A witty and humble tribute to the sometimes profane, sometimes
profound world of waiting tables During a year on sabbatical from
his university position, Matthew Batt realized he needed
money—fast—and it just so happened that one of the biggest
breweries in the Midwest was launching a restaurant and looking to
hire. So it was that the forty-something tenured professor found
himself waiting tables at a high-end restaurant situated in a
Minneapolis brewery. And loving it. Â Telling the story of
Batt’s early work in restaurants, from a red sauce joint possibly
run by the mob to an ill-conceived fusion concept eatery, The Last
Supper Club then details his experiences at the fine dining
restaurant, a job that continued well past his sabbatical—that
lasted, in fact, right up to the restaurant’s sudden and
unceremonious closing three years later, shortly after it was named
one of the best restaurants in the country by Food & Wine.
 Batt’s memoir conveys the challenge—and the
satisfaction—of meeting the demands of a frenzied kitchen and an
equally expectant crowd. Through training mishaps, disastrous
encounters with confused diners, struggles to keep pace with far
more experienced coworkers, mandatory memorizations of laundry
lists of obscure ingredients, and the stress of balancing
responsibilities at home and at work, The Last Supper Club reveals
the ups and downs of a waiter’s workday and offers an insightful
perspective on what makes a job good, bad, or great. For Batt, this
job turns out to be considerably more fun, and possibly more
rewarding, than his academic career, and his insider’s view of
waiting tables extols the significance of our food and the places
where we gather to enjoy it—or serve it.  Told with sharp
humor, humility, and a keen sense of what matters, The Last Supper
Club is an ode to life in a high-pressure restaurant, the
relationships that get you to the night’s close, and finding
yourself through—or perhaps because of—the chaos of it all.
General
Imprint: |
University of Minnesota Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
October 2023 |
First published: |
2023 |
Authors: |
Matthew Batt
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 152 x 13mm (L x W x T) |
Pages: |
272 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-5179-1485-1 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-5179-1485-X |
Barcode: |
9781517914851 |
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