Ruth Reichl’s next book will partly be about her time with former Gourmet publisher Condé Nast.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The queen of the food memoir is out of a job.
Well, sort of. Ruth Reichl, bestselling author, former restaurant reviewer for The New York Times and editor-in-chief for 10 years of recently folded Gourmet magazine, has just wrapped her promotional tour for the final Gourmet cookbook.
Titled Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen , the book is the latest achievement for this foodie pioneer, whose first memoir was a surprising new entrée on the publishing menu.
"When Tender at the Bone came out 11 years ago, nobody even knew where to put it," she says in a telephone interview. "Bookstores didn't have a clue what to do with it. They'd put it in cooking but it wasn't really a cookbook and there was no place to put a memoir that included recipes. Now, almost every day, a new memoir dealing with food comes out."
In fact, Ms. Reichl is about to plunge into her next book, which will partly be about her time with Condé Nast. Considering the abruptness with which it shut down Gourmet (the final issue is on newsstands), it should be a juicy read. She spoke to The Globe and Mail about the brave new future of food.
If food magazines exist in 10 years, what will they look like?
The appetite for reading isn't going away and the possibilities with all these new technologies are so enormous. We used to sit around Gourmet dreaming about what the magazine would look like 10 years from now and I think it would be completely different than what we were producing - more vibrant. We were sort of imagining that those menus that we photographed would turn into little mini-films. Instead of just a static photograph you would see real people having interesting conversations that would explain the food and that would be combined with great writing and probably something that's akin to a catalogue where you would be able to buy something you saw instantly online.
I have no fears that there isn't going to be a place down the road for food writing. I think we're just coming into the potential. I would say work with the medium we have now but expect that it's just going to get better and more exciting.
Is the emerging Canadian food scene on your radar?
We did that Montreal issue [at Gourmet]a couple of years ago and it was the most popular issue we ever did. We were thinking about doing a Toronto issue when we got closed down. We were also working on stories for Vancouver, I guess everybody is because of the Olympics. You really have one of the most amazing food scenes, you've got amazing diversity and cross-culturalism.
Is the move toward local, sustainable food something that will sweep through all sectors of society or is it just for the Slow Food evangelists and locavore geeks of the world?
Food has really become part of popular culture; people are embracing it in ways that are astounding. I used to dream that people would think about food in a larger way, beyond recipes. That people would care about what was going on out there on the farms. That people would care in an ethical way about what they were eating. That eating locally really has benefits even if it's sometimes difficult. Now I look around at all that stuff has been happening and it bodes so well for the future. That's sort of what Gourmet was about, the movement for ethical eating and sustainability and about all the extraordinary ingredients that are available now. I just don't think that there has been a more exciting time in food.
In Canada and the U.S. the local food movement has taken off, yet we still have thriving fast-food chains and obesity problems. Will real food come out on top?
You don't get to this place and then turn around and say 'now for the rest of my life I'm gonna eat junk food.' On tour with this book people come up to me and they buy a book for themselves and one for their child. Eighty per cent of the time the child is a boy. My son Nick is 20 and what has happened to his generation is that cooking isn't women's work any more. It's something that men and women do together, such an … encouraging change. People are cooking because they like to cook, not because they should be cooking.
If you had to be trapped on a desert island with either [Food Network host] Guy Fieri or Martha Stewart, who would you choose?
Neither! I would swim off the island as fast as I could.
Special to The Globe and Mail