Ruth Reichl

My Kitchen Year ~ 136 Recipes that Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl

 

I’d been lusting after this book since it first came out.  I was hoping it would come into the the bookstore where I work (and have a discount), but it never did.   My friend and fellow foodie, Susan, already had the book and was full of yummy descriptions.  I told her I had to have it and was just going to buy it – expense be damned.  Then, a few days later, Susan announced she had come into an “extra” copy which she would give me. (I secretly suspect my dear friend actually bought it for me, but we’ll go with her story.)

From the book’s publicity blurb:

In the fall of 2009, the food world was rocked when Gourmet magazine was abruptly shuttered by its parent company. No one was more stunned by this unexpected turn of events than its beloved editor in chief, Ruth Reichl, who suddenly faced an uncertain professional future. As she struggled to process what had seemed unthinkable, Reichl turned to the one place that had always provided sanctuary. “I did what I always do when I’m confused, lonely, or frightened,” she writes. “I disappeared into the kitchen.”

Happily this is more than just a cookbook, although it is packed with (as the title states) 136 hunger-inducing recipes — what makes My Kitchen Year shine is Ms. Reichl’s personal writings, snippets from her journal, and musings on food interspersed between the recipes.  She tells of the final weeks closing up the magazine, packing her office.  Of going into Chinatown with her beloved fellow staffers for a final lunch at a favorite restaurant.  And how can you not have a craving for chocolate cake when reading this passage?:

I needed an antidote to the poison of self-pity.  What I needed, I decided, was to bake a chocolate cake.  I emailed a few friends, asking them to tea.  Why a cake?  Because the precision of baking demands total attention.  Why this cake (The Cake that Cures Everything)?  Because the sheer size of it makes special demands.  But most of all, because it is impossible to hold on to gloom with so much chocolate wafting its exuberant scent into every corner of the house.

Most everyone was saddened when Gourmet magazine suddenly stopped publication (I was a subscriber for over 15 years and am still in mourning) but, apparently, none of us were as astonished as Ms. Reichl, herself.  She knew nothing of the decision and had, in fact, personally supervised the December issue which, sadly would never make it to press.  How I would have liked to see that last issue.  She ruefully describes how each magazine issue would have had multiple covers of beautifully photographed Christmas cookies.

Reeling, she escapes to her home in upstate NY …

I longed for the feel of knife in my hand, the heft of water splashing into a pot.  Yearned for the joyous sizzle, burble, and hiss that are the ever-changing soundtrack of the kitchen. I missed the daily transformations: fruit ripening, dough rising, bread toasting into golden slabs.  I’d always thought of these elemental pleasures as minor diversions, but now I understood they they’re the glue that holds my life together….in a world filled with no, it is my yes.

This long-time food writer and one time NY Times restaurant critic has made a career of haute cuisine.  But here Ms. Reichl shares her appreciation (and recipes) for simple meals, often made with farmer market obtained fresh ingredients.  She has eaten the world’s best food in the finest restaurants, yet upon bringing home spring’s first asparagus, she cooks it quickly, drizzles it with fine olive oil and eats the spears by hand while still standing at the stove.

Ms. Reichl uses food as a gift of love, not only for herself, but also for her friends and family.  Whereas before, she would have gone to someplace fancy with lowered voices and expensive menus, now she entertains at home, serving her home-made meals around her table where everyone happily lingers, talking until the wee hours.  She looks around and feels at peace and finally, at home.

In terms of a cookbook, the recipes are wonderful.  Not overwritten with just the right amount of instruction.  There are plenty of Asian inspired entries, but nothing too complicated.  I just counted and I have pencil checked at least 25 in the index to try – Fresh Apricot Pie and Food Cart Curry Chicken are in the plans for the near future here in the Book Barmy kitchen.

I have read all of Ms. Reichl’s books (list HERE) and they range from her early childhood with a mother who was a horrible cook to one of my favorites Garlic and Sapphires which recounts her days as a restaurant critic (which often required donning various disguises).  During the year after Gourmet, she also wrote a novel called Delicious – a fun plot which mimics her own experience — namely, the closing of a food magazine and the poor writer who stayed behind to answer all the on-going readers letters.

You don’t have to be a hard-core foodie, or a past subscriber to Gourmet Magazine to enjoy any of  Ms. Reichl’s books.  But, if you appreciate good cooking and delicious meals, do go ahead and treat yourself to your own copy of My Kitchen Year.  

(Thank you Susan)

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