Dish

<p><strong>A thorough lively work of on-the-ground reportage. ... Friedman shares a remarkable story. --<em>Wall Street Journal</em></strong></p><p><strong>Acclaimed chef writer Andrew Friedman introduces readers to all the people and processes that come together in a <em>single</em> restaurant dish creating an entertaining vivid snapshot of the contemporary restaurant community modern farming industry and food-supply chain. </strong></p><p>On a typical evening in a contemporary American restaurant a table orders their dinner from a server. It's an exchange that happens dozens or hundreds of times a night--the core transaction that keeps the place churning. In this book acclaimed chef writer Andrew Friedman slows down time to focus on a single dish at Chicago's Wherewithall restaurant following its production and provenances via real-time kitchen and in-the-field reportage from the moment the order is placed to when the finished dish is delivered to the table.</p><p>As various components of this one dish are prepared by the kitchen team Friedman introduces readers to the players responsible for producing it from the chefs who conceived the dish and manage the kitchen to the line cooks and sous chefs who carry out the actual cooking and the dishwashers who keep pace with the dining room.</p><p>Readers will also meet the producers farmers and ranchers who supply the restaurant as Friedman visits each stop in the supply chain and profiles the key characters whose expertise and effort play essential roles in making the dish possible--they will walk rows of crops that line Midwestern farms feel the chill of the cooler where beef dry-ages harvest grapes at a Michigan winery ride along with a delivery-truck driver and hear the immigration sagas prevalent amongst often unseen and unheralded farm and restaurant workers.</p><p><em>The Dish</em> is a rollicking ride inside every aspect of a restaurant dish. Both a fascinating window onto our food systems and a celebration of the unsung heroes of restaurants and the collaborative nature of professional kitchen work <em>The Dish </em>will ensure that readers never look at any restaurant meal the same way again. </p><p><strong>Masterful. ... Friedman excels at bringing the dining room to boisterous life with vivid telling details. ... This will sate gastronomes and casual foodies alike. -- <em>Publishers Weekly</em> (starred review)</strong></p>