September 23, 2025 • 14 mins
Memories of disappearing croissants, covering up kitchen mistakes, and how good chefs 'dance' around the kitchen. With Ruthie Rogers, Sian Owen and Joseph Trivelli.
Ruthie's Table 4, made in partnership with Moncler.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to this bonus episode of Ruthy's Table four.
The question that I always ask people who have worked
here for a while is do you remember your first day?
And so I thought today it would be really interesting
to hear from two people, our executive chef, Sean Owen
and Joseph Travelli, about their first day and how they
(00:31):
think about somebody coming to work now on what will
be their first day. Sean, do you remember your first day?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I remember coming from my interview, I remember meeting you,
but Rose interviewed me, and I've been very lost because
it's really hard to find the River Cafe.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
You get lost, don't they.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So if you can find it, then you're probably that's
a step.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Exactly Road saying, I'll teach you to cook. I'll teach
you how to cup protuto to the perfect thickness, I'll
teach you how to cook beans to the perfect cookness. And
I'd come from working for another chef called Darren Simpson,
who you who also worked for you, guys, didn't he
and he had sent me he was moving to Australia.
(01:19):
And he sent me here because he was like, I
know the perfect place that will really suit you. You
should got work for Rose and Ruth. Well he actually
said Auntie Rose and Auntie Ruth. And so then I
got my first trial day, and I remember THEO Randall
was on because he was a head chef at the time,
and he gave me four jobs, which I would never
(01:42):
give anyone on their first day. It even crossed my mind, Riberliza,
I'll just choke Fritty Cavalonierro Puree and dragon Cella Sauce
or an r one of those. And I was working
so hard to get all that done, and I remember
just being on my nerve for shift, and I remember
(02:02):
Rose standing in the kitchen by the window and telling
me that she gave me a job that afternoon. Whereas
now we would give people much more than more than
a couple of hours.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
They we believe to show pretty dragon Chillo, and they
did it.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Well might say, don't let this.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Girl out of the front door.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
We're keeping her.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
But nowadays would never get someone that much to do.
So you came in what year, December ninety.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Nine, and so then I came in January two than one,
so a year later. And in this year in between
when Shanna started here, I started working for your ex
head chef called Darren who'd emigrated to Sydney. And I
worked with him in Sydney for a year and then
he sent me here as well. You know, which would
(02:49):
be my dream. You know, I was addicted to The
Italian Kitchen on television.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
The Italian Kitchen is a program that we did for
Channel four. ISTI rose and I two seasons. I think
one season was in London, and I think we did
a season when we went to Italy. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
I just remember being about twenty two or something or
watching it and it was just so stylish and the
food just looked so good. And I remember asking. I
worked with this guy called Steve Harriet's actually has become
a very very successful famous chef in the meantime. But
I remember saying to him, do you think I could
work in a place like that? And he was like,
he's like, you should go. I was I've never been
(03:27):
to cooking school. They wouldn't look at me. It's like, no,
you should go there. And so anyway, I went to
Sydney worked for Darren. Darren sent me here and then
I came in and yeah, absolutely was terrified. I think
I made southa Verde, which I would say is a
pretty standard Yeah, you know, like entrance because you sort
of see you talk to someone about chopping stuff up.
Then you talked to them about how to make something balance.
