
Garlic and Sapphires
The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
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Narrated by:
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Bernadette Dunne
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By:
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Ruth Reichl
About this listen
Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine anonymously. There is her stint as Molly Hollis, a frumpy blond with manicured nails and an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque. The result: her famous double review of the restaurant: First she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic.
What is even more remarkable about Reichl's spy games is that as she takes on these various disguises, she finds herself changed not just superficially, but in character as well. She gives a remarkable account of how one's outer appearance can very much influence one's inner character, expectations, and appetites.
As she writes, "Every restaurant is a theater...even the modest restaurants offer the opportunity to become someone else, at least for a little while." Garlic and Sapphires is a reflection on personal identity and role playing in the decadent, epicurean theaters of the restaurant world.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2005 Ruth Reichl (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Too bad it was abridged
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Save Me the Plums
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Performance
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Story
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Editorial reviews
Reichl, former New York Times restaurant critic, takes you on an undercover tour of the best New York restaurants. She makes you feel like you're right there with her, disguise and all. That's right, disguise. Because her work required anonymity, Reichl had to don new disguises in each restaurant. Her memories of both food and façade are fascinating and highly entertaining.
Her descriptions of food will have even the pickiest eater craving sushi, caviar, even squid ink! She also includes simple recipes for things like New York Style Cheesecake and Spaghetti Carbonara.
Narrator Bernadette Dunne sounds very much like Reichl herself, inhabiting every delicious moment and brining you along for the bite. Whether you're a food fan or not, this is a great memoir.
Critic reviews
Winner - Audie Awards, 2006
"This wonderful book is funny - at times laugh-out-loud funny - and smart and wise." (The Washington Post)
"Reichl is so gifted...the reader remains hungry for more." (USA Today)
"Expansive and funny." (Entertainment Weekly)
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In Not Becoming My Mother, Ruth Reichl embarks on a clear-eyed, openhearted investigation of her mother's life, piecing together the journey of a woman she comes to realize she never really knew. Looking to her mother's letters and diaries, Reichl confronts the painful transition her mother made from a hopeful young woman to an increasingly unhappy older one and realizes the tremendous sacrifices she made to make sure her daughter's life would not be as disappointing as her own.
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Great Quick Listen - Honest and Interesting
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In the fall of 2009, the food world was rocked when Gourmet magazine was abruptly shuttered by its parent company. No one was more stunned by this unexpected turn of events than its beloved editor in chief, Ruth Reichl, who suddenly faced an uncertain professional future. As she struggled to process what had seemed unthinkable, Reichl turned to the one place that had always provided sanctuary. "I did what I always do when I'm confused, lonely, or frightened," she writes. "I disappeared into the kitchen."
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By: Ruth Reichl
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- A Novel
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- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In her best-selling memoirs, Ruth Reichl has long illuminated the theme of how food defines us, and never more so than in her dazzling fiction debut about sisters, family ties, and a young woman who must finally let go of guilt and grief to embrace her own true gifts.
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I really enjoyed this book. Really well read.
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By: Ruth Reichl
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- My Gourmet Memoir
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Ruth Reichl
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America’s oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone’s boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no? This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It is the story of the moment restaurants became an important part of popular culture, a time when the rise of the farm-to-table movement changed, forever, the way we eat.
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By: Ruth Reichl
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- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Ruth Reichl
- Length: 6 hrs
- Abridged
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Overall
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Tender at the Bone is the story of a life determined, enhanced, and defined in equal measure by unforgettable people, the love of tales well-told, and a passion for food. In other words, the stuff of the best literature. The journey begins with Reichl's mother, the notorious food-poisoner known forevermore as the Queen of Mold, and moves on to the fabled Mrs. Peavey, one-time Baltimore socialite millionairess, and, for a brief but poignant moment, retained as Reichl's maid.
-
-
Too bad it was abridged
- By Susan Phifer on 01-18-18
By: Ruth Reichl
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Comfort Me with Apples
- More Adventures at the Table
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
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Story
When listeners left Ruth at the end of Tender at the Bone, she was in Berkeley, California, working as a chef at the Swallow restaurant. Comfort Me with Apples picks up in 1978; Ruth is still living in a commune with her husband, Doug, but she’s decided to put down her chef’s toque and embark on a career as a restaurant critic. After a bumpy start (at the end of her very first on-the-job dinner, her credit card is unceremoniously rejected), she is soon visiting restaurants all over the world in search of a meal to write home about.
