Hotel Bemelmans

Hotel Bemelmans #1

by Ludwig Bemelmans

If there is such a thing as a comfort food book, Bemelmans' stories are it. His evocative tales of grand hotel life have a reporter's eye for sensory detail, yet he always manages to bathe his world and it's lovable characters in the mood of a fairytale. Meet the girl-hungry hotel Magician, Kalakobe the African cook, Mr Sigsag, Monsieur Victor, Mespoulet and an unforgettable cast of down but not yet out hotel employees. A feast of food writing. And once you've read one Bemelmans' tale you fall in love and want to read the lot.

Genres: Food, Memoir, Nonfiction, Humor, Biography, Autobiography, Food Writing

302 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 2002

About the author

Ludwig Bemelmans, Austrian-American illustrator, wrote books, such as Madeline in 1939, for children, and his experiences in the restaurant business based Hotel Splendide , adult fiction in 1940.

People internationally knew Ludwig Bemelmans, an author and a gourmand. People today most note his six publications to 1961. After his death, people discovered and posthumously published a seventh in 1999.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_...

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really glad that I read this for book club. I probably would not have picked it up otherwise. I gave it four stars for Bemelmans' descriptive passages. Here's one of my favorites descriptions of a waiter that has dreams of becoming a boxer and is very fastidious in caring for his boxer's physique: "He has immaculate linen, fine muscles, and he brings his chest out of the shower as if it were a glass case full of jewels." Another one I liked was his description of a very particular restaurant guest who polished his whole place setting before he allowed his meal to be served in a very specific way (today we'd probably say he had O.C.D.): "To this atmosphere of Te Deum and fetish, the ascetic countenance of Mr. Tannenebaum was entirely appropriate. It was the face of a man a few days drowned, his hair the colour of ashes." I think these passages are great examples of how he brings his artist's eye (he wrote and illustrated the 'Madeine' children's books for example) to give the reader an arresting and clear visual while succinctly capturing the essence of the subject's personality as well. I think it's genius, but maybe I need to get out more. These short life sketches are a good example of 'slice-of-life' writing as they really have no connecting theme other than the fact that they all occurred during the time of Bemelmans' life when he worked in a ritzy New York hotel during the 20's. Besides the great character sketches, there are some interesting details of life from this time that appealed to my inner history buff.

[Mike Battaglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love used books stores. I could never describe them with the magical, fairy tale whimsy of Bradbury, but, aside from that wonderfully addicting aroma of well worn pages that permeates used bookstores, lulling you into a sort of trance, it's because I find books like this that I love them.

Having worked in hospitality a long time, finding this book was like Christmas. With an introduction by Anthony Bourdain, Hotel Bemelmans is a scratch collection of the kinds of stories that are told behind the doors and in the sculleries of the service industry, woven together to form a portrait of hotel high society, it’s plethora of minions, and the dirt that hides in the cracks. You feel like a fly on the wall as Bemelman describes the oddball cast of characters that inhabit the “Hotel Splendide” in New York in the first decades of the turn of the century, and while those who have never worked in the industry in some form or another might simply find these accounts mildly interesting, I considered it a treasure trove of all the sights, smells, pitfalls and pratfalls, and one-of-a-kind hard cases found in almost every branch of the hospitality industry, all described with loving affection in wonderfully descriptive detail by Bemelman.

“...He was again in charge of the monkey house, the dismal corner of the restaurant where the carpet was patched, where service doors banged, where draughts of cold air came down from ventilators directly overhead, and cooking smells, mixed with the vapours of dishwater, came in warm waves from the kitchen...”

Like eavesdropping on a group of hotel employees as they skulk about their duties, exhibiting both great pride and great disdain for their vocations and imparting the dirty secrets of the high brow society that stayed there, The Splendide feels like something entirely fictional (it isn’t).

