Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl

Title: Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise

Author: Ruth Reichl

Publisher: Penguin 2006

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 364

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; Unread Shelf RC - Food/Cooking

GARLIC AND SAPPHIRES is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine anonymously. There is her stint as Molly Hollis, a frumpy blond with manicured nails and an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque. The result: her famous double review of the restaurant: first she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic.

What is even more remarkable about Reichl's spy games is that as she takes on these various disguises, she finds herself changed not just superficially, but in character as well. She gives a remarkable account of how one's outer appearance can very much influence one's inner character, expectations, and appetites.

One of my book club selections for September and a book that has languished on my shelf for years. Unfortunately, I think it probably should have stayed there. I really enjoyed Reichl’s Save Me the Plums and hoped I would encounter the same fun and relatable woman in this earlier work about her job as a food critic. Instead, I feel like we get a very out-of-touch upper class woman intent on showing the common people the joy of food who actually shows us just how snobby many people (herself included) are when it comes to food. I am no stranger to good food and really enjoy tasting new flavors and expertly crafted dishes. But I realize that that’s not an everyday reality for most people (even me). Sometimes you just have to eat. Not everyone can be catered to and pay for a $100+ meal for one person. After about the fourth chapter, the book got really repetitively. I just ended dreading having to come back to this book.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Drive-Thru Dreams by Adam Chandler

Title: Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America’s Fast-Food Kingdom

Author: Adam Chandler

Publisher: Flatiron Books 2019

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 274

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library

Most any honest person can own up to harboring at least one fast-food guilty pleasure. In Drive-Thru Dreams, Adam Chandler explores the inseparable link between fast food and American life for the past century. The dark underbelly of the industry’s largest players has long been scrutinized and gutted, characterized as impersonal, greedy, corporate, and worse. But, in unexpected ways, fast food is also deeply personal and emblematic of a larger than life image of America.

With wit and nuance, Chandler reveals the complexities of this industry through heartfelt anecdotes and fascinating trivia as well as interviews with fans, executives, and workers. He traces the industry from its roots in Wichita, where White Castle became the first fast food chain in 1921 and successfully branded the hamburger as the official all-American meal, to a teenager's 2017 plea for a year’s supply of Wendy’s chicken nuggets, which united the internet to generate the most viral tweet of all time.

Random new books shelf from the library pick and I was pleasantly surprised. Every chapter details the rise of one of the well-known fast food places. We get a bit of interesting history as well as a commentary on our current world. I much preferred the history bits, but understand why the rest was included. I cam out of the book with a ton of new random facts. A pretty enjoyable book.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

Title: Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir

Author: Ruth Reichl

Publisher: Random House 2019

Genre: Memoir

Pages: 269

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America’s oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone’s boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no?

This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It is the story of the moment restaurants became an important part of popular culture, a time when the rise of the farm-to-table movement changed, forever, the way we eat. Readers will meet legendary chefs like David Chang and Eric Ripert, idiosyncratic writers like David Foster Wallace, and a colorful group of editors and art directors who, under Reichl’s leadership, transformed stately Gourmet into a cutting-edge publication. This was the golden age of print media—the last spendthrift gasp before the Internet turned the magazine world upside down.

Another Anne Bogel Summer Reading List pick. I’m slowly working my way through the entire list for this summer and most of the picks have been enjoyable. I haven’t followed Reichl’s career, but I loved reading about her time at the editor of Gourmet magazine. I was fascinated by her transition of jobs and quick learning I never knew exactly what an editor-in-chief of a magazine did, and this book was a great lesson. However, my favorite parts were when she dove into food itself. Now that I’ve read this one, I feel like I need to read Reichl’s other works.

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Tea Reader by Katrina Avila Munichiello

Title: A Tea Reader: Living Life One Cup at a Time

Author: Katrina Avila Munichiello

Publisher: Tuttle 2011

Genre: Nonfiction - Food

Pages: 256

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual (Nonfiction Adventure)

This anthology shares the ways that tea has changed lives through personal, intimate stories. Read of deep family moments, conquered heartbreak, and peace found in the face of loss. A Tea Reader includes stories from all types of tea people: people brought up in the tea tradition, those newly discovering it, classic writings from long-ago tea lovers and those making tea a career. Together these tales create a new image of a tea drinker. They show that tea is not simply something you drink, but it also provides quiet moments for making important decisions, a catalyst for conversation, and the energy we sometimes need to operate in our lives.

The entire premise of this collection really intrigued me on the library shelf, but I just didn't love it like I was hoping I would. Some of the essays were quite enjoyable. Some of them seemed unfinished, as if an except was taken losing all context. And some essays just didn't land at all. Fairly disappointed in this collection. Oh well...

Next up on the TBR pile:

Voracious by Cara Nicoletti

Title: Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books

Author: Cara Nicoletti

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company 2015

Genre: Cooking

Pages: 283

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Popsugar - About Food

As a young bookworm reading in her grandfather's butcher shop, Cara Nicoletti saw how books and food bring people to life. Now a butcher, cook, and talented writer, she serves up stories and recipes inspired by beloved books and the food that gives their characters depth and personality.

I was listening to What Should I Read Next the other week, and this book came up. The guests, Rikki and Michaela, are the amazing creators of The Ardent Biblio and mentioned this great volume as a marriage between two of their favorite things, books and food. Imagine my delight when I randomly saw it on the shelf at the library. I had to check it out! I loved reading about how various books have affected Nicoletti throughout her life. I think every reader has their own life of impactful books. Nicoletti makes a coneection between all those great books and some amazing food. I loved reading the essays and perusing the recipes. I'm not really big into cooking, but I do love good food. I may jsut have to notate a few of these recipes before I return the book to the lubrary.

