Ruthie's Table 4

My favourite line in this conversation from our 41st episode of River Cafe Table 4, is Austin Butler saying he and I are ‘family’.

Austin arrived straight from playing Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s movie ‘Elvis’ in January 2021 and we met soon after.

London was just out of a COVID lockdown and, needing an immediate tradition, we decided to have dinner at my home every Sunday night with the same small group of friends. Austin would arrive early and cook with me, and this is what we did, every Sunday, for 39 weeks.

Austin is a brilliant actor, a beautiful singer, a poet, and an extraordinary friend.

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 River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Congressman Adam Schiff came to London, giving a dinner for him in our home was a great honour. On Episode 40 of Ruthie's Table 4, Ruthie and Adam talk about the food he grew up with, the food he cooks for his family, and the food he finds personally comforting. 

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, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everybody is interested in process. How do actors memorize their lines, how does an airplane stay up in the sky?

The question I'm most often asked is how does a restaurant work?

How do you know how many portions of sea bass to order? What do you do when a chef calls in sick?

The answers to these questions ? It's people. And two very important people for me are Sian Wyn Owen and Joseph Travelli, Executive Chefs in the River Cafe.

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, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark Carney does more than you can imagine – previously Governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, he is now UN Special Envoy for Climate Action, UK government’s climate-finance advisor, and Vice Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management.

Mark runs miles before the rest of us have had our first espresso. He sings, writes a best-selling book – Value(s)  - cooks for his four children and is a master of the technique for grilling a Bistecca Fiorentina to perfection. 

Listen to him and Ruthie on Episode 37 of Ruthie's Table 4 discussing all that he does, and more.  

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, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark Carney does more than you can imagine – previously Governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, he is now UN Special Envoy for Climate Action, UK government’s climate-finance advisor, and Vice Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management.

Mark runs miles before the rest of us have had our first espresso. He sings, writes a best-selling book – Value(s)  - cooks for his four children and is a master of the technique for grilling a Bistecca Fiorentina to perfection. 

Listen to him and Ruthie on Episode 37 of Ruthie's Table 4 discussing all that he does, and more.  

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, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Having read Afua Hirsch’s political memoir Brit(ish), I was both moved and informed. So I asked her if we might have a conversation for Ruthie's Table 4. 

Anyone who’s watched her documentaries, read her articles, or participated in her grassroots organising, knows that Afua’s insights on racism, inclusion, and British history is radical, brave and brilliant.

Before going into the restaurant for lunch together, we will talk about what her Ghanain grandmothers cooked for her as a teenager in London, the food she prepares for her daughter, and much more. 

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.

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, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Often when you meet someone in a foreign country there is immediate friendship.

Erdem, the designer of beautiful clothes, and his husband, Philip Joseph, and I were in Mexico City in 2019 staying in the same hotel.

They were days of discoveries, searching for the perfect Tequila, walking miles to Niddo - our favourite breakfast spot - eating every tortilla, tacho and tamale we could find.  

A friendship that began on vacation has followed us home, to London, where we are continually searching for meals to share together.

That’s what we’re going to do today.

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, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is no such thing as a simple phone call with my beautiful friend Christiane Amanpour. Asking, as I did yesterday, where she’s been she answers “Ukraine”, asking where she is going, she says, “Afghanistan”.

This is what it is like having a fearless friend you love, who puts herself in danger, reporting facts, holding people to account, and telling the truth from wherever she is and whoever she is talking to. 

Christiane goes on biking trips, retreats to her house in the Isle de Re, and flies to New York for a day to see her son. The food of Persia is her passion.

Today, I’m going to interview the most brilliant interviewer there is, today I’m the fearless one.

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, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are actors who write, producers who direct and cooks who campaign for social change. Stanley Tucci does all of these. 

He writes cook books, creates and hosts a beautiful TV series about Italy, and acts and directs movies that touch us all.

On episode 33 we talk about all this and more. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A few months ago, I walked into a very busy River Café lunch to be greeted by a buzz from the young waiters and chefs working here. They were incredibly excited – “Ruthie, Ruthie” they said, “Rag’n’Bone Man is on Table 4, why don’t you ask him to be on your podcast”. I personally have a rule not to interrupt anyone’s lunch, much less Britain’s most successful and brilliant blues singer, but this time I broke that rule. And here we are today, on a spring evening, in The River Cafe garden – about to get to know each other. 

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, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.

For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/

Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/

Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.