Save Me the Plums

Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl

Nonfiction

2019 Random House Audio

Narrated by Ruth Reichl

Finished on December 26, 2022

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth Reichl took the job (and the risk) of a lifetime when she entered the glamorous, high-stakes world of magazine publishing. Now, for the first time, she chronicles her groundbreaking tenure as editor in chief of Gourmet, during which she spearheaded a revolution in the way we think about food.

When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America's oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone's boss. And yet . . . Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no?

This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It is the story of the moment restaurants became an important part of popular culture, a time when the rise of the farm-to-table movement changed, forever, the way we eat. Readers will meet legendary chefs like David Chang and Eric Ripert, idiosyncratic writers like David Foster Wallace, and a colorful group of editors and art directors who, under Reichl's leadership, transformed stately Gourmet into a cutting-edge publication. This was the golden age of print media—the last spendthrift gasp before the Internet turned the magazine world upside down.

Complete with recipes, Save Me the Plums is a personal journey of a woman coming to terms with being in charge and making a mark, following a passion and holding on to her dreams—even when she ends up in a place she never expected to be.

I'm a huge fan of memoirs, particularly culinary memoirs, so when I heard about Save Me the Plums I quickly added it to my TBR list. I planned to read it a couple of years ago for Nonfiction November, but never got around to it. I put it on this year's list for the same reading challenge, but again, it never made the cut. I finally started listening to the audio early this month, but didn't get in a lot of listening time, and it took me almost a full month to finish the 8-hour audiobook.

I enjoyed parts of Reichl's memoir, but other parts were boring and full of too many unfamiliar names. I was never a subscriber to Gourmet magazine, nor have I ever lived in New York City, but maybe those who are more in tune to the now-defunct publication and the locale would have a greater appreciation for the author's name-dropping, both of restaurants & chefs, as well as staff at Conde Naste. 

The chapters which focus on the eating habits of Ruth's young son, her firsthand experiences during 9/11 (the Gourmet staff prepared meals to feed rescue workers), and her budget-friendly trip to Paris, were worthwhile. There are also several recipes (read, somewhat tediously, line by line in the audiobook) that I'd love to try, so I may take a peek at the print edition someday. I read Tender at the Bone decades ago and while I enjoyed the first half, I didn't love that book either. In 2014 I read her novel Delicious!, but wasn't overly impressed. I think it's safe to say that I've given her books a fair chance, and the end result is that I'm not a true Ruth Reichl fan.

Thank you Libro.fm for the complimentary copy.