My Kitchen Year

"When Gourmet abruptly ceased publishing in 2009, Ruth Reichl, its editor-in-chief for 10 years, retreated from Manhattan to her upstate New York hilltop glass house. Obviously not wired for the retiring life, she threw herself into writing My Kitchen Year, an unabashedly sentimental memoir about the restorative solace of cooking and the redemptive power of “finding joy in ordinary things.” But even better, it’s a collection of 136 recipes, mostly comfort food and the stuff of cravings. She’s as refreshingly assertive in her opinions as she is in her taste for bold spices like sriracha. For example, about her favorite waffles — an elaborate yeast-raised production from Fannie Farmer — she comments, “There are easier waffle recipes, but they’re little more than pancakes with dents.” Plenty to feast on here."

"A memoir with recipes, like Ruth Reichl's "My Kitchen Year," about how she cooked herself out of despair after Gourmet magazine abruptly folded."