Four decades of memories from a gastronome who witnessed the food revolution from the (well-provisioned) trenches--a delicious tour through contemporary food history.

When Raymond Sokolov replaced the beloved, groundbreaking New York Times food editor Craig Claiborne in 1971, he began a long, memorable, and ongoing career as editor, restaurant critic, food historian, and author. Here he traces the food scene in America from the time Julia Child published Mastering the Art of French Cooking through today's flourishing and diverse culinary world. Along the way he addresses the impact of French chefs like Paul Bocuse and Michel Guérard; the introduction of nouvelle cuisine; the opening of the first Sichuan restaurants in the New York area (including one in a gas station); the halcyon days of Lutèce; brilliant international centers of modernist food like El Bulli and The Fat Duck; and the rise of contemporary American food stars like Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz. Witty, warm, and packed with vivid portraits of wonderfully outsized, colorful characters, and, of course, mouth watering descriptions of unforgettable meals.