Ruthie's Table 4

In our previous episode, we spoke to Jamie Oliver about childhood, moving to London and getting started in television. On today’s podcast, we'll be talking about his school-meals campaign, but not before we send him back into the River Cafe Kitchen after a 20-year absence to prepare a River Cafe classic. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to: Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram...

I can't say how many times when arriving at The River Café in a taxi, the driver will turn around to me and say, ‘Is this the restaurant where Jamie Oliver cooked?’ The other day, one even informed me that The River Café was owned by Jamie, and I thought, why correct him? He is the prodigal son or the brother, who knows when he walks in the restaurant, he is home. For more information, recipes, an...

A few months ago, I shared a panel with Vanessa Kingori, celebrating International Women's Day. Listening to Vanessa, it became apparent that it really wasn't necessary for me to be there. It was her views on social justice, women in business, creativity and leadership that everybody wanted to hear. Most of all, me.  Her path towards Chief Business Officer of Condé Nast International is a story of...

One of my most cherished possessions is a River Cafe menu with the word YUM painted on it by Ed Ruscha. Ed is an artist, friend - and cook, but we really bond over words; words as art, words as books, words as recipes, words as love. Our worlds and words converged recently when he had an exhibition at the Tate and The National Gallery - a first for an artist. We celebrated with lunches, dinners an...

Michael Mann and I met through architecture. On a trip to London about 25 years ago, he asked to visit the Lloyd's Building, designed by my husband, Richard Rogers. For us, it was an honour. For if Michael was a fan of Richard's architecture, Richard was a huge fan of Michael's movies. In fact, when watching Ali, Miami Vice or Collateral, my arm would be constantly squeezed. Not due to a dramatic...

Watch  Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, listen to  The 2000-Year-Old Man , read his autobiography,  All About Me, and you will know why. But for me, having known Mel for 25 years, ‘funny’ is not the first word I would use to describe this extraordinary man. Fiercely proud of his children and grandchildren, the first one to pick up a phone to a friend in trouble, refusing an award in opposition...

If you were in London in November 2020, then you might have been, as I was, lucky to see ‘Fly in a League with the Night’ by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at the Tate Britain. A retrospective of 70 of her works from 2003 to the present. Forced to close after two weeks due to the pandemic, the show reopened in November 2022 - the first time the museum has done this. Lynette is a writer, a painter, and as I...

Austin Butler is a winner. He beats me at cards, knows how to cook a wild salmon on the grill, and when we had a dinner every Sunday night for a year always arrived with a new book he was reading, a piece of pottery he’d made or a rare bottle of tequila.    We first recorded this podcast in 2021 but wanted to play it for you again in case you hadn’t heard it – it's one of my favourites, just like...

Most nights, Jimmy Fallon and I have somewhat similar jobs. We’re both hosts, after all—Jimmy on The Tonight Show, me at The River Cafe. We both welcome guests and want them to feel at home. Of course, Jimmy’s reach is far greater than mine. I look after 180 people, Jimmy, 1.8 million. As a chef, my hosting is done through cooking; Jimmy sings dances and makes people laugh and open up in conversat...

Over the years in The River Cafe, I’ve witnessed the spell-binding effect an athlete can have. None of us are able to do what they do, and we all know it. There are many, many images of John McEnroe on the tennis court, but the one I recall is not athletic, but artistic. It's a photograph of John, in fact, almost cradling a painting by Philip Guston, who was a close friend of my father and mother....

In 2014, the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg opened an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London. His speech at the Pavilion, to about 300 people, urged us all to support the arts and true to his word, he has done just that. What I found most memorable about the speech was the ending  “Come to New York City” he said, “and if you want to have coffee or lunch, just call me, this is my...

If food is love, and love is food, for Valentine's Day we are dedicating this episode of Ruthie's Table 4, by talking to the chefs, managers, waiters, bartenders, gardeners, shop staff and a few of our previous guests to the role food plays  in celebrating love. Thank you to: Olivia, Nick, Stephen, Christophe, Kitty, David Beckham, Joseph, Ricci, Lily, Tabby, Alex, Imogen, Tate, Gwynth Paltrow, Ja...

