. I'm very hard, I'm 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. Because I'm like, we're working on location.

• 23:44Jessie Ware?

  What were you, what was the ground?

• 23:45Speaker 05

  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 wanted just, I, I um, I have a lot of sensory. Um, modulatory um, particularities.

• 24:03Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 24:03Speaker 05

  I'm very dysregulated often.

• 24:05Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 24:06Speaker 05

  And I get very overwhelmed in, in big places, especially if I'm the center of attention and 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.

• 24:25Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 24:25Speaker 05

  I realized that, and I get really emotional about this, I was dysregulated for, I'm dysregulated for. A, a good chunk of the day, of the day. And, 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 I I 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, what do you want? He's 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 thirty 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 and it's like, I just want the people that make me feel safe.

• 25:10Speaker 05

  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 a a a, you know, like fifty people and out of those fifty, thirty-five of them were able to last minute change everything and be there. Cause I'm like, when I look back, I wanna look into their eyes and I wanna feel their light back to me. I wanna feel their blessings. I don't wanna feel somebody kinda going.

• 25:38Speaker 05

  Okay, you know, cause you just and and that's pressure. I'm I don't wanna be pressed pressured into inviting people. I just want I wanna desire. I wanna I wanna 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, good folks, you know, and and we did it at the Babington House.

• 26:02Speaker 05

  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 call and they were so accommodating. And I did it on on a Sunday, cause 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 wanna come straight from work. And I've never done this before and I've never done it after. I went up to the A D and I said, um, is it okay if I if I ask for Monday off? And they're like, well, I I think you never do that in a production. Well, the thing is, I said, married on Sunday.

• 26:47Speaker 05

  And I remember, I remember his face. He was such a wonderful A D. He passed away, but a really wonderful man. And he was kind of like. Okay, alright, 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 um in two thousand thirteen. So you've been married a long time, no married woman, yeah. Very happy.

• 27:24Jessie Ware?

  And and you have three.

• 27:25Speaker 05

  And I met him just six months before, by the way.

• 27:27Jessie Ware?

  Wow, how did you meet?

• 27:29Speaker 05

  Um, I mean, on a plane. On a plane at six thirty in the morning.

• 27:33Jessie Ware?

  A long haul one or a short?

• 27:35Speaker 05

  Um, it was from LA to New York.

• 27:37Jessie Ware?

  Long enough to get to know each other and fall in love.

• 27:39Speaker 05

  Were you sitting next to each other? Kind of, within a couple of aisles from each other.

• 27:43Jessie Ware?

  Who made the first move, who like?

• 27:45Speaker 05

  Oh, he did, he's so Italian. Italians are so confident, like, they're like, cara mia, muh muh, it's all that thing. Flirting. And I'm from New York, I'm like, stop. Yes, use your voice, use your manly voice, cause he, my husband's really gentle and he's like, ciao, I'm good, 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, blah blah blah. So I was always very, very hard. But maybe that's what he liked about me, I don't know.

• 28:13Jessie Ware?

  I just, hold on, I just need to know, so he, he made the first move, did he ask to swap seats? How did, did he wait for you to go to the loo?

• 28:20Speaker 05

  No.

• 28:20Jessie Ware?

  I don't know how, he chats you up.

• 28:23Speaker 05

  Look, she's so gorgeous, his eyes. No, I get that. Towards her. I was traveling with my makeup artist who's um 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, cause she speaks like, no. Argentinos speak very much like this, and blah blah blah. And um, she calls me, cause we were traveling together for a work thing. And she had, had arrived at the airport before I did, and says, boluda, calls me, how far are you? And I'm like, I'm like, ten minutes away. Oh my god, come quick, there's an Adonis.

• 28:59Jessie Ware?

  Ah!

• 29:01Speaker 05

  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, blah blah. And as I'm walking towards her, she does this thing.

• 29:18Speaker 05

  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, on the neighboring queue and something told me, like I, I just heard this voice, I was like, what the fuck was that? You love him. Like I just heard like my, a voice within me that said, you love him. And I was like, and I look at him, like, obviously the most gorgeous, cause Italians can be really easy on the eye. Yes. 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 and big feet. Oh. Anyway, so then he looks at me, but he gives me that little player look, like,

• 30:04Speaker 05

  like that little boy look, and that just irritated the fuck out of me. Because I, I couldn't, 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. Um, but he just knows it and he owns it and he's been banking on that shit since he was fourteen. You can totally tell. Okay. So I made this whole history about him. Yeah. And then at the, 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, I told myself, forget you ever laid eyes on this.

