A biography for Ruth Reichlhasn’t been written yet.
“It takes a great deal of strength to be an optimist.”
“My mother's father was a doctor, and she desperately wanted to be a doctor.”
“You look at the Barefoot Contessa or Lydia Bastianich, and it's just like watching your mother cooking.”
“The secret to life is finding joy in ordinary things. I'm interested in happiness.”
“I love breakfast, and I don't see any reason it has to be cereal and eggs and toast.”
“When I came to 'Gourmet,' I had no clue how to run a magazine; for television, I am fascinated to learn about editing.”
“I think that reading is always active. As a writer, you can only go so far; the reader meets you halfway, bringing his or her own experience to bear on everything you've written. What I mean is that it is not only the writer's memory that filters experience, but the reader's as well.”
“The truth is, as much as I loved writing restaurant reviews, it always felt very self-indulgent to me. It was so much fun, I loved doing it, but there's so much else to say about food.”
“Laos is a country where everything is eaten. When I came back, I would find myself chopping parsley and thinking: 'Why am I throwing these stems away? They're perfectly edible.'”
“The American government policy on what we supported and subsidised in agriculture was a social experiment on a whole generation of children.”
“One of mom's greatest acts of generosity was that she trained me to be defiant. Her great gift to me was encouraging me to be the person that I wanted to be, not the one that she and my father wished I was.”
“I have to admit I've never had a Fruit Loop.”
“The first time you make something, follow the recipe, then figure out how to tailor it to your own tastes.”
“The way we live is changing. Each year, our free time shrinks a little more as computers clamor for an increasing percentage of our attention.”
“There is an almost anti-epicurean tradition at the very base of America. For much of the middle part of American history, people who wanted to overcome that went to France.”
“My mother started out by being a very good girl. She did everything that was expected of her, and it cost her dearly. Late in her life, she was furious that she had not followed her own heart; she thought that it had ruined her life, and I think she was right.”
“My mother really would make these dreadful concoctions. She really prided herself on something called 'Everything Stew,' where she would take everything in the refrigerator, all the leftovers, and put them all together.”
“...it was so rich and exotic I was seduced into taking one bite and then another as I tried to chase the flavors back to their source.”
“I love to make pies - pot pies, quiches, savory tarts, fruit pies. I use an old-fashioned pastry blender with wires and a wooden handle. I never use a recipe.”
“I felt for the first time that the library belonged here. The house was reclaiming its spirit, and the library, which had stood aloof and apart for so many years, was turning back into what it was always meant to be: the heart of this home.”