I switched between reading the physical version and listening to the audiobook. I found both platforms to be enjoyable and would recommend both. The narrator did a great job and kept me engaged the whole time. I found this memoir to be very interesting. I loved how it was structured and told because it made for an easy listen. The story flowed nicely and always felt like it was moving. Honestly, I feel like I learned a lot from reading this and I wasn’t really expecting that. It made me appreciate and look out for certain things when eating out at a restaurant. Overall, this was a good read and would recommend you check it out!

Thank you so much @stmartinspress & @macmillan.audio for the gifted copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is as juicy as a fillet minion.
I was hungry the entire time.
I loved the rawness from the author in the wild crazy restaurant stories.
The characters were so interesting.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced electronic audio review copy of this book. I typically enjoy biographical memoirs so I requested this book from NetGalley based on the intriguing description. Unfortunately, I struggled to finish it. I did not enjoy the writing style with too much cussing. I understand that Mr. Cecchi-Azzolina was trying to convey the authentic working environment and language of the time, but I found it too off-putting. Otherwise, it was an interesting read.

It was an interesting audiobook I liked how the author covered his childhood which tied in nicely with his experience working front house in a restaurant. I’ve never worked in a restaurant but it was interesting to hear different experiences he had from the candy shop to must be seen restaurants.

I was really looking forward to this book, especially after reading Work Horse by Kim Reed and Wine Girl by Victoria James, books also set in the crazy land of hospitality. Unfortunately, this book didn't quite live up to my expectations, at first I thought that maybe I was hoping it would be more like the above mentioned books and didn't give it the fresh perspective it deserved. I decided to give it a second try in audiobook format and was even more disappointed by the book. Unfortunately the audiobook version was difficult to listen to and the narrator wasn't someone I wanted to listen to for several hours. I also found there were an excessive number of swears throughout, most often the F word and while I swear lots in my personal conversations, it had a fairly negative affect, especially in the audiobook version. Perhaps it is just not the right book for me, but after two tries it just isn't something I would recommend.

Author Michael Cecchi-Azzolina shares the good the bad and the ugly stories of his career in the restaurant industry in NYC. From addiction and crime to awful working conditions and treatment in the industry, this memoir definitely doesn't hold back. It is a well written memoir featuring interesting perspectives and first hand stories of life and work in a city many readers can only imagine. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to listen to and review this book.

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!

I absolutely adored this book. It was heart wrenching, brutally honest and raw, and ultimately up lifting. The personal anecdotes about the rich and famous - everyone from movie stars to The Donald and Megan Markle added such an interesting perspective, but I wish those stories would have been slightly longer. I was completely immersed in the restaurant world,…. the shenanigans pulled by both the guests and the staff, glorious food and wine, and the sex and drugs that accompanies that lifestyle. I didn’t want it to end!

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

This wasn’t for me. I’ve worked in kitchens…many many years ago. It was nothing like what he described. Half of what he wrote about just grossed me out. I guess I’m too much of a prude. Some of the information/stories were interesting. At times, though, he’s drop in a bit of information that didn’t belong. It was as though he just wanted to name drop.

Going through the decades of restaurant work was interesting to hear about though. The aids epidemic played a bit part but felt rather brushed over. The narrator was good.

A must read for anyone who has ever thought about working in a restaurant, worked in a restaurant or dined at a restaurant. Michael Cecchi-Azzolina takes you behind the scenes and shows you what it is really like to work in the service industry (spoiler - the harder you work, the harder you play)

It will make you think twice about the staff on your next dinner out.

Thank you #netgalley and #macmillianaudio for the ARC of this raunchy and revealing memoir.

Ever want to sit and listen to the former high school star quarterback relive his glory days (disgusting behavior romanticized and maddeningly still self absorbed) at nauseam for 14 hours? Yeah, me neither.

This was not the interesting insider look at restaurant life I was hoping for and expecting based on the cover and title. This is a memoir from a badly behaved grown man with an inflated sense of self importance. Not only does he admit to and relish in the extremely childish antics for himself and his co-workers but he has the audacity to attempt to school the reader several times on the importance of proper tipping and respect for restaurant staff. The nonsense described in this book let’s me know the waitstaff and chefs at the places he has worked are doing nothing to earn my respect or my money.

