Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess
With her passion for fine food and, above all, her appetite for love and life, Gael Greene traces her rise from a Velveeta cocoon in the Midwest to powerful critic of New York magazine. Love and food, foreplay and fork play, haute cuisine and social history—all become inextricably linked as the author lifts the lid on her most provocative subject yet—herself. Along the way there are tales of her saucy erotic adventures and intimate portraits of the culinary icons of our time—Julia Child,...
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With her passion for fine food and, above all, her appetite for love and life, Gael Greene traces her rise from a Velveeta cocoon in the Midwest to powerful critic of New York magazine. Love and food, foreplay and fork play, haute cuisine and social history—all become inextricably linked as the author lifts the lid on her most provocative subject yet—herself. Along the way there are tales of her saucy erotic adventures and intimate portraits of the culinary icons of our time—Julia Child, André Soltner, James Beard, among others—and revealing dissections of New York's legendary "in" spots, including Elaine's, Le Bernardin, Le Cirque, Odeon, and Balthazar. The New York Times - Liesl Schillinger Greene's book is a gustatory napkin-ripper that charts the rise of epicurean tastes, trendy restaurants and celebrity chefs, using the frequent crescendos of her own pulse as counterpoint. When she describes the circus at Le Cirque in 1977, she also confides her affair with the chef, Jean-Louis. When she raves about the French chef Jean Troisgros, who gave tutorials to well-heeled foodies at a Napa retreat, she also applauds his performance in the bedroom. And her elegy for Gilbert LeCoze of Le Bernardin includes a recollection of his skill at unsnapping her bra.
Acknowledgments XIPrelude: The Craving 1The Fried Egg and I 7A Peanut Butter Kid in a Velveeta Wasteland 11Recipe: Almost Like Mom's Macaroni and Cheese 19About Sex and Me 21Slow Death by Mayonnaise 25Recipe: Blueberry Pie with Orange-Nut Crust 29Something Borrowed, Something Blue 31Recipe: My Ex-Sister-in-Law's Orange Pour Cake 35Innocents Abroad 36Recipe: Raw tomato sauce for Pasta 39Comfort Me with Chocolate Mousse 40How I Became Henri Soule's Darling 44When Craig Claiborne Was God and King 47The Insatiable Critic 53Recipe: Plum Rum Conserve 55Planting the Seeds of Sensuality 56Bite: A New York Restaurant Strategy 62Ma Vie Avec Le Grape Nut 69Recipe: Danish Meat Loaf 77Men I Just Couldn't Resist 78Recipe: Infidelity Soup with Turkey and Winter Vegetables 82The Woman Who Gave Me France on a Plate 84Can This Be Love, or Is It an Intoxication of Butter? 92Recipe: ChocolateWickedness 100A Gastromaniacal Interlude 101Haute Afloat 110Under Covers 114Train Games 121Recipe: The Morning-After Orange Fruit Soup 124The Scent of a Man 125The Yo-yo Unwinds 129It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Kaufman 132Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen 138Getting to Know Craig 146Recipe: Mushroom Strudel 157I Lost It at the Baths 159Drowning my Sorrows in Chilled Burgundy 165Of James Beard and Encounters with Goddesses 169Splendor in the Foie Gras 175Swimming in Bordeaux 179How They Ate in Pompeii 181Blue Skies and Candy, Too 193Recipe: Scallops with Salsa Cruda and Gremolata 200Life Is a Cabernet 202Am I Blue? 207The Prince of Porn and the Junk-Food Queen 213Skin Flick 221What I Learned on Spring Break 231A Wine Romance This Is 246Recipe: Jean Troisgros's Figs Candy Blue 255It's Not Easy Being Greene 256Cuisines from Three Marriages 263Bonfire of the Foodies 272On Mountain Time 282Recipe: Juliette's Grandma's Fruit Crumble 290Dining on the Lip of the Volcano 292Le Cirque: Having My Cake and Eating it, Too 299And to Think That I Saw It on Wooster Street 308Memories of Maguy and Gilbert LeCoze 314My Dinners with Andre 324The Day the Music Died 330Kiss Kiss Before Dinner 337Eating Humble Pie 341Recipe: Corn Soup with Sauteed Scallops and Bacon 348Aftermath: No Mere Truffle 350Index 359
