I may not know what makes a good comedian, but I do know what makes a good father. 
 
When Judd and I met in London — where his daughter Maude was playing the lead role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret — he told me this was the eighth time he'd seen it in three weeks.
 
While I don’t know what makes a good comedian, Judd certainly does. His advice to kickstart your writing: think of a topic and write down as many jokes and one liners as you can. Don't be scared if your first draft doesn't make you laugh out loud — keep going. 
 
There are definite parallels between cooking and comedy. And paraphrasing his words, an aspiring chef should never panic if the first attempt doesn't taste quite right. 
Eating and laughing; children and acting; movies and restaurants. We're here today in The River Cafe, and Judd and I will tackle them all.
Life is a cabaret.

Listen to Ruthie's Table 4: Judd Apatow out now - made in partnership with Moncler. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Judd Apatow

For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. 

On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers.

Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. 

Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation.
 
For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/
 
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Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

My brother, Michael Elias, a writer and director tells me when visitors come to the set of a film, nothing stops. The only exception is if they are athletes.

Maybe it’s because everyone thinks, if pressed, they could act, sing or dance, but never run a race, ski downhill or score a goal. When Gary Lineker, one of the great footballers of our time, walks into The River Cafe everything stops. 
He is one of the very few footballers never to have received a red or yellow card — consistent with who he is: principled, respectful and fair — values we share.
We’re also both in the world of podcasts - his company Goal Hanger has 18 million listeners a month.
Gary and I also share the world of food.
Look at his Instagram account and you will see as many photographs of what he is cooking as the games he is analysing on Match of the Day.
Today, Gary is in The River Cafe kitchen with Joseph Trivelli making Potato Gnocchi with tomato sauce.
When he comes back I will definitely stop what I’m doing to talk to him about food, football, family and principles. 
It’s a goal.

Ruthie's Table 4 is made in partnership with Moncler. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gary Lineker

Thinking about Laura Dern coming here today, I scrolled through three years of text messages. It's a story about making plans and choosing restaurants to go to.
As usual, most of our ideas were aspirational, adapting around our families, movies, cooking and travel. Laura is fun, curious and  smart, hanging with the crew on set.
She has memories of her grandmother and describes her parents as heroes. She is a bold spokesperson for women in the film.
Renzo Piano, the architect for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in L.A., remembers that as a trustee, she was a rigorous and remarkable client.
Today, we're here in the River cafe to talk about all this and more.
Listen to Ruthie’s Table 4: Laura Dern made in partnership with Moncler – out now. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laura Dern

Sam Taylor-Johnson is a close friend and director of Back To Black, the story of Amy Winehouse. Checking in with her during filming, she always reassured me it was intense. It was challenging. It was exhilarating. But, the best part was working with Marisa Abela. 

One night a few months ago, Sam called me at home to tell me Marisa was in The River Cafe and could we send her a glass of champagne? When I told this to Michael, a friend visiting me from New York, he said, ‘Ruthie, we're not sending her a glass of champagne. We're going there right now to give it to her ourselves'.

This month, Back to Black opened in London. Today, we're here together in The River Cafe and when we’re done we'll have a glass of champagne.

Listen to Ruthie's Table 4: Marissa Abela made in partnership with Moncler. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marisa Abela

Imagine going to a close friend's birthday, months after the death of your son. Imagine realising it was too soon and telling the man you're talking to who you hardly know, why you need to leave. He takes your arm and insists on seeing you to the lift. Then he goes down with you until you get to the street. This becomes a ten minute walk to the car park. A climb up the stairs, him holding your hand tightly until you find your car. Driving off, you see him in the rearview mirror waving goodbye. I was this woman, and Tom Hollander was this man. And his act of tenderness and compassion has stayed with me for 13 years. 

There are many stories about Tom Hollander. The best ones are told by him, not least his life in the day for the Sunday Times, the best in a great series ever written. He is a fantastic actor; White Lotus, Patriots, most recently captivating audiences as Truman Capote in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. He sings beautiful songs to his six month old son. He's passionate about what he cooks and what he eats. Yesterday, he sent me a photograph with no caption of Fran Hickman with a large stainless steel saucepan obscuring her face, drinking the contents.

Imagine, being me in The River Cafe with Tom Hollander on a Tuesday afternoon, talking about memories of food, memories of friendship, family and all his doing. Then imagine how special this feels.

Listen to Ruthie's Table 4: Tom Hollander made in partnership with Moncler. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Judd Apatow

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