APPETITE CITY, A Culinary History of New York by William Grimes (Illustrated. 368 pp. North Point Press. $30):

 

Reviewer Dawn Drzal in part:  "In 1815, Paris had 3,000 restaurants; New York had none. (In fact, the word itself wouldn’t enter the American lexicon until the middle of the 19th century.) Those forced to eat out could choose between 'a slab of beef or mutton with potatoes and gravy' at a boardinghouse or chophouse, reports William Grimes, a New York Times domestic correspondent and formerly the newspaper’s restaurant critic, whose latest book is a chronicle of New York’s transformation from a Dutch village at the edge of the wilderness to what he sees as the most diverse restaurant city in the world.