Sir Sadiq Khan, Mayor Of London

Guarantee Human. I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is Icarol. This podcast is all about going deeper with the women shaping culture right now. Yes, we will talk about the style and the success,

but we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work behind it all.

As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated.

So you have to work extra hard in a way that doesn't compromise who you are in your integrity. You know, I like to say I was kind of like the silent ninja. Listen to it, girl, with Bailey Taylor on the "I Heart Radio" app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Ruthie's table for, presented by Sky. There are some people across the globe who are nativeists, who believe in sort of populist politics, who believe there's a clash of civilizations,

who are always talking down great cities like London.

Why? Because we're the antithesis of what they stand for. We've shown diverse is a strength and a weakness. It makes us rich and uppourer. It makes us stronger and not weaker. We can't take it for granted, and that's where food comes in. The fact that you can be somebody who may have suspicions about foreign lives,

but loves their food. That'll open your eyes. It doesn't.

“And so you need to go to Hollywood, you've got it here.”

And so you start talking to the chef, or the restaurant's from a different background, which you then realize we've got much more in common that you're not sure. The joy of being the mayor is, forget no two days of the same, no two hours of the same.

So I mean all sorts of people like me are cleaner or a bus driver, or a great chef, or a business person, small business, a big business, and that's the rhythm of a great city, and we're always evolving. At a dinner in our home in 2016, mayor said he can't through three lemons across the room,

just missing a pre-columbian sculpture, and a frame of a beloved painting. But before you gasped, it was done for a good reason. He was leaving the next morning for New York, and had been given the honor of throwing the first pitch

at a Met Space Bowl game. Josh Berger, though an LA Dodgers fan, volunteered to give him a lesson there and then, Mr. Mayor, this really needs to go well. For City, Con, the third and longest governing mayor in London's history,

much has gone well. For me, one of his many great achievements as mayor has been ensuring that every child in London has a free school lunch. I'm incredibly moved that he's taken the time to join us here.

We'll share stories about the food of his family, of how the diversity of London's restaurants reflects the diversity of our city, making it a better and stronger place for all of us. City is a man I respect as a mayor,

and deeply love as a friend.

“- Were these pledged to be on thanks for having me on?”

I should just end the story you began with just to really show your business. - I should go back throwing lemons in my living room. - To be fair, I mean, Richard, who we love and adore, miss, encourage this, right?

- Richard was always like, what's more important

in life, you know, the friends to achieve well, or a work of art? - Well, that the story goes on because Josh taught me how to throw lemon. I go to Chicago before it's over.

It would be Toronto, we go to Chicago, go to New York, and I see Ron there, Ron's the mayor of Chicago, and Ron Mona, and I tell Ron I'm going to throw the first pitch a Metz game, and he said, give him a language. So, apologies and vans, are you fucking mad at me?

- What you mean, Ron, he goes, there's no upside, because they hate me as you get booed going on. You'll get the pitch wrong because if I'm going to the catchers hand, and you'll be a laughing stock, and no, I'm really nervous.

- Yeah, I've been laughing. - Anyway, the next day's the Metz game, go to the Metz game, and I'll walk into the pitch, and they announce, the mayor of London is here. Huge screens and huge chairs, I think, yes, they love London.

And then I trick, one of your dinner guests taught me was hug the catcher, because the catcher can make it a very good, or make it very bad. So, I hug the catcher. I threw, was it 11, it was a baseball?

- There's a baseball game. - I did the pose as Josh taught me. I was doing the movies, and the catcher caught it, the crowd cheered, but it gets even better. - Tell me, I stayed for the game, and I sat behind the net.

“And during the game, that's what we're doing all for,”

just doing all for, and a new yorker charted out. - You're so crap, we should get the mayor of London to pitch.

- And it all began in yours, and Richardson. - That was a great story. Every play baseball since then, or does that, the height of your career?

- I threw another first pitch at San Francisco game,

but no, I mean, not on a cricket man, not a baseball man. - I said to Daniel Lurrie, we were just talking about another very exciting mayor of San Francisco. And I was saying, you know, if you'd asked me, what maybe six years ago, what's important is city,

the education, the theaters, the opera, the museums, but when COVID happened, and restaurants closed, I think we all missed them, do you think? - I think restaurants are part of a city. I think COVID was obviously awful,

“but I think it reminded us what matters and what's important.”

