audiobooks

COMFORT ME WITH APPLES takes place in the 1970's and is an autobiographical story that is both candid and provocative. The author is Ruth Reichl, a chef who became a food writer for the New York Times and Gourmet magazine. She's a talented writer and has a unique style that's all her own.

Ruth Reichl's life is as much about people as it is about the foods that they shared together. Her travels around the world seeking adventure in culinary delights makes for fascinating reading. Her sensuous journey into the exotic world of food took her from China to France and from California to New York. The book is filed with anecdotes about famous chefs including a movie star who was also a terrific cook.

She was quite open about her failing marriage and her various love affairs. Although it was captivating to read about, Reichl seemed to be a woman who was, at times, emotionally out of control. While reading the book, I'd often catch myself thinking, "Oh, no, Ruth don't get mixed up with that guy."

Yes, Ruth included quite a few recipes. My favorite was the one for mushroom soup.

It seems to me that if you're going to write a memoir, you need to be prepared to offer your readers a "warts and all" account instead of whitewashing your life. Ruth Reichl does that here -- obviously a lot of people were upset by her revelations of extramarital affairs (and don't forget, her first husband played around even more than she did), but she is honest with her readers, and I admire that.

I was a big fan of Reichl's first volume of memoirs, TENDER AT THE BONE, and this continuation of her story captivated me from start to finish with its beautifully written accounts of great meals, wonderful chefs (including Hollywood star Danny Kaye), and Reichl's personal ups and downs. I loved the chapters set in exotic locales like China, Thailand and Spain, as well as the stories about Wolfgang Puck and Alice Waters. The story ends with Reichl's pregnancy as she is living in L.A. and working as the restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times. Obviously much has happened since then, including her stints as a reviewer for the New York Times and her current position as editor of Gourmet magazine. That leads me to hope that there will be a third volume of memoirs before too long -- I can't wait!

I was SO disappointed-- this woman, for all her publishing credits, does not write well about food! All those descriptions of how cheese and foie gras "explode" in her mouth (as if to emphasize that the author is a "sensualist", sensualist with a capital S-- yeah, we get it, especially after she describes how she passionately falls in and out of affairs...) By the last hundred or so pages I was skipping over all the meal descriptions because I knew what was coming: first, surprise; then, the feeling of something exploding in your mouth; then, either a fight or a love interlude...

I was also wondering whether, in the food publishing world, it is considered OK to sleep with your editor--? And she was getting really plummy assignments from him. This DID bother me...

Oh well, at least she was honest. I hope the editor was apprised that his role in her career was going to be laid out for all to see in the pages of her "memoir"...