
Cellar Rat
My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly
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Narrated by:
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Hannah Selinger
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By:
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Hannah Selinger
About this listen
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.
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- By: Anthony Bourdain
- Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
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Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential, once again brings to light the inner workings of the "culinary underbelly" in his bold reinvention of the traditional Christmas story. At once risqué and charming, A Chef's Christmas is sure to bring holiday cheer to those who make dinner and those who only make reservations.
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Typically gritty & fun
- By Anna on 03-29-03
By: Anthony Bourdain
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Wild West Village
- By: Lola Kirke
- Narrated by: Lola Kirke
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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The youngest daughter of a rock star father and clothing designer mother, Lola and her siblings (including actress Jemima and celebrity doula Domino), spent their childhoods freshly plucked from their English heritage in an eclectic West Village brownstone, hosting everyone from Cuban exiles to Courtney Love. But behind the enviable exterior of worldly coolness, was a home in disarray.
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Bravo
- By LS on 05-25-25
By: Lola Kirke
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Funny Because It's True
- How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire
- By: Christine Wenc
- Narrated by: Christine Wenc
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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In 1988, a band of University of Wisconsin–Madison undergrads and dropouts began publishing a free weekly newspaper with no editorial stance other than “You Are Dumb.” Just wanting to make a few bucks, they wound up becoming the bedrock of modern satire over the course of twenty years, changing the way we consume both our comedy and our news. The Onion served as a hilarious and brutally perceptive satire of the absurdity and horrors of late twentieth-century American life and grew into a global phenomenon.
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Her lack of knowledge.
- By Anonymous User on 04-20-25
By: Christine Wenc
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When the Going Was Good
- An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines
- By: Graydon Carter, James Fox - contributor
- Narrated by: Graydon Carter
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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When Graydon Carter was offered the editorship of Vanity Fair in 1992, he knew he faced an uphill battle—how to make the esteemed and long-established magazine his own. Not only was he confronted with a staff that he perceived to be loyal to the previous regime, but he arrived only a few years after launching Spy magazine, which gloried in skewering the celebrated and powerful—the very people Vanity Fair venerated.
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A lucky man
- By Dassha1 on 03-30-25
By: Graydon Carter, and others
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Dirty Kitchen
- A Memoir of Food and Family
- By: Jill Damatac
- Narrated by: Jill Damatac
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Interweaving forgotten colonial history and long-buried indigenous traditions, Dafilmmaker Jill Damatac takes us through her time in America, cooking her way through Filipino recipes in her kitchen as she searches for a sense of self and renewed possibility. With emotional intelligence, clarity, and grace, Dirty Kitchen explores fractured memories to ask questions of identity, colonialism, immigration, belonging, and to find ways in which the ritual, tradition, and comfort of food, can answer them.
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More about overcoming abusive father
- By Ben on 06-23-25
By: Jill Damatac
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I Regret Almost Everything
- A Memoir
- By: Keith McNally
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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A memoir by the legendary proprietor of Balthazar, Pastis, Minetta Tavern, and Morandi, taking us from his gritty London childhood in the fifties to his serendipitous arrival in New York, where he founded the era-defining establishments the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, and Nell’s. Eloquent and opinionated, Keith McNally writes about the angst of being a child actor, his lack of insights from traveling overland to Kathmandu at nineteen, the instability of his two marriages and family relationships, his devastating stroke, and his Instagram notoriety.
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Bingeworthy!
- By murphy o'brien on 05-14-25
By: Keith McNally
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Hot Air
- A Novel
- By: Marcy Dermansky
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Joannie hadn’t been on a date in seven years when Johnny invites Joannie and her daughter to dinner. His house is beautiful, his son is sweet, and their first kiss is, well, it’s not the best, but Joannie could convince herself it was nice enough. But when Joannie’s childhood crush, a summer-camp fling turned famous billionaire, crash-lands his hot-air balloon in Johnny’s swimming pool, Joannie dives in.
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It was soooo bad. I had to quit midway thru.
- By malibooboo on 04-22-25
By: Marcy Dermansky
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The Devil in the Kitchen
- Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef
- By: Marco Pierre White, James Steen
- Narrated by: Timothy Bentinck
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In The Devil in the Kitchen, White tells the story behind his ascent from working-class roots to culinary greatness, leaving no dish unserved as he relays raucous and revealing tales featuring some of the biggest names in the food world and beyond, including: Mario Batali, Gordon Ramsay, Albert Roux, Raymond Blanc, Michael Caine, Damien Hirst, and even Prince Charles.
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A chef / restaurateur must.
- By Brandon on 07-18-16
By: Marco Pierre White, and others
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Bourdain
- The Definitive Oral Biography
- By: Laurie Woolever
- Narrated by: Laurie Woolever, Christopher Bourdain, José Andrés, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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When Anthony Bourdain died in June 2018, fans around the globe came together to celebrate the life of an inimitable man who had dedicated his life to traveling nearly everywhere (and eating nearly everything), shedding light on the lives and stories of others. His impact was outsized and his legacy has only grown since his death.
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After listening to the bio of AB…
- By GwP on 09-30-21
By: Laurie Woolever
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Firstborn
- A Memoir
- By: Lauren Christensen
- Narrated by: Lauren Christensen
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Lauren Christensen is a thirtysomething editor in New York City when she meets her future husband, Gabe, a writer with whom she falls in love right away. Her beloved grandfather is dying, but the young couple is bringing new life into the family: Lauren and Gabe joyfully discover she is pregnant with their daughter, Simone. As Lauren faces the prospect of becoming a parent, she learns to let go of the fear of abandonment and need for control, but just weeks after their wedding, they learn that their worst nightmare has come true: Simone is dying in the womb.
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Beautiful
- By Ashley M. on 03-28-25
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Stop Me If You've Heard This One
- A Novel
- By: Kristen Arnett
- Narrated by: Cameron Esposito
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Cherry Hendricks might be down on her luck, but she can write the book on what makes something funny: she’s a professional clown who creates raucous, zany fun at gigs all over Orlando. Between her clowning and her shifts at an aquarium store for extra cash, she’s always hustling. Not to mention balancing her judgmental mother, her messy love life, and her equally messy community of fellow performers. Things start looking up when Cherry meets Margot the Magnificent—a much older lesbian magician—who seems to have worked out the lines between art, business, and life.
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not into the angry feminist vibes
- By rkrohl on 06-30-25
By: Kristen Arnett
You can’t shush the truth
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Thank you Hannah
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Vitriolic
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Hannah tells it like it is
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Such a compelling narrative
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Entertaining for entertainment’s sake
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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.
Whiney, dull and uninspiring
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Bad language and poor story line.
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Awful narration
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