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My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life Hardcover – September 29, 2015

by Ruth Reichl (Author)

204 customer reviews

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Los Angeles Times • NPR • Men’s Journal • BookPage • Booklist • Publishers Weekly

In the fall of 2009, the food world was rocked when Gourmet magazine was abruptly shuttered by its parent company. No one was more stunned by this unexpected turn of events than its beloved editor in chief, Ruth Reichl, who suddenly faced an uncertain professional future. As she struggled to process what had seemed unthinkable, Reichl turned to the one place that had always provided sanctuary. “I did what I always do when I’m confused, lonely, or frightened,” she writes. “I disappeared into the kitchen.”

My Kitchen Year follows the change of seasons—and Reichl’s emotions—as she slowly heals through the simple pleasures of cooking. While working 24/7, Reichl would “throw quick meals together” for her family and friends. Now she has the time to rediscover what cooking meant to her. Imagine kale, leaves dark and inviting, sautéed with chiles and garlic; summer peaches baked into a simple cobbler; fresh oysters chilling in a box of snow; plump chickens and earthy mushrooms, fricasseed with cream. Over the course of this challenging year, each dish Reichl prepares becomes a kind of stepping stone to finding joy again in ordinary things.

The 136 recipes collected here represent a life’s passion for food: a blistering ma po tofu that shakes Reichl out of the blues; a decadent grilled cheese sandwich that accompanies a rare sighting in the woods around her home; a rhubarb sundae that signals the arrival of spring. Here, too, is Reichl’s enlivening dialogue with her Twitter followers, who become her culinary supporters and lively confidants.

Part cookbook, part memoir, part paean to the household gods, My Kitchen Year may be Ruth Reichl’s most stirring book yet—one that reveals a refreshingly vulnerable side of the world's most famous food editor as she shares treasured recipes to be returned to again and again and again.

Praise for My Kitchen Year

“Ruth is one of our greatest storytellers today, which you will feel from the moment you open this book and begin to read: No one writes as warmly and engagingly about the all-important intersection of food, life, love, and loss. This book is a lyrical and deeply intimate journey told through recipes, as only Ruth can do.”—Alice Waters

“What will send this book to the top of bestseller lists is the lovely way Reichl describes how dishes come together, like the Greek chicken soup with lemon and egg known as avgolemono, and her talent for assembling a collection of recipes her legions of former Gourmet fans will want to make themselves.”—The Washington Post

“The recipes make for lovely reading, full of Reichl’s elemental wisdom. . . . In the best way possible, My Kitchen Year is cozy, the reading equivalent of curling up next to a fire with a glass of red wine and perhaps the scent of bread in the oven wafting over.”—Vogue

“If anyone can convince us that a dessert, plus two more fabulous dishes, can turn a crummy day around, it’s culinary writer Ruth Reichl, who knows firsthand just how powerful food can be.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“The voice is pure Reichl in a way that makes the reader yearn for a house in the country with a pantry full of staples. . . . And as she finds solace through cooking, we find comfort too.”—Eater (Fall 2015’s Best Cookbooks)

My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of October 2015: When Gourmet magazine shut its doors in 2009, longtime editor in chief Ruth Reichl was as blindsided by the news as the rest of us. In times of upheaval and uncertainty we are reflexively drawn to what comforts us and for Reichl that means cooking. My Kitchen Year is four seasons of intimate anecdotes and recipes chronicling the first year of Reichl’s post-Gourmet life. It is a cookbook with diary-style entries reflecting on the day and what led to the next recipe. The photography, like the rest of the book, is beautifully produced and never fussy—the perfect pairing for dishes inspired by tears, laughter, love, and a need to feel grounded when life has gone careening off the rails. My Kitchen Year is astonishingly personal and Ruth Reichl’s willingness to share not only her cherished recipes but also her thoughts and feelings during a year of transition make My Kitchen Year a very special volume. -- Seira Wilson

Review

“Ruth is one of our greatest storytellers today, which you will feel from the moment you open this book and begin to read: No one writes as warmly and engagingly about the all-important intersection of food, life, love, and loss. This book is a lyrical and deeply intimate journey told through recipes, as only Ruth can do.”—Alice Waters

