Brooklyn Beckham Opens Up About Drinking Habits and Married Life

The famous son who recently became a famous husband (to actress/model Nicola Peltz), Brooklyn Peltz Beckham tries to manage his celebrity by focusing on his varied interests. Yes, there was that book of his photography; then he got super into cooking (see his webseries Cookin’ with Brooklyn). Of course, he’s modeled too. Now, the multi-hyphenate adds another feather to his cap: Sake master. Alright, maybe he’s not a master quite yet, but he did recently team up with WESAKE, the premium-grade Japanese Sake brand, as a co-founder and partner. But what business does this English lad have diving into the world of Sake and its centuries-old culture and tradition? Over an ice-cold can of you-know-what, Beckham hopped on a Zoom to explain.

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ROB LEDONNE: How’s it going?

BROOKLYN BECKHAM: Nice to meet you.

LEDONNE: Where are you today? 

BECKHAM: Century City. 

LEDONNE: I’m in Brooklyn. 

BECKHAM: Do you like it? It’s a cool name.

LEDONNE: I love it. Let’s talk about your sake. How did this come about?

BECKHAM: I’ve always been obsessed with Japanese culture. I’ve been lucky enough in the past to travel to Tokyo; I’ve been there a few times and I want to take my wife at some point, so we’re trying to plan a trip next year. But living in L.A., considering our favorite food is Japanese, we go to Nobu’s restaurant, it’s called Matsuhisa. We go there all the time and it’s my favorite date spot, for me and the missus. For the past few years I’ve been trying different times of Sake, and since I’m obsessed with Japanese style, I get the Masu cups and drink it the traditional way. But honestly, I could live there [in Japan]. 

LEDONNE: Do you remember your first sake experience? 

BECKHAM: My first time trying Sake was in London at this small Omakase place. I think I was around 18 there, because you can drink earlier there. It was a five-seater Omakase place; it was cold Sake and as soon as I tried it I was like, “Oh my god, I’m drinking alcohol? This is so nice and easy to drink.” Even before WESAKE came about, it’s been the easiest drink for me. It goes down so smooth and crisp.

LEDONNE: When you’re drinking sake, do you usually drink it on its own or with food?

BECKHAM: When I first started having it, I was like, “Oh, you’re supposed to only have it with sushi or in a certain setting.” But I think you can have it anywhere. I have at night time, having a burger, eating English food with my friends. When I’m cooking in the kitchen, I have a bunch of bottles in the fridge and my friends. My wife loves it. It’s honestly a drink that you can literally have with anything, which is what we’re trying to tell people. Pablo has these questions: “Do you know what sake is, do you know what it tastes like, do you like it,” and then he was like, “Can you name a certain type or a certain brand?” Most people can’t. But it is a drink you can have literally anywhere at any time, any place. 

LEDONNE: How often do you cook? 

BECKHAM: Every other night. I always cook for my wife. I’m always experimenting.

LEDONNE: What’s the last thing you made?

BECKHAM: I’ve actually been using my air fryer quite a lot. I actually found out we had one a few days ago. I’ve been making quite as few things with that; I made chicken parm the other night; that was the last thing I cooked. And last week I cooked Beef Wellington. And I actually added some WESAKE when I was drying out the mushrooms for the outside layer. It was really good, actually.

LEDONNE: What’s the most number of people you’ve cooked for? Do you cook for your family?

BECKHAM: Yes, I have cooked for my family, but it’s difficult since they live in London. Probably the most amount of people I’ve cooked for was my wife’s family. She has six brothers, eight siblings and they all have girlfriends. So probably her family, which I guess are my family as well, is the most amount of people I’ve cooked for. All of us together at a table, probably like 25 people. 

LEDONNE: What’s gone wrong in the kitchen? 

BECKHAM: I’ve had a few kitchen disasters. I’ve burnt myself quite a few times. I’ve cut myself a few times. Obviously when I’m cooking, sometimes I’ll forget that something is in the oven when I don’t put the timer on and it’s a bit over-cooked. There was this one time, in the countryside of England, I was reaching to get a tall bottle of olive oil. It accidentally fell and I tried to catch it, and as I caught it it broke in my hand. So I had a few cuts on my hand. 

LEDONNE: I have to ask about your Thanksgiving. I know Selena Gomez was there.

BECKHAM: Yeah, so she came down a few days before Thanksgiving and one night we were cooking in the kitchen; I was making a fish and chips sandwich; we were all hanging out and Selena was taking little videos and she edited it all together, which was really nice. And then, a few days later I helped cook [for] Thanksgiving. 

LEDONNE: Everything you post is so poured-over and analyzed. Are you conscious of that?

BECKHAM: Yeah, I mean, honestly, me and my wife take pictures all the time. But I don’t really mind what I look like, to be honest. Yeah, I don’t really mind. I love taking pictures of me, my wife, my friends, my family, her family. So I’m not really bothered about that, actually.

LEDONNE: I gotta ask you about your wedding. How did you feel?

BECKHAM: I was a little bit nervous. Actually, I was very nervous. Right before, I was like, “Oh my god, what if she doesn’t walk down?!” So I was on my guard: “I’m marrying my best friend, what if she doesn’t want to?” But I walked down and as soon as she came out, I bursted out crying. It was an amazing day. Marrying your best friend is the best thing you can do. Find the person that makes you a better person and wife them up. Finding the right person changes your life and makes it 100 times better. 

LEDONNE: What did you drink at your wedding?

BECKHAM: Well unfortunately [Pablo Rivera, co-founder of WESAKE] didn’t come to me with WESAKE before my wedding, but I was drinking wine. But I didn’t get drunk at all; just having as few sips. I think when you’re having a wedding, you have to say hi to everyone, so I didn’t really have time to. But I was drinking wine. 

LEDONNE: What’s the next thing you’re making?

BECKHAM: Probably a burrito.

LEDONNE: A breakfast one, or a later-in-the-day burrito?

BECKHAM: A lunch one. I’m not really a fan of breakfast or breakfast burritos. I never have breakfast. I wake up at 7, do the gym and then come up and don’t eat until like 4pm. 

LEDONNE: So what do you eat at 4pm?

BECKHAM: Mine and my wife’s favorite store here is Erewhon. We like to eat healthy, so we’ll order that and have dinner early at like 7, 7:30. I’ll usually cook and then we’ll sit and watch the telly. 

LEDONNE: What’s the most memorable dinner of your life?

BECKHAM: Okay, it was my 21st birthday and my favorite chefs in the whole world called Wagyumafia [Hisato Hamada]. Have you heard of him?

LEDONNE: No.

BECKHAM: He invented this thing… it’s the most expensive sandwich in the world. I’m sure you’ve seen it; it’s Wagyu. But he invented that, and my dad had just opened up a pub with Guy Ritchie in London. So for my birthday, Wagyumafia flew in and did a whole Japanese dinner for me at the pub, which was cool because it’s two amazing worlds: an English pub, which I grew up in, and Japanese food. That was the most amazing dinner.

LEDONNE: You know what would have made that dinner better?

BECKHAM: What?

LEDONNE: A can of WESAKE, maybe?

BECKHAM: I know!