Chef Ruthie Rogers on the comforts of food and conversation

Few can serve up fabulous food and juicy celebrity stories like Ruthie Rogers, the chef and owner of London's celebrated River Cafe. She's dishing with our Seth Dome this morning. This bustling London restaurant has kept its Michelin star since the late 90s.

So, look, we've got some artich produce deliveries are part menu planning. That'd be a good raw. Yeah, cuz they're really crunchy.

Okay, we could do those tonight. Part quality control. Maybe a bit early for zucchini.

What do you think? And Ruthie Rogers is not just co-founder owner Sicilian Pecarino and chef of the River Cafe. You come up with the menu daily or almost every meal.

Rogers is myro of this Italian restaurant conductor. So, do you know that we've changed the menu a bit, Jeff? Yeah.

And on the floor of her blue carpeted celebrityfilled world, connector, I love talking to Mike Leon. That was really spontaneous and he just loves food. And we were within 10 minutes we were just talking and talking and talking and I what could be dismissed as named dropping and when Tina Fay came with her husband we is for Rogers just genuine chat about people in her orbit.

I mean that you know to have Francis Ford Copala he used to come here quite often. we lived near here. He really was honest and open.

We both have sons who died. My son died when he was 26. And so we talked about that, you know, we talked about how, you know, when when I was told about the death of my son and everyone came home, I said, "Could somebody put some tomato sauce on?

I need to smell something cooking. " Which was not because I was hungry, but it needed to feel a sense of continuity, you know, and comfort. And comfort.

Those talks she always asks about comfort food have been compiled into a new book, Table Four at the River Cafe, featuring folks including Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, and surprising links. Martha Stewart, Mel Brooks, and Frank Giri had mothers who kept live carp in the bathtub to keep it fresh before it became dinner. When you look through the lens of food and you talk to people, you find memories that you might not have found otherwise.

I think if I'd said to Paul McCartney, I'd like to do an interview with you about the Beatles. Or if I'd said to David Beckham, can we do an interview about football? They would said, Ruthie, you know, we've kind of been there and done that.

And I looked at all these photographs of people and there's a lot of affection going on. And then I looked at the one of you and me and I love that picture. The book is born from her podcast, a co era desire to connect over food.

So tell me more about the new restaurant. Chef Jamie Oliver came to record despite trying to open a restaurant on the same day. I love her so much.

Like and she has like hundreds of me, like hundreds of people. She's quite a connection, mate. I'm opening I'm opening a restaurant today.

I've got 100 people that need me. Roofy phones up. I'm here.

What do you need? You I need you up a mountain Timbuktu. I'll be I'll be there with bells on.

After all, the Americanborn Rogers and her late business partner Rose Gray hired Oliver early on. Then a documentary shot here led to him being discovered. I'm going to give that to Theo and he's going to finish it with a little bit of Parmesan and turned into a star as the naked chef.

Every day when I'm cooking, I'm thinking, how do I do this? What's the best way to express this for this audience at this price? And there's always Rose and Ruthie.

Really? Yeah. Yeah.

You're not just saying that because you're sitting here at the No, no, no. She's with me every day. Her late husband, Richard Rogers, who along with fellow architect Renzo Piano, designed Paris's Pompadoo Center, needed a canteen in his new London architecture firm.

So, we thought we'd open a little cafe here. If I just remember, I said to Richard, you know, maybe I'll do it. So, she phoned her friend Rose Gray and they began with six tables serving a simple lunch.

You had no real cooking background at all? only home domestic. The pressure is on.

Sean Win Owen is one of the executive chefs now. Coming to the River Cafe where there was two women, there's Rose and Ruth. And to see how you could run a kitchen with what Ruthie always says, hope rather than fear.

She showed us how their lemon tart is finished in the wood burning oven. It's also fun. Yeah.

There's a bit of drama, too. Exactly. Just like the River Cafe.

It's been on the menu for most all of her 26 years here. Well, maybe another second on that one. She's relatively new.

People stay here a long time. Managers Vashti Armet and Charles Polland have been here 31 and 35 years. There is a spirit, a sense to the place.

I think it starts from Ruthie and then it comes from the staff who work here and it all rubs off on each other. And so when people come in hopefully there's always a sense of that excitement. [snorts] You're lucky to get a table.

luckier if you're not paying the bill in this restaurant which feels a bit more like a salon of the 17th century. A place filled with personality and personalities. Well, there's Gary Lker.

Should we get him over here? She pulled English soccer legend and sports broadcaster Gary Lker into the podcast. She'd run into him eating the night before.

I'd never cooked in my life until 10 years ago. And I'm ancient now, obviously. And since I was standing there, well, we've just been joined by Sam.

Ruthie Rogers is always pulling up a chair for someone. The connections. I think that connecting is huge.

That's why I love a restaurant. Nice to see you. And that's why she believes restaurants should be on any list of what makes a city like London great.

This is really good, isn't it? Maybe you will get stressed.