The Best Books to Read While You’re Waiting for The Bear Season 4 to Let It Rip
Like The Bear, which returns for its fourth and final season next week, the best books to read about restaurant life capture the unpredictability of the industry—not to mention the combustible atmosphere of a restaurant kitchen, the personalities the field attracts, and the on-the-job drinking/flirting/sobbing that keeps things interesting.
In the course of the series’ first three seasons, the staff of The Bear has weathered pressure, perfectionism, and shrinking budgets; when we last saw them, the restaurant’s finances were melting away like gelato on a hot summer’s day, and Jeremy Allen White‘s Carmy was waiting on a review that could make or break his restaurant’s future.
Although Carmy doesn’t seem quite like the memoir-writing type, he’s got the material for a great one—and it’s no surprise that many real-life chefs, somms, novelists and others have turned their food-biz experiences into addictively readable books. Ahead of the season four premiere of The Bear, we’ve rounded up some of the best accounts of kitchen life (both real and imagined.)
Early in her restaurant career, Selinger got punched in the face. There had been a misunderstanding with a coworker over a baseball hat (it was the World Series); Maker’s Mark was involved. One thing led to another, and Selinger ended up in the emergency room. Despite being plagued by misdirected hospital bills (they should have been sent to her employer), Selinger continued to show up for work. Years passed, locations and roles changed, but the industry never stopped hitting back. Selinger’s memoir about her entry and exit from the service industry is a raucous recounting of life in some of the most elite dining rooms in the world; when it comes to unravelling the inherent paradoxes of serving celebrities when you’re too poor to make rent, Cellar Rat pulls no punches.
“I knew who Julia Child was because of Dan Aykroyd’s imitation on Saturday Night Live,” writes Woolever, in a memoir that’s nearly as unputdownable as a pint of Jeni’s ice cream. Having assisted Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain, Woolever offers a down-to-earth and unvarnished view of working with two of the most recognizable names in food. But Woolever is a vivid protagonist in her own right, expertly weaving in her background, her struggles with addiction, and eventually, motherhood. Whether you lived in New York City in the mid-to-late aughts or are eager to be whisked away to bygone chef’s tables you never experienced, this memoir is for you.
This gauzy novel will transport you to halcyon days in French wine country. “The Master” and his partner have brought four misfit wine virtuosos to his vineyard under the guise of tasting a rare vintage in the legendary sommelier’s possession. But as the group gallivants through vineyards and drinks their way through breakfast (and lunch and dinner), tensions fissure through the group, threatening to derail the trip. Much like a well-stocked wine cellar, this novel has something for everyone, regardless of their wine knowledge. Readers are sure to delight in Dowden-Lord’s sunny drama that’s so ripe it falls off the vine.
As you’d expect, Keith McNally’s memoir features the biting, charming wit that’s made his social-media accounts arguably as popular as his restaurants Balthazar and Pastis. But it’s this memoir’s surprising vulnerability that makes it more than another “enfant terrible makes good” sort of book. Full of briny anecdotes from McNally’s life in food, it’s an unflinching look back at his personal and professional history, all with the winking humor his followers have grown to love—or at least, appreciate.
If The Bear has taught us anything, it’s that it takes a village to run a restaurant. In certain elite dining rooms, the maître d’ serves as the conductor for the front of house, steering guests to their tables, navigating their harebrained requests, and occasionally absorbing their ire, all with the poise of a ballet principal. No one knows this better than Cecchi-Azzolina, who worked as the maître d’ in rooms including Minetta Tavern, River Café, Raoul’s, and others. Cecchi-Azzolina’s memoir is a three-martini lunch in book form, whether he’s recalling his stint working alongside a young Geena Davis and Mia Sara at River Café or the time he had to kick a young, drunk Leonardo DiCaprio out of Raoul’s.
Easily one of the top contemporary classics about working in kitchens, Bourdain’s first book always delivers, no matter how many times you’ve read it. For the unfamiliar: It’s part memoir and part tell-all about the often-unsavory happenings inside restaurant kitchens. It made Bourdain into an (increasingly tormented) celebrity (and, soon, the subject of a posthumous biopic.) And it will put you off hollandaise forever. A tip: Pair this one with Care and Feeding for a robust look at the life of one of modern food’s top authorities and champions.
It takes a lot of courage to take over for a beloved T.V. host, but chef (and more recently, Top Chef host) Kish isn’t afraid of breaking the mold. In her memoir, she retraces the winding path that led her to red carpets and Bravo stardom, starting with her adoption and upbringing in the Midwest. Some celebrity memoirs can read like the back of a cereal box, but Kish’s leaps from the page, as if she’s cooking alongside you, reminding you not to skimp on the seasoning. While her story is nothing short of inspirational, Kish’s memoir is also relatable—her first job in food was working at a pretzel stand.
When a book kicks off with a warning label—like Damrosch’s memoir, which alerts vegans and Republicans to proceed at their own risk—you know you’re in for a treat. For struggling artists in New York City, working in a restaurant until your star rises is a prerequisite; after trying to make a living walking dogs, babysitting for American royalty, and enduring soul-crushing desk jobs, Damrosch took a restaurant gig and discovered that nothing provided the time, space or freedom to pursuit her art like waiting tables. As she rose through the ranks at places like Per Se, being a server began to overshadow her creative pursuits—but she was gathering material for what became a divine memoir.
In Danler’s coming-of-age novel, protagonist Tess arrives in New York from a place “too small to find on a map” during the swing of the mid-aughts, sloshing with the poetic disillusion of the young and hopeful. Her restaurant jobs become an education on all that the city has to offer, from dive bars to drugs, among other bad decisions (men, mostly). An unintentional piece of indie-sleaze revivalism, this novel will delight the nostalgic and the curious alike.
As a contestant on Season 13 of Top Chef, Onwuachi quickly won over fans and judges with his unerring talent for blending cuisines from the African diaspora, playing by his own rules, and thrilling diners (and anyone else lucky enough for a taste) with his dishes. His memoir drops you in the middle of the action: the cusp before opening his first restaurant, the now-shuttered Shaw Bijou in Washington, D.C. Like his cooking, Onwuachi’s memoir is diligent with the details and generous with descriptions. It’s an intimate look at one chef’s unbridled determination—and occasional flareups of insecurity—as he embarks on the next phase of his career.
During Reichl’s tenure as editor-in-chief, Gourmet blended recipes and hosting tips with longform journalism penned by the likes of Ann Patchett and David Foster Wallace (who wrote his iconic essay “Consider the Lobster” on assignment for the magazine). Reichl had been lifted from relative anonymity (she’d been the restaurant critic for the New York Times) and brought on to modernize the title; in her memoir, she recalls her days commanding a staff of editors, designers and writers and weathering the publishing industry’s shift to the digital realm, all while maintaining her love of food. Save Me the Plums vividly conjures the magazine’s heyday, as well as a moment when food media worked in lockstep with chefs and restaurants to introduce readers to the latest trends and tastes.
