Ruthie's Table 4
By iHeartPodcasts
Categories: Arts, Food
For nearly forty years, The River Cafe in London has been a home-from-home for artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists and politicians. It is also the home of its co-founder, Ruthie Rogers — restaurateur, cookbook author, podcast host and one of the most influential figures in British food. On Ruthie’s Table 4, Ruthie invites her guests — many of them friends and longtime restaurant regulars — to The River Cafe for a journey through food and memory. In each episode, Ruthie uses the lens of food to unlock stories and personal histories from an extraordinary range of guests, including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Michael Caine, Dame Tracey Emin, Sir Elton John, Kamala Harris, David Beckham and Victoria Beckham, Sir Ian McKellen, Greta Gerwig, Gordon Brown, Tina Fey, Dame Judi Dench, Yotam Ottolenghi, Wyclef Jean, Mel Brooks, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Jony Ive, Sarah Jessica Parker and many others. So take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.
304 episodes indexed on PodSearch.
Recent episodes
- How to Cook the Perfect Sea Bass... Introducing Table 4: Chefs’ Notes!
We have something new for Series 6: Table 4: Chefs’ Notes! Each week, our Executive Chefs, Sian Wyn Owen and Joseph Trivelli, join me to share the secrets behind our favourite River Cafe recipes. In this episode, Nile Rodgers reads our recipe for grilled sea bass with salsa verde. Then Sian and…
- Nile Rodgers on Madonna, Spices, and Growing Up Amid Love and Addiction
Welcome to Season Six! How did growing up in a household affected by heroin, surrounded by jazz greats, shape Nile Rodgers? How did his Barbadian grandmother’s lessons about spices influence him? And what was it really like working with Madonna, David Bowie and Michael Jackson? In the first…
- Season Six!
We’re back! The sixth season of Ruthie’s Table 4 begins Tuesday, 3 November. Steve Martin and Martin Short tell us why grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup make the perfect Christmas dinner. Nile Rodgers remembers cooking with his grandmother in Barbados. Bertha González Nieves takes us to…
- From the Archive: Richard E. Grant on eating the same seven meals growing up, Henry Higgins and coping with loss
With Richard E. Grant delighting audiences on The Traitors, we’re looking back at this special episode of Ruthie’s Table 4. I remember Richard and his wife Joan in the early days of The River Cafe, coming in for lunch and sitting at the same table, always warm, lovely and absorbed in each other…
- From the Archive: Gary Lineker on Goals, Gnocchi, and Refusing to Stay Silent
This week, we’re looking back at Gary Lineker’s visit to The River Cafe. Over the table, we travelled from his childhood in Leicester and the food of his mother’s kitchen to the football pitches of Barcelona. We talked about fame, family, and the importance of speaking out for refugees and…
- From the Archive: Cate Blanchett on growing her own food, multiculturalism, and a disastrous Christmas dinner
This week, we’re looking back to the summer morning we shared with Cate Blanchett, who joined me at The River Cafe after her run in Thomas Ostermeier’s The Seagull. We talked about the pleasures of touring a play, growing up between American and Australian food traditions, silent meals after…
- From the Archives: Sarah Jessica Parker on the importance of food in Sex and the City, cooking with her husband, and pork chops.
This week, we’re revisiting our live episode with Sarah Jessica Parker. And what a guest she was. Sarah has always had a deep love of food, so we had plenty to talk about: from the role of food in Sex and the City, where so many memorable conversations unfolded around a meal, to growing up as one…
- From the Archive: Benedict Cumberbatch on Living with Wes Anderson, Imitating Ruthie & ‘Daddy Pancakes’
During our between-season break, we’re revisiting some of our favourite conversations from the Ruthie’s Table 4 archive. This week, we're looking back to when Benedict Cumberbatch joined me at The River Cafe to talk about Negronis with Wes Anderson, growing up in a theatrical family, body…
- From the Archive: Zoe Saldaña on Growing Up in Queens, Family Recipes & Why NYC Has the Best Pizza
As we look forward to Series 6 in October, we’re revisiting some of our favourite episodes of Ruthie’s Table 4. Zoe Saldaña was a force from the moment she entered the restaurant back in 2025. She told us stories about her grandmother’s coconut desserts, how her family dances through life, and…
- How Food Shapes Our Work… Gayle King, Mark Ronson, Graham Norton, Emerald Fennell, and Patrick Radden Keefe.
