Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter by Phoebe Damrosch

Author:Phoebe Damrosch
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Industries, Humor, Form, Food Service, Cooking, Waitresses, General, Travel & Tourism, Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography, Hospitality, Essays, Business & Economics, Women
ISBN: 006122815X
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2007-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

“BRUNI’S ON TABLE six!” Patrick proclaimed cheerfully one evening soon after our tasting, with the usual twinkle in his eye and wry smile. He had already done his tour of Bruni duty and was happy to pass on the responsibility.

“No, Patrick, I believe he’s in your station this evening,” I responded, rolling my eyes. I was getting tired of this joke.

“No really, Phoebe, Mr. Bruni’s on table six.” He was serious, and I was seriously going to throw up. At that moment, I had Food & Wine doing a VIP menu on table three, the Zagats doing their usual abbreviated, high-maintenance menu on table four, and was trying to turn table five for some guy who had just written a biography of some restaurateur (I had been too busy to pay attention when the maître d’ gave me the details only moments before).

I peered around the corner into the dining room. Sure enough, there was Frank. Food & Wine faded in my mind; someone else could coddle the Zagats. This was the moment we had been waiting for. Technically, this could be his last visit, as most reviewers visit a restaurant three times or so.

André poured champagne and I explained the menus to the guests, positioning myself directly opposite so I could make easy eye contact with Mr. Bruni. He was much more relaxed this evening, and I began to have fun as well. He and the other gentleman at the table ordered the vegetable menu, while the two ladies had the chef’s tasting menu with the foie gras torchon, a reversal of the norm. The evening was fairly uneventful (in the best of senses) until the cheese course. I had just served the cheese and was describing the Tarentaise cheese from Vermont when one of the women at the table enthusiastically exclaimed, “Oh, Tarentaise, we wrote about this cheese!” and then, realizing that I would most likely have seen the huge wheel of Tarentaise on the cover of the New York Times food section the week before, clapped her hand over her mouth.

“Right,” I answered, pausing, and trying not to laugh. But everyone else at the table cracked up, and I resumed my explanation, knowing that he knew that I knew and that he knew that I knew that he knew.

Relaxed, confident, and relieved to be nearing the end of Bruni’s meal, I began to make the arrangements for a final surprise course. The “Michael Jackson” chocolate presentation was named after the single white glove one originally wore to pick up individual chocolates. There were six rows in total, two rows of milk, dark, and white, from which the guests were invited to select as many as they wished. Billy, one of our most knowledgeable food runners, stood across the table from Mr. Bruni with the tray, as we had discussed, so he could make eye contact and have the best view. Billy went through all thirty chocolates, explaining some of the more esoteric flavors such as verjus (unfermented grape juice), fenugreek, Chimay beer, and smoked chocolate ganache.

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