Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir

Trade Paperback - NEW

Ruth Reichl spearheaded a revolution in the way we think about food. Here, for the first time, she chronicles the personal and professional risks she took during her tenure as the editor in chief of Gourmet magazine in this insightful, inspiring and very readable new memoir.

Ruth Reichl built her career on celebrating the simple joy of sharing food with friends and family. When Condé Nast offered her the top position at Gourmet she initially declined. She was a writer, not a manager, a former Berkeley hippie with no inclination to be anybody’s boss. And yet…She’d started reading the magazine at age eight and discovered her own love for food and cooking through its pages. The chance to modernize it just as food was becoming a key part of popular culture proved irresistible.

This is the story of how, under Reichl’s leadership, a colorful group of editors and art directors transformed Gourmet from a stately grande dame into a cutting-edge publication. Readers will meet legendary chefs like David Chang and Eric Ripert, idiosyncratic writers like David Foster Wallace, and eccentric Condé Nast owner Si Newhouse, who indulged his editors even as he ran his business with an iron fist. Reichl brings us behind the scenes for a rare glimpse of how the culinary world operates, from all-night “Chef’s Night Out” parties to elaborately crafted food photo shoots to the legendary Gourmet test kitchen, and she shares the recipes that meant the most to her along the way.

But this is not just the tale of a magazine; it is also a story about taking a professional leap of faith, following your passion and holding onto your dreams—even when nothing works out the way you’d expected.