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Dewey Decimal Number: 647.95092 Format: Bargain Price Label: William Morrow Manufacturer: William Morrow Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 240 Publication Date: October 01, 2007 Publisher: William Morrow Release Date: September 25, 2007 Studio: William Morrow Editorial Review: Product Description:
While Phoebe Damrosch was figuring out what to do with her life, she supported herself by working as a waiter. Before long she was a captain at the New York City four-star restaurant Per Se, the culinary creation of master chef Thomas Keller. Service Included is the story of her experiences there: her obsession with food, her love affair with a sommelier, and her observations of the highly competitive and frenetic world of fine dining. She also provides the following dining tips:
After reading this book, diners will never sit down at a restaurant table the same way again. Related Items:      see moreAverage Rating:
 Rating:  - You'll want to read this if you're in the restaurant industry . . . or you enjoy dining outSERVICE INCLUDED by Phoebe Damrosch had me hooked when I read the back cover and its WARNING: May contain material offensive to vegans, pharmaceutical lobbyists and those on a low-sodium diet. Animals were harmed during the writing of this book. Now that sounded like something I would want to read . . . and I did--with delight. Damrosch, upon graduation from college, supported herself as a waitress . . . she soon became the only female captain at Per Se, the four-star New York City restaurant . . . this book presents her account of what life in this industry is all about. I laughed at some at some of the rules she had to follow, such as Rule #20: * When asked, guide guests to the bathroom instead of pointing. Her take on this was even funnier: * I understand the logic of this. I hate wandering around restaurants, opening broom closets and storage rooms looking for the ladies' room. Even when someone says it's around the corner and to my right, I still manage to end up in the coffee station. At Per Se, unless we were holding plates in our hands, we were expected to show the guest the way. I usually saw them just past the bar because at least a few times a week, guests walked into the glass wall of the wine cellar; and if they didn't walk away with a bloody nose, they certainly walked away with less dignity. After selling them the very wine that clouded their minds and blurred the line between air and glass, it hardly seemed fair to let them go unsupervised. Once past the danger zone, however, I gestured down the hallway to the well-marked bathrooms and let the guest take it from there. Even so, some of the men seemed a bit uncomfortable, as if I planned to accompany them in and help. The eighteen percent you will leave me, sir, I always wanted to say, would not cover that. In addition, the author provided many useful tips for diners; among them: * Please do not ask us what else we do. This implies that (a) we shouldn't aspired to work in the restaurant business even if it makes us happy and financially stable, (b) that we have loads of time on our hands because ours is such an easy job, and (c) that we are not succeeding in another field. * Don't send something back after eating most of it. Lastly, I enjoyed reading Damorsch's account of her love affair with a sommelier . . . it enabled me to feel like I got to know them both better, especially after reading this one exchange: * "Who are you?" Andre demanded when I refused an ice cream cone a few weeks later. "The woman I fell in love with never said no to ice cream." "The woman you fell in love with could also stand to lose a few pounds." "Are you kidding? My prenup is going to have a weight minimum. You lose a pound, I dock you." Yup, this one was worth fighting for. SERVICE INCLUDED is a MUST for anybody in the restaurant industry, though I think that just about anybody else who eats out will enjoy it too. Rating: - Precision becomes artDespite the sex drugs and rock & roll touched on this is on balance a dining procedural. It is very very good if you want an insiders look at what makes for great dining experiences. It also conveys a lot about what it is to be part of the service staff in a restaurant. It also is great for those of us who love New York city. My sister, who has worked all her life in that enviroment, read it in one sitting and found it quite the best book on the topic ever. Rating:  - Not really what the title suggestsBilled as a front of the house "kitchen confidential" but sadly it was not at all. Mildy interesting but without any of the juice that was promised. Not recommended by me. Rating: - not what I expectedok i got this book becauce of the place the author worked and the chef she worked for. What I got was a book more about here personal love life which in the brief time she worked there was sev diff coworkers including a secret relationship with a managerial level employee. SO the amount of the book devoted to the chef and the restaurant itself was less than I desired. Her employer Per Se also is one of the first places in the States to charge a service charge on all purchases which the author's tale ends just before its implemented which is also something I wanted to see details on in the book. Sadly the author quits to avoid the loss of income this would entail. It was interesting to learn the chef did this to equalize the kitchen pay to the servers wages. Personally I assumed a place of such caliber would pay well above the standard wages but mind you the servers were probably clearing low 5 figures when they were being tipped. Rating:  - Gave up on itI couldn't even make it as far as the romantic part. I suspect the problem lay with the nature of her restaurant; rich people overpaying "to be seen" doesn't do it for me. |
