MEL BROOKS AT 100: WINE MAY BE THE SECRET TO HIS LONGEVITY

(THIS NEWSLETTER HAS BEEN 100% WRITTEN BY A HUMAN -- ME)

The podium should have also have said, “Chinese Food”

Aside from the Manischewitz and the Kadem sticky sweet Concord kosher wine diluted with water, he took sips of growing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Mel Brooks’ first “real” wine was a Saint-Estèphe served to him by Gene Wilder. Which led the now 100-year-old Brooks to exclaim, “Wine can really taste good.”

Mel told that story three years ago when he appeared on Ruthie Rogers’ podcast, “Ruthie’s Table 4.” As the pod opens, Ruthie of the uber-famous River Café in London asks Brooks, “What do you think of wine?” To which the ever-quick tummler proclaims, “You spill it all over the table.”

Up until recently, maybe even to this day, Mel Brooks is a lover of French, Italian and Napa Valley wine. That’s because, as reveals on the podcast and through years of letting people into his hilarious life, Brooks is a “foodie”. (See Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” episode in which he goes to Brook’s home also at which is Brooks’ longtime great friend, Carl Reiner.

As they apparently did every week or was it every day?, Mel & Carl would sit in easy chairs, TV trays in front of them as though the aluminum carts were chariots, where they’d eat Chinese takeout. Chinese food is kosher with lots of Jews of a certain age, myself included. While Brooks enjoyed chicken a dozen ways made by his maternal grandma and mother, as well as potted beef brisket with roasted potatoes and onions, Chinese food too was a Jewish food staple.

He also tells Ruthie that his mom made “spaghetti”, which is what the family called it, by baking the pasta for a half -hour or so, topped with ketchup, which substituted for tomato sauce. One day, an Italian boyhood friend invited Brooks to his home for spaghetti. “We have spaghetti, too” Brooks tells him. But upon eating the spaghetti in his friend’s house, Mel immediately says he ran home to tell his mom, “You’re not making spaghetti anymore!”

Old Friends: Mel Books & Carl Reiner

A similar thing happened when Brooks and his wife, the actor Anne Bancroft, was invited to Wilder’s apartment in Greenwich Village. Which is where Gene served the Bordeaux. Which led Brooks to kvell, “This is wine.”

He relates another story about Cary Grant, who – to his astonishment – befriended Brooks. I’ve heard the story a half-dozen times and I never tire of hearing it, especially the food-related punch line. Brooks was so excited about having lunch with Grant, he called his brothers “and everyone else in Williamsburg” to tell them, “Cary Grant had poached eggs. I had a tuna fish sandwich.” Which, if you read between the lines, tuna fish is funnier – and more Jewish-adjacent – then a couple of poached eggs.

Brooks says he’s eaten in some of the world’s great restaurants, which no doubt led him to try some of the world’s great wines. Of which I contend, is the secret to Mel Brooks’ longevity.

What no doubt contributed too to long life, was his eating his mother’s gefilte fish. She keeps a carp —alive — in the bathtub until such time she has to kill Arty, which is what Brooks and his brothers named the fish. “Don’t kill it. Don’t kill him,” Mel says he and his brothers cried. “We have to eat,” mom replies. To which Mel tells Ruthie, “We ate Arty, and then we got another carp.”

Long live Mel Brooks!