Publisher's Weekly Review
Reed debuts with an exhilarating if perplexing account of her years working for Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali's famed restaurant empire. She started as a hostess at their New York City hot spot, Babbo, in 2005 while earning a master's in social work, and later served as Bastianich's beleaguered assistant, staying with the B&B Hospitality Group for more than a decade. Reed describes a Devil Wears Prada--esque world where she owed thousands in student loans but reveled in gifts of $600 face cream and jewelry. Grim work responsibilities were mitigated by crushes on various people, and Bastianich is painted as a cheapskate with the attention span of a hummingbird, but there's surprisingly little talk of food and wine. The book's saucy tone shifts when Reed addresses the sexual harassment allegations that forced Batali to leave the company in 2017. Her horror as men leapt to B&B's defense lends resonance to her experience in a way that her earlier attempts to analyze a job that allowed her to sit "squarely in the fray of someone else's life" never quite do. While it offers a juicy behind-the-scenes look at the high life, it's difficult not to see this as a dark morality tale. Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Nov.)
Kirkus Review
The former "Mayor of Crazy Town"--executive assistant to restaurateur Joe Bastianich--tells how she got into (and out of) a backbreaking job in a dazzling world. By day, Reed was a social worker, "helping Brooklyn's homebound seniors, most of whom were past ninety and in varying states of decline." In the evening, she dashed to her job at Babbo, one of the most sought-after restaurants in Manhattan. Squeezing her way through the narrow bar area known as the "pickle," she would arrive at the podium, from which she ruled over the seating arrangements of celebrities, foodies, wealthy diners, and anyone else lucky enough to get a table. The intense working conditions created deep bonds among the staff, and Babbo became Reed's family and home. Still unable to make ends meet, she leapt at the position of assistant to the owner, Bastianich. In partnership with Batali, Bastianich was running a restaurant empire, an import business, a wine company, and a retail operation while also co-hosting MasterChef and constantly traveling the world. Fully engaged by the people, the food, and the glamour, Reed became addicted to her indispensability. With two phones permanently stuck to her hands and no personal life, she did the work of at least four people. By the time she realized her many sacrifices, she was on the job for 17 years and #MeToo had crashed up on the company's doorstep via harassment allegations against Batali. Change was long overdue. "I could get anyone to divulge their deepest fears and most guarded secrets as though asking them for the time, but nobody--nobody knew anything about me," writes the author. In that light, the candor of this memoir is just one sign of Reed's personal transformation--a long, painful coming-of-age that led her to confront and break patterns that could have made her miserable for the rest of her life. A generously detailed, juicy restaurant industry tell-all and a cautionary tale for young workaholics. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
There is glamour and power in living someone else's life, especially when it's the life of a restaurateur and mogul. Reed, longtime personal assistant to Joe Bastianich, writes about this double life. Starting out as a social worker by day moonlighting at New York's famed Babbo Ristorante, she takes readers inside Babbo for peeks at celebrity tables, fellow workers, and company bosses. Skillful handling of determined reservation seekers and diners are essential to her crazy days at Babbo. She recounts an unexpected scare when Mario Batali arises from a nap beneath piles of restaurant linens. Reed is promoted, to being Joe's "we," onto a trajectory of round-the-clock work and high living. A-list parties and summers in Italy hold allure; but Reed's life simultaneously accelerates and evaporates to the point of a dropped ball. Will it cost her job? Reed's matter-of-fact memoir features tempting sides of Italian food, fashion, and wine. Her book's main course is not only the ride-or-die job; it's also a meditation on approaching midlife and the need for true friendship and love.
Library Journal Review
In this debut, Reed chronicles her time working under restaurateur Joe Bastianich, as a hostess at his and Mario Batali's popular New York restaurant Babbo. Her account primarily focuses on the business of the restaurant industry and its personal effects on Reed, especially as she rose from frontline restaurant staff to Bastianich's executive assistant. Reed remembers Bastianich as a demanding yet generous boss who often treated her like family. Throughout the book, she tells how she managed to juggle her ever-trendy workplace with her frugal home life in New York. Although Babbo and the corporate office of Batali & Bastianich (B&B) Hospitality Group could be exciting, fun workplaces, they also exacted an emotional toll, Reed writes. She carefully describes long hours in an all-consuming job where work-life balance was rare. When B&B Hospitality Group faced hostile workplace accusations in 2017 (including the widely reported sexual harassment case involving Batali), Reed changed jobs and finally put her mental health and well-being first, she writes. VERDICT Reed's down-to-earth memoir is a wistful insider's view of working in a high-powered restaurant job in New York. It will be popular among foodies and fans of business histories.--Ginny Wolter, Toledo Lucas Cty. P.L.
