q&a with sir alan parker, film director

What is your go-to recipe when you have to cook for other people?

First off, I have to confess to not being able to cook at all. I blame it on being the only son of a doting mother who plonked food in front of me and I returned her kindness by cleaning the plate. Also, I married young and, in a less enlightened age, I was happy not to interfere in the kitchen.

When I lived in Los Angeles I did cook a bit as the ubiquitous outside grill was very accommodating to a culinary klutz like me. I did however buy a large fish kettle that straddled two burners on the cooker. Where I lived in West Hollywood there was a dearth of pork butchers, but excellent fish markets. A giant salmon in the fish kettle became my ‘go-to’ meal, served with flageolet beans and bok-choy: a princely meal that disguised its simplicity. When I got really ambitious I would bake a fish in the oven, completely covered in rock salt. It was a miracle to me that when you cracked open the rock salt after half an hour, the fish inside was so delicate and tender.

What do you cook when you can't be bothered to cook? 

To be honest, not being able to cook, I mostly never bother to, so probably would rely on Deliveroo.

Who taught you how to cook?

It should have been my mother, but as mentioned previously, she never did. Not that she was an Italian mama in an apron. She always worked, so in post war London her meals were pretty basic and austere. My mother was a sewing machinist and was probably knackered when she got home, so it’s not surprising she was no Fanny Craddock.

As a treat, we would go once a week to Manzi’s in Chapel Market, where the man chopped up the eels outside, his hands covered in blood. That’s where I developed a love of eels — stewed or jellied. My parents stopped going when a fight broke out and my Dad, sitting innocently, got a plate of green liquor poured over his head.

What would your last meal be?

Not very appetising in this context, but I did a film about the death penalty in Texas and cut a montage of death-row prisoners’ ‘last meals’. My own last meal would probably be the aforementioned plate of eels. (Apparently pie and eel shops were a favourite of Ava Gardner. You can imagine her getting off the plane with Frank Sinatra and the couple making straight for a Manzi’s.)

What is your favourite restaurant in the world?

I like L’Ami Louis in Paris. Cramped and exclusive as it is, the food is great. Mostly chunks of meat and chicken: there’s not a vegan in sight. 

I made a movie in Northern California and ate regularly at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. My cinematographer was a friend of Alice Water’s the owner (and famous chef) so we ate very well. 

In Roppongi, Tokyo I loved Inakaya Higashi. You sit in a semicircle with the cross-legged chefs and the fresh food laying on ice in the middle (the food not the chefs). You point to a giant shrimp, still jumping in the ice, and they cook it in front of you— passing it over on a long-poled paddle. The attendant theatrics of the chefs, as their banter goes back and forth — is a cross between Benihana and Bridge on the River Kwai.

Nate ’n Al, the Jewish deli in Beverly Hills is pretty great. It’s been the same menu for 60 odd years and most of the customers seem to have been sitting there that long. Many a Hollywood movie idea has been pitched over their matzo ball soup and corned beef and pastrami sandwich. Sadly, salt beef sandwiches are hard to come across in London these days. The Coach and Horses in Covent Garden seems to be the last hold out.

What is your go-to restaurant in your city at the moment?

The Colbert or Fischer’s, or frankly any of the immaculate restaurants created and run by Jeremy King and Chris Corbin. (The two sometimes are erroneously combined as Jeremy Corbin. The real Jeremy Corbyn will of course ban all posh restaurants when he gets into office.) Locally, I mostly go to Oka in the King’s Road. Tiny and jam packed, its Japanese-fusion. I avoid the fusion part.

What can't you cook that you wish you could?

I can’t cook anything, so that’s easy. I admire anyone who makes a great Yorkshire pudding—tall and fluffy

What is your favourite cuisine?

For a long time I would have said Italian. But in recent years it has to be Japanese.

What have you had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner today?

For breakfast I had bran flakes from the health store. They taste like blotting paper, but with yoghurt and a few blueberries it’s almost palatable. Lunch was in the pub next to my studio—smoked salmon and scrambled eggs and a pint of Guinness. As I’m writing this, my wife tells me that dinner will be ravioli (pumpkin and pecorino from Waitrose.) with sage butter.

Is there anything you won't eat?

Corn on the cob. It’s hard to digest, so it messes with my diverticular.

Who would be invited to your fantasy dinner party (living or dead)?

David Hockney, Bette Davis, Robert Rauschenberg, Tommy Cooper, Heidi Fleiss (Hollywood madam—for the gossip) Leonard Cohen, Eva Peron (to ask her what she thought of Madonna in Evita).