Indira Varma

This week the brilliant Indira Varma joins us for brunch. Known for her roles in Game of Thrones, The Night Manager, The Capture and now starring in the all-female production of Glengarry Glen Ross at The Old Vic, Indira popped over to New Cross and immediately became one of our dream foodie guests! We heard all about growing up in Bath with an Indian father and Swiss mother, the cabbage and peanut curry her dad taught her to make, working with friend of the podcast Ralph Fiennes, how theatre still gives her a thrill after all these years, and we are reminded of the best tip from Stanley Tucci when it comes to drinking cocktails! Plus Indira takes us through a spectacular last supper featuring deep-fried ricotta, spaghetti vongole, Swiss fondue and an ice cream finale. Don’t miss Indira starring in Glengarry Glen Ross at The Old Vic until 18th July, she is absolutely excellent in it. Listen & watch Table Manners here - https://tablemanners.komi.io/ Follow Table Manners on: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tablemannerspodcast/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tablemannerspodcast Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tablemannerspodcast YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TableMannersPodcast 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.

• 0:03Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I am sitting in my kitchen with my mother, again, who has got it in for me this morning.

• 0:11Jessie Ware?

  What's going on?

• 0:12Speaker 00

  Darling, not at all.

• 0:14Jessie Ware?

  Do we need to unpack this?

• 0:15Speaker 00

  No, there's nothing going on. I'm under a little pressure.

• 0:19Jessie Ware?

  What?

• 0:19Speaker 00

  Going away tomorrow. Got to pack.

• 0:22Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 0:23Speaker 00

  I had to schlep stuff out today.

• 0:25Jessie Ware?

  What have you got to schlep out?

• 0:27Speaker 00

  I bought you three oranges that I can't use.

• 0:30Jessie Ware?

  Oh, okay, schlep out food that you didn't want that's coming in my fridge as fresh.

• 0:34Speaker 00

  Three fresh oranges, because I used orange in my cake.

• 0:37Jessie Ware?

  Okay, thanks so much.

• 0:38Speaker 00

  And a box of eggs, because you go through them like I do.

• 0:42Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 0:42Speaker 00

  And football shirts, World Cup shirts.

• 0:46Jessie Ware?

  Are you ready for the World Cup?

• 0:47Speaker 00

  I think I am. We've got the chart going.

• 0:50Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. Now, listen, I've told, I've got some work going on in the garden. But I did tell them they can't work from 10.30 to 1.

• 0:58Speaker 00

  Well, they're drilling, darling, now.

• 1:00Jessie Ware?

  I'll have a little word with them, Lenny.

• 1:02Speaker 00

  Give them a clue.

• 1:03Jessie Ware?

  But you know why? What I'm, you know what I'm getting?

• 1:05Speaker 00

  Let's have a little bit of a song for that.

• 1:07Jessie Ware?

  No, I'm not singing my own song, but basically I thought it was only right that I finally had a sauna.

• 1:13Speaker 00

  Do you like saunas?

• 1:14Jessie Ware?

  Well, obviously, because I'm about to have one in my garden.

• 1:16Speaker 00

  I hate them.

• 1:17Jessie Ware?

  You have such, this is like when you talk about Tawi or Love Island.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  Hate them.

• 1:22Jessie Ware?

  Mexican food.

• 1:23Speaker 00

  Hate that.

• 1:23Jessie Ware?

  But like, you, you can't have enough of an opinion on it, because I don't know the last time you went in a sauna.

• 1:28Speaker 00

  Jessie, well, because I don't go in a sauna, because I don't like them. But I did used to go in saunas.

• 1:34Jessie Ware?

  When?

• 1:35Speaker 00

  Long time ago, when they first came out, before you were born.

• 1:38Jessie Ware?

  Oh, really? Oh, really?

• 1:39Speaker 00

  Before you were even born and they came over from.

• 1:41Jessie Ware?

  How long have saunas existed? That's aging you, Lenny.

• 1:44Speaker 00

  A long, long time. We used to have one in our university health club.

• 1:50Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 1:50Speaker 00

  Well, not health club, swimming pool. There used to be a sauna next to it. And you had to pour water on the coals. And then everyone thought, oh, this is great. And you're sweating and want to die.

• 2:00Jessie Ware?

  It is great. It's an amazing feeling.

• 2:02Speaker 00

  Just explain to me why it's great.

• 2:03Jessie Ware?

  You feel amazing.

• 2:04Speaker 00

  Do you?

• 2:05Jessie Ware?

  It's because your muscles, your, your, your hormones. Detoxify.

• 2:10Speaker 00

  To your hormones.

• 2:11Jessie Ware?

  Just like balances everything. Oh God, I'm not talking about this because I'm getting it wrong.

• 2:15Speaker 00

  So have we got a cold dip to go in afterwards?

• 2:18Jessie Ware?

  No, we don't, but we've got a shower. I don't like.

• 2:20Speaker 00

  Just going to hose you down.

• 2:21Jessie Ware?

  We're gonna like, this is, he's not gonna hose me down, but I basically, I do think maybe we need to get the cold plunge. We're just gonna see how we go with this.

• 2:31Speaker 00

  Just have a cold shower. You don't need a cold.

• 2:32Jessie Ware?

  Well, this is what he thinks.

• 2:34Speaker 00

  Well, obviously if you need the hot and cold, there'd be no point in just being hot because you need the cold to balance your hormones.

• 2:41Jessie Ware?

  If we have any Finnish listeners, but when I was, because there's lots of really wonderful.

• 2:45Speaker 00

  Is he gonna beat you with birch sticks as well?

• 2:47Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 2:47Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 2:48Jessie Ware?

  I think that's our guest.

• 2:49Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 2:49Jessie Ware?

  So I better go and we'll finish this debate about saunas, but I heard that actually you don't even need to do the cold plunge if you don't want to. But again, I may be getting all the wrong information, but this lovely lady said in Finland, apparently they don't always do the cold.

• 3:02Speaker 00

  They roll around in the bloody snow because it's freezing cold there.

• 3:05Jessie Ware?

  Okay. Anyway, Indira Varma has just turned up. Um, we're very excited about having Indira. She's an incredible actress who you would have seen in Game of Thrones, being Pedro Pascal's sister in, I think the best land in.

• 3:18Speaker 00

  I hope she can compete with the drilling.

• 3:20Jessie Ware?

  I don't know whether that's my house or somebody else's, but anyway.

• 3:23Speaker 00

  It's down there, darling.

• 3:23Jessie Ware?

  Oh, it is. Yeah, I'll tell him. Um, she has been in The Night Manager. She's been, uh, she's won Olivier's. Um, she has been Lady Macbeth with Ray Fiennes, which producer Alice saw recently. And we have just seen her play Shelley Levine. Um, in Glengarry, Glen Ross, which is an all female cast at the Old Vic. Um, it's David Mamet and who's.

• 3:50Speaker 00

  Uh, directed it.

• 3:51Jessie Ware?

  Patrick Marber. And, uh, it's, uh, yeah, we'll let her talk about it, but, um, Indira Varma is coming up on the podcast and I have made, because it's a brunch. I've made, um, because I love the cookbook so much, I've made from Honey and Co, daily, their new cookbook. I did do something the other day. I've made their shakshuka, which was really easy. Um, and then I've done with Medesk, which also I'm loving. I'm doing that salad that I did. For somebody recently, and it's just a really good green salad and it's got this delicious shallot dressing and a loaf of bread from Dusty Knuckle courtesy of Alice who got it in Dulston.

• 4:28Speaker 02

  And I've made

• 4:29Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 4:29Speaker 02

  A one pot, yoghurt and orange cake.

• 4:33Jessie Ware?

  Yum.

• 4:34Speaker 02

  That easy.

• 4:35Jessie Ware?

  Fab.

• 4:36Speaker 02

  I'm not competing with the drill, Jessie.

• 4:38Jessie Ware?

  I'm gonna tell them, they can be quiet now. Okay, Indira Varma coming up on Table manners.

• 4:51Jessie Ware?

  Hello, thank you for being in Indira, this is so exciting and the last time we saw you, your hair has grown a lot, but you've just told me that it was a wig.

• 4:59Speaker 02

  Overnight, 24 hours, yeah, special hair product.

• 5:02Jessie Ware?

  I did think that was really a method of you to give yourself a really short hairdo that was very 80s.

• 5:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, we tried my own hair.

• 5:12Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 5:13Speaker 02

  But, and leaving some grays in, and actually it didn't quite look right. So our brilliant Campbell Young, who's a wiggy.

• 5:20Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 5:21Speaker 02

  He made a short dodgy 80s hairdo for me.

• 5:26Jessie Ware?

  I have to say, I love, I love this hair, I think this really suits you.

• 5:30Speaker 02

  Beautiful.

• 5:31Jessie Ware?

  But oh, Shelley Levine.

• 5:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:33Jessie Ware?

  Oh, she's not having a good time.

• 5:35Speaker 02

  She's not, she's not.

• 5:36Jessie Ware?

  But do you call her she or he?

• 5:38Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, I, it's really difficult because we are, David Mamet didn't want to change a word. So we've kept the pronouns, but we are all women. It's an all female cast playing these, what were written as male characters, but we are women.

• 5:56Jessie Ware?

  Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross, you are in the old bit production of this.

• 6:00Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 6:01Jessie Ware?

  With some incredible women.

• 6:02Speaker 02

  Amazing cast.

• 6:04Jessie Ware?

  It's a really great cast. And just explain to the listener who doesn't know about this very kind of formidable film. Was it a play first?

• 6:14Speaker 02

  It was originally a play.

• 6:15Jessie Ware?

  Then it was quite famous for the Alec Baldwin film?

• 6:18Speaker 02

  Yes, but it's so funny because the Alec Baldwin character isn't in it. So David Mamet rewrote the screenplay and wrote in the character of Alec Baldwin.

• 6:26Jessie Ware?

  I think so.

• 6:27Speaker 02

  In order to sort of do a setup for the for the play and the story so that people know what they're what the. I suppose that the setup that Alec Baldwin does is explains that all these salespeople. Real estate agents, I guess. Now have to deliver or two people will get fired and the top two will win a Cadillac or a set of steak knives. And that's what he sort of explains and we don't have that in the play and we're doing the original play. Um.

• 6:57Jessie Ware?

  There is a Cadillac up for grabs.

• 6:58Speaker 02

  There is a Cadillac, there is.

• 7:00Speaker 00

  I didn't hear steak knives.

• 7:02Speaker 02

  No.

• 7:02Jessie Ware?

  No, there are steak knives.

• 7:03Speaker 02

  There are steak knives. But also in the film, um, there's a lot less swearing.

• 7:09Jessie Ware?

  How do you. I enjoyed your cocksuckers. Yeah, I enjoyed it.

• 7:14Speaker 02

  Cunt, cunt.

• 7:15Jessie Ware?

  I I love all those words. Mum did want to know, actually, you were you said this.

• 7:20Speaker 00

  I wondered how it's because it's a very masculine play.

• 7:25Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 7:26Speaker 00

  And it's about masculinity and competition and aggression. But some of the language is very misogynistic and quite violent and aggressive. And how it felt as a woman saying those those words. Jessie loves those words.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  But you know, I I wonder if like to death, like when it was written in the eighties, I totally agree. I think it. It's a ve- it's sort of, I I think some people think of it as a a play that. Describes toxic masculinity.

• 7:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:57Speaker 02

  But now I think a lot of women do use that language.

• 8:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, they do.

• 8:01Speaker 02

  And also women are in work and from since the eighties, there was a whole power dressing thing. Women were starting to get positions of power and but but I think one of the reasons why I think it works quite well. Is the fact that women have a shorter shelf life.

• 8:20Speaker 02

  And often we've been in an environment where there's only one or two jobs for women in a very male environment. And so actually, as much as women, I think there's a real sisterhood and we really support each other and women are very much more about community, I think. Suddenly, when there's only two roles, those women are pitted against each other despite themselves. And I feel that that, in a funny sort of way, reflects um our our profession, our industry as actors. You know, like, yeah, I think this play, there are loads of correlations and parallels.

• 8:56Jessie Ware?

  I mean, I'd say that in pop music too, in music too, yeah.

• 8:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, so there was a time when, you know, like in TV and in and in plays, there was only one great role for women in it, and then everyone else was a bloke. And so you'd be auditioning against your girlfriends for the same role. And inevitably, you're sort of pitted against each other. Of course, we don't behave the way we do in the play and, you know, slam each other and all the rest of it. But I think it's about desperation. And when people are sort of on the bones of their arse, if you like, and are desperate, they're more likely to to fight, you know, like a cornered rat or something.

• 9:40Speaker 02

  And so I think it becomes more about survival rather than male behaviour. It's like, is that how human beings behave when they're that desperate? It's sort of dog eat dog. Yeah.

• 9:52Jessie Ware?

  Have you done any plays in the Old Vic before?

• 9:55Speaker 02

  Yes, I've done a few plays there.

• 9:56Jessie Ware?

  Is it one of your favourite uh boards to tread or whatever, you know?

• 10:00Speaker 02

  I mean, I, it's so funny, isn't it? Because it's it's always, I love the Old Vic.

• 10:04Jessie Ware?

  Me too.

• 10:05Speaker 02

  But only because they offer me work. No, not really. No, because it's a gorgeous space. It's a gorgeous space. Um Matthew Waters asked me to do Present Laughter.

• 10:14Jessie Ware?

  Oh, and you won, you won your Olivier for that.

• 10:17Speaker 02

  That was amazing. And that was another incredible company with uh Andrew Scott and Sophie Thompson amongst them. I mean, we had such a laugh on that.

• 10:28Jessie Ware?

  Is Andrew Scott that fun?

• 10:29Speaker 02

  Yeah. He's great.

• 10:31Jessie Ware?

  Is he naughty?

• 10:31Speaker 02

  He's just gorgeous. He's just delicious.

• 10:34Jessie Ware?

  Oh, I bet.

• 10:35Speaker 02

  He's heaven. Yeah. Um, it's all, it's all real. And, and so Sophie, I have to say, I love Sophie. And then I did during lockdown, uh, COVID, we did, Matthew asked me to do Face Healer, Brian Freel. And we did it in camera. So we filmed, we did it, we did it live with the empty auditorium behind us. It was quite moving, actually.

• 11:00Jessie Ware?

  Brian Freel's the one that did translation.

• 11:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, I read that.

• 11:03Jessie Ware?

  It's so beautiful. It's like the perfect play.

• 11:05Speaker 02

  Right.

• 11:06Jessie Ware?

  I've seen one of his in Dublin, I think.

• 11:09Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 11:10Jessie Ware?

  He's an Irish.

• 11:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. He's like the best. I think he's one of the best.

• 11:14Jessie Ware?

  Having no audience, but it didn't feel like a film set. I mean, the TV set.

• 11:18Speaker 02

  No, not at all. It was, they were just, it was, I think, how many cameras did we have? I think we only had one camera. Um, but we did have, because we didn't, we only had two days rehearsal. So it was, we were using uh, autocue.

• 11:31Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 11:31Speaker 02

  And you sort of, we, you became very familiar with it by then. But it was weirdly liberating to be able to talk directly down the lens um, to the audience. And it's a very intimate play. They're monologues. And it was a sort of cross between theatre and TV, I guess. It was just storytelling. But because we hadn't long done present laughter and we'd been used to hearing a thousand people laughing in a room. And you know, that kind of, that community, that feeling of togetherness and a shared experience that's so amazing. And then suddenly having this empty auditorium full of ghosts. Well, the ghost, you know that, you can hear, you remember. It was really extraordinary.

• 12:14Jessie Ware?

  But it also, I guess, like, I mean, I did a really mad thing where I sung at the O2 in lockdown with like full orchestra. And it was like.

• 12:23Speaker 02

  Was there no one there?

• 12:24Jessie Ware?

  No one was there.

• 12:24Speaker 02

  That's weird.

• 12:25Jessie Ware?

  With Pete Tong. And it was weird. And it's that thing where you so appreciate the job that you are given when you have the audience. And so when, it, it was kind of an amazing experience, but you do, I think lockdown made me take stock of like how lucky we are to do the jobs that. We get to do, do you know what I mean?

• 12:41Speaker 02

  Definitely.

• 12:42Jessie Ware?

  Um, and I'm sure other people in lockdown were like, how lucky am I to be able to be at home and do, and I felt that in lots of ways with being with my kids, but like, it was performing in an empty space. It just made me think, God, we, we are lucky to be able to perform. Anyway, back to you. Shall we start from the beginning? Where did you grow up and who was around the dinner table and what were you eating?

• 13:05Speaker 02

  I grew up in Bath.

• 13:07Jessie Ware?

  Lovely.

• 13:08Speaker 02

  My mum and dad.

• 13:09Jessie Ware?

  From one of the journalists in, no.

• 13:11Speaker 02

  No, I lived in a small Georgian terrace that was probably a workman's cottage. You know, it's, I think it's one of the longest little Georgian terraces. I probably made that up, but anyway, it sounds quite nice. Um, of the workmen's cottages who used to build the beautiful crescents, et cetera, et cetera. And they're all different. They're tiny, but they're lovely. And we had a big old garden full of vegetables. My dad was Indian, my mum was Swiss. And we ate foreign food all the time. And it was like, so growing up.

• 13:48Jessie Ware?

  Is it just you?

• 13:49Speaker 02

  It was just me. My parents had me quite late. My dad was already in his fifties, my mum was forty two. And they had a life behind them, you know, and so I just was brought along for the ride. And my mum was not much of a cook, but she had to do it, you know, out of necessity and all the rest of it. But my dad was a really good cook and he was a vegetarian. She wasn't, but so it was predominantly vegetarian food. Um, a lot of veg from the garden, that kind of thing. And we'd eat foods that, things like artichoke and avocado, which, and spaghetti, which I know it sounds like every day.

• 14:29Jessie Ware?

  Avant-garde.

• 14:30Speaker 02

  But in the sort of late seventies, that was quite unusual. And I, I suppose because my mum's the European side, they were used to all the seasonal stuff from, she had a lot of Italian friends and, uh, in France.

• 14:43Jessie Ware?

  Was she Swedish?

• 14:44Speaker 02

  No, Swiss.

• 14:45Jessie Ware?

  Swiss.

• 14:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, you ate a lot of fond.

• 14:47Speaker 00

  Do.

• 14:48Speaker 02

  Well, not a lot of it. I mean, you can't. You'd have.

• 14:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, right.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, but.

• 14:53Speaker 00

  It's delicious.

• 14:54Speaker 02

  It is. I love it. Um, but we didn't eat that. I, my uncle used to make amazing. But like my dad used to make things like, which I loved, which was really simple. Cabbage and peanut curry.

• 15:09Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 15:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, really simple.

• 15:12Speaker 00

  I've never heard of that one.

• 15:14Speaker 02

  I mean, it's poor man's food, really.

• 15:15Speaker 00

  Is it a dry curry?

• 15:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is a dry curry. Yeah.

• 15:18Speaker 00

  Can you make it?

• 15:20Speaker 02

  I mean, I asked him once, you know, a long time ago, teach me how to cook, teach me Indian food. And it was all sort of, I'm gonna be outrageous and do an accent now, but um, you dig this much and you just, and it was all improvised. You know, he, he, he was just doing it by scent and you, you warm the spices, then you grind it and then. And it's like, well, how long do I have to warm them for? How long did you roast them for? How long does it, you know, do you have to soften an onion, et cetera? I, and it was, it was all instinct. And I, I think he taught me how to cook through scent and touch.

• 16:00Speaker 02

  And um, I, I mean, I can vaguely make it, but you know, it's never gonna be as good as his.

• 16:07Speaker 00

  Can you remember the taste? Was it delicious?

• 16:09Speaker 02

  It was delicious. It was, it was a little crispy, but you know, the sweetened thing of the cabbage and then the crunch of the peanut, very. And cumin, coriander, ginger, garlic, you know, all the usuals, chili, we always had hot mango pickle, pattaks, hot mango pickle on the table. Um, uh, and rice. And he taught me how to make rice, which was, uh, again, it was not measuring out a quantity of water. It was. You, you fill your, you wash your rice, um, and that's always a nice thing to feel, isn't it? You know, when you put your hand in it, the grains, those grains, and then you clean your rice. And, and in the old days, it was, he used to sift that, he used to go to Turnpike Lane, cause his mate lived there.

• 16:51Speaker 02

  And he used to bring back spices and rice in by the kilo, you know, massive bags. And it was in a. A box under the stairs or something and um take you have to take out the stones that were in the rice because they weren't.

• 17:05Speaker 00

  I think wasn't washed.

• 17:06Speaker 02

  It wasn't washed. Yeah, so you'd have to take the stones out. I remember that on a tray. And then you used to wash it, wash it several times over, several times over. And you put the rice in, you put the water in. And you measure by the top of your finger on the rice, the top of the rice, that much water up to your first.

• 17:30Speaker 02

  International, global. I love that.

• 17:34Speaker 02

  I love that.

• 17:34Jessie Ware?

  Are you a good cook then?

• 17:37Speaker 02

  I'd like to think.

• 17:38Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, okay. So if we were coming over to yours, what would be on the menu if you were having a dinner party?

• 17:43Speaker 02

  Well, I I think my my skills are. I can rustle anything up from what's left in the fridge. I think that's my special skill. I think it's useful. But if I were to invite you over, which I'd love to do, I think it would be, and I don't make this all the time. But I love it so much. It's a moro uh fish stew, Catalan fish stew. Oh, monk fish and clams and it's got it's a red pepper paprika and it's almond based sauce. And it's so and saffron and it's.

• 18:16Speaker 00

  And that's in the moro cookbook.

• 18:18Speaker 02

  Delicious.

• 18:19Jessie Ware?

  They're celebrating an anniversary thing because I got invited to a dinner.

• 18:26Speaker 00

  Restaurant, that lamb that they did there. It was so delicious.

• 18:29Speaker 02

  And the yogurt cake. We haven't done the yogurt cake.

• 18:34Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, but you know the ones that have the pomegranates.

• 18:39Jessie Ware?

  So you do that, would you, are you interested in drinks? Do you drink?

• 18:44Speaker 02

  I love, yes, okay. I I love a cocktail, but you see, I can't, I can't, it's really hard. I love food. So much uh that I find it very difficult to bring it down to one thing. But I mean, if if I were to have a cocktail, I might say a paloma. Love them.

• 19:02Speaker 00

  I love a paloma. He loves those as well.

• 19:05Speaker 02

  I prefer them to a margarita. I have.

• 19:07Jessie Ware?

  To say sometime. There's a time and a place for Margarita, but I think Palomas are easier to like.

• 19:13Speaker 02

  Exactly, you keep going.

• 19:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I know you had Stanley Tucci on. And I I'm not sure, because I haven't heard that episode, but I worked with him many years ago. And he made me my first, um, uh, what do you call it? No, martini. And he gave me my first shaker and all the rest of it. And but he gave very good advice, which I think goes for all cocktails, which is they're like women's breasts. Did he tell you this one?

• 19:40Jessie Ware?

  No, but is it about two, three?

• 19:42Speaker 02

  One's not enough and three's too many.

• 19:45Jessie Ware?

  So true, so true.

• 19:47Speaker 02

  So, uh.

• 19:49Speaker 00

  Ray Fiennes does.

• 19:51Speaker 02

  He does.

• 19:51Speaker 00

  Discusses martini in our podcast.

• 19:54Jessie Ware?

  Bone of contention for us. Producer Alice saw that production of Macbeth, by the way. Which sounded amazing.

• 20:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was great.

• 20:03Jessie Ware?

  Where was the um, uh, theatre that you were at? Was it in a warehouse?

• 20:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was in a warehouse. We did warehouses. We started in Liverpool at Canada Water. And then Edinburgh for a couple of weeks. And it was really exciting. You know what we're talking about? Um, being in the old Vic and the beauty of being in a space that has history. And, you know, like when I did present laughter, um, I remember looking up at nineteen thirties makeup for women of colour or women with olive skin. And the face that kept coming up was Merle Oberon, who of course, like of since then, we hear was probably Anglo Indian. And then I thought, oh, she called herself Merle Oberon. She hid her identity. And I was so

• 20:48Speaker 02

  and then I found out that she was friends with Olivier and Noel Coward, who of course, we were doing the Noel Coward play. And I was, I was overcome with emotion because I thought, my name's Indira Varma and I'm allowed to be called Indira Varma doing a Noel Coward play at the old Vic. And hasn't time changed? Haven't we moved on? But that was a bit of a segue. But being in that space where there's all these people. You've all these amazing actors who have been through there. And then doing Maccas.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  And being in a warehouse where you think, oh, this is uncharted territory. We don't know whether this space works. It feels sort of more of a risk because you don't know how the space responds to you. Old Vic has been tried and tested. Some of these beautiful London venues have been, they've been, they work.

• 21:43Speaker 00

  Do you, you do a lot of theatre, you kind of love theatre over, I guess that's.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  I mean, theatre over it, it, it's frightening, isn't it? And it's a risk. It's like, I could fail. Every night you can fail, you know?

• 21:57Speaker 00

  No, you're never gonna fail.

• 21:58Speaker 02

  But you can because there's, you cannot please everyone and somebody will always not love what you're doing.

• 22:06Speaker 00

  Do you read reviews?

• 22:07Speaker 02

  No, no, there's no point. There's no point. It's one person's opinion.

• 22:12Speaker 00

  But I bet if you get a good review, you read it.

• 22:14Speaker 02

  Well, it's, you know, it's tempting. No, but even then, you know, it's beautifully played by and you think, what, is that it? Is that it? You know, it's so reductive, I think, whether it's, if it's, if it's a good review or if it's a bad review. And I've worked with Roger Amm a long time ago and he, he said, I don't read, read reviews anymore because he, once he, he was sent all his reviews for whatever play it was and he said literally one cancelled the other out. You know, so it's just an opinion.

• 22:54Speaker 00

  Should I go and get the food going whilst you ask Indira about Last Supper? What would you have on your Last Supper? Would it be a combination of that heritage?

• 23:04Speaker 02

  No.

• 23:05Speaker 00

  Okay, start from the beginning.

• 23:08Speaker 02

  Um, I mean, my parents travelled a lot and had friends from all over. I think my favourite thing, I love Italy.

• 23:15Speaker 00

  Do you?

• 23:16Speaker 02

  And I love Italian food.

• 23:17Speaker 00

  Me too.

• 23:18Speaker 02

  I did a job a long time ago in Rome and we were sort of living there for about a year. And Lindsay Duncan and I shared a flat in Rome on Via Giulia. She's amazing.

• 23:29Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 23:30Speaker 02

  And we're both foodies and so we would go around finding all the great places to eat. And we're both, we both eat anything as well. And in Rome, they do like their sort of. And trails.

• 23:45Speaker 02

  That's not on my last supper list, by the way. But we found this place in Trastevera, which I don't know is still there, called Checco Caritiera. And they did the best antipasti. So for antipasti, I.

• 23:59Speaker 00

  This is your starter.

• 24:00Speaker 02

  This is my starter.

