Gourmet Girl - Cooking with Ruth Reichl Berkshire Living, March 2006 by Francine Segan "Bread with cold, sweet butter is my favorite food," purrs Ruth Reichl. A surprisingly simple choice when you consider who it's coming from: the editor-in-chief of Gourmet, one of the country's leading, award-winning food magazines, and a veritable authority on elegant dining. "Bite into a piece of bread topped with icy butter," says Reichl. "Now try the same bread, but with room-temperature butter. Taste the difference?" And so begins an afternoon foodie foray with Reichl in the spectacular mountaintop home she shares with her television producer husband, Michael Singer, and their teenage son, Nick, in Columbia County, New York. "A lot happens in your mouth," continues Reichl (pronounced RYE-shul), holding up a piece of buttered bread. "You first taste the cold butter. Then the heat of your mouth warms and mixes it with the crusty bread. It's simply better when the butter starts out icy cold." According to Reichl, the mouth's heat also contributes to the enjoyment of the classic French pairing-bread and chocolate. Reichl's nose turns up at a loaf of store-bought chocolate bread, explaining, "The oven did the work that should be happening in your mouth. [It's] best when crusty bread with a soft and snowy white center is eaten with a piece of wonderful chocolate." Although her main hobbies are cooking and eating, Reichl is petite and slim. Her mane of unruly hair almost looks as if it might weigh more than she does. "Food has never been an enemy for me," she says. "For a lot of Americans food is dangerous; it can make them fat. I'm lucky: I have a good metabolism," says Reichl, who goes on to say that you won't gobble up everything if you eat flavorful food. "You're satisfied with less." Reichl was none too pleased, however, with the bread's packaging. "Any bread wrapped in plastic is immediately suspect," she explains. "The baker is not counting on it being sold that day. Good bread should be sold the day it is baked." Critically analyzing food is something Reichl has been doing since childhood. "My mother was such a scary cook," says Reichl. She literally couldn't taste when the food was spoiled. When the major adult in your life isn't reacting, you have to taste things very slowly to see if you want a second bite. Even at two years old, I had to focus on flavor, pay attention to taste, in a way most people don't do." Reichl, who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in the history of art from the University of Michigan, began writing about food in the 1970s, when she was also chef and co-owner of The Swallow Restaurant in Berkeley. In the years that followed, she became a restaurant critic for New West and California magazines. After nine years as restaurant critic and food editor at the Los Angeles Times, she moved to the East Coast in 1993 to write for the New York Times. Reichl's Times reviews earned her three prestigious James Beard Awards as well as numerous awards from the Association of American Food Journalists. But perhaps more significantly, her reviews revolutionized how critics reported on restaurants. Reichl's evaluations encompassed more than just the food: she spotlighted the entire restaurant experience, with special emphasis on how customers were treated by the staff. Always refusing preferential treatment, she eventually had to resort to donning disguises to hide her identity. She also shifted the focus away from the classic French fare and four-star restaurants which were the mainstay of critics, instead featuring reviews of informal eateries and ethnic cuisines. But now, leaning on the green marble counter near her stainless steel Kohler double sink, Reichl seems more interested in chatting about her own kitchen in her new home in the Berkshires. "My idea of a good time is cooking,"she says while washing watercress, which she'll later puree as a side dish. "I designed this kitchen to be just my size, the width of my body," Reichl says, spreading out her arms to demonstrate. "The sink is here; the stove is here. I don't have to move. Friends can sit around the marble counter and munch and even help chop-if I want them to." Like so many part-time Berkshire homeowners, Reichl and her husband, Michael, first discovered the area while visiting friends. "When we moved to New York City in '93 from Los Angeles, some of my husband's closest friends had a house in the Berkshires. We liked it so much-we were going up every month-we started thinking we could get a place here ourselves," she says. As we continue to talk, Reichl serves first-course nibbles like sliced salami; a platter of crudités served with a simple dip of Old Chatham Sheepherding Company's Ewe's Blue blended with a bit of yogurt, oil, and vinegar; and a simple, homemade liver pate. One of Reichl's appetizer staples is gougere--buttery pastry bundles laced with Gruyere cheese-served fresh from the oven. Following hors d'oeuvres, Reichl usually offers simple one-course meals. "A big piece of meat, usually lamb, because Berkshire lamb is wonderful and it's a very forgiving food. You can undercook or overcook it and it's still delicious." A simply prepared seasonal vegetable and starch accompany the meat. Reichl prefers potatoes, especially for big groups, because it doesn't require last minute attention like pasta or rice. John Willoughby, Gourmet magazine's executive editor and author of eight cookbooks, says of Reichl, "She is a great cook. She likes strong, clear flavors. Her cooking is simple, direct, and without fussiness-food that creates a casual, relaxed atmosphere." Reichl's low-key approach to entertaining makes her a welcome and non-threatening guest as well. "My friends have me over all the time," she says. "They know I'm not perfect and don't expect perfection. In fact, just the other day I made a meal for friends that was less than stellar. I rushed the risotto and it didn't come out quite done." Betsy Hess, who lives in East Chatham, New York, with her husband, Peter Biskind, claims