Insatiable
Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Acclaimed restaurant critic Gael Greene dishes up a delectable memoir-complete with her favorite recipes-from a lifelong love affair with food, men, and wine.
In 1968, Gael Greene became the restaurant critic of the fledgling New York magazine. Before taking the job, she'd never written a restaurant review in her life. But she was a passionate foodie, and dining in the world's great restaurants on someone else's dime was too enticing to resist. Thus began a remarkable career charting the restaurants that changed the way Americans ate, the chefs who turned cooking into an art form, and the food and wines that launched a culinary revolution.
Throughout it all, Gael is convinced that food and sex are inextricably linked, and in this exuberant account of her adventures in sensuous excess, she takes readers on a joyride from the world's best tables, to al fresco lunch with Julia Child and naughty dinners with Craig Claiborne and then to bed with the men she couldn't resist-including a porn star and two Hollywood titans.
The recipes she includes reflect the decades, from childhood macaroni-and-cheese to Chocolate Wickedness. Greene's tale of pleasure and heartbreak will make you laugh. It may make you cry. It will certainly make you hungry.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As 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.
