I've never written something like this.
Maybe my favorite
of the entire book, the departure.
I mean,
wow.
Yeah.
(Rachael) Wow. And I love that.
Let me just say he does preface this section
by reminding everyone that everyone involved,
it's written in script format,
um, really loves each other, but please explain.
Oh yeah.
Well, and I and family, I think particularly well,
particularly a Southern Italian family,
when you um, when you go to somebody's house,
and you go, my my parents, this is, this is uh uh uh
an incident that would take place basically every
Sunday between my parents and my grandparents.
and we were there as observers and um my mother would bring
some stuff from my grandmother, chicken or something.
And then at the end of the meal and we were leaving,
my grandmother would try to pay her for the chicken
uh or the cheese or whatever that much she had brought her,
or just give it back to her (chuckles) for no reason.
(chuckles) No, the reason being as I write in there
that she would give her the cheese back.
She goes, "but I brought this for you."
And my grandmother said, "yeah, but you like it too."
She goes, "yeah, I know, but it's for you."
She goes, "yeah, I have enough cheese.Don't worry about it."
Um and then she'd keep trying to pay her for the chicken
and she wouldn't take the money.
And then she tried to get it to my father and he wouldn't
take the money. And then she tried to give it to me.
And I would say, "Mom, what do, and she,
my mother would grab the money and throw the money in the
air and you know, and then everybody would kiss goodbye.
So it would, it was.
(Rachael) it, the barter, the barter thing
I'll never ever ever
(Rachael)It plays like a movie it's, it's so real.You see.
Yeah. Every Sunday. (laughs)
(Rachael) And it's,
it's so fabulous that your life was so rich and laden with
food and that's what I love most about food
is that it brings, it's a conduit. It brings us together.
And it's, it's just this fuel for every type of fire.
When I met Felicity, my, my wife Felicity,
we, we started dating and oh, there she is.
And um, (laughs)
and she um,
she when we, you know,
we realized we love food. We both love food.
I met her at her sister's wedding,
and we started dating when I was, we started working in,
in London. And then when I would come to visit her,
we would always go out to restaurants
and we would cook together.
And this wonderful kind restaurant tour gave us a tour of
his kitchen.
And we saw these two pheasants, dead pheasants in,
in the corner. And he said, do you want those pheasants?
And we both sort of looked at each other.
We were like, yes, we want those pheasants.
So we put them in the fridge.
And then he had told us how to cold pluck them.
So the next morning
we got in our bath robes
or dressing gowns, as they say here
and pluck these two pheasants while we were
watching Saturday kitchen,
which is this amazing cooking show, live cooking show here.
And it was really one of the most romantic mornings I've
ever spent.
(Rachael) And does Felicity see it in bits?
Or do you wait till it's all done?
No, I showed her in bits.
You know, she's a literary agent, so I was very
(Rachael) Yeah I know, that that's so funny (laughs)
She's my agent, so.
So um,
Yes, I'd show it to her because this is the first time I've
written anything like this. I mean,
I've written a lot of screenplays,
but I've never written something like this.
So it's very different. And she was invaluable.
She really, really, really helped me a great deal.
And she'd say, you know, that's good,
but it could use a little more,
or um maybe you don't actually need that one. Or, or, and,
and I would get stuck and just say, well, I don't,
I don't know what to write now.
And I think I'm done. She goes, no, you're not done.
I go, I think this is a very boring and no,
one's going to read this book and nobody cares.
And she'd say, no, tell me this.
Remember the story you're telling me about the blah, blah,
blah. Remember the time you went to blah, blah, blah.
And what your grandmother and the meal you ate and blah,
blah. And I say, oh yeah.
And then I'd go back and start writing again.
(Rachael)It's, it's beautiful.
And it's nearly as a perfect circle.
The way the book begins and ends.
I can't thank you enough for sharing your time with us and
your stories. I really celebrate you.
And this book um, "Taste My Life Through Food,"
is available now.
I could not recommend it more wholeheartedly
and it will make you drool.
(Stanley chuckles)
It will make you want to cook,
and it will make you laugh and cry in a good way.
It's just beautiful.