Food can be as potent as romance, maybe more so.
Just ask Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl , whose credentials also include her former position as The New York Times restaurant critic, which made her the country's most powerful voice in restaurant reviewing. The idea for the book sprang from an epiphany Reichl had one night after deciding not to write a book about her mother's longtime battle with manic-depression. I remember the moment I knew I had to start cooking myself. My mother was making a stew out of leftovers and as I watched, she dumped half an apple pie into it. Cooking for herself, Reichl discovered there was an order that transcended her mother's chaos.