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Ruth Reichl

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Ruth Reichl
Reichl in 2012
Reichl in 2012
Born1948 (age 75–76)
New York City, New York, U.S.
OccupationFood writer, magazine editor, chef
GenreCooking

Ruth Reichl (/ˈraɪʃəl/ RY-shəl; born 1948) is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and has been co-producer of PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS's Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth, and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. She has won six James Beard Foundation Awards.

Reichl's memoirs are Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (1998), Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table, Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, Not Becoming My Mother, and Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir (2019).[1] In 2009, she published Gourmet Today, a 1,008 page cookbook containing over 1,000 recipes. She published her first novel, Delicious! in 2014, and, in 2015, published My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life, a memoir of recipes prepared in the year following the shuttering of Gourmet.[2]

Early life and education

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Born in 1948[3] to Ernst, a typographer, and Miriam (née Brudno),[4] her German-Jewish refugee father and American-Jewish mother,[5] Reichl was raised in Greenwich Village and spent time at a boarding school in Montreal as a young girl. She attended the University of Michigan, where she earned a degree in sociology in 1968[6] and met her first husband, the artist Douglas Hollis. In 1970 she earned an M.A. in art history, also from the University of Michigan.[6]

Career

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Reichl and Hollis moved to Berkeley, California, where her interest in food led to her joining the collectively owned Swallow Restaurant as a chef and co-owner from 1973 to 1977. Reichl began her food-writing career with Mmmmm: A Feastiary, a cookbook, in 1972.[7] She moved on to become food writer and editor of New West magazine in 1978, then to the Los Angeles Times as its restaurant editor from 1984 to 1993 and food editor and critic from 1990 to 1993.[6] She returned to her native New York City in 1993 to become the restaurant critic for The New York Times.[6] As a critic, she was known for her ability to "make or break" a restaurant[8] with her attention to detail. For Reichl, her mission was to "demystify the world of fine cuisine".[9] Despite her success and tales of how she used to disguise herself to mask her identity while reviewing, eventually she said: "I really wanted to go home and cook for my family. I don't think there's one thing more important you can do for your kids than have family dinner."[8] In 1999, Reichl left the Times to assume the editorship of Gourmet, which she managed until it closed in 2009.[10] During her tenure, the magazine sold 988,000 copies per month (as of March 2007)[11] and commissioned works like David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster".

Reichl's memoirs are Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (1998), Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table (2001), Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise (2005), Not Becoming My Mother (2009), and Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir (2019).[1] In 2009, she published Gourmet Today, a 1,008 page cookbook containing over 1,000 recipes. She published her first novel, Delicious! in 2014, and, in 2015, published My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life, a memoir of recipes prepared in the year following the shuttering of Gourmet.[2]

From 2011 to 2013, Reichl appeared as a judge on seasons 3, 4 and 5 of the Bravo reality television show Top Chef Masters.[12]

In 2021, Reichl joined Substack to begin publishing a newsletter about food writing.[13]

Honors

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Reichl has been the recipient of six James Beard Awards,[14] and in 2024 the foundation gave her a Lifetime Achievement Award.[15]

Personal life

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Reichl is married to Michael Singer, with whom she has one son.[14] They live in Spencertown, New York.[14]

Books

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  • Mmmmm: A Feastiary (cookbook), (1972)
  • Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (memoir) (1998)
  • Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table (memoir) (2001)
  • Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise (memoir) (2005)[8]
  • The Gourmet Cookbook: More Than 1000 Recipes (2006)
  • Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way (2009)
  • Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen (2009)
  • For You, Mom. Finally. (2010; first published under the title Not Becoming My Mother)
  • Delicious! (novel) (2014)
  • My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life (2015)
  • Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir (2019)
  • The Paris Novel (2024)[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise (review)". Archived from the original on 2010-08-10. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  2. ^ a b "Cookbook review: In 'My Kitchen Year,' Ruth Reichl soldiers on after gourmet shutdown". Los Angeles Times. 6 November 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  3. ^ Chamberlain, Sarah (2017-09-14). "'Food is never just about what we put in our mouths'". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
  4. ^ Ernst Reichl Archived 2016-01-14 at the Wayback Machine, web page, accessed 8 June 2016
  5. ^ Bloom, Nate (2006-01-13). "Celebrity Jews". J. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
  6. ^ a b c d "Restaurant Critic Is Named". The New York Times. 1993-06-11. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2022-02-01. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  7. ^ "Kitchen Library". Oakland Tribune. 1972-12-06. pp. 9A. Retrieved 2022-08-27.
  8. ^ a b c Morales, Tatiana (May 18, 2005). "Garlic and Sapphires". CBS News. Archived from the original on 14 July 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  9. ^ CBS News Online
  10. ^ Betts, Kate (2019-04-09). "Ruth Reichl Dishes on the Last Days of Gourmet Magazine". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  11. ^ Case, Tony (March 5, 2007). "Special Report: Ruth Reichl in Focus". Retrieved 2022-08-27.
  12. ^ "Top Chef Masters". Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  13. ^ Severson, Kim (1 December 2021). "Substack Expands Food Newsletters With Ruth Reichl and Others". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  14. ^ a b c Palazzolo, Rose (2021-05-19). "At home upstate with Ruth Reichl". Times Union. Archived from the original on 2021-12-28. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  15. ^ Severson, Kim. "The Full List of the 2024 James Beard Chef and Restaurant Award Winners". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 12, 2024. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
  16. ^ "My New Book..." La Briffe. 1 September 2023.
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