Ruth Reichl

“Some magazines are run from the top down, where the editor-in-chief decides what every article is going to be and who's going to write them, and then they're doled out. My idea is to do it the opposite way, to do it from the bottom up.”

“My idea of good living is not about eating high on the hog. Rather, to me, good living means understanding how food connects us to the earth.”

“The thing I like most in my kitchen is my marble counters. Everybody said not to use marble because it's fragile, it stains, it cracks, and it doesn't remain beautiful. But I love marble.”

“The critic has to do more of what the book critics and art critics have done in the past. Which is give you a context for understanding the restaurant, give you a better way to appreciate it, give you the tools to go in there and be a more informed diner who can get more pleasure out of the experience.”

“I wanted to figure out a way of living where I didn't have to be in an office every day.”

“I bake bread nearly every day; I use Jim Lahey's no-knead method and leave it to rise overnight.”

“For me, cooking is a way to try and please people and tell them I love them. When I fall in love with someone, I want to feed them as well.”

“What I like best is the challenge of learning something I didn't know how to do, going beyond my comfort level.”

“People are so used to eating terrible pancakes, no matter how you mess up, they're going to be great. And if you make fresh orange juice, they'll be over the moon.”

“I'm a home cook, and I'm constantly embarrassed by twentysomethings who really do know the mechanics of cooking. How to build a sauce.”

“I decided that it wasn’t pretty that I felt, but confident.”

“In really good times, you say, 'No, I'm not taking that ad.' But in bad times, you'll take anything.”