Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter

SERVICE 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.

I have read many books about restaurants, chefs, cookbooks, etc. Most of the books are either from the Chef's point of view or the other cooks' in the Back-of-House. This book comes from the Front-of-House point of view, which makes it a particularly interesting read. The author is a waitress in one of New York's greatest and most famous restaurants, Chef Thomas Keller's Per Se. She takes us through the training, through the opening, through the New York Times very important review of the new restaurant and her intimate relationship with a co-worker at Per Se. Along the way, we are treated to her other relationships, both in and outside of the restaurant, her love of her Brooklyn apartment and her after-hours dining destinations, all with her humorous and personal writing style. I recommend this book if you have an interest in reading about restaurants and I hope Phoebe writes another food book in the future; she obviously know a lot about the subject.

Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter Excellent read. I enjoy great food which also requires great service to make it work. This book provides insight into the inner workings of one of the countries best chefs and his restaurants. My wife bought the book and couldn't stop talking about it. The author writes so well I also couldn't put the book down. I have always had the utmost respect for those who choose to serve and do it well. Now I even have more.

Damrosch describes food, service and love as the arts that they are, with a touch of poetry that is never heavy handed. I was amazed, amused and moved. The slices of behind-the-scenes life at Per Se, cheesemaking in Vermont and a blossoming romance in NYC make for a very satisfying journey. It almost made me want to become a waiter!

The recent hit movie NO RESERVATIONS whetted my appetite for a fastmoving, romance-based book about life in a busy, four star restaurant in a big, glittering city, and a friend recommended SERVICE INCLUDED, by Phoebe Damrosch, adding that from what he heard, Miss Damrosch had actually lived the life that Catherine Zeta-Jones had acted out in the movie I so loved, except at a slightly different level--as a busboy, then a waiter, then the captain of a chic New York eatery called the "Per Se," established by one of the world's leading super chefs, Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame. I decided to give the book a try. Immediately I enjoyed Damrosch's admission that whereas usually in New York, artists take jobs as waiters to support themselves until their careers take off, but after awhile she realized that she was pretending to be an artist in order to keep working at the restaurant job she loved! She has an amusing turn of mind and the calm cool that a top restaurant captain must need. She takes you backstage, like Catherine Zeta-Jones, into the kitchens and back rooms of a busy topflight eating place, and she recounts details of the five encounters with New York Times critic Frank Bruni. As it turns out, he was there six times, but anonymously he sneaked in during the first weeks they were open. "Let's just say you worked out some of the kinks since then," he admits. At first I thought there might be a nice little romance developing between Captain Damrosch and Mr. Bruni, but alas no. Instead, waiting in the wings, handsome sommelier Andre, already dating a girl at the restaurant, plunges Captain Damrosch into the awkward role of the "other woman," a title she wears with culinary panache. She doesn't really come across as having a scrap of guilt, and why should she? If Andre couldn't keep it in his pants, why should she be painted the scarlet woman of Per Se? And yet, she notes, some employees cute her dead. Luckily Per Se's clientele of celebrities and foodies never knew of the scandal rocking the place. Damrosch describes "family meal," a charming ritual in which the cooks serve up a meal out of the crumby or burnt parts of whatever they plan to serve up that night, served free to complaining waitstaff, who may whine about having to eat what amount to "pre-leftovers," but they fill their plates nevertheless! She also gives enchanting tips, such as the fact that celebrities have bigger craniums thsn the average person. She advises, "Try 20 percent of more (for tipping). Two extra dollars mean very little to you, but they are a compliment to your server." One of the tips I didn't quite follow. She advises diners not to tell the servers if they (the patrons) are allergic to anything, because the server will assume the diner is lying, not wanting to admit the truth that they actually don't like X or Y. Does this really happen a lot? She also says, please don't make faces or laugh out loud when the server recites a list of restau