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[cabrales]

Leslie -- For purposes of a "happy ending" to your book, were you hoping for Daniel's receipt of a fourth star in a timely manner relative to its intended publication date? I appreciate that your having spent considerable time with people from the restaurant may have led you to separately hope for the restaurant's receipt of a fourth star. Do you believe that marketing efforts for your book would have been adversely affected, had Daniel not received (or not timely received) the fourth star?

[Leslie Brenner]

Great question, Cabrales. I did hope that Daniel would receive a fourth star--more because I felt the restaurant deserved it than anything else. But I didn't dare to hope that it would happen during (or even soon after) my tenure there. I really didn't believe that the Times would revisit it before revisiting Le Bernadin, which hadn't been reviewed in years.

After spending the whole calendar year 2000 in the restaurant, I was still early in my writing process, transcribing notes, etc. when The Times's William Grimes gave the restaurant the four-star review in March. Therefore, I hadn't really settled yet on exactly what the narrative arc of the book would be, and I certainly hadn't yet come up with the title The Fourth Star. Let's just say that for me, the review--both in its four-star rating and in its timing--was a stroke of amazingly good fortune.