-
-
Ruth’s tenacity stood out !
- By Beth Shully on 02-24-25
By: Ruth Reichl
-
Not Becoming My Mother
- Previously published as Not Becoming My Mother
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Ruth Reichl
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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In Not Becoming My Mother, Ruth Reichl embarks on a clear-eyed, openhearted investigation of her mother's life, piecing together the journey of a woman she comes to realize she never really knew. Looking to her mother's letters and diaries, Reichl confronts the painful transition her mother made from a hopeful young woman to an increasingly unhappy older one and realizes the tremendous sacrifices she made to make sure her daughter's life would not be as disappointing as her own.
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-
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-
Story
In the fall of 2009, the food world was rocked when Gourmet magazine was abruptly shuttered by its parent company. No one was more stunned by this unexpected turn of events than its beloved editor in chief, Ruth Reichl, who suddenly faced an uncertain professional future. As she struggled to process what had seemed unthinkable, Reichl turned to the one place that had always provided sanctuary. "I did what I always do when I'm confused, lonely, or frightened," she writes. "I disappeared into the kitchen."
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RR reads well
- By kgohl on 10-23-15
By: Ruth Reichl
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Garlic and Sapphires
- The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Ruth Reichl
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Abridged
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GARLIC AND SAPPHIRES is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine anonymously. There is her stint as Molly Hollis, a frumpy blond with manicured nails and an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque. The result: her famous double review of the restaurant: first she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic.
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Way too abridged!
- By ciniminis on 07-11-06
By: Ruth Reichl
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The Paris Novel
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Kiiri Sandy
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.
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Magical, but read the actual book do not listen
- By Gina DiMartino on 04-25-24
By: Ruth Reichl
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My Life in France
- By: Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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This memoir is laced with wonderful stories about the French character, particularly in the world of food, and the way of life that Julia Child embraced so wholeheartedly. Above all, she reveals the kind of spirit and determination, the sheer love of cooking, and the drive to share that with her fellow Americans that made her the extraordinary success she became.
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What a pleasure!
- By Sara on 07-03-08
By: Julia Child, and others
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Comfort Me with Apples
- More Adventures at the Table
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Ruth Reichl
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Abridged
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In Ruth Reichl’s latest book—one that will delight her fans and convert those as yet uninitiated to her charming tales—the author brings to life her adventures in pursuit of good meals and good company. Picking up where Tender at the Bone leaves off, Comfort Me with Apples recounts Reichl’s transformation from chef to food writer, a process that led her through restaurants from Bangkok to Paris to Los Angeles and brought lessons in life, love, and food.
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An enjoyable listen!
- By Elizabeth on 03-09-13
By: Ruth Reichl
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Your Table Is Ready
- Tales of a New York City Maître D'
- By: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
- Narrated by: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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From the glamorous to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen—or just to gawk—at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run. His phone number was passed around among those who wanted to curry favor, during the decades when restaurants replaced clubs and theater as, well, theater in the most visible, vibrant city in the world. Besides dropping us back into a vanished time, Your Table Is Ready takes us places we’d never be able to get into on our own.
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Accurately crass and heart felt
- By Amazon Customer on 01-10-23
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The Apprentice
- My Life in the Kitchen
- By: Jacques Pépin
- Narrated by: Jacques Pépin, Michel Chevalier
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In this captivating memoir, the man whom Julia Child has called "the best chef in America" tells the story of his rise from a frightened apprentice in an exacting Old World kitchen to an Emmy Award-winning superstar who taught millions of Americans how to cook and shaped the nation's tastes in the bargain. The Apprentice is the poignant and sometimes funny tale of a boy's coming of age. Beyond that, it is the story of America's culinary awakening and the transformation of food from an afterthought to a national preoccupation.
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Jacques Pépin never has disappointed
- By Peter on 10-03-20
By: Jacques Pépin
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Kitchen Confidential
- Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
- By: Anthony Bourdain
- Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Last summer, The New Yorker published chef Anthony Bourdain's shocking, "Don't Eat Before Reading This." Now, the author uses the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable audiobook, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike.
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Kitchen Confidential
- By Holly on 02-20-03
By: Anthony Bourdain
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Taste
- My Life Through Food
- By: Stanley Tucci
- Narrated by: Stanley Tucci
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them. Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York.
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Should include a pdf of recipes
- By Jen Griffin on 10-23-21
By: Stanley Tucci
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Love & Saffron
- A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love
- By: Kim Fay
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Cassandra Campbell, Mark Bramhall, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter—as well as a gift of saffron—to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she’s never tasted fresh garlic--exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties.