\ From Barnes & NobleFor 32 years, Gael Greene served as Manhattan's most feared and revered restaurant critic. Greene's often-irreverent "Insatiable Critic" columns in New York changed the face of restaurant reviews. Now semi-retired, Greene sheds her professional anonymity in a lusty romp about her two favorite subjects: food and sex. To prove her contention that the two topics are inextricably linked, she writes candidly about her excesses in both arenas. The book also contains a fair share of delectable recipes.\ \ \ \ \ Liesl SchillingerGreene's book is a gustatory napkin-ripper that charts the rise of epicurean tastes, trendy restaurants and celebrity chefs, using the frequent crescendos of her own pulse as counterpoint. When she describes the circus at Le Cirque in 1977, she also confides her affair with the chef, Jean-Louis. When she raves about the French chef Jean Troisgros, who gave tutorials to well-heeled foodies at a Napa retreat, she also applauds his performance in the bedroom. And her elegy for Gilbert LeCoze of Le Bernardin includes a recollection of his skill at unsnapping her bra.\ — The New York Times\ \ \ Publishers WeeklyAs the title of her longtime New York magazine column (which ran from 1968 to 2000) suggests, Greene was indeed an "Insatiable Critic" and not just where food was concerned. Her fun memoir spices up the standard chronicle of food supped and wine sipped with breathless descriptions of sexual trysts, travel tales and signature fashions. Greene's sensual appetite was voracious and her affairs as abundant and indulgent as her meals; her more famous lovers included Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. With chapter titles like "Splendor in the Foie Gras" and "Bonfire of the Foodies," the book brims with vivid and gluttonously gossipy prose, though it's occasionally repetitive, especially regarding the recent growth of "foodie" culture. At heart a singular story of Greene's gustatory and personal development, the book is also a history of culinary culture since the 1960s. She mentions world events that were occurring as she pursued her sybaritic lifestyle; describes her idols, contemporaries and famous chefs; and depicts spectacular meals throughout France, New York and beyond. This delicious read tells the story of America's haute cuisine awakening as written by the woman who had a seat at the table. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalNew York magazine contributing editor and former restaurant critic Greene (Blue Skies, No Candy) serves up a feast in this memoir chronicling her involvement in the history of both the culinary and the sexual revolutions in the United States. A self-proclaimed sensualist, she artfully blends food and sex, liberally spicing talk of restaurants that changed the way Americans ate, chefs who elevated cooking to an art form or launched culinary movements, and food celebrities such as Julia Child and Craig Claiborne with tales of her bedroom encounters. Chapters with titles like "A Peanut Butter Kid in a Velveeta Wasteland" and "Splendor in the Fois Gras" whet the appetite and contain recipes (e.g., Almost Like Mom's Macaroni and Cheese, Infidelity Soup) that capture a memory or reflect a particular decade. Greene's focus is mainly New York restaurants, and that, together with her prose, might be an acquired taste, but the book is still an engaging account of the food world. Recommended for public and academic libraries.-Christine Holmes, San Jose State Univ. Lib., CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsAn outrageously fun memoir from novelist and longtime New York magazine dining critic Greene that reads more like Who-I-Slept-With rather than What-I-Ate. Greene, an upper-middle-class girl from Detroit, apparently tall and buxom, talked her way into bedding Elvis by age 21, in 1956, and from then on, nothing would stop her in love and career. "I was born hungry," she declares, referring to her appetite for both sex and food. In amusing, provocative vignettes, many sealed with a cozy favorite recipe ("Danish Meat Loaf"), she scampers through her 30-year career as dining critic for New York magazine. She discusses her travels to France and sexual emancipation during the swinging '60s; her long marriage to New York Times cultural critic and fellow foodie Don Forst; and numerous spectacular adulteries during her heyday in the '70s. Her novels are inspired by her sexcapades, specifically Doctor Love, which tracks her romance with porn star Jamie Gillis. Early freelance journalism for Cosmopolitan and others allowed Greene to interview stars like Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, and she chronicles in purring detail her affairs with both ("Would I have done it just for the story?" she asks. "I wouldn't have not done it for anything"). Friendships with Craig Claiborne and Belgian publicist Yanou Collart opened doors for her and transformed her from a parvenu abroad into a veritable VIP; through James Beard, she first met Alice Waters, though Greene admits she admired the West Coasters from afar and remained a "hopelessly elitist voice speaking for a manic majority." Lively and large-spirited, her account sizzles. Name-dropping with relish.\ \
