Thank you to NetGalley and Libro FM for providing me with both digital and audio copies of Michael Cecchi-Azzolina’s memoir, Your Table is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maitre D’.

I appreciate having access to both the digital and audio arcs, but decided to go with the audio, as it was narrated by the author. Authors are not always the ideal person to narrate their books, but Cecchi-Azzolina is a larger-than-life type of person and a riot. His memoir is filled with outrageous stories, but hearing them in his heavy New York accent with the thrill in his voice, lended to the overall experience.

Your Table is Ready is a great pick for anyone who would like a behind-the- scenes look at the restaurant industry. It has shades of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, but instead of a chef’s perspective, Cecchi-Azzolina gives us a glimpse of the chaos happening in the front of house. The chaos that professionals in high-end dining manage to conceal from patrons, usually giving us a calm restaurant experience. Primarily set in the 1980’s, Cecchi-Azzolina’s career in the restaurant industry was drug-fueled and rife with sexism among other aspects of the era that would be considered taboo now. He also speaks of the many friends and colleagues that he lost to the AIDS epidemic, ending the memoir with a very touching tribute. As much as his memoir is a look at the restaurant industry, it is also a peek into the norms of a different era.

Cecchi-Azzolina has plenty of wild stories, including getting entangled with the mob. I’m not going to give the story away, but it’s intense and will have you worried as it unfolds.

Towards the end of the book, I had the surreal experience of realizing that I have friends in common with the author. Cecchi-Azzolina is also an actor and my friends were producers of one of his films. However, the story is better than that, as one of Cecchi-Azzolina’s customers helped fund the film. I immediately paused the audio and called my friend, who had only nice things to say about Cecchi-Azzolina, mentioning that he was the kind of guy, who “always knows a guy.” This confirms my impression of him from his book- he’s a character in the best possible sense!

Your Table is Ready is a fun, fast-paced, engaging read. I’ve never worked in the restaurant industry, but I find the behind-the-scenes of it to be fascinating. It has made me more aware and appreciative of the complexities of running a successful restaurant.

I went into this book thinking it was going to be in the vein of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. Because that’s how it was marketed.

But because the author was a maître d’ and not a chef, the ratio of food to shenanigans was really off for me. I didn’t find it fun to read about all the drugs the author did, or how many of their friends and colleagues died of AIDS.

It got better in the last quarter of the book as the author grew up, but it wasn’t enough to redeem the book for me.

Would be a better fit for readers more interested in reading about the excesses of the 80s than for food lovers.

I love this book, it was such an entertaining, read! I loved all the anecdotes, it made me wish that I could have gone to some of these restaurants at the time. It’s fascinating, and instructive, to hear how the people who work in the restaurant think of the patrons. Definitely something to think of the next time I go out to eat. Five stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

My review comes a little late but this book was fantastic! I loved all the stories the author shared about being a maitre d'hotel at many famed NYC restaurants from the 1970s through the 2000s. I was a server and a hostess myself many years ago so perhaps I enjoyed this so much because I could relate to it in some ways? It was just a really interesting memoir, and I enjoyed reading about the shocking antics of some very famous guests. If you're a foodie, a memoir lover, or just love hot gossip then pick this one up!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Classic don’t judge a book by its cover, literally. Was expecting a dishy, name-dropping, fun behind the curtain look at the restaurant business in the 80s but instead got a depressing sleazefest, had to DNF after yet ANOTHER penis anecdote at 33%. Guess you had to be there, but wouldn’t want to have been - the author doth protest too much that he doesn’t excuse the behavior, everyone was drunk and on drugs.. but he thought he should write a book about it anyway? I’m sure some redemption occurs at some point, though he lost me..

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Your Table is Ready is a take no prisoners peek behind the curtain of the restaurant scene in New York, and a love letter to one maître d’s unexpected career in hospitality.

I really enjoyed reading @michaelcecchiazzolina’s recounting of his decades-long career as a server, captain, manager and maître d’ and the many crazy stories, bosses, coworkers, celebrity encounters, wins and losses along the way. Getting a first hand account of the insanity that happens behind the scenes at some of the biggest and most successful restaurants in NYC, while picking up key tips on how the hell to get into the biggest and most successful restaurants was a blast to read and there is no doubt, Michael has seen some stuff.

As a former hostess/waitress/bartender myself (who every once and awhile, despite knowing better, misses the good old days of server life), there was a real nostalgia in this one. If you’ve spent even a little time in that world, you can appreciate just how addicting, weird and wild living that life is - it’s not for everyone but man, it can be a ride.

