num_pages: 272
description: Matt Lee and Ted Lee take on the competitive wild world of high-end catering exposing the secrets of a food business few home cooks or restaurant chefs ever experience.Hotbox reveals the real-life drama behind cavernous event spaces and soaring white tents where cooking conditions have more in common with a mobile army hospital than a restaurant. Known for their modern take on Southern cooking the Lee brothers steeped themselves in the catering business for four years learning the culture from the inside-out. Its a realm where you find eccentric characters working in extreme conditions who must produce magical events and instantly adapt when for instance the hosts toast runs a half-hour too long a hail storm erupts or a rolling rack of hundreds of ice cream desserts goes wheels-up.Whether theyre dashing through black-tie fundraisers celebrity-spotting at a Hamptons cookout or following a silverware crew at 3:00 a.m. in a warehouse in New Jersey the Lee brothers guide you on a romp from the inner circlethe elite team of chefs using little more than their wits and Sterno to turn out lamb shanks for eight hundredto the outer reaches of the industries that facilitate the most dazzling galas. Youll never attend a partyor entertain on your ownin the same way after reading this book.
language: English
title: Hotbox: Inside Catering, the Food World's Riskiest Business
publisher: Henry Holt and Co.