Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl

Ruth Reichl was a top food critic when she decided to take a job as the editor-in-chief at Gourmet Magazine, the culinary food magazine of its time. But in her new memoir we see she is so much more than the 10 year editor of Gourmet who sadly was their last as they shockingly closed in 2009.

When she was just 8 years old, coming from humble beginnings with a mother who was bipolar and spent hours and days and months in deep depression, and a father who not only adored Ruth, but adored his wife none the less, she read her first issue of Gourmet Magazine and she was hooked. It was then she made the decision to pursue something in the food industry, so when offered the job at the magazine she was frightened, honored and excited.

Feeling as if everyday would be her last, Reichl went on to change the magazine’s direction into the popular bibliophile it became under her tenure.

She tells stories in the book of making a bet of $100 that they would not lose subscribers if they put a dead fish on the cover (they did not), to writer David Foster Wallace’s travel piece about a Maine Lobster Festival and the killing of lobsters.

We also meet many of the eccentric personalities who graced the halls during her tenure. We see how her immediate family, her son Nick, a young child when she took the job and her husband Michael supported her and gave her sage feedback and advice. She also describes the aftermath of 9/11 and how the New York food industry bonded together to assist the first responders.

There are mouthwatering descriptions of meals she has had the pleasure of experiencing which make the reader wish they had been there to witness and taste. And if that is not enough, she even includes a few of her favorite recipes.

As a fan of Reichl, I loved her novel Delicious and her travel show on television, I ravenously “ate up” her stories and her life during her time at Gourmet.

Thank you #NetGalley #Random House #Save Me the Plums #Ruth Reichl
The book will be out on April 2.