ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV

ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV caught a few minutes with Ruth Rogers, the founder of legendary restaurant The River Cafe and wife of celebrated architect Richard. Rogers and her business partner Rose Gray started the Hammersmith eaterie in 1987, revolutionising ideas about Italian food and restaurant dining in Britain. The pair's trademark of good ingredients prepared simply spawned a list of imitators that include television chefs Nigel Slater and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. This spring, Rogers and Gray published their new bestselling book, River Cafe Cook Book Easy.

The River Cafe is within a tossed meatball of her husband's office – Ruth often sends over freshly made sandwiches to the architects. Speaking at a high-octane pace in between barking orders to her kitchen hands (it was approaching dinner and she'd only just finished the menu), Rogers gave ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV a few key tips to pass on to the industry about healthy and tasty eating.

"I think people work best when they are well fed. I certainly do that with my staff – lots of other restaurants don't. They buy cheap food. We also try and offer seasonal fruit and vegetables – it gets people to understand between working in the summer and winter. That's especially appropriate for people who are working outside.

For a high-energy job such as construction, you want good prime organic food … Grilled meat is great – chicken or chops. It doesn’t have to be that expensive

"For a high-energy job such as construction, you want good prime organic food. I would go for chicken, but I would never give them anything but organic chicken – there is no taste with normal chicken. Grilled meat is great – chicken or chops. It doesn't have to be that expensive. During the week I would also have a less expensive fish as well.

"I would always use a high-quality olive oil for cooking in, which sounds silly but is very important. Also a good wholegrain sour dough loaf for making sandwiches. For a sandwich I would have ham or proscuitto with salami – I often send that over to Richard. You would need a strong salad leaf with it such as rocket as well as mozzarella.