Ruthie's Table 4

This week, we’re looking back at Gary Lineker’s visit to The River Cafe. Over the table, we travelled from his childhood in Leicester and the food of his mother’s kitchen to the football pitches of Barcelona. We talked about fame, family, and the importance of speaking out for refugees and compassion. Gary made potato gnocchi with tomato sauce alongside our chef Joseph Trivelli,...

This week, we’re looking back to the summer morning we shared with Cate Blanchett, who joined me at The River Cafe after her run in Thomas Ostermeier’s  The Seagull . We talked about the pleasures of touring a play, growing up between American and Australian food traditions, silent meals after losing her father, teenage dinner parties inspired by a Salvador Dalí cookbook, t...

This week, we’re revisiting our live episode with Sarah Jessica Parker. And what a guest she was. Sarah has always had a deep love of food, so we had plenty to talk about: from the role of food in Sex and the City , where so many memorable conversations unfolded around a meal, to growing up as one of eight children and cooking every night with Matthew Broderick. She cooked puntarelle in the...

During our between-season break, we’re revisiting some of our favourite conversations from the Ruthie’s Table 4 archive. This week, we're looking back to when Benedict Cumberbatch joined me at The River Cafe to talk about Negronis with Wes Anderson, growing up in a theatrical family, body transformations, and cooking for his children.   Hit FOLLOW to make sure you never miss an ep...

As we look forward to Series 6 in October, we’re revisiting some of our favourite episodes of Ruthie’s Table 4 . Zoe Saldaña was a force from the moment she entered the restaurant back in 2025. She told us stories about her grandmother’s coconut desserts, how her family dances through life, and what it was like growing up in Queens. We talked about Caribbean soups, Dominic...

Whether in film, music, books or television, food can be a source of inspiration or integral to the way we work. In this special compilation episode of Ruthie's Table 4, we're talking about the shared ingredients of what we do, with Gayle King, Mark Ronson, Graham Norton, Emerald Fennell – the director of Wuthering Heights, and Patrick Radden Keefe – the author of&n...

I've always thought we judge a culture by the way we feed our poor, our sick and our prisoners. In this special compilation episode of Ruthie's Table 4, we're talking about food and politics, in conversation with Jacinda Ardern, documentary filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, CBS conflict producer Erin Lyall, writer and critic Hilton Als, Annie Leibovitz, and Kamala Harris.     Hit FOLLOW to...

It may come as no surprise that I have a special interest in restaurants. The River Café is where I work, where I record this podcast, and where I spend so much of my life. In this special compilation episode of Ruthie’s Table 4 , we’re talking about restaurants—how to run them and why they matter—with stories and memories from Piers Morgan, Jamie Oliver, Marina Hyde...

Childhood kitchens, our parents' cooking—the food we eat when we're young stays with us for life. This special compilation of Ruthie's Table 4 celebrates food and childhood, featuring memories from Kamala Harris, Mayor Sadiq Khan, architect Ab Rogers, Marina Hyde and Richard Osman, and Rashida Jones.   Hit FOLLOW to make sure you never miss an episode, and join the Ruthie’s Table...

As a farewell to series 5, I'm joined by Sian Wyn Owen to take you behind the scenes at The River Café during the recent heatwaves this summer—what we cooked and how we served. And Season 6 is on the way, starting off with the stars of Only Murders in the Building , Steve Martin and Martin Short, in an episode full of laughter, food memories, and banjo playing. See you in October! Ord...

Dorothée Boissier is an interior designer and co-founder of the Gilles & Boissier studio. Together with her husband, Patrick Gilles, she creates exquisite architecture and interiors around the world. Today, we're at Moncler's beautiful flagship store on the Champs-Élysées, designed by Dorothée and Patrick. We'll talk about Paris, food, their creative partnership, an...

Good food and good clothes should do the same thing: make you feel instantly comfortable, confident, and completely at home. In this episode Ruthie sits down with Clare Hornby, the visionary entrepreneur founder and CEO of ME+EM. Clare has built the UK's fastest-growing luxury label by mastering "intelligent style" -creating crafted, functional wardrobes for women. Bound by a shared love for excep...