• 24:00Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 24:01Speaker 02

  But you know, it's gonna be a long meal. You know, in Italy, you don't just have three courses. So I would definitely have, I I think I would have to have a fresh tomato. And you know, we say tomato basil mozzarella. We're not talking something out of Sainsbury's. We're talking something. I remember when the first time I went to Rome and on my first day there, I went to a restaurant by myself and a man sat just at the table next to me and all he ordered was a demi carafe of red wine and a ball of mozzarella. That was it. And he put olive oil on it, salt, and he ate it. And I thought, oh, I need to know what this is all about. And so I think I definitely have. No, I didn't, because it was too late. I was on dessert by then.

• 24:45Speaker 00

  The olive oil probably was something exceptional, yeah.

• 24:49Speaker 02

  Dripping milky, you know, mm. And so I think I'd have to have one of those with those amazing tomatoes, that's sort of acidic, sweet. And and basil and the olive oil has to be amazing. And then I'd go for my deep fried ricotta. You know, little.

• 25:06Speaker 00

  I've never had that.

• 25:07Speaker 02

  My god. I mean, I think it's basically battered and it sounds disgusting.

• 25:13Speaker 00

  Is it not with like a courgette?

• 25:14Speaker 02

  Flour or something. Well, yes, that's definite. No. Well, no, no. That's also one of my.

• 25:20Speaker 00

  How do you deep fry ricotta?

• 25:22Speaker 02

  Well, I think they're cubes. I've never had it since.

• 25:25Speaker 00

  Doesn't come in cubes.

• 25:26Speaker 02

  No, but then I think they cut it and it's really delicate and they slightly. You know, like a Japanese tempura batter, very, very, very fine.

• 25:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:37Speaker 02

  And very swiftly done. And so I don't know how they do it. I I'm afraid I don't know. I can't help you there. It's really, it is very sort of loose and delicious. Have it on its own. But I would also have. Uh, Fiori di Zucca, you know, stuffed with ricotta and anchovies. Mmm. And. Ricotta and anchovies. You know, just a little.

• 25:57Speaker 02

  You need the little. Of anchovies in the middle.

• 25:59Speaker 02

  I love anchovies. Yeah.

• 26:03Speaker 02

  And I think, you know, those in a Bocca di Lupo, they do sage with an anchovy in between.

• 26:07Speaker 02

  Yes, yes. I'd have one of those. I love them. And I would also have, you know, in Rome, they had two different ways of cooking artichoke, carciofi. I think it's Judeca, so the Jewish, uh, deep fried. Yes. Oh, my God, I love that. That's in the ghetto area you can get that.

• 26:24Speaker 02

  Exactly. So I would definitely have that as my little entree. Great. And, um, what are you drinking with that?

• 26:30Speaker 02

  Well, I'd have to have, I do like the idea of maybe starting with a Negroni Spagliat or something like that. But again, Lindsay and I came across this, what, because we were obviously wine tasting wherever we possibly could. Um, and we found, and I've never had it since, you know, when you, I think it's, I'm capturing those flavours that have transported me and I cannot let them go. Okay, good. And, um, and I've not been able to capture it since. So it's a white, it's a Sauvignon Blanc, but it's from the Alto Adige region, which traditionally does Chardonnay and it's a slightly sweet, you know, in the northern area. But there was something about this wine, it was like drinking elderflower. It was phenomenal. So that is what I would like with it.

• 27:16Speaker 02

  And then, um, I would have to have spaghetti vongole. Can you make it? Yes. Okay. That was the first time I ever had it. I was six years old and we went, um, with, on a family holiday to Calabria. And we went to these old nonna, you know, these how, where, where you, they lift the lid and you just eat that. And I have a photo of me, I, I don't, I look like I've gone to sleep, but I'm just staring to the middle distance with spaghetti coming out of my mouth. And I thought I had gone to heaven. You know, the very small clams, which I, I never seem to be able to find those tiny, tiny ones. What do you think makes the best spaghetti vongole? Is it the amount of garlic? I think it needs to be very garlicky. Yeah.

• 28:00Speaker 02

  And parsley, a little tiny bit of chilli, but not too much, not too much. And very good olive oil. Very good olive oil. And of course, you have to have, I think, probably the, the, uh, vongole, um, juice, the liquor of it.

• 28:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:17Speaker 02

  And the pasta.

• 28:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:18Speaker 02

  Um, water.

• 28:19Speaker 00

  Water.

• 28:20Speaker 02

  So that there's that slight unctuousness. And white wine. Oh, God, the white wine. We forgot the white wine.

• 28:26Speaker 00

  So which wine do you put in a vongole? I think it doesn't matter very much, maybe.

• 28:30Speaker 02

  I leave it up to whoever's cooking my last supper.

• 28:32Speaker 00

  Pasta would you choose for that? Spaghetti?

• 28:34Speaker 02

  Classic spaghetti. I used to be obsessed with angel hair, you know, the really fine, but not for the vongole, don't you?

• 28:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, I think it's too fine to get the.

• 28:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:43Speaker 00

  Will you have cheese after that or salad?

• 28:46Speaker 02

  Oh, I haven't had my fish yet.

• 28:49Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 28:50Jessie Ware?

  Yes, dear.

• 28:51Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 28:52Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 28:52Speaker 00

  This is a pasty dish. Yeah, okay, sorry.

• 28:55Speaker 02

  That was just, you know, that was creamy.

• 28:57Speaker 00

  Creamy.

• 28:57Speaker 02

  Second would be my fish. Again, it would, I've gone a slight, I've gone to Greece, I think, for my fish.

• 29:03Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 29:04Speaker 02

  Probably a sea bream and it would just be grilled with garlic lemon.

• 29:09Speaker 00

  Whole big one that you're sharing.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  And I'm gonna eat it with my hands.

• 29:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:12Speaker 02

  And, um.

• 29:13Speaker 00

  What sides are you having with that?

• 29:14Speaker 02

  Well, I'm sure you've had it. It's, I love something like a spinach, but.

• 29:19Speaker 00

  The hoa ta, vleeta.

• 29:20Speaker 02

  Hoa ta is the best.

• 29:21Speaker 00

  The best thing on earth.

• 29:23Speaker 02

  That is what I want.

• 29:24Jessie Ware?

  And you can't get it here?

• 29:25Speaker 02

  No. So that's what.

• 29:26Speaker 00

  I don't even, I think we should try and grow it. I'll bring the seeds down.

• 29:29Jessie Ware?

  Guy in, on the beach that we go to, he does it with feta and chili.

• 29:34Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 29:34Jessie Ware?

  And with the lemon and it's just like a little kit of delish.

• 29:38Speaker 02

  And then you know those really sort of oveny potatoes that sort of drip in oil?

• 29:44Jessie Ware?

  This sounds like a great meal.

• 29:45Speaker 00

  But, but also the thing about Greece when they serve hoa ta, that, you know, when you get vegetables in England that as a side, it's like that much.

• 29:53Speaker 02

  I know.

• 29:54Speaker 00

  They give you hoa ta, it's always that much, which is far too much.