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Absolutely delightful
- By Meredith on 03-21-25
By: Kim Fay
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Eat a Peach
- A Memoir
- By: David Chang, Gabe Ulla
- Narrated by: David Chang
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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From the chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious—an intimate account of the making of a chef, the story of the modern restaurant world that he helped shape, and how he discovered that success can be much harder to understand than failure. Full of grace, candor, grit, and humor, Eat a Peach chronicles David Chang’s switchback path. Along the way, Chang gives us a penetrating look at restaurant life, in which he balances his deep love for the kitchen with unflinching honesty about the industry’s history of brutishness and its uncertain future.
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So many threads coming into a wonderful tapstery.
- By Suzie on 09-12-20
By: David Chang, and others
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Food for Thought
- Essays and Ruminations
- By: Alton Brown
- Narrated by: Alton Brown
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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From cameraman to chef, musician to food scientist, Alton Brown has had a diverse and remarkable career. His work on the Food Network, including creating Good Eats and hosting Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen, has resonated with countless viewers and home cooks. Now, he shares exactly what’s on his mind, mixing compelling anecdotes from his personal and professional life with in-depth observations on the culinary world, film, personal style, defining meals of his lifetime, and much more.
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I learned to cook from good eats
- By jordan kuehl on 02-06-25
By: Alton Brown
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Why I Cook
- By: Tom Colicchio
- Narrated by: Will Damron, Tom Colicchio
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Tom Colicchio cooked his first recipe at 13 years old—a stuffed eggplant from an issue of Cuisine magazine that he picked up out of boredom—and it changed his life. Listeners are in for a treat as the talented Will Damron (who has read over 700 audiobooks) delivers an immersive account of Emmy Award-winning celebrity chef and beloved restaurateur Tom Colicchio’s life, challenges, and success.
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Good story short on details, padded with recipes
- By S. Mahon on 12-13-24
By: Tom Colicchio
What listeners say about Garlic and Sapphires
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Overall
- Irenehope
- 04-30-06
Dream Job
This book was an interesting look at Ruth Reichl's career as restaurant reviewer for the New York Times. Yes, it would be my dream job, but I doubt if I could enter into the masaquerade as fully, and with such joy, as Ruth. I love her sense of fun even as she's working. Her idea to return to restaurants masquerading as different people to see how other classes are treated was genius.
I'd invite her to dinner any time. Whether she liked my food or not, I would be sure of receiving an honest opinion and have a lively & intelligent dinner guest.
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- Peter Carson
- 08-25-19
Wonderful book
I love Ruth and I don’t even know her. Her life is an inspiration to mine and her memoirs reveal so much of her humanity. If I ever had the privilege of meeting her I think we would be friend.
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- AvidReader22
- 05-20-21
Made me hungry!
This was a fun read! I can't wait to try some of the included recipes!
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- Celia
- 12-05-06
Just wonderful!
If you love food, and it helps too if you're a fan of Gourmet magazine, you'll find this is a magical book. Beautifully read as well.
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- Robin
- 12-19-11
excellent!
great narration. such an interesting story. will be purchasing another of her memoirs. top chef meets tootsie!
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- Debbie M.
- 02-05-06
But how do I write down the recipes?
Delightful read AND a real education about food -- I'll never just eat my way through a good meal again without savoring every taste! Even engaged my non-foodie teenage daughter. My only complaint is that it's very difficult to go back and find the recipes -- the audio breaks don't even coincide with chapter breaks, it seems.
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- Kristin
- 02-27-15
Thoroughly enjoyed the journey she led me on !
What a beautiful book! I felt like I was living her life in New York...thanks Ruth! So much fun!
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- Sue
- 11-17-12
Great listen-but don't listen while you are hungry
What did you love best about Garlic and Sapphires?
food, food and more food
What did you like best about this story?
the food descriptions
Have you listened to any of Bernadette Dunne’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
The food critic
Any additional comments?
this was a very easy and fun listen. The narrator was great. Very enjoyable.
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- Aaron Jarrett
- 05-29-18
Made me appreciate food
Reichl has a magical way with words. So much fun to read! I highly recommend
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- Evan
- 08-01-16
This book changed my life before I read it.
I heard about this book ages ago. The concept that people react to you based on your persona much more then based on their attitude is literally world changing for me. Also a fun read.
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