Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work
Kitchens takes us into the robust, overheated, backstage world of the contemporary restaurant. In this rich, often surprising portrait of the real lives of kitchen workers, Gary Alan Fine brings their experiences, challenges, and satisfactions to colorful life. A new preface updates this riveting exploration of how restaurants actually work, both individually and as part of a larger culinary culture.
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"From the raw to the cooked, Kitchens takes us inside the fascinating world of restaurant work. But be prepared. Abandon preconceptions all ye who enter, for here's an original and important peek into the patois, the pecking order, the profits, and the people who produce what we eat when we eat out. . . . A real by-the-book example of superior occupational sociology, as it was meant to be."—Rob Faulkner, University of Massachusetts"A carefully researched, brilliantly analyzed and elegantly described study of a major American industry. His negotiated order and combined interactional-structural approach is a model for sociological industries and organizations."—Anselm Strauss, University of California, San Francisco Library Journal In contrast to recent behind-the-scenes narratives describing the realities of the restaurant business (e.g., Irene Daria's Lutce: A Day in the Life of America's Greatest Restaurant, LJ 11/15/93), Kitchens is social analysis. Sociologist Fine (Talking Sociology, Allyn & Bacon, 1989) uses the "negotiated order" approach, coupled with a methodology of interviewing and participant observation, to examine how internal and external interrelationships have created the current food industryincluding its workers, organization, economics, and aesthetics. While written in an accessible style with a cogent introduction and helpful summaries at the end of each chapter, this ethnography will probably be most useful to those with a knowledge of or an interest in sociology. Nevertheless, the descriptions of the interplay between the micro and macrokitchen work vs. market demandsmake for fascinating reading and a more critical understanding of this cultural force.Wendy Miller, Lexington P.L., Ky.
Ch. 1 Living the Kitchen Life 17 Ch. 2 Cooks' Time: Temporal Demands and the Experience of Work 54 Ch. 3 The Kitchen as Place and Space 80 Ch. 4 The Commonwealth of Cuisine 112 Ch. 5 The Economical Cook: Organization as Business 138 Ch. 6 Aesthetic Constraints 177 Ch. 7 The Aesthetics of Kitchen Discourse 199 Ch. 8 The Organization and Aesthetics of Culinary Life 219 Appendix Ethnography in the Kitchen: Issues and Cases 233 Notes 255 References 267 Index 293
\ Library JournalIn contrast to recent behind-the-scenes narratives describing the realities of the restaurant business (e.g., Irene Daria's Lutce: A Day in the Life of America's Greatest Restaurant, LJ 11/15/93), Kitchens is social analysis. Sociologist Fine (Talking Sociology, Allyn & Bacon, 1989) uses the "negotiated order" approach, coupled with a methodology of interviewing and participant observation, to examine how internal and external interrelationships have created the current food industryincluding its workers, organization, economics, and aesthetics. While written in an accessible style with a cogent introduction and helpful summaries at the end of each chapter, this ethnography will probably be most useful to those with a knowledge of or an interest in sociology. Nevertheless, the descriptions of the interplay between the micro and macrokitchen work vs. market demandsmake for fascinating reading and a more critical understanding of this cultural force.Wendy Miller, Lexington P.L., Ky.\ \ \ \ \ BooknewsA guide introducing CD-ROM technology to neophytes and providing more advanced users with standards and trouble shooting information, the text is arranged for simplicity of use, covering basics, tutorials on installation, networking and publishing, and applications. New terminology is defined within the discussions, technical portions are marked off, and the appendix includes a vendor guide for buyers. A CD-ROM sampling MS-DOS/Windows and Macintosh applications is included. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
