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Inevitiable any inside story on the restaurant business in new York will draw comparisons.Phoebe Damrosch doesn’t serve up the hard drugs and bad sex that Anthony Bourdain dragged us though. But the food is much, much better in Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter. It gives an insiders account of the opening of Per Se, a restaurant run by one of the world’s top chefs Thomas Keller of French laundry fame (who was rumoured to be opening at Crown in Melbourne for a while).Damrosch gives an insight into the detail that goes into the service in the restaurant from staff education through to handling food critics.

“It occured to me at the end of our first day training that if I were a skeptic, I might find this whole thing a little cultish. There were philosophies, laws, uniforms, elaborate rituals, an unspoken code of honour and integrity and, most important a powerful leader…” she says.

If you are interested in service and what it means. If you are interested in how  it is anticipating the needs of the diner rather than being servile and what it really takes to offer proper fine dining - especially if you work in hospitality - then read this book (And click on one of the links to buy from Amazon).

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