At Balthazar: The New York Brasserie at the Center of the World

by Reggie Nadelson

Explore New York restaurant Balthazar and everything that makes it iconic in this brilliantly revealing book that celebrates the brasserie’s twentieth anniversary. Keith McNally, star restauranteur, gave author Reggie Nadelson unprecedented access to his legendary Soho brasserie, its staff, the archives, and the kitchens. Journalist Nadelson, who has covered restaurants and food for decades on both sides of the Atlantic, recounts the history of the French brasserie and how Keith McNally reinvented the concept for New York City.

At Balthazar is an irresistible, mouthwatering narrative, driven by the drama of a restaurant that serves half a million meals a year, employs over two hundred people, and has operated on a twenty-four hour cycle for twenty years. Upstairs and down, good times and bad, Nadelson explores the intricacies of the restaurant’s every aspect, interviewing the chef, waiters, bartenders, dishwashers—the human element of the beautifully oiled machine.

With evocative color photographs by Peter Nelson, sixteen new recipes from Balthazar Executive Chef Shane McBride and head bakers Paula Oland and Mark Tasker, At Balthazar voluptuously celebrates an amazing institution.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food, Food and Drink

352 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2017

About the author

Reggie Nadelson is a New Yorker who also makes her home in London. She is a journalist and documentary film-maker. She is the author of the critically acclaimed series featuring Artie Cohen, Moscow-born New Yorker and the first great post-Cold War cop.

Series:
* Artie Cohen

Reviews

[LAPL Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Located in Manhattan’s Soho, Balthazar is a Parisian-style brasserie with its own unique features. Very much like its Parisian counterpart, the eatery is both a neighborhood hangout and place to enjoy a fine meal. Created by a British transplant, Keith McNally, who at the time was an illegal immigrant, in 2017 the owner, staff and restaurant are legal and thriving. Balthazar has been in business for twenty years. The decor, service, and most importantly the menu, all have French roots. In the great tradition of European brasseries and bars, regulars feel a strong sense of community, which was especially true after 9/l11 and Hurricane Sandy.

Reggie Nadelson is a native New Yorker, who unreservedly loves her city, and feels the same about Balthazar. This book documents the restaurant and its staff, but is very much a love letter to a place Nadelson considers a second home. She was given full access to the building’s underground tunnels that link different prep areas, storage closets, administrative offices, and she does everyone proud by personalizing the restaurant: its regular customers, wait staff, chefs, cooks, support food staff, administrative team and owners. The reader gets a clear view about what is involved in working and running a restaurant on a daily basis, year after year. Love and passion may be the ignition, but not the fuel that keeps things going almost 24/7. It takes dedication, interest, planning, tough business decisions, and hours of work (most of it physical) beyond that of any other type of work. Anthony Bourdain, the modern bad boy of cooking, conceded that the knees are definitely a vulnerable point for early degradation caused by long hours of standing. In addition the required work schedules negate a normal life.

Keith McNally, a working-class Brit, brought Parisian comfort, ease and great food and drink to Soho. Balthazar is a restaurant where there is no sense of urgency or pressure for diners, all of which belies the goings-on downstairs in a rabbit warren covering a city block, where the majority of food prep and cooking take place. Beyond the menu, McNally also knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it, which is part of the exciting story of Balthazar's birth. Nadelson's candid view of a restaurant's real-life workings is also reminiscent of parts of Gabrielle Hamilton's memoir, Blood, bones & butter: the inadvertent education of a reluctant chef.

LAPL also owns The Balthazar cookbook, which has recipes for many of the restaurant's signature dishes. The cookbook includes photographs, and a wonderful forward by art critic, Robert Hughes.

Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Central Library

[Patricia Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being familiar with Balthazar's in NYC, I was happy to read this early copy of Mr. Nadelson's look at the restaurant from the beginning and straight through to the kitchen, and everywhere in between.

All of the really great restaurants have great stories. Keith McNally has done an amazing job of making this feel like a French experience. I loved listening to all the stories of the staff, their lives, the patrons and regulars who made a sort of home there.

And there are recipes! Yes, they are sharing some recipes! Just reading the menu makes me hungry! If you have been there or if you are a history or food lover, grab this book!

Thanks so much for this advance copy Netgalley and Gallery Books. Release Date is set for April 4, 2017.

[Charissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love food, the food industry, chefs, NYC, etc....for some reason I had so much trouble getting through this book.

[Tforia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed seeing what's behind a nice restaurant, particularly where they use sourdough starters, quality ingredients, and where recipes take days to cook. I didn't realize to what extent a restaurant of this quality is about operations and coordination and managing workers--so much more than the food. The behind the scenes isn't unheard of information, but after reading the book, you really get an idea of how essential the operational side of the food industry is, far more than the glamorous ambiance. If you like food and good restaurants, you'll enjoy reading. I'm inspired to prep more ingredients for recipes that take several days.

However, the book is more of a memoir that happens to talk about a restaurant. I'm not familiar with the author so I didn't find these parts interesting. I found myself impatient, skimming details about her life, opinions, and the famous people she knows just to get to the parts about the restaurant.

