Ruth Reichl

1 month ago | latimes.com | Ruth Reichl

Is the freshest fish always best? Common wisdom says yes. Seafood expert Jon Rowley says no. He says the perfect time to cook and eat a fish is as much as five to six days after it died. Can he be serious? “Some of the best chefs in the country,” he says, “have difficulty getting their minds around the idea that fish can be too fresh or that a fish coming out of rigor mortis five or six days after harvest (in ice, of course) can be far better eating than a fish less than one day out of the water.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Ruth Reichl

Everybody who has ever bought a fish knows that you are supposed to look for bright eyes, red gills and firm, shiny flesh. And everybody who has ever bought a fish in Los Angeles knows that this advice is useless. When was the last time you actually bought a fish in your supermarket that had eyes and gills? What do you do when all you’ve got to choose from is fish that’s already cut and wrapped up in plastic? Why doesn’t anybody tell you how to buy a fillet of fish?

Mar 1, 2025 | ruhlman.substack.com | Michael Ruhlman |Ruth Reichl |Ann Hood

We’ve just returned from the beautiful colonial city of San Miguel de Allende, 170 miles NW of Mexico City. It was my first time and Ann’s first time at the writers’ conference. John Irving opened the conference, reading from his forthcoming novel, Queen Esther. And, happily, among the keynotes was , who gave a fabulous presentation combining her memoirs and her fiction. If there is a better ambassador for the importance of writing about food, I don’t know him or her.

Jan 15, 2025 | davidlebovitz.substack.com | Ruth Reichl

While I was working my way through college at a vegetarian restaurant, one of our daily tasks was peeling two large jars’s worth, about a quart/liter each, of garlic cloves. That was what we went through in one day, smashing the cloves with the sides of our cleavers before adding them to soups, stews, and a salad dressing called Rugged Garlic Dressing, which people would order with a chuckle. But each ladleful contained a room-clearing amount of garlic. It was not for the meek.

Nov 26, 2024 | thesoberglow.substack.com | Rebekah Peppler |Caroline Chambers |Stephanie Danler |Ruth Reichl

A quick note to start - this coming Monday I will be opening up the registration for the next alcohol-free adventure retreat. I can’t believe it’s been nearly five years since the last one. I could not be more excited (or nervous) to be offering this again. I don’t know about you, but I am thrilled to be taking the alcohol-free conversations offline and getting them back into real life around the retreat dinner table. Check out a recap of the past retreats here.