Ruth Reichl on Fresh Air

Speaking of Ruth Reichl, she was on Fresh Air with Terry Gross this week, talking about the demise of Gourmet, home cooking, and her newest memoir, Not Becoming My Mother. The entire audio is online, or you can read the transcript here. (Gross comes across as not being such a food lover.)

In the interview, Reichl compellingly and correctly argues that Gourmet ran pieces that no other mainstream culinary magazine would have, particularly referencing Junot Diaz's beautiful piece on Dominican food in Upper Manhattan. Even if you've already read it, it's worth sitting down with again.

And, you know, for instance, a couple years ago, we did a Latino issue that, you know, had wonderful pieces by people like Junot Diaz in it, and I just don't think that any of the other epicureans would seriously cover something like that in a way that transcended just recipes. I mean, we had lots of great recipes, but we also had, you know, wonderful writers. And oddly, one of the responses to that issue was people writing in and saying don't put your politics into your magazine. And I realized that the whole immigration issue is such a hot button for people that, I mean, it's a proof that food actually is political.