Editor to share food-critic tales at Salt Lake library

Ruth Reichl is coming to Salt Lake City. Will the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine have on one of the disguises she wore when she was the New York Times restaurant critic?

In her memoir, "Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise" (Penguin, $15), Reichl tells of wearing wigs, makeup and thrift-shop clothes to keep restaurateurs from figuring out her true identity.

She had found she got better tables and service, better food and even bigger raspberries on desserts once the staff was alerted to her presence.

She will likely share some of these escapades when she speaks at the Salt Lake City Main Library auditorium, 210 E. 400 South, on May 5 at 7:30 p.m. Free tickets to Reichl's lecture are available beginning Saturday at all Salt Lake City Library locations. KCPW (1010 AM; 88.3 FM; 105.3 FM) will simulcast the event on its stations.

A pre-lecture reception takes place at 6 p.m. in the library's board room, with local restaurants and caterers donating signature dishes. Reception tickets are $40 and includes reserved seating for the lecture and a signed copy of one of Reichl's books. It's $30 each if your buy three or more tickets. For more information, call 524-8200 or log on to slcpl.org.

Reichl was the restaurant critic for New West magazine, then the Los Angeles Times. In 1993 she took the job at the New York Times, where she ruffled feathers by writing about ethnic eateries such as Shanghai dumpling parlors, Korean barbecue places and sushi bars. She joined Gourmet in 1999.

When I read her book, "Comfort Me With Apples" (Random House, $13.95), I savored her memories of people such as Wolfgang Puck when he was a rising star instead of a household name with a frozen-pizza label. In "Garlic and Sapphires," I found that she considered Rocco DiSpirito a talented chef before he set foot on the reality TV show "The Restaurant."

In "Comfort Me With Apples," she recounts telling her editor at the Los Angeles Times, "Haven't you noticed that food all by itself is really boring to read about? It's everything around the food that makes it interesting. The sociology. The politics. The history."

Yet Reichl has a way of describing food so that all by itself it's not boring. Instead of a laundry list of recipes or menu items, you can almost see, smell and taste it. It's a refreshing change from food writers who wear out those nebulous terms, "tasty" and "delicious," or strain for other descriptors such as "succulent" or "gastronomic delight."

Here's the way Reichl described two different soups: