{"product_id":"save-me-the-plums-isbn-9781400069996","title":"Save Me the Plums","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBESTSELLER • “A delicious insider account of the gritty, glamorous world of food culture.”—\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this “poignant and hilarious” (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e) memoir, trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth Reichl chronicles her groundbreaking tenure as editor in chief of \u003ci\u003eGourmet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: \u003ci\u003eReal Simple, Good Housekeeping, Town \u0026amp; Country\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen 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 \u003ci\u003eGourmet\u003c\/i\u003e since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis 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 \u003ci\u003eGourmet \u003c\/i\u003einto 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eComplete with recipes, \u003ci\u003eSave Me the Plums\u003c\/i\u003e 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.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Intensely evocative . . . Reichl is one of the best food writers of our era.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eVox\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“[Reichl’s] voice remains one of the most trusted in our disparate food universe.”\u003cb\u003e—Bloomberg\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSave Me the Plums\u003c\/i\u003e sweeps the reader up in the intoxicating splendor of \u003ci\u003eGourmet\u003c\/i\u003e 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.”\u003cb\u003e—Ann Patchett, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eCommonwealth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSave Me the Plums\u003c\/i\u003e 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.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“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.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Ruth Reichl is the best sort of storyteller—intimate, wise, frank, and completely engaging. Here she beautifully details her ten years running \u003ci\u003eGourmet\u003c\/i\u003e, with all the triumphs and tribulations, and it’s a brilliant tale. Every page is rich and delicious; the book is such a treat!”—\u003cb\u003eSusan Orlean, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Library Book\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“No one writes about food like Ruth Reichl. She also happens to be a mesmerizing storyteller. I consider this book essential nourishment.”\u003cb\u003e—Nigella Lawson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Reichl dishes up an enthralling account of the intrigue, obsession, and glamour that made \u003ci\u003eGourmet\u003c\/i\u003e an institution.\u003ci\u003e Save Me the Plums\u003c\/i\u003e is a delectable behind-the-scenes journey through the food world and its rise to celebrity status.”\u003cb\u003e—Bianca Bosker, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eCork Dork\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Endearing . . . \u003ci\u003eGourmet\u003c\/i\u003e magazine readers will relish the behind-the-scenes peek at the workings of the magazine. . . . Reichl’s revealing memoir is a deeply personal look at a food world on the brink of change.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fun . . . beguiling . . . an absolutely delightful reading experience.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Readers of her past memoirs will recognize Reichl’s lighthearted but dedicated approach to her work [and] her big-hearted approach to the dinner table. . . . New readers will be equally delighted by Reichl’s account of an influential magazine, its final days and the many moments that illustrate the ways food can bring people together.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eRuth Reichl \u003c\/b\u003eis the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of five memoirs, the novel \u003ci\u003eDelicious!\u003c\/i\u003e, and the cookbook \u003ci\u003eMy Kitchen Year\u003c\/i\u003e. She was editor in chief of \u003ci\u003eGourmet\u003c\/i\u003e magazine and previously served as restaurant critic for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as food editor and restaurant critic for the\u003ci\u003e Los Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e. She has been honored with six James Beard Awards. In 2024, she received the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award.1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMagic Door\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was eight years old when I first found the magazine, sitting on the dusty wooden floor of a used-­book store. My father was a book designer who enjoyed the company of ancient volumes, and he often took me on book-­hunting expeditions around New York, leaving me with a pile of vintage magazines while he went off to prowl among the dark and crowded shelves. That day I picked up a tattered old issue of Gourmet, enchanted by the cover drawing of a majestic swordfish leaping joyfully from the water. This looked nothing like the ladies’ magazines my mother favored, with their recipes for turkey divan made with cans of mushroom soup, or pot roast topped with ketchup, and I opened it to find the pages filled with tales of food in faraway places. A story called “Night of Lobster” caught my eye, and as I began to read, the walls faded, the shop around me vanishing until I was sprawled on the sands of a small island off the coast of Maine. The tide was coming in, water tickling my feet as it crept across the beach. It was deep night, the sky like velvet, spangled with stars.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMuch later I understood how lucky I was to have stumbled on that story. The author, Robert P. Tristram Coffin, was the poet laureate of Maine and a Pulitzer Prize winner with such an extraordinary gift for words that I could hear the hiss of a giant kettle and feel the bonfire burning as the flames leapt into the night. The fine spicy fragrance of lobster was so real to me that I reached for one, imagined tossing it from hand to hand until the shell was cool enough to crack. The meat was tender, briny, rich. Somewhere off in the distance a fish splashed, then swam silently away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI closed the magazine, and the real world came into focus. I was a little girl leafing through the pages of a magazine printed long before I was born. But I kept turning the pages, enchanted by the writing, devouring tales of long-­lost banquets in Tibet, life in Paris, and golden fruit growing on strange tropical trees. I had always been an avid reader, but this was different: This was not a made-­up story; it was about real life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI loved the ads for exotic ingredients you could send away for: oysters by the bushel, freshly picked watercress, alligator pears (avocados), and “frogs’ legs from the frogland of America.” Once I actually persuaded my parents to order a clambake in a pot from Saltwater Farm in Damariscotta, Maine. Eight live lobsters and a half peck of clams came swathed in seaweed and packed in ice. It cost $14.95, and all you had to do was poke holes in the top of the container and set it on the stove.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI couldn’t get enough of those old issues, and now when Dad went off exploring bookstores I had a quest of my own. The day I discovered a battered copy of The Gourmet Cookbook among the ancient issues, I begged Dad to buy it for me. “It’s only fifty cents,” I pleaded.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt came in handy the morning I opened the refrigerator in our small kitchen and found myself staring at a suckling pig. I jumped back, startled, and then did what any sensible person would do: reached for the cookbook. I was only ten, and I hoped it would have some advice on how to deal with the thing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSure enough, there it was, on page 391: “Roast Suckling Pig Parisienne.” There was even a handy photograph demonstrating how to truss the tiny animal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI remember that moment, and not just because the recipe insisted on a lot of yucky stuff like putting a block of wood into the pig’s mouth (“to brace it for the apple that will be inserted later”) and boiling the heart for gravy. I remember it mostly because that was the day Mom finally admitted she was glad I’d found a hobby.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy mother’s interest in food was strictly academic. Asked what had possessed her to purchase the pig, she replied, “I’d never seen one before,” as if that was an adequate answer. The same logic had compelled her to bring home a can of fried grasshoppers, a large sea urchin with dangerously sharp spines, and a flashy magenta cactus flower. She had little interest in eating these items, but if I was going to insist on reading what she called “that ridiculous magazine,” she thought it should be put to use.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe fried grasshoppers were not a hit; I suspect the can had been sitting on a shelf for years, awaiting some gullible customer. And while the editors were eager to instruct me in the preparation of eels, bears, woodchucks, and snipe, they were strangely silent on the subject of sea urchins. When I finally managed to pry the creature open, I found the gooey black inside so appalling that nothing would have tempted me to taste it. As for the cactus flower, its great good looks camouflaged a total lack of flavor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut the suckling pig was a different story. I did everything the cookbook suggested and then hovered anxiously near the oven, hoping it hadn’t led me astray. When the pig emerged all crackling skin and sweet soft meat, Mom was happy. “I’ve never tasted anything so delicious,” she grudgingly admitted. “That magazine might be useful after all.”New York Times bestselling author of Tender at the Bone","brand":"Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303867732197,"sku":"NP9781400069996","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781400069996.jpg?v=1767736136","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/save-me-the-plums-isbn-9781400069996","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}