Advertisement “Turning Tables” by twin sisters using the pen name Heather McDowell, is the fictional account of a New York woman who has lost her job as a marketing manager. Her father gets her a job as a waitress in a top-flight restaurant. She has absolutely no experience but luckily one of the seasoned waiters takes her under his wing and shows her the ropes.
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Ryan Hackbarth, 10, tries to teach Sebastian Nguyen, 2, some Jedi combat techniques at the Moonday Foonday activities coordinated by Onalaska fifth-grade students for SpaceQuest 2009, part of the county library system’s summer reading program. The summer reading program fun continues next week with Bob Kahn’s "Aliens, Insects and Vacationers from Outer Space," which is scheduled for Wednesday, July 8, at 12:30 p.m. in Holmen, 3:30 p.m. in Bangor and 6:30 p.m. in Onalaska.
Photo by Jo Anne Killeen |
The chef and the owner watch her like hawks, pulling all sorts of dirty tricks to get her to quit. Somehow, in spite of her exhaustion, she hangs on long enough to have a brief love affair with a line cook, and later catches the interest of a wealthy patron. This book should appeal to those who like the Shopaholic series.
After reading this I wanted to know more about the restaurant business. There had been references made to Anthony Bourdain’s books. I’ve seen him on the Travel Channel eating in strange places around the world but after reading “Kitchen Confi-dential,” I’m amazed he has survived to appear on television at all.
His no-holds-barred descriptions of what goes on in the kitchen in a fancy restaurant leave nothing out. His own drug habit and kitchen pranks get a little old at times but at one point he sees that all kitchens are not run the same.
Not every kitchen is a constant bedlam of screaming, swearing and knife throwing, although many probably have the same mix of immigrants (legal and otherwise), misfits, addicts and loners. While showing us the grungier aspects of the kitchen, his love of food shines through and makes this more than just a chef’s memoir.
In front of the kitchen you find the wait staff. In the anonymously written “Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip, Confessions of a Cynical Waiter,” you hear the other side of the food war between the kitchen staff, wait staff, owners and customers.
This book started as a blog about his job as a waiter and then was collected into this book. In it, “the Waiter” tells of life outside of 9-to-5 boundaries. When others are getting off work the wait staff is just getting started.
The frustrations of dealing with abuse from customers often lead to blowing a night’s tips on drinking, but the Waiter learns to wield subtle, psychological control over the diners. You get to hear about all the little tricks employed to get the customers to behave, order more, leave quickly and tip well; not to mention the absentee restaurant owners, friends that cannot understand why you can’t come to their dinner parties on a Friday night and the stress of holiday parties (others, not yours).
So if I’ve scared you into staying home for dinner, you can watch “No Reservations” with Catherine Zeta-Jones and lull yourself back into complacency. If you do go out to a fine restaurant, you might never tip less than 20 percent again.
Sue Stranc is a La Crosse County Library System employee at the Holmen Area Library.
