A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City

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I particularly liked the vignette of the supposed Aussie millionaire and Edward’s first attempt at being a sommelier. What I found in A Waiter in Paris was not only these people’s differences defined, but their similarities reconciled into a microcosm. A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City by Edward Chisholm will be published in North America on August 9, 2022 by Pegasus Books, and in the United Kingdom by Monoray on May 5, 2022, and is represented by William Clark in association with Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown.

Inspired by George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, A Waiter in Paris is a brilliant portrait of the underbelly of contemporary Paris through the eyes of a young waiter scraping out a living in the City of Light. The refugee Tamils washing dishes and skivvying are ‘adept at hand-to-hand combat and know how to plan and execute a guerrilla attack on an armed convoy’. Chisholm has the unenviable job of painting that picture but does so with broad strokes and interesting results. An excellent read if you want to take a look at some behind the scenes realities in the world of fine dining and learn just how working people are still exploited.

Chisholm] brings the restaurant world to life as he relates the stress, pressure, and anxiety felt by all the workers. But as the author notes, the waiters are actors--they give you a grand experience where you are treated like royalty, providing a bridge between the storyland of the dining room and the hell that is the kitchen, locker room, and the Pass.

Serena Williams tries to slip into denim Valentino skirt as a 'goal' five months after giving birth.Beyond the wealthy neighbourhoods, with their absent oligarchs, ordinary people live in distant nightmarish ‘warrens of sloping-walled buildings with sunken floors and hovel-like rooms accessed by tilting staircases’. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. As the pages trickle by and we dig deeper under the well-worn cobblestones of Paris with Edward, the anecdotes become more personal, vivid and a wholly authentic representation of what the real Paris looks, feels, smells and tastes like.

In it, Chisholm recounts his first year of working his way into the elite, yet lowly world of Paris waiters. In fact, many move from restaurant to restaurant, looking for a better position, for promotion to head waiter, or just for slightly improved money or conditions. Truth about Neighbours star Troy Beckwith's death at age 48 as family announce there will be no funeral: 'He fought a tough battle. Inspired by George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, the author (know only as l’Anglais throughout) was determined to become a waiter, but speaking just a few words of French and having no experience, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. Chisholm renders the City of Light in vivid scenes of squalor and splendor, its romance and wretchedness mirroring that of the “great piece of theater” he starred in before eventually leaving the restaurant himself.I was perplexed though as all bills in Paris come with a 20% service compris charge to cover tips and hence why virtually all Parisians do not tip.