(03:49):
You know, it's very important kind of fundamentals. And I
definitely did that. I remember doing that with Peter beg
Yes was an incredible it's.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Jamie here, Jamie here, long, all of us still in
the changing room, and then we used to have stars
just come in and take photos of the locker because
by then he was really famous.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I remember about a week later, I was terrified, and
I think a lot of the new people they still
do this. I burnt myself really badly Cinber how and
I was just used to being in let's be honest,
Darren's kitchen where it was much more matcho, and it
didn't really suit me to be honest in a lot
of ways, although I in a lot of ways I
(04:29):
loved it, but being here and burning myself really badly
and just assuming I just cover it with a tea
towel and carry on. And then you brought me outside
and gave me a cup of tea and sat me down,
and I think I had to smoked a cigarette, and
I just knew this was it in the right place.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
And that was that thinking about covering up your mistake
when you do something wrong and then you want to
cover it up so that nobody finds out. Have you
ever thrown something away so that it's not of.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Course I still do.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I done one where I had.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I was cooking the pigeon on hot swarm, which is
a wood oven section and you have to be by
the time you're cooking on the wood oven, you're like
quite an accomplished a cafe chef, aren't you. So you're
cooking the pigeon and it was with probably something that
lentils and Swiss child and then.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
One the theatic so we split a bit of crume
fresh in at.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
The end and then I finished service and I just
got to the bottom of the bowl of crime fresh
and realized I used the panicotta.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I saw the vanilla at the bottom of the bowl.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
But what also I remember more than like obviously the
food and the vegetables, and that guy who used to
come with a big pig over his shoulder every week,
and it just felt otherworldly to be honest to me,
but then also just making friends. Like in the first
week I became friends with Shan and then I made
those mistakes and she helped me out. I just wasn't
used to that. My experience in Australia had been far
(06:02):
from that. It's like everyone on the line was trying
to outdo the person next to them, whereas here it
just felt like I was making friends and being helped.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I remember the story about the waitress who wanned her
first day, maybe it's her second or third deck, and
we found her crying and we said, why are you
crying and she said, well, I came to work and
I was so hungry. I bought a croissant on the way,
and Richard Rogers came in and saw that the bar
(06:32):
and ate it.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I said, okay, well you better get used to that.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
But it was also really lovely working here with Richard's
office next door. Their lights were always on, they were
always here later than us, and I had that real
feeling of that bustle of not just of them having lunch,
but just being around designing buildings.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It's just really nice, and it was nice they used
to come and ask us to look at drawings. I
remember going over to you remember going the model sharp
see them, and then you know, we'd ask them to
come over.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
And taste a soup.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You know, it's a kind of very very but I
think thinking about your first day and your first day,
does that make you really think hard about a chef
coming in here on their first day.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Nowadays, we generally interview people who would send in an
interesting CV, a CV that doesn't have to have hundreds
of top restaurants, a couple of a couple.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Of restaurants that they've worked in. Of note I would say,
rather than being the first job that they've ever done.
But it's not to say we don't take people at
that level.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
So then they've come and to a couple of days
in the kitchen, so we can see how they move
in a kitchen, live skills, cleanliness, approach, their kind of manner,
and sort of spatial awareness. You don't think that that's
something you look out for, but people can just it's
almost like doing a dance in the kitchen. Everyone moves
(08:02):
around everyone really sort of organically, almost don't they And
a good.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Chef I think has that they're especially.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Aware and you can learn it you can learn it.
It's not like something that you have to have or not.
But I did.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It's really good and I'm off and asked that question,
how do you know and when do you know that
somebody's going to be an important part of a team.
When do you know that somebody can work in the kitchen?
So after a week you have an intuitive sense of
whether they were, where they move them, where they accept criticism,
the way other chefs respond, the where they cook.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Of course I agree with that, and I think we've
got such a good team that get along really well,
you know, in a specific kind of river cafe camaraderie way,
like quite often I love it if I've been on
holidays and then they'll come back and Chana say, oh,
I interviewed so and so you know you're going to
really get on with them, you know. It's just sort
of part I always employing people doesn't start if you
(09:00):
want a job as just say.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yes, Because I always like to think that a lot
of London kitchens they are short staffed, and I think
that running a kitchen that's short staffed is a way
to get everyone working too.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Many shifts, more shifts people work, the more they start
to hate their job.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Chefs often do a shift called a double shift, which
is it's usually nine in the morning till eleven at night.
That's an average, and many chefs and many London restaurants
will do three or four.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Of those in a week.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And having done that when I worked in other restaurants
in London, you start to lose your quality of life.
