Your table is ready: Brooklyn Public Library hosts new events
The Brooklyn Public Library has been hosting presentations and conversations with writers at its Brooklyn Heights branch, in a new series held downstairs in the Multipurpose Room. Though free, the events require registration, which can be done at the branch or online.
On Tuesday, March 14, the featured author was career maître d’ and Brooklyn author Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, whose pandemic project “Your Table is Ready” (St. Martin’s Press) gives an insider’s view into the workings of NYC’s top-tier restaurants. With over 30 years in the service industry, Mr. Cecchi-Azzolina decided to chronicle the scene because “I wanted to tell stories.” From the servers, chefs, and cooks to the salacious bits about sex and drugs, incontinence and gambling, the author said, “You gotta be honest, and you gotta be truthful.” And it doesn’t hurt when the writer Jay McInerney does the blurb for your first book.
Joining the author in the conversation was fellow writer Andrew Friedman, who hosts the Andrew Talks to Chefs Podcast (available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher), and whose books include “Chefs, Drugs, and Rock & Roll” and the forthcoming “The Dish.” Both authors spoke in a breezy, familiar banter about the changing face of fine dining in NYC.