'Millions of us have shared food with Tina Fey over the years. In 30 Rock, which she wrote and starred in, even her name, Liz Lemon, was food related. In SNL there was Brownie husband and who could forget the cafeteria scene in Mean Girls. Tina came to the River Cafe a few weeks ago and after she put on her Chef’s Whites to make tomato pasta in the kitchen, we sat down together to discuss the food...

'While JJ Abrams might be one of the world’s most brilliant writers, producers & directors, he still manages to find the time to be a great friend. Today, I have the joy of catching up with him as we talk about food, family & friendship on today’s episode of Ruthie’s Table 4.' For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, ac...

I'm often asked who inspired us when we opened The River Cafe in 1987. Wolfgang Puck is the one of the answers. A few months ago, he came to The River Cafe for dinner with his family, and to everyone working there it felt like a visit from the Gods. To me it was a visit from a mentor, a star, and a friend.  I went to speak with him at his restaurant at the Hotel Bel-Air in LA, where we ate pizza a...

'Rick Rubin is a decades-long creative force in the music industry - Co-founder of Def Jam, and winner of seven Grammys. Rick has discovered, mentored, and produced artists such as: Adele, Eminem, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run DMC, and for me, most movingly, Johnny Cash. His values, principles, and kindness guide everything he does.  Though, Rick Rubin is up there in the clouds and I am firmly o...

'Dame Judi Dench is not just a national and international treasure, she's an interplanetary treasure. If there is life on Mars, they're talking about her most recent performance. Judi is a woman of warmth, a woman of wit. She is a friend I admire, respect and adore.' Join us on todays episode of Ruthie's Table 4: Dame Judi Dench to hear about her childhood, her accolades and her own experience coo...

'In November, I sat down in New York to talk to Brian Chesky, the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. Now, I've never stayed in an Airbnb, but then again, Brian has never been to the River Cafe. But I've experienced the impact Airbnb has had on so many lives. My children have explored the world knowing they need never stay in a hotel. On today's episode we talk about travel and how food is the entry poi...

Imagine for a moment, you are Martha Stewart. It is 1992 and you are the most important woman in the world of food. You say your best quality is your curiosity. So, maybe it was that curiosity which made you drive 25 minutes  to a small restaurant in a warehouse on the Thames, which had opened just a few years before, run by two women whose only experience was cooking for their families.  In this...

A year ago, I used every bit of access and influence to get tickets to Cabaret for one reason only - to see Eddie Redmayne the star of the show. And last week, conquering my enormous fear of being afraid, I watched him in the Good Nurse and was unnerved how beautifully he made a mass murderer not only empathetic, but almost loveable. All of us in The River Café know Eddie as an enthusiastic eater....

Two years after starting the River Café, Rose Gray and I were asked by a publisher to do a cookbook. We replied sternly that we were chefs, not writers. But the more we thought about it, we realized that being a chef is about communicating. 30 years and 12 cookbooks later, we have just published our newest The River Café Lookbook for Kids of All Ages. It's a collaboration between a photographer, d...

Some years ago Gwyneth Paltrow worked for a day in the River Cafe Kitchen. She arrived early. in professional chef’s whites, ready to cook. Gwyneth volunteered  to clean and then fry  fresh anchovies. And for 3 hours, she did. This memory speaks to how professional Gwyneth is. An Oscar winning actor she built Goop from a simple newsletter into an inspirational business. She is an entrepreneur, an...

Ruthie's Table 4 returns for Season 2! For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home.   On Ruthie's Table 4, Roger...

Sitting here in The River Café on a sunny Monday morning with chefs in the kitchen making ravioli with girolles, and waiters laying tables in the garden, the uncertain world we live in feels miles away. The artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen does not separate the world of beauty and the world of suffering in any of his work. Political oppression, slavery, sexual inequality. Steve and I met in 1999...

As part of our limited art series we are reposting our favourite episode from season 1 just in case you missed it the first time round. This is a conversation about food between two friends - Ruthie Rogers, a chef, and Tracey Emin, an artist. Listen when you have a quiet time - time to hear Tracey convey to Ruthie what it meant to have the Salvation Army cook her and her brother Christmas dinner....