And so I genuinely think that the more you can
turn cheffing into like a career where you work good hours,
and then the more you enjoy your job and you
go home and you cook, and you read cookbooks, and
you go out to eat, and you meet hang out
(09:51):
with chefs and hang out with friends.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
So to have that, you need to have chefs.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
So you can't run the chefs into the ground making
them do all these doubles because it's not the best
paid industry to be in, so you've got to give
them a world life balance.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
Totally agree.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
So we need a lot of chefs.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
And also having quite a lot of chefs gives us
the ability to train people. You know, we're really good
at training people, but we're not especially quick at it.
You know, it takes ages. But thinking back to it,
in the you know, twenty years ago, we used to
employ people and I won't say who they are or
where they came from, but they'd arrived here and they
were clearly broken from kitchens. They were exhausted. That doesn't
(10:29):
really happen anymore. So I think maybe as a whole industry,
way way, way, way better.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Also because Rose and Ruth weren't. You didn't come from petitions,
so you ran it with reason, with just that's how
a business runs. We work good hours, week of food,
we take breaks, and I'd never I'd never worked anywhere
where the respect was so mutual, and it was amazing
(10:56):
to see women doing that and that, and I think
that creates longevity in this in the River Cafe, because it.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Was done by a pioneers of that.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Well, do you think there is I think when you
say that that we didn't have I certainly had absolutely
no experience of another restaurant, So I didn't have a concept,
as you say, of the way you do it. You'd
run it the way you run an architecture office or
you know, a lawyer's office or a doctor's office.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It wasn't.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
But when a journalist used to call me and say,
it must be so exhausting being a chef, and I
used to know it must be so exhausting being a journalist,
you know, because any career where you work, you know
that many hours a day. I mean, it probably is
more physical. It is the curtain goes up and you
have to be ready and you have to be.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
The other thing about the kitchen, what I was thinking
is quite unusual was the fact that we never had titles.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I still don't know you.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I still don't know what it's a chef. I don't
know what together this a chef depart, I don't know
what that does.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I don't know, but all you need to know is
that he's in charge. You probably worked that out quickly,
and then everyone else is. Genuinely some people are better
chefs than other people because you can see that people
have been cooking longer. But there's no title chef, which
is a hard concept to get your head around.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
So isn't as a last question to someone coming, would
you have any sort of advice for them on their
first day.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I think you don't want to be too stressed, but
you also don't want to miss When you come to
River Cafe, it appears very relaxed. The sort of house
style is very open and friendly, but it is also
like very diligent and hard working. So we expect to
see people really concentrating and they want to learn, and
(12:39):
they're interested in the ingredients and want to talk about food.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I agree with that obviously, absolutely. I think you should
definitely take it seriously. I think it warrants it. But
at the same time, just try and be yourself as
much as you can.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Ask questions.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Ask questions for sure. Yeah, of course, be as nosey
as you can, and you know, be asking what everyone's doing,
and you know, take a real interest.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I'm impressed with people who really have their heads now,
you know, really focused on what they're doing.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
I think we're pretty I hope.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
That we're encouraging and we're understanding and it's a great
world another.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Who've come through.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Not even just the big names that you've got obviously,
the Jamie Olivers and thea Randalls and April Bloomfields, you fairlies,
we've also got you know, the Thomas Parry's, the Stevie.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Park, loads of it. It's a great place to learn.
It's a great place to learn.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
When people leave, I say, you know, some of them
go to open a little place in New Zealand. Some
of them, you know, open a big restaurant. So I think,
as long as you take what you've learned from here
and keep cooking.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I remember getting when I got smugged in Florence and
I lost my wallet. I didn't know what to do
because I had not a single penny on me. So
I called Linda in the office and she organized for
an ex member staff who is living in Florence now
to come with an envelope of money.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
It sounds a little bit like this sort of secret service.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
What I reckon.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Go to many many places now around the world and
we can probably yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Okay, first days, second days, third days, fourth days, one year,
ten years, twenty five years, amazing, We just keep going.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Thank you, Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four
in partnership with Montclair
You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to this bonus episode of Ruthy's Table four.
