If you loved Bordain’s Kitchen Confidential, relished How I Learned To Cook and Don’t Try This At Home and never miss an episode of Hell’s Kitchen, you will almost certainly enjoy reading Phoebe Damrosch’s gossipy behind-the-scenes memoir of her experience working at Per Se, the glamorous New York restaurant opened by Thomas Keller– the chef/entrepreneur behind The French Laundry, a storied California restaurant known for its “tasting menu”.

Damrosch, who had previously waited tables at two other restaurants in New York while trying to decide what to do with her Masters of Fine Arts degree relates what sounds a bit like a love affair that began with ogling The French Laundry Cookbook in bookstores, progressed to buying a copy and ogling the pictures and recipes, continued through trying first with disastrous results then with increasing success to make at home Keller’s signature amuse boche, a tiny savory ice cream cone filled with creme fraiche and topped with salmon tartare, and culminating with her being hired among the initial group of employees for Per Se.

The memoir is well written and I did enjoy it, though as I have previously mentioned the elaborately extravagant extremely chi-chi frou-frou highly styled food for which Keller is a high priest and his restaurants a temple is not at all my culinary cup of tea. If at some point previously in reading Bordain or watching Hell’s Kitchen you reached a point of feeling you know all you’ll ever want or need to know about life behind the scenes in glamorous restaurants, you can certainly skip this one. But if you are the sort of hard core foodie who’s always up for another serving of restaurant industry dish, head over to 647.9509 and check out Service Included.