Ruthie speaks to her brother, screenwriter and author Michael Elias, about his latest novel, Bender's LA. In the coke-dusted canyons and deal-making rooms of 1970s Los Angeles, writer David Bender sets out to remake his life - romantically, professionally, and spiritually - after his wife walks out in Puerto Vallarta with a single sentence and a suitcase. Order a copy now: https://www.amazon.co.uk...

Zanny Minton Beddoes and I have different professions, and different workplaces. As editor-in-chief of The Economist, hers is in the newsroom mine is the kitchen. But we have much in common, sharing a message of honesty - me with ingredients, Zanny with words.    And we both have time limits - in the case of this conversation, just 20 minutes which we recorded live onstage at the Google...

Ab Rogers explains his fascination with wine and why he prefers grapes that have had to fight for their survival. Order Table 4 at The River Cafe —the star-studded, food-filled book inspired by the beloved podcast: https://bit.ly/Table4AtRiverCafeBook See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ab Rogers is a visionary designer. He is also my stepson. For over 50 years, we’ve been side by side, taking adventures together.  Today, we’re together in the River Cafe to share  stories  - memories of his father and my husband Richard Rogers - travels, families, work and food. We will also talk about five women who inspired the way he cooks, and the creative methods h...

Erin Lyall, a conflict producer for CBS News, reveals what it's like to eat with soldiers, how an army feeds itself, and how she personally recovers after the strain of working in a war zone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a conflict producer for CBS News, Erin Lyall has eaten with Ukrainian soldiers on the freezing front line, cooked with families in their homes in Gaza, and shared meals on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq with bullets sounding in the distance. From these experiences in the field, Erin created Food Under Fire, a unique food blog featuring recipes, anecdotes, and portraits of the people she's m...

In this bonus episode of Ruthie's Table 4, Graham Norton reveals what he learned from working in restaurants, what he noticed about tricky customers, and why he would recommend the experience to everyone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week marks a very special occasion. My friend, Mel Brooks, is turning 100. For the best part of a century, he has lit up the world with his warmth and humour, delighting audiences as a writer, director, actor and comedian. From The Producers and Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein, his unique talents have left an indelible mark on film, television and theatre. To celebrate Mel, we're going...

To be a truly great host, as Graham Norton is every week on his television sofa, you have to understand and genuinely like people. It's the same for me at the River Café. There's no such thing as a difficult customer. Everybody has a story, and every table is a world. Usually it's Graham asking the questions, but today, he's answering mine—about his early years in an American commune,...

Last September, at the Venice Film Festival, I went to see Agon — a radical and powerful film. Afterwards, I immediately changed my schedule to attend a dinner for its director, Giulio Bertelli. Today, Giulio and I are back together in Hammersmith to discuss his filmmaking, the food of his childhood in Milan, his time as a professional sailor, the history of food and seafaring, and the compa...

Everyone knows Piers Morgan as a journalist, editor, and fearless interviewer. But I also know him as someone who loves food and can describe in detail what makes a great restaurant. Today, we're here together to talk about growing up in his family's country pub, the postcard he cherishes from his mother, drinks with Bill Clinton, dining with Tom Hanks, and seeing the glass half full. Order Table...

In this bonus episode of Ruthie's Table 4, Ruth Porat - President and Chief Investment Officer of Google and Alphabet - discusses the social responsibilities that come with technological advancement and how AI must be used to tackle society’s most intractable problems. Order Table 4 at The River Cafe —the star-studded, food-filled book inspired by the beloved podcast: https://bit....

Ruth Porat is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Google and Alphabet. She is also my friend. Her extraordinary schedule has often kept us thousands of miles apart as she moves across continents, connecting people, ideas, and communities. But today, we’re together at last - a Ruth and a Ruthie - to talk about the importance of food at Google, her scientific childhood, how her...