Vintage Insatiable Critic: 1973-1975
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THE HIGH AND THE FLIGHTY
January 22, 1973
“…Are real New Yorkers getting hooked on Rainbow Room speed? A festival air lingers even with all ethnic armies in retreat…” more
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ANDRE SURMAIN GATHERS HIS ROSEBUDS
January 23, 1973
André Surmain loves his life. Antique motor cars, Majorca, sailing, his family…his name, his triumphs, adventure, but not necessarily the incessant detail of running New York’s most consistently pleasing French restaurant – Lutèce…more
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PAUL BOCUSE COOKS THE DINNER OF THE CENTURY
February 5, 1973
Glory and three stars in the Guide Michelin are not necessarily convertible into big-time loot, and one day the great chef of Lyon, Paul Bocuse, realized he was never going to be as rich as the man who put cassoulet into cans... more
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THE DECADENT DELIGHTS OF BREAKFAST IN BED
April 30, 1973
Breakfast in bed is one of those unnatural acts that can be supremely delicious when performed by two consenting adults… more
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CHEZ LA MÈRE CHARLES: A MOUTHFUL OF STARS
May 28, 1973
It is a glorious feast, at a modest $24 for two. Its equal in New York would block traffic and bring critics to their knees… more
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HONOR THY PASTA
June 11, 1973
The most exciting and adventurous Italian restaurant in New York survived exactly two weeks.… more
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STAR STRUCK AT HUNAM, A CHINESE ROUNDUP
October 1, 1973
Haute wok circles of New York are dazzled by Hunam… Uncle Tai’s Hunan Yuan has the grandest prices for edible chinoserie…David Keh previews his Chinese Seafood House… Shun Lee Palace rides the Hunan mania…Uncle Lou is back at Szechuan East... more
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MY WEEKEND BLACK BOOK FOR LOVERS, CHILDREN, AND GOURMETS
October 29, 1973
Some Sundays are safest confronted on the horizontal from under an ancient resurrected patchwork quilt while someone who loves you braves the flare of sunlight to bring home pumpernickel onion rolls from Zabar’s...more
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NOBODY KNOWS THE TRUFFLES I'VE SEEN
November 12, 1973
All over France, chefs are hoarding the fattest duck livers. The Grande Bouffe is no plodding parable. It is us. Awash in a torrent of champagne -- even aloft, lest throats parch between breakfast and lunch…more
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MORE CONFESSIONS OF A SENSUALIST: THE DINNER FOR WOMEN
January 28, 1974
“What’s that under your arm?” a Customs officer asked. Bocuse gave him a flash of what looked like little black golf balls. “Just chocolates,” Bocuse said. And got $200 worth of truffles past the peril point… more
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CHIC TO CHIC AT GERTRUDE'S
May 20, 1974
The Insatiable Critic rubs elbows with celebs and big shots at popular Gertrude's. But how is the food?...more
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GAEL AMONG THE BRIES
June 10, 1974
There is champagne on ice in my Parisian friend's fridge -- and Contrexéville, the water that claims to keep you thin. Neither strikes me as balm for traveler's malaise. But here is a green-gold pear. One bite, and suddenly I know I am in France. The pear is a rare kind of miracle. It tastes intensely like…pear. And so the insatiable sybarite is on the loose again in Truffleland...more
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LOSING MY HEAD AT MARIE ANTOINETTE'S
June 17, 1974
Freshman bons vivants navigate Truffleland by the stars…the Michelin astrology of France's greatest tables. Sauce-stoned and muzzy, the gastronomic tenderfoot basks in the elegance and grace of la grande cuisine... more
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PARIS IS MY OYSTER
June 24, 1974
Less is more. What an elegant idea…so Zen. Obviously I’ve been blinded too long by the school of “more is more.” But the taste of the insatiable voluptuary is in for a shock. Certain Parisian kitchens are enchanted by an almost Oriental simplicity. Come be stunned by a raw scallop...more
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LOVE IS HUNGRIER THE SECOND TIME AROUND
November 11, 1974
The city vibrates with autumn’s new beginnings. But alas, courtship at table is trickier the second time around. The price tag on advanced romance is staggering…more
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I LOST IT AT THE BATHS
December 22, 1974
Among grande bouffe-ists the search for slimming miracles goes on. And now Chef Michel Guérard has defatted the soufflé… I want to believe in the curative spring. After all, I still believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. I close my eyes. It is almost time for dinner. I do believe in dinner… more
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THE $10 CHALLENGE: MARCELLA HAZAN
February 10, 1975
Show us how to feed four celestially, with wine, for $10, New York asked three talented cooks…visions of chicken hearts en brochette haunting our sensibilities. Off they went...more
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THE PALACE: HOW THEY ATE IN POMPEI BEFORE THE LAVA FLOWED
April 28, 1975
Decadence never goes out of style. It simply convolutes into greater surrealism. Rome burns…fiddlers play. Empires teeter…there's no room at the orgy. As Noah pulled up the gangplank and the torrents began to fall...more
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GAVROCHE: PATCHWORK AND WHIMSY
May 29, 1975
A wee and precious nook on East 58th Street's budding restaurant row, nurtures my recurring schizophrenia. Yet relax stern critical bite, and the clumsy imitation of serious cooking can be somehow pleasing... more
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PLEASE DON'T EAT THE CALLA LILIES
June 26, 1975
Suddenly, with neither rhyme nor reason, just gay abandon, the flower of the hour is the calla lily…Sometimes the advance of chic can be an anvil chorus: Lucite. Lucite. Lucite. Or chic can be sneaky. All of a sudden everyone is bisexual and eating caviar our of a hollowed new potato... more
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NANNI IL VALETTO
June 28, 1975
Northern Italian gastronomic macho has invaded what was once the Running Footman, a weakly chic 61st Street restaurant of virtues small enough to dance on the head of a pin. With a wry sense of linguistic continuity… more
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IT'S NOT NICE TO FOOL WITH MOTHER KAUFMAN
August 8, 1975
Well, unless Patty Hearst is captured playing croquet on the White House lawn, or Golda Meir is trapped having breakfast in bead (bacon and eggs in a pita) with Anwar el-Sadat in a hot-sheet motel on the Gaza Strip, it looks as if the summer of '75 may come to be known for the Great Saloon War...more
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