Workhorse - My Sublime and Absurd Years in New York City's Restaurant Scene by Kim Reed
A razor-sharp look at one woman's nearly two decades in the New York City restaurant, including her time working with Joe Bastianich, and what happens when your job consumes your life. By day, Kim Reed was a social worker to the homebound elderly in Brooklyn Heights. By night, she scrambled into Manhattan to hostess at Babbo, where even the Pope would have had trouble scoring a reservation, and A-list celebrities squeezed through the jam-packed entryway like everyone else. Despite her whirlwind fifteen-hour workdays, Kim remained up to her eyeballs in grad school debt. Her training problem solving, crisis intervention, dealing with unpredictable people and random situations made her the ideal assistant for the volatile Joe Bastianich, a hard-partying, What's next. Food and wine entrepreneur. He rose to fame in Italy as a TV star while Kim planned parties, fielded calls, and negotiated deals from two phones on the go. Decadent food, summers in Milan, and a reservation racket that paid in designer bags and champagne were fun only inasmuch as they filled the void left by being always on call and on edge. In a blink, the years passed, and one day Kim looked up and realized that everything she wanted beyond her job, friends, a relationship, a family, a weekend without twenty ominous emails dropping into her inbox was out of reach.
- Suggested age range - Adult
- Format - Hardcover
- Dimensions - 6" W x 9.3" H x 1.2" D
- Genre - Cookbooks
- Publisher - Hachette Books, Publication date - 11-09-2021
- Page count - 288
- ISBN - 9780306875106
Web ID: 17693447
Catchy and descriptive
A great read with plenty of juicy info behind the NYC restaurant scene and great insite about the author.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
An Aptly Named Memoir
Workhorse aptly describes Kim Reed's life in the restaurant world first as a hostess/reservationist at NYC's Babbo and later as the executive assistant to restauranteur, Joe Bastianich. The majority of the book details Reed's job working for Bastianich, an almost Jekyll/Hyde type of boss who swings from demanding and quixotic to compassionate and fun. Yet, Reed becomes addicted to her work and all that it entails. Working incredibly long hours with basically zero time for herself she relishes being Bastianich's "one-stop shop" -- an addictive role for her. Until it becomes too much. Reed provides an incredibly detailed look into the restaurant world, though at times, I found the book weighted down with too much information and a long cast of characters that could be hard to keep track of. As a reader, you root for Reed as she comes to realize that she's put herself on hold for so many years and her eventual realization that she is her first priority. I would like to thank #NetGalley and Hachette Books for the opportunity to read and review this electronic ARC.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Sheds light on the NYC restaurant scene, for sure!
Reed has an incredibly engaging writing style, truly bringing the restaurant world to life in this read--with all its foibles, highs, and lows. I've eaten at Eataly and enjoyed perusing Spain...A Culinary Road Trip after visiting there myself, and of course, am fairly aware of Batali's fall from grace. So, I was curious to pick up the read and get an insider's perspective. It really opened my eyes to even more than I could have guessed, on all the levels. This became a DNF for me due to content (language, intimacy, etc.) not in line with my personal content policy. The language I expected, to a point, but it ultimately became too much for me personally. I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com