Ruth Reichl has always seen the world in terms of her two memoirs, Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me With Apples, the important events and people in her life are always defined by the meals that accompanied them. And she transformed the art of restaurant reviewing, in her decades at the New York Times and the L.A. Times, by emphasizing the whole dining experience, not just individual dishes. Let's find out what the editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine is packing in her Survival Kit, or perhaps I should say "Survival picnic basket".

HER LIST:

1. Oxford Companion to Food
2. Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert
3. Ulysses
4. A drawing/cartoon done by my first husband (I can fax it to you if you want). It's sort of an inspiration.
5. A photograph by W. Eugene Smith of a woman holding out a handful of morels
6. a chunk of excellent Parmagiano from Di Palo
7. the galleys from the new Gourmet cookbook
8. a mixed case of wine:
'78 La Tache
'82 Petrus
'94 Pesquera (Janus)
'28 Chateau d'Yquem

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