Now, Greene lifts the lid on her most provocative subject yet: herself. And oh, what a pot-au-feu it is, bubbling over with piquant humor, saucy erotic adventures, and some of the most lovingly described meals in literature (at Le Pavillon, Lutece, Troisgros, Tour d'Argent, La Pyramide, Girardet, Le Bernardin). From Manhattan's snootiest boites to the gourmand shrines of France and Italy, this is the story of a woman who invented a fabulous career out of dining on someone else's dollar.

With her passion for fine food, her nose for hypocrisy and social humbug, and, above all, her appetite for love and life, Greene traces her rise from a Velveeta cocoon in the Midwest to journalist wannabe, to powerful critic of New York magazine. What timing: to be un grand fromage in the world of food, just when eating well was becoming a national obsession. Love and food, foreplay and fork play, haute cuisine and social history; all become inextricably linked as the author embarks on what seemed, at times to her, a frivolous quest to satisfy insatiable hunger.

Until the specter of hunger on her own street engaged her energy and Citymeals-on-Wheels emerged. Along the way there are intimate portraits of the culinary icons of our time and revealing dissections of New York's legendary "in" spots and their invisible caste systems-at The Colony, Elaine's, La Grenouille, "21", Le Cirque, Odeon, and Balthazar.

Earthy and delicious but also penetrating and astute, Greene's memoir deserves a prominent place on the shelf of gastronomic classics.