Beginning in a small Austrian town, where Bemelman grew up at his father’s brewery and exhibited a rapscallious penchant for trouble making, eventually sent to the United States with a nothing but a brace of pistols to fend off Indians and a letter of introduction, Hotel Bemelman reads like a nostalgic urban adventure, the likes of which many of us have had some kind of experience with at some time or another.

Beautifully written descriptive prose, fascinating, humorous stories, fly-on-the-wall insight into a world that no one ever sees outside of the industry, and characters that will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book. Books like this don’t come along very often. It may not be considered a classic, and I’m sure that very few people outside of Bemelman fans (he authored and illustrated the ‘Madeline’ series of children’s books) would even know the book exists. But, while this book may not be everyone’s cuppa, it’s well worth a read, and a perfect companion for the subway ride home after work.

[Ensiform · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was the great Anthony Bourdain's recommendation that inspired me to seek this out and read it. It's a memoir from the fellow best known as the author of the Madeleine books. Well, a memoir of sorts, but probably the "non-fiction" tag can be applied with a pinch of salt, given the outlandish yarns found in this florilegium. It's a collection of sybaritic scenes and larger than life characters in the great Ritz Carlton where Bemelmans found himself after being sent to America for, depending on what you believe, chafing at discipline at his uncle's hotel or shooting a busboy. There's a competent but noble Lothario of a magician; a waiter who becomes a millionaire after his stockbroker customers give him stock tips; a washer who proudly dresses himself in an ornate uniform; and many other memorable employees. The clientele is more often than not portrayed as spoiled and snooty, while the management fusses over them in hopes of big cash payouts which rarely ensue. It's an amusing book in all, not uproariously funny; nor is it exactly a bombshell of an exposé of the hotel industry. Despite the satire, it's largely a tender-hearted look at the hotel business, a sort of love letter to the schemers, the corrupt, and the incompetent who keep a place like the Ritz going.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ludwig Bemelmans is, of course, best known for writing and illustrating the hugely popular “Madeline” children’s books, but I became curious about him after learning about the bar at New York’s Cafe Carlyle, which is adorned with original murals and other artwork created by Bemelmans for the ultra-chic Carlyle Hotel. The author’s connection to hotels was a strong one, as this book (originally published in 1946) relays fictionalized tales of Bemelmans’ time working in an upscale New York hotel — and the assortment of flawed, if not downright unlikable, characters who toiled alongside him and demanding guests who routinely degraded him. There’s not so much of a plot as there is a feeling of being a fly on the wall in a palace of dysfunction, but the characters are richly drawn (many of them literally, in the Bemelmans illustrations that appear throughout), and there are some excellent, vivid turns of phrase by the author. (“For the space of time that I knew him,” he writes of a magician who regularly worked at the hotel, “love, murder, and this man seemed to be close together and that room the inevitable theatre for it.”) The 2002 reprinted edition features an over-written foreword by Anthony Bourdain, one that led me to think I’d be reading something more searing and insightful than what actually appeared on the pages that followed. But if you enjoy the quirky world of Wes Anderson movies and the occasional escape from modern-day life, “Hotel Bemelmans” is an entertaining place to visit — at least for a little while.

[Agatha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very curious about this adult book written by the author of the Madeline books. However, after reading it, I sadly have to conclude I wouldn’t have been that interested in it without that author connection. It wasn’t really my cup of tea. It was a series of mildly funny. behind-the-scenes vignettes about working in the hotel industry in New York City. The hotel is ostensibly loosely disguised as the Ritz, where Bemelman himself had worked after coming to America at the age of 16 from Austria. It was entertaining, and his hand-drawn illustrations really show a connection to the same style as the drawing in the Madeline books, but I just don’t personally care that much for this type of a book. Maybe because I’ve never been a waiter or a hotel employee; I don’t know. I sure have worked every other service industry job out there, though! But I’m not really drawn to what one other reviewer described as “the underbelly” of the restaurant/hotel scene.

