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CELLAR RAT: MY LIFE IN THE RESTAURANT UNDERBELLY
In this critically acclaimed, vulnerable, and smart memoir (an Amazon Editor's Pick) Hannah Selinger pulls back the curtain on the restaurant world. Read what The New York Times can't stop talking about, calling it a "mix of Joris-Karl Huysmans, M.F.K. Fisher, and Regina George ... a howling account." Readers in the United States can order it here. Canadian readers can order it here. And readers in the UK and the rest of the world can order it here. Fifty percent of all royalties earned through the sale of CELLAR RAT will be donated here. Stay tuned for Hannah's next project, VALLEY OF THE MOMS, a literary thriller due out in 2026 (Mulholland Books/Little, Brown). "Hannah Selinger chronicles a time when chefs were thought to be rock stars and dining out was a show—but she tells the truth of living strange hours, dealing with misogyny, and encountering rage in an industry that never loves its workers back. Yet beauty is woven throughout, in prose that mimics the propulsive energy of a busy shift." —ALICIA KENNEDY, author of No Meat Required "I loved your book. You're fucking fearless and I'm slightly terrified of you." —SOMEONE AT THE NEW YORKER "If you're going to write about the reality of working in restaurants in a way that's anywhere near accurate, you need two things: The courage to burn bridges and keen social observation skills and the ability to translate those into engaging prose. Hannah Selinger has both, as she demonstrates with finesse, humor, and sensitivity in Cellar Rat.” —CHARLOTTE DRUCKMAN, author of Women on Food "The [sexual assault] incident doesn’t occur until halfway through the book." —AVANT-GARDE BALLOON EXPERT, and author of "Balloon Art You Won't Find at a Children's Party" "Men really hate it when you use their words against them. And yet, they've been doing this to women forever. It's incredible, isn't it?" —AN UNNAMED SOURCE, Smashing the Patriarchy “With unflinching candor and clear-eyed wisdom, Hannah Selinger compresses the thrill, toxicity, and terror of working in restaurants into a remarkably open-hearted memoir. Cellar Rat should be essential reading for anyone who cares about this industry." —MAYUKH SEN, James Beard Award-winning author of Taste Makers and Love, Queenie "The author is ... angry." —KIM ALBERTA, Assistant Town Clerk, Town of Boxford “A brutally honest, courageous, and powerful personal look into the dark side of the restaurant world. Hannah shows us how the imbalance of power rests on a manipulative system that willfully neglects the people it employs and makes you question if the industry truly can and wants to change for the better.” —NIK SHARMA, Author of Veg-Table and The Flavor Equation "Very cool!" —MY BOOMER MOM "Selinger plainly states at the start that the kitchens where she's logged time, not least of them the vaunted Momofuku, did great psychic damage to her, and moreover, how pervasive trauma can be when it is not taken seriously ... sensitive readers pondering a kitchen career might rethink it after reading this memoir." —KIRKUS REVIEWS "I did like ... some of the restaurant industry insights." —MELISSA CAFIERO, Goodreads "In 2020, chef-turned-mogul David Chang released his book Eat a Peach, which was part memoir, part apology for his notoriously explosive temper both in and outside the kitchen. It was received as one more revelation of bad behavior in a year of endless public reckoning, but more interesting was a viral response essay from Hannah Selinger, a former sommelier at Chang’s Michelin-starred Momofuku Ko. Now, the James Beard-nominated writer has expanded that story into a memoir of her own, recalling her tenure in the volatile but often rewarding restaurant industry and what it took for her to finally leave it." —W MAGAZINE "This provides a vivid glimpse behind the scenes of America’s most glamorous dining rooms." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "Cellar Rat, which recounts Hannah Selinger’s years as a server and sommelier in the seedy world of high-end New York restaurants, is a damn good read. Selinger’s writing about the restaurant industry is sharp, unsparing, and at times very funny, and her insights about her own life and experiences display admirable levels of candor and understanding. A thoroughly absorbing book." —LITHUB "The author felt the need to acknowledge everything negative—and apologize for it." —WENDI MANNING, Goodreads "In her dishy tell-all memoir Cellar Rat, Selinger reveals the highs and lows of her restaurant career, from meeting world-famous food influencers to facing crushing sexism and abuses of power. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s really like working at elite restaurants, Cellar Rat is a must-read insider account." —BOOK RIOT "You're right that the 'buy' button linked only to [the other reviewed book]... which we have fixed by removing the button entirely." —GREGORY COWLES, Senior Editor, The New York Times Book Review "Selinger’s vivid prose makes each chapter compulsively readable as she tells her story of life in restaurants." —BOOKLIST "It's entertaining enough." —JEREMY, Goodreads "Hannah Selinger’s remembrance of working as both a server and a sommelier offers sharp, revealing, and darkly humorous insight into the world of fine dining and the people who keep it running. [T]he exploits she charts can be entertaining but also offer a thoughtful look at how and why this world runs at the breakneck pace it does, and what that can mean for the people who work inside of it." —TOWN & COUNTRY "A… a mix of Joris-Karl Huysmans, M.F.K. Fisher and Regina George ... A howling account ... Selinger [kindly and generously] ends her book by dedicating it to the people of Gaza [which I cannot help but admire, given the current political climate and the great political sacrifice that writers have faced by mentioning Gaza anywhere in their work, including within the acknowledgments section, which I am weirdly referencing here]." —THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, Cover Story "In our current return-to-office era, Selinger writes thoughtfully about the nature of labor, especially the unseen variety behind a charismatic figurehead, and the dire personal sacrifices that too many jobs require of their workers." —THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE "Having never worked in food service, I am sure there is a lot I am missing." —KRISTINA ROBBINS, Goodreads "[F]ull of timely, sharp criticism as well as the gossipy, tell-all quality that draws so many people to restaurant memoirs." —EATER "I have never reviewed a book from an author I 'sort of' know. I wasn't sure I wanted to read it. What if I didn't like it? Does graduating the same year from the same high school as the author mean I need to automatically write a glowing review? Turns out, I didn't need to worry my frayed little nerves because it was really, really, really f*cken good." —CLASS OF 1998 REPRESENT "In her memoir, Selinger paints a brutal portrait of her life working at some of the city’s trendiest restaurants during the aughts." —THE NEW YORK POST "My guess is that she ... wanted to talk about the personal side, the way the staff were treated and the sexism." —LAURA, Goodreads "This insightful, one-sitting read is packed with juicy details about celebrity chefs and other big personalities—plus recipes to boot—while boldly shining a spotlight on the toxic world of restaurant work. A satisfying read." —PEOPLE MAGAZINE "When she writes about the 'hedonism of this intellectual pursuit,' it's exciting and almost intoxicating ... Selinger is ... illuminating about the business of selling wine." —BLOOMBERG WEEKEND EDITION "These women ran into plenty of trouble — but they brought a lot of it on themselves." —THE WALL STREET JOURNAL "The author’s website further undermines her credibility by spinning criticism about the book into self-congratulatory content." —CAROLINE, Amazon Reviews "Though I am an industry outsider, I — like Selinger — remain furious about the relatively few consequences that the men I wrote about have faced and the harassment that many women in the restaurant industry continue to endure ... [R]eaders aren't picking up this book for Selinger's farfalle with mushroom-cognac sauce, as delicious as it sounds. They're reading it for catharsis — sometimes served raw, sometimes scalding, but tender in the end. —THE WASHINGTON POST "To write a book that is this raw, this generous, is no small feat, given the unsavory characters that loom large in the dining rooms, cellars and kitchens of Selinger's past and her childhood alike. And it is generous, because in sharing her story, Selinger is giving voice to the unseen labor and emotional toll the restaurant industry takes on its workers, especially women and marginalized groups." —HIPPOCAMPUS MAGAZINE "James Beard Award-nominated lifestyle writer details her decades working in restaurants in CELLAR RAT, a part scorched-earth account/part loving ode to the restaurant industry. Along the way, she reveals what goes on behind New York City's fine dining scene, while dealing with harassment and gaslighting, before her journey of healing and self-discovery." —MODERN RESTAURANT MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE "I find it shocking... that people do not find this section hilarious, or even pretend to understand how publicity works." —A RANDOM PUBLICIST "At every stop, 'the men abuse their power and the women sell each other out.' And though Selinger's laments 'can be a bit heavy-handed,' her anger is cathartic." —THE WEEK "Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly ... recounts her decade-long experience in the world of luxury restaurants. A story that, in this case too, offers an honest snapshot of the darkest aspects of the sector: misogyny, emotional abuse and psychological pressure on workers." —ELLE ITALIA "Selinger's memoir about her entry and exit from the service industry is a raucous recounting of life in some of the most elite dining rooms in the world; when it comes to unravelling the inherent paradoxes of serving celebrities when you're too poor to make rent, Cellar Rat pulls no punches." —GQ |