As human beings, we love socializing. - Yeah. - Just think, go back to the biblical times about what was a break and break together, the conversation, the place where you teach, where you have arguments and discourse and debate.

And what COVID reminded us of is how much will miss each other? - Mm-hmm. - The spontaneous meeting. - Yeah, please tell me again. - The vibe you get when you go, even to the office, or to a place to eat, the noise, the ambience.

But sort of 30-second conversation with a waiter,

or with a chef, or with somebody in the tablex door to you. But also the food, one of the joys of whether it's London or you mentioned San Francisco, another great city, is the diversity of foods. In terms of price, in terms of where the ingredients come from,

in terms of the top cooking, we have, of course, here at the River Café, which is great Italian food, but the joy of London is you can get Palestinian food, you can get Israeli food, you can get Indian food, you can get European food, you can train food,

you can get Spanish food, and I can go on. And so, we missed that.

“And that's the joy of, by the way, great cities,”

the restaurants, the diversity of restaurants. - It tells you the story, going to a market, when you arrive in a city, tells you story, how they sell their food, how they grow it, how you can buy it. - And the smells, I have the privilege, now that I'm the mayor,

I get to visit kitchens, I've been to the River Café kitchen, I love when I go to Russia at the smell. The different smells and fragrances that Kitchens have, and I grew up in a house on a river. - There are lots of Pakistani food,

and there's different smells with the spices, the onions, frying, and some people love it, some don't, I love it, I love the smell of food. Whatever food it is, whether it's a peach bean baked, whether it's onion bean fried, whether it's the smell of fresh coffee.

And back in the memories, which can take about you, you chalde her to a holiday or to a wedding. - Yeah, it's like a piece of music. I could sometimes listen to music, know what I was wearing the first time I heard it being played, whatever.

But I think when you look at memories, and that's what we try and do here, look at memories in your life through the lens of food. People open up when people remember. - And it's a great living, isn't it?

- And it's a living, isn't it?

“- And it's a living, isn't it? - And it's a living, isn't it?”

Because we all, let's start with your family, from India. - Yeah. So India, pre-ed British Empire, was a huge country, different religions, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists,

the Australians, Christians, and I could go on. Different ethnicities, coming from Afghanistan and from Persia, from Saudi Arabia, from, you know, Roman Europe and so forth. And my family, he's going back,

many generations, just Muslim. - We're a friend in India, were they from? - So originally, my both maternal and paternal grandparents, are from a place called Lucknow, and I'd say it's a province in India,

which is predominantly Muslim. Lots of Hindus, lots of Sikhs, they grew up with neighbors who are different religions, very diverse community. And in 1947, as the British were leaving India,

they decided to partition India, and very crudely what they did was, and area where there was majority Hindu, became India. And the area that was majority Muslim became

what was now called Pakistan. Think of a rectangle. But east of the rectangle had majority Muslims. That became East Pakistan. - Yep.

- The middle had majority Hindus and some Sikhs that became India. The West had majority Muslims, that became West Pakistan. So ridiculously, West Pakistan,

what I want extreme, India in the middle. - And the East Pakistan or the other extreme. So if you're a Muslim, - You'd have to go through and understand it. - If you're a Muslim in say,

majority Hindu area or a Sikh area, you have to travel to West Pakistan. - To get to East Pakistan, to get to safety. - Because unfortunately, this maximum you've heard,

divide and rule that created friction and tension between Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs.

And so literally three million Indians,

Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus died doing this. - This is true. - 'Cause I'm walking this way as a Muslim. You're walking this way as a Hindu. We're still having a 50 cuffs and turns to a lot of people.

- Three million died.

“So my family migrated from what was majority Hindu India,”

migrated from middle to West Pakistan. - Right. - A place called Karachi, which is former capital. - Right. - And so...

- Now it would have been in the '94s. - '78, and so my grandparents are migrants from India to Pakistan. My parents are migrants from Pakistan to London. - Yeah.

- I did that happen. - My dad works in the Pakistani Air Force,

and he was sent first to Australia.

And apologies to my Australian friends. I stopped my fool, hitting like Australia. - Oh no. (laughing) - Australia listeners?

- Yeah. - His grandfather's been in Nuttas. - And so my dad went to Australia, didn't like him. - Yeah. - And then he came in, he came in with his wife.

- He came in with his wife. - He came in with his wife. - He came in with his wife. - He came in with his wife. - He came in with his wife.

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- He came in with his wife. - He came in with his wife. - He came in with his wife. - He came in with his wife. - And she was a great cook.

She used to bring her rolling pin. Where she went. She didn't trust any of her daughter-in-law to make a strudel. But I just think what this shows is a parallel of two families. People who leave their families come to a new country.

And work and take care of their kids. And how much do we celebrate these people? - He is a family. - He is a family. He is from a family history.

- Actually, anybody who is taking a conscious decision to leave home travel thousands of miles, is not going to go and sit in their bum. - I don't know. - They've got a work to do. - I agree.

“- If you want to job done, ask an immigrant.”

- Yeah. - That's right. - Yeah. - But that's the story of America and actually, - Yeah.

- Of the last 2000 years. - Yeah. - It was originally called Londonian. - Yeah. - The Roman times.

- Yeah. - It's grown and evolved. And it's not in my view. - Yeah. - The greatest in the world.

Because of successive generations of migrants. What's fascinating about London? It goes back to your rolling pin story. My mom's got a rolling pin. She makes Chabathi roti without her.

- Yeah. - She doesn't trust either her sons or a daughter or a daughter to make roti. She makes herself. - Yeah. - But it folks remember from a memory from a mum

of being back home. - The food. - Yeah. - Because she was incredibly homesick. I mean, even now she misses bikes though.

- Yeah. - But food brings her food. - Yeah. - The food brings her food. - Yeah.

- And she could cook it here and she could make it. And she could. Yeah. - Yeah. - And she could mother too.

- Yeah.

“- So I've got really fond memories when I was living at home as a child.”

During the month of Ramadan. - Mm-hmm. - You have a meal, a meal just before dawn. - Mm-hmm. - And you fast all day and you have a meal at dusk.

And my mum had been fast all day. She'd get up before dawn to prep. You know, half the job in cooking is prep right? - Mm-hmm. - Dawn breakfast was around three o'clock.

She must have got up at one thirty. - Mm-hmm. - So she's, you know, getting the flour ready, making it in the, the, the roti's ready. And either way, come with this smell.

- Make everything by her. - And also, when I was grown up, everything was fresh. - Mm-hmm. - I mean, side of even, you can, you can cheat now if you're making a curry and get plum tomatoes in a tin.

- No, no, no, no, they're fresh tomatoes. You chop them up, you, you stew them for a while. And so I'd, I'd wake up with a smell of, what's called parata, a version of chapaties but with potatoes in the middle of it. - Mm-hmm.

- She'd make fresh parata, I could smell the omelette being made. And we'd got on stairs and she'd be up an hour and a half before us. We don't have pre- Dawn breakfast. She would have a Dawn pre-D Dawn breakfast. We'd go to school or whatever.

We'd come back to have a nap because we're starving, hungry. Well, mum will be cooking. While she's fasting, you know, fast-breaking meal. - Yeah. - Which refreshs the most of fresh parcora.

- Mm-hmm. - Yes. - Salons, curries, rice. There's two things she learns to do when you're raising the cond family. - Mm-hmm.

- One is eat fast. - Oh. - That becomes so many siblings. - Yeah, if you want seconds and two is to talk quickly.

“So if you want to be heard, or if you want to eat,”

you talk fast and eat quickly. So what I want to speak in particularly foreign dignitaries, or, you know, I've got to tell myself to slow down. 'Cause what I'm excited, like I'm talking to you, I've got back to my fast pace.

♪ - I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is Icarol. You may know me from my Icarol series I've done on the streets of New York over the years. Well, I've got good news.

