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Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photo: Matthew Donaldson, Joe McKendry
If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts — like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked chef and podcaster Ruthie Rogers — whose latest book, Table 4 at the River Cafe, is out now — about the cheap readers, suitcase, and cashmere sweater she can’t live without.
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When I interview somebody for a job at the River Café, I ask, “Are you happy to work flexible hours? How do you take criticism? And are you good at finding glasses?” Because I’m always losing my glasses. I started wearing glasses really late in life — around 70. I had really good eyes, but now I’m kind of dependent on them. I used to lose good glasses, and now I wear these Izipizis. I just love them. They cost about $50, and if you lose them, you can just get them in different colors. I love the little gray case they come in. They’re beautifully designed.
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Tongs are essential because these two pieces of metal can do the job of two forks, a spoon, a knife, or a spatula. To take a piece of chicory from boiling water with a pair of tongs is one of the great pleasures in life. When I make pasta, I don’t drain it; I take it out of the boiling water with tongs and toss it with tongs. As Marcella Hazan says, “Toss, toss, toss, and then toss again.”
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As domestic cooks, The Classic Italian Cookbook, by Marcella Hazan, was the Bible for both my co-founder, Rose, and me. We always tell a new chef working for us, “Take it home and read it cover to cover.” It really starts from the beginning — how to make everything from salsa verde to rolling out your own pasta. She wasn’t as poetic as Elizabeth David, who would use sensuous phrases like, “Find the juiciest, ripest tomato, smell it, and put it in a frying pan.” But Marcella’s authority and knowledge of Italian food are incomparable.
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If you open a big can of tomatoes, they’re often packed in tomato juice, so there’s all that extra liquid. In our restaurant, we only use Paolo Petrilli’s jarred tomatoes from Puglia, which are as pure as you can get. In Italy, during tomato season, we would see people in the kitchens peeling tomatoes and putting them in jars for the winter, and that’s basically all this is. You really don’t need much more for a sauce. Just some really good basil. You cook them down together. Then, when I’m tossing it all together with the pasta, I add some Italian unsalted butter.
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I don’t buy a lot of clothes, but what I buy I keep for a long time and I wear over and over again. The Row made this cashmere sweater when I discovered them, and it’s almost like wearing an embrace when I put it on. Often, I’ll put on a shirt under it, only to take it off because I just want to feel the softness. They are a very beautiful shape. They’re long, the sleeves reach the right place, and they have a crewneck. I would suggest going at least one or two sizes smaller than you would think, because they do stretch over time. Mostly they do beiges and whites and grays now, but there was a period when they did an orange, a yellow, a green, and a blue sweater, and I have them all. In packing for this trip to New York, I threw all my clothes on the bed and asked, “What am I going to wear to Jimmy Fallon?” The yellow one seemed to respond, Life is simple, life is good, life is yellow. The world is tumultuous, but somehow, when I put on that sweater, I feel hope.
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There’s always someone coming up and asking, “Ruthie, should we do this, or should we do that?” and I have to make a decision. Which is why I love a uniform, because it’s one less decision I have to make. I loved that as a chef, I would go to work and change into my chef’s whites each day. And that’s what this Prada denim skirt has become in the rest of my life. I originally bought one years ago, but I recently lost it. I had been interviewing the filmmaker Fisher Stevens at his home in Brooklyn. Afterward, upon arriving at the airport, I noticed my luggage hadn’t made it into the car. I called Fisher immediately and said, “Can you just go get my suitcase? It’s on the street.” Of course, it was gone. When I told my manager what happened and that my skirt was in the lost bag, he said, “Ruthie, every cloud has a silver lining.” I think they were all just so tired of looking at me in my denim skirt! But I went and bought another one, and now I have quite a few.
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Later, when I told my best friend, Jony Ive, that my suitcase had gone missing, a present arrived very soon afterward: a new Rimowa. They even let me personalize it, so I chose a yellow handle and yellow wheels. I travel really light, and I’m a really careful packer, so I always have the smallest carry-on suitcase — if I bring one at all. Sometimes I just travel with a bag. I like wearing the same thing over and over, and on summer vacations, I prefer to go barefoot whenever possible. So there’s really not much to pack.
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When I am wearing shoes, it’s usually Birkenstocks, which I only recently discovered some six or eight years ago. I don’t wear them when I’m going out to something elegant or fancy, but I do like wearing them during the day. I can’t remember if it was my daughter-in-law, Bernie, who gave me my first pair, or if I found them myself, but once you start wearing them, they’re just so incredibly comfortable. And now I have a whole collection. In the winter, I have these furry shearling ones that keep my feet warm, and someone even gave me a pair designed by Dior. Some time ago, the company’s board had dinner at the River Café before a meeting in London, and afterward, we got a phone call asking for the shoe size of every single person who worked there. There were over 110 of us at the time, and they sent a pair of Arizonas for each of us. It was just an act of generosity and kindness.
Ruthie Rogers’s Birkenstock collection.
Photo: Ruthie Rogers
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I like my jewelry to be quiet, and this watch is low-key in its own way. You can’t even see its face at first glance, but it does its job. And I like the feeling of it wrapped around my arm. My watch strap broke when I was in Rome last summer, and when I went to get a new one, they only had white. I thought a white watch strap was strange, but I got it, and now I really like it.
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I’m one of those people who goes for the pretty packaging, I’m afraid. I was a designer before I was a chef, and I just think it’s amazing that Marvis can turn a tube of toothpaste into something so beautiful. I love the crinkly silver tubes of the mint flavor. To all the other toothpaste-makers: Why can’t you all be as cool and look as good?
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I never wore a fragrance while cooking full-time, but now this scent has become associated with me: Jo Malone Lime Basil & Mandarin. There I am, a cook using an herb and two fruits. I like that it’s quite dry and not flowery. People often remark on it, and I’ll just take it out of my bag and give it to them as a spontaneous present. Now my grandchildren associate it with me, and that’s all that really matters. One of them said they went into someone’s house, and there was a candle that smelled of this, and they felt that I was there. Smell is important.
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This book comes from my podcast, which we started while the River Café was closed during the pandemic. I’ve always said that recipes are part science, part poetry, so we thought, Why not call up a friend each day to read a recipe aloud for us? After a while, my friend Graydon Carter, former editor of Vanity Fair, said to me, “Ruthie, I think you should do something more than just reading a recipe. Why don’t you segue into a story?” And so, whether I’m speaking with Nancy Pelosi or Elton John, we start with food and use it as a lens for getting at people’s memories, thoughts, values, experiences, and aspirations. Did your mother cook? Did your father cook? Did you eat out in restaurants? Do you cook for your children? We did this for over 200 people by the time Simon & Schuster asked if we might like to turn it into a book. The editors picked 52 guests they thought would make a good mix and transcribed the interviews; I wrote all the introductions; and the photographs are still lifes of the portraits we had from the podcast, arranged on the tables at the restaurant.
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Dining and Cooking