836: Ruth Reichl: Five Memoirs, One Hot Substack, No Filter

Ruth Reichl (0:08)

The first one I wrote was about going to a meal with Gloria Swanson, and my editor said, Ruth, this is a newspaper.

And I said, yeah. And he said, you can't make stuff up. I mean, you didn't go to dinner with Gloria Swanson, she's dead.

Matt Rodbard (0:26)

This is TASTE. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard.

Ruth Reichl reviewed restaurants for the Los Angeles Times and New York Times, ran the country's most legendary food magazine, and wrote five memoirs about all the meals enjoyed and life lived. Today, she's doing it again on her wonderful Substack, unfiltered and endlessly curious. This conversation was recorded live at the Traverse City Food and Wine Festival, and I talked with Ruth about her University of Michigan days, her passion for memoir, and her take on where food criticism stands today. Also in the show, I have a great conversation with Martin Sorge, author of the terrific new book, Great Bakes. I hope you enjoyed this episode.

Ruth Reichl (1:19)

Probably the most formative thing was a boy I had a crush on got a job at this new restaurant in Ann Arbor, which was probably the fanciest restaurant ever to open in Ann Arbor. It was a crazy dream of a restaurant called La Sen, and he was coming home with buckets of money. I mean, at the time, the minimum wage was a dollar an hour. I was working my way through college.

I was shelving books in the library for a dollar an hour. And my first shift at La Sen was, I came home with $35 in tips on my first night, and it was like, why am I wasting my time shelving books? And it was really my introduction to the world of restaurants, and it was amazing. I mean, the woman who trained me was a French woman who would train, I mean, I learned how to bonefish at the table, how to flambe things. The chef had come from the Four Seasons in New York. The head grill guy was from Detroit. He was a master. It was an amazing education.

Matt Rodbard (2:35)

You wrote on your Substack about La Sen, about how it had no business being in Ann Arbor. Like, it was basically this restaurant that just kind of sprouted out of the earth. And I think what you just said is interesting. You were working front of house.

Is this when you're first recognizing the art of serving? Because as a critic, you would have to really pay attention to that element as much as the food.

Ruth Reichl (2:56)

Well, it was interesting because the two people who trained me were this wonderful French woman who spoke to me in French in front of the customers, and was sort of like really training me at the table.

But the other person was this wonderful old black man who had been a professional waiter all his life in the steak houses of Detroit. And he took me, his name was Henry, and when I was writing the book, it was like I had forgotten about Henry, and it was like one day he came and tapped me on the shoulder as I'm sitting at a friend's house writing, and Henry suddenly said, hey, remember me? I mean, it was just in my head. And I remember that what he said to me is, your job as a waitress is to make sure that your customers go home with a story.

They can't just have good food, they need to have a story. And it was amazing advice because of course, stories are really what animates everything in life. And I hadn't thought about that, but I made sure that I would find out who these people were and then I would find a way to make the meal into a story for them.

Matt Rodbard (4:17)

It's amazing. And I think you clearly kind of flipped the script as telling a story of restaurants eventually as your career as a restaurant critic in Los Angeles and New York. Final question about the Sen, how was the food?

Was it actually, because it didn't last that long in Ann Arbor.

Ruth Reichl (4:33)

It didn't last that long because, I mean, this really was somebody's dream. And they opened with Limoges China, which is the stupidest thing you can do in a restaurant. It all broke in the dishwasher in the first month.

And you know, incredibly beautiful glassware. I mean, it was just, his vision was too big for what Ann Arbor could handle. And to be honest, the chef was lazy. I mean, it wasn't the greatest food.

Matt Rodbard (5:13)

Cutting corners?

Ruth Reichl (5:15)