Ruth Reichl

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Ruth Reichl (born January 16, 1948 in New York City) is an American food writer, the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine and culinary editor for the Modern Library. She has written three books of memoirs: Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table, and Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise.

Born to parents Ernst and Miriam (née Brudno), she was raised in New York City and spent time at a boarding school in Montreal). She attended the University of Michigan, where she met her first husband, the artist Douglas Hollis. She graduated in 1970 with a M.A. in art history.

She and Hollis moved to Berkeley, California, where her interest in food led to her joining the collectively-owned Swallow Restaurant as a chef/co-owner from 1973 to 1977. She moved on to become food writer and editor of New West magazine from 1973 to 1977, then to the Los Angeles Times as its restaurant editor from 1984 to 1993 and food editor from 1990 to 1993. She returned to her native New York City in 1993 to become the restaurant critic for the New York Times before leaving to assume the editorship of Gourmet in 1999.

She is currently married to Michael Singer, a CBS television news producer and documentary filmmaker. They have one son, Nick, born in 1989.