Ruth Rogers

Ruth Rogers, Baroness Rogers of Riverside, (; born 2 July 1948 ) is an American and British chef who owns and runs the Michelin starred Italian restaurant The River Café in Hammersmith, London. She is the widow of the Italian-born British architect Richard Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside.

Early and private life Ruth Elias was born in upstate New York. She inherited her left-wing politics from her parents. Her brother is screenwriter Michael Elias, who co-wrote the movie The Jerk and co-created the TV sitcom Head of the Class. The family moved to Woodstock in the early 1960s; she recounts an anecdote of turning down an invitation to watch Bob Dylan and his band rehearsing in 1965.

She studied at Colorado Rocky Mountain School from 1964 to 1966, and then for a year at Bennington College in Vermont. In 1967, her second (sophomore) year, she took a year out to come to England, accompanying a boyfriend who was a Rhodes scholar in Oxford. After she decided against returning to Bennington, she studied design at the London College of Printing from 1968. While in London, she joined the protests against the Vietnam War outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square in 1968.

She met the architect Richard Rogers in late 1969. They had two sons, Roo (born 1975) and Bo (born 1983). Their younger son Bo died suddenly in October 2011, aged 27.

The River Café

After her experiences in France and Italy, Rogers was inspired to open an Italian restaurant in London in 1987 with Rose Gray, initially almost as a canteen to feed the staff at Rogers's architecture practice based nearby at Thames Wharf, Hammersmith.

Among her culinary influences are Julia Child and her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Marcella Hazan and her book The Classic Italian Cook Book.

Rogers was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours

Podcast Rogers runs the podcast Ruthie's Table 4, originally called River Café Table 4, an interview series in which she speaks to patrons of her restaurant about their lives and food memories. Guests have included John Lithgow, Francis Ford Coppola, Ian McKellan, Nancy Pelosi, Tony Blair, Judi Dench, Emily Blunt, Mel Brooks, Sarah Jessica Parker, and numerous others.