Table Manners
by Jeremiah Tower
Random House Audio (audiobook)
Anthony Bourdain, whose documentary on Jeremiah Tower came out this year, tells how the chef has had a huge influence on the way we eat in restaurants. And if you think Table Manners could be a guide to how to behave in public, you’d be partially right – although the book feels a bit like a project dreamed up by a marketing department. Tower, described as “the forefather of California cuisine”, was also one of the people who launched the Peak Cafe. He narrates his own book, taking listeners from how to set a table to whether it’s pretentious to wrap lemons (no: it prevents rude squirts), what is appropriate for dinner-party chitchat, and when it is OK to leave. If you didn’t know much of this already, you should be worried.
