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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
Other than occasionally eating in a restaurant + watching a season of Top Chef, I know nothing about restaurants, or working in them, and was excited to read a first-hand experience, particularly from a Maitre D' in NYC.
After about 40% I felt exhausted and stopped reading. I'm not jonesing to read more. The book isn't poorly written, bad, or boring... In fact, I found most of the 'characters' he worked with entertaining and the gossipy stories fascinating. He's also a natural narrator and comical.
I especially loved how well he described certain 'eras' in NYC history (e.g. the rise of rich. wall street in the 80s, then the AIDS epidemic in the early 90s). HOWEVER, one can only read so many pages about cocaine and swinging dicks.
I DID pick up a very useful tip though: clean grills with seltzer water.
Cecchi-Azzolina is an interesting person in and of himself. He was born into the mafia and grew up in a brooklyn/NYC that doesn't exist anymore. Unfortunately the reason I know this is because the first 10% of the book is a memoir on his childhood.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record... when I pickup a non-fiction book about a subject, when I open it, I want to read about THAT SUBJECT and not the author's childhood. While I appreciate Cecchi-Azzolina made the effort to connect his childhood to his eventual career (e.g. serving his uncles cocktails as a child) it still felt like out of place and unwelcome (even if, unlike others who do this, his childhood was actually fascinating given the times he lived).
I almost quit, but after a few chapters he finally grew up and started working in a restaurant so I pushed on.
Overall, much of this could have been paired down. It felt very repetitive but perhaps that's just working in restaurants? Lots of cocaine, sex, and narcissistic/sadistic chefs and employee thievery?
I also got tired of his personal memoir tangents. I really didn't care to hear who gave him a blow job.
Lastly, a few years ago I read [b:Waiter to the Rich and Shameless: Confessions of a Five-Star Beverly Hills Server|24226116|Waiter to the Rich and Shameless Confessions of a Five-Star Beverly Hills Server|Paul Hartford|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437455196l/24226116._SY75_.jpg|43530834] and was shocked at how different their respective experiences were.
Thanks netgalley for my ARC!
After about 40% I felt exhausted and stopped reading. I'm not jonesing to read more. The book isn't poorly written, bad, or boring... In fact, I found most of the 'characters' he worked with entertaining and the gossipy stories fascinating. He's also a natural narrator and comical.
I especially loved how well he described certain 'eras' in NYC history (e.g. the rise of rich. wall street in the 80s, then the AIDS epidemic in the early 90s). HOWEVER, one can only read so many pages about cocaine and swinging dicks.
I DID pick up a very useful tip though: clean grills with seltzer water.
Cecchi-Azzolina is an interesting person in and of himself. He was born into the mafia and grew up in a brooklyn/NYC that doesn't exist anymore. Unfortunately the reason I know this is because the first 10% of the book is a memoir on his childhood.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record... when I pickup a non-fiction book about a subject, when I open it, I want to read about THAT SUBJECT and not the author's childhood. While I appreciate Cecchi-Azzolina made the effort to connect his childhood to his eventual career (e.g. serving his uncles cocktails as a child) it still felt like out of place and unwelcome (even if, unlike others who do this, his childhood was actually fascinating given the times he lived).
I almost quit, but after a few chapters he finally grew up and started working in a restaurant so I pushed on.
Overall, much of this could have been paired down. It felt very repetitive but perhaps that's just working in restaurants? Lots of cocaine, sex, and narcissistic/sadistic chefs and employee thievery?
I also got tired of his personal memoir tangents. I really didn't care to hear who gave him a blow job.
Lastly, a few years ago I read [b:Waiter to the Rich and Shameless: Confessions of a Five-Star Beverly Hills Server|24226116|Waiter to the Rich and Shameless Confessions of a Five-Star Beverly Hills Server|Paul Hartford|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437455196l/24226116._SY75_.jpg|43530834] and was shocked at how different their respective experiences were.
Thanks netgalley for my ARC!
funny
informative
medium-paced
I was very interested in reading this as an NYC resident who has friends in the industry but cannot actually afford to eat at any of the restaurants mentioned in the book. I found it entertaining overall, but definitely liked the second half better, which I feel bad saying since the first half was mostly the author’s personal life.
The stories about actual restaurant hijinx ramp up in the second half, and while I do realize this is a memoir, that's kinda why I wanted to read the book. Once you got to them though, those stories were crazy and, at times, laugh out loud funny and absurd.
I thought that the references to what was happening in the city (and the world) while these stories took place — specifically the AIDs crisis and 9/11 — were valuable because they served as a reminder to the reader that this isn’t actually just a funny little story about rich people being weird and mean to waiters, but real lives of real people. Seeing the industry change through the authors POV was also interesting, as his career spanned many years and many iterations of tech in restaurants.
Overall, a nice audiobook listen! Informative and at times funny, reflective, and even sad. I liked hearing that the author has transitioned into ownership since leaving the FOH.
The stories about actual restaurant hijinx ramp up in the second half, and while I do realize this is a memoir, that's kinda why I wanted to read the book. Once you got to them though, those stories were crazy and, at times, laugh out loud funny and absurd.
I thought that the references to what was happening in the city (and the world) while these stories took place — specifically the AIDs crisis and 9/11 — were valuable because they served as a reminder to the reader that this isn’t actually just a funny little story about rich people being weird and mean to waiters, but real lives of real people. Seeing the industry change through the authors POV was also interesting, as his career spanned many years and many iterations of tech in restaurants.
Overall, a nice audiobook listen! Informative and at times funny, reflective, and even sad. I liked hearing that the author has transitioned into ownership since leaving the FOH.
funny
reflective
fast-paced
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.5 stars. Slow to start and a lot of strong language that was gratuitous. Eventually you get to why you wanted to read it in the first place: very eye-opening about how a restaurant’s front of house operates — the good, bad, and very ugly. The author had an impressive career with the anecdotes to match.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
This was a hoot, albeit a depressing one. Cecchi (as he refers to himself throughout) grew up in Bensonhurst with Colombo soldiers as his "uncles", hoped to be an actor and ended up with a career in fine dining working at restaurants from the River Cafe to Le Coucou. His story began in the late 70s and took us through both the cocaine and AIDS epidemics, humor in a dark period in which the restaurants featured a lot of sex, and cocaine. The restaurant world has changed so much (addition of HR), yet not at all (Ken Friedman, Mario Batali). A fun look at the world that was as the author wrote this after being out of work during the pandemic.