Ruth Reichl

Ruth Reichl – just the name intimidated me. I’m a pedestrian, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants cook. I hadn’t dared read Gourmet magazine, let alone try out the recipes. But Reichl’s book, Save Me the Plums, about her 10 years as editor of Gourmet magazine is delightful. It’s like sitting down and having a chat with a good friend. She shares her anxiety about starting a new job, her concerns about juggling parenting and work responsibilities, her creativity, and her passion. Read it! show more Ruth Reichl is sure to become your next best friend. show less

In this wonderful memoir, Ruth Reichl prepares us for her entry into the world of being a food critic. About the unlucky meals she ate at her mother's table, about the lucky meals she discovered at the table of school friend in Ottawa, and even luckier meals she scored as a student at the University of Michigan. It seems as though all of these meals brought into focus for her and for us what happens to people when they cook for each other. Her tastes for all things gourmand grows as quickly show more as her taste for people. Each step of the way her appreciation for how hard it is to simply live and find happiness grows more subtle and more refined. No less than a fine Volnay. show less

Audio Book performed by Bernadette Dunne

Subtitle: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
Well, that’s a pretty good synopsis of this memoir of Reichl’s tenure as the restaurant critic for The New York Times in the 1990s.

I loved her stories of the various restaurants, from tiny noodle shops to elegant restaurants, where even the King of Spain is kept waiting at the bar. What I really appreciated about the book, however, was the “secret life” part – her own growth as a person. As show more Reichl tried on various disguises she found that she was also revealing different personalities – timid or demanding, happy or dour, compassionate or selfish. She learned much about herself, what she liked and what she didn’t like. And she was fearless in revealing these various facets of herself to the reader.

Her writing really shines, not surprisingly, when she is describing food. I am in awe of her palate, her ability to tease out and identify the subtle flavorings in a complex dish:

(Describing the risotto) It tasted as if a chef had stood at the stove, stirring diligently as he coaxed each grain of rice into soaking up stock. As a finale he had strewn plump little morsels of lobster through the rice, giving it the taste of the ocean.

(Gougeres) And then I didn’t say anything else because I had taken a bite of one of the little puffs and I was concentrating on the way they simply evaporated into hot, cheesy air when my mouth closed over them.

(Quenelles de brochet) Very few restaurants still make these ethereal dumplings, a marriage of air and ocean, and even fewer do them right. … I take a bite and the softness surrounds my mouth with the taste of lobster, of fish, of butter and then it just dissolves, disappears, leaving nothing but the memory in my mouth. And I take another bite, and another, and suddenly I’m floating on the flavor, and the world has vanished.

(Venison) Surrounded by chestnuts, apples, a fruity puree of squash, the meat is so delicious that I find myself eating as if it is the first course. When I look down, I realize that I have eaten everything, even the single aromatic grape that decorated the plate.

A delicious memoir, and I devoured every word. I think I’ll make lamb for dinner tonight….

Bernadette Dunne does a marvelous job performing the audio version of this book. She has reasonably good skill as a voice artist to give the various characters unique and believable voices, though her 4-year-old Nicky sound like an adult imitating a little boy. Her pacing is good, and she even makes the recipes sound interesting. show less

Former New York Times food critic and Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl wasn't born a gourmand. Her mother was the sort of person who shopped obsessively for the cheapest food and served it even when it was spoiled. Young Ruth learns to cook mostly as a survival skill, and keeps at it only because she sees the joy it brings to people. I loved this book because it was the first foodie memoir I've read by someone whose culinary awakening happened relatively late in life, and because it is as show more much about finding your passion as it is cooking good food. Ruth's journey with her lovable but out of control mother is poignant, and admired her tenacity in living life the way she wanted to -- even when that meant squatting in a crowded Berkeley apartment and cooking what her hippie roommates found in the trash. This is a food memoir, but it is also very much the story of growing up in the nineteen sixties and seventies, and seeing how the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and racism intersected with Ruth's otherwise ordinary life made these events far more vivid than any history book. Her travel experiences in Canada, France, and North Africa are fascinating as well. show less