It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of Rose Gray last week. Rose was the co-author of the iconic River Café Cookbooks as well as co-owner of the River Café restaurant in London. In the early nineties Rose was my icon – my Alice Waters. She may not be as well known on this side of the Atlantic but in the UK and Ireland she and her partner Ruth Rogers were possibly the first of the great modern chefs where simplicity and good ingredients were everything. She trained Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and in their cooking you see many of Rose’s messages and beliefs. So, this past weekend we cooked a special ‘River Café’ dinner in her memory, with wines to match.