Beate Uhse opened the world’s first sex shop. Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon. And Ruth Rogers was the first to take Italian cuisine seriously in London. Together with Rose Gray she founded the River Café in the late 80s. A restaurant right on the Thames dedicated to authentic Italian cuisine, the “cucina rustica”. Simple dishes made from the best ingredients are served there. The restaurant has held a Michelin star for more than a quarter of a century. If anyone knows where culinary happiness can and can’t be found, it’s Ruth Rogers.
It’s been around 50 years since Ruth Rogers ate a piece of bread in Tuscany that would turn her life upside down. The bruschetta was nothing special – a simple bread rubbed with garlic and drizzled with some fresh olive oil. And yet Rogers calls it the best food she’s ever eaten. “Just three ingredients. It’s so simple, but it was an absolutely pivotal moment for me,” Rogers told The Telegraph. “When you have great ingredients and a good chef and you let them both sing, it can be an unforgettable experience.”
It was back in Florence that Roger’s love for Italian cuisine was kindled, and it still blazes to this day. In the meantime, however, the restaurateur is increasingly turning to the south. “My roots are in Tuscany, but my heart is in Rome,” she tells the newspaper. She is also falling more and more in love with southern Italy, particularly Naples and Amalfi. The optimal culinary trip to Italy? For Rogers, it starts in Rome and always leads toward the sun to Calabria.
The River Café is cosmopolitan, far from Italian folklore, far from stereotypes. “The honest, hearty dishes have a rustic Italian simplicity and rely on the quality of ingredients, be it Cornish fish, Devon crab or Scottish shellfish,” according to the Michelin Guide. One ingredient, however, Rogers avoids like the devil is holy water. “Truffle oil is something you’ll never find on the River Café menu,” says the chef, who loves white truffle but hates the oil. She explains, “Anything that contains truffle oil just turns me off because it’s not a real product. It’s all made with chemicals.”