The question that I always ask people who have worked
here for a while is do you remember your first day?
And so I thought today it would be really interesting
to hear from two people, our executive chef, Sean Owen
and Joseph Travelli, about their first day and how they
(00:31):
think about somebody coming to work now on what will
be their first day. Sean, do you remember your first day?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I remember coming from my interview, I remember meeting you,
but Rose interviewed me, and I've been very lost because
it's really hard to find the River Cafe.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
You get lost, don't they.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So if you can find it, then you're probably that's
a step.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Exactly Road saying, I'll teach you to cook. I'll teach
you how to cup protuto to the perfect thickness, I'll
teach you how to cook beans to the perfect cookness. And
I'd come from working for another chef called Darren Simpson,
who you who also worked for you, guys, didn't he
and he had sent me he was moving to Australia.
(01:19):
And he sent me here because he was like, I
know the perfect place that will really suit you. You
should got work for Rose and Ruth. Well he actually
said Auntie Rose and Auntie Ruth. And so then I
got my first trial day, and I remember THEO Randall
was on because he was a head chef at the time,
and he gave me four jobs, which I would never
(01:42):
give anyone on their first day. It even crossed my mind, Riberliza,
I'll just choke Fritty Cavalonierro Puree and dragon Cella Sauce
or an r one of those. And I was working
so hard to get all that done, and I remember
just being on my nerve for shift, and I remember
(02:02):
Rose standing in the kitchen by the window and telling
me that she gave me a job that afternoon. Whereas
now we would give people much more than more than
a couple of hours.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
They we believe to show pretty dragon Chillo, and they
did it.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Well might say, don't let this.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Girl out of the front door.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
We're keeping her.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
But nowadays would never get someone that much to do.
So you came in what year, December ninety.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Nine, and so then I came in January two than one,
so a year later. And in this year in between
when Shanna started here, I started working for your ex
head chef called Darren who'd emigrated to Sydney. And I
worked with him in Sydney for a year and then
he sent me here as well. You know, which would
(02:49):
be my dream. You know, I was addicted to The
Italian Kitchen on television.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
The Italian Kitchen is a program that we did for
Channel four. ISTI rose and I two seasons. I think
one season was in London, and I think we did
a season when we went to Italy. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
I just remember being about twenty two or something or
watching it and it was just so stylish and the
food just looked so good. And I remember asking. I
worked with this guy called Steve Harriet's actually has become
a very very successful famous chef in the meantime. But
I remember saying to him, do you think I could
work in a place like that? And he was like,
he's like, you should go. I was I've never been
(03:27):
to cooking school. They wouldn't look at me. It's like, no,
you should go there. And so anyway, I went to
Sydney worked for Darren. Darren sent me here and then
I came in and yeah, absolutely was terrified. I think
I made southa Verde, which I would say is a
pretty standard Yeah, you know, like entrance because you sort
of see you talk to someone about chopping stuff up.
Then you talked to them about how to make something balance.
