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Playing With Fire: Whining & Dining on the Gold Coast
Playing With Whining & Dining on the Gold Coast is a voyeur’s peek into the crazy world of the restaurant culture. Filled with vignettes of difficult customers, stressed-out cooks, harried wait staff, and the truly disturbed, this book takes an affectionate romp through Tom Schaudel’s restaurants to introduce you to the most memorable cast of characters he’s experienced in his forty years in the business. You’ll meet a ninety-year old-woman who happens to be a serial “bird-flipper,” a woman trying to drag a twenty-foot Christmas tree out the front door undetected, an elderly gentleman walking out with an 8.5" x 15" metal clipboard menu holder stuffed down his pants, and a woman who got drunk, passed out, got revived, and aced an intervention, all in under twenty minutes. An absolute must read for “foodies,” these stories and the many others will provide pure entertainment and lots of laughs for a long, long time to come.
- GenresNonfictionNew York
408 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 24, 2024
It's always fun to read about the bizarre things people do and say in public, because people really can be crazy. And certainly Schaudel's dry telling of some of the stories had me laughing out loud. Unfortunately, his snarky voice becomes downright mean in too many of the stories for me to really enjoy the book as a whole.
December 26, 2008
Have you ever gone to dinner and had a bad experience? Maybe your food wasn’t cooked right, or you found something that shouldn’t be there in your soup bowl. Perhaps you were witness to one of your fellow patrons being extremely rude and pushy. However, what do you do if you are the chef, and the customer’s complaint is just too off the wall for you to handle?
If you are Chef Tom Schaudel, you write a book about those customers. Tom writes in his introduction: “By my math, I have fed over two million Long Islanders in the last forty years. One million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifteen have been wonderful; eighty five have made this book.” Playing with fire introduces readers to these most memorable characters that Tom and the staff of his four restaurants have met over the last forty years of being in the business.
From the moment I saw the table of contents which is laid out to look like a menu and the illustrations beginning each chapter, I knew I was in for a treat with this book. Chef and author Tom Schaudel shares these humorous “horror” stories of some of his best worst behaved customers. From the woman who tried to walk out of the restraint with a Christmas tree attached to her pocket, a grandma who likes to flip the bird at everyone in the place when not helped fast enough, the awkward situations of the woman on a date who is so drunk she is passed out on the ladies bathroom floor, and the young married couple who tried to redeem a counterfeit gift certificate given them as a wedding gift. The stories are told in a light hearted way that make the reader see how sometimes the wait and kitchen staff just have to have a good sense of humor to survive the night. I appreciated the recipes scattered through the pages, and while I don’t cook a lot of seafood myself I did see one or two that I would like to try some night for dinner.
Playing with Fire is a lighthearted romp through the restaurant industry and those nightmare customers who frequent it, as seen by the man behind the scenes.
If you are Chef Tom Schaudel, you write a book about those customers. Tom writes in his introduction: “By my math, I have fed over two million Long Islanders in the last forty years. One million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifteen have been wonderful; eighty five have made this book.” Playing with fire introduces readers to these most memorable characters that Tom and the staff of his four restaurants have met over the last forty years of being in the business.
From the moment I saw the table of contents which is laid out to look like a menu and the illustrations beginning each chapter, I knew I was in for a treat with this book. Chef and author Tom Schaudel shares these humorous “horror” stories of some of his best worst behaved customers. From the woman who tried to walk out of the restraint with a Christmas tree attached to her pocket, a grandma who likes to flip the bird at everyone in the place when not helped fast enough, the awkward situations of the woman on a date who is so drunk she is passed out on the ladies bathroom floor, and the young married couple who tried to redeem a counterfeit gift certificate given them as a wedding gift. The stories are told in a light hearted way that make the reader see how sometimes the wait and kitchen staff just have to have a good sense of humor to survive the night. I appreciated the recipes scattered through the pages, and while I don’t cook a lot of seafood myself I did see one or two that I would like to try some night for dinner.
Playing with Fire is a lighthearted romp through the restaurant industry and those nightmare customers who frequent it, as seen by the man behind the scenes.
March 18, 2009
Anyone who has spent any time on Long Island will appreciate this book - very funny, and unfortunately, all true! My girlfriend works out east at one of the top restaurants and is actually friends w/ the author (she does not work in one of his restaurants), and while visiting her this past February, I got to meet the author - nice guy.
July 29, 2009
It's always fun to read about the bizarre things people do and say in public, because people really can be crazy. And certainly Schaudel's dry telling of some of the stories had me laughing out loud. Unfortunately, his snarky voice becomes downright mean in too many of the stories for me to really enjoy the book as a whole.
December 1, 2008
Extremely entertaining...
July 10, 2010
Hysterically funny, sharp as a tack wit, right on descriptions but after a while i wanted to shoot his customers. The food sounds amazing, the characters horrible enough to throw in the microwave.
June 28, 2013
Amused and amazed by the bad behavior of Long Island's restaurant clientele. A quick read for the summer. Definitely worth it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews