Damrosch, Phoebe 1978-

PERSONAL:

Born March 3, 1978; married André Mack (a sommelier). Education: Barnard College, B.A.; Sarah Lawrence College, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Paul Cirone, The Friedrich Agency, 136 E. 57th St., New York, NY 10022. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

During early career, worked various jobs, including as a nanny, dog walker, proofreader, Web site content writer, and busboy; Per Se (restaurant), New York, NY, former waitress and waiter captain; freelance writer.

WRITINGS:

Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter (memoir), William Morrow (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

With the goal of becoming a writer, Phoebe Damrosch graduated from Barnard College and then earned her M.F.A. at Sarah Lawrence College. Over the years, she worked odd jobs to pay for tuition, including work as a dog walker, Web content writer for a Filipino dating agency, and waitress. She loved working around food because, as she once wrote in an article published in Food & Wine, "my family is food obsessed. When one of us mentions having dinner with a friend, the first question is not, ‘How is she?’ but ‘Where did you go?’" By an amazing stroke of luck, while in graduate school she landed a job at the four-star Manhattan restaurant Per Se, which is owned by world-class chef Thomas Keller. The next eighteen months proved an experience she would never forget, for working at a restaurant like Per Se, Damrosch discovered, is nothing like working for an ordinary eating establishment. At Per Se, the food, atmosphere, and service are meant to be an experience, not just a means of satisfying one's hunger. Damrosch began work as a backserver, performing some of the more menial food service tasks while gaining an education in fine food, drink, and service. She later was promoted to captain of the wait staff, and even though her employer's confidence in her was flattering, Damrosch never felt that she completely belonged among the gourmands and enophiles who surrounded her. Also exhausted from seventy-hour work weeks, she left the job after eighteen months, finishing her education and setting out to write her first book, Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter. The book is about all the things she learned about food, what goes on behind the scenes of a fine restaurant, the customers she meets, and, interwoven through the pages, her growing love for one of Per Se's sommeliers, André Mack, whom she would later marry.

"The book is definitely a love story," Damrosch told an interviewer for BoldType. "But the object of my affection is not only the sommelier; I also fell in love with truffles and champagne and cult butter and Scottish langoustines and being paid to talk about food and to people-watch." Service Included follows her training at great length, which included learning about which wines go with which meals, variations in everything from glassware to butter, how to work with the guests, and even how to handle and serve food gracefully (she received training from a dance instructor who specialized in eighteenth-century dances). While the titillating title of the book implies that the reader is in store for a lot of gossip about the rich and famous people who pay upwards of three hundred dollars for their dining experience, Damrosch did not write a tell-all book, by any means. She does not name names, at most poking a little fun at some of the rude, overly particular, quirky, and often ignorant diners who visited Per Se. Among the tidbits that readers learn is how the author dislikes people who lie about having an allergy to a certain food when, in fact, they simply do not like that food but perhaps do not wish to appear foolish by saying so. She also has a low tolerance for servers who are not willing to educate themselves about food, writing in her book: "If I have a question, I don't expect them to know the answer. I do expect them to be able to get the answer."

For the most part, such customers are the exception, and Damrosch indulges in "eavesdropping" on the diners not to be nosey, but rather to learn more about them and better anticipate their needs. As Holly Yager reported in her review in the Financial Times, attention to the customers' needs is a high priority at Per Se: "The restaurant keeps computer files (shared with The French Laundry) on any guest who might return. ‘Allergic to coriander. Only drinks sparkling water. Last time had tea but sometimes has espresso. Likes to pour own wine.’ And, Damrosch says, the chef keeps a careful eye not just on the dishes that go out of the kitchen but those that come back, demanding an explanation for food still on the plate." One customer, famed food critic Frank Bruni of the New York Times, is a noted exception to the ordinary customer. During Damrosch's time at Per Se, Bruni dined there six times to write reviews. It was always a time when the wait staff was on edge, although they also enjoyed serving a customer who understood and appreciated Per Se's mission.

Many critics enjoyed Damrosch's debut work, although there were exceptions. Some reviewers, for instance, were disappointed that she does not offer more insights into the guests at Per Se. Describing the book as a "too-kind memoir," New York Observer contributor Natalie Danford wrote that the "dangled-promise of gossip goes unfulfilled, leaving the reader hungry for something more flavorful." On the other side of the reception line, Yager commented that "if you've had enough of over-the-stove rants, the rich behind-the-scenes details are a real treat." A BostonNOW writer felt that Damrosch's memoir "reads as smoothly as a novel," adding touches of suspense, such as when food critic Bruni appears or when the wait staff gets behind in its service, and even romance, as with Damrosch's growing affections for Mack. New York Times Book Review contributor Sean Wilsey similarly observed how the "Bruni chapters are cliffhangers," adding that the author writes "in clear and at times exhilarating prose." Wilsey, however, felt that Damrosch would have been better off leaving out the parts about her personal romantic life. "Damrosch is best when democratizing this lofty culinary experience, and is shakiest when assaying matters of the heart," he remarked. In the Amateur Gourmet, Adam Roberts attested that Service Included is "an exciting, insightful, informative book about all the workings of a four-star restaurant. What makes it so refreshing is that Phoebe's perspective is not that of an elitist, torch-carrying gastronomical bully. It's that of a wide-eyed, inquisitive soul who finesses her way to the very very top of her haphazardly chosen vocation."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Damrosch, Phoebe, Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2007, Mark Knoblauch, review of Service Included, p. 20.

Entertainment Weekly, November 16, 2007, "Curl Up and Dine," p. 80.

Financial Times, January 28, 2008, Holly Yeager, "What the Waitress Saw," review of Service Included.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2007, review of Service Included.

Library Journal, December 1, 2007, Nicole Mitchell, review of Service Included, p. 143.

Publishers Weekly, June 11, 2007, review of Service Included, p. 46; August 6, 2007, "PW Talks with Phoebe Damrosch: Tales of a Waiter; in ServiceIncluded, Phoebe Damrosch Tells of Being a Waiter at New York City's High-End Restaurant Per Se," p. 180.

ONLINE

Amateur Gourmet,http://www.amateurgourmet.com/ (November 1, 2007), Adam Roberts, "On Phoebe Damrosch's ‘Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter.’"

Boldtype,http://boldtype.com/ (April 2, 2008), "Interview with Phoebe Damrosch."

Book Reviews for Real People,http://bookreviewsforrealpeople.blogspot.com/ (December 16, 2007), Maria Duncan, review of Service Included.

BostonNOW,http://www.bostonnow.com/ (December 10, 2007), "A Memoir of Food and Love."

Food & Wine Online,http://www.foodandwine.com/ (April 2, 2008), Phoebe Damrosch, "How I Overcame My Wine-List Phobia."

New York Magazine Online,http://nymag.com/ (September 25, 2007), "Phoebe Damrosch, Formerly of Per Se, Apologizes for Spilling a Martini on You."

New York Observer Online,http://www.observer.com/ (October 16, 2007), Natalie Danford, "A Per Se Waiter's Memoir: No Blood on the Plate."

New York Times,http://www.nytimes.com/ (November 18, 2007), Sean Wilsey, "The Food of Love."

Phoebe Damrosch Home Page,http://www.phoebedamrosch.com (April 2, 2008).

PopMatters,http://www.popmatters.com/ (March 7, 2008), Graziella Jackson, "Service, with a Smile," interview with Phoebe Damrosch.

Super Chef,http://www.superchefblog.com/ (September 19, 2007), Juliette Rossant, review of Service Included.