(03:49):
You know, it's very important kind of fundamentals. And I
definitely did that. I remember doing that with Peter beg
Yes was an incredible it's.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Jamie here, Jamie here, long, all of us still in
the changing room, and then we used to have stars
just come in and take photos of the locker because
by then he was really famous.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I remember about a week later, I was terrified, and
I think a lot of the new people they still
do this. I burnt myself really badly Cinber how and
I was just used to being in let's be honest,
Darren's kitchen where it was much more matcho, and it
didn't really suit me to be honest in a lot
of ways, although I in a lot of ways I
(04:29):
loved it, but being here and burning myself really badly
and just assuming I just cover it with a tea
towel and carry on. And then you brought me outside
and gave me a cup of tea and sat me down,
and I think I had to smoked a cigarette, and
I just knew this was it in the right place.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
And that was that thinking about covering up your mistake
when you do something wrong and then you want to
cover it up so that nobody finds out. Have you
ever thrown something away so that it's not of.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Course I still do.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I done one where I had.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I was cooking the pigeon on hot swarm, which is
a wood oven section and you have to be by
the time you're cooking on the wood oven, you're like
quite an accomplished a cafe chef, aren't you. So you're
cooking the pigeon and it was with probably something that
lentils and Swiss child and then.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
One the theatic so we split a bit of crume
fresh in at.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
The end and then I finished service and I just
got to the bottom of the bowl of crime fresh
and realized I used the panicotta.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I saw the vanilla at the bottom of the bowl.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
But what also I remember more than like obviously the
food and the vegetables, and that guy who used to
come with a big pig over his shoulder every week,
and it just felt otherworldly to be honest to me,
but then also just making friends. Like in the first
week I became friends with Shan and then I made
those mistakes and she helped me out. I just wasn't
used to that. My experience in Australia had been far
(06:02):
from that. It's like everyone on the line was trying
to outdo the person next to them, whereas here it
just felt like I was making friends and being helped.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I remember the story about the waitress who wanned her
first day, maybe it's her second or third deck, and
we found her crying and we said, why are you
crying and she said, well, I came to work and
I was so hungry. I bought a croissant on the way,
and Richard Rogers came in and saw that the bar
(06:32):
and ate it.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I said, okay, well you better get used to that.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
But it was also really lovely working here with Richard's
office next door. Their lights were always on, they were
always here later than us, and I had that real
feeling of that bustle of not just of them having lunch,
but just being around designing buildings.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It's just really nice, and it was nice they used
to come and ask us to look at drawings. I
remember going over to you remember going the model sharp
see them, and then you know, we'd ask them to
come over.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
And taste a soup.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You know, it's a kind of very very but I
think thinking about your first day and your first day,
does that make you really think hard about a chef
coming in here on their first day.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Nowadays, we generally interview people who would send in an
interesting CV, a CV that doesn't have to have hundreds
of top restaurants, a couple of a couple.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Of restaurants that they've worked in. Of note I would say,
rather than being the first job that they've ever done.
But it's not to say we don't take people at
that level.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
So then they've come and to a couple of days
in the kitchen, so we can see how they move
in a kitchen, live skills, cleanliness, approach, their kind of manner,
and sort of spatial awareness. You don't think that that's
something you look out for, but people can just it's
almost like doing a dance in the kitchen. Everyone moves
(08:02):
around everyone really sort of organically, almost don't they And
a good.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Chef I think has that they're especially.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Aware and you can learn it you can learn it.
It's not like something that you have to have or not.
But I did.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It's really good and I'm off and asked that question,
how do you know and when do you know that
somebody's going to be an important part of a team.
When do you know that somebody can work in the kitchen?
So after a week you have an intuitive sense of
whether they were, where they move them, where they accept criticism,
the way other chefs respond, the where they cook.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Of course I agree with that, and I think we've
got such a good team that get along really well,
you know, in a specific kind of river cafe camaraderie way,
like quite often I love it if I've been on
holidays and then they'll come back and Chana say, oh,
I interviewed so and so you know you're going to
really get on with them, you know. It's just sort
of part I always employing people doesn't start if you
(09:00):
want a job as just say.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yes, Because I always like to think that a lot
of London kitchens they are short staffed, and I think
that running a kitchen that's short staffed is a way
to get everyone working too.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Many shifts, more shifts people work, the more they start
to hate their job.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Chefs often do a shift called a double shift, which
is it's usually nine in the morning till eleven at night.
That's an average, and many chefs and many London restaurants
will do three or four.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Of those in a week.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And having done that when I worked in other restaurants
in London, you start to lose your quality of life.
