Genre: Autobiography & Memoir
Length: 288 pages
Audiobook Length: 7 hours and 55 minutes
First Published: 2019
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Publisher’s Description
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. 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.
Quotes from Save Me the Plums
“Luxury is best appreciated in small portions. When it becomes routine it loses its allure.”
“I’m just an actor, and no more interesting than you are. She scribbled her name. Probably not as interesting, actually You should pay more attention to yourself and less to people like me. You’ll be better off that way.”
“To me, the subway is more than a quick way to get from one place to another. It is New York in miniature, an intimate glimpse of the city. You rub shoulders with everyone who lives here, find out what they’re reading, see what they’re wearing, eavesdrop on their conversations.”
About Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl is an author, editor, and food critic. She was editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine for ten years, a well-known restaurant critic for The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. She has written a number of books about food, including her cookbook My Kitchen Year, her memoirs Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples, Garlic and Sapphires, For You Mom, Finally and Save Me the Plums. She currently lives in upstate New York with her husband. Visit the author’s website →
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