Restaurant Man: Library Edition download epub

Mr. Bastianich's biography proved to be much more riveting than I expected. The making of Restaurant Man definitely took some twisty turny roads. All with a great soundtrack blasting (in my mind). I didn't put it down. Definitely a great read even if you don't cook (i don't cook). Interesting, sharp guy with the gift of a true raconteur with a lust for food, music and life... a true Restaurant man. (PS - I realize lately Mr. Bastianich has been linked with his partner. MB. in some unsavory behaviors That part is not cool, but not in the book.) The book is several years old and I'm strictly speaking about it. I will note....He IS pretty old school in how he expresses himself and talks about the business at times. "Broads, coat check vixens" - liberal sprinklings of the f word (fine with me)...etc. but, it didn't take away much from my experience.

I might have given his memoir 5 Stars had I not found myself highlighting & then annotating in both English & Italian as I read. The book is heavily 'padded' with a very liberal sprinkling of the F-word. I say 'padded' because it would be a lot shorter if its use as an adjective, adverb, verb, noun were edited out. I have no objection to the use - I can express myself in both English & Italian with fluency if I want to - but after a bit it's tiresome & probably will be off-putting to some readers. I actually found myself anticipating its use beforehand, which says something.

He also adopts a Damon Runyon-esque Forties & Fifties use of descriptive terms like 'broads' when referring to women - plenty of misogyny abounds throughout which is rather odd, given his age & the fact that this stuff finally went out in the Seventies - not counting revivals of 'Guys and Dolls.' Definitely off-putting.

I found myself questioning certain assertions regarding Italy & New York pre-Babbo. By now he is a well-known quantity on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to Master Chef, where in Italy he appears in both the American version (he dubs himself) & the Italian one. Sadly, for all his grand pronouncements, he is now flogging an industrial product on Italian TV & finding it buonissimo. He's not the only one, I have to admit, since another Italian Master Chef chef is doing likewise, to everyone's consternation.

For those interested in a personal history of Italian restaurants in New York & the rise of the Mario-Joe empire, this is worth a read. I think he could have done a much better job or could have benefitted by better editing - I noted the entire book for the most part lacked dates, which I found annoying.

Joe Bastianich’s Restaurant Man is a manifesto on business, the business of food, the business of people, New York business and the business of wine, all colored with red, white and green; the Italian flag, wines and money. Vehemently and aggressively Italian, this restaurant man makes no apologies for being a real bastard about making people cry tears of joy and tears of profound misery. But he’ll shake your hand and make you smile about dropping a cool grand for dinner for you and the family. Restaurant Man is as much about ego as it is a primer for doing the math of running a successful restaurant, far and away from the “greasy bag of deep-fired easy.” More access to information about running a sound operation, you need not. He gives you the percentages on the opening page.

Any book that peers out from the inside of a restaurant’s imaginary façade, be it the dungeon-esque interworkings of the kitchen, the song and dance of the front of the house, the coke-snorting owners, cash-skimming managers, or any combination thereof, seems to capture a view that is tumultuous, sexy, horrid, tawdry and just a bit maddening… in a good way. Any non-PG take on what happens along restaurant row is automatically compared with Anthony Bourdain’s now-legendary look at the “culinary underbelly.” Yes, there are frank diatribes on the respectability and pay of each member of the team; the vixen-like appeal of the coat girl to the absurd role of a manager to the maître d’ that actually runs the place. But, Restaurant Man really is all about the business. Restaurant Man is more about nonfiction then it is about superheros.

Sure, Bourdain captures the sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll of hardened deranged cooks. And Steve Dublanica does the same with Waiter Rant, pervasive with tales of criminal managers and “crop dusting” through the dining room to intoxicate the rude dinner guest with noxious derrière perfume. Bastianich does not use the same formula. The appeal of Restaurant Man is in his original voice. He enjoys wine and pours enough of it in Restaurant Man that you crave Barolo and Brunello while getting drunk on his words that will shake you like a monkey.

“We heard a lot of noise when Babbo first opened about our chutzpah in putting out a menu that didn’t seem to have one single Italian on it, no warhorses, no greatest hits – not to mention our taste in loud rock ‘n roll- but we stuck to what we believed in, and in fact about 70 percent of the menu has been solid since day one: We always have pig’s feet, tripe and testa, as well as a barbecued squab, pork chop that takes longer to eat than a Dave Matthews concert runs, and fresh branzino cooked with ingredients and flavors that my father even heard of, plus the famous two-minute Calamari Sicilian Lifeguard Style, and a mess of completely imaginative and sexy pastas including the papparadelle Bolognese, which sounds simple enough but blows everyone’s mind. You think you’ve had Bolognese, and then you try Mario’s and you just want to weep at the tragedy your life has been.”

Restaurant Man has some captivating writing. Bastianich draws you in with just enough familial histrionics without dowsing you in stories of famous mom. There is very little geeking out about having a mom who is to Italian cooking what Julia is for French fare. The same goes for his partnership with Mario Batali. There is just enough orange-clog talk to color his story without making Restaurant Man all about other people.

I do not not want to dine in Bastianich’s places after reading Restaurant Man. Instead, I feel at ease giving him $250 for dinner. He wants to “overdeliver, exceed expectations, every day.” He brings a voice to the menu, to the experience of dining, to paying the price of a night of living high. “What the hell… I [know] the power of good food. I [know] that it can could turn dark into light…”

As someone who is not in the restaurant business, I bought this hoping to get some "behind the scenes" insights--which did happen. It was interesting to read how he (and Mario Battali) developed the restaurants and businesses, the problems they had, and the passion for this industry. The books also gives you an eye-opening lesson on how food/beverages are priced and their profit margins - many of which were surprising. I also learned more about his personal life - which was OK. What I really didn't like about the book was his unrelenting use of profanity. I can only assume that this is his normal vocabulary and, therefore, was written that way. However, it was so prevalent, that it actually detracted from the story for me. Halfway through the book, I found myself glossing over the "colorful adjectives/adverbs" to pick out the meat of the story.