Ruth Reichl quotes - page 2

The American government policy on what we supported and subsidised in agriculture was a social experiment on a whole generation of children. (Ruth Reichl)
I think it's part of the DNA of human beings. We are a cooking animal. What differentiates us from all the other animals is that we cook and they don't.
Ruth Reichl
What often, too often, happens in magazines is that you end up with a great editorial product, and then you're selling things that you don't really approve of.
Ruth Reichl
The critic has to do more of what the book critics and art critics have done in the past. Which is give you a context for understanding the restaurant, give you a better way to appreciate it, give you the tools to go in there and be a more informed diner who can get more pleasure out of the experience.
Ruth Reichl
When I ate slowly and deliberately, giving myself time to consider whether I actually wanted that next bite, I often discovered that I didn't.
Ruth Reichl
I'm convinced that the main reason we've become so obsessed with restaurants is due to our basic need to get out of virtual space and into a real one. We're not going out to eat merely to share food; we're there to sit at the same table together, slow down, breathe the same air.
Ruth Reichl
The secret to life is finding joy in ordinary things. I'm interested in happiness.
Ruth Reichl
If you go back in American history, oysters were the food of poor people. New York was filled with oyster saloons in the 1800s.
Ruth Reichl
It takes a great deal of strength to be an optimist.
Ruth Reichl
Anyone who has ever been an ugly adolescent - and we are legion - knows that the feeling of being unlovely and unlovable never goes away; it is always there, lurking just beneath the surface.
Ruth Reichl
Hunger, I discovered, is very much a matter of the mind, and as I began to study my own appetites, I saw that my teenage craving had not really been for food. That ravenous desire had been a yearning for love, attention, appreciation. Food had merely been my substitute. (Ruth Reichl)
Ask people to pitch in - hand them a spoon and ask them to stir. Doing things together, having everyone help, makes for a nicer party.
Ruth Reichl
My idea of management is that what your job is as the boss is to find really good people and empower them and leave them alone.
Ruth Reichl
What I always do in times of trouble or stress is to try and do something I don't know how to do.
Ruth Reichl
One of the things I really love about restaurants is that in many ways, they are the ultimate democratic institutions, where you get to walk in the door, plunk down your money, and for however long that you're there, you can be anyone you want to be.
Ruth Reichl
We in America have gotten addicted to cheap food. The result of that is antibiotic-laden fish, foods that are bred to be portable.
Ruth Reichl
The way we live is changing. Each year, our free time shrinks a little more as computers clamor for an increasing percentage of our attention.
Ruth Reichl
I have to say I know much more about football than I would like to, because my husband is a rabid football fan, and it's been so horrible.
Ruth Reichl
When you're a restaurant critic, you're not home at night, so breakfast became really important for us.
Ruth Reichl
Let's face it: my life tends to revolve around food, and I love feeding people.
Ruth Reichl
The hardest part of cooking is shopping, and if you organize yourself and shop once a week, you're halfway there. (Ruth Reichl)
I don't think there's one thing more important you can do for your kids than have family dinner.
Ruth Reichl
The way we allow children to be advertised to is shocking. Eating is a learned behavior, and we've made these kids sitting ducks for all the bad messages about industrialized food. The fact that we allow that to go on is horrifying.
Ruth Reichl
Sharing food has always had a central place in civilized societies; it's no accident that so many of our cultural, religious and patriotic rituals are involved with eating.
Ruth Reichl
We in the media have been guilty about not doing a better job of making people understand how really simple cooking is. We've made everyone feel like they have to be a chef.
Ruth Reichl