With the average guest check coming in at more than $400 per person for nine courses with a wine pairing, a majority of Americans will never, in their entire lives, have a meal like those served at elite super star chef Thomas Keller's restaurants The French Laundry (Napa Valley) and Per Se (New York City). Even those fortunate and/or wealthy enough to regularly partake in the evenings of elaborate culinary theatre that are performed in Keller's restaurants (and others of their caliber) are likely to be unaware of just how much work, planning, and attention detail it takes to create the experience.

Dining at this level is about much more than artful dishes prepared to visual and flavorful perfection from the finest ingredients the world has to offer. Exquisite cuisine is a given. But dining at restaurants of this haute stature is about the entire experience. Meaning everything and everyone from the kitchen staff, to the décor, lighting, ambiance, provision providers, and wait staff must work in harmony to create a perfect culinary experience for the guest.

While several chefs have penned insightful and provocative glimpses into the kitchens of some of the world's finest restaurant, Phoebe Damrosch brings us the perspective from the front of the house. She was there before the opening of Per Se, beginning her restaurant career as a back server before climbing the ladder to captain - a rare feet for a woman. The training involved for servers at restaurants like Per Se rivals that of a geisha -- with everything designed to create the perfect guest experience. Servers must be part culinary expert, part wine expert, part mind reader and all professional.

This memoir begins before the restaurant opens and continues through its start up, including visits from important culinary critics, celebrities, and important movers and shakers. She balances the view from both the front and back of the house, allowing us to feel as though we were there during the hectic time pre and post Per Se launch. Most clearly readers will get a true picture of the pressure for perfection that accompanies every task at Per Se - from the placement of the flatware to the precise timing of preparing and delivering multiple course tasting menus, and everything in between

Intertwined between the culinary tales are those of Damrosch's evolving relationship with sommelier Andre, but even these reminiscences are intertwined - as everything for foodies usually is - against the backdrop of new food and wine discoveries.

Damrosch is an engaging and entertaining writer who intersperse her tale with witty social observations, especially of restaurant patrons. She's less biting and more guarded than, say, an Anthony Bourdain, but her entertaining book would nonetheless make for perfect summer beach reading for foodies.