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"To be a good restaurant employee is to be invisible. At the height of her career as a server and then sommelier at some of New York's most famed dining institutions, Selinger was the hand that folded your napkin while you were in the bathroom, the employee silently slipping into the night through a side door after serving meals worth more than her rent. During her tenure, Selinger rubbed shoulders with David Chang, Bobby Flay, Johnny Iuzzini, and countless other food celebrities of the early 2000s. ... But the thing about being invisible is that people forget you're there, and most act differently when they think no one is looking. In [this memoir], Selinger chronicles her rise and fall in the restaurant business, beginning with the gritty hometown pub where she fell in love with the industry and ending with her final post serving celebrities at the Hamptons classic Nick & Toni's"--
About the author
Hannah Selinger is a James Beard Award-nominated lifestyle writer and mother of two based in Boxford, MA. Her print and digital work has appeared in the
New YorkTimes Magazine, the
Boston Globe, the
Washington Post, Eater,
Travel + Leisure,
Food & Wine, the
Wall Street Journal, the
New York Times, and elsewhere. Her 2021
Bon Appétit essay, "In My Childhood Kitchen, I Learned Both Fear and Love," is anthologized in the 2022
Best American Food Writing collection, published by HarperCollins and edited by Sohla El-Waylly.
Summary
In Cellar Rat, Hannah Selinger chronicles the rise and fall of her career in the restaurant business, beginning with the gritty hometown pub where she fell in love with the industry and ending with her final post serving celebrities in the Hamptons.
