Restaurant Man

How deso a nice Italian boy from Queens turn his passion for food and wine into an empire?

What exactly does it take to be a Restaurant Man? If you're legendary restaurateur Joe Bastianich, it means "hedonistic boondoggle R&D trips to Italy," being cheap while appearing to be generous, doling out frank opinions on colleagues and customers alike, and dropping a lot of f-bombs. In his new book, RESTAURANT MAN (Viking; Strict on sale: May 1, 2012; 9780670023523), Bastianich lays out his path to success and divulges the juicy, insider information that only a guy with twenty-four restaurants knows. From the real price of a bottle of wine to Bill Clinton's regular visits to Babbo to the unabashedly honest truth about some of the food world's most notorious chefs and restaurateurs, it's all here. This memoir is pure, uncensored Restaurant Man.