• 29:58Speaker 02

  But I love, I think veg is so important, an important part of the meal. I love it. Okay, so we've got the potatoes, we've got the vleeta.

• 30:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:06Speaker 02

  We've got.

• 30:07Jessie Ware?

  Can I throw some punterelli in there?

• 30:08Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 30:09Speaker 00

  Punterelli.

• 30:09Speaker 02

  You know, it's that Italian, no, punterelli is the like chicory. Oh, the very thin, quite bitter with anchovy. I think I've gone anchovy mad.

• 30:18Jessie Ware?

  That's okay.

• 30:19Speaker 02

  But it's okay.

• 30:19Speaker 00

  So you do, how do they cook it?

• 30:21Speaker 02

  They don't. It's raw.

• 30:22Speaker 00

  It's raw with a bit of anchovy on it.

• 30:25Speaker 02

  Like the. Like an anchovy dressing. It's delicious.

• 30:28Speaker 00

  God, yeah.

• 30:28Speaker 02

  It's delicious.

• 30:29Speaker 00

  So that's going to be the salad with the fish. And then are you going on to cheese?

• 30:33Speaker 02

  Do you know, I love cheese as a Swiss person, but I'm gonna forego it because is that wrong?

• 30:40Speaker 00

  No.

• 30:42Speaker 02

  Okay, I'm gonna wrap it in. But I do love my dessert. But the cheese, but then should I do cheese first before my dessert or? I never know about that.

• 30:51Speaker 00

  I like cheese at the very end because I like to keep going all night as I carry on drinking.

• 30:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, and you can sort of go to and fro, can't you?

• 30:58Speaker 00

  You can go back and forth and you have another glass of red and you think I'll have a bit more cheese.

• 31:03Speaker 02

  Well, okay, I'll go my cheese. I'll give you my cheese.

• 31:05Speaker 00

  Is it an Italian cheese or Swiss?

• 31:09Speaker 02

  I think I, I'm partial to my English cheeses.

• 31:12Speaker 00

  Is your mum from the Italian Swiss side?

• 31:14Speaker 02

  She's from French and Bernese, so German as well. But I love a Gruyere.

• 31:20Speaker 00

  Me too.

• 31:21Speaker 02

  A very strong salty.

• 31:22Speaker 00

  Sweet, nutty.

• 31:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, delicious. But I do like my Montgomery cheddar adore, and I'd have to have a Stilton. But I love, if we're going Italian, I do love a Gorgonzola.

• 31:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, me too.

• 31:35Speaker 02

  And I love goat's cheese, so I'd have some sort of a goat's.

• 31:38Speaker 00

  Love, yeah, it's hard goat's cheese or soft?

• 31:41Speaker 02

  No, soft, I think, just to contrast.

• 31:42Speaker 00

  And then dessert?

• 31:44Speaker 02

  I love ice cream.

• 31:47Speaker 00

  I do too. It's my favourite dessert.

• 31:49Speaker 02

  I think we can be friends.

• 31:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, I love, which is your flavour?

• 31:53Speaker 02

  When I was a kid, we used to go to this restaurant in the mountains in Switzerland. And they had a menu, an ice cream menu with eighty five, you know, coupe?

• 32:05Speaker 00

  Yeah, a coupe, yeah.

• 32:07Speaker 02

  With eighty five different versions of coupe. And I actually asked to keep the the menu because I love ice cream so much. I was so inspired by it.

• 32:17Speaker 00

  So your favourite ice cream?

• 32:18Speaker 02

  Well, I think it has to be a combination. I love a dark, dark chocolate, which might be a dark sorbet.

• 32:27Speaker 00

  Okay, yeah, sometimes they do chocolate sorbet.

• 32:30Speaker 02

  With. Seasonally depending, a black currant sorbet? Wow. Or raspberry. What? I just don't fuck with, I don't fuck with sorbet, like, give me the cream. Okay, but you know. No, you do you. No, I am doing me. You just want me on the sorbet. But it is your last.

• 32:50Speaker 00

  But I can remember a black currant sorbet from Marine Isis.

• 32:53Speaker 02

  Yes, mine.

• 32:54Speaker 00

  That was so delicious.

• 32:55Speaker 02

  Ruby violet, do you remember Ruby?

• 32:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, absolutely delicious.

• 32:59Speaker 02

  It's really, but it's the combination on its own.

• 33:02Speaker 00

  Oh, you like it with chocolate?

• 33:04Speaker 02

  It, it's so good.

• 33:05Jessie Ware?

  I understand the combo, maybe that could make it a bit more sense.

• 33:08Speaker 00

  I don't get the combo at all.

• 33:09Speaker 02

  But I haven't finished my combo.

• 33:10Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 33:12Speaker 02

  Maybe, you'll probably like this, praline ice cream.

• 33:16Speaker 00

  Oh, my favourite.

• 33:17Speaker 02

  Or a roasted almond.

• 33:19Speaker 00

  Roasted almond?

• 33:20Speaker 02

  I've never had that.

• 33:21Speaker 00

  Me neither.

• 33:21Speaker 02

  That was delicious.

• 33:23Speaker 00

  Roasted, salted or just roasted?

• 33:26Speaker 02

  Just roasted almond, absolutely delicious.

• 33:28Jessie Ware?

  River Cafe.

• 33:29Speaker 02

  River Cafe. And I think I might have to have some alpine strawberries on the side. You know, alpine strawberries, the tiny, tiny ones.

• 33:38Speaker 00

  They're little, tiny, like little wild strawberries.

• 33:40Jessie Ware?

  You are very specific and I like it.

• 33:41Speaker 00

  Don't you have wild strawberries? I thought you had wild strawberries here.

• 33:44Jessie Ware?

  I think the foxes have pissed on them and the kids have eaten them maybe.

• 33:47Speaker 02

  They're my favourite.

• 33:48Jessie Ware?

  Um, I'm gonna, so we've got a Honey and Co daily recipe, which is from their new cookbook, Honey and Co Daily, it's their shakshuka. It's shakshuka, um, and then I've got from the Medesque cookbook, which is Georgina Hayden, um, a very good green salad with a lovely shallot dressing and then dusty knuckle sourdough. Shall I serve you, do you want two eggs?

• 34:09Speaker 02

  I'm starving, yes, please.

• 34:10Jessie Ware?

  I'm really sorry if they're hard now.

• 34:12Speaker 00

  Give her the soft ones, Jess.

• 34:15Speaker 02

  I don't mind.

• 34:16Speaker 00

  She won't mind.

• 34:17Speaker 02

  Wow, this looks amazing.

• 34:19Jessie Ware?

  And then do you want some bread?

• 34:20Speaker 02

  Thank you, yes.

• 34:21Jessie Ware?

  And then, I don't know, do you want your salad with, do you want a separate plate?

• 34:25Speaker 02

  Separate, yeah.

• 34:26Jessie Ware?

  Plate, or I put it on afterwards, I don't mind.

• 34:28Speaker 00

  Darling, would you bring the butter for the, for the bread?

