- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Clarkson Potter; Reprint edition (Feb 24 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400051444
- ISBN-13: 978-1400051441
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 2 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#46,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #32 in Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Professional Cooking > Professional
- #47 in Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > History
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Courtney Febbroriello, the titular Wife of the Chef, tells all with acerbic wit in this exposé of life behind-the-scenes of a small Connecticut restaurant. But only the very secure should delve between the covers. Febbroriello tells how she met her husband, Chris, and shares a day in the life of the restaurant she now runs with him. It's a stressful job--it doesn't pay well, there are no benefits, they never get to spend any time together without talking about work, and no one appreciates her.
If you love to read about the restaurant trade, venture forth, but keep in mind that no one is spared Febbroriello's sharp tongue. If you've read Kitchen Confidential, none of the kitchen dirt will shock you (except maybe for the fact that she doesn't eat her husband's food because she's a vegetarian), but nearly everything else is fair game. According to Febbroriello, waiters don't get the respect they deserve, but then again many of them are slow, sloppy, don't anticipate her needs adequately, or are too friendly and helpful (come again?). Customers, admits Febbroriello, are the reason there are restaurants, but among those she hates are those who revere her husband (really?), those who want to relax, be pampered, and arrive with expectations (who isn't guilty?), and the ones who call themselves foodies.
Tired and cranky, overworked and never recognized, a Jill-of-all-trades and the glue that holds her restaurant together, Febbroriello's diatribe will make you laugh as long as it doesn't make you cry. --Leora Y. Bloom --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
In this window into the life of a chef's wife, Febbroriello challenges the stereotype of such women as pampered-she doesn't like exotic foods, is a vegetarian, subsists on potatoes and yogurt gulped down on the run. Febbroriello tires of hearing how wonderful it must be to be the wife of cook Christopher Prosperi of Metro Bis in Simsbury, Conn., and complains of condescending businessmen who assume they need to talk to her husband when she herself is part owner. She details the manic organizational demands of owning a restaurant, customer complaints, crowded lunches, a husband to whom every surface is a napkin; she even dishes out raunchy kitchen jokes. After her experience as Fry-O-Lator girl in a restaurant that allowed workers to pick up food that had fallen on a floor frequented by cockroaches, Febbroriello vowed never to eat out again-that is, until she became enamored of her husband-to-be and his passion for all things food. With chapter titles like "Combat Skills" and "The Rules of the Jungle," the book makes one wonder why anyone would want to be in this business. There is only passing mention of the rewarding customers and quirky regulars, and with only one recipe, there is more evidence of passion for bookkeeping than there is passion for food. However, those who have suffered the indignities and long hours of the restaurant business will appreciate her no-nonsense descriptions of the fierce competition for the best ingredients, wines and employees; the politics of reviewing; the financial woes; and the customers who can't make up their minds.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
A terrible read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Wife of the Chef (Paperback)
Not only was this book poorly written, but the main character was thoroughly unlikeable. I am sure that she works very hard but she comes off as whiny and complaining throughout the book. She paints her husband, the chef, as a scatterbrain who would be lost without her guidance and she seems to have no appreciation or enthusiasm for the life they have built together. This is all made worse by the fact that this is a book about restaurant life written by someone who has zero interest in food. Add to this the poor organization of ideas, the awful pacing and awkward sentence structure and you have what I found to be an extremely dissapointing book.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Poor chef!!!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Wife of the Chef (Paperback)
Like several other reviewers, I finished this book with a sense that Ms. Febbroriello might not be a person I could get along with, because first of all, she hates--and is ignorant about--food. I cannot imagine being in the food business and not liking food, eating, cooking, and learning about new foods or dishes. I have been in the food business as a caterer and a line cook, so I know that one thing she does get right is the sheer frenetic lifestyle. But I felt sorry for the poor chef married to a person with whom he cannot share the greatest passion of his life, which is obviously food. Her descriptions of how he stops at ethnic groceries points out this passion is very important to him--after all, he IS a chef! She summed it up well when she said that the food in their restaurant is merely a product that they sell. Where's the love? Not in this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honest and humorous, lots of tips throughout,
By
This review is from: Wife of the Chef (Hardcover)
My friends and I are about to start a business of our own, and her book gave us clear insight into the things we will be getting ourselves into -- things we hadn't ever considered, like taking on as-needed tasks despite what your 'job is', expecting high staff turnover (it's the nature of the beast), putting in the hours, struggling throught the first months to make it to the break-even point... I feel much better prepared for what's ahead, and especially, I now have an idea of how the work is going to -feel-, task by task and day by day. I was especially struck by the author's straightforwardness and directness in telling her stories.
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