Hotbox

February 1, 2019
Two cookbook authors who once thought of catering as "the elevator music of the culinary arts" reveal the secrets of the craft.If one prepares thousands of meals at once, "how could the quality of the food not suffer?" So went the thinking of the Lee brothers (The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen, 2013, etc.), Charleston, South Carolina, natives famous for cookbooks celebrating Southern cuisine, who spent four years interviewing industry professionals and working as kitchen assistants for a large New York catering firm. The key to serving all those dishes is the hotbox, also known as a proofer, "an upright aluminum cabinet on wheels, lifeblood for caterers," which "conveys partially cooked food from the refrigerator at the caterer's prep kitchen to the site of the party" with the help of Sterno food warmers. The book chronicles the authors' experiences as they graduated from prep chefs to working the actual events, known in the trade as fiestas. Descriptions of party preparations get repetitive after a while, but the authors do a solid job documenting the history of the industry and detailing the pressures caterers contend with, from client requests--producer Norman Lear once demanded to have a carpet installed in a room where a fundraiser was to be held because he didn't like the acoustics--to the precision required to put just the right amount of celery-root slaw atop beef brioche appetizers. The authors also share plenty of entertaining anecdotes--e.g., about the caterer who "had to mix pasta salad in the bathtub of a walk-up apartment" to make sure he had enough for 6,000 Gracie Mansion guests during the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York."A fifteen-minute delay in serving fish is the difference between fantastic and lackluster," write the authors. This book will give readers a newfound appreciation of caterers' artistry and their constant perch on the precipice of failure.

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March 1, 2019

Veteran cookbook authors Matt and Lee (The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen) take a behind-the-scenes look at the stressful world of high-end catering. The authors spent four years in the industry, interviewing the key players, from the planners to the chefs to the low-level assistants. Most important, they worked along the lines themselves, helping prep food and transport it as well as working the events. They explain the tricks of the trade: assembling thousands of delicacies and transporting them to galas, weddings, meetings, and celebrity events, all of which require getting the food delivered fresh and on time. The title refers to the all-important proffer; an upright aluminum cabinet on wheels that transports partially prepared food to the event location, where it will be completed. The personalities involved, as well as the sumptuous foods described, are presented in delicious detail. VERDICT The authors do a great job at taking readers behind the scenes of a hectic profession many might take for granted.--Phillip Oliver, formerly with Univ. of North Alabama, Florence

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2019
Fascinated by the efficiency and talent with which three caterers operated in an unfamiliar kitchen for an event at the James Beard House, cookbook writers Matt Lee and Ted Lee (The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen, 2013) dove into the world of high-end catering in New York City. They joined the kitchen of Sonnier & Castle as prep assistants, eventually working their way up to staffing major events. They named their book, which chronicles their four years of research, for the aluminum cabinet and portable oven that's used to transport food, keep it cold, and finish cooking it at an event. Readers see behind the scenes of galas to show the conflict between sales teams and kitchen teams, understand the unique challenges of creating restaurant-quality food for a single evening, and meet the major players in the New York event world. The authors' reverence for caterers' work ethic comes through on every page. A mixture of history and memoir, the Lees' investigation offers insights into a segment of the food world that often deliberately keeps itself invisible.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)