Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess

by Gael Greene

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446695106
• ISBN13: 9780446695107
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

This is not just a book for Foodies

This is not just a book for Foodies - though if you are one you will love it for all the insider tidbits on restaurants and chefs and tete-de-tetes the world over! And it is not a Cookbook of Recipes, though there are a few included, but not the one that I was looking for which is the recipe for the lush life the author recounts! No, I think this is a coming of age book which was never meant to be that! Gael Greene recounts a life on the cusp of a revolution in how America felt about food...and sex... and she participated and contributed heartily to both with class and bravura! What is remarkable is that none of the reviewers of this book have focused on the barriers Gael demolished on her way to building a career as the first woman to write and critique restaurants in an era when "women didn't do that"! And the `hutspah' that it took to live life in the `bring it on' fashion that Gael recounts in her book. She had no training as a restaurant critic when she was recruited to write for the fledgling `New York Magazine' in 1968 - but before she signs on she negotiates for the same terms that Craig Claiborne (her admitted idol) at the NY Times commands which includes eating at every reviewed restaurant three times - with friends - while the magazine pays the check! Carly Fiorina move over - Gael Greene has lived the life for women to emulate!!! I heartily recommend this book to all the young women entering the work world, and all of us who were young in the 60's and 70's, as a primer for understanding what it takes to really have your cake and eat it too! BRAVO Gael!

A Delicious, Sensual Treat of a Book Whether You're a Foodie or Not

I want to give Paris Hilton a copy of Gael Greene's new memoir Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess and make sure she reads every last page. Paris was recently quoted as saying that she prefers food over sex. (And this theme is hinted at in the forthcoming memoir I'd Rather Eat Chocolate: Learning to Love My Low Libido.) Greene, the longtime restaurant critic for New York magazine, proves without a doubt that food and sex are not only compatible but a luscious combo, and each page practically oozes with both. This is a rich, sensual story of her unabashed enthusiasm for the finer things in life, and her feistiness is made clear in the first chapter, where she seduces none other than Elvis (she doesn't remember much about the sex, but he ordered a fried egg sandwich afterward). Interspersed with recipes that relate to her story, such as Infidelity Soup with Turkey and Winter Vegetables, The Morning-after Orange Fruit Soup and Jean Troisgros's Figs Candy Blue (named after her scandal-causing erotic novel Blue Skies, No Candy), Greene's is a tale of decadence and sensuality. It's refreshing to hear from a woman who's over 50 who claims her pleasure everywhere she can get it. Greene writes about food and sex in a way that will make you hungry for both. In the chapter "About Sex and Me," she begins: The best lover turns into a pizza at 3:00 AM. Who said that? Was it Woody Allen? For me, the best pizza would turn into a lover. I have read restaurant critics who claimed to have tasted chocolate ice cream that was better than sex. I have never eaten anything that was better than sex; almost as good as great sex perhaps, but never better. Though I am sure I was born hungry, I am less certain I began life as a sensualist. Growing up in Detroit, Michigan, Greene wasn't exposed to the delicacies and worldly cuisine she would late dine out on almost every night, traveling extensively to seek out the best in French, Chinese, American and other foodstuffs. Hers was a basic American childhood, but after graduating college in 1956 she was determined to get a job as a writer, and started out at UPI (which led her to Elvis). She soon found herself in New York and took no time getting acquainted with its ways, worshiping at the pen and palate of Craig Claibourne, building up her portfolio before joining upstart New York as the Insatiable Critic. Aside from detailed accounts of endless meals, including the ups and downs of the restaurant world Greene becomes immersed in during her time in the "mouth trade," the bulk of her story is about her affairs, which she's refreshingly up-front about. Speaking of an affair with a friend's ex-husband, she writes simply, "He touched me and I burst into flames," juxtaposing their lovemaking with missing her longtime husband, who she was still married to and had been exclusive with for nine and a half years up until that point. While Greene doesn't gloss over the pain she felt when her husband's affairs becam

Blending a peppering of recipes with the author's observations of the growing world of exotic foods

INSATIABLE: TABLES FROM A LIFE OF DELICIOUS EXCESS celebrates the food world like no other, blending a peppering of recipes with the author's observations of the growing world of exotic foods and culinary expertise. The unschooled Greene differs from the quasi-chefs who normally write modern chef's explorations these days: she's immersed in the New York food world but not a chef herself, revealing an undercurrent of snobbery in culinary circles which originally regulated her to the back rooms rather than the center of foodie circles. Her observations of culinary fame, sensual excess, and rich experience provides both a personal memoir and a series of connections to New York's food society, whether it be a gourmet restaurant or her work spearheading Citymeals-on-Wheels, a charity program for the elderly. It's her diverse experiences which set INSATIABLE apart from the many food surveys on today's market. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Excellent insider (really inside) look at NY haute cuisine. Buy It.

