Life (As It Relates to Food)
In Ruth Reichl’s 1999 book Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, each chapter’s self-contained short story delves into food and personal discovery. The two go hand in hand for the author — a lot happens in her life, and much of it revolves around food: eating it, preparing it, selling it, lamenting it, and most importantly enjoying (most) every bite and minute to its fullest.
It’s a wonderfully told story of a foodie growing up and finding her place. The writing is very immediate and direct — you feel as if the author is talking directly to you, confiding her story. Each chapter has its own arc which is tied together somewhere masterfully in a single insightful line. This is really fine literature with a foodie theme and lots of humor. It’s easy to see how Reichl’s many life experiences as a foodie prepared her to be The New York Times’ restaurant reviewer and, currently, the editor of Gourmet.
Tender at the Bone’s first chapter opens with a colorful portrait of the characters in her family and their fascination (and skill) with storytelling. This storytelling theme flows throughout the book. Reichl is pretty hard on her mother, who she names “the queen of mold” — and perhaps relies perhaps a bit too much on this comedy, it becoming almost a comic put-down — but clearly the author realizes how much her family and the many colorfully drawn characters she has met along the way have shaped her. Her approach is very insightful without preaching or grandstanding.
One of the best chapters deals with young high-schooler Ruth being thrust by her mother into a Quebecois high school (aka “mars”) to be immersed in French (after saying in passing that she wants to learn the language). The progression of this chapter is both classic Dickens and Bronte but something more and unique. The personal insights and careful descriptions of characters are remarkable, and how she wins over a rival (and her family) — and embraces French food, language and culture — with so much humor is a marvel.
Other great chapters relate to her college roommate with whom she grows very close and then lamentingly far apart, the secret powers of a sublime French tart on summer camp counselors, working at a Berkley food co-op (The Swallow), living in a commune, and preparing blow-out parties.
Reichl brings the reader along as she realizes what gifts her family and everyone she has meet have provided. In the end, it’s all about the food.
Image above from The New Yorker.
Tender at the Bone: Growing up at the Table
By Ruth Reichl
Publisher: Random House
March 1999
ISBN-10: 0767903382
ISBN-13: 9780767903387
Comments
By Patrick Brown
Patrick W. Brown is a Washington, DC native culinarian who has tasted around the world. He loved exploring the specialties of Belgium while living there in the ‘90s and dabbles in cooking, gastronomy and book reviews. Patrick’s current favorites include: organic ciabatta bread (Whole Foods) and rustic peasant bread (Balducci’s), Rieslings; Fisher Alsatian beer and the standard bearer: Belgian Hoegaarden.
About The Humble Gourmand
The Humble Gourmand is published the first Friday of each month, edited by Alison L. McConnell, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and writer. It is designed to offer straightforward lessons and advice to aspiring cooks, oenophiles, and all other eaters and drinkers.
The Humble Gourmand encourages users to comment on any and all of its features, but reserves the right to remove any material deemed inappropriate.
No one has posted any comments yet. Perhaps you'd like to be the first?
Post yours
You're not logged in. Would you like to register or log in?.