Overall, fun, wild, with laugh out loud moments of utterly insane moments and a book that memoir lovers and recovering hospitality addicts alike will enjoy.

Thank you @minotaur_books for the copy and @michaelcecchiazzolina for all the amazing tricks of the trade. I hope the next time I’m in NYC I get to dine at your spot.

an interesting and fun romp through the live of a matries d from day to day. I like these types of nonfiction stories that focus and zoom in on a subject, so that was fun.

Fans of Kitchen Confidential will love this! I adore any chance I get getting to peek behind the curtain of the restaurant world, and this book does an incredible job of showing what it's like to work in the front of a glitzy restaurant. There's a great dichotomy between the glam patrons and the sometimes seedier lives of the people working in the restaurants, and I think that this book really nails that tone. A great pick!

I unfortunately had to stop reading this book within the first like, 50 pages. It was so hard to read - the author made Nazi jokes, sexist jokes, and included homophobic language in the book. I'm not one to get offended easily, but the author reminded me of a guy that tries too hard to be cool and fails miserably. I DNFed before I even got to any of the stories about his time working in restaurants

*3.5 stars*

Well written, auto-biographical take on living and growing up in the NYC food scene…

I read the blurb for this book and it sounded Bourdain-esque in many ways. Life in the gritty, competitive food life in New York City, told from an insider’s point of view. The author grew up and lived/breathed this life. Looking back on those decades, he offered a lot of detail on how he navigated the expected and unexpected aspects of it all. The many jobs he had, the places he worked with and for plus those he served, were the heart of this minutiae-filled, auto-biographical read.

Full of excesses - food, drugs, sex and name-dropping at the top of the list – I was both entertained and (I admit) mildly horrified. Not that it didn’t feel authentic or truthful, but its limitless embracing of those excesses ultimately proved a bit exhausting.

Would I recommend it? I would. If you are a fan of celebrity or the restaurant scene and want a singular, unique take on one man’s journey through it, this is a well-written offering.

Thanks to Anthony Bourdain we know how restaurant kitchens work. Your Table is Ready introduces us to the FOH or Front of House and how that world of service is even more important than the food. Cecchi names names, tells outrageous stories and fills the reader in on the incredible highs and lows of the restaurant service industry.

Happy to include this title in “High Society,” the rich, royal, and aristocrat-themed gift list about the good life, as part of the holiday books package in Zoomer magazine’s Zed Books section.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from Your Table is Ready but I could not get into the writing style. Maybe I thought it would be a behind the scenes look at the restaurant industry but the history and tone of voice in the first 10 percent rubbed me the wrong way. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, it was simply not for me. I put it down about 10% in.

Oh, dear. I wasn't expecting this book to be quite so graphic and misogynistic. I'm more interested in NY restaurants and how they're run, rather than the author's tough childhood and the excesses of the 80s. I wanted to read about his serving the famous and infamous, but this was more along the lines of "Kitchen Confidential," which I read years ago. The author was so crass in his descriptions and name dropped so often, and much of the time I didn't know who he was talking about. This would probably be a better fit for someone who knows more about the dining scene in NY. Thank-you to NetGalley, Mr. Cecchi-Azzolina, and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this title.

YOUR TABLE IS READY by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina dishes on his career as a maître d’ at some of the hottest restaurants in NYC.

This role is more than greeting people and dealing with seating charts. It’s gritty and chaotic and I was unbelievably stressed reading about his day-to-day.

The author dives into everything from celebrity sightings, demanding patrons, unruly staff, horrible pay, having his life threatened, extensive drinking & drugs, a lot of food, and how he survived it all.

It’s fascinating and fast-paced- the second you get comfortable there’s another round of chaos.

Thank you st martins press and Netgalley for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

At times entertaining, at times repetitive but always written in a pre-#MeToo tone reflecting the zeitgeist of the 80s. Full of celebrity name dropping and the sexual adventures and drug use of the staff. As an inside look into how the front of restaurants actually function it was pretty interesting, but the sameness of the different restaurants in his career becomes a little mind numbing. Worth a read if you ever worked in restaurants or are interested in how they function...or just interested in racy stories.

Your Table Is Ready is a fascinating look at what it takes to run the front of a restaurant (as opposed to the kitchen), especially an upscale restaurant in New York City. Michael Cecchi-Azzolina started working in restaurants while trying to break into acting. He wound up rising to the top of the NYC food scene as a much sought after maitre d’ hotel. Your Table Is Ready is his story, and what a story it is.

