About this title: Ruth Reichl spills the beans (and the sushi, salads, and steak) about her years as a restaurant critic, first at the LA Times, then at the New York Times. Famous for her absurd (but useful) disguises, Reichl spent years on the Manhattan restaurant circuit, awarding and subtracting stars as she searched for a truly good meal. Besides her experiences at the table, Reichl also writes about the gossip and infighting at the Times and about the effects her crazy job had on her personal life.
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Press
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781594200311ISBN:1594200319
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781594200311ISBN:1594200319
Description: Good in Good jacket. Ex-library. 245-W Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners. Spine has wear at edges. Dust jacket has some wear. read more
Description: Satisfaction Guaranteed. Shipped quickly. 2006. Paperback. Used, very good. Very good overall with light to moderate wear. No dust jacket. read more
Description: Satisfaction Guaranteed. Shipped quickly. 2006. Paperback. Used, very good. Very good overall with light to moderate wear. No dust jacket. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780143036616ISBN:0143036610
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. book conver very good, a few pages of middle book were bent, shipping next day with confirmation number. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 333 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"I have to admit to having very little interest in this book when I won it off Bookobsessed.com, but like most authors I encounter there, I'm at least willing to give it a try.
All other reading ventures went on hold as I went on a whirlwind restaurant tour of New York City with Reichl. I couldn't stop reading. I've been late to work everyday this week trying to sneak in ten more minutes to finish a chapter. I loved her humor, her descriptions, and her philosophy on food and eating. I admired the way her and her husband have very independent friendships and working relationships, but still managed to be a very tight couple with a focus on parenting their one son, Nicky, who's opinions and one-liners add a lightness and insight to the book.
It was enlightening to read about how differently people are treated in New York based on status and class. That aspect of it made me not in the least bit interested in touring any of these restaurants at the same time that I was enjoying their descriptions. It was great getting to know the different costumes that Reichl used so that she could see how everyone is treated in a particular restaurant, not the preferential treatment given to the NY Times restaurant critic.
One thing I took issue with was her ordering of fois gras at just about every restaurant. I know that this is the food of the rich, and how well it is done is the measure of a French chef, but the way ducks are treated - being force fed with metal collars around their necks until the point their internal organs almost explode, for the purpose of getting a really fatty liver - is highly objectionable.
Maybe it was due to my complete lack of any decent western food choices here in Korea, but I was completely engrossed in this book all week."
"Yum! What a delicious book. I bought it with the intention of giving it away when I finish. I may not be able to do this though, because a) I got tomato sauce all over it while reading it during lunch (which I actually think is appropriate for a book by a restaurant critic) and b) it has some interesting recipes that I want to try.
I stayed up all night reading this. Reichl is a good, engaging writer. The reviews she includes are wonderful, although I wonder if restaurant reviewers feel a little wierd when they use words like "silky" to describe food.
The best passages in this book involve her disguises as Chloe and Betty (particularly the development of the Betty persona)and the meals she eats for charity. In the charity portion, a dinner with the New York Times restaurant critic is auctioned off to the highest bidder. Her meal with one of these bidders is priceless -- and infuriating.
I've read one other book by Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone. I found the opening passage of that book one of the funniest things I have read. EVER. So I'm interested in reading her other books.
This one is written in a similar chatty style, which I enjoy. At the moment, I'm giving it three stars, which is one more than she gave Le Cirque, New York's famed restaurant.
I liked the review of Le Cirque she included in the book, which basically says that your experience of eating at Le Cirque is going to be better or worse depending on whether or not you are a personage recognized by the owner. Since I'm not such a personage, I think my Le Cirque experience will be confined to reading this three-star review. I'm betting that's not going to make much of a difference to the owner.
If you're interested in food, or New York, or books having to do with writing or the news business, you'll probably like this book. If none of those things are true, just skip this one."
"Ruth Reichl is the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine and the former restaurant critic of the New York Times. In this book she covers the period of her life that she was hired at the New York Times and eventually quit to work for Gourmet.
I'm fascinated by the restaurant industry. Of course I'm living in Syracuse Utah, so I'm not actually experiencing fine dining on a daily basis, but still I'm amazed by the dishes a good chef can create. The process of coming up with these dishes is very cool, and one of the reasons I'm addicted to the Food Network and why Top Chef is one of my favorite shows.
Reichl's book is an interesting look at what happens after the food has left the kitchen ( for an excellent look at the chef's side, try Anthony Bourdain's book about his life as a chef). The life of a restaurant critic means she spends hours choosing wigs and disguises, almost creating new personalities just so chef's don't have a chance at guessing who she is, and making sure she gets only the best food. The disguise thing almost overtook every other aspect of the book by the end, it was an annoyance when she spent less time describing the food and dishes than she did the type of clothing and attitude she used while critiquing. While I loved hearing about her spending time in multiple Chinese restaurants planning the perfect buffet for her boss, she'd then go on and on about how important it was to find the perfect wig, and how wonderful it was to find that person that could provide it. Then each disguise brought a different personality that she would go on and on about. More about the perfect roast duck, less about the type of purse that goes with your current disguise please.
The power she wielded as soon as she was named the critic was pretty amazing, her picture was posted in kitchen everywhere so chefs could give her the best strawberries, the largest portions of steak and the freshest desserts. It made me think I'd skip the disguise just to get the royal treatment whenever I went out.
The home recipes scattered throughout the book don't seem to fit until you reach the end and understand what it's all leading up to. None of them sounded interesting enough to try, but it's an interesting way to show how she wants to stay ties to home-cooked meals while she is out dining. She also takes her husband and son out to eat at some of the restaurants, and their reactions are almost as interesting as hers.
It's a quick read, and has a enough variety for most of the book to keep it interesting. It's not until the last quarter that it starts to slow down, partly because it's so obvious that she isn't enjoying her job. It comes through in the writing and makes it more difficult to continue reading."
"it's an entertaining read for sure - i really enjoyed her descriptions of food, and her observations of restaurants and surroundings - she has a definite gift for writing. and the whole concept of her book is interesting and thoughtful, and prescient.
however, i couldn't shake the feeling as i read the book that she is overall annoying and a big debbie downer. although her premise coming in as a food critic at the NYT is that taste is subjective, she comes across as strongly opinionated and arrogant. it struck me as i read her descriptions of her colleagues, people she meets on the street, people she meets in restaurants, her friends and family - is that they're mostly negative. i mean, they're probably correct in that it seems as if she observes things in a pessimistic light. the way she describes people can be a little mean, to the point of being uncomfortable. and as i work in a hospital, i was also a little annoyed at the end when she describes how her friend goes through treatments for cancer - she describes it as "horrid things that doctors are doing to her friend" on more than one occasion, making it sound as if doctors were monsters who live to torture people. i'd be interested to know her opinion on how to treat the by-blows of cancer. she noted, for example, that they shoved tubes down her friend's nose at one point, making it sound as if they did for fun. more likely than not her friend had a bowel obstruction. so, ms. food critic - why don't you tell us the treatment for that that doesn't require placing a nasogastric tube for decompression? or would you rather your friend perforate her bowel?
at any rate, although i enjoyed reading her book and especially her food descriptions, there were more than several parts that left me feeling irritated and disgruntled."
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