by Erin Thursby scopes1925@msn.com
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“Every restaurant is a theater, and the truly great ones allow us to indulge in the fantasy that we are rich and powerful. When restaurants hold up their end of the bargain, they give us the illusion of being surrounded by servants intent on ensuring our happiness and offering extraordinary food.”—from Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
When the New York Times offers Ruth Reichl the most powerful job in food, she isn’t sure she wants to leave the comfort of her job as the Los Angeles Times. Eventually though, she is swept away by the opportunity and is charmingly awed by her job as food critic to the New York Times. The book gives us sneak peek into the process that goes into being hired as the New York Times food critic.
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The book opens with Reichl’s surreal experience of being recognized on the plane to New York before she’s even penned a single column. Her seatmate seems to know everything about her, from her husband’s resume to her child’s age. The flight brings her to the realization that in order to do unskewed reviews she must find a way to go to restaurants incognito, a difficult task since her picture has already been posted in the kitchen of every restaurant in New York. As soon as she steps off the plane, she contacts her mother’s old friend Claudia, a retired acting coach. It is Claudia who helps Ruth construct her first disguises and alternate identities.
The disguises begin with “Molly Hollis,” a retired Midwestern teacher, a chic interior decorator and later an eccentric and friendly thrift shopper. Each disguise not only serves the purpose of keeping her identity a secret, it also teaches her something about herself and the transitory nature of identity. The characters she inhabits are all aspects of herself; sometimes she learns that lurking inside her is a person she does not like, but other times she uncovers the delightful gift of a person that she can be, and wants to be. Claudia, who was a friend to Ruth’s mother, soon has the idea to dress Ruth up as her flamboyant mother, who had passed away. By inhabiting her mother, Ruth understands her mother and appreciates all her quirks.
A cast of endearing and interesting characters inhabit the book: pompous foodies, teasing security guards, eager diners, the mysterious top brass at the New York Times, practical secretaries and many more. Ruth Reichl’s four year-old Nicky is, as most four years in books are, preciously innocent and adorable. His delight at knowing his mother is disguise while the adults remain clueless, is something that readers will experience throughout the book. There’s certain satisfaction borne from reading the difference between Reich’s treatment when she dines as herself, and when she dines as a nobody.
But it’s not all disguises and shifting identities. As in all of Reichl’s books, food has a starring role, whether it’s a reprint of a review or a tantalizing description of a sumptuous meal. You’ll join Reichl in her journeys through little known corners of New York City, in a quest for the exotic and the tasty. I particularly enjoyed when she introduced Claudia to sushi, something Ruth felt she had to do once Claudia declared that she would never eat raw fish. Reichl also includes recipes inspired by the events in the text, but there are no pictures, because as Reichl says: “I want you to taste what I am talking about.”
Other Food-Filled Narratives by Ruth Reichl
Tender at the Bone: Growing up at the Table Published in ’99, this book is a memoir laced with food filled memories. Food and life lessons are so bound together that it seems impossible for Reichl to write about one without the other. Reichl can be droll and descriptive, and she is in this first narrative effort.
Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures at the Table Reichl’s next book is a continuation for her first, which cuts off in the 1970’s. It begins where the last book ended starting with her life in a commune. She has her first job as a food critic and shows us a life of loss, love and, above all, food. As always, her life experiences are etched out by food, which she lovingly describes.
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