Book summary “Save Me the Plums”: summary

Introduction

You face a difficult challenge when you must modernize a traditional institution that has lost its cultural relevance. You need to balance your creative vision with strict corporate demands, manage large budgets, and guide a resistant team through major organizational changes.

An acclaimed restaurant critic transitions into the corporate media world to reinvent a legendary culinary magazine while navigating sweeping industry changes.

Ruth Reichl details her journey from independent newspaper journalism to the helm of a major corporate publication at Condé Nast. You will see how an editor battles deep-seated corporate bureaucracy, builds a new leadership team, and transforms old publishing practices to save a historic brand.

• How do you adapt an elite publication for a changing cultural landscape?
• What happens when creative risk collides with strict corporate bottom lines?
• How do you maintain editorial integrity while managing immense executive pressure?

1. Entering Condé Nast

Corporate media directors sometimes scout unorthodox candidates by capitalizing on public critiques of stagnant legacy brands. You might find yourself unexpectedly summoned to discuss a major career shift when your outspoken reviews catch the attention of powerful executives.

Stepping from independent journalism into high-end corporate publishing exposes you to extreme wealth, eccentric executives, and unprecedented compensation packages.

The Offer from James Truman

James Truman, the editorial director of Condé Nast, invited the author for tea at the Algonquin Hotel under the guise of an informal chat. He surprised her by offering the position of editor in chief of Gourmet based on her critical articles. Sixtynine magazines were managed under the vast Condé Nast empire, and Gourmet operated with approximately sixty employees at the time.

Meeting James Truman at the Algonquin Hotel where the author frankly criticized Gourmet as being old-fashioned, out of touch, and focused on rich people's vacations set the stage for an unlikely corporate recruitment.

Lunch with Si Newhouse

Billionaire media moguls can be highly eccentric, leveraging personal aversions and unusual corporate demands while executing publishing strategies. During a lunch meeting at Da Silvano to discuss the future of food magazines, media billionaire Si Newhouse demonstrated total control over his environment by explicitly banning garlic from his newly designed corporate cafeteria.

Si Newhouse forced a waiter to remove an antipasto platter because he could not eat garlic. He proudly noted that George Lang would oversee a completely garlic-free menu in the new Frank Gehry-designed cafeteria. Thirty million dollars was the rumored cost of the Condé Nast cafeteria at 4 Times Square designed by Frank Gehry.

The Attire Allowance

High-end corporate publishing offers unprecedented compensation packages and perks that can shock traditional journalists. When Condé Nast finalized their formal offer for the editor-in-chief position, the financial terms and lifestyle allowances vastly exceeded anything standard print journalists typically experienced.

Discovering that the corporate offer included a salary six times higher than her current earnings, along with a driver, a car, country club memberships, and a clothing allowance marked a staggering shift for the author, who was fifty years old at the time.

2. Rebuilding the Magazine

Transforming a stagnant publication requires installing rigorous operations experts and trusted creative partners while managing immense personal and professional stress.

Attempting to run a major magazine while fulfilling daily restaurant reviewing obligations creates unsustainable stress and family strain. You try to work days at Gourmet while continuing your reviews for the New York Times and embarking on a national book tour for your memoir, leading to chronic exhaustion and guilt over parenting.

Reichl had to eat out sixteen times a week to get ahead of her restaurant schedule while trying to shuttle between the newspaper and magazine.

Taking over a major publication requires installing trusted, aligned personnel in key editorial positions. Reichl sought to persuade her former Los Angeles Times colleague Laurie Ochoa to move to New York and become her executive editor to ensure a shared vision.

Jonathan Gold and Laurie Ochoa agreed to join the Gourmet experiment, moving from Los Angeles to New York to work with Reichl.

Managing Two Jobs

Hiring a Managing Editor

Bringing in a rigorous operations expert to handle backstage chaos allows the creative leadership to focus on building a vibrant team. Larry Karol uncovers that Gourmet lacks copy editors, fact-checkers, and a photo editor, and he later recruits John Haney, a former punk band drummer, to serve as a meticulous copy editor.

