Chef Ruthie Rogers on the comforts of food and conversation

The River Cafe, a bustling London restaurant, has kept its Michelin star since the late ’90s. Ruthie Rogers is not just co-founder, owner and chef; she is maestra of this Italian restaurant, conductor and, on the floor of her blue-carpeted, celebrity-filled world, connector.

“I love talking to Wyclef Jean; that was really spontaneous,” she said. “And he just loves food. And within 10 minutes he was just talking, and talking, and talking.”

What could be dismissed as name-dropping (“And when Tina Fey came with her husband…”) is, for Rogers, just genuine chat about people in her orbit.

“I mean, you know, to have Francis Ford Coppola, he used to come here quite often; he lived near here. He really was honest and open,” she said. “We both have sons who died. My son died when he was 26. And so, we talked about that. We talked about how, when I was told about the death of my son and everyone came home, I said, could somebody put some tomato sauce on? I need to smell something cooking, which was not because I was hungry, but it needed to feel a sense of continuity, and comfort.”

Those talks – she always asks about comfort food – have been compiled into a new book, “Table 4 at the River Cafe,” featuring folks like Elton John and Sarah Jessica Parker, and surprising links: Martha Stewart, Mel Brooks and Frank Gehry all had mothers who kept live carp in the bathtub, to keep it fresh before it became dinner.

Rogers said, “When you look through the lens of food and you talk to people, you find memories that you might not have found otherwise. I think if I had said to Paul McCartney, ‘I’d like to do an interview with you about The Beatles,’ or if I’d said to David Beckham, ‘Can we do an interview about football,’ they would’ve said, ‘Ruthie, you know, we’ve kind of been there and done that.”

The book is born from her podcast, a COVID-era desire to connect over food.

Chef Jamie Oliver came to record, despite trying to open a restaurant on the same day. (He’s in the book, too.) “I love her so much,” he said, “and she has, like, hundreds of me. I’m gonna be opening a restaurant today. I’ve got 100 people that need me. Ruthie phones up, I’m here. ‘What do you need?’ ‘I need you up a mountain, Timbuktu.’ ‘I’ll be there, with bells on.'”

After all, the American-born Rogers, and her late business partner, Rose Gray, hired Oliver early on. Then, a documentary shot here led to him being discovered, and turned into a star as “The Naked Chef.”

Oliver said, “Every day when I’m cooking, I’m thinking, ‘How do I do this? What’s the best way to express this for this audience at this price?’ And there’s always Rose and Ruthie. She’s with me every day.”

Late husband Richard Rogers, who along with fellow architect Renzo Piano designed Paris’ Pompidou Center, needed a canteen in his new London architecture firm. “So, we thought we’d open a little cafe here. I just remember I said to Richard, ‘You know, maybe I’ll do it.'”

So, she phoned her friend Rose Gray, and they began with six tables serving a simple lunch. Rogers had no cooking background at all. “Only home, domestic,” she said.

Sian Wyn Owen is one of the head chefs now: “Coming to the River Cafe where it was two women – it was Rose and Ruth – and to see how you could run a kitchen with what Ruthie always said, hope rather than fear.”

She showed how their lemon tart is finished in the wood burning oven – fun, and a bit of drama. “Exactly. Just like the River Cafe!” she laughed.

It has been on the menu for most all of her 26 years here. She’s relatively new: managers Vashti Armit and Charles Pullan have been here for 31 and 35 years, respectively.

Pullan says the spirit of the restaurant starts with Rogers: “And then it comes from the staff who work here, and it all rubs off on each other. And so, when people come in, hopefully there’s always a sense of that excitement.”

You’re lucky to get a table – luckier if you’re not paying the bill – in this restaurant which feels a bit more like a salon of the 17th century, a place filled with personality … and personalities.

Rogers pulled English soccer legend and sports broadcaster Gary Lineker into the podcast (she’d run into him eating the night before), and since I was standing there, she pulled up a chair for me.

Ruthie Rogers is always pulling up a chair for someone: “Connecting is huge,” she said. “That’s why I love a restaurant.”

And that’s why she believes restaurants should be on any list of what makes a city like London great.

READ AN EXCERPT: “Table 4 at The River Cafe” by Ruthie Rogers

For more info:

       
Story produced by Erin Lyall and Jon Carras. Editor: Jason Schmidt.