Gael Greene
{{Short description|American restaurant critic, author, novelist (1933–2022)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gael Greene
| image = Gael Greene.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Greene in 1982
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth-date|December 22, 1933}}
| birth_place = Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death-date and age|November 1, 2022|December 22, 1933}}
| death_place = Manhattan, New York, U.S.
| other_names =
| occupation = Food critic, author, novelist
| education = University of Michigan
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| awards =
| spouse = {{marriage|Donald H. Forst|1961|1974|end=divorced}}
| children =
}}
Gael Greene (December 22, 1933 – November 1, 2022) was an American restaurant critic, author, and novelist. She became New York magazine's restaurant critic in fall 1968, at a time when most New Yorkers were unsophisticated about food and there were few chefs anyone knew by name,{{fact|date=April 2023}} and for four decades both documented and inspired the city's and America's growing obsession with food. She was a pioneering "foodie."
Life and career
Greene was born in Detroit, where her father owned a clothing store,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=110&dat=19761023&id=QfdOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=40sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6963,1791278 |last=Langford |first=David L. |title=The Greening of Gael |newspaper=Ludington Daily News |date=October 23, 1976 |page=15 }} and graduated from Central High School in 1951,{{cite news |last=Selbst |first=Jeffrey |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2706&dat=19780122&id=SghKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pR4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=2754,741345 |title=For Gael Greene, the 'Skies' are grey |newspaper=The Michigan Daily |date=January 22, 1978 |page=8 }} then from the University of Michigan. She said that her passion for food was awakened by a year abroad in Paris while she was an undergraduate.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19710803&id=0bkqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gmYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7273,974036 |title=Sensual Food Critic Shares Her Passions With Poetic Rhapsody In New Book, 'Bite' |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |date=August 3, 1971 |page=12 |agency=Associated Press }} She worked as an investigative reporter for UPI then the New York Post, for example pretending to be single and pregnant for an investigation of baby trafficking,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19640618&id=34geAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o8wEAAAAIBAJ&pg=948,2971208 |title=Baby Sales Cited in Racket |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=Daytona Beach Morning Journal |date=June 18, 1964 |page=5 }} and was made a food writer after her editor liked an article she wrote about chef Henri Soulé.
Greene became food reporter at New York soon after its launch, in fall 1968.{{cite news |last=Collins |first=Glenn |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/dining/26gael.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all&_r=0 |title=A Critic, Insatiable and Dismissed |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 25, 2008 }} Her articles had provocative titles like "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".{{Cite press release |title="The Insatiable Critic" Gael Greene to lecture at Fairfield University|publisher=Fairfield University |date=17 March 2008 |url= https://www.fairfield.edu/news/press-releases/2008/march/the-insatiable-critic-gael-greene-to-lecture-at-fairfield-university.html}} She was a passionate early "foodie" and is sometimes credited with being the first to use the word, in the early 1980s.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJe2yL_R6JQC&q=The+Foodie+Handbook+Gael+Greene&pg=PR14 |last=DeWitt |first=Dave |title=The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine |location=Naperville, Illinois |publisher=Sourcebooks |year=2010 |isbn=9781402217869 |page=xiv }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O1KPX6psBVwC&q=The+Foodie+Handbook+Gael+Greene&pg=PA37 |last=Stoeger |first=Melissa |title=Food Lit: A Reader's Guide to Epicurean Nonfiction |series=Real stories |location=Santa Barbara, California |publisher=Libraries Unlimited |year=2013 |isbn=9781598847062 |page=37 }}
File:Gael Green with Dr Love St sign.jpg
Greene famously went to great lengths to conceal her identity from restaurateurs, reserving and using credit cards under other names and wearing hats that covered her eyes.{{cite news |last=Winakor |first=Bess |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19761110&id=ftsvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=v_oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6888,2172696 |title=Lunch With N.Y. Restaurant Critic At Place She Favors |newspaper=Lakeland Ledger |date=November 10, 1976 |page=30 }} She both received love letters from readers and praise from chefs and was known as a "merciless" critic, "the Dorothy Parker of restaurant critics".
After more than 30 years as the magazine's "insatiable critic", Greene retired for "a more normal life" in 2000.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=20000810&id=WrkeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9s8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5737,4045418 |title=Gael Greene: Restaurant Critic to Eat at Home More |newspaper=Spartanburg Herald-Journal |date=August 10, 2000 |page=22 }} She began her own website, InsatiableCritic.com, but continued as a columnist until her dismissal in 2008.
Glenn Collins wrote in The New York Times: "But even among those who might have seen it coming, many were taken aback at the expulsion of the sensualist who influenced the way a generation of New Yorkers ate, and who served as a lusty narrator of restaurant life in New York for decades." "It's as if they removed the lions from the library steps," said Michael Batterberry, editor and publisher of Food Arts magazine.
She then moved to Crain's New York, where she contributed reviews from 2008 to 2012, and appeared as a judge for the first two seasons of the TV show Top Chef Masters.
