About Gael Greene
Photo: Steven Richter
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.
"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 NYM. Earlier she worked at the New York Post.
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. Citymeals, the largest public/private partnership in the country, has raised $200 million in its twenty-six-year history to help feed the city's frail elderly shut-ins.
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 NY Times best sellers.
Gael Greene
Articles used with permission of Gael Greene, Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Steven Richter's photographs may not be used without permission.
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What do you do when it rains in the Hamptons? You eat.
Looking forward to a weekend of blissful sloth in the Hamptons, I took along the last six unread New Yorkers. It rained a lot, yet I only polished off one magazine. Every single other minute I was eating, shopping for dinner, driving to a restaurant, or sleeping it off. Mostly we were sycophantic mouths in thrall to our host Karine and Pascal’s edible hospitality. She whirled around the kitchen like a hurricane. We were fed mussels two ways and slurped the broth. Along the way, the Road Food Warrior staggered into Briermere Farms (cued by our hosts) and came back with peaches piled in a peak atop thick pastry cream on an acceptably food crust, certainly better than most farm stand and local bakery efforts. Most amazing of all: the peaches were ripe, not cooked into a slop and not over-sweetened.
Friday night we rubbed aerobicized shoulders with a good-looking crowd of the younger privileged at The Living Room in East Hampton’s Maidstone Inn – a stylish new venture by a Swedish Hotel family.
Imagine. Even in Sweden they know from the Hamptons. I loved all that fresh charm, greeters in formal gowns with feathers in their hair, a costly rehab – we actually had a small crystal chandelier over our table for five. And the food, at last what we ate wasn’t all bad, some of it was actually good enough, about what most people expect when they eat out on this rarified strip of land. Indeed, I suspect most slaves of the Montauk highway are grateful just to get a weekend booking and don’t know or care all that much about culinary epiphany, especially after a cocktail or two.
I was happier with the tapas at Copa in Bridgehampton – the charred octopus, zucchini croquetas, and the flash fried peppers more so than too sweet lamb chops – to the kitchen’s credit, I asked for them rare and they were rare. The bar crowd spilled over into the street where it was only lightly sprinkling by 11. A boozy jumpstart for the economy. I’m so glad it was a party thrown for friend’s birthday and I wasn’t stuck with the bill.
Briermere Farms, 4414 Squid Avenue, Riverhead, 631 722 3931
Living Room at the Maidstone, 207 Main Street, East Hampton, 631 324 5440
Copa, 95 School Street, Bridgehamtpon, 631 613 6469
