Hello and welcome to Meet the Writers.
I'm Georgina Godwin.
My guest this week is one of the defining figures in modern British food.
In 1987, she co-founded the River Cafe with Rose Gray in a former oil warehouse on the Thames in Hammersmith.
What began as a lunch place for architects and designers became one of London's most influential restaurants,
changing how Britain ate Italian food and training generations of chefs along the way.
Her new book, Table 4 at the River Cafe, Conversations About Food and Life, grows out of her podcast,
Ruthie's Table 4. It brings together conversations with artists, writers, actors, chefs, musicians and politicians,
from Paul McCartney and Salman Rushdie to Tracy Emin, David Beckham, Nigella Lawson and Alice Waters.
But the real subject is not celebrity.
It's what food remembers for us.
Childhood, family, grief, love.
Work, politics, and most importantly, home.
On table four at the River Cafe, here I am with Ruthie Rogers.
That was beautiful.
Thank you so much for writing such a beautiful introduction.
Well, thank you for being here with us.
And I must just tell our listeners that a wonderful bowl of ice cream has just arrived.
Tell me what you're eating.
What I'm eating is a bowl of vanilla ice cream.