I am bringing those interviews and many more to this podcast. Yes, we will talk about the style and the success, but we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work, with the women shaping culture right now.

As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated.

So you have to work extra hard and you have to push the narrative in a way that doesn't compromise who you are in your integrity. You know, I like to say I was kind of like a silent ninja. - Each week, I have unfiltered conversations with female founders, creatives, and leaders to talk about ambition, visibility,

and what it really takes to build something meaningful in the public eye. Because being an Icarol isn't about the spotlight, it's about owning it.

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- Icarol. I think the value of actually sitting around a table at the end of a day, even if it's for a short time, and having your discussion about life, we say how important you think the table is, you know. - I've started that in I family,

because there were so many of us at home, we've really really got a chance to eat together around a table, but it's been lots of time together, because we'd be in and out, brothers in and out, and we'd just go straight from the pot to the plate.

The wife grew up, where her family wouldn't eat around the table, and when we got married, she was, we realized the importance of eating together, and working, you need that time to download and talk. Our kids were young, we agreed at an early age,

we would eat together, and it's so important, because it can be a classroom, it can be a place we should, with stories, we've got a bad day. - Yeah. - It's like, "Bad this up on the day.

It's a page you can decompress. It's a page you can laugh." - Yeah. - You can invite others to the table as well, but also you can get convenience for you to learn that.

- Yeah. - So good now, and you know, one of the things that we're talking about is the recipe I've chosen, which is so fast. - How about if we read that recipe, the ingredient with fresh and dried oregano?

What made you choose this?

- It's a number of reasons why, first it's very quick.

And when you're time poor, often you can sometimes sacrifice quality because you think you look at the time. But this is a good example of a combination of some of this easy, fresh, and it's quick. - And let's go.

- And let's say, can I just say it's those distant? If I can do it, anyone can do it, and I can do this. - Good. Okay, do you want to read? We will have a share of London City.

Can it's going to read the recipe for? - Linguini with fresh and dried oregano, and it serves. - It serves six. It's the ingredients are very simple. We need 50 grams of fresh oregano, very finely chopped.

25 grams of dried oregano leaves crumbled. 12 red tomatoes, quartered and seeded. 12 yellow tomatoes, I think they're cherry tomatoes.

“- Yeah, that's why we're quartered and seeded.”

100 milliliters of extra virgin olive oil. One tablespoon of red wine vinegar, and 250 grams of lingoini.

And basically three ingredients.

It's just so easy to do. Very affordable, and it goes a long way. You mix the fresh and dried oregano together. I can do that. It's very easy.

Combine the tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil, the red wine vinegar, and sea salt, and black pepper. And then here's this trick. You put it aside for it to marinate. And that's the trick that I think people don't realise.

It's marinate on the side.

And then you cook the Nguini in a generous amount of boiled salt, water, drain, and return to the pan. What I do my pasta, I put a tiny bit of oil in the water, so it's still to decide so much of your proof. - I totally proof.

That made just come up nice and easy. You toss with the oregano, mixture, and the baronage tomatoes, until it's very hot, and you serve right away. And from start to finish, that takes about 15 minutes to reckon. - Yeah, it's very fast.

- It's great. - It's cheap. - Yeah, yeah. - And it's easy, and it's fresh. I'm really pleased you chose the recipe.

- And actually tomatoes, I mean, you probably know it's really good. But tomatoes is the base for nearly all Indian food. - Is it? No, don't know that. - So most curries are actually the starting point is, you're very similar, you wish you, you fry onions.

You have your spice on the side. Once the onions are browned, you put tomatoes in. You can cheat them and use the tinned plant tomatoes, or you can do what you've done here. You put the tomatoes in, and that becomes the sauce.

- Yeah.

- So the tomato, and the onions is basically the sauce.

- It's a foundation of, so you can, you can then just spice the onion. Then decide whether you're chicken, or lamb, or fish, or whatever you're going to do, but that's your base. And so most curries you will have, will have that as the base.

“And in most restaurants, that's how they'll start.”

