I’d Love to Meet You…
Come Say Hello to Me at One of My Appearances
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Watch for me on reruns of Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters. ” For ten weeks this summer I joined with host Kelly Choi and fellow judges – Saveur editor James Oseland and the London Observer’s restaurant critic Jay Rayner – to single out the best dishes and the most brilliant response to some wonderfully unlikely cooking challenges. Each week for six weeks four chefs tried to outdo each other but only one won $10,000 each week for his or her favorite charity and advanced to the finals. The challenges got rougher and full of twists and surprises till we finally agreed on the winner who took home $100,000 for his charity. Watch for reruns on Bravo. To read the blow-to-blow chopping board antics and the blogs of the winners and losers, as well as my own, go to bravotv.com.
I’m the meat of the sandwich with Jay Rayner (drinking coffee) and James Oseland from Saveur on the right
In her role as restaurant critic of New York Magazine (1968 to January 2002) Detroit-born Gael Greene helped change the way New Yorkers (and many Americans) think about food. A scholarly anthropologist could trace the evolution of New York restaurants on a timeline that would reflect her passions and taste over 30 years from Le Pavillon to nouvelle cuisine to couturier pizzas, pastas and hot fudge sundaes, to more healthful eating. But not to foams and herb sorbet; she loathes them.
“Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ice Cream But Were Too Fat To Ask,” “The Mafia Guide to Dining Out.” and “Nobody Knows the Truffles I’ve Seen” were early pieces. In more recent years her annual roundup of New York City’s dining favorites, Ask Gael, was a gourmand’s collectible for many years and she continues to write a weekly Ask Gael column for New York Magazine. Earlier she worked at the New York Post.
Ms. Greene often documents her global travels with photographs by the professional street photographer, Steven Richter. Their work has appeared in such magazines as Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine magazine, Diversions, Departures and Food Arts as well as in special travel features in New York Magazine where she now writes a column called Ask Gael.
As co-founder with James Beard and a continuing force behind Citymeals-on-Wheels as board chair, Ms. Greene has made a significant impact on the city of New York. Rallying food world peers to make a commitment to help feed the city’s homebound elderly, she has devoted as many hours to fund-raising in recent years as she does to writing. Citymeals, the largest public/private partnership in the country, has raised $150 million in its twenty-four-year history to help feed the city’s frail elderly shut-ins. That’s 30 million meals. In the fiscal year ending in June, 2006, CMOW will have delivered 2.2 million meals to 17,000 homebound New Yorkers. For her work with Citymeals, Greene has received numerous awards and was honored as the Humanitarian of the Year (l992) by the James Beard Foundation. She is the winner of the International Association of Cooking Professionals magazine writing award, 2000, and a Silver Spoon from Food Arts magazine.
Ms. Greene’s memoir, “Insatiable, Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess” was published April 2006. Earlier non-fiction books include “Delicious Sex, A Gourmet Guide for Women and the Men Who Want to Love Them Better” and “BITE: A New York Restaurant Strategy.” Her two novels, “Blue skies, No Candy” and “Doctor Love” were New York Times best sellers.
For more information on Citymeals-on-Wheels click here.
