Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table, the second of Ruth Reichl's memoirs, traces Reichl’s early years as a food writer, a career she began by writing freelance articles that eventually led to a primo gig as the food critic for the L.A. Times. It’s part foodie memoir, part travel journal, and part personal story of self-discovery, and the mix works.

Reichl began her food writing career in the 1970s, when Alice Waters’s restaurant, Chez Panisse, was still relatively new, and before Wolfgang Puck was a celebrity. It was an interesting time to be a food writer, and Reichl was in the right place to make the best of it. Many of her assignments took her into the kitchens of famous restaurants, so readers get a behind-the-scenes look at restaurant openings and meal preparation. I’m no cook, so a lot of the nuances of why a particular ingredient or tool was important went over my head, but the human drama was interesting. There are also stories of dining in France, Spain, China, and Thailand, where Reichl finds the adventures are not confined to the table.

Reichl mixes her professional story with her personal story. She did make a few serious mistakes, but as is so often the case in life, sometimes great good can come out of what seems to be the most unwise choice. There were a few times when I wanted to shake her because she just couldn’t make up her mind or say what needed to be said, but I don’t know that I would have been any bolder or braver, and I appreciated her honesty.

See my complete revew at my blog. ( )

I have to admit that when this book was chosen for my book club discussion, I wasn't too thrilled. I did not think I would like it much, but I was pleasantly surprised! Reichl writes with such simple elegance and candor that it is hard not to love every word she pens. Although this is technically a sequel, I did not feel lost having not read the prequel. Describing her life during her years as a restaurant critic, this book is peppered with a good deal of "shop talk" (if you will), but when the shop talk is about food, I have no problems with that! You will be probably be hungry while reading this book though, or yearn for something more exotic on your dinner table after reading Reichl's mouth-watering descriptions of the delectable meals she consumes as she travels from California to Paris to China to Barcelona and back again. ( )

Ruth Reichl's food and life memoir takes up where the story of her early life, Tender at the Bone left off. Her developing career, communal life and relationship dramas are peppered (punny no?) with accessible recipes throughout. Her visit to a China struggling to open to the west was particularly insightful. Her quest to become a mother was both joyful and heartbreaking. The title was taken from the Song of Solomon and the book is enough to make you want to look up the verse in the OT and bestow an apple cobbler on your best pal. Readers will eagerly long to join Reichl's friend list to tag along on a food adventure. ( )

I will say this for Reichl--the lady has guts. As she recounts a period of her life when she bounced from one infidelity to the next, with stops along the way for self-indulgent six-hour meals that made my stomach hurt just reading about them, I found myself simply feeling sorry for the two men she was torn between. Then a child became involved, and, oh my goodness. Never have I read a memoir in which the writer/narrator made herself into such a blatantly unsympathetic character. (See my full review at Worducopia ( )

Comfort Me with Apples is a memoir written by Ruth Reichl, a well-known restaurant critic, with a few recipes thrown in. Reichl was once a chef and this book covers her transition from cooking food to writing about it for a living. As with most of the best food writing, Comfort Me with Apples shows how good food is intertwined with your life experiences rather than separate from them. There is so much focus on diets these days that it was nice to read a book about people who love food and never mention calories. Reichl doesn't color events to make herself look good, either. She makes the reader laugh and cry with her over the mistakes she's made at work and in her life. The only quibble I have with this book is that if feels like it is actually a section pulled out of the middle of a larger tome. I know that Reichl wrote another memoir before this one (Tender at the Bone) and after this one (Garlic and Sapphires), which gives this one an abrupt beginning and end. It didn't take me too long to fall into the flow of things so this is a minor quibble. Overall, I would recommend this book. It is short and the narrative flows quickly. That makes it perfect reading for waiting in queues and doctor's offices. ( )