And then when you order from the restaurant, they'll then add whatever, but the base has been made already. The sauce is made already, but like your pasta dish has, the sauce is already made. - So if you have that in the fridge, if you keep that,

you simply can then diversify it. - Yeah, yeah, you want it. - So my mother-in-law makes a lot of the base, and just puts in the fridge and bring it out different days. And so, she'll use one day to make all the basic stuff.

And then every other day, add to it, to mix it up. So you maybe have a chicken one day, like another day,

but the base is the same.

- When you were growing up, so you had your mother talking to you, these wonderful meals, you had Ramadan. We just found so interesting about the culture of not eating, and then eating in the feast. I've experienced it in Morocco when you go to the soups,

and there's nothing, and then the way everyone, - You had the food to pray, it was starting to eat in a big feast. Well, it's a joy of learning. One of the reasons why I love this city, and I genuinely think it is the greatest in the world,

as you've got all the great religions, big religions, small religions here in London. So you don't need to go to Morocco or do hard to experience Ramadan. You've got in London, or a Jewish fast, or a Christian fast, or a Hindu fast.

And one of the things that I've sought to do is, is to celebrate the different religions. So we have Hanukkah in the square. We have, obviously, the Christmas tree. We have Easter commemorated.

We have even the square from Muslims. The valley in the square of Hindus. If they're sarky in the square, pride. So the other is that everyone should have a sense of belonging. But more importantly, people who aren't from the LGBTQ+ community,

or aren't Muslim or aren't Hindu, can also experience the joys of different cultures.

“Because what would it give people a sense of belonging?”

They've been, if you feel it would be a long, exactly right. The New York Times did a really interesting piece of long time ago, where they asked 10 people how they would define their identity. So what I say, number one on the shelf. Number one on a mother.

Number one on American. And it was interesting that some people did do it by their profession. Some did it by their sexuality. What I find with my grandchildren here is that they identified not as a British citizen, but as a Londoner.

But I just want to tell you that I'm saying what they do. What they do is they say I'm a Londoner. Now it's even like I'm a north Londoner. Or I am from Hackney or I'm from South London. You know, that do you find that on earth?

The Londoners are very confused. We've got 400 villages here. Yes, but I think we have multiple identities. Yeah, of course. You can be a proud Londoner.

And you can be proudly Muslim. And proudly British. And a father. And so forth. That's the joy of art and state.

And art and state. You know, what I remember. What I remember about great cities. And it's so nice New York.

“Because I think I think New York is the most closest Londoner.”

I think backgrounds, the attitudes, the values. And what's interesting about your grandchildren's experiences. That's that's very typical people are incredibly proud of being a Londoner. Particularly post Brexit. Before they're English or before they're British or before they're Scottish or whatever.

And we've got to cherish that. Because there are some people across the globe who are nativeists who believe in sort of populist politics.

Why? Because we're the antithesis of what they stand for. We've shown diverse is a strength and a weakness. It makes us rich and up poorer. It makes us stronger and up weaker.

We can't take it for granted. And that's where food comes in. The fact that you can be somebody who may have suspicions about foreigners but loves their food. Yeah. That will open your eyes.

And so you're going to have a holiday, you've got it here and so you start talking to the chef or the restaurant's from a different background. Which you then realize you've got much more in common that you notice you than divide you. But the joy of being the mayor is forget no two days of the same, no two hours of the same. Because I mean all sorts of people like me are clean or a bus driver or a great chef or a business person. Small business, a big business.

And that's the rhythm of a great city.

And we're always evolving.

Everyone has a story to tell. You're an end story to bring. I would say that. You know that if you look out, you're going to get a day. You'll see a hundred people eating there and they all look happy and eating.

I would say you never know. They might have been fired that morning or they mother might be sick or their daughter might have graduated with honours. Or there's always such a, something that brings people together and talking. And we have, I mean the phrase that the sociological phrase is social hubs. So in the olden days, a social hub is a place we meet.

Be the pub. Or it could be the village post office. That's where it was me. There you go. And so because of the pace of society, because of, you know,

atomization, we're all busy fragmentation, the nuclear family. There are fewer social hubs. They just are. There are fewer pubs. There are, post offices of closed down.

People are not down the internet.

“And that's why food and restaurants are so important.”