Next up on the TBR pile:

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The American Plate by Libby O'Connell

Title: The American Plate: A Culinary History in 100 Bites

Author: Libby H. O'Connell

Publisher: Sourcebooks 2014

Genre: Nonfiction - History; Food

Pages: 330

Rating:  4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nonfiction Adventure; Read Your Freebies; Dewey Decimal - 600s

Dr. Libby H. O'Connell takes readers on a mouth-watering journey through America's culinary evolution into the vibrant array of foods we savor today. In 100 tantalizing bites, ranging from blueberries and bagels to peanut butter, hard cider, and Cracker Jack, O'Connell reveals the astonishing ways that cultures and individuals have shaped our national diet and continue to influence how we cook and eat.

Peppered throughout with recipes, photos, and tidbits on dozens of foods, from the surprising origins of Hershey Bars to the strange delicacies our ancestors enjoyed, such as roast turtle and grilled beaver tail. Inspiring and intensely satisfying, The American Plate shows how we can use the tastes of our shared past to transform our future.

An interesting, if a bit shallow, look at 100 different foods that came to be important to American life. I enjoyed the earlier chapters more than the later chapters. I felt like O'Connell spent more time on the food in the earlier chapters and then shifted the focus to social movements in the later chapters. Still I learned a bit about the history of some well-known foods. My favorite chapter was the one covering the Progressive Era. Great bites in that chapter!

Grand Forks by Marilyn Hagerty

Title: Grand Forks

Author: Marilyn Hagerty

Publisher: HarperCollins 2013

Genre: Nonfiction - Food

Pages: 237

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library; Nonfiction Adventure

Once upon a time, salad was iceberg lettuce with a few shredded carrots and a cucumber slice, if you were lucky. A vegetable side was potatoes—would you like those baked, mashed, or au gratin? A nice anniversary dinner? Would you rather visit the Holiday Inn or the Regency Inn? In Grand Forks, North Dakota, a small town where professors moonlight as farmers, farmers moonlight as football coaches, and everyone loves hockey, one woman has had the answers for more than twenty-five years: Marilyn Hagerty. In her weekly Eatbeat column in the local paper, Marilyn gives the denizens of Grand Forks the straight scoop on everything from the best blue plate specials—beef stroganoff at the Pantry—to the choicest truck stops—the Big Sioux (and its lutefisk lunch special)—to the ambience of the town's first Taco Bell. Her verdict? "A cool pastel oasis on a hot day."

I loved the premise of this book: a look at one town's restaurant reviews over the period of almost 30 years.  Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed at the outcome.  Each review is presented as published.  There is no interesting commentary connecting the columns.  In that sense, the reader gets a bit lost in the repetition of reviews.  I would have liked more..

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Title: Kitchen Confidential

Author: Anthony Bourdain

Publisher: HarperCollins 2007

Genre: Memoir

Pages: 486

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nerdy Nonfiction -- Food; ebook; Blogger Recommendations; 52 Books -- W14

How I Got It: iPad read

A New York City chef who is also a novelist recounts his experiences in the restaurant business, and exposes abuses of power, sexual promiscuity, drug use, and other secrets of life behind kitchen doors.

This is one of those "I've been meaning to read this forever" books.  I enjoy watching No Reservations.  I love Bourdain's style.  I even saw a few of the episodes of the television series based on the book (starring Bradley Cooper pre-super stardom).  And yet I never read the book.  A long plane ride to Indiana was the perfect time to correct that oversight.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  It's part memoir, part tell-all, part guidebook.  We see the world of restaurants from the inside, but often with a very particular perspective.  I loved meeting the crazy characters in each restaurant and kitchen.  I loved hearing about his journey from royal screw-up to famous and respected chef.  The book is loud and crude, just like Bourdain himself.  But to clean up his writing would destroy the essence of the story.  While I may not have known all the food words, I loved hearing about the creation of good food.  I love good food, and am willing to try just about anything.  I love Bourdain's philosophy of quality ingredients instead of fancy presentation.  I have a feeling I would love eating at any restaurant he cheffed at.  My only issue with the book: it made me hungry!  Reading about all this amazing food, I was constantly craving something!

Chocolate by Shara Aaron and Monica Bearden

Title: Chocolate: A Healthy Passion

Author: Shara Aaron and Monica Bearden

Publisher: Prometheus Books 2008

Genre: Nonfiction -- Food

Pages: 213

Rating:  4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Mixing It Up -- Food; Fall into Reading; Color Coded -- Brown

How I Got It: Library Loan

The world loves chocolate and chances are, with the majority of the population saying their favorite flavor is chocolate, you do too. This enjoyable book will serve to deepen, not only your love, but also your understanding of chocolate.Some may think that chocolate is simply a treat, something that satisfies a sweet tooth. After reading this truly pleasurable and educational account by two leading nutritionists, you will agree that chocolate is much more than that. You will discover it encompasses a culture, a cuisine, a treatment, and much more!

I went to the library to grab some food related book to finish my challenge.  At first I was thinking food travel memoir or a bio of a great chef, but then I spied this gem on the shelf.  A book about chocolate?  How could I resist?  While it does contain a fair amount of recipes involving chocolate, by favorite sections was all about the history and spread of chocolate.  I knew about the Aztecs and Mayans enjoying an ancient version of hot chocolate, but loved hearing more about its place in their cultures.  Although less enjoyable, I still found the detailed process of making chocolate interesting.  If I was a better and more patient cook, I would totally try these recipes.  As it is, I did enjoy a nice cup of raspberry hot chocolate while reading.

And with this book, I have now completed the Mixing It Up Reading Challenge!  Woohoo!