Cellar Rat

My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly

De: Hannah Selinger

Narrado por: Hannah Selinger

What happens when a career you love doesn’t love you back?

As Hannah Selinger will tell you, to be a good restaurant employee is to be invisible. At the height of her career as a server and then sommelier at some of New York’s most famed dining institutions, Selinger was the hand that folded your napkin while you were in the bathroom, the employee silently slipping into the night through a side door after serving meals worth more than her rent.

During her tenure, Selinger rubbed shoulders with David Chang, Bobby Flay, Johnny Iuzzini, and countless other food celebrities of the early 2000’s. Her position allowed her access to a life she never expected; the lavish parties, the tasting courses, the wildly expensive wines—the rare world we see romanticized in countless movies and television shows. But the thing about being invisible is that people forget you’re there, and most act differently when they think no one is looking.

In Cellar Rat, Selinger chronicles her rise and fall in the restaurant business, beginning with the gritty hometown pub where she fell in love with the industry and ending with her final post serving celebrities at the Hamptons classic Nick & Toni’s. In between, listeners will join Selinger on her emotional journey as she learns the joys of fine fine dining, the allure and danger of power, and what it takes to walk away from a career you love when it no longer serves you.

©2025 Hannah Selinger (P)2025 Little, Brown & Company

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A brutally honest, courageous, and powerful personal look into the dark side of the restaurant world. Hannah shows us how the imbalance of power rests on a manipulative system that willfully neglects the people it employs and makes you question if the industry truly can and wants to change for the better.”—Nik Sharma, Author of Veg-Table and The Flavor Equation

“With unflinching candor and clear-eyed wisdom, Hannah Selinger compresses the thrill, toxicity, and terror of working in restaurants into a remarkably open-hearted memoir. Cellar Rat should be essential reading for anyone who cares about this industry and the people who keep it running."—Mayukh Sen, author of Taste Makers

“If you're going to write about the reality of working in restaurants in a way that's anywhere near accurate, you need two things: The courage to burn bridges and keen social observation skills and the ability to translate those into engaging prose. Hannah Selinger has both, as she demonstrates with finesse, humor, and sensitivity in Cellar Rat. I admire her commitment to truth-telling as much as I do her appreciation for the seemingly trivial but ultimately revealing details that are necessary for capturing the glamor, decadence, volatility, and abusiveness that define the dining industry.”—Charlotte Druckman, author of Women on Food

You can’t shush the truth

I have never worked in fine dining however I work in wine sales and have always appreciated the backbone of such fascinating machine. Her story captured me and I enjoyed the ride. Can’t wait for the next book.

Thank you Hannah

God, after spending over 30 years in this industry in many similarly regarded restaurants, this could not be more accurate or honest. Thank you Hannah for telling our story. I hope to someday share some really great wines with you.

Vitriolic

It is a ‘tell-all’. And it achieves that but it did not leave me feeling completely informed. Just sad.

Hannah tells it like it is

I was in food service during college and beyond, many years ago, and I could relate to everything in the book. She was very bold to write this book and I give her much credit. I relived my past only to realize that most of restaurant life has not changed. I learned so much and am nostalgic about my experiences, but it also was not for me. To stay in the business, especially as a woman takes not only grit, but compartmentalization of parts of the everyday routine.

Such a compelling narrative

This book has stuck with me, weeks after I finished it. I certainly appreciated it from the perspective of someone who also worked in restaurants in the mid-to-late aughts, but I truly think anyone could enjoy it. She pulls off the magical feat of writing a super juicy, compelling story in gorgeous prose.

Entertaining for entertainment’s sake

Her voice and pronunciations are hard to listen to for so long. Her experience in the restaurant industry is limited and privileged. If you are a rich, white person who only had to work in the FOH part of the restaurant industry for a small amount of time to fill your time then this book could be interesting. If not, she comes across as an entitled asshole. Some of her experiences are familiar, sad, and frustrating, but there’s no desire to root for her at least from the perspective of a BOH minority woman who worked in NYC during that time. Nothing she said was wrong but for her to speak so poorly of David Chang and Christina Tosi without the caveat of her not really understanding the culture of BOH was extremely hard to listen to.

Whiney, dull and uninspiring

Seemed like an interesting title…

But read was very challenging. Someone that “fell into wine and food”. Went through very challenging times and bullying which is unfair and prevalent in the industry.
Maybe should have worked on her self worth and belief more. I seemed to get the feeling that she felt too good for the scene…

I don’t mind reading about that reality. But would have wanted to learn more on the experience of the food and wine she experienced herself. Some great stories or to be inspired… I wasn’t apart from one for the stories where she engineered a great review.

The book is a a torrent of negativity and complaining. I got through it…
But honestly, it’s a massive no from me.

Bad language and poor story line.

Just negativity and bad experiences coupled with stuff we didn't need to know.Too much rinse and repeat.

Awful narration

Monotone author’s voice was not the right choice for this book. The writing was actually good, but listening to a drone destroyed any interest in the content.