• 30:47Speaker 05

  I met him on a, at a yacht party in Cannes, three years before. I love this. And as I'm, and he was sitting with Corinne Rotfield, who back then was the editor in chief of Vogue magazine Friends. And she was one of the people on the list that I was told, you have to go meet her. Schmoozy blues. Thanks, nice to meet you. I hope you like me. And she was talking to what, with 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, he did this, he goes, beccere. And he does this little Italian, little high pitched thing that the, the Italians do. Which bit of Italy? Some little boys do, some, some men do. Which bit of Italy?

• 31:31Speaker 05

  He's from the north. He's from Lake Garda. So he's very gentle and very soft spoken, just yeah, just like his, his mom. And his dad is from Milan. Chao a tutti, belly bruti, like that's his, that's Ezio, you know, so the, the combination of that made Marco Perego. And um, 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 pirates, they're with my pirates. And then he reminded me, no, we met a couple of years ago. And um, so he gives Vera, my makeup artist, he gives her his information, because I wasn't gonna 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.

• 32:16Speaker 05

  I am 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.

• 32:23Jessie Ware?

  And New York dating is quite tough as well. I, I mean, I don't know.

• 32:26Speaker 05

  I think it's much easier. But you know what? I'm forty six. 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 an 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?

• 33:07Speaker 05

  And, and, and what you saw in that very moment was what, what was gonna get you past, you know, first base. I liked him and everything about him, but I just felt like maybe he wasn't gonna be this nice. Um, and then I called him maybe three weeks after that.

• 33:24Jessie Ware?

  Are you called? You didn't, did you, no text?

• 33:26Speaker 05

  I emailed him and I said, I heard, I know that you have a studio, because you told me that you have an art studio. He's a multidisciplinary artist. So back then Marco was, was a sculptor and a painter and a conceptual artist.

• 33:41Speaker 05

  You know, but you know what? But he's not perfect. Okay. There's so many things. I'm like, Marco, enough. You know, like where we just, we're, we're kind of ying to each other's yang.

• 33:48Jessie Ware?

  Did you do some ceramics together?

• 33:50Speaker 05

  We did, we did. And he taught me how to make like mushroom risotto and tiramisu and, and, um, you know.

• 33:56Jessie Ware?

  You know, have you, have you put this in, uh, to a production company and you're making your own rom com that you can star in?

• 34:02Speaker 05

  I don't, I don't know, but we always love telling the story of how we met and we also, we love even more hearing how others met. Cause that really just inspires you. We're, we're actively pursuers of, of friends that are sort of in, and, and, uh, harmoniously together. We like to surround ourselves with harmonious, uh, people together. Because it, it feeds, it feeds you. It, it really feeds you and, and, and then you, you keep each other encouraged to keep going. Cause love isn't easy. Love is like, you know, we, we, um, we get up and we, we, 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.

• 34:48Speaker 05

  Love takes, love is a muscle, man. You gotta, you gotta always like, it's in the letters. It's in the effort that you, 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. I will forever, will forever be a student of that going year, cause I fail so miserably. Wait, what is this? I made a shot of sugar.

• 35:21Jessie Ware?

  Get on the mic, mum.

• 35:21Speaker 05

  I love it. But green. Okay. I've never had a green chocolate. So let's hope.

• 35:29Jessie Ware?

  And, and there, and there's some halloumi that can be with it.

• 35:31Speaker 05

  I love halloumi so much.

• 35:33Jessie Ware?

  Great. And then we've got some gluten free rolls for you.

• 35:35Speaker 05

  Thank you so much. Let's go there.

• 35:37Jessie Ware?

  So you strained, um, you kind of, you know, a yogurt. Um, and then mum's made some gluten free chocolate chip cookies.

• 35:45Speaker 05

  You guys are incredible.

• 35:46Jessie Ware?

  Well, I've done nothing.

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• 38:05Jessie Ware?

  So whilst mum is sorting out the, I think the eggs and the halloumi, thanks mum, appreciate you.

• 38:10Speaker 05

  Thank you mum.

• 38:12Jessie Ware?

  Last supper, we ask everybody their last supper. You can be going to a desert island where you're not going to have your delicious comforts and favourite food for a very long time. So this would be the last supper before you go there.

• 38:26Jessie Ware?

  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.

• 38:32Speaker 05

  I'm a Gemini, so I can't just choose one thing. I love noodles, I'm a sucker for Asian noodles. I, you know, I love udon, I love, you know, jatche and I love, 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.

