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Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'
Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
1 review
art_books_chemistry's review against another edition
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.25
After reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential earlier this year, I was extremely excited to see a front of house version! Growing up in food service I've worked every aspect, especially since I mainly worked for my parents catering business and restaurants. However, my heart has always been in the front of house and when I started working for other people, that's where I stayed. I've never worked true fine dining so some aspects of this story were different for me but the modern maître d'hotel is closer to a front of house manager, a position I am well acquainted with. Regardless, Michael's tale includes all the front of house misfits, from the bar to the runners to the maitre d' and of course, the servers.
Just like Bourdain's memoir, this is not for the morally squeamish. If you're a pearl-clutcher, I don't recommend this as there is copious drinking, sexual activities, and some very dark humor. But if you can stand it, this memoir is a fascinating look into the NYC restaurant scene from the 80s to now. It's perfect for those that were around NYC at that time and recognize the places, as well as those that have only ever seen the City on TV. It's even great if you're curious what growing up NY Italian in the mafia age was like or the dining attitudes of famous celebrities. I need to ask my mom where my 3 Sunday meatballs were when I was a kid! Just kidding, her meatballs are bomb but split pea soup is one of my favorite childhood meals.
My only complaints about Michael's writing are his repetitiveness and his time jumping. He would occasionally repeat the same information about the same restaurant or person within the same chapter. His stories would also sometimes go off on tangents that could time jump anywhere from a few months to a few years but then not tell the reader when we went back in time to the main story. I would have preferred if there was more context of when events happened, like "I started at X in 1985". There were occasional allusions or statements to years but they were few and far between.
In sum, this is a hilarious memoir about restaurant life in NYC and positively entertaining from a perspective often ignored.
Just like Bourdain's memoir, this is not for the morally squeamish. If you're a pearl-clutcher, I don't recommend this as there is copious drinking, sexual activities, and some very dark humor. But if you can stand it, this memoir is a fascinating look into the NYC restaurant scene from the 80s to now. It's perfect for those that were around NYC at that time and recognize the places, as well as those that have only ever seen the City on TV. It's even great if you're curious what growing up NY Italian in the mafia age was like or the dining attitudes of famous celebrities. I need to ask my mom where my 3 Sunday meatballs were when I was a kid! Just kidding, her meatballs are bomb but split pea soup is one of my favorite childhood meals.
My only complaints about Michael's writing are his repetitiveness and his time jumping. He would occasionally repeat the same information about the same restaurant or person within the same chapter. His stories would also sometimes go off on tangents that could time jump anywhere from a few months to a few years but then not tell the reader when we went back in time to the main story. I would have preferred if there was more context of when events happened, like "I started at X in 1985". There were occasional allusions or statements to years but they were few and far between.
In sum, this is a hilarious memoir about restaurant life in NYC and positively entertaining from a perspective often ignored.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Sexual content
Moderate: Infidelity and Sexism
Minor: Excrement and Suicide attempt
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