The Italian restaurant, which opened 35 years ago, counts Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall among its alumni. We speak to three of its chefs who have taken its ethos with them into their own places
“When we hire people,” says Joe Trivelli, executive head chef at the River Cafe, “I’m thinking, ‘Will they be good, and stay for a long time?’ I’m not thinking about what they’re going to do afterwards.” The restaurant, which celebrates its 35th anniversary next month, is not, stresses its other executive head chef, Sian Wyn Owen, a “fancy cooking school”.
The River Cafe’s kitchen needs team players willing to work hard while absorbing knowledge, not chefs in a rush to tick a box on their CV and move on to their own head chef roles. “Often that desire to be important overpowers the desire to learn,” says Wyn Owen.