• 34:32Speaker 02

  This is so good.

• 34:33Jessie Ware?

  It's a good recipe actually, I'm usually a bit neither here nor there about shakshukas, but I think this is a good recipe.

• 34:39Speaker 02

  It's got a good amount of paprika in it, hasn't it?

• 34:41Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  Yes, it has. It's got smoked paprika and sweet paprika.

• 34:47Jessie Ware?

  Do you, do you cook from cookbooks?

• 34:49Speaker 02

  I do, but you know what? I love Felicity Cloak.

• 34:53Jessie Ware?

  Oh, what, the best?

• 34:54Speaker 02

  The best.

• 34:54Jessie Ware?

  The best, um, tiramisu, the best.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, because I've always, I like, when I was a kid, I used to read, when I was ill, I used to read, um, cookbooks, just for pleasure. I, I was really, I love food.

• 35:07Jessie Ware?

  That's, yeah, I, I can see. And I love that. And I'm a bit annoyed that you've come for brunch, because there's only so much.

• 35:13Speaker 02

  I know.

• 35:14Jessie Ware?

  To do for brunch, do you know what I mean?

• 35:15Speaker 02

  To have a big old.

• 35:16Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, we'll do it.

• 35:16Speaker 02

  Five course.

• 35:17Jessie Ware?

  We'll do it.

• 35:17Speaker 02

  Oh, that would be amazing.

• 35:19Jessie Ware?

  We eat more than just eggs. So, you're in North London. Is there any haunts that you absolutely love, or are you gonna keep it a secret?

• 35:26Speaker 02

  Um, well, I do love, I mean, in terms of where I go for food. Ah, what's it? Uh, Weston's Laundry, I like.

• 35:36Jessie Ware?

  Okay, yeah.

• 35:37Speaker 02

  It's nice.

• 35:38Jessie Ware?

  You know, what, do you know it?

• 35:39Speaker 02

  And Floral Hall.

• 35:40Jessie Ware?

  Floral Hall? I've never heard of.

• 35:42Speaker 02

  It's, um, it's really, it's, it's not like a super foodie place. They do, it's a very small menu and they do great cocktails and great wine and drinks. And it's a really nice atmosphere up there. Um, and they've also got a restaurant, which I've not been to, called Through the Woods or something like that, which is meant to be very good seasonal, all that kind of thing. Um, but you know, like, I'm happy to travel, to go and eat.

• 36:06Jessie Ware?

  Me too.

• 36:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:07Jessie Ware?

  On a Sunday, your day off, do you cook or do you go out?

• 36:13Speaker 02

  Tend to cook, actually.

• 36:14Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 36:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, and also we've got a really nice farmer's market, Ali Pali Farmer's Market.

• 36:18Jessie Ware?

  Oh, lovely.

• 36:19Speaker 02

  So I always try and, we, in fact, we do that every week. We get food and seasonal, it's always.

• 36:24Jessie Ware?

  I'm so happy at a farmer's market.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  Me too.

• 36:27Jessie Ware?

  A schm- have a little schm-.

• 36:29Speaker 02

  Why, darling?

• 36:30Jessie Ware?

  I just, I love it. I like chatting to them. I like tasting everything. I like buying it. I like that my son wants to go and steal all the compote cheese.

• 36:38Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 36:39Jessie Ware?

  I like, I, I love, it, it relaxes me, it makes me happy.

• 36:43Speaker 02

  I'm on speed dial with a chicken lady. No, but she's like, she saves me, um, the, the last remaining asparagus if I get there late and like the raspberries and the strawberries that are see, you know, whatever is coming now.

• 36:55Jessie Ware?

  Hang on, have we got a connection with our farmer's market?

• 36:58Speaker 02

  Jo Chickens. I call her Jo Chickens.

• 37:01Jessie Ware?

  I swear to God. Someone suggested that you be on the podcast. Oh. And it was, the connection was. Ally Pally. The Ally Pally.

• 37:12Jessie Ware?

  Do you have the lovely Irish lady that does the fruit and veg?

• 37:15Speaker 02

  Joe Chickens.

• 37:16Jessie Ware?

  Joe, I don't get chicken from her. Yep. And she's in Kent?

• 37:20Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 37:21Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god, I love her. Do you need her number? Yeah, fucking do. Yeah. She's not allowed to do meat on ours because we've got Steve, the butcher. Mm. Joe Chickens. She'd hate it if she knew I was calling her Joe Chickens. You know what, she's mentioned you at the farmer's market. Funny. That is funny. Yeah.

• 37:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's so funny.

• 37:40Jessie Ware?

  She's a lovely lady.

• 37:41Speaker 02

  I love her, we always have a chat.

• 37:42Jessie Ware?

  I hea- I hear about when she goes to see her kids in LA.

• 37:45Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:46Jessie Ware?

  She's a great woman.

• 37:47Speaker 02

  And her granddaughter, who's like amazing horsewoman, horse girl.

• 37:51Jessie Ware?

  They're great, and her, her, I don't know if they're grandsons or whatever, they're very handsome, charming boys.

• 37:56Speaker 02

  I don't think I've met them.

• 37:57Jessie Ware?

  Oh, right, okay.

• 37:58Speaker 00

  But how can she be up here and up there?

• 38:00Speaker 02

  She must have it on Sunday and I have her on Saturday.

• 38:03Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god, we're gonna go and say, speak to her this Saturday. That's so funny. And you'll speak to her on Sunday. I will, I will.

• 38:09Speaker 02

  Now, we are gonna give you some pudding.

• 38:11Jessie Ware?

  Sounds great.

• 38:12Speaker 00

  It's not very exciting now, I feel kind of.

• 38:14Jessie Ware?

  Why, because we've got a foodie over here?

• 38:17Speaker 00

  Well, it's a yogurt, orange cake.

• 38:20Jessie Ware?

  That sounds delicious.

• 38:21Speaker 00

  It doesn't look very exciting, but I think it might taste better.

• 38:25Jessie Ware?

  It looks a bit like a school dinner tray though, but I don't think.

• 38:27Speaker 00

  Looks like what you're gonna have custard with, cake and custard.

• 38:30Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 38:31Speaker 00

  It's literally two cups of caster sugar.

• 38:34Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  One cup of oil, olive oil.

• 38:37Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 38:37Speaker 00

  One cup of yogurt.

• 38:39Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 38:39Speaker 00

  Three eggs and three cups of flour.

• 38:42Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 38:43Speaker 00

  All put together with orange zest.

• 38:45Jessie Ware?

  Which re- which cookbook is that, Taverna?

• 38:47Speaker 00

  I saw it on Instagram.

• 38:49Jessie Ware?

  Okay, so it's Georgie Hayden.

• 38:49Speaker 00

  I think it's the Taverna one.

• 38:51Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, that's a great separate one.

• 38:52Speaker 00

  On top is supposed to be a glaze, which doesn't look very glazed to me.

• 38:56Jessie Ware?

  But I bet it's.

