A woman of multiple personalities. That was Ruth Reichl undergoing dozens of transformations with wigs, thrift shop ensembles, jewelry and even creative makeup to disguise herself while dining as the New York Times restaurant critic. With the help of these costumes she could dine unnoticed by NYC restaurant staff, eating and considering both the experience and the cuisine for her reviews.
In her memoir “Garlic and Sapphires”, which we are reading this cycle for Cook the Books, Reichl describes the process of crafting each of the rich personalities she affected. She posed as a frumpy divorcee, the elderly matron, the blowsy next door neighbor and many other characters. As the bohemian aging hippie Brenda for instance she would stick out like a sore thumb at the elegant, high-end restaurant Daniel, which was on her review list. And that was just the point.
More interesting, she found herself morphing into these characters when she got into costume. “It makes me feel sort of schizophrenic, like my thoughts are mine but not mine, and people react to me in an entirely different way as if I really were someone else”.
Of all the characters she described in the book, I favored Brenda the most. She had a warm and gentle personality. Strangers talked to her. Even Reichl’s son and husband seemed to take to her more than Reichl herself. Nicky the son confided, “I like Brenda. She talks to people and being with her is fun”. “More fun than me?”, mom asked. “Yes”, he replied. Reichl came to understand that Brenda’s world was a gentler place than hers and that people wished her well. A far cry from the world of an restaurant critic
Ah but the food. What Brenda, Molly, Chloe, Emily and all the other Reichl ladies ate was mouthwatering and her descriptions of those delicious courses were so enticing that I wished fervently for the opportunity to taste just one or two of the dishes she savored.
The treat that kicked off Brenda’s dinner at Daniel was gougères, which a fellow diner declared to be “simply divine”. In classic French cuisine, the delicate cheese puffs are made with savory pâte à choux pastry enlivened with cheese, such as Gruyere. They are baked at a high temperature, although Reichl calls for 375 degrees in her book. On my first attempt to bake them following her directions, that moderate temperature failed to produce the classic puff. I consulted Philadelphia Restaurant School baking instructor Marie Stecher, who advised to ratchet up the heat, and voila – the classic cheese puffs resulted.
I’m not sure what magical happening caused Reichl’s fellow diner to declare those gougères “divine” but mine were not bad at all. So good that in fact two of us gobbled up half a batch in one sitting. Give them a try.
Gougères
Adapted from Ruth Reichl. Makes~40 puffs or 8 cocktail servings.
Ingredients:
1 cup water
8 tbs unsalted butter
1 ½ tsp kosher or sea salt
1 ½ cup flour
5 eggs
1 cup Gruyere cheese grated
Pepper to taste
½ cup Gruyere cheese grated for topping
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine water, butter and 1 tsp of the salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring till butter melts.
Remove the pan from the heat and dump in the flour all at once, beating vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer the dough to a bowl. Thoroughly whisk in the eggs one at a time using a hand mixer. The dough should be very smooth. Then beat in the cheese, remaining ½ tsp salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning.
Fit a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop 1 tbs choux for each gougère on the baking sheet by either spooning the choux dough from a tablespoon or piping from a ziplock baggie cut with a snip at a bottom corner. I found spooning to be very easy and produced less wasted choux.
Once the gougères are all spooned/piped, round off any pointy tops with a fingertip. Sprinkle with grated cheese.
Bake for 10-12 minutes then rotate the pan(s). Bake another 10 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Remove from the oven, let cool slightly and serve while hot.
This is my contribution to this cycle of Cook the Books, where we are assembling posts and recipes inspired by Ruth Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires. Look out for the coming roundup of dishes inspired by this book. This round of Cook the Books is being hosted by Claudia of Honey from Rock and we thank her for organizing.
