River Cafe London: Thirty Years of Recipes and the Story of a Much-Loved Restaurant

by Ruth Rogers, Sian Wyn Owen, Joseph Trivelli

The bold, beautiful new cookbook from the Michelin-starred kitchen of one of the world's most revered Italian restaurants--featuring more than 120 simple, modern recipes.

For thirty years, London's River Cafe has been the source of the British culinary renaissance, a place to see and be seen, serving some of the best Italian food to be found anywhere in the world. This lavishly illustrated book brings together the restaurant's very best dishes from across the decades and the menu: more than 120 recipes for incomparable antipasti, primi, secondi, contorni, and dolci, like White Asparagus with Bottarga Butter; Spaghetti with Lemon; Risotto with Roast Partridge; and Hazelnut and Ricotta Cake. Written by owner/chef Ruth Rogers, along with head chefs Sian Wyn Owen and Joseph Trivelli, the book revisits the restaurant's legendary history in anecdotes and illustrations (think menus designed by Damien Hirst), and includes tips for the contemporary home cook. Stunningly designed, this is a must-have for all food lovers.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published April 10, 2018

About the author

Ruth Rogers, Baroness Rogers of Riverside, CBE, is an American and British chef, renowned for owning and running the Michelin-starred Italian restaurant The River Café in Hammersmith, London. Born Ruth Elias in upstate New York, she grew up in a politically active household and was influenced by her parents’ left-wing politics. She attended Colorado Rocky Mountain School and later studied design at the London College of Printing.
In 1969, she met architect Richard Rogers, marrying him in 1973 after his divorce. They spent time in Paris and Italy, where Rogers' work and the culinary culture inspired her love for seasonality in cooking. In 1987, Ruth and her partner Rose Gray opened The River Café, which became known for its authentic Italian cuisine. The restaurant, designed by her husband, gained significant acclaim, and its cookbooks became best-sellers. It has also trained celebrated chefs like Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
After Gray’s death in 2010, Rogers continued to run the restaurant, maintaining its prestigious Michelin star. Her work has earned her multiple honors, including a CBE in 2020 for services to the culinary arts and charity.

Reviews

[Virginia]

I made a few recipes in here, the vegetable and pasta dishes primarily, and they were simple and good. I enjoyed reading about the history and inside stories of the River Cafe. The meat dishes were just a bit overly complex for my home kitchen, and the dessert dishes, while they looked indulgent, were written to feed a party of two dozen people. Even so, the book is lovingly written and gorgeously photographed. It’s not simply “put together,” but crafted to be a tactile reading experience and an emotional historical journey. Even the dishes I would never make are a pleasure to read about. But I really, really do wish those ice cream recipes were designed for the 2-quart ice cream maker and not the larger restaurant size. Starting off with 11 cups of heavy cream is a bit much...

[Ietrio]

This volume is a very cute gift for the loyal patrons of the said restaurant. Otherwise dull and unoriginal.

[Beverly]

The food was very yummy, but the recipes leave out many key details.

[Peggy]

Would it have killed them to use a bigger font, and not leave so much white space on every page? This book was barely legible.

[Margery Osborne]

i would so like to eat here. the tale of the restaurant is inspiring

[Madison B]

Pretty book but I'm not sure how many recipes I would make. I have a few I am going to try. If I ever get an ice cream machine there are tons of recipes for that

[Sam]

I'll be honest, I'm not familiar with this particular River Cafe and on first blush a lot of the recipes seemed a little on the posher side for me, both in taste and ability. But in reading more closely the recipes are not necessarily as complicated as I first thought and I've tabbed quite a few for testing including ricotta al forno (basically a cheese souffle), risotto with procini and girolles, marinated grilled lamb and various courgette recipes (not to mention an amazing slow cooked tomato sauce recipe). This book also includes a bit of background and history to the Cafe and how its changed over the years, including its changing menus as well as some stunning photos of the Cafe both then and now and of the action behind the scenes.

[Bethany Hudson]

This is the first cookbook to ever make me cry. The essays are poignant, the artwork lovely, and the recipes unparalleled.