Hewitt's (Hardly) Deep Dish

12/24/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

Excerpts from the memoirs of James Hewitt -- Princess Diana's lover -- apparently contain more detail about the food the couple devoured than about their love life. Writing of their first night together, Hewitt recalls: "The main course was chicken in a lemon and cream sauce, with mashed potatoes and mange tout and French beans." A few paragraphs later he blithely adds: "That evening our affair began." In the three-part extract from his book "Love and War" (currently being serialized in New York's Daily News, as well as in an Australian magazine) Hewitt also exposes the fact that Diana sent him copies of Playboy and Penthouse while he was stationed in the Persian Gulf in 1991.

• Hewitt, labeled a "love rat" and "the most hated man in Britain" by British tabloids after he collaborated on an earlier book (titled "Princess in Love"), began selling stories about Diana in 1993 soon after she broke off the affair.