Also, name dropping isn’t as impressive as this author seems to think it is.

As someone that has worked front of house in the food business for a number of years, I found this book distasteful and tacky.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this audiobook arc. The review above is my honest opinion about this book. My apologies for not enjoying it.

I absolutely LOVED this book. I was hoping to get approved for it after reading the description, and it was an absolute thrill ride of stories from the inner workings of the restaurant industry. I had been looking forward to the celebrity name drops, but those quickly took a backseat to Michael's story, and his description of how he moved up in the industry. I very much appreciated his disclaimer at the very beginning, and his honesty in not mincing words and telling us how things actually happened, even if some of the stories were offensive or would absolutely never be allowed to happen today. Because of that, I was able to enjoy it that much more, and also appreciate (and hope) that things have changed for the better. I am a massive fan of his, and I have already recommended it to a ton of people. Also, now I'm hungry.

Each time I read one of these memoirs I am struck by how difficult it is to work in a restaurant. The pace is relentless and exhausting, the people you have to deal with can be a real pain and the pay stinks. However, there seems to be something about it that is addictive to some people. The author of this book is one of those people. All of the other memoirs I have read were by chefs. This is my first book by someone who worked the front of the house (as a waiter and maître d’hotel), and it was interesting to get a view from this perspective.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. He has also worked as an actor, which helped him with the narration. 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 demanding customers (including threatening mobsters and fashionistas throwing hissy fits). There was also a lot of sex, drugs and alcohol. Honestly, whenever I read about what happened in these restaurants it kills my appetite. I will observe the rhythm of a dining room differently after reading this book.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.

I love a good service memoir. I love when people work hard and they are able to make it seem effortless. I don’t know how much of the authors story was exaggerated but I don’t care this was a fun, fun book.

I like that the book came full circle from the introduction to the prologue. Would definitely recommend this audiobook.

“From the glamorous to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen—or just to gawk—at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run. His phone number was passed around among those who wanted to curry favor, during the decades when restaurants replaced clubs and theater as, well, theater in the most visible, vibrant city in the world.”

Michael Cecchi-Azzolina – Top of his field. Down for anything. Likes to say ‘fuck’.

Listen, I was pretty excited to read this memoir. I love knowing about people/jobs/experiences for which I’ll never experience. have.

I’m not saying this book didn’t deliver on those stories, the problem was, the good bits (‘tho, I suppose that’s subjective) were bogged down by self-aggrandizing stories of sex, drugs, and misogyny.

Shame you were too stoned to properly sleep with Althea Flynt.

Props for the business acumen that allowed you to capitalize on suicide.

Congrats on your knowledge of narcotic best practices.

While he declares he’s a big proponent of the Me Too Movement, and he’s just telling it like it was, not how it should be, he’s a little to quick with snide comments about women, including how women ‘sleep their way to the top’ – as if there wasn’t a powerful man in charge, using his influence to manipulate.

In the end, I was tired of all the drugs he did, the women he f***d, and the celebrities he met.

That might be the story you’re looking for, but it’s a no from me, dawg.

4/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this educational ARC.

After reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential earlier this year, I was extremely excited to see a front of house version! Growing up in food service I've worked every aspect, especially since I mainly worked for my parents catering business and restaurants. However, my heart has always been in the front of house and when I started working for other people, that's where I stayed. I've never worked true fine dining so some aspects of this story were different for me but the modern maître d'hotel is closer to a front of house manager, a position I am well acquainted with. Regardless, Michael's tale includes all the front of house misfits, from the bar to the runners to the maitre d' and of course, the servers.

Just like Bourdain's memoir, this is not for the morally squeamish. If you're a pearl-clutcher, I don't recommend this as there is copious drinking, sexual activities, and some very dark humor. But if you can stand it, this memoir is a fascinating look into the NYC restaurant scene from the 80s to now. It's perfect for those that were around NYC at that time and recognize the places, as well as those that have only ever seen the City on TV. It's even great if you're curious what growing up NY Italian in the mafia age was like or the dining attitudes of famous celebrities. I need to ask my mom where my 3 Sunday meatballs were when I was a kid! Just kidding, her meatballs are bomb but split pea soup is one of my favorite childhood meals.

My only complaints about Michael's writing are his repetitiveness and his time jumping. He would occasionally repeat the same information about the same restaurant or person within the same chapter. His stories would also sometimes go off on tangents that could time jump anywhere from a few months to a few years but then not tell the reader when we went back in time to the main story. I would have preferred if there was more context of when events happened, like "I started at X in 1985". There were occasional allusions or statements to years but they were few and far between.

In sum, this is a hilarious memoir about restaurant life in NYC and positively entertaining from a perspective often ignored.

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!

Join one man as he recounts his experience in restaurants, from working in a candy shop with a couple of tables to working in some of the most renowned restaurants in New York City. Cecchi-Azzolina recounts the drug, alcohol, and sex culture that accompanied the restaurant scene in his hay days. He also has many cameos of A-list celebrities as well as large names in the restaurant community.

I did not expect the debauchery described in this book! I don’t consider myself to be prudish, but a good amount of this book was just about the drugs and alcohol that Michael and his coworkers used to get through shifts as well as the places they’d identified to have sex at work. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just not something I’d choose to read normally.

For me, the saving grace of this book is the writing style and overall tone, The book largely reads like it’s a friend telling you about their crazy day at work. This was enhanced by the author performing the narration in the audiobook.

3 stars because I wouldn’t recommend to most people.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced listening copy of this book. All opinions expressed here are my own.

I'm not sure that I realized that this was a true memoir when I requested it from NetGalley. That is to say I thought it was just a collection of wild stories from our author's career in the restaurant industry. While this is definitely that, it also expands on the authors life and aspirations. This definitely touched on more sex, drugs and partying than I initially anticipated, but it truly painted the picture of people who were driven to addiction by having to deal with the general public. This book holds no punches and showcases the good times and the bad. People can be genuinely terrible to anyone in a service position and it's detestable. I found the author's story and his candor to be fascinating. His stories of stress, unreasonable customers, high-strung and abusive chefs, and a sprinkling of celebrity guests. That being said his repeated, crude and rather explicit descriptions of drug use and sex in the workplace got to be tiresome.

I must say that I did enjoy this memoir. It made me want a good glass of wine and hot gourmet meal after listening to so many delicious sounding meals. All in all, it was a very interesting and entertaining read. I hope the author has success when he does open his own restaurant.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio arc of this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook ARC!

Okay, there are stories, and then there are STORIES. Michael Cecchi-Azzolina has got some STORIES!

From drunk dudes literally walking into the river, to near-misses with the mob, to a brush with the Donald (actually, the Ivanka), there's a little bit of everything in this memoir. Thoroughly enjoyable, and delightfully shocking!

For the most part, I enjoyed this memoir told from the POV of a career maître d'hôtel who worked at some of the most popular and highly sought after restaurants in NYC. Some of things the author talked about were not surprising at all, but other tid bits of information were quite shocking and pretty disgusting. The author talks very candidly about his first-hand experiences--good, bad and ugly.

My husband has a culinary degree and has tales to tell that are very similar to some of the author's experiences. It is very well known that sex, drugs, alcohol, crime and abuse are very present in this industry. These service workers work long hours for little pay and put up with a lot from their supervisor and restaurant patrons. It is not uncommon for these industry workers to burn out over time and seek alternative careers later in life like my husband eventually did.

One of my favorite things to do is enjoy a nice evening out at a high end restaurant. You often overlook all of the work, attention to detail and behind the scenes workers that make your evening a memorable experience. This memoir will tell you exactly what goes on behind those closed doors.

I thought all of the name dropping in this memoir was excessive and didn't lend much to the story. I knocked off a star for that reason. Overall, I think someone in the industry or someone who appreciates this industry would enjoy this memoir.

Special thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an AL C of this book in exchange for my honest review.