What do You think about Tender At The Bone: Growing Up At The Table (1999)?
Charming and amusing account of how food critic Reichl got tuned into cooking through her family experiences and explorations in her young adult period. Her manic depressive mother was hopeless as a cook, even dangerous, as when she wasn’t using canned ingredients, she used bargain foods dangerously past their expiration dates. Instead, her inspiration came from an elderly aunt and her maid. What she learned at an early age she used to great advantage in her teen years to draw a good social crowd around food. Experience with French cuisine from a sojourn at a boarding school and with Caribbean food from a college room-mate put her on a path that led to working in an upscale vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco while essentially living in commune with her husband. The book is fun because she places recipes in the context of her life when they had a big impact, from simple potato salad and deviled eggs to Beef Bougoinon. The approach is homey and soothing, although not as exciting as the way sensual dishes are placed in the fictional “Like Water for Chocolate” or as entertaining as the accounts of challenging preparations for Child dishes in the memoir “Julie and Julia”.
—Michael
This was enjoyable, a quick read, and it kept me interested. I was acquainted with Reichl's memoirs because my niece Poulami gave me her favorite, Garlic and Sapphires for xmas in 2008, and then Not Becoming My Mother in 2009. Those books are all similar in several ways. Like Diamonds and Sapphires, it has lots of recipes, and it is also a story of "not becoming my mother" although the latter from an older and more sympathetic standpoint.I think those are both stronger books. Still, is a romp to follow Reichl's adventures growing up in NYC, going to Catholic school in Montreal, the New York art scene and then moving out to Berkeley in early 70s. Family tragedy-- especially her mother's manic depressive illness is at the center of the story, but Ruth emerges her own person, seemingly unscathed. In this skillful telling it is her passion for food and cooking that centers her, and we can see how she becomes the person we recognize in her adult career.
—MaryJo
I read this before, quite a few years ago now, but someone borrowed my copy and never returned it. When I saw this copy at the Library Sale I was happy to be able to buy it and read it again.Ruth Reichl is (or was at the time the book was published) the restaurant critic for the NY Times. In this book she chronicles growing up with her bipolar mother who often serves food that is going or is bad and Ruth takes on the role of protecting the guests. Ruth has some good role models for cooking though; a maid named Mrs. Peavy, and her great-aunt Birdie's maid Alice. Pretty soon Ruth is cooking as a form of therapy and she is good at it. She loves food and is willing to eat almost anything which endears her to other people who love food. And cooking for people stands in pretty well for a lack of being popular with boys. Everywhere Ruth lives the house is full of people who come to eat. I loved the part covering the early 70's and that book, Diet for a Small Planet. I cooked quite a bit from that book and the food was, as Ruth says, dreary. I wish Ruth much happiness and success and hope that any problems she faces she is able to deal with.
—Chana
