Yet another book by a New York author.  What is it about New York that makes people write? Someone should bottle New York water and market as a cure for writer’s block!  Service Included is a memoir, primarily centered around life working as wait staff at Per Se, Chef Thomas Keller’s New York restaurant.  There is some about how she got there, other bits of life … boy friends and New York apartments, but the interesting part to me was how the very highest end restaurants work.  It’s a good follow-on to the The Fourth Star, which covered everything from front to back (including reservations, wine, and the business side).  This was much more focused on the front of house service; very down to earth (figuratively) on dealing with people and down to earth (literally) in understanding the food.  The descriptions of “Mr. and Mrs. Bitchalot” were quite amusing.  The staff had lots of lectures on food (plus tasting).  Like The Fourth Star, there was lots of focus on the NY food critics, to make sure they received the perfect meals. I suspect I will never be one of the great bloggers (I don’t live in New York for starters and I don’t include nearly enough profanity), but somehow, even though this is the perfect opportunity, I can’t find the right words to describe the experience we had at Thomas Keller’s Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry.  I read this book and remember the very high expectations for our dinner there, ones that would have been hard to meet.  And while some dishes did, the overall experience didn’t.  But at least we were not Mr. and Mrs. Bitchalot.