The Rise and Fall of America’s Original Food Magazine
In the new book Save Me the Plums, Ruth Reichl remembers what went right—and ultimately wrong—with the beloved Gourmet.
Illustration: Jaci Kessler Lubliner
Once upon a time, Condé Nast editors ruled the Earth. They had town cars, an annual clothing allowance, and a canteen called the Four Seasons. Now, every season brings news of the shuttering or sale of a title—or the exit of one of those fabled editors. In 2018, the company said Chief Executive Officer Bob Sauerberg Jr. would be stepping down later this year. The year before, it lost $120 million, according to the New York Times.
But from the 1990s to the late 2000s, New York’s social world spun around AnnaGraydonDavidPaige (the first names of the editors at Vogue, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and Architectural Digest, respectively). Fashion was Condé Nast Inc.’s calling card, but it also boasted the queen of food journalism, Ruth Reichl. The curly-haired Berkeley hippie was the era’s Julia Child, with a dash of Chrissy Teigen’s communications savvy. In April 1999, Reichl became editor-in-chief of America’s original food magazine, Gourmet. Her new memoir, Save Me the Plums (April 2, Penguin Random House), details her reign, which began when Gourmet’s core audience was the second-houses-with-horses set and lasted through a decade of ever-expanding horizons.