Greco, who divides her time between Sarasota and Maryland, has authored many books and hundreds of articles on cooking and decorating. She has written for, hosted and produced one of public television's most popular cooking shows, Country Inn Cooking with Gail Greco, and is considered an expert in the bed and breakfast industry.

But don't compare her to Martha Stewart. "I don't even think about perfectionism," says Greco. "I just want people to enjoy the experience and adventure of eating." That emphasis on enjoying rather than overachieving is even emblazoned on the walls of her new powder room in her Northern home on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, where she had an artist paint these words: "The butterfly counts not the months, but the moments, and he has enough time."

Greco began her career not as a domestic goddess but as a hard-hitting journalist who racked up national awards for her reporting on the drug trafficking trade in Miami. Her transition to documenting the nuances of entertaining began when she resigned a full-time newspaper post to see more of her husband, Tom, who was a nighttime editor at The New York Times.

"I wanted to start a free-lance career," says Greco. "But I hated the word 'free-lance,' because the work wasn't free. In order to support myself, I decided that I couldn't earn less than what I made reporting full-time." She achieved that goal by writing for as many as 45 different newspapers and magazines, from Golf Illustrated to The New York Times.

Her new schedule allowed more time for travel, and Greco soon discovered the bed and breakfast inns of America. "I said, 'Martha Stewart, move over.' These were the people who are really doing it, cooking, entertaining, keeping beautiful homes."

When Greco realized that little information had been published about this fast-growing sector of the hospitality industry, she wrote her first book, Secrets of Entertaining, a compilation of recipes and entertaining tips from the nation's bed and breakfasts. Since its publication in 1989, the book has gone through four editions. The most recent includes ideas from Greco as well.

In researching bed and breakfasts, Greco noticed that many were beginning to serve English-style teas, complete with sandwiches, scones and other traditional treats. That inspired her next book: Tea Time at the Inn. "In an age when a cookbook's shelf life is six month, this one is still in print," boasts Greco. Her follow-up, Great Cooking with Country Inn Chefs, was called one of 1992's top cookbooks by USA Today and was followed by a string of books on subjects from interior design to French toast.

Even before The Discovery Channel invited her to join their new cooking show, World Class Cuisine, which premiered in 1993 and is now showing in reruns, Greco was itching to make television her next step. "It was a perfect opportunity for me to demonstrate what I create and think about. To look my readers in the eye, so to speak, and be with them rather than off in a corner without them, which is what happens when you are a writer."

As writer and producer of World Class Cuisine, Greco had to design half-hour segments for locations all over the world, often without ever having seen them before. But what she didn't know, she quickly learned. "People ask me where I got my cooking prowess. I tell them I've gotten it on the road, literally cooking with these master chefs."

During one episode she filmed at the The Palace Bussaco in Melhada, Portugal, a former summer castle built by Portugal's King Charles I, the chef marched her and the film crew down to his wine cellar and produced bottles of wine for each of them from the years they were born.

"That changed the course of the already-filmed episode," she says. "The cameramen got out their cameras and I produced a segment on the spot showing the methods of wine-bottling that had been going on at the inn for centuries and were still being done in limited editions."

Eager to exercise even more control over her product, in 1995 she shopped her own TV show, Country Inn Cooking with Gail Greco, to various networks before finding a spot for it on Maryland public television. There she was able to write the scripts, select the chefs and serve as executive producer.