In the Restaurant

Praise

“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)