The River Café is a restaurant in the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London, England, specializing in Italian cuisine. It is owned and run by chef Ruth Rogers and until early 2010, Rose Gray.
Located on the north bank of the Thames in Hammersmith (nearest railway station is Hammersmith tube station), in the former Duckhams oil storage facility modified by architect Lord Rogers, the husband of Ruth Rogers (Lady Rogers). Opened in 1987 as the employee café of the architectural partnership, there is a garden with views of the River Thames.
River Café brought to London the flavours of Italian home cooking with an emphasis on the finest ingredients, and an all-Italian wine list. The restaurant also brought to London a modern, open-plan kitchen and dining room with a buzzy atmosphere. "Sourcing, sourcing, sourcing" is the mantra of Rogers and Gray. Menus are tweaked twice a day to respond to the seasons and what is best in the market, with simplicity the key. Signature dishes include: wild mushroom risotto; Dover sole and John Dory smoked in the restaurant's own wood stove; and rich Italian desserts including lemon almond cake or the chocolate "Nemesis" cake.
The restaurant earned a Michelin star in 1997 and is critically acclaimed, although sometimes criticised for high pricing.[1]
Gray and Rogers have written six highly successful cookbooks, including Italian Easy and The London River Café Cook Book. Their first book, Italian Country Cookbook won both the Glenfiddich Award for Food Book of the Year and the BCA Illustrated Book of the Year Awards. Rogers and Gray have since presented a 12-part series for Channel 4, The Italian Kitchen.
The River Café is also notable for the number of successful chefs that have trained in its kitchens. These include Sam and Sam Clark of Moro, Ed Baines of Randall & Aubin, April Bloomfield of the Spotted Pig (in New York) and celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tobie Puttock.
In 2008, the Café was temporarily closed following a fire in the kitchen on Saturday 5th April. According to the Sunday Mirror's web site, the fire began around 7:30 in the evening and took two hours to bring under control. The article said that around 10% of the ground floor was gutted. It re-opened in autumn 2008 following a major refurbishment which included a fully exposed open-plan kitchen dominated by a wood-fired oven, a new private room & generally spruced-up surroundings.
Rogers and Gray each were named in the 2010 New Year's Honours List as Members of the British Empire (MBE) with the citation "for services to the Hospitality Industry".[2]
On 28 February 2010,[3] Gray (full name Clemency Rose Gray) died aged 71 of cancer.[4]