• 38:56Speaker 00

  Which is icing sugar and orange juice.

• 38:58Jessie Ware?

  Delicious. So it's sort of like a lemon drizzle, but orange.

• 39:02Speaker 00

  Kind of an orange drizzle.

• 39:03Jessie Ware?

  But with yoghurt.

• 39:04Speaker 00

  Yeah. Delish.

• 39:05Jessie Ware?

  An orange drizzle. Um, so before we let you go, back to the old Vic, what is a nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere?

• 39:13Speaker 02

  Well, I think it would be the fondue that my uncle made. I I didn't, I used to hate fondue when I was a kid. And maybe that's partly why it's nostalgic, you know. It was a real thing where you were party to all the adults around the table and you were the kid. And I love that shared pot, you know, and um my uncle, he does a shallot in his fondue. And uses vacherin and cuirier, I think, and um wine. Sometimes he'd put champagne in instead if he had like something that was.

• 39:48Jessie Ware?

  Left over, yeah.

• 39:49Speaker 02

  Throw away or whatever.

• 39:49Jessie Ware?

  Why, what's the other booze that you put in it?

• 39:51Speaker 02

  Wait, wine. And then we'd serve it with, like, as a kid, not drinking alcohol, my fa- I loved water. But you can't drink it with fondue because it makes your stomach go, like it congeals, it's a bit gross. So um it's wine or tea and kirch, we'd have kirch, so you dip your bread in the kirch and then dip it in the fondue.

• 40:12Jessie Ware?

  I've always put.

• 40:12Speaker 02

  That sounds so fun, and it's really, I mean, you get wasted. But it's it's such a great, it, I love the whole thing of dipping, it's like a lucky dip, someone loses their bread, you've got to. Fish it out, who's, and then the crusty bit at the bottom, and then he would break an egg and it was called la roligueuse and you mix it. The the very re- last remaining bit of cheese mixed with the egg and it's so delicious. It's great. And and that smell. He used to have one once a week and of course, it's not good for his heart, his doctor told him to stop, but um. Every time I go to Switzerland, I I wish I could still have that, yeah.

• 40:53Jessie Ware?

  I don't think I've ever really had a fondue.

• 40:55Speaker 00

  Oh, you, I used to do them all the time. It was a very, very seventies thing to do from, do, it's quite tasty.

• 41:02Jessie Ware?

  It's really tasty, it's light, it's like a perfect with a cup of tea.

• 41:05Speaker 00

  Really lovely, yeah.

• 41:06Jessie Ware?

  Really nice, it reminds me of the Topath um uh lemon cake that I do.

• 41:10Speaker 00

  It's really nice.

• 41:10Speaker 02

  Oh, that's nice.

• 41:11Speaker 00

  It's quite light, isn't it? It works.

• 41:13Jessie Ware?

  Do you think the girls would like some?

• 41:14Speaker 02

  I think they'd love some, that would be really lovely.

• 41:17Speaker 00

  Did you ever have rachlet?

• 41:19Speaker 02

  I love rachlet, and my cousin gave me a rachlet machine, so we have done that for dinners.

• 41:24Jessie Ware?

  Is that with potato?

• 41:25Speaker 02

  No, yes, it's a potato and then gherkin.

• 41:28Speaker 00

  Piece of cheese and you scrape it off.

• 41:30Speaker 02

  You grill it, it's grilled cheese basically.

• 41:32Jessie Ware?

  Oh yeah.

• 41:32Speaker 02

  But we, I've struggled to get really good quality, strong râclé cheese.

• 41:38Jessie Ware?

  My friend T, who is a connoisseur of all good things, she's found a Swiss cheese place on Jamaica Road, like really near here, that apparently is really good. So you can maybe go there in between matinees from the old Vic. Indira, thank you so much for coming on and being such a great guest and congratulations on your run. And, and good luck with the press nights and the, well, the rest of the previews. You were really phenomenal in it and the cast are absolutely brilliant.

• 42:06Speaker 02

  Well, thank you for having me. It's been a delight. Any opportunity to talk about and eat food is a joy.

• 42:13Speaker 00

  This has been such fun.

• 42:14Speaker 02

  So much fun. Thank you. And delicious.

• 42:31Jessie Ware?

  Oh, Indira was just so fantastic. I loved her enthusiasm about theatre and about the play.

• 42:39Speaker 02

  Food.

• 42:39Jessie Ware?

  And food. She was just a fantastic guest.

• 42:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:43Jessie Ware?

  Just gorgeous dream guest.

• 42:44Speaker 02

  Um, cake was really nice.

• 42:46Jessie Ware?

  Did you like it?

• 42:47Speaker 02

  Yes, I would like another piece with a cup of tea.

• 42:49Jessie Ware?

  Okay, you can have some.

• 42:51Speaker 02

  And that chachaka was delish.

• 42:52Jessie Ware?

  Delicious.

• 42:53Speaker 02

  So, yeah.

• 42:54Speaker 00

  The smoked paprika for me.

• 42:56Speaker 02

  Too much?

• 42:56Speaker 00

  Made it.

• 42:57Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 42:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, for me that was the thing that made it.

• 42:59Speaker 02

  I accidentally put too much smoked paprika in, so maybe.

• 43:03Speaker 00

  Put too much in again because it made it, it made it a bit kind of goo, you know, that goulashy, sweet paprikery taste.

• 43:10Jessie Ware?

  A lovely, lovely episode. Loved having her there. Loved hearing about her food choices.

• 43:16Speaker 00

  I think she knew more about food than I do.

• 43:18Jessie Ware?

  I'm a bit annoyed that I, I, I mean, the chachaka was great, but like.

• 43:22Speaker 00

  Well, you couldn't have done it.

• 43:23Jessie Ware?

  I got it wasn't the dry chicken.

• 43:25Speaker 00

  Oh my god, that would have been a disaster. It would. But if I'd have known she was so keen on Italian food.

• 43:32Jessie Ware?

  No, you avoid it at all costs then. That's what you do.

• 43:35Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 43:36Jessie Ware?

  I wasn't going to be deep frying a bloody bit of ricotta.

• 43:39Speaker 00

  Do you think, I don't know how she does that. But Jessie, do you think you'll ever do a spaghetti von Gole? So many of our guests, yeah, so many of our guests love it.

• 43:49Jessie Ware?

  I'd have to finesse it at home first.

• 43:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:52Jessie Ware?

  Spaghetti is kind of a difficult one because if you want to make the emulsion and stuff, you've got to kind of work it. And I've got work to do on the podcast now.

• 44:01Speaker 00

  Darling.

• 44:02Jessie Ware?

  Um, thank you to Indira Varma for coming on the podcast and being such a fantastic guest. You can go and see her and the all female cast of Glengarry Glen Ross at the Old Vic until mid July. She really is fantastic and you see her in a very different light. The character of Shelley Levine, she portrays so brilliantly. So yeah, go and see her. And we'll see you next week for more Taven Manners.