Ruth Reichl’s New Novel is Delicious!
If you’re a fan of culinary mysteries, or looking for a summer beach novel, you might enjoy “Delicious!” by Ruth Reichl. But not if you’re on a diet. I did a review of the book in my Standard-Examiner column.
Foodies will recognize her name, as Reichl has held some of the most powerful food writing posts in the country, including restaurant critic at the Los Angeles Times and then the New York Times.
In 1999, she became editor of Gourmet, the prestigious magazine that was founded in 1941. But in 2009, that gig came to a halt as the magazine was abruptly shut down due to the tanked economy.
I’ve read several interviews where Reich talks about the shock and feeling of failure when the magazine closed, and how she didn’t know what to do with herself. But like a good cook who can turn lemons into lemonade, Reichl decided to tread into new writing territory — a novel. But in keeping with the old adage to “write what you know,” the book is set in the offices of the country’s premier food magazine, called “Delicious!
I can relate, on a smaller scale, to Reichl’s situation. For ten years, I held my dream job as food editor of the Deseret News, a Salt Lake City institution for over 160 years. Early one morning in August 2010, all the staff was called to a meeting. The new CEO announced that the paper was going to “lead and innovate,” a euphemism for saying that nearly half the staff that was being laid off, including all of the full-time feature writers. One of the CEO’s recently hired Harvard MBA to me, “You might have had skills and talents that were once worth something once, but they’re not anymore.” I was also told that “Food stories are the easiest thing to get for free on the Internet.”
So I, too, was forced to come up with Plan B. That’s how I ended up starting this blog, writing my cookbook, “Soup’s On!” ghost-editing several books, freelancing for newspapers and magazines, teaching cooking classes, and completing a recipe database project for the New York Times. A novel was something I never considered.
Reichl had already detailed her own food writing adventures in a series of best-selling memoirs, “Tender At The Bone,” “Comfort Me With Apples,” and “Garlic And Sapphires.” Some of those tales proved that truth really can be stranger than fiction. In fact, I thought her fiction was tame by comparison.
Her novel begins as young Billie Breslin snags a job as assistant to the editor of the country’s top food magazine, Delicious! Through Billie’s eyes, we learn the inner workings of a food magazine. Apparently, these big New York food magazines are pretty swanky — almost on the level of “The Devil Wears Prada,” although Reichl makes most of her characters a lot nicer.
Billie’s life takes a turn when Delicious! is suddenly shut down. (Hmmm, wonder how the author came up with that plot twist?) The staff is ordered to pack up their personal belongings and vacate the premises. All except for Billie, who is retained to maintain the reader hotline. The historic mansion that housed the bustling Delicious! offices is feels like a ghost town, amid the stench of food rotting away in the test kitchen. (The magazine owner’s bean counters insisted that no “company property” could be taken off the premises, but didn’t consider that recipe ingredients are perishable. For those who think this is far-fetched, you probably haven’t been through a layoff or company shutdown. Weird things happen! Luckily, there was no rotting food when I had to walk away from the Deseret News test kitchen. I always made a point to leave very few perishables in the fridge.)
While searching for old recipes requested by readers, Billie discovers a hidden room where the magazine’s old secrets are tucked away. Mysterious clues lead her to a cache World War II-era fan letters from a young teenager to chef James Beard, who was once a writer for Delicious! Thanks to advice from Beard, she comes up with tasty meals from pumpkin leaves, foraged mushrooms, and milkweed floss to stretch their wartime rations.
Billie recognizes the historical value of the letters, and decided to seek out Lulu, who might possibly still be alive after all these years.
The story has many places where fact and fiction intersect. Obviously, there is no Delicious! magazine, but Beard — now recognized as the dean of American cuisine — did write articles for Gourmet and other food magazines.
But there are several other story lines. Billie has secrets lurking in her family background that she’s trying to avoid. And there’s Mr. Complainer, who is interested in good food, and maybe in Billie too.
Reichl definitely cooked up a recipe for fiction, with intriguing tidbits of mystery and nostalgia, lavishly sprinkled with romance and a pinch of humor. A few ingredients are a little off — Billie’s perfect sister whom she holds on a pedestal feels like a cliché. And maybe she’s thrown too much into the pot — World War II’s food rationing and discrimination of Italian-Americans, the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad, drug addiction, family issues, running a deli, romance, and more…. But overall, the tale is satisfying and a little bittersweet.
What really sets the book apart is Reichl’s abiity to describe food — the textures, the aromas, the colors, the flavors. She conveys the feeling that you are tasting right along with her, and that’s what made her so successful as a food writer.