`Insatiable' is a collection of anecdotal memoirs by Ms. Gael Greene of the overshadowingly broad brimmed hats and long time food writer and restaurant critic of `New York' magazine. While the 51 chapters do touch on Ms. Greene's life before `New York', they generally stay very close to their `New York' wellspring, her column, named `The Insatiable Gourmet' by magazine editor in chief, Clay Felker. The most immediate comparison which comes to mind is to the three volumes of memoirs by current `Gourmet' editor in chief, Ruth Reichl who, for several years, sat in Craig Claiborne's chair as principle restaurant reviewer for `The New York Times' and whose most recent book, `Garlic and Sapphires' deals entirely with her `New York Times' restaurant reviews and her tactics for maintaining her anonymity while in the hunt for excellence at New York's finer eateries. And, as similar as these two women's careers may be, the differences make both bodies of work that much more interesting. While Reichl, the younger of the two by at least a decade, grew up in New York City and learned French at a very early age, her professional culinary journalistic career was shaped on the west coast, firmly under the influence of the American food vanguard lead by the California vintners, Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, and Wolfgang Puck. Greene grew up in provincial Detroit, but had her culinary instincts formed by the emerging community of French restaurants in New York City. Her center of culinary gravity was in the dining rooms, kitchens, and cellars of the great French culinary establishment. She even admits that she came late to the California culinary movement. To her credit, as soon as she had her first experience of Alice Waters' cuisine at `Chez Panisse', she recognized that there was something important going on by the Pacific coast. Reichl's first two volumes of memoirs are more strictly biographical than `Insatiable' in that they are strictly chronological. Reichl's revelations about her life are also unusual to me, at the time, for the remarkable candor about her sexual life. Madame Reichl was a Den Mother compared to Ms. Greene, whose title refers not only to her culinary appetites, but to her sexual appetites as well. I won't dwell on this much, but her exploits make me and most average Americans feel like monks or nuns in comparison. These sexual exploits include dozens of famous figures from the culinary world, but they also include several notables from Hollywood. As a hint, I will reveal that Ms. Greene tells the tales of how she landed in bed with two very big leading men, both of whom appeared together on the cover of `Time' magazine. And yet, Ms. Greene can be remarkably circumspect about the details of many liaisons. It is interesting to see the difference in reaction to some of the major figures both have met. Danny Kaye appears in both narratives, however, he is a much bigger part in Ms. Greene's story, as does James Beard, Julia Child, Craig Cl

A FUNNY, FRANK, FROLIC OF A BIO

Talk about a plum job! Gael Greene has enjoyed the finest cuisine the world has to offer for some three decades, and all she has to do is write about it. Jealous? Not in the least bit - that is until she shared the names of her bevy of lovers which includes Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood and, yes, The King himself, Elvis. According to Greene all Elvis did was saunter in, lie down on the bed and wait. Best advice for you is not to wait a moment longer before listening to Insatiable, Greene's funny, frank, frolic of a bio. As most know, Greene is New York's vaunted food critic, eating her way through the city's toniest establishments and dining in France - on her employer's money. Seems it was 1968 when Clay Felker of New York Magazine discovered her in the Motor City and brought her to the Big Apple. It wasn't long before Felker dubbed her "the insatiable critic." Wonder if he knew just how accurate that was. Freely admitting to a "certain compulsive bedability," she gleefully blended lovers and Lutece, all of which makes for spicy listening. Narrator Nancy Travis does a superb turn with the slightly quirky Greene's tale of her pursuit of life's pleasures. And, yes, recipes are included. 5 star restaurants, 5 star swains, and most certainly 5 star listening. - Gail Cooke