Introduction

The River Cafe opened in 1987. It was inspired and influenced by our experience of living and cooking in Italy. Both of us spent long periods in Tuscany, with family and friends, and learned an enormous amount by watching, tasting and experimenting as we went.

The ingredients themselves were a revelation. We were overwhelmed by the enormous variety of produce available in Italian food shops – the local pecorinos, the different types of prosciuttos and salamis, the smoked and salted pancettas, olive oils made by local farms, and olives preserved in brine. There were inviting sacks of dried beans – borlotti, fave, cannellini and ceci. In the vegetable markets we found tiny fennel bulbs which could be eaten raw, huge dense bunches of cicoria, stalls that sold only herbs, or garlic or wild leaves.