A great food writer must first be a great slut.
1) Gael Greene: The Insatiable Gourmet, an Incorrigible Slut. Her memoir is a bit 1970′s Skinemax softporn samba soundtrack sluttish but impressive for miles traveled: Elvis to Burt.
2) Ruth Reichl: Not a huge slut numberwise, but an eloquent slut, and impressive for food world hookups, especially NoCal.
3) A.J. Liebling: The oft-married and erudite slut who also liked to mix it up in the ring. Didn’t kiss and tell but sure ate and told. The Jim Thorpe of eating, great in any arena at anytime.
4) James Beard: A mountain of a slut, a Buddha of a slut, a Village slut. Held his cane and let others come to him. Hastened his death with overindulgence, but he died old and gloriously well-nourished.
5) Alice Waters/Craig Claiborne: More for their influence than their prose stylings, but both definitely kept the food/sex flame burning.
Thank God for their Olympian indiscretions; thank God they never kept their mouths shut.
My mission: To sally/waddle forth in their steps promiscuously opening myself to all worth taking in to make me and you fat and happy.
