SF hearts Ruth Reichlfeatured

Ruth Reichl has a way of writing about food that moves, inspires, and makes you feel like you are eating right there with her, side by side. We had the pleasure of hearing her speak Friday night at the Herbst Theater. What a treat! In person, she is every bit as down to earth, warm, and witty as you would expect.

Highlights from the talk:

• Push aside fear to do what you were meant to do.
• Last wow eating moment was at Komi in DC where she sampled a Cromesquis of Caesar Salad, a small breaded and fried square containing the elements of a Caesar salad. I imagine a surprising pocket of crispiness that reveals a burst of creamy, briny dressing and a slight crunch of lettuce when you bite into it.
• If the White House had a press office in the kitchen and published a daily recipe, would the American people be inspired to eat better?
• Korean is the new American – salty, sweet, bold, spicy, textured
• Condemned or not, her last supper would start with fine caviar and oysters on the half shell, and end in one perfect peach.

Ruth also read a passage from her new book, Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way. It promises to be a poignant, self-revealing account of discovering who you are and who you came from.

While I’m gushing here, if you haven’t read Garlic and Sapphires yet, you must! It’s a chronicle of her time as the restaurant of the New York Times, and is beautifully written and highly entertaining. (It also may or may not have inspired me to be a food writer.)

If you missed Ruth Reichl last week, you can catch her Monday 5/11 at 10:00 am PST on KQED Radio’s Forum.