staying in
ON THE BOX
A gem theft, groundbreaking drama and not-so-good neighbours feature in this month’s sparkling selection of TV highlights
by BENJIE GOODHART
PODCAST
by SARAH SHANNON
Ruthie’s Table 4
Regular diners at The River Café in London’s Hammersmith soon come across founder Ruth Rogers, a 76-year-old tour de force with a bulging address book of celebrity pals. A few years back, she decided to deploy the latter for a podcast, Ruthie’s Table 4.
Each episode is a gentle conversation that meanders through the guest’s life, anchoring key moments with memories of mealtimes. Actor Zoe Saldaña tells Ruthie about her Dominican grandmother’s queso frito that she’d wolf down as a teen living in Manhattan’s Washington Heights; Tony Blair recalls how he was blown away by a cassoulet in a French restaurant while his dining companion, Jacques Chirac, barely seemed to notice it.
In a clever feat of cross promotion, each guest reads their favourite recipe from one of The River Café cookbooks (Blair’s was wild sea bass, by the way). With a back catalogue that includes Sir Michael Caine, Dame Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow, there’s some fabulous content to get your teeth into.