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Sirio: The Story of My Life and Le Cirque by Maccioni, Sirio; Elliot, Peter
by Maccioni, Sirio; Elliot, Peter | HC | VeryGood
Condition:
“May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend ”... Read moreabout condition
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Located in: Aurora, Illinois, United States
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Estimated between Fri, 21 Jun and Mon, 24 Jun to 43230
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Seller information
- 99% positive feedback
Registered as a Business Seller
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:145396338905
Item specifics
- Condition
- Very Good
- Seller Notes
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Weight
- 1 lbs
- Product Group
- Book
- IsTextBook
- No
- ISBN
- 9780471204565
- Book Title
- Sirio : the Story of My Life and Le Cirque
- Item Length
- 9 in
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Publication Year
- 2004
- Format
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- Illustrator
- Yes
- Item Height
- 3.4 in
- Genre
- Biography & Autobiography, Travel, Cooking
- Topic
- Rich & Famous, Food, Lodging & Transportation / Restaurants, Culinary, Essays & Narratives
- Item Width
- 6 in
- Item Weight
- 17.8 Oz
- Number of Pages
- 432 Pages
About this product
Product Information
"When one considers legendary restaurateurs of the world, Sirio Maccioni strides like a giant across the landscape. We've all learned (and stolen!) from him. His work ethic is second to none-the consummate gentleman who cares for kings and queens in the same measure as his everyday guests. Peter Elliot has brilliantly captured the essence of Sirio's life, which by definition encompasses the best and brightest of New York." -Charlie Trotter "Sirio Maccioni is the perfect maestro. He does it all: great food, great entertainment, and always with a room full of the best people. He's the only person I could ever imagine going into the restaurant business with!" -Donald Trump "Few can resist the courtly indulgence of Le Cirque's brilliant ringmaster-juggler of tables, dapper hand-smoocher, ego massager to generations of the high and the flighty." -Gael Greene
Product Identifiers
Publisher
HarperCollins
ISBN-10
0471204560
ISBN-13
9780471204565
eBay Product ID (ePID)
30237392
Product Key Features
Book Title
Sirio : the Story of My Life and Le Cirque
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Topic
Rich & Famous, Food, Lodging & Transportation / Restaurants, Culinary, Essays & Narratives
Publication Year
2004
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Biography & Autobiography, Travel, Cooking
Number of Pages
432 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
9 in
Item Height
3.4 in
Item Width
6 in
Item Weight
17.8 Oz
Additional Product Features
Lc Classification Number
Tx945.5.L39m33 2004
Reviews
"...autobiography of the inventive gastronome who did much to insert Italian cooking into the world of haute cuisines in New York...a kind of oral history more integrated than the usual as-told-to-approach." ( The New York , July 18, 2004) "'Sirio' is...a very fine [readable] book..." ( The New York Times Book Review , July 11, 2004), Sirio Maccioni has lived his life on the periphery of celebrity photographs. As maitre d'' and owner of Le Cirque, the New York restaurant where Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger reconciled, Frank Sinatra parked his limo and the "ladies who lunch" lunched, he has served for three decades as something of a mealtime matador to high society. His memoir might have been a shallow name-dropper, full of chat about the Kennedy clan and insights into caviar. But that''s the last thing "Sirio" is. Indeed, from the first chapter''s anecdote of Ronald Reagan tossing off an ethnic joke, the book signals that it''s no gladhanding salute to famous people or monied swells. There is barely another mention of a bold-face name for some 60 pages, but the reader won''t mind. This is an immigrant''s story. In its opening chapters, it keenly evokes a time and place: Italy during the war. "My father was a very good father," the restaurateur writes. "In those days, there was no bad father." In rural Montecatini, first occupied by Germans and then Americans, the author is desperately poor and loses his mother early to pneumonia. What could be bathetic is instead spare and unflinching: He writes of hating the pity of the villagers and of his impatience, at the age of 10, at their empty assurances that his father will recover after a German