• 38:50Jessie Ware?

  Okay, where would we start?

• 38:53Speaker 05

  We would start with like maybe a little shot of espresso, un cafecito. Because even though I don't drink coffee, I would drink hers any minute.

• 39:02Jessie Ware?

  Why was it so good?

• 39:03Speaker 05

  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, but it's, it's okay if you're with your grandparents because you can explode on each other, you know, so I would, I would have a cafecito.

• 39:24Jessie Ware?

  How old were you when you started drinking cafecitos?

• 39:29Speaker 05

  Young, five, four, five.

• 39:31Jessie Ware?

  I couldn't be put in my three-year-old having a cafecito.

• 39:35Speaker 05

  I'll eat too. Because they, they would give you, grandparents are drinking it 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, 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. So, but maybe, maybe we'll end with a cafecito, because that's, that always brings forward, forward like so many great, great conversations with your grandparents, so. We would start me with a caramel tea or just like. Oh Coca Cola, you just have a soda. But back in the day, growing up in in in Dominican Republic. They had their own soda companies and there was this brand called Country Club sodas.

• 40:17Speaker 05

  And the merengue one, which was I I I think it was a ginger one was I would start with that. And then we would have her her food, which is just. Rice and her beans from scratch that she soaked overnight. Kidney beans. Okay. Red kidney beans and um. And her.

• 40:36Speaker 05

  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.

• 40:46Jessie Ware?

  I'm sorry, a bit worried you was like, is it spicy? I'm like dolloping it on.

• 40:51Speaker 05

  I'm not like a yogurt savory fan. I like my yogurt with granola and honey. This is delish, mom. Thank you so much. It's kind of more interesting than the.

• 41:01Jessie Ware?

  I'm not mad about shakshuka with the tomato. This is delicious.

• 41:05Speaker 05

  Well, can I ask you something? It's peas, not peas. It's um leeks, right? It's leeks, peas, coriander, spinach, mint and parsley. Can I can I get this recipe?

• 41:18Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whilst you're here, how long are you in London for?

• 41:21Speaker 05

  I'm here until tomorrow. I arrived three days ago.

• 41:24Jessie Ware?

  Oh, God. Have you eaten well whilst you've been here?

• 41:28Speaker 05

  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.

• 41:36Jessie Ware?

  The bangers, yeah. I love that.

• 41:38Speaker 05

  The eggs and what it how do you call it? What is it?

• 41:40Jessie Ware?

  Bangers. They're sausages, yeah.

• 41:45Jessie Ware?

  Different to yours.

• 41:46Speaker 05

  Very different, but I like I like when things are different. Cause you're 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 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, I like that kind of area of food in China. And, um, and I love Caribbean food, so I, I'll eat an oxtail and a beef patty from the Jamaicans.

• 42:25Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 42:25Speaker 05

  I'll have some rice and peas, I'll have arroz con crie from the Cubans. I'll have pernil from the Puerto Ricans, I'll have like my roasted chicken with my rice and beans, I, I just, I love Caribbean food.

• 42:36Jessie Ware?

  How do you, how do you roast your chicken?

• 42:38Speaker 05

  Okay, so, in every Dominican household, right next to the stove, you would need to have like a wood pillar like this.

• 42:45Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 42:46Speaker 05

  And with like a big, like hammer, that's part of like, it was carved from like caoba, which is like our, our very, very strong wood.

• 42:53Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 42:54Speaker 05

  And that, every day you make your sofrito with oregano, um, oregano, garlic and salt. So you start mashing that until you create like a paste.

• 43:05Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 43:06Speaker 05

  And that's like the base, you put it on your oil, you, 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 threw out, and then you rub it on top of it. And you start cooking that in the oven. It's the most delicious. Um, I'm okay.

• 43:26Jessie Ware?

  I'm okay, but draw some water.

• 43:27Speaker 05

  I'm okay.

• 43:28Jessie Ware?

  Can we go back to your, your grand, uh, uh, speaking about your grandma's, um, recipes?

• 43:34Speaker 05

  Hmm.

• 43:35Jessie Ware?

  Um, was, it, it wasn't great grandma, it was grandma, wasn't it? Um, and back to that last supper, so we're starting with, um, did we get a starter from your grandma?

• 43:44Speaker 05

  We don't really do starters.

• 43:46Jessie Ware?

  Okay, fine.

• 43:47Speaker 05

  Maybe sometimes, sometimes they'll, they'll make like arepitas, like out of like corn, little co- corn fritters or something, or bacalao.

