Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise - Couverture souple

Reichl, Ruth

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0143036610 ISBN 13 : 9780143036616

Editeur : Penguin Publishing Group, 2006

Synopsis

Garlic and Sapphires In this "New York Times" bestseller, beloved food writer Reichl, an unlikely master of disguise, presents her adventures in restaurant reviewing for "The New York Times." Full description

A propos du livre

Extrait :

“I’m a restaurant critic,” I told the woman in the wig shop, “and I need a disguise that will keep me from being recognized.”

“That’s a new one on me,” she said. “Do you have a special restaurant you’re working on at the moment?”

“Yes,” I said, remembering the fragrant aroma of the soup I had eaten on my last visit to Lespinasse. When I dipped my spoon into the broth shimeji mushrooms went sliding sensuously across my tongue with the lush texture of custard. I tasted lemongrass, kaffir lime, mushroom and something else, something that hovered at the edge of my mind, familiar but elusive. I took another taste and it was there again, that sweetness, hiding just behind the citrus. It came whirling into my consciousness and then slid maddeningly away before I could identify it.

“The food was wonderful,” I told her, “but I think they made me. Everything’s been just a little too perfect. So I want a foolproof disguise.”

“Try this,” she said, opening a drawer and pulling out a cascade of hair the color of Dom Perignon. As the wig caught the light the color changed from pearl to buttercup.

The hair fell across my face as gently as silk. I squeezed my eyes tight, not wanting to look until it was seated right. I could feel it settle into place, feel the soft strands graze my shoulders just below my ears.

“Wait!” she cried as my eyes started to open, and she leaned forward and tugged at the wig, adjusting it. “Okay,” she said at last, “you can open your eyes now.”

The champagne blonde in the mirror did not seem to be wearing a wig. The hair looked real, as if it were growing out of the scalp. Even the dark eyebrows looked right, as if this woman had so much confidence she didn’t care who knew that she dyed her hair. My mouth dropped open. “Oh!” I said stupidly, “oh my.”

I don’t think I would have recognized myself if we had met walking down the street, and I had yet to put on any makeup. Somehow this cut, this color, made my cheeks pink, my eyes almost violet, my lips seem redder than they had ever been. I felt new, glamorous, bursting with curiosity. What would life be like for the woman in the mirror?

“You were meant to be blonde!” cried the saleswoman, packing the wig into an old-fashioned hatbox. She looked wistfully at the hair and said, “You’ll come back and tell me what happens, won’t you?”

“You mean whether I’m recognized at Lespinasse?”

“Well,” she said, “that too. But what I mostly want to know is—do blondes really have more fun?”

Quatrième de couverture :

Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's delicious and mischevious account of her time spent as an undercover restaurant critic.

Reichl knows that to be a good critic you have to be anonymous. When she lands the much coveted job of the New York Times restaurant critic, she resorts to disguise in order to avoid the inevitable red carpet treatment.

But what is remarkable about Reichl's spy games is that as the takes on these various guises, (frumpy, blonde Molly; bohemian, red-headed Brenda...), she finds herself changed beyond her physical appearance. Ruth discovers how one's outer appearance can profoundly influence one's inner character, expectations - and appetites.

'With a sprig of chervil in her hair, anyone would want to eat up the wonderful Ruth Reichl whole and on the bone. Food is love.' The Times

'A pleasure from start to finish' the Guardian

'Joyous, witty and totally absorbing' Good Housekeeping

'Deliciousness on every page' Jay Rayner, the Observer

'Riotously, effortlessly entertaining - Ruth Reichl is fair-minded, brave and a wonderful writer' New York Times

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Penguin Publishing Group
• Date d'édition: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0143036610
• ISBN 13: 9780143036616
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 352