HBO is planning a half-hour comedy based on the life of, well, Ruth Reichl. She is the editor of Gourmet who used to be the restaurant critic in disguise for the New York Times—and who before that was the food section editor and critic at the Los Angeles Times. Today's Variety says that Cary Brokaw, executive producer of "Angels in America" and "Wit," is in charge. Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin will write the pilot and share the exec producer credit with Brokaw and Reichl herself. The idea started with Reichl's second book Comfort Me With Apples, which Variety says "covers her evolution from chef to food writer in addition to the dissolution of her first marriage, a sexual awakening at the start of a second and motherhood at the age of 40." Reich adds: "Everyone knows food is the new sex."