PS I did learn some other interesting things Bemelman did: many cover illustrations for The New Yorker; a set for a Broadway show; and famous murals on the walls at a hotel in NYC (Carlyle’s) (the bar there is now named Bemelmans in his honor and his mural showing Central Park has Madeline painted into it).

[Bradley Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most famously known as the author of the "Madeline" children's book series, Ludwig Bemelmans was also a famous gourmet hotelier and restaurateur. Set during the 1920s and '30s, Bemelmans offers funny and slightly embellished takes on the cynical world of the hotel and service industries. The 24 semi-autobiographical short stories follow Bemelmans life as a troubled youth in Austria to traveling to America sweating away in kitchens while working towards being one of the greatest culinary personalities.

Before the modern day food personalities such as Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsey, there was Ludwig Bemelmans. Always a troublemaker and rapscallion, Bemelmans was kicked out of several schools in Austria and had the opportunity to leave for America to work in hotel kitchens. He worked with men of all ages and backgrounds who managed to provide exceptional service while living tired and poor lives. Through hard work, thievery, and cunning, Bemelmans worked his way to the top of the service hierarchy managing several restaurants and hotels. While the state of the service industry has drastically improved over the last 80 years, much of the spirit has remained the same. It as an insightful look into a world where madness and genius collide and excess rules over everything.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always enjoying getting to read a "grown-up" work by a children's author. Bemelmans (famous for the Madeline series) is far from the kind and benevolent figure that I would have envisioned for Madeline's creator (I can much more likely envision him creating Eloise - the little girl who lives in the Plaza). He is a man who has lived a precarious life all over the world (mostly in hotels) and in each locale truly having adventures. These memoirs highlight the years that he spent working in hotels, primarily in New York during the glamorous 1920s, a time when staying and dining at hotels was a real experience - something to get dressed up for. Bemelmans descriptive style is excellent and really transports you to the time and place. Although not structured as short stories (at least, that I remeber), the chapters can easily be read that way, making it good subway reading. Beyond the consistency of the characters in the hotel, there is no real plot, leaving you with plenty of time just to enjoy the verbal scenery.

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally received this book as a gift when I was going through a serious foodie phase of my life. Back then I had a hard time getting into it because it really wasn't about food at all; but now that I've distanced myself from that period I was able to read it and really appreciate it for what this book is - a humorous observation of the life of those working in the restaurant/hotel service industry during the early 20th century (Bemelmans worked for the NYC's Ritz Carlton in his late teens). This makes it a natural fit for the introduction by "Kitchen Confidentials" Anthony Bourdain (who calls Bemelman the original bad boy of the New York resturant/hotel service industry). While the stories are funny and full of heart, you get the sense as the book goes on that Bemelmans realizes that he wants to move on from this world before he ends up up alone and semi-tragic like some of his co-workers. The narrative style definitely matches the time of history the book depicts. I think readers who like reading about the humor of daily-life will enjoy this book a lot.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like most people, I know Ludwig Bemelmans from the Madeline books. I was unaware that he also wrote for the adult market until coming across this book. It's utterly delightful. Bemelmans emigrated from Germany to the US in his teens and started in the hotel business, with letters of recommendation from his family who were also hoteliers. He ended up at the Ritz Carlton - renamed here as the Hotel Splendide, and quickly made his way up the ranks from busboy to waiter to manager. Each chapter is a short narrative that includes incredible character sketches and what is often a very funny story, drawn from the cast of thousands that made up the hotel staff and its clientele - a world within a world. Bemelmans' writing style is both clear and clever, his descriptions are on point (and often merciless when it comes to the human zoo), and the accompanying drawings, all done by his hand, are gorgeous. Five stars, highly recommend, especially if you are looking for something escapist and funny.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Very well-written account of Bemelmans's youth in Bavaria, his loving brewmeister grandfather, his serial expulsions from school, and his eventual niche in the world of Hotels.