Recipe Testing Standards

Gourmet test kitchen food editors maintain rigorous and exhaustive recipe testing standards to ensure absolute perfection before publication. The test kitchen staff evaluates every single recipe repeatedly through communal tastings, scrutinizing texture, flavor, and ingredient choices down to the finest detail.

The test kitchen cooks evaluated Amy's chocolate cake by debating the mascarpone frosting, crumb quality, and chocolate type before deciding to retest it.

3. Creative Risks and Visual Storytelling

Challenging industry dogma through bold art direction and fearless editorial choices revitalizes a tired brand and captures newsstand success.

The Art Director Redesign

A strong art director transforms a publication by treating the visual layout as primary rather than secondary to the text. You discover that Diana LaGuardia replaces the previous art director. She shifts the magazine's design philosophy so that copy and recipes are built directly into the photography to create a dynamic, inviting reading experience.

Diana LaGuardia collaborates with Romulo to integrate recipes directly into the photography space, starting with orange cream meringues splashed with chocolate sauce. The well becomes a vibrant canvas rather than a sterile block of text.

The Dead Fish Cover Gamble

Challenging industry dogma on magazine covers can lead to unexpected newsstand success when backed by creative conviction. Despite explicit warnings from leadership that dead fish are a curse on newsstands, Ruth and Diana push forward with a striking cover featuring a chef dancing with a giant six-foot tilefish.

Ruth bets Truman one hundred dollars that the restaurant issue featuring Rocco DiSpirito dancing with a giant tilefish will outsell previous years. The gamble succeeds completely on the newsstands.

Ethical and Literary Journalism

Challenging readers with deep ethical and psychological questions about food elevates epicurean journalism. David Foster Wallace's article on the Maine Lobster Festival forced readers to confront the morality of boiling sentient creatures alive, shifting food writing from pure aesthetics to bioethics.

Despite initial fears that readers and advertisers would revolt, the publication of Consider the Lobster proved readers welcomed intellectual challenges. Only two people canceled their subscriptions after the David Foster Wallace article was published.

4. Crisis and Community

In times of catastrophe, food provides a vital, grounding connection to home and humanity that helps a community begin to heal.

Following the September 11 attacks, you reopen the idle Gourmet kitchens. Staff, volunteers, and chefs cook massive quantities of food and personally carry it into Ground Zero to feed exhausted firefighters and rescue workers.

Michael Lomonaco, chef of Windows on the World, survives because he goes down to fix his glasses just as the first plane hits, losing 79 of his staff. He and the broader food community raise 23 million dollars for victims' families within a month.

Chefs Night Out Tradition

Karen Danick initiates late-night chef parties starting at midnight, offering a space for culinary professionals to decompress, network, and build a tight-knit community.

At a post-midnight gathering at Eleven Madison Park, newly appointed publisher Giulio Capua is stunned to see rival chefs like Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, and Eric Ripert openly sharing talent and discussing kitchen staff.

The Paris Staff Trip

Through clever accounting, Larry funds a trip for most of the Gourmet editorial staff of 65 people to stay in elite Paris hotels, test high-end dining, and work intensely on a special issue.

The staff stays at luxury hotels like Le Meurice, visits E.Dehillerin for copper pots and Silpat molds, and dines at top establishments like Pierre Gagnaire. They discuss a price of 50,000 francs for a vintage Dior dress before returning to record-breaking publishing success.