Greene often employed sexual metaphors in describing food, both as a way to convey the intensity of the experience and because for her "sex and food have always been deeply intertwined."{{cite news |last=Friedman |first=Jack |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19790103&id=YE8xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yaEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6596,4661562 |title=Eight delicious courses of moral outrage: The seduction of a famous food critic |newspaper=The Montreal Gazette |date=January 3, 1979 |page=57 }} She once wrote that "the two greatest discoveries of the 20th century were the Cuisinart and the clitoris". She wrote two erotic novels. The first, Blue Skies, No Candy, a best seller in both hard cover and paperback, explores the fantasies and adventures of an adulterous heroine; it was unpopular with critics and ads for it were removed from New York City Subway cars after complaints about their suggestive imagery.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19780130&id=vfojAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WmcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5297,6066808 |title=Women in the News |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |date=January 30, 1978 |page=10 }} The second, Doctor Love, is written from the perspective of a Don Juan.{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Liz |authorlink=Liz Smith (journalist) |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19820216&id=Zp0cAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GmgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6859,290032 |title=Gael Greene's Steamy Novel Goes to Press in June |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |date=February 16, 1982 |page=31 }} Doctor Love received some negative reviews,{{cite news |last=Powell |first=Mary Alice |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19820711&id=bawxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MAMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5208,570139 |title=Sex-Crazed Doctor Seeks Dream Women |newspaper=Toledo Blade |date=July 11, 1982 |page=28 }}{{cite news |last=Paul |first=Barbara |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19820620&id=ksMdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qWEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3326,2636112 |title=How to Write a Best-Seller |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press |date=June 20, 1982 |department=Books |page=4}} including Jonathan Yardley's verdict of "terminal tackiness" in The Washington Post.
In 2006, Warner Books published her memoir, Insatiable: Tales from a life of Delicious Excess, about the 40-year revolution in dining, what she ate, and what she did between meals. It includes affairs with chefs and movie stars and a sexual encounter with Elvis Presley in 1957.{{cite book | last = Greene | first = Gael | year = 2006 | title = Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess | publisher = Warner Books | location = New York | isbn = 0-446-69510-6 | page = [https://archive.org/details/insatiable00gael/page/9 9] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/insatiable00gael/page/9 }}. Her other books include Delicious Sex,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19861122&id=dcQyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ou8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=4072,710988 |title=Quick Readings |newspaper=Ottawa Citizen |date=November 22, 1986 |page=C2 }} Bite: A New York Restaurant Strategy for Hedonists, Masochists, Selective Penny Pinchers and the Upwardly Mobile and Sex and the College Girl.{{cite news |last=Brown |first=Patricia Leigh, The New York Times |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19880317&id=US4jAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_gYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1481,1449619 |title=Fear of AIDS makes college students cautious about sex |newspaper=Ocala Star-Banner |date=March 17, 1988 |page=78 }} She was also a major contributor to The Cosmo Girl's Guide to the New Etiquette in 1972.{{cite news |last=Moffatt |first=Peace |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19720127&id=syIiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mXQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1964,3947627 |title=Etiquette Book Tells What's 'Correct' |newspaper=The Day |date=January 27, 1972 |agency=Associated Press }}
In 1981 she co-founded Citymeals-on-Wheels, along with the teacher and food writer James Beard, to help fund weekend and holiday meals for homebound elderly people in New York City.{{Cite web |last=Silvestri |first=Pamela |date=2022-05-24 |title=Two Staten Island chefs earn spots at lavish NYC tasting event |url=https://www.silive.com/dining/2022/05/two-staten-island-chefs-earn-spots-at-lavish-nyc-tasting-event.html |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=Staten Island Advance |language=en}} She remained an active chair of the company's board, hosting an annual Power Lunch for Women. Greene received numerous awards for her work with Citymeals and in 1992 was honored as Humanitarian of the Year by the James Beard Foundation.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19920506&id=UNdRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UW4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6815,790344 |last=Merriman |first=Woodene |title=Women chefs win big at James Beard awards |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=May 6, 1992 |page=10 }} She was the winner of the International Association of Cooking Professionals' magazine writing award (2000) and a Silver Spoon from Food Arts magazine.{{cite web |url=http://foodarts.com/people/silver-spoon/26707/gael-greene |title=Silver Spoon: Gael Greene |last=Poris |first=Jim |publisher=Food Arts |date=December 2000 }}
Personal life and death
Greene married Donald H. Forst, whom she met at The New York Post, in 1961. They divorced 13 years later.{{Cite news |last=Grimes |first=William |date=2022-11-01 |title=Gael Greene, Who Shook Up Restaurant Reviewing, Dies at 88 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/dining/gael-greene-dead.html |access-date=2022-11-03 |issn=0362-4331}} Greene died from cancer in Manhattan on November 1, 2022, at the age of 88.{{Cite web|date=November 1, 2022|title=Storied Restaurant Critic Gael Greene Has Died|author=Bettina Makalintal|url=https://www.eater.com/23434677/gael-greene-died-restaurant-critic-88|website=Eater|accessdate=November 2, 2022}}{{Cite web|last=Cuozzo|first=Steve|date=2022-11-01|title=Gael Greene, influential and colorful food critic, dead at 88|url=https://nypost.com/2022/11/01/gael-greene-influential-and-colorful-food-critic-dead-at-88/|access-date=2022-12-29|website=New York Post}}{{cite news |title=Gael Greene obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/gael-greene-obituary-6gc8lbqfz |access-date=24 November 2022 |work=The Times |date=24 November 2022}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.crainsnewyork.com/section/restaurant_reviews Gael Greene's restaurant reviews at Crain's New York Business]
- [http://www.insatiable-critic.com/ Insatiable Critic by Gael Greene]
- [https://www.nytimes.com/1976/10/10/archives/blue-skies-no-candy.html 1976 review of Blue Skies, No Candy] by Donald E. Westlake in The New York Times
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Category:American restaurant critics
Category:University of Michigan alumni