There are social hubs. It could be that you're done table at home. Is your hub for your family, through generations coming together. It could be a restaurant meal with friends. And we're going to, we're going to recognize that actually I'm going to make an effort.

And the joy of when I was growing up was we'd find comfort in my mom's kitchen. We could go back just to the trajectory from university where you were studying law. I believe, and they're being away from the domestic life of home being on your own. Yeah, I think a lot of us, I mean, me included our palette is dictated by the food we have at home. And so I was used to food with spices.

But also we never, we never ate out.

We couldn't afford to. No, no. I mean, there's, firstly, the weren't great restaurants. That's when I was growing up in the '70s and '80s. That were affordable.

But secondly, we just didn't. People in my state, I was raising municipal house and we just didn't eat out. It was just not the thing you do. If you were lucky at fishing ships on a Friday, you know, so you'd buy fishing ships to bring it home. That was there.

My oldest is to go into university.

“I remember when we came home when we came.”

She brought home at Taramus Elata. We'd never had Taramus Elata before. It just blew our minds. Or the first time we tasted humus.

And so I'm tasting humus in Taramus Elata and pasta for the first time as an undergraduate.

Sure. Or you know, my sister brings in stuff home. And so they sell exciting because I'm trying new things. And I can't explain the excitement when you try new things. It's just mind-blane.

Like, you know, even though my daughter's, I mean, I'm a working class boy who's no middle class man, but my kids are middle class kids. So they're horizons are much wider than mine. So they will introduce me to foods. I've been discovering now, age 55 because of the joys of having kids.

You have different life experiences. And so even though I'm tasting stuff for the first time, probably there's Paraguys or whether it's the sort of sort of dumpling. But university opened my eyes a bit because of my friends and their backgrounds and their food types. But working as a lawyer because, frankly speaking,

“while it means the clients, I mean, you can eat nicer foods, right?”

Because you just can. So going to nicer restaurants, you know, the first time I went to, you must have j-j-j-j-kit of fish. She is, of course. Oh my god, I love fish. I believe my mind, I mean, who knew, right?

And so, you know, examples like, you go first time you go to a nice restaurant, you think it's like, and things, you're working, so you're going to be capable. I see two stories, which is so, because at home, with the, when you eat Pakistani food, you eat with your hands. And so you eat, obviously, you eat the rice with the spoon,

but the chapatti, you eat your hands. And so, my mom and dad, you know, weren't raised to use the knife and fork with the, you know, so I grew up. And we also have this custom, which is you try and eat with your right hand. So if you're eating, you try and eat with your right hand.

So even now, I have a fork in my right hand, rather than the left hand, because I wasn't taught how to use the knife and fork until I was. And so, and so, so, it's a soft skill about how you eat, which some kids haven't got.

It's easy to eat and together break and bread together. But you learn things, you're, you're trying new foods, which actually is on a life school. You shouldn't be embarrassed about it. And that's the joy of food. It opens up new horizons. [ Music ]

I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is It Girl. You may know me from my It Girl series. I've done on the streets of New York over the years. Well, I've got good news. I am bringing those interviews and many more to this podcast.

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What we haven't talked about, and I would like to talk to you about its poverty and food.

So I can talk about New York City, where we know that the South Bronx doesn't have any grocery stores. It doesn't have vegetable markets.

“And we know that your initiatives, the school's superzones, has been something really important.”

So as we just have... Yeah, actually it's not that easy. Let me be quite candid, look. I do believe we are the greatest in the world. We've got challenges though.

One of the biggest challenges is inequality. In London, there are what I call food deserts, what I mean by that. There are parts of London where you can buy fresh fruit and produce within a two-minute walk of your home. Some parts of London where there is nothing available within 15-20 minutes of your home.

It's just hardly surprising.

If you're someone in a low income, you're choose to feed your kids and the criticising you. Six pieces of chicken and chips for a 99p. Which is also challenges in terms of obesity, in terms of lack of productivity, in terms of life expectancy and so forth. So I'm somebody who benefited from mean-stested free-school meals.

