Publisher's Weekly Review
"I'm convinced there's a better way to be a restaurant customer," writes food journalist Mintz (How to Host a Dinner Party) in his fiery work exposing "the twisted DNA of the dining industry." As the Covid-19 pandemic dragged on, he writes, it revealed a restaurant industry struggling to make ends meet, and one ravaged by a culture in which "fiefdoms" were rampant with "wage theft, tip skimming, and abuse." Through conversations with owners, chefs, cooks, servers, and delivery people, Mintz offers a searing critique of the food world, explaining why many of its standard practices--such as relying on apps for on-demand deliveries and tipping--have "train us to value convenience over price, quality, and fair wages"; how the brutal treatment of kitchen staff--from the underpaid to those not paid at all--has led to the current labor shortage; and the harms of operating under the ethos that the "customer is always right." As a corrective, he urges consumers to stop treating industry workers as "beneath our concern" and to "suss out... what kind of workplaces are worth supporting." Mintz also describes how thoughtful urban planning can preserve family restaurants and protect neighborhoods from being inundated by corporate franchises. With the hospitality industry poised at a point of inflection, this offers plenty of food for thought. Agent: Lynn Johnston, Lynn Johnston Literary. (Nov.)
Kirkus Review
A flinty-eyed look at the world of food and how the pandemic has exposed some of its uglier aspects. "My quest is nothing less than figuring out how to eat restaurant food and not be an asshole," writes Mintz, who became a restaurant reviewer after working as a chef, a career trajectory that's rarer than one might think. That the restaurant world died, by his lights, in 2020 doesn't mean it won't come back. However, it must shed some bad associations. For one, the author zeroes in on the genius chef who delivers abusive tirades on line cooks and servers, his nose stuffed with cocaine, his belly full of booze. Such people exist, Mintz allows, but their time has passed, and many have fallen (think Mario Batali). Why the drugs? Why does every cook, it seems, smoke? Because those chefs set insane paces, and "smoking is often the only excuse, during a long day, for leaving the kitchen or getting off your feet." Those long hours are usually rewarded with substandard pay, and of course the whole restaurant world operates on tips, which Mintz neatly links to Reconstruction-era evasions of paying emancipated slaves a fair wage--an evasion now applied to a demographic heavy on women and immigrants. Regarding the latter, Mintz counsels that a little family-run kitchen on the outskirts of town is your best bet since the inner core is too expensive except for the giants. He advises that we order food to be delivered directly from the restaurant and not by third-party delivery services, which he considers predatory; that tips be paid in cash; that diners not chase the newest restaurant on the block ("Restaurants are built to age gradually into their best selves. The moment at which we shower them with attention is precisely when they're not ready for it"); and that we value food and its providers more than we now do, once we emerge from the bunker. It's not Bourdain, but Mintz's account will make readers more knowledgeable eaters. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Before a tiny virus upended the worldwide restaurant business, and the world, Canadian author Mintz (How To Host a Dinner Party, 2013) had already begun to fear for the future of restaurants for a host of economic, social, and political reasons. The rise of the internet anointed anyone a restaurant critic, and the cacophony of voices, both informed and ignorant, drove out those of experienced professional critics. Restaurants suddenly had to be sure their food was Instagram-worthy. Restaurant kitchens became dependent on the unpaid or low-paid work of recent culinary school graduates, flooding the the job market. While burgeoning immigrant communities multiplied the cuisines available in many places, immigrant and often undocumented workers were also exploited. The pandemic further upended all these trends, with restaurants pivoting from table service to delivery. Mintz delves into the economics and ethos of big restaurant holding companies and finds a large contrast between privately and publicly held ones. Environmentally aware diners worry not only about sourcing but also sustainability, while restaurateurs are beholden to today's bottom line. Mintz writes with passion about how he foresees all these pressures working themselves out, and caring readers, too, will find themselves distressed and lacking easy answers.
