The Cafe Cook Book: Italian Recipes from London's River Cafe

by Rose Gray, Ruth Rogers

A Cooking Class with Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers

When Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers founded London's River Café ten years ago, it didn't take long before their impeccably simple Italian country food took the city by storm. Today, the River Café is one of the most influential and popular restaurants not only in England but arguably in all of Europe.

The two chefs began as home cooks, friends who shared a love for Italy and a dream of opening a restaurant in which they could "cook the kind of food we ate in Italian domestic homes," as Ruth Rogers says, "food that couldn't really be found in the Italian restaurants that we knew in London." Their first book, published in the U.S. as Rogers Gray Italian Country Cookbook, was an international bestseller. Now they've followed it with a new book of recipes from the restaurant, The Caf

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking

352 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 1998

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.