Thanksgiving Turkey Chili

Ruth shares her Thanksgiving turkey chili recipe, created in 2001, which incorporates southwestern ingredients and complex flavor adjustments at the end of cooking. You can make this recipe that serves 8 by following these exact steps:

• Toast 1 tablespoon cumin seeds in a dry skillet until fragrant, allow to cool, then grind to powder.
• Puree 3 canned whole chipotle chilies in adobo.
• Put 1 bottle dark beer into a medium-sized pot, add 2 pounds husked, rinsed, and quartered tomatillos, bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes until soft, strain reserving liquid, and puree in a blender or food processor before pouring back into the pot with the beer.
• Slick a large casserole with 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, sauté 3 chopped large onions until translucent, add 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, 2 teaspoons finely minced fresh oregano, 2 diced jalapeños, and the cumin, and stir for a couple of minutes.
• Break 3.5 pounds ground turkey into the mixture and stir until it just starts to lose its raw color.
• Add the pureed tomatillos and beer, chipotle puree, 1.5 cups chicken broth, 8 peeled whole large cloves of garlic, a couple of teaspoons of salt, and 1 bay leaf, then simmer for about 1.5 hours.
• Smash the now-soft garlic cloves with a large spoon and stir them into the chili.
• Add 2 cups cooked white beans and a 4-ounce can diced green chile peppers, and taste for salt.
• Play with flavors by adding a few splashes of cream sherry, a bit of balsamic vinegar, or soy or fish sauce, heat for another 10 minutes, and serve with sour cream.

5. The Culinary Evolution

Modern food culture shifts away from traditional top-down French aristocracy toward street food, neighborhood trends, and unpretentious ingredients.

Shift in Food Trends

Historical food trends descended directly from royal and French aristocracy tables. Contemporary movements started in the street, such as David Chang's ramen shop and taco carts. David Chang opened Momofuku in 2004 as a ten-seat restaurant that changed how people thought about dining.

When Gourmet put tiny colorful cupcakes on the cover, longtime readers reacted with outrage over the apotheosis of a humble Hostess-style snack, while younger readers embraced it. You can see how trickle-down cuisine lost its grip on the hoi polloi.

Ferrettis Visual Storytelling

New art director Richard Ferretti argued that food photos should tell a story rather than just show pretty dishes. He advocated shooting real parties in real time with news photographers and collaborating with cooks from the recipe's inception. You witness the Ferretti factor when menus are treated like movie scripts.

Ferretti orchestrated a cover featuring star chefs like Eric Ripert and Dean Fearing posing as a rock band with kitchen utensils as instruments. Zanne remarked during the first week that everyone on staff wanted to sleep with Richard. It took cooks four hours to create a classic gateau opera for the movie menu.

Culinary Education

Children can overcome picky eating when introduced to new flavors gradually and with deep personal trust by a master mentor. You find that gentle guides can transform children of the clouds who eat only white food.

A gentle sushi master named Osada-san patiently guided Nick from mild fish to complex flavors like sea urchin roe. Osada-san started Nick with sweet eel sauce on rice around his eighth birthday, slowly progressing through tuna, mackerel, giant clam, and finally sea urchin roe on his tenth birthday.

The Gourmet kitchen subjected recipes to multiple rounds of rigorous testing and debate among editors, cooks, and art directors. Gina Marie went through five rounds of tasting to perfect her sloppy joes and cheddar scallion biscuits for a movie-night feature. You can replicate her cheddar scallion biscuits by following these exact steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and butter a large baking sheet.
• Coarsely grate 6 ounces of cheddar cheese and mix in 3 tablespoons of finely grated Parmesan.
• Chop 3 scallions, both white and green parts, and cut 6 tablespoons of cold butter into 1/2-inch cubes.
• Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, cut in the butter until the size of peas, stir in cheese and scallions, and gently mix in 1 cup of buttermilk until the dough comes together.
• Drop dough onto the baking sheet in twelve mounds and bake until fragrant and golden, about 15 minutes.

6. The Fall of Gourmet

Economic Crisis at Gourmet

A severe economic recession severely damages magazine advertising revenues, putting immense pressure on prestige titles like Gourmet. Luxury advertisers cut budgets as ad spending shrinks and newsstand sales slump. Publishers explain that if luxury brands or cruise lines must reduce expenses, general interest or lifestyle titles are kept while food-specific publications suffer disproportionately.

