Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories

WORKHORSE

Kim Reed

My Sublime and Absurd Years in New York City's Restaurant Scene

WORKHORSE offers a razor-sharp look at one woman's nearly two decades in the New York City restaurant scene, including her time as the assistant to famed restaurateur Joe Bastianich, owner of Babbo and partner of Eataly, and what happens when your job consumes your life. It's a real-life Sweetbitter: the true behind-the-scenes tale of an assistant - the ultimate insider - thrust into a fast-paced new world.
During the day, Kim Reed was a social worker to the homebound elderly in Brooklyn Heights. At night, she'd scramble into Manhattan to hostess at Babbo, where even the Pope would have trouble scoring a reservation, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Reynolds squeezed through the jam-packed entryway like everyone else. Despite her whirlwind fifteen-hour days, Kim remained up to her eyeballs in grad school debt. Her training - problem solving, crisis intervention work, dealing with unpredictable people and random situations - made her the ideal assistant for the volatile Joe Bastianich, a hard-partying, "What's next?" food and wine entrepreneur. He rose to fame in Italy as a TV star while Kim planned parties, fielded calls, and negotiated deals from two phones on the go.

Decadent food, summers in Milan, and hobnobbing with the rich and sometimes-famous were fun only inasmuch as they filled the void left by being always on call and on edge. With no life outside her job, Kim was staring down a future alone, without building the family she craved. Workhorse is a deep-dive into coming of age in the chaos of New York City's foodie craze and an all-too-relatable look at what happens when your job takes over your identity, and when a scandal upends your understanding of where you work and what you do. If she could make the impossible possible for someone else, Kim realized, she needed to do the same for herself.

Kim Reed began her tenure in the New York City restaurant scene at Babbo in 2001. A practicing social worker by day, she spent her evenings and weekends working in the Babbo hospitality department. In 2010, Reed took over the office of Joe Bastianich, international restaurateur, TV personality and co-founder of BBHG, and spent the next eight years traveling around the US and Europe while solving the unsolvable and predicting the unpredictable. Reed is the founder of the website The Abettor, a lifestyle blog known for interviews with assistants to exceptional individuals from all sectors. A recovering workaholic, Reed spends her time writing and serving on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Heights and Hills in Brooklyn where she once practiced social work.
Available products
Book

Published 2021-11-09 by Hachette Book Group - New York (USA)

Comments

Workhorse is dynamite. Reading Kim Reed's story was like taking a knife through the foot - a combination of excruciating pain and unbridled exhilaration. From the musty basements to the sleek office spaces to the cramped hustle on the floor of a popular West Village restaurant to the snow?crinkled traipsings around town, even down to taking the Q home to Park Slope, this is a hyper?realistic portrait of New York City restaurant life in the aughts.

...those who are fascinated by extreme subcultures, the business of restaurants and the life of executive assistants will find WORKHORSE a worthwhile read. Read more...

Excerpt: The following is an excerpt of Workhorse: My Sublime and Absurd Years in New York City's Restaurant Scene, a new book from former Bastianich executive assistant Kim Reed. The author gives a dramatic insider's account of how the misconduct scandal played out within the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group. Read more...

Times Union ran a story about Kim Reed and her memoir, WORKHORSE Read more...

Workhorse is a riveting behind?the?scenes look at a famous restaurant empire, and also the story of a young woman struggling to forge an identity for herself inside that seductive, stultifying workplace, and ultimately, beyond it. Kim Reed has definitely discovered her second act as a gifted storyteller.

The New York Post published an article detailing some of the stories told in Kim Reed's memoir WORKHORSE. ...In her new memoir ''Workhorse: My Sublime and Absurd Years in New York City's Restaurant Scene," out now from Hachette, Reed chronicles her 17 years working for Babbo - and reveals how a place that once enthralled her became toxic to her life... Read more...

Excerpt: What It Was Really Like to Work Inside the Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich Restaurant Empire Read more...

Exhilarating... Reed describes a Devil Wears Pradaesque world... The book's saucy tone... offers a juicy behind?the?scenes look at the high life... a dark morality tale. Read more...

The candor of this memoir is just one sign of Reed's personal transformation - a long, painful coming?of?age that led her to confront and break patterns that could have made her miserable for the rest of her life. A generously detailed, juicy restaurant industry tell?all and a cautionary tale for young workaholics.

Bruce's interview with Kim Reed, author of the new book WORKHORSE, about her experience working front and back of house in the restaurant industry for some of the most famous restauranteurs and chefs around. Read more...

Reed's matter-of-fact memoir features tempting sides of Italian food, fashion, and wine. Her book's main course is not only the ride-or-die job; it's also a meditation on approaching midlife and the need for true friendship and love.

Excerpt: Inside the Glamorous, Precarious World of Downtown NYC Dining - Kim Reed on Working Babbo's Reservation Line Read more...

Kim Reed spills the funniest, most raw and honest truth: you can have the Foo Fighters' manager on speed dial, spend your days at an Italian castle built for a prince, and still not have it mean anything at all when you come home to an empty bed after fifteen?hour days. Workhorse is a whirlwind look at the glitz and grind of the lowest rungs on the corporate ladder, and what happens when you realize you need to get out.