This great one-on-one with Ruth Reichl was taken at CIA's Greystone campus in California last month at the "Street Food of the World" conference. Reichl goes into the deeper anthropological significance of street food, explaining that her mom used to throw dinner parties in their cramped New York City apartment but didn't want any guests to actually smell the food (since that was associated with the dirtiness of cooking). Street food today, in all its smelly-kebab-smoke glory, is the exact opposite.

When asked what she wants to do next in three words, she responds "I don't know!" Well, hey, that's three words, Ruth! The video interview was conducted by Washington, D.C.-based food writer Michele Kayal, who blogs at The Hyphenated Chef. Watch it, after the jump.

Ruth Reichl on Street Food and Her Career Cluelessness

Related

L.A. Food Critic Jonathan Gold on Street Food
Serious Eats Street Food Profiles
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
The First Issue of 'Gourmet' Magazine: The January 1941 'Holiday Issue'