• 43:56Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah.

• 43:57Speaker 05

  Which is salt, 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.

• 44:06Jessie Ware?

  And what would that main dish be?

• 44:08Speaker 05

  Hmm. Rice, red kidney beans. That roasted chicken that I told you.

• 44:12Jessie Ware?

  The oregano garlic one.

• 44:14Speaker 05

  A cabbage salad, a shredded cabbage salad.

• 44:17Jessie Ware?

  Coleslaw?

• 44:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, but not, but not with marinade.

• 44:19Jessie Ware?

  Okay, so what's in it?

• 44:20Speaker 05

  A mar- yeah, it's just shredded cabbage with beets. And sometimes it may have carrots.

• 44:26Jessie Ware?

  Doesn't it all turn it all red? And is it raw beet?

• 44:31Speaker 05

  Um, no, they're cooked. They're cooked.

• 44:33Jessie Ware?

  So cabbage beets and onion?

• 44:36Speaker 05

  And I mean, maybe on the side. Maybe on the side and and and, oh, I don't know. And then the 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.

• 44:51Jessie Ware?

  And with the kidney beans, are they literally just kidney beans or is she doing any spices with them?

• 44:55Speaker 05

  Oh, my god, it's a ritual. Like, we are masters at making our beans. Some people bake them, some people do this.

• 45:02Jessie Ware?

  You've got to cook them well. It's the only time in my life I got food poisoning and ended up in hospital.

• 45:09Speaker 05

  Oh, my god.

• 45:09Jessie Ware?

  Cause kidney beans have a poison in them. Boil them completely. That's why they're pros.

• 45:14Speaker 05

  You have to soak them overnight. That way they release that enzyme. And that's why when you wake up, the water gets really like slimy. You rinse that water out, you soak them some more. If you're really eating dry, good, good beans, you know? And then you cook them in the pressure pot.

• 45:30Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. So what, so the ritual, I mean, is there, so would there be any seasoning that goes in with, so what is it?

• 45:37Speaker 05

  The base is like your sofrito, which is the garlic, the oregano.

• 45:41Jessie Ware?

  The same as the chicken.

• 45:42Speaker 05

  And and the salt. And you put that as a base. You put a whole onion into the pressure pot. Celery and and um onion, celery and pepper. Either a green or a red pepper. And you 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 now you have this broth. And then you add a pumpkin, a piece of pumpkin. You have to peel it.

• 46:12Jessie Ware?

  Why?

• 46:13Speaker 05

  Cause that's a starch. That's gonna be the base. It's gonna thicken your, we don't thicken our bases.

• 46:18Jessie Ware?

  Not in England.

• 46:19Speaker 05

  Cabocha, we do, we do like cabocha, 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. And um but that's what's gonna thicken, cause we don't use flour, we don't use gluten, um a lot of these countries, um you know. Be- before bread, like we were primarily gluten free, like we ate, our starches came from like root vegetables provisions, which you call that. Yucca, yautia, nyame, so this pumpkin, so then you start cooking it like now 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 within the pressure pot, cause they're super soft.

• 47:02Speaker 05

  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, cause we don't eat very, our Mexicans, they they 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.

• 47:29Jessie Ware?

  Do you know, it's really interesting, when I tried to get bouillon cubes in the States, you can only get them in the Mexican section.

• 47:36Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 47:37Jessie Ware?

  It was weird, yeah, you, that was the only place, couldn't find them anywhere else. So um and would you finish with the sweet rice pudding?

• 47:45Speaker 05

  Anything, mm, no, no, because that would be more like a dish, that would be, that would be like a meal.

• 47:50Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 47:51Speaker 05

  Um, 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 they're like cherries, our our Caribbean cherries are called cerezas. Or se- fresa.

• 48:20Jessie Ware?

  Cereza is cherry in Spanish, yeah.

• 48:24Speaker 05

  And um.

• 48:27Speaker 05

  You caramelize them, you cook them down with sugar.

• 48:30Jessie Ware?

  Why the baking soda?

• 48:32Speaker 05

  Oh, cause the baking soda.

• 48:33Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, they use it a lot, yeah. How, what does it do? It releases some. Thing, I don't know, but. Does it make it more syrupy?

• 48:42Speaker 05

  It's like when you're baking, you know, like you use baking soda a lot when you're baking.

• 48:46Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 48:46Speaker 05

  You know, so I don't know, I I'll find that out for you. You can't put too much because then it's you taste that.

