by Ruth Reichl.  Her Gourmet Magazine memoir as its doyenne for a decade from 1999 through 9/11 until the magazine’s demise in 2009. The story of Severine in Paris will blow your mind. Reichl’s writing about food is legend, but her storytelling is wonderful.

Reichl’s earlier work Comfort Me With Apples spoke to my own voice. Her time with Alice Waters in Berkeley and her love of great food jumped off the page. It confirmed my decision to write about restaurants in Northampton, Massachusetts. I decided it couldn’t be just a cookbook. So my design evolved to focus on both stories of the restaurateurs as well as their recipes. In this Reichl memoir, recipes are interspersed in the story.  It resonated in a most familiar way.    Table’s Edge.

Note: Actress Louise Brooks of The Chaperone appears in one of Reichl’s vignettes.