The River Cafe Look Book: Recipes for Kids of all Ages Ruth Rogers, Sian Wyn Owen, and Joseph Trivelli

I ask Rogers about her “restaurant children”, that legion of chefs who have worked and trained at the River Cafe in the last 35 years – Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall among them – and gone on to set up places of their own. Does she always look out for them? Tim ate Pumpkin and feta fritters with yogurt dip; steamed halibut with sorrel, lettuce and herb sauce Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer This highly anticipated cookbook is more accessible than any other to have come from the kitchen of Ruth Rogers' legendary Michelin-star restaurant The River Cafe, set on the banks of the Thames in London. Add the sauce to the spaghetti, and shake the pan so that each strand of pasta is coated with the cheese mixture.

First heat the oil in a large frying pan. Then add the garlic and fry over a medium heat for 1 minute until just beginning to brown. Add the crumbled chillies, clams and 2 tablespoons of water. Cover and fry over a high heat for about 5 minutes until all the clams open. Be sure to discard any that do not open. Firstly, just to note that the tagline of this book could be misinterpreted. It's a book for beginners, which could include kids, but the presentation of the contents is adult orientated. The format is a unique combination of art and cookery. The first half of the book consists of pairs of photographs. Each pair features one of the fifty recipes in the book, accompanied by non-food image, which reflects the recipe photo in some way, making you think about the colours and textures of the food. With more than 50 iconic recipes, each of which has been masterfully adapted and revised by the River Cafe chefs specifically for those new to cooking, the fabulous dishes in this collection bring the warmth, beauty, and sumptuous ease of Italian family home-cooking to cooks of all levels of kitchen expertise - including your kids! Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the gnocchi for 3 minutes until they rise to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon.

See a vase of dramatically wilting tulips set next to spaghetti alle vongole, as readers of this new book will, and they’ll “recognise the shared curves and complex and graceful warp of stalk in the pasta.” Immediately put the potatoes through a Mouli grater (food mill) or potato ricer onto a clean work counter. Its latest cookbook, The River Cafe Look Book, continues in this tradition. Written by Ruth Rogers and current head chefs Sian Wyn Owen and Joseph Trivelli, the book presents simple recipes, well suited to child cooks as well as those less experienced in the kitchen. Partly in homage to those last years, Ruth created The River Cafe Look Book, published towards the end of 2022. In a rainbow of colour it pairs surprising images with pictures of River Cafe food – a plate of spaghetti vongole and some wilting tulips, a pink telephone and a raspberry sorbet – the recipes for which follow. “I was asked to do a cookbook for children,” Rogers says. “But [the photographer] Matthew Donaldson and I thought perhaps you could do a book that works for 12 year olds and 82 year olds. After Richard fell, he had quite severe neurological problems. Somebody gave me these books, which paired images – a Vermeer painting with the moon, a baby’s profile with the edge of the sea – inviting you to make connections. People with autism, people with dementia see things in that. And Richard loved looking at these books. So we thought maybe we could do the same kind of thing with food, pair of photographs together – the look book.”The first cookbook from London's iconic River Cafe written with beginner cooks and children in mind - a collection of more than 50 delicious and easily achievable recipes, including a host of River Cafe classics that have been specially adapted for new cooks There are two places that I feel safe, inspired,” she says. “The River Cafe and my home. I mean, everybody has different ways of dealing with grief. There’s no right way or wrong way. My way has always been not to stop. Just keep going. And then one day I might just fall on the ground.” Zucchini Salad. Photography by Matthew Donaldson This River Cafe salad looks great and is fun to make with kids