Save Me the Plums

Reichl’s next major hire was Larry Karol, former managing editor at Allure magazine. Although Reichl found Karol’s personality grating, she immediately recognized his value to the magazine. Karol showed that Gourmet lacked the traditional structure of a magazine: There were no copy editors (responsible for editing the text of articles), fact checkers (responsible for confirming the truth of articles), or photo editors (responsible for assigning photographers to articles). Karol accused Reichl of being out of her depth, and she agreed. Over the following days, she shadowed him as he reorganized the magazine’s staff, receiving a crash course in magazine production.

Meanwhile, Ochoa realized that the magazine’s junior staff had interesting ideas that had not been explored. She learned that the previous editor-in-chief distributed assignments randomly, and that writers and junior editors were not allowed to pitch their own ideas. Ochoa and Reichl asked for story ideas and were thrilled by the proposals. Reichl’s fear of being the boss was replaced by the excitement of building a productive team. When she invited former editors to an informal meeting, she realized that they saw the magazine as by and for an elite class. She was pleased to see how much the magazine had grown under her leadership.

As soon as Reichl was officially editor-in-chief of Gourmet, the magazine’s publisher, Gina Sanders, insisted that she begin attending advertiser events to help lure brands to the magazine. Reichl noticed that Sanders presented the magazine differently depending on the brand she was pitching. Although she respected Sanders, they disagreed on many aspects of the magazine, in particular the role of travel editor. Reichl hoped to hire a new, younger travel editor whose taste more closely aligned with the magazine’s new vision. Sanders loved the existing editor, an older woman named Pat, who brought in massive advertising buys through her relationships with national tourism boards.

Sanders brought Reichl to lunch with the head of Estee Lauder, asking her to flex her former power as the restaurant critic for the New York Times. Although she enjoyed eating at nice restaurants without having to review them, Reichl resented being used in this way by Sanders. When she asked Truman whether this kind of power play was part of her job as editor-in-chief, he replied that he used to intentionally perform poorly at advertiser meetings so the publisher would stop inviting him. Reichl realized that, as a woman, she could never act that way and accepted that the meetings were part of her job.

Reichl was called to a meeting with Florio, the Chief Executive Officer of Condé Nast. Knowing that Florio was furious when Truman hired her without consulting him, Reichl was anxious about the meeting. Although she found him intimidating, Reichl was drawn to his boisterous, talkative nature. Florio spent the meeting gossiping about their co-workers and bragging about his culinary skills. Halfway through, Truman appeared outside the glass walls of Florio’s office, shaking his head vigorously to indicate that none of what Florio was saying was true. When Florio dismissed Reichl, Truman told her that Florio was a compulsive liar.

Shortly after, Florio invited Reichl to lunch at The Four Seasons, a luxurious restaurant that changed its menu and décor seasonally. As a child, Reichl went to the bar with her parents, who could not afford a full meal there but wanted to experience the elegance. The owner brought Florio an off-the-menu special: a baked potato covered in caviar. Florio warned Reichl that Si Newhouse was flexible when things went well but wouldn’t hesitate to fire her if she underperformed.

After a year of disappointing magazine sales, Reichl decided to hire a new art director, with the support of editorial director Truman. Truman suggested Diana LaGuardia, whom Reichl immediately liked for her avant-garde style and unabashed love of food. However, when LaGuardia referred to advertisers as creative cockroaches in front of a room of sales representatives, she earned the wrath of publisher Gina Sanders. Reichl felt glad to have an ally in her ongoing struggle to separate editorial decisions from the needs of advertisers.

LaGuardia proposed a cover featuring a handsome chef holding a giant fish. Although Reichl loved the cover, Truman insisted that magazines featuring dead fish never sell. Reichl bet Truman $100 that the issue would sell better than the same month’s issue the previous year, and Truman accepted. Reichl won the bet, and Truman paid her the money. She compared the situation to a time when she submitted reviews for three seafood restaurants for consideration for a James Beard award. Because she could not reveal her identity as a critic to a room full of chefs, her New York Times food editor, Rick Flaste, went to the award ceremony instead. Reichl won the award, but Flaste never bothered to tell her. Reichl reflects that she was a cog in the machine of the New York Times, while her Condé Nast colleagues cared about her success.

When Reichl was invited to Si Newhouse’s birthday party, her secretary Robin took it as a sign that she had been accepted into the Condé Nast family. Knowing that Vogue editor Anna Wintour and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter had also been invited, Robin urged Reichl to find something suitable to wear and to hire a driver. Reichl was assigned a driver named Mustafa, who playfully criticized her for not using the car service offered to her as editor, claiming she was disappointing the drivers.

At the party, Reichl was disappointed to see that Newhouse’s massive apartment looked like a museum, with no hint of his personal life. Reichl gravitated towards Sanders, with whom she’d become friendly after they agreed on hiring William “Bill” Sertl as Gourmet’s new travel editor. As Reichl found herself surrounded by the most important writers, artists, and businessmen of the day, she realized that she was living her mother’s dream. She wished that her mother were alive to enjoy her new life with her. On the ride home, Reichl asked Mustafa to drive her to and from work the following day.