Your Table Is Ready Quotes

“The great Jacques Pépin came one evening, and the first thing he did was enter the kitchen, in full view of our guests, and greet every single cook and chef there.”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'

“Once the critic’s order was put in the kitchen, the chefs would then prepare two of each dish ordered. They taste one to make sure it is exactly right and then send the other.”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'

“Finally, at about ten, he lost it. He’d already knocked off at least a bottle of tequila. He looked at the crowd, downed another shot of tequila, looked at me, and growled, “That’s it. I am fucking done.” He screamed to Jimmy to give him a quarter. The scream was so loud, Jimmy actually dropped his handful of mostly melted ice, went to the register, and handed him a quarter. Uncle slammed the shot glass down and headed to the spiral staircase. He was wasted. I followed him up the stairs, worried that he might not make it. He reached the top, wobbled to the pay phone, puts in the quarter, and dialed. I’m thinking he’s calling his coke dealer, but he shouted into the receiver, “You miserable fucking cunt! I hate you, I hate this fucking job, and I quit!” He’d actually called the office downstairs and left a message for Madame GM.”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'

“She then offers guests another table nearby, but not at the window. You always, when you can, want to leave an option. This way the guests feel they have a choice. It’s also less humiliating for the guests to take a different table than to sit at the table they obviously despise. Even if it’s not a better choice than the original. The psychology being that if the guest is made to feel that he can actually choose that table, then it becomes the better choice, and he will take it. He feels like he won.”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'

“succeed, you need to be there. At”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'

“Failure Is Simply the Opportunity to Begin Again, This Time More Intelligently”—Henry Ford”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'

“We seek that which we need or think we need.”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'

“Servers tend to be attractive people thrown together to engage in this particular form of battle.”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'

“Wilde’s dictum that “fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'

“It never fails, the most awful human beings, the power hungry, those with the least personality, kindness, and humanity, are general managers in restaurants.”
― Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'