Book Garlic and Sapphires

 Book: Garlic and Sapphires

Author: Ruth Reichi

Pages: 352

This is myi 217th read for the year

Amazon says:

Ruth Reichl, world-renowned food critic and former editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, knows a thing or two about food.  She also knows that as the most important food critic in the country, you need to be anonymous when reviewing some of the most high-profile establishments in the biggest restaurant town in the world.  A charge she took very seriously, taking on the guise of a series of eccentric personalities.  She reveals the comic absurdity, artifice and excellence to be found in the sumptuously appointed stages of the epicurean world - along with her favorite recipes and reviews.

This book was okay.  I liked the idea of her dressing up as various people to disguise herself at these establishments.  She had been warned that her face was posted at a lot of the elite NY restaurants and knew she was not going to be able to get the full effect and true dining experience of a restaurant if she went as herself.  Her orginal plan was to write two reviews.  One as herself - where she knows she would catered to and one as a disguise persona.  But that was vetoed so she wrote just as the persona.  The side of this book that drug for me was the over explaining in each chapter about the character she was going to portray - setting it up, shopping, getting into character - it was too much.  Also Ruth didn't seem to like anyone.  She had really nothing nice to say about the staff, the food, the other people she encountered.  She seems like someone who is very hard to please even in her everday life.  It got to be a bit much.

Stars: 3