I am very thankful the author wrote this book because I don't think the behind the scenes stories could have been told by anyone else.

[Ty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Balthazar is the kind of restaurant that I like to eat at, and even the kind of restaurant that I would love to own. I was really looking forward to reading an in depth book about a hugely successful French style brasserie in NYC, but the author's put me off a bit. The restaurant has persevered for almost 30 years in the toughest restaurant market in the world, and it remains mostly unchanged. The stories of the people who started it and those who run it now are very interesting, but sometimes the author goes to silly extremes to find a novel angle. Was it really necessary to fly to Kansas to visit the cows that provide the meat for the steak frites? Overall, the book was a good look at how difficult it is to run a restaurant, and there are a number of recipes included. I enjoyed the read, but feel that it could have been better in the hands of a stronger writer.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from the First Reads program.

Four stars for foodies. Three stars for other readers. This book has a loose structure of going through a day in the life of the restaurant Balthazar. While following this format, I really enjoyed this book. At times, though, the author went off on tangents. Some of these tangents added to the story.

The author has spent much of her life at Balthazar and lives near the restaurant. This added to accessibility to the restaurant and staff. I felt this provided a better picture of the life of the restaurant. This also meant too much of the author inserted into the book. There are photo inserts with nice pictures of the restaurant and staff members. Some recipes are also included.

[Chris Landstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breezy, lovely book that Will gave me for Christmas about the history, operations, people, and recipes of Balthazar, the iconic New York brasserie.

Nadelsen is fantastic at writing about food - I was left hungry most nights after reading it, and I’m very upset that the soft shell crab BLT mentioned throughout the book is no longer on the menu. Her memories of her own meals at Balthazar over the years were a nice reflection on the significance a bar or restaurant can have in your life, and elevated the book from being just a straightforward account about a business.

I will certainly visit the next time I’m in NYC to see how Balthazar has changed since this was written in 2017, and for a platter of oysters, steak frites, and a gorgeous French red!

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read, good view on a successful restaurant and the long hours and hard work required of everyone, but at the end of the day it seems that a good management style with respect for all makes for a happy team. Balthazar has been around for ages and much of the staff has stayed on for years. That is a good sign that the top really gets it and sees their staff as all part and parcel of the whole. Would I go? Probably not, I love great food and service, but not going all the way downtown when there are equally good places closer to home.

[Anne-Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subject – the ins-and-outs of Balthazar, my favorite restaurant – was exciting to read about. I love how Reggie became a part of the restaurant's family, not just a diner anymore. I will never look at it in the same way, and that's a good thing. The only slight, not huge, negative I would mention about this book was the editing. There was some repetition that I kept getting tripped up on, and I think that could have been smoothed out in the editing process. But overall, a delicious treat!

[roxi Net · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book makes me wish that I was more embedded in the culinary world. Not knowing about legendary restaurants, Balthazar, this book was an eye-opener for sure, and full of great photos, recipes, and stories. This is a book that would make a great present to those who know of/have eaten at Balthazar.

[Erik Hanberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a book about a restaurant I've only been to once. Well. Half a book. I started skipping around. If you just couldn't put down Kitchen Confidential and have been to Balthazar you might enjoy this book. And man—the stories about what it takes to make a restaurant work these days are amazing.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming and atmospheric- the author's style really makes you feel like like you are there, and the thoughtful structure keeps the tale of a single restaurant interesting.

[Devan Hambrock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't make it past the 1/4 mark....I love any food and industry related writing but this one, I just couldn't get through it.

[Andrea Golombeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed a little dry

Quite an enjoyable read about the inner workings of such an institution a little bit dry in places but overall entertaining

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the author stayed on topic and wrote about the restaurant, this book was just fascinating. But she inserted herself into the book quite a bit, and her - I don't know how to describe it - sort of smug, self-congratulatory attitude struck a wrong note with me. It was distracting and unwelcome.

[Emanuella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this book 4.5 stars. I thought that it was a really good book because it was very specific, and was well explained. I liked it because the book had a lot of information and it also was very engaging. I thought that it was a pretty good book. It had everything, information, facts, good spelling, and well written. It had the tree thing, ethos, logos, and pathos. I really like it. And I would recommend this book.


I would have to say that the engaging part, well I have favorite parts. The parts that I most liked and were the most engaging for me were the parts that had the recipes. To be honest with you I love reading recipes. And this book it’s about a restaurant in New York City, so the book included recipes. I thought that the book having recipes was a great idea, and I really liked that. It included the recipe cocktail le balthazar, soft shell crab but, gumbo, short rib daube, caramelized banana peanut tartine, boiled egg with “soldiers” for one, cannelé. There were a lot of recipes more. I really want to try the caramelized banana peanut tartine. But apart from the recipes, I liked the chapter called “Practically Magic” I really like that chapter.



I think this book relates a lot to my hero's journey because the book is about a restaurant, so if I want to open a restaurant someday, well since I want to be a chef. And since the book also included recipes it will help me to try to cook new things. I think this book will help me in my hero's journey because I learned what worked for the restaurant and what were the things that made that restaurant, the restaurant. In the end, I think this book is really going to help me and learn from their mistakes and success.