For years Ruth Reichl worked in disguise, accumulating a bigger wig collection than Diana Ross. Her photo was said to command big money — nothing to do with the Witness Protection Program, everything to do with her power as a restaurant critic: chefs were anxious to know she was at their table. And that’s only one of her many roles in writing about food – in journalism, for television, as a memoirist, as editor in chief of Gourmet Magazine, and now as a novelist. Her first, Delicious!, was just published. I particularly admire how she talks about food not just as what we eat but as a cultural force.

• PERSON: Marion Cunningham
• PLACE: her kitchen (not this)
• THING: her iPod

• RANDY’S PERSON: George Washington Carver