• 48:51Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 48:52Speaker 05

  It's just an invisible little pinch of it.

• 48:54Jessie Ware?

  It's open up the flavor. I just wonder whether it's just some chemical in it. Mm hmm. 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.

• 49:08Speaker 05

  Or 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 that is not like a feta cheese, it cause it's it's like a ricotta.

• 49:23Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 49:24Speaker 05

  It's like a for a for a ricotta, but it has a thicker kind of, a thicker com- a 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.

• 49:36Jessie Ware?

  Yum.

• 49:37Speaker 05

  And your cafecito. Isn't it great?

• 49:38Jessie Ware?

  That sounds great.

• 49:39Speaker 05

  But usually we don't have our dessert right after our meal. You have like your coffee, cause we drink coffee like six times a day.

• 49:46Jessie Ware?

  That's probably why you don't drink it anymore, babe, and you feel.

• 49:48Speaker 05

  I'm done. But like around two or whatever, you'll have like what you call merienda, you call like a little snack.

• 49:54Jessie Ware?

  And what's the, that that's.

• 49:56Speaker 05

  That's the jam with the queso crema and all that stuff.

• 49:58Jessie Ware?

  I love that. That's kind of like our afternoon tea, I guess, but yeah, fine.

• 50:01Speaker 05

  And biscuits or like you have like, yeah.

• 50:03Jessie Ware?

  Lovely. And then drink of choice, so that would be, would that be the soda?

• 50:07Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's that's how we have been Americanized and kind of thing where you just, you've introduced wa- instant ways of cooking. So now you have the bouillon cubes versus like a chicken broth that you made from scratch, right? So we would have soda, but it was really good, in a glass bottle. And we always felt like grown up kids, like drinking soda from a glass bottle, you know?

• 50:26Jessie Ware?

  These are gluten free chocolate, yeah.

• 50:30Speaker 05

  Are you serious?

• 50:31Jessie Ware?

  They look great, mom.

• 50:32Speaker 05

  They look like brownies.

• 50:33Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, they look great.

• 50:34Speaker 05

  Girls, oh my god, girls, what the F?

• 50:39Jessie Ware?

  Did you choose?

• 50:40Speaker 05

  Oh my god. Can I tell you something?

• 50:43Jessie Ware?

  The new book just came out.

• 50:45Speaker 05

  You heard me, right?

• 50:46Jessie Ware?

  Girls, girls.

• 50:49Speaker 05

  They're so good. Money, can I take some with me?

• 50:53Speaker 02

  Yes, please. I'm so happy.

• 50:55Jessie Ware?

  These are wicked, Mum. Do you like them? You could do them for Passover, because they're free.

• 51:00Speaker 02

  That is very sweet.

• 51:02Jessie Ware?

  I want to know who's going to the Oscars with you. Well. Is the whole family going? Because I imagine you move like an amoeba.

• 51:09Speaker 05

  I'm trying. My mom came to the Golden Globes and my sisters did too, because of Ariana Grande's mom. Because we had lunch with them at one of those luncheons, 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.

• 51:33Jessie Ware?

  I love that.

• 51:33Speaker 05

  Because we never dared to ask. We always think it's too much. But you know what?

• 51:37Jessie Ware?

  What? Why ask your husband?

• 51:39Speaker 05

  So this time, I sent a list, this big.

• 51:42Jessie Ware?

  Good.

• 51:43Speaker 05

  And I'm like, my husband, my husband will be my date.

• 51:46Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 51:46Speaker 05

  Because I just.

• 51:47Jessie Ware?

  Because he's cute. Looks good.

• 51:49Speaker 05

  And he's, he's just the best thing that's ever happened to me. And, and then, if you ever cheat on me.

• 51:56Jessie Ware?

  You're dead, mate.

• 51:57Speaker 05

  You know.

• 51:58Jessie Ware?

  Tu sai come sono. Tu sai come io sono. Sono matta. Sono matta. Anyway, he loves when I talk to him like that. Oh.

• 52:08Speaker 05

  I just told him, I'm like, I'm like, you know how I am, crazy.

• 52:11Jessie Ware?

  I think it means cheat on me and you're dead.

• 52:14Speaker 05

  Yeah. Um, he'll, he'll be tickled by this. He'll be like, that's intense. Um, so he's gonna be my date. But I, I requested tickets from, from my dad and my mom and, and also from 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.

• 52:36Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. Are you, what are you gonna eat after? Are you gonna do the In-N-Out Burger?

• 52:41Speaker 05

  Stop. No.

