In the Restaurant

"""Academic but compulsively readable... Christoph Ribbat's fascinating cultural history of restaurants transcends gastronomy to trace how this 250-year institution developed and its place in society."" — Nancy Powell, Shelf Awareness ""A dazzlingly entertaining, eye-opening volume that shows the restaurant is where performance, fashion, commerce, ritual, class, work and desire all come together… an impressively informative and unreservedly fascinating study."" — Midwest Book Review ""A fascinating buffet of fare and facts. . . Deliciously diverse, In the Restaurant is a uniquely intellectual and gastronomic experience."" — Foreword Reviews ‘A delightful celebration of the restaurant.’ — Guardian 'A veritable smorgasbord of mouthwatering gastronomic tales.' - The National 'A playful story, most entertaining, and wonderfully documented.' - Ferran Adrià of El Bulli 'An entertaining smorgasbord of tasty stories that build into a deeper picture of the places where we eat, from fast food joints and cafés to the temples of gastronomy.' - Hattie Ellis 'Fascinating, multi-layered, audacious and unique . . . mixes fact and fancy so compellingly that I read it in a single sitting.' - Russell Norman, author of Polpo ""Glorious stuff along the way ... we are unquestionably gripped by the stories... Brilliant. Just bloody brilliant."" -- Giles Coren, The Times ""All edible life is here - and tasty gossip, as the lid is lifted on the bubbling cauldron that is culinary society."" - Tatler ""Knowing and nourishing in equal measure, the short, sharp chapters arrive like delectable hors d'oeuvres."" -- Monocle ""A brilliant, provocative, wonderful, satisfying book. A proper gallimaufry of anecdotes that has been a real pleasure to lose myself in."" -- Desperate Reader (blog)"