On Sale September 29
About the Book
In the fall of 2009, the food world was rocked when Gourmet magazine was abruptly shuttered by its parent company. No one was more stunned by this unexpected turn of events than its beloved editor in chief, Ruth Reichl, who suddenly faced an uncertain professional future. As she struggled to process what had seemed unthinkable, Reichl turned to the one place that had always provided sanctuary. “I did what I always do when I’m confused, lonely, or frightened,” she writes. “I disappeared into the kitchen.”
My Kitchen Year follows the change of seasons—and Reichl’s emotions—as she slowly heals through the simple pleasures of cooking. While working 24/7, Reichl would “throw quick meals together” for her family and friends. Now she has the time to rediscover what cooking meant to her. Imagine kale, leaves dark and inviting, sautéed with chiles and garlic; summer peaches baked into a simple cobbler; fresh oysters chilling in a box of snow; plump chickens and earthy mushrooms, fricasseed with cream. Over the course of this challenging year, each dish Reichl prepares becomes a kind of stepping stone to finding joy again in ordinary things.
The 136 recipes collected here represent a life’s passion for food: a blistering ma po tofu that shakes Reichl out of the blues; a decadent grilled cheese sandwich that accompanies a rare sighting in the woods around her home; a rhubarb sundae that signals the arrival of spring. Here, too, is Reichl’s enlivening dialogue with her Twitter followers, who become her culinary supporters and lively confidants.
Part cookbook, part memoir, part paean to the household gods, My Kitchen Year may be Ruth Reichl’s most stirring book yet—one that reveals a refreshingly vulnerable side of the world’s most famous food editor as she shares treasured recipes to be returned to again and again and again.
Events
August 31—Palo Alto, CA
8:00 PM
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Onstage conversation with Michael Krasny
September 20-23—Mexico City
Mesoamerica Mesa Redonda
September 28—New York, NY
6:30 PM
September 29—New York, NY
8:15 PM
92 Street Y With Martha Stewart
September 30 –Cambridge, MA
6:00 PM
Brattle Theater with Doc Willoughby
October 1—Nashville, TN
6:15 PM
October 2–St. Louis, MO
6:00 PM
Lunch at Herbie's Vintage '72, with Left Bank Books
5:30 PM
Dinner at Kingside Diner, with Left Bank Books
October 3—Kansas City, MO
6:00 PM
Webster House Luncheon, with Rainy Day Books
October 5— Seattle, WA
Signing at Book Larder
Dinner at Walrus and Carpenter
Details TBA
October 6— San Francisco, CA
7:00PM
Bar Agricole, with Omnivore Books
October 7—Palo Alto, CA
12:00 PM
San Anselmo, CA
6:00 PM
Insalatas, with Book Passage
October 8—Healdsburg, CA
6:00PM
Cocktail reception and signing at Copperfield's Books
8:00 PM
Raven Performing Arts Center, with
Copperfield's Books
October 9—Danville, CA
12:00 PM
Lunch TBA, with Rakestraw Books
October 10—Portland, OR
12:00 PM
Lunch TBA, with Powell's Books
October 11—Los Angeles, CA
Dinner at Lucques, details TBA
October 14—Miami, FL
Lunch, with Books and Books
Dinner, with Books and Books
October 15—Raleigh, NC
1:00 PM Lunch at Fearrington Village, with McIntyre's October 18—Washington, D.C.
3:00 PM Busboys and Poets Takoma, with Politics and Prose
October 22—New York, NY
7:00 PM
Upper West Side Barnes and Noble
October 27—Philadelphia, PA
7:30 PM