Especially enjoyable are insider accounts of the "Hotel Splendide," a 5-star New York hotel in the 20s and 30s, of elaborate debutante balls, loose-lipped wall street kingpins, kitchen tomfoolery and hijinks, and the romantic lives of a string of magicians, dancers, and a wannabe boxer. Not to mention the glorious descriptions of staff meals pilfered from the very rich (If you love food, you will come to see that these hotel orderlies ate better than anyone else in America in those days)!

Really fun, and highly recommended.

[Krenner1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming essays about Hotel Splendide, a grand hotel in NYC, in the 20s and 30s. Ludwig Bemelmans wrote the Madeline books and spent years barely succeeding in hotel work before becoming such a famed artist. His illustrations throughout the book are worth picking this up. They say Hotel Splendide is really the Ritz, and stories, based on facts, about some of the events there--dinner for 1500, 3 orchestras, a moat contrived by the city's fire department in the ballroom, and parties that started at 7 p.m. and ended at dawn--capture what the 1% did back then. There are many great stories about the back-room staff, as well.

Alas, I am told this is out of print. Used book stores and the library hold this delight.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

These whimsical, witty, and sophisticated essays, embellished with Bemelmans’ drawings, give Madeline fans a glimpse of the man behind the enduring picture book classics. Bemelmans writes about his tenure with the Ritz Carlton hotel in New York City which began when he was a 16-year-old European immigrant and continued intermittently for many years. We meet an assortment of colorful characters: haughty maitre d’hotels, eccentric patrons, larcenous waiters, even a magician and his trick dog. My favorite sketch was the one with the five lady midgets, gondola, lagoon, and inadvertent olive pit.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bemelmans was a hell of a story teller. Highly recommend. From Good Reads: If there is such a thing as a comfort food book, Bemelmans' stories are it. His evocative tales of grand hotel life have a reporter's eye for sensory detail, yet he always manages to bathe his world and it's lovable characters in the mood of a fairytale. Meet the girl-hungry hotel Magician, Kalakobe the African cook, Mr Sigsag, Monsieur Victor, Mespoulet and an unforgettable cast of down but not yet out hotel employees. A feast of food writing. And once you've read one Bemelmans' tale you fall in love and want to read the lot.

[Anna Karras · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me snort on more than one occasion. Ludwig Bemelmans, who is most famous for writing the Madeline books for children. This is the story of his life as a young man. He was born in southern Germany, and was a lazy bum. His mother sent him packing to America where he finally found hi niche as an employee at the Hotel Splendide. (Which is really code for the Ritz.) Here we meet all sorts of crazy characters, and the book is mostly anecdotes about the wild goings on at the Splendide. A good read for anyone who needs a laugh.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful pieces about Bemelmans' working life in the world of luxury hotels (mostly a thinly disguised New YOrk Ritz Carlton) - the long hard days and nights, the impossible customers and supervisors, and the subversive ways in which the servers get their own back. Though this describes a period before the Great War, there is much that is universal and timeless about the experiences described. The wretched excesses of the Gilded Age are not so very different from those of today. With wonderful whimsical sketches to remind us what Bemelmans became years later.

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author presents a fictionalized description of his experiences working in a grand hotel in New York during the 1920s and 30s. Some of the stories are amusing and reflect the charms of the era. Others do not.

Unfortunately for the reader almost a third of the stories also appear in a recently issued compilation of works by the author, Hotel Splendide. Therefore, the reader may not feel that they are getting their moneys worth with this collection if they’ve read the other book which contains some charming stories.

It rates 3.5 stars.

[Karl Steel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the only Bemelmans you need. I've not been thoroughly entertained by his besotted travel books like, e.g., How to Travel Incognito. Who cares? I suppose it's the thrill of the behind-the-scene of the hotel business 80 years ago. In that regard, it's like Kitchen Confidential but, you know, well-written.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasant narrative voice guides us through the rarefied world of New York luxury hotels created and inhabited by European immigrants (ie. French, German, Austrian, Irish.) The incidents that take place in the Splendide hotel are more often bitter than sweet, but they provide a fascinating glimpse into a young America (“The young people, men and women, were better looking, better built, more fortunate of face, than any other race in the world”) through the eyes of the impoverished Old World.

[Audrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Michael bought this at the Strand, because I liked Bemelmans bar so much here in the city. However, this is essentially an autobiography about Bemelmans life, and a very boring, uninteresting one at that. He seems extremely self-centered, and although he tries to relate stories about other artists and people he knew in life, it's all about how they affected him personally, on what seems to be a very superficial level. Even the stories about growing up in Austria I didn't find interesting.

[Krystle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this book up randomly at the book store, and extremely glad I did! I love how he grabbed my attention with just the first sentence, " I was born in a hotel in Meran, a small city in Tirol, and I spent the first years of my life in a beer garden." It was really neat to read about his travels around Europe, his grandfather the beer maker, and just life and culture back then. This is the first book I've read from him so far, but if they're all as hilarious as this one, sign me up!

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was endlessly pleasant. Written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans, of Madeline fame, the vignettes in this book deliciously painted a portrait of hotel workers at a New York hotel in the thirties. It really reminded me of The Grand Budapest Hotel in the relationship between staff and guests. Staff were like ants, guests were these self-important aristocrats. Very sweet, kind of plot-less, and overall I'd absolutely recommend it.

[Connie Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been hanging out with Ludwig Bemelmans since my Mom first read Madeline to my sister and me when we were little. He encouraged me to go live in France. He made me feel like an elegant adult when I went for cocktails at the Bemelmans Bar in NYC. Now he has me completely under his spell with this wonderfully wise and charming look at life as an employee at a posh hotel in 1920's and 1930's New York. I think Mr. Bemelmans may be my spirit animal.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise for this book focused on the author's experiences of working at a large hotel in New York in the 1920s and '30s. Unfortunately, the book was a big disappointment, full of dull stories with no point. I almost put the book down several times but managed to plow through it. Maybe I expected too much.

[Christie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 maybe. There were charming sections, cute stories, and a definite sense of what it meant to be serving the wealthy in early 20th century New York. It was also slow, with none of the kitchen/culinary conflict (or blatant love of food) that I expected from a book so lauded by Bourdain.

I do love Madeleine (who couldn't?), but this fell flat for me.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this voyeuristic opportunity into seeing what a grand hotel was like to operate in the 1920's. Bemelmans provided insight on characters on both sides of the industry (guests and employees. Especial interested to me was that everyone working at the hotel was of european immigrant status of sorts trying to make a place for themselves in America.

[Barbara VA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bemelmans is the first author that I knew the name of, I was obsessed with Madeline. Now, I read culinary memoirs and this was one of the suggested titles. More than culinary this is the story of the grand Hotel Splendide in NYC of the 20's and 30's. A fun Jeeves style telling of the goings on with a very high class clientele and staff with their own curious style.

[Lizzy Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this view into the lives of hotel staff in the early 20th century. I liked the humour and the characters. I think what held most charm for me was the narrator's reminiscences of what, at the time, had felt like quite serious events with the calm but amused mind of later life. A gentle, funny way to spend a few days reading.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a fun read - a thinly fictionalized account of life at the Grand Hotels of the late 19th and early 20th century, with all their pomp and splendor, told from the viewpoint of a low man on the totem-pole, a waiter's assistant. Episodic, so you can dip into this like short stories, which was how I read it. Great if you like the Gilded Age.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Behind the scenes of a major hotel, in the days when Manhattan was Manhattan, and not a big shopping mall. Ludwig Bemelmans goes to the kitchens and closets of a major hotel somewhere in MId-Manhattan and wrote about the underbelly of hotel service and life. Via the late 30's. Superb.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the creator of the Madeline book children's series, the creator's autobiography is remarkable and eye opening. How his writing of a Madeline's world contrasts to his propensity for working outside the law whenever able while in NYC is extremely fascinating and well-written.