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WIGS OF REICHL:

RELATED VIDEO CNN's Jeanne Moos reports Windows Media 28K 80K

May 20, 1999
Web posted at: 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT)

Food critic Ruth Reichl has come out of the closet. At least she's revealing the contents of her closet.

Her shadowy life as a restaurant critic would have a spy eating his heart out. She used alias after alias rather than her real name. Even her book jacket for "Tender at the Bone" is blank where the author's photo usually goes. But Reichl's days of working undercover are over.

Dining incognito about half the time so she'd be treated as a regular customer rather than a critic who could make or break a restaurant, she had multiple personalities, multiple disguises and more wigs than a four-star restaurant has appetizers.

Now that she's left her job at the New York Times to become editor in chief of Gourmet Magazine, she can tell all about her tactics.

When she announced she was leaving the post of Times critic, restaurant owners placed a tribute in the paper. The upscale restaurant Daniel actually had a file on Reichl -- complete with list of aliases.

She may no longer be a critic, but her name still opens doors. She says she'll miss what she calls the perfect job, but she won't miss the outfits.