Whether in film, music, books or television, food can be a source of inspiration or integral to the way we work. In this special compilation episode of Ruthie's Table 4, we're talking about the shared ingredients of what we do, with Gayle King, Mark Ronson, Graham Norton, Emerald Fennell – the…
- Where Food Meets Politics… Jacinda Ardern, Andrew Jarecki, Erin Lyall, Hilton Als, Annie Leibovitz, Kamala Harris
I've always thought we judge a culture by the way we feed our poor, our sick and our prisoners. In this special compilation episode of Ruthie's Table 4, we're talking about food and politics, in conversation with Jacinda Ardern, documentary filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, CBS conflict producer Erin…
- Why Restaurants Matter… Jamie Oliver, Piers Morgan, Marina Hyde & Richard Osman, Tracey Emin & Dara Khosrowshahi
It may come as no surprise that I have a special interest in restaurants. The River Café is where I work, where I record this podcast, and where I spend so much of my life. In this special compilation episode of Ruthie’s Table 4, we’re talking about restaurants—how to run them and why they…
- The Food That Shaped Us… Kamala Harris, Sadiq Khan, Ab Rogers, Marina Hyde and Richard Osman, and Rashida Jones.
Childhood kitchens, our parents' cooking—the food we eat when we're young stays with us for life. This special compilation of Ruthie's Table 4 celebrates food and childhood, featuring memories from Kamala Harris, Mayor Sadiq Khan, architect Ab Rogers, Marina Hyde and Richard Osman, and Rashida…
- If You Can't Take the Heat… How Does a Restaurant Handle a Roasting Summer?
As a farewell to series 5, I'm joined by Sian Wyn Owen to take you behind the scenes at The River Café during the recent heatwaves this summer—what we cooked and how we served. And Season 6 is on the way, starting off with the stars of Only Murders in the Building, Steve Martin and Martin Short…
- Dorothée Boissier on Designing Restaurants, Paris, and Creative Partnership
Dorothée Boissier is an interior designer and co-founder of the Gilles & Boissier studio. Together with her husband, Patrick Gilles, she creates exquisite architecture and interiors around the world. Today, we're at Moncler's beautiful flagship store on the Champs-Élysées, designed by Dorothée and…
- Clare Hornby, Founder and CEO of ME+EM
Good food and good clothes should do the same thing: make you feel instantly comfortable, confident, and completely at home. In this episode Ruthie sits down with Clare Hornby, the visionary entrepreneur founder and CEO of ME+EM. Clare has built the UK's fastest-growing luxury label by mastering…
- Bonus: Michael Elias on his new book, Bender's LA
Ruthie speaks to her brother, screenwriter and author Michael Elias, about his latest novel, Bender's LA. In the coke-dusted canyons and deal-making rooms of 1970s Los Angeles, writer David Bender sets out to remake his life - romantically, professionally, and spiritually - after his wife walks…
- In Conversation With Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist
Zanny Minton Beddoes and I have different professions, and different workplaces. As editor-in-chief of The Economist, hers is in the newsroom mine is the kitchen. But we have much in common, sharing a message of honesty - me with ingredients, Zanny with words. And we both have time limits - in the…
- Bonus: Wine with Ab Rogers
Ab Rogers explains his fascination with wine and why he prefers grapes that have had to fight for their survival. Order Table 4 at The River Cafe—the star-studded, food-filled book inspired by the beloved podcast: https://bit.ly/Table4AtRiverCafeBookSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy…
- Ab Rogers, Designer
Ab Rogers is a visionary designer. He is also my stepson. For over 50 years, we’ve been side by side, taking adventures together. Today, we’re together in the River Cafe to share stories - memories of his father and my husband Richard Rogers - travels, families, work and food. We will also talk…
- Bonus: Erin Lyall on Eating With Soldiers
Erin Lyall, a conflict producer for CBS News, reveals what it's like to eat with soldiers, how an army feeds itself, and how she personally recovers after the strain of working in a war zone.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Erin Lyall, Conflict Producer For CBS News
As a conflict producer for CBS News, Erin Lyall has eaten with Ukrainian soldiers on the freezing front line, cooked with families in their homes in Gaza, and shared meals on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq with bullets sounding in the distance. From these experiences in the field, Erin created…
- Bonus: Graham Norton on why you should work in a restaurant
Graham Norton reveals what he learned from working in restaurants, what he noticed about tricky customers, and why he would recommend the experience to everyone.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Mel Brooks Turns 100
This week marks a very special occasion. My friend, Mel Brooks, is turning 100. For the best part of a century, he has lit up the world with his warmth and humour, delighting audiences as a writer, director, actor and comedian. From The Producers and Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein, his…
- Graham Norton
To be a truly great host, as Graham Norton is every week on his television sofa, you have to understand and genuinely like people. It's the same for me at the River Café. There's no such thing as a difficult customer. Everybody has a story, and every table is a world. Usually it's Graham asking…
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