Delicious, a novel by Ruth Reichl

Ruth Reichl's first novel, Delicious, is a "delight".

If you are a "foodie", then the opening pages will have you drooling over them. I could just smell the orange rind, the cinnamon, the crushed cloves, the cardamom, not to forget the ginger!
Billie Breslin leaves her home state of California heading east to the "Big Apple" in hopes of finding that perfect job. What a job she lands, after a very interesting day wandering around with Sal, a well-known figure in certain food arenas.

As Ruth Reichl's career as editor in chief of Gourmet magazine for ten years, she writes with a flair for what running a major magazine must have been like, of course, we all know the demise of Gourmet magazine, she relies on that to bring abrupt changes to the fictional "Delicious" magazine, and what happens to all the employees who are no longer employed, and the disgraceful way they are informed of the closure of the magazine. 

World War II is brought into play with a series of "letters" found from a young girl in Ohio to the one and only James Beard -- just her letters, never his replies. This was a very interesting twist to the story, as it brought the history of food creations of many time frames. And then there is the architectural point of view of an "historic" building, the one and only that Delicious has had for its place of operation for all these years.