Insatiable

Book excerpt: 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.