The daughter and granddaughter of talented cooks, Reith began hosting dinner parties from her apartment kitchen. Reith was working as a Worth Avenue lunch model in 1977 when she won a modeling contest in New York, wearing a homemade dress. During the next few years, she worked for Revlon, Oleg Cassini and Diane von Furstenburg – and was photographed by a very young Patrick Demarchelier. In old photos, she has a sleek all-American look, like a black-haired Shelley Hack. She cooked for Candice Bergen, William Safire and even Maria Callas. She served Club Med executives exotic-theme meals tied to the company’s various resorts. By the mid-1980s, she was splitting her time between New York and Palm Beach County, when she bought a small house in Tequesta and opened a restaurant in Jupiter called The Ritz. It closed after a year, but Reith said she introduced concepts in 1985 that just recently became standard restaurant fare.