Industry | 2010.02.28
Rose Gray, chef and co-founder of River Café, dies aged 71
• Opened River Café in Hammersmith with Ruth Rogers in 1987
• Employed Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Rose Gray, who gave Londoners a "little piece of Italy on the Thames" and became one of Britain\'s best-known chefs, has died from cancer. She was 71.
"She died at home surrounded by her family in Marylebone," her friend and business partner of 23 years, Ruth Rogers, said yesterday.
She will be remembered, mainly, as co-chef and patron of the River Café, a Michelin-starred restaurant, in Hammersmith, west London, with Rogers.
Gray, who passed her talent on to some of Britain\'s leading contemporary chefs, was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2001. After surgery and chemotherapy, she was clear for five years. But, last year, just as she was finishing what was to be her last book, The River Café Classic Italian Cookbook, which she wrote with Rogers, doctors found brain tumours.
She had first cooked professionally in 1985 at the Italian-style restaurant, Nell\'s Club, in New York. Two years later, she returned to London and did a brief stint at Carluccio\'s.
Her passion for Italian food, spawned while bringing up her family with her second husband, sculptor and artist David Macilwaine, in Lucca, Tuscany, had stayed with her. When it opened its doors in 1987, in the old Duckhams oil storage facility, the River Café was a humble restaurant.
But it quickly attracted a following with locals and the pair went on to become two of Britain\'s most influential cooks.
It was during the making of a television programme in 1999 that a sous chef by the name of Jamie Oliver was discovered in the restaurant\'s kitchen. He worked there for three-and-a-half years. Another former employee who went on to culinary fame is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Last night, Oliver said the world had lost "one of the most important chefs of our times, she will be sorely missed".
"She really was one of life\'s very very special, natural, genius chefs; a true pioneer of delicious simple cooking," he said. "It was my honour to have worked with her – a really great boss, a wonderful person who gave me some of my fondest cooking memories and great funny times.
"The quality of food and chefs that have left the River Café over the last 20 years speaks for itself and is all credit to the partnership, love and values of Rose Gray and Ruthie Rogers."
The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 1998
Gray and Rogers were awarded MBEs in the New Year honour\'s list for their contribution to the industry.
In a 2005 Observer interview, Gray said: "I love to cook and I love having people eating at my table and various people, children, coming in and out, and the table getting bigger and smaller."
Last night, the Guardian\'s food writer, Matthew Fort, said: "She was a remarkable woman who together with Ruth Rogers ran one of the greatest restaurants in the country. They opened a lot of people\'s eyes to the range and quality of Italian food, and she was, beneath her intimidating exterior, a warm and delightful companion."
Gray also ran other businesses. She made self-assembly flat-pack lampshades, which were sold to Habitat, Heal\'s and Liberty, and to Canada and Japan.
She married Michael Gray in 1962. The couple had three children – Hester, Lucy and Ossian. She also had a son, Dante, with MacIlwaine.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/01/rose-gray-river-cafe-died
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