• 52:41Jessie Ware?

  No. Oh.

• 52:42Speaker 05

  I do that every day with my kids.

• 52:43Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, fine.

• 52:43Speaker 05

  Okay, stop. I think usually to me, my favorite thing is just chicken tenders and french fries from room service. Because every hotel can master that. And it's always good.

• 52:54Jessie Ware?

  That's a good idea, actually.

• 52:55Speaker 05

  It's so chicken tenders. When in doubt, if you kind of go, oh, no, 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. Um, but I think, I, I think I want to have noodles.

• 53:07Jessie Ware?

  Noodles.

• 53:08Speaker 05

  So where, where, where?

• 53:09Jessie Ware?

  But they don't do noodles.

• 53:10Speaker 05

  Noodles, I love Asian noodles.

• 53:12Jessie Ware?

  Go to all the parties afterwards.

• 53:13Speaker 05

  And specifically, I wanna have Chinese, Korean noodles. They're the, the ones in, in that black bean sauce. I want you to wear a bib.

• 53:23Speaker 05

  I'll take off the dress. You know what, I'll eat it naked. Okay, it's funny and I want photographic evidence, please.

• 53:28Jessie Ware?

  I think Demi usually eats it naked, yeah. Thirteen nominations is, uh, uh, is, is thirteen a record or is it?

• 53:37Speaker 05

  No, no, no.

• 53:38Jessie Ware?

  Fourteen is a record, yeah.

• 53:39Speaker 05

  Oh, okay, but.

• 53:40Jessie Ware?

  You're almost there, yeah.

• 53:42Speaker 05

  We're, we're right there and, and, and a, a film about women, um, in Spanish, an opera, a tragedy, like, everything about it just.

• 53:52Jessie Ware?

  I adored it.

• 53:53Speaker 05

  Uh, is aligned with, with me, you know, and I, 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, I feel proud of myself. Usually I'm very hard on myself, but I feel proud. And, um, and then just the, the reception of it has been really positive.

• 54:12Jessie Ware?

  Do you, I thought you were just completely phenomenal.

• 54:14Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 54:15Jessie Ware?

  For, for me, yeah, I adored you in it. And it was just a wonderful part.

• 54:19Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 54:20Jessie Ware?

  Thank you so much for coming.

• 54:23Speaker 05

  Thank you so much, Zoe.

• 54:24Jessie Ware?

  Such an honour and pleasure.

• 54:25Speaker 05

  Thank you. You are heaven on earth. I can't wait to see you naked with noodles. I'll send you a picture. I'll send you a picture of the dress, like, laid on a, on a chair and my legs. Having dinner with Oscar, I love it. I'll send you a picture of my husband. Yeah, okay, sure.

• 54:55Speaker 05

  I'm in love with Zoe Saldana.

• 54:57Jessie Ware?

  She's gorgeous. Zoe, Zoe, Zoe Saldana.

• 55:01Speaker 05

  I love her.

• 55:03Jessie Ware?

  She's great.

• 55:04Speaker 05

  She was.

• 55:04Jessie Ware?

  She's so warm.

• 55:05Speaker 05

  She was a top-notch table manners guest.

• 55:07Jessie Ware?

  She's someone you'd want to be your best friend.

• 55:09Speaker 05

  I really loved her. I loved her stories. I loved how enthusiastic she was about food.

• 55:13Speaker 04

  I love that she's just taken a Ziploc of the cookies. She wanted the tin.

• 55:18Jessie Ware?

  They weren't bad though, were they?

• 55:19Speaker 04

  They were fantastic.

• 55:20Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, they were dead easy.

• 55:21Speaker 04

  She's gonna need them, she's gonna keep on talking about Amelia Perez for another month. Thank you so much, Zoe. You can go and watch Amelia Perez on Netflix now, or probably see it in the cinema maybe still, I don't know.

• 55:32Jessie Ware?

  I can't wait to see what she does next.

• 55:34Speaker 04

  Me neither. She was fantastic in it.

• 55:36Jessie Ware?

  She was great, absolutely wonderful.

• 55:38Speaker 04

  Well done mum, that was really delicious.

• 55:41Jessie Ware?

  Good, did you like it?

• 55:42Speaker 04

  I was slightly worried I had spinach or parsley or coriander in my tea.

• 55:45Jessie Ware?

  I've got a cumin seed there.

• 55:47Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 55:48Jessie Ware?

  Oh, it's just come out.

• 55:49Speaker 04

  Oh, great. We'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening.

• 56:11Speaker 04

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