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    Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress
    Unavailable
    Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress
    Unavailable
    Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress
    Ebook350 pages5 hours

    Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress

    By Debra Ginsberg

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A veteran waitress dishes up a spicy and robust account of life as it really exists behind kitchen doors.

    Part memoir, part social commentary, part guide to how to behave when dining out, Debra Ginsberg's book takes readers on her twenty-year journey as a waitress at a soap-operatic Italian restaurant, an exclusive five-star dining club, the dingiest of diners, and more. While chronicling her evolution as a writer, Ginsberg takes a behind-the-scenes look at restaurant life-revealing that yes, when pushed, a server will spit in food, and, no, that's not really decaf you're getting-and how most people in this business are in a constant state of waiting to do something else.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061760235
    Unavailable
    Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress
    Author

    Debra Ginsberg

    Debra Ginsberg is the author of Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress and Raising Blaze: Bringing Up an Extraordinary Son in an Ordinary World. A graduate of Reed College, she is a contributor to NPR's All Things Considered and the San Diego Union-Tribune "Books" section.

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    Reviews for Waiting

    3.5/5

    18 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Quick, easy and fun read. There's some glaring grammar errors, missing words and strange spellings [eyebrow raising, considering her previous work as an editor...]. Otherwise, a very lovingly composed book about an industry we are all extremely familiar with - though maybe not as much as we thought ;)
    • 4/5
      "There are three kinds of waitresses," Garry Shandling used to say, "the good, the bad ... and the kind I always get." In her memoir "Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress," Debra Ginsberg suggests there are actually just two kinds: those who accept that this is their life and just get on with making a living (you can usually find these at Bob Evans and most family restaurants) and those who wait on customers while they wait for their real lives to begin (the kind you are more likely to find at Applebees, Cheddars and similar restaurants).For two decades, Ginsberg was a waitress of the second kind. Her whole family was in the restaurant business, and so, beginning as a teenager, she worked in her father's restaurants and various others, mostly in Oregon and California. She believed her true calling was to become a writer, but she wrote very little and after her son was born and she became a single mother, she wrote nothing at all. Serving drinks and dinners to other people paid the bills.Eventually she realized that waiting tables provided all the material she needed for her to end her other wait and start writing. The resultant book, published in 2000, provides fascinating reading for anyone who either serves food in a restaurant or eats it. She tells some interesting and often hilarious stories, reveals what goes on behind the scenes (who knew a restaurant could be such a sexual hothouse?) and even critiques several movies, such as "Five Easy Pieces" and "As Good as It Gets," that have waitresses as important characters.Ginsberg has since written two more memoirs and a novel, but writing is a tough way to make a living and she realizes that at some point she may be forced to go back to waiting ... and waiting.
    • 3/5
      Although entertaining, it was not what I was expecting or hoping for. I thought I would be looking at an Anthony Bourdain-ish memoir about the front of the house, but really, it was more Debra's life and how "waiting" was what she did, literally and firguratively. Don't ge me wrong, the book is enjoyable, just not quite the lurid tell-all that I was looking for.
    • 3/5
      This might be a disappointment for those looking solely for entertainment, as it is long on analysis.
    • 3/5
      Great volume on what it's really like to serve. For anyone who's ever waited tables, here is a book that speaks to your experience, the good and the bad.
    • 3/5
      Not "Kitchen Confidential" but fun to read and rings true to life to anyone who has been a server, even back in the dark ages when I was in college.
    • 4/5
      Very cute, and she hits the nail in the head about this industry. I really enjoyed this, especially having worked in restaurants myself for 7 or so years.
    • 3/5
      5/05 Starts off good and if this book chopped the last 10% off the end it would have been a real solid book. The end however is just a drag and I started skimming just to say I finished it.