Publishers Weekly
★ 10/16/2023
What does it take to get a gourmet meal onto a diner’s plate? Food writer Friedman (Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll) takes readers onto the kill floors of livestock farms and into pressure-cooker kitchens to answer that question in this masterful account. Zooming in on “one dish, in one restaurant”—Chicago eatery Wherewithall’s dry-aged strip loin, tomato, sorrel—Friedman documents “the farmers, rancher, and vintner whose wares comprise the dish” at work; traces the origins of each of the dish’s components; and interviews the restaurant’s staff, including dishwasher Blanca Vasquez, “one of the unseen heroes of Wherewithall’s operation”; chef de cuisine Tayler Ploshehanski, who spends most of her time as a “human conduit between kitchen and dining room teams”; and server Nooshâ Elami, who has learned to intuit “what a table needs.... It’s their body language, how they’re looking at me, how interested they seem.” Friedman excels at bringing the dining room to boisterous life, and sprinkles his profiles of Wherewithall’s staff with vivid, telling details—when dishwasher Blanca, a chef in Ecuador whose immigration to the U.S. “brought a demotion,” describes meals she likes to make, her hands “dance over and around each other... a telltale habit of professional cooks, mimicking the repetitive movement grooved into muscle memory.” This will sate gastronomes and casual foodies alike. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
A thorough, lively work of on-the-ground reportage. ... Friedman shares a remarkable story. ... In the restaurant, Mr. Friedman observes scrupulously. He provides enough robust detail that a person with a fair bit of kitchen knowledge could, I suspect, get very close to cooking that week’s tasting menu from Wherewithall. ... Knowing that Wherewithall was not long for this world, like knowing that the ship is going to hit an iceberg, or that Romeo is going to drink the poison, only heightens the satisfactions of Mr. Friedman’s book. We can, after all, still visit its pages.” — Wall Street Journal
“Andrew Friedman’s deep dive into The Dish gives us a great appreciation and understanding of the people who play a part in the meals we order in restaurants. This book should be required reading for all of us who enjoy going out to eat!” — Marcus Samuelsson, James Beard Award-winning author, chef, and restauranter
“Andrew Friedman has achieved a long overdue thing: shown just how much skill, connectivity, personal touch, and professional grace exists in our restaurant culture. It is a real gift to have an archivist like Andrew who cares so much about cooks, producers and service workers document this work with such a loving and truthful eye.” — Lisa Donovan, James Beard Award-winning author of Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger Perpetual Hunger
“Tail to nose and root to stem, Andrew Friedman serves the life story of a single plate of food at a single restaurant and somehow conjures an entire world of blue-collar work.” — Amanda Cohen, Chef/Owner of Dirt Candy
“Who is really behind the food we eat at a restaurant? Andrew Friedman, in The Dish, perfectly orchestrates what it takes to go from farm…and ranch…and vineyard…to mouth.” — Tom Colicchio, Chef/Owner of Crafted Hospitality
"Masterful. ... Friedman excels at bringing the dining room to boisterous life with vivid, telling details. ... This will sate gastronomes and casual foodies alike." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An entertaining, eye-opening investigation...a lively look into what goes into the production of one meal, on one day, in one restaurant." — Kirkus Reviews
“Readers intrigued by the fine-dining industry will not only enjoy this work, but will be reminded to think more deeply about those serving them and working behind the kitchen door the next time they go out to eat.” — Booklist
Kirkus Reviews
2023-07-11
Behind the scenes of the creation of a single dish at a fine dining restaurant.
Friedman, producer and host of the podcast Andrew Talks to Chefs and author of Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll and Knives at Dawn, offers a lively look into what goes into the production of one meal, on one day, in one restaurant. He chose Chicago’s Wherewithall, a sleek 50-seat venue noted for its weekly seven-course tasting menu, focusing on the meat course, which, during his visit in July 2021, was a dry-aged strip loin with tomato and sorrel. At Wherewithall, he observes, “the food, like the food at most restaurants, is the creative, technical, and physical work product” not only of the owners and chef de cuisine, “but also of their sous chef and cooks, dishwashing team, and servers. From beyond the restaurant, it contains the labor of farmers, farmhands, producers, delivery people, packers, and too many others to list in full.” Besides spending a week on site, examining every facet of menu planning, cooking, and serving, Friedman scoured the Midwest, visiting the area farms whose products shape each week’s menu. Wherewithall serves only seasonal produce from suppliers such as Nichols Farm & Orchard, which grew the tomatoes; the Slagel Family Farm, which furnished the beef; Butternut Sustainable Farm, which supplied the sorrel; and the 29-acre Smits Farm, a purveyor of fresh herbs and other items. The author rode along with the delivery company that transported produce from farm to restaurant kitchen, and he spoke to the documented workers at the vineyard from which the restaurant buys its wines. Friedman profiles many of the hardworking staff who make the restaurant’s success possible, including owners Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark, who came from vastly different restaurant experiences; chef de cuisine Tayler Ploshehanski, who deftly manages the complexities of the kitchen; server Nooshâ Elami, who has developed an intuitive sense of what patrons know about food; and dishwasher Blanca Vasquez, “one of the unseen heroes” of the restaurant.
An entertaining, eye-opening investigation.
