Book excerpt: “Essential reading for all serious foodies.”—Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential Combining an insider’s passion with down-to-earth humor, chef and food writer Patric Huk traces the evolution of American high-style restaurants from the 1941 opening of Le Pavillon to the recent rise of less traditional restaurants, such as Le Cirque, Spago, and Danny Meyer’s Union Square group. Huk takes readers inside this high-stakes business, sharing little-known anecdotes, describing legendary cooks and bright new star chefs, and relating his own reminiscences. Populated by a host of food personalities, including Julia Child, M. F. K. Fisher, and James Beard, Kuh’s social and cultural history of America’s great restaurants reveals major changes in US cuisine. “A fascinating and compulsively readable story of the American restaurant and the larger-than-life people who made this the world’s most exciting restaurant scene.”—Michael Ruhlman, author of The Soul of a Chef