A review by perpetuia1965
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl

4.0

What a delightful read! Ruth Reichl has led such an interesting life and it was so fun to read about it in this memoir. I am determined to seek out her previous books and devour them too. She paints a picture in Save Me The Plums mostly of her time as editor of Goumet magazine, describing New York and restaurants and food (as well as her travels elsewhere) so vividly it's as if you are there too. But her human interactions are even better. You get to meet the people she encounters at her work and during her travels in an almost intimate way through her delicious descriptions. I loved her interactions with her family, especially the day she stayed home and worked with her (apparently just as talented) teenaged son on a school project involving a "cookbook" from literally characters encountered throughout the school year. It was brilliant! I also enjoyed the recipes she included in this memoir and have made one already (Chinese noodles - my family loved) with plans to attempt the others soon. As someone who has not travelled very much or eaten at many resturants that aren't a chain, I enjoyed experiencing that life through the pages of Reichl's book. Well done! PS: Save Me The Plums has also made me super curious about Goumet, a magazine that I vaguely remembered but never read. I want to find old issues, especially the one with the Night of the Lobster article that started Reichl fondness for the magazine when she came upon it in an old bookstore as a child. Looking forward happily hunting it in old bookstores myself.