Back of the House : The Secret Life of a Restaurant

Food writer and clinical psychologist Scott Haas wanted to know what went on inside the mind of a top chef-and what kind of emotional dynamics drove the fast-paced, intense interactions inside a great restaurant. To capture all the heat and hunger, he spent eighteen months immersed in the kitchen of James Beard Award-winner Tony Maws' restaurant, Craigie on Main, in Boston. He became part of the family, experiencing the drama first-hand. Here, Haas exposes the inner life of a chef, what it takes to make food people crave, and how to achieve greatness in a world that demands more than passion and a sharp set of knives. A lens into what motivates and inspires all chefs-including Thomas Keller, Andrew Carmellini, whose stories are also shared here- Back of the Housewill change the way you think about food-and about the complicated people who cook it and serve it.

A clinical psychologist and food writer, Scott Haas has contributed to publications such as Gourmet, Saveur, Robb Report, Worth, Wine Enthusiast, and Gastronomica. He is the author of Hearing Voices and Are We There Yet? and the co-author of The Da Silvano Cookbook, and was the recipient of the James Beard Award for radio work in 2005. He is also the chief psychologist at a private psychiatric hospital in Brookline, Massachusetts.