I learned a LOT about what goes into making a restaurant run well and how we, the customers/clients, can help or hinder the whole process. His tales of the truly awful customers are balanced by his appreciation of the many, many wonderful people he felt honored to serve. I loved his memories of growing up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, right next to the neighborhood I grew up in. Growing up, my family never patronized the fancier NYC restaurants, so the whole “slip the maitre d’ a lot of money for a good table” is not something I ever learned to do. The middle of the book dragged a little for me, with stories of sex, drugs and alcohol (as opposed to “sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll”) getting a bit repetitive, but his stories of all the friends and coworkers he lost to the early days of AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s were really heart-wrenching. For those who love reading about celebrities, he does a lot of name-dropping along the way. Some of my favorite parts were the stories about how restaurants get ready for the NYC food inspectors, as well as being on the lookout for the local restaurant reviewers.

I wish Mr. Cecchi-Azzolina the very best of luck with his plans to open his own restaurant in the very near future.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. I bounced between the ARC and the published audiobook, courtesy of my public library. It was a treat to listen to the author narrate his own book. All opinions are my own.

TITLE: Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'
AUTHOR: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
Narrator: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
LENGTH: 9 hours and 20 minutes
PUB DATE: 12.06.2022 Now Available

I heard a wonderful interview of author Michael Cecchi-Azzolina in NPR’s Fresh Air and I knew that I had to get to this book sooner than later. I am so glad I did - as a foodie who follows celebrity chefs, this was the perfect read for me. I also grew up in my parents’ restaurant in the West Side of Los Angeles and the stories resonated with me. The work was just so hard, and dealing with clients brought back the memories and a bit of the PTSD too.

Cecchi-Azzolina was a a New York City Maître D' - a role rarely seen in restaurants, and he has seen it all. It’s such a treat to get the inside scoop from the chefs and owners, servers and bartenders, and the most interesting clients that graced most sought out restaurants in NYC - like Raoul's in Soho, Nolita’s Le Coucou, and O’Keefe’s River Café.

It’s so fascinating to read and listen to the author narrating a highly entertaining account of the city’s most iconic restaurant scene.

It is not often that I read nonfiction, but I just could not resist Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D' by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina. I have only been to New York City once, but I absolutely loved it there, and while there are some really shocking stories in the book, somehow, they were almost all easily believable. It is particularly mind-blowing to me how things were back when Cecchi-Azzolina was working his way up in the restaurant world, and I was really glad he touched on the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. It makes sense since this is something that touched his life through people he knew, but I think it is important that he chose to include it. The book is a mix of stories from his time working in various areas of restaurants as well as some ‘insider’ information about how these restaurants operated and were run. I loved Cecchi-Azzolina’s stories and the wilder they were the more entertaining they were. I do recognize that there was a lot of sex, drugs, and name-dropping, but none of these things bothered me and I felt like they were just a part of his truth.

Besides the stories told, my other favorite part of this book is that Cecchi-Azzolina narrated his audiobook. I love that authentic feel you get when the author reads their own story and that really enhanced this book so much. I was honestly surprised by the way the author looked compared to how he sounded, but that isn’t a negative. Cecchi-Azzolina is apparently a man of many talents since I thought he did a wonderful job with the audio. There are plenty of authors that I’ve heard say they wouldn’t want to narrate their own audiobook, but Cecchi-Azzolina seemed born to narrate his. I did think there were some funky parts where it felt like his voice was off, but that may have been due to the NetGalley app or that I was listening to an ALC. While strange, it wasn’t a dealbreaker and I still loved the audio even if that were how it would sound in the finished version. If you are at all interested in what it takes to be Maître D' in NYC, or just curious to hear stories from working in restaurants, I would highly recommend picking up Your Table Is Ready.

This book is the life story of a man named Michael who was born in New York. Some of his family were part of the Mafia. He starts by telling of his experiences and escapades as an altar boy in the Catholic Church. Many of the boys he grew up with helped him learn the savvy that would follow him in his lifetime.

We follow Michael in his many restaurant jobs starting as a server and up to the position of Maitre D. We see the stamina, patience, and finesse required for these jobs as he deals with people from all walks of life, including those who demand the impossible. Many names of famous chefs and guests, as well as his work in various well-known restaurants are detailed throughout the book. During parts of his life, he took breaks from restaurant work to pursue his loving of acting, yet he always seemed to return to work in restaurants.

There are some funny things in this books but I had to wonder just how much is true. The sex, drinking, and drugs seemed over the top to me and made me hope that the extent of these things are not truly typical in the average restaurant. That would certainly be one thing that would turn me off from ever wanting to eat out. All in all, I enjoyed the book very much and found it quite enlightening.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.