On the day that I interviewed Ruth Reichl she was in her office at the New York Times. She had been the long time restaurant reviewer for the newspaper and it was her last day on the job. She was leaving to become the editor of Gourmet Magazine.
Her memoir "Tender at the Bone" had just come out in paperback and she was at that point of transition in her life when I called her that day on the phone. We had a lovely conversation about her foodie memoir. She recalled her days living in what was essentially a commune in Berkeley and the joys of cooking splendid meals with whatever they could find when they went dumpster diving.
She looked back at her days working at a fine restaurant in Ann Arbor. And she reflected on her mother's atrocious cooking and how as a young girl she took it upon herself to discreetly steer guests away from certain dishes that her mother had served at a party, just to spare them the experience of eating some really bad food.
Then there was the time that she was a teenager in France and she encountered one of the most amazing desserts she has ever eaten. The author has written food memoirs since this one but none of them have been quite this savory.
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