By Ellen Kanner
Wearing skinny black pants, a shimmering blue tunic and her trademark tumble of dark curls, Ruth Reichl can dazzle without even saying a word. At Key West Literary Seminar, she had the hungry hoards eating out of her hand with her keynote speech, “A Toast to Toast,” a tasty crash course in “our convoluted relationship with food."
“Our attitudes are in flux,” she says. “We’ve stopped cooking but started reading cookbooks. And watching cooking shows. We’re obsessed with food but unwilling to spend time cooking.”
The child of a mother who was not, let us say, culinarily inclined (Reichl dubbed her “the Queen of Mold”), Reichl is passionate about food because she finds it “a way of looking at the world.” Her own serious relationship with food began in the late ‘60s, working in a Berkeley restaurant, where the food, like the staff, the diners and Reichl herself, was earnest, unpretentious and a little unpolished. Reichl went on to culinary and literary heights, as food critic for the Los Angeles Times, restaurant critic for The New York Times and editor of the grande dame of food magazines, Gourmet.
The 2009 shuttering of Gourmet after a 70-year reign took many by surprise, Reichl included. She won’t say much more than that—yet. A fourth memoir, one about her time with Gourmet, is in the works. It’s just one of Reichl’s projects as she jets back and forth between Los Angeles and New York. Now an editor at Random House, she’s also at work on a screenplay, a cookbook called The Tao of Ruth and a novel entitled Delicious.
Reichl’s come full circle, returning to food that’s earnest, unpretentious, real. “Trends are something invented by the media,” she says. “Real people aren't all that interested in what they'll be eating tomorrow; they'll find out in their own good time. My only prediction is the ongoing juggernaut of ethical eating: more vegans, more interest in humanely-raised animals, more people worrying about the fact that in the richest country in the world one in eight people go to bed hungry every night. More young farmers, more farmers' markets.” She beams. “In other words, I'm an optimist. “
Avgolemono Soup
From Ruth Reichl’s Mmmm: A Feastiary
Incredible to think Reichl has been writing about food for over 40 years, starting with her 1972 cookbook Mmmm: A Feastiary. It’s filled with simple, comforting recipes, including this one for classic Greek egg and lemon soup. It’s just the thing for cooler winter nights (even in Miami).
6 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup uncooked rice
4 egg yolks
salt
1 tablespoon lemon rind, grated
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Bring stock to a boil. Pour in the rice and cook about 20 minutes, until it is tender. Reduce to low heat. In a bowl beat the egg yolks. Add the lemon rind, lemon juice and salt. Pour about 1/2 cup of the broth into the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Then pour it back into the broth, stirring. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring, over low heat, until slightly thickened.
Serves 6 to 8.
