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Thursday, November 14, 2019

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

This was a book that could not be written in the immediate aftermath of the demise of Gourmet magazine.  Reichl waited about 10 years, which served two purposes (in my mind).  It allowed her time to ramp down any anger that she might have felt about having the rug pulled out from under herself and her team at Gourmet, people she recruited and worked with who were left unemployed in the most shocking way.  And the other is that enough of the players had died, so that there were less people left to offend.
This book may pull punches, I don't know the whole story, but there are a lot of less than flattering details here. Conde Naste was not a natural fit for her, but they convinced here that they were serious about revamping Gourmet, and that her ideas about the controversies in food, related to raising it, cooking it, and marketing it were all of interest to them too.  They would support her with a budget, a staff and resources, and all of that came true.  It is a great story, as you would expect from her, and I highly recommend it if you are a fan or just love a story that involves food.

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