The Nostalgic London Restaurant That Helped Start Jamie Oliver's Career

Jamie Oliver has had an incredibly successful and illustrious career, full of best-selling cookbooks, numerous television shows, and plenty of prestigious awards (he has also had his share of tragedies). Like so many celebrity chefs, Oliver began his career working in kitchens, including a very well-known eatery on the banks of the River Thames in London. Soon after attending culinary school and training in France, he was hired as sous chef at The River Cafe, which has been pleasing hungry Londoners, as well as visitors from all over the world, since 1987. 

Oliver was "discovered" by documentary filmmakers who were creating a film about the restaurant. Producers and viewers were charmed by the baby-faced chef with the playfully messy hair. He was quickly offered his own television show, which became the enormously popular "The Naked Chef." Oliver's show debuted in 1999 and launched the young professional into notoriety. "The Naked Chef" would ultimately be cancelled for numerous reasons, including some behind-the-scenes drama with the BBC. 

While many may have been introduced to The River Cafe through Oliver, the restaurant was already known for turning out incredible, seasonal Italian food and remained successful after Oliver moved on. Today, he still counts The River Cafe as one of his favorite restaurants to eat at, telling Condé Nast Traveller, "It's very consistent. It's a very specific expression of Italian food, and I've never had a bad meal." Oliver isn't the only famous chef alum of the Cafe, either; April Bloomfield, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Theo Randall, and Ed Baines all honed their skills there. 

The River Cafe was opened by Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray in 1987. Before they transformed it into a functioning restaurant, Rogers had been using the space as a break area and cafeteria for employees of her husband's architecture company, based in the neighboring building. Inspired by their time in Italy, Rogers and Gray based their menus on the guiding principles of Italian cuisine, meaning the dishes would change with the seasons and be anchored by what was fresh at any given time. At the time, this was a very new concept for restaurants in London, but customers loved it, and it wasn't long before The River Cafe was the place to dine in the city.

Its popularity hasn't wavered in almost 40 years. Rogers is actively involved in the workings of The River Cafe, but without her business partner Gray, who died in 2010. There have been numerous cookbooks released of the restaurant's incredible recipes, a homewares shop, a popular podcast called "Ruthie's Table 4", and a Michelin Star that the eatery has maintained since 1998. In 2024, Rogers opened The River Cafe Cafe just steps away from the original restaurant. The sister business is a casual, walk-in space that serves espresso drinks and Italian pastries in the mornings, offers aperitivo hour classics like negronis in the early evenings (incidentally, Jaime Oliver rocked Instagram with his own coffee negroni), and rustic and satisfying Italian dishes in between; think plates of cured meats and cheeses, soups, pastas, and lots of vegetables. Like the original restaurant, the menu changes frequently and is based on seasonal ingredients.