Ruth, Family Meal, a New Orleans Cocktail ...
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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David Foster Wallace
13 min read
The article highlights Wallace's 'Consider the Lobster' essay as a pivotal moment in Gourmet magazine's transformation under Ruth Reichl. Understanding Wallace's literary style and philosophical approach to writing illuminates why this essay was so groundbreaking for food journalism.
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Gourmet (magazine)
14 min read
Ruth Reichl's tenure as editor-in-chief and her transformation of Gourmet from a 'cobwebby' publication to a serious journalistic outlet is central to the article. The magazine's history and eventual closure in 2009 provides important context for understanding food media's evolution.
I will explain the above in a bit, but first, an ode of sorts to Ruth Reichl, a woman who neither needs nor desires any further odes.
As regular readers know, I teach a course on food journalism in NYU’s graduate program, which not only allows me to share my favorite food writing and pontificate on issues that matter to me deeply, it also allows me to bring in fabulous guests who I would otherwise not see or be able to converse with (Pete Wells, Michael Pollan, Ligaya Mishan, Ted Conover—all A-listers). This year, because she is spending more time in the city and because she is a friend Ann and I have dinner with whenever we can, Ruth Reichl agreed to head down to Cooper Square and the Arthur L. Carter Institute of Journalism to join our class.
I have an especially talented and engaged class this year, but they are often told gloomy stories about the journalism world today—magazines and newspapers are dying, editors don’t reply to queries, online publications don’t pay.
Ruth would be the perfect counterpoint and inspiration as these 20-somethings move out into the shifting media world. There’s never been a better time, a more necessary time, a more important time to be a food journalist, she believes. More than 30 years ago, she gave a Lanner Turner Lecture on the subject. Last year, on the day after the presidential election, Ruth wrote in her excellent newsletter, La Briffe, the following:
But today the speech is a reminder (if we need it), that food touches everything we do. And that it is definitely a political issue. Every election analyst has pointed to rising food costs as a major concern for voters. Yet despite the evolution of food writing over the last thirty years, consumers still have very little understanding of the forces that drive those costs.
That needs to change. Most of the readers of La Briffe are aware that our food system is badly broken. If we have any hope of fixing it we need to know how the food system actually operates.
Thirty-three years ago I was convinced that food journalists were absolutely necessary.
It has never been more true.
What better words, what better person to address a classroom of aspiring writers?
I assigned Ruth’s memoir, Save Me the Plums,
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