"Turning Tables" By Heather & Rose MacDowell

We live in a society that worships the new. From design to entertainment to — yes — restaurant food, “innovative” and “unexpected” are high praise, while “predictable” and “formulaic” are most often delivered with a sneer. And yet there is comfort in the familiar; formula can have its good points. Consider baby formula, for example.

So when I say that Turning Tables, by Heather and Rose MacDowell, is formulaic, don’t be too quick to write it off. If it weren’t for formula, there would be no genres, and how would we know what we like? The genre in question here is chick-lit, and Turning Tables is a shining example. I’d say it’s about the restaurant industry, but that’s not quite correct; it’s set in the restaurant industry, but like all chick-lit, it’s about romance, empowerment, and self-actualization. The MacDowell twins (yes, they’re identical — and judging from their author photo, they look like the kind of girls Fonzie might have asked out on a date) have leveraged their experiences waiting tables at some of the best (and worst) restaurants in Manhattan, Nantucket, and San Francisco into a bitingly funny tale of the delicately braised underbelly of fine dining.

The Waitress as Actress: Fake It ‘til You Make It

Erin Edwards has a problem. In a town where you can survive without brains but not without money, she’s been laid off from her job in the marketing industry. Four months later, she’s desperate enough to work family connections to get a job waiting tables at Roulette, a top-tier Madison Avenue restaurant that’s the sort of place she once might have wined and dined a client. Before she knows what hit her, Erin is thrust into a life where comfortable shoes trump Jimmy Choos, where a customer’s every preposterous whim is law, and where she’s disastrously, hilariously in over her head.

Erin’s tendency to screw up puts her at odds with the restaurant’s egomaniacal chef, who makes no attempt to hide what an imbecile he thinks Erin is; the outrageous Italian wife of the owner, who treats the restaurant’s staff as serfs put there to do her bidding; and the owner himself, who may be reluctant to fire her, but has no problem trying to make her miserable enough to quit. Fortunately for Erin, she charms Cato, an experienced waiter who immediately sees through her fabricated claims of experience but can’t resist the urge to play Pygmalion and rebuild her as the perfect waitress — pulling a fast one on the management in the process. Under Cato’s tutelage, Erin begins to evolve into a consummate service professional — part psychologist, part babysitter, and part mind-reader, all the while helping fools and their money to be soon parted.

  

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“For the rest of the shift, I try to think of myself as the benevolent ruler of a five-table kingdom. I move from guest to guest, not as an impostor with a stalled marketing career, but as a born server determined to entice, coax, and sweet-talk every guest into dessert and after-dinner drinks.”

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Give Me a Man… Make It a Double

Of course, Turning Tables wouldn’t be chick lit if there wasn’t romance — preferably two romances, one with the wrong guy and one with the right guy. Turning Tables doesn’t disappoint, first sending Erin into the arms of a member of the kitchen staff (a fling that, true to formula, goes spectacularly awry), and then a suave, rich, handsome television producer who’s one of the restaurant’s regulars. Also true to formula, Erin’s relationship crumbles over misunderstandings and a man who Just Doesn’t Get It, Does He; moreover, her continuing series of disastrous missteps at the restaurant send her life spiraling ever closer to the drain. Will the chef and the owner get her to crack and quit, or give up and fire her? Will she let her pride strip away her job, her home, and her chance at love? And when a sudden lifeline appears, will she grab at it, or will she discover that after all she’s learned, her heart’s desire has changed along the way?

You Girls Want a Tip? Write Some More Books

In the end, Turning Tables is better than it has to be. From its title, with its sly double meaning, to its entertainingly flawed heroine (who unquestioningly brings much of her misery on herself), the book is a tasty soufflé of a read that whisks the reader along from page to page. (Yay, culinary metaphor!) Even if chick lit isn’t to your usual taste, you might want to give Turning Tables a nibble.

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Worth a buck?

Sure. It’s sudsy chick-lit fun.

Worth full price?

Maybe, maybe not – fans of the genre won’t have buyer’s remorse, though.

Who would like this book:

Fans of chick-lit, fans of the first two or three years of Waiter Rant, readers looking for a restaurant-themed riff on The Nanny Diaries

How to get it:

(coming soon — check back)

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