Despite growing up with her mother's disastrous culinary ventures including a concoction called "Everything Stew" Ruth Reichl went on to channel her affection for cuisine into a life-long career as a chef, food critic and author of several cookbooks and food-related memoirs. Reichl, who will spend four days in residence at the College as a Montgomery Fellow, will deliver a lecture on Tuesday titled "Eating My Words" in which she will discuss the history of evolving attitudes towards food.
Although Fellows often visit the College for a full term, this winter there are three Fellows who will each remain on campus for a short period of time due to scheduling challenges, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Reichl a former New York Times restaurant critic and editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine, which ceased publication in 2009 described one particularly vivid childhood memory in which her mother served spoiled food at her son's engagement party. After the evening's disaster, over 25 guests checked into the hospital with food poisoning. As Reichl's 1997 memoir "Tender at Bone: Growing Up at the Table" describes, she learned from this experience that "food could be dangerous," she said.
Reichl said "the most famous review" she ever wrote was included in her 2005 memoir, "Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise," in which she wrote two reviews of a single restaurant, one based on her impressions while dressed as herself and anther based on her observations while disguised as an old lady from the Midwest.
The treatment she received in each outfit was vastly different, according to Reichl. Through her first-hand research, she discovered how patrons' outward appearances affect the way in which they are treated at restaurants, Reichl said.
"When I went as the old lady from the Midwest, I was very badly treated," she said.
"Garlic and Sapphires" is currently being adapted into a film by Fox 2000 Pictures, according to Reichl. She will act as executive producer of the movie, which will be produced by Cary Brokaw's Avenue Pictures.
Reichl's goal when writing reviews has always been to share her dining experiences with readers who might not have been able to dine at high-class restaurants, she said.
"I wanted to take the readers and have them be with me at the restaurant," Reichl said.
One of Reichl's proudest moments was when a man who had suffered a heart attack and was informed by doctors that he could no longer eat red meat told her that he was able to satisfy his appetite by reading her reviews of steak houses, she said.
"He said, The only time I get to taste red meat is when you write about it,'" Reichl said.
In 1974, she became a co-owner and cook at The Swallow in Berkeley, Calif. The "kind of hippy" restaurant was part of the "food revolution" occurring in Berkeley at the time, she said.
The revolution, which began as a political movement, became a "gourmet movement" against the industrialization of food, according to Reichl.
"We were looking for another cause and that cause became food," she said. "It seemed like something we could affect change in."
Reichl published her first cookbook, "mmmmm: a Feastiary," in 1972. She became interested in writing restaurant reviews when an editor approached her with the idea while she was working at The Swallow, she said.
Given her relatively meager budget at the time, "the idea of a free meal sound[ed] amazing" Reichl said.
After writing reviews of several restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, Reichl accepted a job as a restaurant critic and food editor for the Los Angeles Times, where she worked from 1984 to 1993. In 1993, she brought her expertise as a restaurant critic to The New York Times, where she worked until 1999.
Reichl also hosted "Eating Out Loud," a Food Network special that debuted in three cities New York, San Francisco and Miami in 2002 and 2003.
Reichl received her bachelor's degree and master's degree in art history from the University of Michigan.
Reichl's lecture is the second installment in the College's three-part Winter 2011 Montgomery Endowment Lecture Series, "Tell Me What You Eat, I'll Tell You Who You Are."
Calvin Trillin, a journalist and author of several books, spoke at the College in a lecture titled "Eating with the Pilgrims" on Feb. 1. Dan Barber, the founder and chef of the restaurant Blue Hill in Greenwich Village, will deliver a presentation on Feb. 22.
Ken Montgomery '25 and Harle Montgomery established The Montgomery Endowment in 1977. Since the program's inception, over 180 Fellows have visited the College, The Dartmouth previously reported.
