Garlic and Sapphires

<b>Author of <i>Save Me the Plums </i>Ruth Reichl's iconic bestselling memoir of her time as an undercover restaurant critic for <i>The New York Times <p/></i>Expansive and funny.<i> --<b>Entertainment Weekly</b> <p/></i></b>Ruth Reichl world-renowned food critic and former editor in chief of <i>Gourmet</i> 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. In <i>Garlic and Sapphires</i> Reichl reveals the comic absurdity artifice and excellence to be found in the sumptuously appointed stages of the epicurean world and gives us--along with some of her favorite recipes and reviews--her remarkable reflections on how one's outer appearance can influence one's inner character expectations and appetites not to mention the quality of service one receives. <p/><b> [A] wonderful book which is funny--at times laugh-out-loud funny--and smart and wise. --Jonathan Yardley <i>The Washington Post</i></b>