In Your Table Is Ready, Michael Cecchi-Azzolina chronicles his many years of service in the restaurant industry, rising to the role of maître d'hotel at some of NYC’s best spots. He details his time working at various restaurants across the city, none without flaws but some more successful than others.

Michael shares anecdotes about demanding guests, celebrity guests, food critics, difficult coworkers, high-end meals, and keeping service paramount. During his time in the industry, Michael saw the end of the era of servers’ pockets brimming with cash tips, the implementation of policies and L&E wage requirements in the restaurant business.

The highlight of this book for me was finding out about The River Cafe, one of the restaurants where Michael worked, tucked under the Brooklyn Bridge. I wasn’t familiar with it but now it’s definitely on my list of places to check out on a future trip to NYC.

Your Table Is Ready piqued my interest but there was something about it I didn’t love. It felt a bit heavy on the name dropping and became repetitive as the book progressed.

I thank Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for a peak into this book. Being born and raised in NYC, I was looking forward to reading it. I don't think I got passed page 52. I felt like I was watching a Robert DeNiro gangster movie. I simply did not enjoy the swearing and the lifestyle that the book portrays.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. The book begins with his childhood and describes his first job at 13 in a candy store with mob connections. It continues with his progression through a series of restaurants, several of which were extremely trendy. There were a lot of temperamental chefs and also a lot of sex, drugs and alcohol. This was full of interesting stories about eccentric, and egotistic diners. And the celebrities! The book is full of fascinating tidbits about all of our favorite stars! I do find the inner workings of restaurants fascinating and this was a good read!

Energizing and fast paced, this book holds your attention. It's easy to see the angle of a Bourdain comparison, and it has the similar raw crassness, no holds barred energy. But without the deep empathy that made people fall for Bourdain despite his flaws, this leaves you feeling like maybe the restaurant industry (at least the wealthy echeleons) has dug its own grave.

Throwing in a few lines on abuse in the industry doesn't add up to much when you recount antics with such glee. Insisting that you never heard waiststaff complaining about being uncomfortable with colleagues exposing themselves to them doesnt mean they wetent dreading coming to work every day. I assure u. They were.

I also found parts of the book hypocritical. Cecchi keeps saying you can't buy a table from a maitre d, and you should leave a restaurant if you feel a shakedown coming, but the entire first half of the book is just that. He seems to take pride in the money-making exploits of his youth, but derides those same habits in restaurants today.


Read if:

[ ] you always order off the wine bottle list at restaurants
[ ] you would rather die than order off the wine bottle list
[ ] You want to feel poor.

I received a complimentary audiobook copy of YOUR TABLE IS READY by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina for an honest review. Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for the chance to read and review!

YOUR TABLE IS READY is the author’s memoir detailing his experience working in the restaurants of New York City. He has worked in multiple restaurants made popular by famous visitors. His stories are full of name drops and behind the scenes stories about the chaos of the service industry. With a variety of settings and stories, Michal Cecchi-Azzolina has a lot of stories to tell.

This memoir provided a lot of interesting stories. The hectic nature of serving food and drink to people night after night was not entirely a surprise, but it did make for some very interesting stories. I did enjoy recognizing some names throughout the book, even as I am not someone who really recognized most of the restaurants discussed.

This story does really narrow in on some of the problematic stories of restaurant life. The author talks about the people drawn to this industry being addicts to the highs of the work, but also to sex and drugs and drink. I don’t know that this is necessarily a universal truth, but he certainly has a lot of stories to share of how rampant drugs and sex were in the 80s and 90s in particular in the industry. A lot of this was at times very off-putting and there’s a bit of an attitude of ‘that’s how it was then’ about it, but it does allude to the idea that these things wouldn’t be deemed acceptable now.

If you want a behind the scenes look at the restaurant industry, this does make for an interesting read. The audiobook is narrated by the author and I thought that it was well done!

YOUR TABLE IS READY is out on December 6!

DNF at 70%. I worked in the restaurant industry for 10 years and did not experience anything like what the author detailed. Some of the stories made me feel that "in the weeds" feeling from back in the day, and it was something I definitely didn't miss! This was more a story of his shenanigans, full of sex and drugs. Not my cup of tea, and I struggled to make it to the 70% mark.

Your Table is Ready — Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
Easy Five ⭐️ Read

“A front-of-the-house Kitchen Confidential from a career maître d’hotel who manned the front of the room in New York City's hottest and most in-demand restaurants.”

Are you a fan of Anthony Bourdain & his writing ? What about @smdanler ‘s Sweetbitter ? If yes to either question: You gotta pick this up. Hell even if you answered no, pick this one up.

It’s the perfect look into the NYC restaurant scene, gritty bits and all. I love reading stuff like this. Such amazing insight into the very specific food scene and it feels like no details were omitted. I couldn’t put this down.

Thank you to @stmartinspress for this galley !
Pub date - December 6, 2022. Right in time to buy this for your foodie friends and family for the holidays 😉

No book can be for everyone, and that’s fine. The concept and description of this book sound incredible! Unfortunately, I found the style and tone of the writing immediately grating. I don’t have time or energy to read books I don’t enjoy right now, so it was a swift DNF for me.