“What will send this book to the top of bestseller lists is the lovely way Reichl describes how dishes come together, like the Greek chicken soup with lemon and egg known as avgolemono, and her talent for assembling a collection of recipes her legions of former Gourmet fans will want to make themselves.”—The Washington Post

“The recipes make for lovely reading, full of Reichl’s elemental wisdom. . . . In the best way possible, My Kitchen Year is cozy, the reading equivalent of curling up next to a fire with a glass of red wine and perhaps the scent of bread in the oven wafting over.”—Vogue

“If anyone can convince us that a dessert, plus two more fabulous dishes, can turn a crummy day around, it’s culinary writer Ruth Reichl, who knows firsthand just how powerful food can be.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“The voice is pure Reichl in a way that makes the reader yearn for a house in the country with a pantry full of staples. . . . And as she finds solace through cooking, we find comfort too.”—Eater (Fall 2015’s Best Cookbooks)

“The dishes are clearly fun and uplifting for Reichl, and the unexpected shift from culinary guru to happy home cook chases her blues away. Reichl reminds readers that getting lost in a recipe can be excellent therapy.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

See all Editorial Reviews

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Product Details

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Random House (September 29, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 140006998X
ISBN-13: 978-1400069989
Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.3 x 9.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (204 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Culinary
- #24 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Entertaining & Holidays > Seasonal
- #125 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking Education & Reference

Customer Reviews

204

4.4 out of 5 stars

5 star		68%
4 star		15%
3 star		10%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

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Top Customer Reviews

a new classic in cookery writing!

By Eden on September 30, 2015

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This is a wonderful book that also happens to be a cookbook that I can cook from every day. As a memoir of her days after Gourmet magazine abruptly closed, it's easy to understand how she returned to the kitchen to assuage her grief during a time of uncertainty. Be that as it may, this book contains handwritten chapter headings with poignant photographs of the countryside throughout the seasons surrounding her home in New York state along with recipes that are classic and easy to follow. There are no foodie stylists around, just one photographer who takes the picture, then joins in eating the goods. This book is intimate in its charm and fresh with recipes that are classic updated with contemporary touches.

I happen to cook a lot and to also cook dishes that are similar to the ones that Ruth Reichl celebrates here. . . although she manages to insert special little touches that I hadn't thought of before. For example, combining chopped shallots and onions to finest grated cheddar cheese before making a grilled sourdough cheese sandwich. Or, her best fried chicken brined in salt, then soaked in buttermilk and ONION before frying in coconut oil and butter.

Above and beyond the visual and culinary treats that this book offers, it also contains anecdotes that are poignant to Ruth Reichl - one of a woman offering to treat her to a sandwich while she's waiting in an airport after the sudden demise of Gourmet magazine. Or the memory evoked during a fried chicken picnic at Tanglewood of a youthful trip to Israel, forced on her by her parents where she met another young woman who happened to be Carole King - who, along with James Taylor and Yo Yo Ma, provided the program for that Tanglewood fried-chicken picnic evening.Read more ›

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Great book, lousy binding.

By James Sterling on October 4, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition

Ruth Reichl is a wonderful writer. This book tells of a year of her life after her career at Gourmet magazine was unexpectedly pulled out from under her when Condé Nast company ended the magazine. This is more a book about life and food than it is a cookbook. Reichl catches the slightly melancholy joy that comes at the transition from active adulthood to old age, when some people seem to be able to let go of ego and celebrate life in all its manifestations.

That said, the binding of this book is horrible. This is a hardback with all the disadvantages of a paperback. The binding method requires real muscle to keep book open. It is so resistant that, not only is it difficult to hold a recipe open on the counter, it is even difficult to read sitting in a chair or in bed: unless you have it on a desk or tabletop and can hold the pages down as you read the pages closes up on you. It seems that Random House has forgotten the art of bookbinding and has glued the cloth tape that holds the pages together to the cardboard spine, preventing the proper curve that allows a book to open properly.

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A triumph

By Robert C Ross TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on September 29, 2015

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

Note: this review is of the Kindle version; the binding on the hard cover is very bad, making the book almost unreadable and certainly not usable for cooking.

Ruth Reichl has been writing about food and preparing food for many years; after "Gourmet" was terminated by the owners -- sadness in the heart of this codger subscriber -- she took off a year to re-connect with cooking. The result is this unusual cookbook -- recipes, sure, but recipes which she urges her readers to read and then change to suit their own preferences. After trying two recipes following her directions, I modified them both, and enjoyed the process immensely.

