288 pages | 9th April, 2019 | Non-fiction | Food and Culture
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country
In this “poignant and hilarious” (The New York Times Book Review) memoir, trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth Reichl chronicles her groundbreaking tenure as editor in chief of Gourmet.
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.
"A delicious insider account of the gritty, glamorous world of food culture."
Vanity Fair
"Intensely evocative . . . Reichl is one of the best food writers of our era."
Vox
"[Reichl’s] voice remains one of the most trusted in our disparate food universe."
Bloomberg
"A lively, sweet-and-sour memoir . . . a fun-to-read romp through a time when glossy monthly magazines reigned supreme and when top editors ruled the magazines with royal privilege."
New York Post
"Save Me the Plums is Reichl’s account of those halcyon times at Condé Nast before the ax fell. . . . It’s a study in magazine-making, earnest ambition, disappointment, and reinvention. It’s also supremely readable. . . . She’s gathering up the reader in her pocket and taking them along for the ride."
The Boston Globe
"Save Me the Plums sweeps the reader up in the intoxicating splendor of Gourmet in its glory days, when the smart set was in it for the food, the friendship, and the big new ideas. This is the rare case of an amazing writer living an amazing life, with a book that’s the party I never wanted to end."
Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth
Ruth Reichl is the New York Times bestselling author of five memoirs, the novel Delicious!, and the cookbook My Kitchen Year. She was editor in chief of Gourmet magazine and previously served as restaurant critic for The New York Times, as well as food editor and restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times. She has been honored with six James Beard Awards. In 2024, she received the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award.
US: Random House