Book Review- Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl

Normally this is not the kind of book I read. I'm usually only read fiction but this book fullfilled a few reading challenges I'm doing this year so I picked it up. First off look at that cover...Doesn't it just make you hungry?

Ruth Reichl writes about her tenure as a food critic for the New York times starting back in the 90s. She tells of the many disguises she uses to fool different restaurants. Though her son always knows it is mommy behind those disguises even if her own husband doesn't recognize her. Filled with details of the food she devours it also gives the original reviews she gave and there are even some recipes.


I really enjoyed this book when I was expecting to. As I said it is not my normal kind of book to read. This is not a book to read when you are hungry though. Sometimes I was left wondering just how good her disguises were if her son always recognized her. One thing I enjoyed was that she admitted to eating everyday food that we eat such as the bad donuts from the newsstand near the New York Times. While some of the food she greedily devours is not the kind of food I'll ever touch she makes it known when she truly enjoyed the food experience and when she didn't. In today's current economy the book comes off as being overly extravagant as she has no budget for the places she visits and plops down thousands upon thousands of dollars for food most normal everyday people will never even see let alone taste. This all being paid for by the Times. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars