SAVE ME THE PLUMS

The renowned food writer recounts
her adventures as editor-in-chief of the noted epicurean magazine Gourmet in
its last decade.

A native New Yorker, Reichl (My
Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes that Saved My Life, 2015, etc.) grew up reading
the magazine, and food soon became her “own private way of looking at the world.”
While working as a chef in Berkeley, California, in the 1970s, she began
writing about food, at New West and then the Los Angeles
Times, before returning to New York to become the formidable restaurant
critic for the New York Times. In 1999, at age 51, somewhat fearfully—she
lacked magazine experience and faced managing a staff of 60—Reichl took the
editorial helm of Gourmet, at six times her Times salary
plus perks, with free rein from Condé Nast publisher Si Newhouse to revamp the
staid magazine. In this fun, gossipy, and beguiling memoir, Reichl offers revealing
glimpses of her parents, both introduced in earlier books, but the focus is on
the heady process of “magazine making,” which meant turning an old-fashioned
book into a modern, edgy monthly. She describes the exhilaration of working
with talented, quirky staffers, and she provides vivid snapshots of Condé Nast honchos,
including publishers Newhouse (supportive) and Gina Sanders (who “relished”
fights) as well as the “large, loud,” yet appealing CEO Steve Florio, who
regaled her with tales of Newhouse (“You know that Roy Cohn was his closest
friend?”). Throughout, the author tells winning stories—of goings-on in the
celebrated Condé Nast cafeteria, midnight parties for chefs, zany annual
meetings, and providing food to 9/11 firefighters. Her success in introducing
provocative articles like David Rakoff’s “Some Pig,” about Jews and bacon, and
David Foster Wallace’s classic “Consider the Lobster,” on the ethics of eating,
taught her that “when something frightens me, it is definitely worth doing.” A dream
job, it ended in the late-2000s recession, when declining ads forced the
closing of the venerable publication.

An absolutely delightful reading
experience.