RUTH REICHL, one of our best-known and most well-loved food writers, is the author of five memoirs, including Tender at the Bone and Save Me the Plums. But she is also a captivating novelist, and, as you might imagine, her fiction is full of sensory pleasures. In Reichl’s “The Paris Novel”, the protagonist Stella is left with an unusual inheritance from her mother:  a one-way plane
ticket and a note reading simply, “Go to Paris.”  But Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has confined her to the strict routines of her comfort zone.  In a conversation with fellow food writer ALEKSANDRA CRAPANZANO, recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference, Reichl speaks about her novel that celebrates the city they both adore, and the many reasons for living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.

Photo Credit – Shannon Greer