Restaurants have never been exclusively about food. Since the first 'restorative' establishments opened in eighteenth-century Paris, restaurants have been places to see and be seen, to show off style and distinction - and to feel at home among strangers. The impatient customers keep the staff on their toes with their endless requests; but it is the waitresses, waiters and cooks, who are secretly in control and, sometimes literally, spitting into diners' soups. In the kitchen, at the counter and at the table, pleasure and hard labour, elegance and exploitation, cultural diversity and racism collide: restaurants are the mirror of society. With In the Restaurant, Christoph Ribbat brings together the engrossing gastronomical experiences of kitchen staff and genius chefs, waitresses and philosophers, gastronomers and sociologists. He looks behind the scenes to tell the story of one of our most essential social establishments: from the first Parisian gourmet temples to the rise of fast food, to the most innovative chefs of our time.