Another oddity: this book is almost as much about Twitter as cooking. The 140 word limit forced her into a sort of stream of consciousness conversation with many people -- a riff on the following apple crisp recipe is almost pure poetry. She calls them "word pictures":

"Blackbirds swooping onto orange trees. Beautiful ballet of the air. Ashmead kernels whisper from their skins. Apple crisps."

[The "Ashmead kernel is a very old apple variety, with a drab appearance which belies a unique peardrop flavour. Ashmead's Kernel is also one of very small number of English apple varieties that also thrives in North America." Introduced here in the early 1700s. "An old English russet apple, Ashmead's Kernel originated from seed planted around 1700 by a Dr Thomas Ashmead in Gloucester. Medium size, golden-brown skin with a crisp nutty snap. Fruit explodes with champagne-sherbet juice infused with a lingering scent of orange blossom. Flesh is dense, sugary and aromatic with intense flavor, characteristic of russets. The Ashmead’s Kernel is a winner of taste tests and displays some resistance to scab and cedar apple rust.Read more ›

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Back To Cooking In The Kitchen

By prisrob TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on October 3, 2015

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

If you are like me, and collect cookbooks and with each new cookbook you sit down and prepare yourself for a wonderful read, Ruth Reichl's cookbook, 'My Cookbook Year', is the perfect cookbook. A story precedes every recipe, we are welcomed into the life of Reichl's first year after losing her job at Gourmet magazine. I remember driving home from Boston one evening in 2009, listening to NPR and Ruth Reichl was discussing her favorite chicken recipe from the new Gourmet cookbook. And, then, she discussed the sudden, abrupt closure of Gourmet magazine. Like her, I was shocked and sad. I loved Gourmet magazine, and I read it cover to cover. Then in 2013 I read her first novel, 'Delicious' , and liked it. Now, she shares the first year of her life after Gourmet, and I urge you to read it, not just for the recipes, but the stories she tells, and her philosophy of cooking and living.

This is a book to relish,don't read it too quickly, and if you read it while you are hungry, you won't get very far. You will be out in the kitchen cooking and following her recipe. She starts her book by giving us her story of hearing about the closure of Gourmet magazine. And, then, onto Notes of the Recipes. A list of staples in her pantry and refrigerator. And then onto the seasons of the year. She starts with Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer,the stories of each recipe and her recovery from the loss of her job. The smell of foods that awakened the senses, her husband's injury and surgery and what foods he requested, and then her own accident and injury and how food helped in her recovery. The friends, her family, the Farmer's Markets, the butchers, the cheese shop and all the stores that feature food, are discussed.

This was the journal she kept about her year that later turned into this book.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

feels like home!

love it...feels like home..I like Ruth!

Published 5 days ago by Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Ruth is my hero! A life well lived.

Published 11 days ago by Nancy Poetes

reichl shows how food helped her to recover from losing a dream job

Reichl takes us on a difficult jjouney after her job at gourmet goes under

Published 23 days ago by careful buyer

Random House, have you no shame?

Ruth Reichl can cook and she can write. Random House, on the other hand, does not know how to have a book bound. Read more

Published 1 month ago by readalot

Reads as a biography, not a cookbook

I'm really enjoying this. It's so well written as a biography that I'm reading through recipes, which are there own vignettes.

Published 1 month ago by Jessica L. Saberman

Her recipes are clear and easy to follow and the photographs that...

Ruth Reichl's writing is lyrical and captivating. Her recipes are clear and easy to follow and the photographs that accompany the book are simply breath taking.

Published 1 month ago by nechama barash

This book is like a friend

What a sweet book. I had made a lot of the recipes before and as a twitter follower, I was wondering if I really needed the book, but I'm so glad I have it. Read more

Published 1 month ago by eaglerockmama

Five Stars

Lots of very good recipes

Published 2 months ago by Mary C

Loving it!

This is a very nicely made iPhone case for my 7 Plus! I the leather is smooth and lovely. I haven't dropped the phone - yet - so I cannot attest to the case's durability. Read more

Published 2 months ago by TippyTyler

As expected

Published 2 months ago by Ray D. Thomson

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