Save Me the Plums

Reichl first encountered Gourmet magazine at the age of 8, when she discovered a vintage copy at an antique store. She was instantly fascinated with the magazine, which featured stories of exotic meals and adventurous chefs from around the world. The magazine sparked her obsession with food, and she began cooking elaborate meals for her parents, including a suckling pig. The pig triggered her father’s childhood memory of eating Kassler rippchen—a type of German roast pork—in his German immigrant community in New York. Reichl spent weekends exploring New York City’s ethnic enclaves with her father.

When she began her career in food writing, Reichl was initially too intimidated to pitch stories to Gourmet. Inspired by a Thai restaurant in Berkeley, California, she decided to pitch a story about the growing popularity of Thai food. The pitch was rejected for being too trendy, and Reichl realized that the Gourmet she fell in love with no longer exists.

Twenty years later, in 1998, Reichl, a food critic at The New York Times, was invited to meet James Truman, editorial director of Condé Nast, the media company that owns Vanity Fair, GQ, and Gourmet. Reichl assumed that Gourmet was looking for a new restaurant critic.