Because my parents both were more work-in didn't earn enough. I would at school have to queue up to get a token. And there's so people would be labeled as poor because they're in that queue. And obviously one of those kids. But the benefit of being in that queue was I'd get a free-school meal at lunchtime.

Which was a life-changing for my parents because one of us expense, and then I was eating a decent meal at hot meal at lunchtime and I could be more productive in the afternoon. And by the way in the morning, we would receive a better meal as well. All the kids would receive a better meal because kids are more productive when they're eaten.

When I became mere, I have this vivid memory of being grateful for receiving a free-school meal, but being embarrassed and shameful for the stigma having to queue up to receive my free-token. And so I'm determined to do something about this in terms of making us eat more equal. But also, leaving it in the stress parents are fairly during a cost of living crisis. Doing two jobs, not making ends meet.

I spoke to parents who are skipping meals themselves, so their kids can eat. I spoke to parents who feel so guilty that the pack lunch they're given to their child is not nutritional. But they've got no choice because they're busy, they're time poor, they're poor, and so forth. So I set out my team as it is impossible to provide a free-school meal to every child that goes to a primary school. Can we consider having water-only schools?

So there's no busy drinks inside the schools, have water fountains across London again.

“Can we have these food zones where these areas where parents are encouraged to walk or cycle to school?”

Rather than driving to school. So they're kids getting to exercise, walk to school means you're starting to get exercise. And so we've got this across London. So we've got these great zones, super zones around schools. We've got school streets where cars are allowed home.

Walkers are walking in cycling. We've cleaned up the air in London. So it means that you're less likely to get asthma, suffer from dementia or cancer or heart disease. But also really importantly, we've introduced universal free-school meals. And two of your projects, Jamie and Hugh, big big fans of this, and they've been really supportive in terms of this.

What it means is, if you're a parent and have just one child in a primary school, you're saving every year 500 pounds per child.

“So if you've got three kids, think about the money you save.”

Secondly, you're not stressed now about your paddle lunch or you're not stressed about giving your child the money for the free-school meals. And here's the really exciting thing. 55% of kids are trying new foods. Isn't it exciting?

So they're trying food for the first time.

But we've also done some research that shows kids are behaving better. They're attention is better. They're more productive. Teachers will bring in left-over food from their fridge to feed the kids. They're not worried about that now.

Schools will have an argument with parents about school debt. That's to happen anymore. So the kids are doing better. And you've heard this word "hangry". If you're hungry, you don't eat any.

Well, kids are no different. They're going to be productive. They're going to be hungry. They're going to be concentrating. The classroom will be less well in terms of productivity.

But my unhappiness is actually thinking about it. Kids are going to go to school. They're going to choice. They're going to go to school, right? They're not given a free nutritious meal until now.

If you go to a hospital as a patient, you're given a meal. Because you're an impatient. Why are we giving our kids nutritious free meals? And by the way, we've shown with the nangrini recipe. You can provide a nutritional meal.

That's quite cheap. Yeah, actually. So we've worked with great experts. Tom Carrig is being great. So we've got great experts, the Bosch team.

So the meals we have at primary schools are so exciting.

Kids are tasting pineapple for the first time in their desserts.

They're tasting, you know, braised beef. They're tasting, you know, dumplings. They're got pies. And it's done in a way that is affordable. That is nutritional.

And I'm incredibly proud. Now we should be. And it is. I think we kind of look at a culture. We look at our look at a city.

I look at a state as to where they feed their children. The way they feed their sick. The way they feed people in prison. You know, but how do we take care of people who. It's a sign of culture.

But the thing you made. The point you made really I don't know. It's the same important. And I hate to go here. But it's a fact.

It's an investment. Because all the evidence shows. Yeah, that's good for business, right? You know, the first done saying actually these kids now will grow up being more productive. The better they're exams.

They'll do better when they're out in their work and stuff. So we're going to get this money back by the way. So I don't. I don't want people with things to charity. No, no, no.

This is not a hand as helping them. We'll get this money back. Like you wouldn't imagine or dream. If you've got a broken limb. Yeah.

So they don't. They don't. But you're trying to fix it and make sure you're healthy. Yeah. And so so forth and stuff.

