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, Andre 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.