Story Circle Network
Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide

July 2002
Comfort Me With Apples

Comfort Me With Apples
by Ruth Reichl

The second volume (see Tender at the Bone discussion questions) of noted gourmet Reichl's memoirs finds her as an aspiring novelist who, to make ends meet, has just accepted a position as restaurant critic for a California magazine. Married to a successful artist and living in a Berkeley commune, Reichl embarks on her new career under the tutelage of food writer Colman Andrews, who whisks her off to Paris and schools her in arts both gustatory and amatory...

A Note About the Author

(taken from www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=968082)
Take equal parts family history and food history, simmer with humor, and you get Ruth Reichl’s irresistible, self-styled genre: the culinary confessional (recipes included). A renowned restaurant critic who left the Los Angeles Times for The New York Times before moving on to the editor-in-chief post at Gourmet magazine, Reichl (pronounced “Rye-shill”) understands herself -- and human nature -- as well as she does food.

Reichl, who arrived at the Times in 1993, changed the way the newspaper reviewed restaurants; her columns were witty, high-spirited, honest, irreverent, and determined, it seemed, to demystify the intimidating world of high-end dining establishments. Although her innovations were maddening to some in the old guard, Dwight Garner, writing in Salon, claimed “Reichl has been a real democratizing force,” and lauded her “outsider's perspective about the snobbery and pretension of some well-known New York restaurants, and … the sexism that often confronts women while eating out.”

1999’s Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, Reichl’s first memoir, was an unsparing look at her chaotic childhood -- one that seemed unlikely to produce a first-rate food writer. Reichl’s mother, a manic-depressive whom Reichl describes as “dangerous” in the kitchen, was so undone by domestic duties that she poisoned the family with a bacteria-infested dinner meant to celebrate her son’s engagement. Reichl got the better of the situation by taking on the cooking tasks herself, and later left New York for California, landing in Berkeley as the co-owner of a collective restaurant and launching a life and that has always revolved around food.

Stylistically, Reichl is a descendant of legendary food writer M. F. K. Fisher, whose essays and memoirs braided personal autobiography with culinary commentary. In Tender at the Bone, Reichl takes the reader from her childhood in New York to her work as a chef in the '70s, her early restaurant writing, and the intersection of her passions for food, writing, and certain men. As The New Yorker put it, “Reichl writes with gusto, and her story has all of the ingredients of a modern fairy tale: hard work, weird food, and endless curiosity.”

In Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures at the Table (2001), Reichl picks up where she left off in the first book, this time covering the dissolution of her first marriage, her father’s death, her second marriage, and the birth of her son. The book includes recipes, which may seem incongruous, but for Reichl, for whom all aspects of life -- especially the sensual -- are interconnected, the combination works. The result is sweet, sad, unruly, and engaging, all at the same time.

  1. Sensuous is a word that kept popping up in my mind as I read this book. Reichl's descriptions of food and her relationships evoked vivid pictures in my mind (and often made me hungry!). Give some examples where you think this is true.

  2. Contrast and compare the relationships that Ruth had with Doug, Colman and Michael.

  3. Reichl writes about significant turning points in her life. List a couple that struck you as important. Why do you think they were significant?

  4. Does the book give you any sense that she had a long-term career plan in mind? What do you think contributed to her going from unknown writer for a small local magazine to Editor of Gourmet?

  5. The blurb on the inside jacket cover has this statement: "Reichl also shares the intimacies of her personal life--the joys and the heartbreaks behind the reviews--in a style so honest and warm that readers will feel they are enjoying a cozy dining-table conversation with a friend." Do you agree? Explain your answer.

  6. Reichl makes a big jump from the loss of Ravi and finding out she's pregnant to the last paragraph when her son is 11. Why?

  7. Reichl describes many adventures and encounters with famous people. What was your favorite story?

  8. Did you have to keep reminding yourself this is a memoir? Does her writing style add to or detract from getting to know her?

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