she wasn't nervous the first time Reichl came to their home for a meal. "There is no one more down-to-earth than Ruth. She's always the first person to help in the kitchen-before, during, or after a meal." Not everyone, however, is quite as blasé as Hess about cooking for Ruth. Hess recounts a story about Holly, a houseguest of hers who threw out an elaborate tart she had made upon learning that Reichl would be coming to dinner. "We all made terrible fun of her and of course the second tart was no different from the first-totally delicious!" laughs Hess. Today, Reichl is preparing a simple roast chicken with potatoes and onions (see recipe below). "I'm not a chef, so my recipes are always easy," she confides. She plops the chicken onto a thin, washable cutting pad and scavenges for fat from inside the cavity and neck area. She then cuts the fat into small pieces, wiggles her fingers under the skin to loosen it, and places the bits over the breast meat. In two minutes, Reichl has created a self-basting chicken. As she bends down to put the chicken into the Viking Professional oven, she mentions that it's best not to tie the legs together because then the dark thigh meat takes even longer to cook. Next Reichl starts on dessert: an apricot pie that she'll get into the oven in less than ten minutes. First Reichl lines a pie pan with homemade flaky dough and arranges unpeeled apricot halves neatly on top. She then melts a stick of butter in a small saucepan, turns off the heat, and adds sugar. Once the sugar dissolves, she stirs in a bit of flour and grates a little nutmeg into the mix. "One of the greatest things on earth is freshly grated nutmeg," she enthuses, taking a deep whiff of the sweet-smelling topping. "The trick is to bake the pie on the bottom shelf, in a hot oven," she instructs. After a few minutes, Reichl lowers the temperature. When asked if she needs to set a timer, she breezily answers, "No, I'll smell when it's done." Not only is her kitchen space immaculate-Reichl is spotless, too. A bit surprising given that she wears no apron and is, in fact, a bit shocked by the very notion of wearing one. "Cooking is what I do," she says. "I don't wear a special outfit to be me." This seems somewhat ironic coming from a woman who was notorious for wearing disguises-including outlandish outfits, colored contact lenses, and huge wigs-during her six-year stint as restaurant critic at the New York Times. Her costumed escapades are delightfully chronicled in Reichl's recent bestseller, Garlic and Sapphires (the third of her food memoirs), in which she describes how she not only dressed a part but also assumed a persona to maintain anonymity. In order to judge a restaurant's treatment of average customers, she became Molly, a frumpy, high-school English teacher from the Midwest; Chloe, a champagne blonde oozing sexuality; and Miriam, a re-creation of Reichl's own mother, replete with a string of pearls and silver-gray wig. Now at home, Reichl needs no disguise; she's happy, as always, to be just herself. Having already cleared up the roast chicken preparations, she whisks away stray strudel crumbs. Like some sort of magic trick, all is restored to the way it was, the reverse of some sort of before-and-after photo. "There's something so satisfying," she says at last, "about making a big mess in the kitchen and then making it all clean again." RECIPES Two of Ruth's favorite springtime recipes are roast chicken and apricot pie. Ruth suggests serving the chicken with pureed watercress, a simple, sophisticated side dish. Four bunches of steamed watercress are pureed in a food processor with one diced cooked potato, butter, salt and pepper. Roast Chicken with Potatoes, Onions, and Garlic Serves 4 Adapted from Garlic and Sapphires (Penguin Press, 2005) 1 farm-raised chicken, about 3 1/2 pounds 1 lemon Olive oil 3 to 4 small Yukon Gold potatoes (or any other variety except russet), each peeled and cut into 8 pieces 1 large onion, cut into 6 pieces 3 to 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled Salt and pepper Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Wash the chicken under running water and pat it dry. Remove and reserve the extra fat from the inside of the chicken. Very gently run your fingers between the breast and the skin, beginning from the neck end, loosening the skin from the breast on both sides. Being careful not to puncture the skin, place the excess fat beneath the skin (the chicken will then baste itself). Puncture the lemon a few times with a fork, and place it inside the chicken. Pour enough olive oil into a roasting pan to make a thin film over the bottom. Toss the potatoes, onion, and garlic into the pan and turn until they are covered with olive oil. Pour a little olive oil over the chicken, and salt and pepper everything in the pan. Roast for about 1 hour, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into a thigh reads 170 degrees F. Remove the pan from the oven and let the chicken rest for 10 minutes. Carve the chicken into serving pieces, surround them with the potatoes, onions, and garlic, and squeeze the lemon over the top. Apricot Pie Serves 8 Adapted from Comfort Me with Apples (Random House, 2001) 1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell or make your favorite pie dough recipe 2 pounds apricots 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter 3/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Wash and dry the apricots. Do not peel them. Break them in half with your fingers, and remove the pits. Melt the butter over medium heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar until dissolved then add the flour and nutmeg. Mix until well combined. Put the apricots into the unbaked pie shell. Cover them evenly with the sugar mixture. Put the pie in the oven, on the bottom rack. After 10 minutes turn the oven down to 350 degrees F. Bake for 35 minutes or more, or until the top is crusty and brown. Transfer the pie to a rack and cool before serving.
	©2006 Francine Segan. All rights reserved.