This book is such a fun read. It is more of a memoir and reminds me a lot of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. The epilogue was a great ending to the book and I can’t wait to figure out what restaurant is his in New York. I know the pandemic changed the restaurant industry but this book really highlighted how it ended and era.

A memoir that tells the tales of the authors career in some of the best New York City restaurants. What goes on in a restaurant? What's happening in the kitchen or after hours? This story aims to answer these questions. This book was well written and very informative. I didn't really think I was the right audience for it. It wasn't my cup of tea.

Your Table is Ready by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina is a memoir of stories that make a career/life. His focuses on his career in the restaurant industry in NYC beginning in the 80s. There are plenty of NSFW stories of sex and drugs. Michael also took us through the serious times of the AIDS epidemic and 9/11 through the eyes of a restaurant. While Michael and his surroundings changed and matured the stories also changed but were still eye-opening and entertaining on another level. I would recommend this to restaurant lovers, NYC food lovers or those just looking for some entertaining stories.

The author worked in high end restaurants in New York since the eighties and has many a story to tell in this wonderful memoir. He begins imparting his Italian heritage, growing up in Brooklyn, serving as an altar boy in church and later working in a thriving neighborhood luncheonette. At a young age he learned both good things (customer service skills, personal responsibility) and bad things (skimming proceeds from your employer) and had family connections to The Mob. He may have been on the short side in physical stature but had a drive to succeed married with confidence and great communication skills that catapulted him to the most coveted positions at the trendiest eateries such as The River Cafe, The Water Club, Raoul's and Le Coucou. He also dabbled in acting in theatre and movies with minimal success.

I do find the locale of NYC a favorite one to read about, and the inner workings of restaurants fascinating. The author goes into intense detail describing each job description from busboy, server, captain, bartender, maitre d' and chef. Work situations sounded incredibly stressful, such as dealing with unreasonable customers, high-strung chefs and hotly sought after reservations. There are mentions of celebrities in the book such as Madonna, Paul Simon, George and Amal Clooney, Meghan Markle...but my absolute favorite involves the late great Jackie Gleason ("The Honeymooners"). This was a really interesting, unique and entertaining read.

Thank you to the publisher St. Martin's Press for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the gifted ebook of Your Table Is Ready! All opinions in this review are my own.

I DNFed Your Table is Ready at 14%. Honestly, I realized this book is just not for me. While I thought I would be interested in the fast-paced restaurant world, I found that these tales were just not keeping my attention.

I love a restaurant memoir! Sex, drugs, celebrities, food…I am always in! This one intrigued me because the focus is on the front of the house and not the kitchen. The author is a career mâitre d’hotel who has worked in the hottest restaurants in NYC. He tells us how restaurants really run, why there are open tables when you are told the restaurant is booked, and how to palm the mâitre d’hotel to get the table by the window. Of course there are celebrity appearances, including an unflattering portrayal of the Duchess of Sussex, and the fraudster, Anna Delvey (Sorokin). Read this if you liked: Kitchen Confidential, Sweetbitter, anything by Ruth Reichl, Notes From a Young Black Chef, Yes, Chef.

We've traveled a lot to NYC so when I saw the title and the description of this book I knew it would be interesting - because, well lets face it, there are some interesting people in NYC LOL

"Your Table Is Ready" is a memoir written by Michael Cecchi- Azzolina over a long career as a maître d' in New York City. I was very excited to read this book written by someone who worked in the restaurant industry for so many years. I really enjoyed his vivid descriptions of working in the different restaurants and the interesting people that he worked with and served. I disliked the beginning of the book and felt that it moved too slowly. I appreciated that he stated that although we are living in a different time, he wanted to represent how life truly was; however, some of his descriptions of women were offensive.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy of the ebook in return for an honest review.

If you think life in commercial kitchens is intense, try working in a restaurant’s front-of-house. Michael Cecchi-Azzolina spent decades as maître d' to some of the most prestigious restaurants in New York. He finally dishes the dirt on the salacious stories bubbling behind the scenes in this entertaining tell-all. Cecchi-Azzolina stirs in some strong language, but it serves to illustrate the extreme highs and lows of the job. “Your Table is Ready” makes a great gift for those who want their ‘Kitchen Confidential’ with an extra helping of customer service.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was hoping for more fun stories about people but this seemed to be heavy into the operations and drugs in the restaurant and kitchen itself.

As someone who worked in the restaurant industry for a number of years, I am a sucker for anyone else's retelling of their experience. Your Table is Ready did not disappoint. The stories were wild and intriguing, and I think this is a must read for all. If you have restaurant experience, you will related to the stories and reminisce about coworkers of the past. If you haven't worked in a restaurant, you will catch a glimpse of the lives behind your night out.

Your Table is Ready does, in fact, share some elements with Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. Namely, the pervasive drug use in the restaurant industry. But, this memoir feels over long and didn’t give me the gossipy feel I was hoping for.

I liked this a lot more than I thought I was going to! Sometimes these industry memoirs can feel like they're a vessel for name-dropping, but this was a great inside look at what it was like to work in the NYC restaurant scene in the 1980s-2020s. I happened to be in NYC the week after I finished reading this and walked past Raoul's without even realizing it... a fun connection!