Tom Hartman explains to Ruth that companies like Tiffany's or Viking appliances will naturally cut ad spending in specialized magazines like Gourmet during economic downturns. At the same time, Si Newhouse sinks one hundred million dollars into Portfolio magazine while forbidding gourmet.com from using its own recipes. He refuses to let the team post their recipes because they legally belong to Epicurious, explaining that it would risk cannibalizing traffic from Epicurious.

Becoming Brand Ruth

Desperate to save the magazine, you attempt to become a personal publicity machine, expanding your profile through high-profile events and a sponsored television show. Advisors suggest that being an editor in chief is outdated and that survival requires becoming a brand steward. You accept gala chairmanships, go on a lecture circuit for elite institutions, and secure a million-dollar television show deal sponsored by American Airlines.

Desperate economic conditions force you to become a brand steward, but even aggressive personal publicity cannot save a doomed publication from corporate cuts.

Ruth becomes honorary chair for the Tenement Museum Gala, the Food Bank Gala, and the High Line Gala, and undertakes lecture tours for Princeton and Columbia. The American Airlines television show deal brings 1250000 dollars to the magazine's bottom line. Despite temporary advertising boosts like multiple covers secured with Macy's, corporate executives decide to terminate the publication entirely.

The Closure of the Magazine

Corporate leadership abruptly shuts down a revered cultural institution without warning, leaving employees devastated and jobless. Si Newhouse walks into the 4 Times Square Condé Nast conference room and briefly announces that the company has decided to close Gourmet. The staff receives less than twenty-four hours before their key cards stop working.

Sixty-five staff members lose their jobs when key cards stop working at 5 PM the following day. Struggling with unemployment and feelings of failure after the magazine closes, you find solace by returning to physical food preparation. You test and resurrect a nostalgic childhood recipe from old magazine archives sent by Giulio, discovering a 1960 issue of Gourmet containing a recipe for a German apple pancake from Lüchow's alongside an ancient 1946 issue featuring the leaping swordfish. You bake the pancake with your family in the kitchen by following these exact steps:

• Peel 2 tart cooking apples, core them, and slice them thinly.
• Shower the apple slices with about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
• Melt 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a medium skillet, and stir in 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and a small grating of nutmeg.
• Add the apple slices and cook over medium-high heat for about 8 minutes until darkly caramelized.
• Beat 3 eggs, gently whisk in 3/4 cup flour, a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 cup milk to make a thin batter.
• Melt a couple of teaspoons of butter in an 8-inch skillet, pour in 1/3 cup of batter, and cook just until set for about 2 minutes.
• Distribute a third of the apples over the crepe, pour another 1/3 cup of batter over the apples, turn the pancake, and allow the bottom to brown.
• Turn out onto a large plate, sprinkle generously with sugar, and roll the pancake up like a jelly roll.
• Optionally warm a few tablespoons of rum or cognac, pour over the pancakes, and set on fire.

10 Key Ideas

1. Stepping from independent journalism into high-end corporate publishing at Condé Nast exposes you to extreme wealth, eccentric executives, and unprecedented compensation packages.
2. Transforming a stagnant publication requires installing rigorous operations experts and trusted creative partners while managing immense personal and professional stress.
3. Challenging industry dogma through bold art direction and fearless editorial choices revitalizes a tired brand and captures newsstand success.
4. In times of catastrophe, food provides a vital, grounding connection to home and humanity that helps a community begin to heal.
5. Modern food culture shifts away from traditional top-down French aristocracy toward street food, neighborhood trends, and unpretentious ingredients.
6. Children can overcome picky eating when introduced to new flavors gradually and with deep personal trust by a master mentor.
7. A severe economic recession severely damages magazine advertising revenues, putting immense pressure on prestige titles like Gourmet.
8. Desperate economic conditions force you to become a brand steward, but even aggressive personal publicity cannot save a doomed publication from corporate cuts.
9. Corporate leadership abruptly shuts down a revered cultural institution without warning, leaving employees devastated and jobless.
10. Struggling with unemployment and feelings of failure after the magazine closes, you find solace by returning to physical food preparation and resurrecting nostalgic recipes.