mortar attack. ("There was no medicine, and no blood," he writes, dismissing the platitudes.) With little to eat, Mr. Maccioni knowingly transforms himself into the stock character of war movies: the adorable Italian orphan boy begging for candy from servicemen. "We worked for those chocolates," he notes. He also pays attention as his war-torn city recovers swiftly after the war by marketing itself as a spa for café society. It was a lesson not lost on the young teenager, who was soon making his way in an old-fashioned world of restaurant service, where waiters were timed on how fast they could debone a chicken and the same staff worked breakfast through dinner, taking their breaks in between and sleeping together in a single room. Pity the poor tourists in Germany who told the young waiter that, if he were ever in Paris, they had a job for him in their restaurant. He showed up with little French and no money and refused to leave, then traded up to the Plaza-Athenée when he was more fluent. He was still a "skinny, stupid spaghetti boy," he writes, desperate not to return to Montecatini until he could look down on all the people who, he says, had looked down on him. As he moved to different hotels, restaurants and continents, he was careful to let the jet-setting clientele spot him (greeting the Onassis clan, for example, in a variety of venues). By midway through the book, Mr. Maccioni is in New York, having deserted his post on a posh cruise ship. He nabs a waiter''s job at the prestigious Colony, gets a promotion and then the maitre d''s tales begin. He tells of the time both agent Swifty Lazar and publisher John Fairchild demanded the same corner table. Mr. Maccioni favored Lazar and was mortified when he found the two were meeting for lunch together. He tells of the pretty women who ate free for decades at Le Cirque, of the politics of sitting Canadian premier Pierre Trudeau nowhere near his wife, and of the betrayal and departure of his best chef, Daniel Boulud. Mr. Maccioni is at his most interesting when he tackles the delicate issue of class, of being "a servant, but never servile." It is true that, by his own good fortune and entrepreneurial panache, he joined an elite of sorts by starting his own restaurant and making it thrive. But the book seethes with a class tension that will sting true for everyone who has ever worked among the well-to-do. Repeatedly Mr. Maccioni, maestro to the monied, warns of mistaking client friendships for real ones. He came to know Frank Sinatra, for instance, first at the Colony and then at Le Cirque, going around with him after hours to rival restaurants.
Table of Content
Foreword by Donald Trump. Preface. Acknowledgments. ANGOSCIA. Prologue. Welcome to Le Cirque. The Maccionis of Monsummano. "Always Tell the Truth". It's Always About Leaving. LEAVING HOME. Getting Started in Paris. The Next Generation of Chefs. Hamburg. The Home Lines. ARRIVING. "He's Good, but He's Italian". From Delmonico's to the Colony. Maître d'! Planning a Restaurant. Opening Le Cirque. RESTAURANT REVOLUTIONARY The Restaurateur. Kids, Wine, and Créme Brûlée. The Ladies and Men of Le Cirque. Triumph of Simplicity. The Prodigal Son. Losing and Winning. THREE RING CIRCUS. Sinatra. Twentieth Anniversary. Osteria del Circo: A Family Restaurant? The Palace. Le Cirque 2000. New Directions. Don't Play Games with God. Bibliography. Index.
Copyright Date
2004
Target Audience
Trade
Lccn
2004-004313
Dewey Decimal
647.95/092 B
Dewey Edition
22
Item description from the seller
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:145396338905
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Aurora, Illinois, United States
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| Postage and handling | Each additional item | To | Service | Delivery*See Delivery notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free postage | Free | United States | Economy Shipping | Estimated between Fri, 21 Jun and Mon, 24 Jun to 43230 |
| US $15.99 (approx PHP 937.77) | US $15.99 (approx PHP 937.77) | United States | Expedited Shipping | Estimated on or before Thu, 20 Jun to 43230 |
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Sales Tax for an item #145396338905
Sales Tax for an item #145396338905
Seller collects sales tax for items shipped to the following states:
| State | Sales Tax Rate |
|---|---|
| Missouri (MO) | 8.238% |
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| After receiving the item, contact seller within | Refund will be given as |
|---|---|
| 30 days | Money Back |
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