River Cafe Cook Book Green

by Rose Gray, Ruth Rogers

Classic book classic restaurant Great Book! Delicious

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

464 pages, Hardcover

First published May 4, 2000

About the author

Rose Gray was a celebrated British chef and cookery writer, best known for co-founding The River Café in 1987 with Ruth Rogers. The restaurant, which earned a Michelin star in 1998, became a launchpad for a generation of chefs, including Jamie Oliver, Theo Randall, and April Bloomfield. Rose’s influence on the culinary world was immense, with many of her protégés citing her as a key mentor.
Along with Ruth, she authored several cookbooks, including The River Café Cookbook and River Café Green, which have become classics in Italian cuisine. Gray also shared her love for Italian food with a broader audience through the 1998 Channel 4 series The Italian Kitchen.
Her career was not just defined by her cooking, but by her charitable work as well. Gray became a Breast Cancer Ambassador after her own diagnosis and co-founded the Cooks in Schools charity. She spent part of her life in Tuscany, where her passion for authentic Italian food truly flourished.
Rose’s legacy lives on through her cookbooks, the many chefs she mentored, and the River Café, which continues to be a symbol of culinary excellence.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a big book with 464 pages. I love cookery books that have a photograph for each recipe and this one does. Although meat and fish recipes are included the majority are just vegetable, many are vegan or could easily be made so. I love Italian food and food made largely of vegetables so this book really appealed to me. My son works in an Italian restaurant so I have sampled lots of Italian dishes but this book has plenty I haven't tried and are quite straightforward to follow. I love the sound of chickpea pancakes with artichokes, we have tried the pizza dough recipe and various topping suggestions which worked really well. There are several sorbet recipes, puffball recipes which we love, lots of wild mushroom recipes and pasta recipes. The book is organised by the month so is ideal to use as inspiration for using seasonal vegetables. I bought this from a charity shop for 95p and I suspected it had good content as despite looking well made you could see some of the pages were only just hanging onto the spine! I'm looking forward to trying lots more of these recipes and growing more of these ingredients.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rustic honest food.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the River Cafe Cook Books! The food is simple yet divine. The recipes are approachable too.