And so I genuinely think that the more you can
turn cheffing into like a career where you work good hours,
and then the more you enjoy your job and you
go home and you cook, and you read cookbooks, and
you go out to eat, and you meet hang out
(09:51):
with chefs and hang out with friends.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
So to have that, you need to have chefs.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
So you can't run the chefs into the ground making
them do all these doubles because it's not the best
paid industry to be in, so you've got to give
them a world life balance.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
Totally agree.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
So we need a lot of chefs.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
And also having quite a lot of chefs gives us
the ability to train people. You know, we're really good
at training people, but we're not especially quick at it.
You know, it takes ages. But thinking back to it,
in the you know, twenty years ago, we used to
employ people and I won't say who they are or
where they came from, but they'd arrived here and they
were clearly broken from kitchens. They were exhausted. That doesn't
(10:29):
really happen anymore. So I think maybe as a whole industry,
way way, way, way better.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Also because Rose and Ruth weren't. You didn't come from petitions,
so you ran it with reason, with just that's how
a business runs. We work good hours, week of food,
we take breaks, and I'd never I'd never worked anywhere
where the respect was so mutual, and it was amazing
(10:56):
to see women doing that and that, and I think
that creates longevity in this in the River Cafe, because it.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Was done by a pioneers of that.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Well, do you think there is I think when you
say that that we didn't have I certainly had absolutely
no experience of another restaurant, So I didn't have a concept,
as you say, of the way you do it. You'd
run it the way you run an architecture office or
you know, a lawyer's office or a doctor's office.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It wasn't.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
But when a journalist used to call me and say,
it must be so exhausting being a chef, and I
used to know it must be so exhausting being a journalist,
you know, because any career where you work, you know
that many hours a day. I mean, it probably is
more physical. It is the curtain goes up and you
have to be ready and you have to be.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
The other thing about the kitchen, what I was thinking
is quite unusual was the fact that we never had titles.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I still don't know you.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I still don't know what it's a chef. I don't
know what together this a chef depart, I don't know
what that does.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I don't know, but all you need to know is
that he's in charge. You probably worked that out quickly,
and then everyone else is. Genuinely some people are better
chefs than other people because you can see that people
have been cooking longer. But there's no title chef, which
is a hard concept to get your head around.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
So isn't as a last question to someone coming, would
you have any sort of advice for them on their
first day.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I think you don't want to be too stressed, but
you also don't want to miss When you come to
River Cafe, it appears very relaxed. The sort of house
style is very open and friendly, but it is also
like very diligent and hard working. So we expect to
see people really concentrating and they want to learn, and
(12:39):
they're interested in the ingredients and want to talk about food.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I agree with that obviously, absolutely. I think you should
definitely take it seriously. I think it warrants it. But
at the same time, just try and be yourself as
much as you can.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Ask questions.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Ask questions for sure. Yeah, of course, be as nosey
as you can, and you know, be asking what everyone's doing,
and you know, take a real interest.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I'm impressed with people who really have their heads now,
you know, really focused on what they're doing.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
I think we're pretty I hope.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
That we're encouraging and we're understanding and it's a great
world another.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Who've come through.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Not even just the big names that you've got obviously,
the Jamie Olivers and thea Randalls and April Bloomfields, you fairlies,
we've also got you know, the Thomas Parry's, the Stevie.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Park, loads of it. It's a great place to learn.
It's a great place to learn.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
When people leave, I say, you know, some of them
go to open a little place in New Zealand. Some
of them, you know, open a big restaurant. So I think,
as long as you take what you've learned from here
and keep cooking.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I remember getting when I got smugged in Florence and
I lost my wallet. I didn't know what to do
because I had not a single penny on me. So
I called Linda in the office and she organized for
an ex member staff who is living in Florence now
to come with an envelope of money.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
It sounds a little bit like this sort of secret service.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
What I reckon.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Go to many many places now around the world and
we can probably yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Okay, first days, second days, third days, fourth days, one year,
ten years, twenty five years, amazing, We just keep going.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Thank you, Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four
in partnership with Montclair
Host
Ruth Rogers
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