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Phoebe Damrosch

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Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter Kindle Edition

by Phoebe Damrosch (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 227 ratings

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A head server at a renowned NYC restaurant dishes out stories and trade secrets from the world of fine dining in this behind-the-scenes memoir.

While recent college grad 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 legendary 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. Along the way, she provides insider dining tips, such as:

Never ask your waiter what else he or she does.
Never send something back after eating most of it.
Never make gagging noises when hearing the specials—someone else at the table might like to order one.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A charming debut by a former waiter at the New York City restaurant Per Se slips in some high-end tricks of the trade. Vermont-bred foodie Damrosch was a few years out of Barnard College when she landed a job at chef Thomas Keller's Per Se. Fast-talking and prone to do her homework, in this case assiduously absorbing Keller's French Laundry Cookbook, Damrosch starts as a backserver, and her training is intensive: attending food seminars, memorizing the acreage of Central Park and learning how not to interrupt dining couples holding hands. In a few months, she's elevated to captain (a rare job for a woman), which entails navigating guests through the elaborate menus and essentially learning the subtleties of putting the guest at ease. Anticipating desire becomes Damrosch's role, as well as making sure New York Times food critic Frank Bruni has the best meal of his life. (Indeed, the place receives four stars.) She begins a romance with Andre the sommelier. Much of the latter half of this youthful, exuberant memoir is overtaken by their burgeoning affair, although the most delightful chapter, I Can Hear You, is full of vignettes of Damrosch's real-life waiting, i.e., the delivery of the Fabergé egg as a marriage proposal, and the parade of celebrities she meets along the way. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Damrosch details her brief, yet remarkably fulfilling, career as a waiter and lays bare for readers the intimate workings of restaurant table service. Damrosch's ascent through the ranks at chef Thomas Keller's Midtown Manhattan's Per Se offered her a unique glimpse into high-end dining. Demystifying the hierarchy of captains, waiters, and busboys, Damrosch gives the uninitiated a crash course in those management and organizational issues that keep food streaming in perfect synchronization from kitchen to table. Although maintaining perfect service is a good restaurant's habit, success flows equally from good publicity. So Damrosch describes the frenzy produced in the kitchen by every sighting of a critic in the dining room. Without naming names, Damrosch also offers tales of overbearing, self-involved celebrities and their dining foibles. Tips on how to earn a waiter's respect (don't be a no-show; don't send back an entrée that you've nearly finished) pepper the text. Knoblauch, Mark

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000WCWV5I
Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow; Reprint edition (October 13, 2009)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 13, 2009
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2143 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 242 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #87,549 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #12 in Biographies & Memoirs of Chefs
- #77 in Slow Cooker Recipes (Books)
- #217 in Biographies & Memoirs of Women

Customer Reviews:
4.3 227 ratings

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4.3 out of 5

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S. Baars Stanton

Fun and realistic look at 5 star restaurant life from the inside

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2009

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This is a very fun in depth look at the world of 5 star restaurant servers and the way the industry shapes their lives. Phoebe does a great job of weaving the personal and professional experiences of her life into an enjoyable read that anyone, especially professionals in the industry, can appreciate.

2 people found this helpful

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Dr. Karen Crouse

Well written

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2022

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One sentence in book floored me … I didn’t need to know about one of her customers… really sharing pervert sex acts at restaurant?

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2012

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I highly recommend this book! i laughed and I cried. Her voice and writing style are intimate, which makes it feel more like a conversation than a one-sided story. This also provides for a very quick read. Which is sad, because I didn't want it to end.

2 people found this helpful

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Carolina Summer

Nice writing, bad marketing - recommended, with reservations

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2008

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Like a lot of people, I expected something different from this book than what it delivers. I've worked in the restaurant industry, and so I know there can be a lot of drama behind the kitchen doors. For this, I don't blame the author entirely; the marketing department at her publisher is probably a better target.

What Damrosch was attempting was as difficult as balancing five bowls of soup on one arm. Part behind-the-swinging door tell all, part romantic tale, part foodie book, part memoir, etc. The biggest issue is that while it reads well and I found it entertaining, the narrative itself is somewhat uneven.

On the up side, I did learn a lot about the training of a high-end waiter, and Damrosch did a good job in developing scenes. I enjoyed her descriptions of the food, and the overall feeling of Per Se. The parts about Frank Bruni's multiple meals, the whole "single cow" cheese incident and other anecdotes were well drawn. I liked her, and I wanted to see her succeed in figuring her life out.

On the down side, I was disappointed that there's nothing truly salacious in the narrative, and I didn't feel that I learned anything about Thomas Keller (although I was surprised to learn he was doing dishes one night). I wanted more about the diners. Who are these people spending hundreds of dollars on dinner? I wanted more behind-the-scenes stuff. After Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, there's a lot of interest in the sexy underbelly of the restaurant industry. But there was really none of that. (Maybe Per Se doesn't hire those people?) Her build-up to the arrival of the New York Times review felt a little forced. I didn't really feel there was any climax to the story.

I'm agnostic about her "tips;" I thought they were pretty obvious, but maybe they were revelations to some people.

The romance seems to get other reviewers, and I can see their point. It is not a heart-stopping romantic tale, they didn't run away to Paris or anything dramatic. But then getting the balance of romance in a book like this is pretty hard to get right. Even experienced writers don't always get this right; I thought Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl was too intimate, while Judith Jones' Tenth Muse could have used a lot more romantic tension, for instance.

I would recommend this book, with the caution that it is not a big tell all. I think Damrosch is a talented writer, and I enjoyed her style and voice, even if I felt that the book has some flaws. I would pick up her next title.

14 people found this helpful

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DLT NEW YORK

Just as Advertised!

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2010

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This book was shipped quickly and in even better condition than advertisd. I loved the book and wish she had more, but congratulations for finally hanging up your apron and writing this book!

I'm intersted to know if you are still with Andre and are you are working on another book?
Darlene

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M. Lucey Bowen

I Devoured this book!

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2009

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I'll admit to owning all of Thomas Keller's cookbooks, and that one of my favorite recipes is the special dish he created for the movie Ratatouille. My son's roommates from college were able to get reservations for French Laundry last summer, and invited us along. To eat food that is conceived, prepared and served with such love is something that is for me at least a once-in-this-lifetime-it's-worth-it experience. So i was prepared to enjoy Phoebe Damrosch's book. And I did. She's obviously a very spunky woman, who likes to eat. This is her first book. No, she is not yet the perfectly polished writer that is Ruth Reichl or MFK Fisher, but neither were they right out of the chute. I think there's lots more good writing to come from Ms. Damrosch. Just as she used her powers of observation of the restaurant, and her own personality to master a difficult job, those observations and her sense of humor make the book fun for foodies and former waitresses.
( Oh yes, I forgot to mention my try at waitressing, at the old La Terrasse in Philadelphia, where I flunked out when the customer refused the bartender's third try at a banana daiquiri.) So read it! You can say you knew about her before she hits the big time!

3 people found this helpful

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omaomaoma

Interesting read.

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2017

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Enjoyed the book when I read it several years ago. This was a purchase for a gift.