Ruth Reichl | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Reichl in 2012 | |
| Born | 1948 (age 76–77) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Food writer, magazine editor, chef |
| Genre | Cooking |
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 theLos Angeles Times andThe New York Times, Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and has been co-producer ofPBS'sGourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for theModern Library, host of PBS'sGourmet's Adventures With Ruth, and editor-in-chief ofGourmet magazine. She has won sixJames Beard Foundation Awards.
Reichl's memoirs areTender 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, andSave Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir (2019).[1] In 2009, she publishedGourmet Today, a 1,008 page cookbook containing over 1,000 recipes. She published her first novel,Delicious! in 2014, and, in 2015, publishedMy Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life, a memoir of recipes prepared in the year following the shuttering ofGourmet.[2]
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 inGreenwich Village and spent time at a boarding school in Montreal as a young girl. She attended theUniversity of Michigan, where she earned a degree in sociology in 1968[6] and met her first husband, the artistDouglas Hollis. In 1970 she earned an M.A. in art history, also from the University of Michigan.[6]
Reichl and Hollis moved toBerkeley, 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 withMmmmm: A Feastiary, a cookbook, in 1972.[7] She moved on to become food writer and editor ofNew West magazine in 1978, then to theLos 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 forThe 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 theTimes to assume the editorship ofGourmet, 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 likeDavid Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster".
Reichl's memoirs areTender 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), andSave Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir (2019).[1] In 2009, she publishedGourmet Today, a 1,008 page cookbook containing over 1,000 recipes. She published her first novel,Delicious! in 2014, and, in 2015, publishedMy Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life, a memoir of recipes prepared in the year following the shuttering ofGourmet.[2]
From 2011 to 2013, Reichl appeared as a judge on seasons3,4 and5 of the Bravo reality television showTop Chef Masters.[12]
In 2021, Reichl joinedSubstack to begin publishing a newsletter about food writing.[13]
Reichl has been the recipient of sixJames Beard Awards,[14] and in 2024 the foundation gave her a Lifetime Achievement Award.[15]
Reichl is married to Michael Singer, with whom she has one son.[14] They live inSpencertown, New York.[14]
