“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.”

American chef, food writer, and editor

Ruth Reichl is an American chef, food writer, and editor. For two decades, she worked as a food critic, mainly at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. She has 112 quotes on the site. Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs, and a novel. Outside print, she served as co-producer of PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS's Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth, and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. She has won six James Beard Foundation Awards.