Ruth Reichl’s Favorite Recipes from the Gourmet Years

Ruth Reichl was the Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet from 1999 through 2009, when the magazine was shuttered for good. During her time at the top of the world’s classiest food rag (which she chronicles in her new book, Save Me the Plums), Reichl published writers like David Foster Wallace and Ann Patchett; steered the magazine into food politics; and, of course, ran hundreds of recipes—including these ten, which she remembers as her absolute favorites.


Spaghetti and Meatballs

I often found myself hanging around food editor Maggie Ruggiero


Raspberry Crumble Tart

Ruth Cousineau—who wrote a wonderful cookbook called


Spaghetti with Ramps

At the very beginning of my tenure at Gourmet, Senior Food Editor Kemp Minifie


Warning: once you make these bacon-cheddar toasts for friends, they’ll never let you not make it again.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Nathaniel James, Food Styling by Frances Boswell

Bacon and Cheddar Toasts

This is one of Paul Grimes’ recipes, and that’s a surprise. Paul is a painter who went to France to make art and ended up as an assistant to Simca Becksuperb food stylist


Ian’s Meatloaf

Ian Knauer started out as a recipe cross-tester. (Full disclosure; he’d been my son’s babysitter.) But after a few years it became clear that this farmer, forager, cook, and hunter was so talented we needed to promote him to full-time food editor. He developed hundreds of fantastic recipes

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