All good meals must eventually come to an end. And so it is that Gael Greene, the New York Magazine critic who shaped the taste of a generation of New York foodies, has been sacked.
Greene, now in her mid-'70s, was hired by by Clay Felker in 1968 to be the restaurant critic of his just launched New York Magazine. According to the New York Times, "It was as if New York magazine had found its own version of Colette when it came to food. She created an entirely fresh new voice, one that has never staled."
True, she dallied with more than one celebrity chef. And although that should have presented a grave conflict of interest, Greene embraced the frisson by working it into her copy. Her 1977 review of Le Cirque was deliciously titled, I Love Le Cirque, but Can I Be Trusted?" and let her readers into her fling with chef de cuisine Jean-Louis Todeschini. Her readers loved it.
Over the course of her long career, Greene could be thought of as a early prototype of Carrie Bradshaw: eating and sleeping her way through 70's-80's era New York City. Her 2006 book "Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess" goes into her sensual exploits in detail.
Although she gave up her gig as weekly chief reviewer eight years ago, Ms. Greene continued to write about food for the magazine. Her final column will run in New York's December 1 issue.
Fans of her wit, writing and legendary palate can continue to follow her musings on, where else, her own food blog: called the Insatiable Critic.
Here's what's cooking in the Los Angeles Times Food Section for Wednesday, October 22:
Put the kids to work: They want to eat only pasta? Let them make their own. Actually, it's a pretty kid-friendly activity. Amy Scattergood investigates.
A political feast: Regional foods from the states of presidential candidates work together to create a sumptuous feast.
Restaurant review: S. Irene Virbila dines at a retooled Max in Sherman Oaks.
Transitions: It's the best of times for SoCal's Farmer's Markets. Russ Parsons tells you what's looking good right now.
The times, they are a changin': And so do smart food retailers. Santa Monica's Goudas & Vines specialty shop expands into tapas.
Here's what's doing in the Los Angeles Times Food Section for Wednesday, October 15:
A better bar -- Imagine a bar in L.A. that's hip, but not too hip, crowded, but not too crowded, good drinks at affordable prices...and best and most improbable of all -- ample parking. They exist in ever-increasing numbers.
Here's what's cooking in the Los Angeles Times Food Section today: What's hot, what's not: Russ Parsons and Amy Scattergood weigh in on what a kitchen essential really is.
Celebrity chefs will cut some costs to keep their restaurants afloat in this economy. But cutting quality remains verboten.
Spice your own: Combine spices to create something special...and uniquely you.
Maybe you read about the fact that Campbell's Soup was the only stock on the S&P 500 that didn't fall that fateful day in late September, when the market tanked 700 points. This is like that. Only with recipes.
According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), publishers are betting big that cookbooks will continue to sell even as everyone tightens their wallets significantly. No surprise there. Eating out is one of the first luxuries people cut back on in tough times.
But publishers are hoping this turn of events will help them peddle product during the upcoming holiday shopping season, which is shaping up to look otherwise pretty unappetizing. They are releasing a clutch of new cookbooks from well-known names, including Paula Deen, Jacques Pepin and Jeff Henderson, figuring that as long as people are cooking more from home, they will buy a book of recipes from names they recognize from the Food Network.
Here's what's being featured in today's Los Angeles Times Food Section:
Beer Babes: There were never a lot of women brewing their own, but that's all changed. A new generation of young women, hooked up online and in homes, are taking the home brew movement out of the old boy's club.
Mushroom king: Russ Parsons reports that a new partnership between an American company and Japan's largest mushroom grower to build a growing plant near San Diego will soon have California markets awash in exotics.
How did this idea pop up? A restaurant in Switzerland decided to make soups, sauces and other delicacies using 75% human breast milk. If it's a good idea for one Swiss restaurant, it's good enough for a mass-market, (albeit right-on) maker of ice creams. You have to give credit to PETA for seizing a PR opportunity when it finds it .
