My Kitchen Year

My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life
by Ruth Reichl
Random House (September 29, 2015), 352 pages
Kindle edition $14.99, Amazon hardcover $19.99
ebook borrowed from the Santa Clara County Library System

Ruth Reichl had been editor of Gourmet magazine for ten years when publisher Condé Nast suddenly decided to shut the magazine down. The shutdown was so sudden that the December issue, already sent to the printer, would not be published.

Reichl’s life suddenly changed. While the rest of her staff was out of work, she still had a book tour to complete for a recently published Gourmet title and a television show on which to put the finishing touches. After that she was at loose ends.

The irony of having been the editor of a food magazine was that she had very little time to cook. She writes:

It had been so long since I’d had time to really cook. For years I’d been sticking to familiar foods, rushing home from work to throw quick meals together for my family. Now I began roaming New York, exploring ethnic neighborhoods. On weekends I went upstate to our country house and haunted farmers’ markets, coming home laden with unfamiliar ingredients.

My Kitchen Year chronicles the emotional roller coaster of Reichl’s year following the closure of Gourmet. She interweaves accounts of her feelings and activities with recipes she made during that year. I very much enjoyed reading her story. The recipes didn’t grab me so much.

It’s a good thing I borrowed the book from the library rather than buying it.