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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
Overly romanticized and navel gazing memoir of the glory days of food service in NYC replete with glorification of the mob, sex, violence, and drugs. Major ick factor epitomized by the specific disclaimer he includes of (to paraphrase) “this probably sounds terrible but no worries, it was consensual..it was just the way things were!” while taking absolutely no responsibility or engaging in any sort of self-reflection. Just crass and gross.
Entertaining but can be a bit repetitive - fun to see all the craziness that goes on behind the scenes at nycs best restaurants
informative
reflective
fast-paced
The good parts of this book are great - the NYC culture & history and the details of the industry. That’s probably a 60-75 page piece. The rest of this is fluff, ego and difficult to flip through
dark
funny
informative
fast-paced
An interesting memoir and insight into the NYC restaurant culture of years gone by. His writing style is… not great, but the content is propulsive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol
Very good but some parts hard to get through because I wish it talked more about the actual food/restaurants at the beginning
1.5 stars rounded up. I got the impression pretty early on that I was supposed to be Very Impressed by this dude and his experiences, and the book is written with that cadence, and I just...wasn't? Don't care? IDK. The author talks about people like he fundamentally doesn't like them on a base level and frequently engages in casual misogyny. He randomly refers to women as bitches, like when he described a group of women celebrating their friend's engagement as bitches and the friend as "the bitch getting married". Like....why?
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
This was entertaining but I felt like the narrative arc was lacking.
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced