Gael Greene is 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, and for four decades both documented and inspired the city's and America's growing obsession with food.
Greene was born in Detroit, where her father owned a clothing store, and graduated from the University of Michigan. She has said that her passion for food was awakened by a year abroad in Paris while she was an undergraduate. She became a food reporter at New York soon after its launch, in fall 1968.
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. 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, but continued as a columnist until 2008, the magazine's 40th anniversary as well as her own.
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. She remains an active chair of the company's board, hosting an annual Power Lunch for Women. Greene has received numerous awards for her work with Citymeals and in 1992 was honored as Humanitarian of the Year by the James Beard Foundation. She is the winner of the International Association of Cooking Professionals' magazine writing award (2000) and a Silver Spoon from Food Arts magazine.