"If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk," wrote the animal rights group in its letter, "your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits."
Ben & Jerry's, which made a name for itself in the '90s by running its business on progressive, pro-environment practices, is one of the few mainstream companies that might even "consider" a proposal like this.
Unfortunately, it's got product to push. And eye-popping though this idea may be, it's not exactly lip-smacking. Putting aside the health debate surrounding dairy products, I feel fairly secure in saying that the American public is not likely to find the idea of human breast milk ice cream as titillating as the Swiss might.
Chef Jose Andres, just back from filming the second season of his "Made in Spain" series, arrives in Los Angeles with a new eating venue...and a lot of other ideas. Preguntas, por favor: When does he have time to eat?
If you live in Los Angeles, you've no doubt seen the large ABC gradings hung outside of every eatery. A large "A" tells you that the county health inspector has deemed the restaurant up to snuff. B's and C's suggest a restaurant has been found lacking in health and cleanliness, although everyone knows that the best ethnic foods in town don't meet this level and are fantastic anyway. One blogger reckons this is because American health code standards are ridiculously, well, American in their fastidiousness.
Regardless. The signs are ubiquitous around town. But now you can get your own home kitchen rated by the health inspector, and if yours rates an "A" - the county will send you your own "A" refrigerator magnet.
Even though I know better than to think my kitchen would cut the mustard, I can't think of a cooler gift for your favorite foodie friend. Unfortunately, the health department doesn't send out "B" or "C" magnets. Somebody will just have to send me one...
Summer's nearly here, and you know what that means: Potlucks.
Everyone needs at least one dish they can nail at a moment's notice. A dish everyone will love, from vegans to carnivores. Something that's cheap, easy, quick, yet delicious. Something that dresses to impress. Something that even bad home cooks can manage.
The vintner who put California on the wine map, Robert Mondavi, has died at the age of 94, says a spokesperson for the Robert Mondavi winery. Mr. Mondavi died Friday (May 16) at his home in Yountville, Calif.
Though he had little formal training in wine-making, Mondavi has been credited with creating fume blanc, and with popularizing that quintessential Californian white, chardonnay. He was the first one who saw that with proper techniques and a lot of great PR, domestic wines could one day hold their own against the French tradition.
According to the obit in the Los Angeles Times, when Barron Phillipe de Rothschild of Bordeaux first approached him about a Franco-American collaboration in 1970 -- the equivalent, in the words of wine industry consultant Vic Motto, of "Goliath coming to David to learn how to throw stones" -- the resulting Opus One cabernet sauvignon not only sold for a then-unheard of $50 a bottle (in 1979), but validated his vision for the industry.
"He has probably been the most important figure in the wine industry in the last half of this century," Paul Gillette, then-publisher of the Wine Investor newsletter, told the New York Times in 1990.
Ironically, Mondavi was born on June 18, 1913, in Virginia, Minn., just five and a half years before Prohibition.
Former mayor Richard Riordan already runs two iconic L.A. restaurants -- downtown's Original Pantry and Malibu's famous Gladstone's for Fish. But never one to rest on his laurel's, he's added three more to his lineup: Riordan's Tavern, the Oak Room and the Village Pantry.
Even though the crust of your pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving turned out flaky and buttery, consider everyone "pie"-ed out. Try these non-pie ways to use up leftover disk of dough.
All good meals must eventually come to an end. And so it is that Gael Greene, the New York Magazine critic who shaped the taste of a generation of New York foodies, 
Here's what's cooking in the Los Angeles Times Food Section for Wednesday, October 22:
Here's what's doing in the Los Angeles Times Food Section for Wednesday, October 15:
Maybe you read about the fact that 
Here's what's being featured in today's Los Angeles Times Food Section:
The vigilant folks at PETA are really straining at the boundaries of good taste.
Summer's nearly here, and you know what that means: Potlucks. 
The vintner who put California on the wine map, 
Here's what you can find in Today's 
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