“And I think it's really put on investment because, you know,”

we do have a challenge. Ultra-process foods. You know, the wrong sorts of foods of obesity and so forth. And so, by investing now, I think we'll pay dividends and years to come. And those two who we are as a CEO, right?

That's about us. Those two who we are as a society. I remember just go back for one minute. It was then when Ken Livingston was, you know, the first mayor. It was the first mayor, wasn't it?

And I remember being as an American. People say, "Well, he get on with the labor party. "Well, he get on with the party in power." And for me growing up, the mayor was not about getting along with of them.

The governor was always like, there was always like, you know,

like a little bit of tension, you know, fight between the governor and the mayor. The mayor was standing up for us, which is a good and a bad thing. Because we have to look at the whole picture. And then the governor and the president. But I remember the idea is, why are they so worried if the first mayor...

So the thing is, the reason why is because the mayor is quite a new thing. So you make the French about it for centuries. You make it about it for centuries. And so I'm just a third mayor. So, for us, we're still in an appeeze. So we're probably now teenagers.

Because we're 25 years old, you know, no longer teenagers. And so, it's new to us. Yeah. And so, we're used to a party political system where you are a representative of the party. And you're spot on what mayor should be.

Is about party politics. Yeah. We are champions for our city. So we're used to the political pit of city hall, speak for our city. Sometimes we're with the government, wherever party is.

Sometimes we will have arguments and challenges with the government and stuff. And we've learned to relax about it a bit. And initially, we didn't. We weren't sure about this because, you know, the mayor should be the representative of, you know, the prospective party.

“I think people are really, as we're independent minded, whether you're the mayor of Greater Manchester, the mayor of, you know, London or elsewhere.”

Exciting. Well, thank you so much for coming. It's such a great thing. You can go on for hours. But I know that you have a lot to do, and I'm taking you away from your office.

You're just being privileged. It's been a pleasure. It's a great time. The question that we do end with is to say, if you have food for hungry, if you have food to alleviate hungry,

You also have food that gives you comfort. And I have a feeling I know what your answer is going to be.

“But if you need it, mayor, to have food for comfort, is there a food that you would kind of reach for?”

I'm a friend of mine. I'm a high-carb's man. I'm just going to do a funny story. When I first became an MP in 2005, within the first 18 months, I put on two stones. Because, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can do it.

You know, breakfast meetings, yeah. Yeah. And then I was on the way home, you know, getting fast food and the way stuff. Yeah. And so I've tried to be good about what I eat.

But if I'm going to mom's freshly fried semorses, as you said, that's I assumed that it would be something from mom. Because it brings, because that's a great memory.

And the spice is, it's not always good for you.

You can like, you can like bake them. They don't taste the same when they bake compared to the fried. You know, but a smorses, especially when you get it.

“But do you have to tell her before I'm coming home on.”

I want some semorses. Oh, shit. She's a really good point. She used to have them all the time already and stuff. But because, you know, we're not living with her.

Yeah.

The great thing about mom was there always be a pot with food in there.

Yeah. Yeah. And there always be stuff made in the fridge that you can get out and stuff. Because we're not there, you know, she'll make it. But it should make sure.

It's made to all it. And she's happy doing it. She's claimed so now. It's a win-win. Well, it's a win-win.

Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Really, really wonderful. Ruthie's table four is proud to support leukemia UK.

Their cartwheel for cure campaign raises funds for vital research. And more effective and kinder treatments for acute maloid leukemia. Please donate and to do so, search cartwheel for cure. Ruthie's table four was produced by Alex Bell, Robby Hamilton and Zad Hodges, with Andrew Sang and Bella Selini.

This has been an atomized production for eye-hot media. [Music] I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is Icarol. This podcast is all about going deeper with the women shaping culture right now. Yes, we will talk about the style and the success.

But we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work behind it all.

As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated.

“So you have to work extra hard in a way that doesn't compromise who you are in your integrity.”

You know, I like to say I was kind of like the silent ninja. Listen to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than no grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1.

Including the story of the woman who last participated in a Formula One race weekend, the recent uptick in F1 romance novels. And plenty of mishab scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an I-Hart Podcast. Guarantee Human.