Behind the Kitchen Door

Saru Jayaraman

Description

"When you work in restaurants you think the industry is everything, It's being outside, talking to people, serving people. You feel like you're part of something good. People mostly go out to eat for good stuff-proposals, weddings, birthdays-not to fight. You're part of someone's proposal-you bring the ring in an ice cream cake, you watch her reaction. You feel like you're part of their experience, their special moment, even if the people don't care who you are-you're just the server.""Sustainability is about contributing to a society that everybody benefits from, not just going organic because you don't want to die from cancer or have a difficult pregnancy. What is a sustainable restaurant? It's one in which as the restaurant grows, the people grow with it."How do restaurant workers live on some of the lowest wages in America? And how do poor working conditions-discriminatory labor practices, exploitation, and unsanitary kitchens-affect the meals that arrive at our restaurant tables? Saru Jayaraman, who launched the national restaurant workers' organization Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, sets out to answer these questions by following the lives of restaurant workers in New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Detroit, and New Orleans. Blending personal narrative and investigative journalism, Jayaraman shows us that the quality of the food that arrives at our restaurant tables depends not only on the sourcing of the ingredients. Our meals benefit from the attention and skill of the people who chop, grill, saute, and serve. Behind the Kitchen Door is a groundbreaking exploration of the political, economic, and moral implications of dining out. Jayaraman focuses on the stories of individuals, like Daniel, who grew up on a farm in Ecuador and sought to improve the conditions for employees at Del Posto; the treatment of workers behind the scenes belied the high-toned Slow Food ethic on display in the front of the house.Increasingly, Americans are choosing to dine at restaurants that offer organic, fair-trade, and free-range ingredients for reasons of both health and ethics. Yet few of these diners are aware of the working conditions at the restaurants themselves. But whether you eat haute cuisine or fast food, the well-being of restaurant workers is a pressing concern, affecting our health and safety, local economies, and the life of our communities. Highlighting the roles of the 10 million people, many immigrants, many people of color, who bring their passion, tenacity, and vision to the American dining experience, Jayaraman sets out a bold agenda to raise the living standards of the nation's second-largest private sector workforce-and ensure that dining out is a positive experience on both sides of the kitchen door.

Sujets

• Sciences et techniques
• Industrial relations
• Manufacturing

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 23 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801467592
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Behind the Kitchen Door

Behind the Kitchen Door

Saru Jayaraman With a Foreword by Eric Schlosser

ILR Press an imprint of Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2013 by Cornell University Foreword copyright © 2013 by Eric Schlosser

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2013 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Jayaraman, Sarumathi, 1975–  Behind the kitchen door / Saru Jayaraman.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references.  ISBN 9780801451720 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Food service employees—United States. States—Employees. I. Title.  HD8039.F72U563 2013  331.761647950973—dc23

2012030668

2. Restaurants—United

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www. cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

To the more than 10 million restaurant workers nationwide, who struggle daily to feed us

Contents

Foreword by Eric Schlosser

Acknowledgments

1. The Hands on Your Plate

2.RealSustainability, Please!

3. Serving While Sick

4. $2.13—The Tipping Point

5. Race in the Kitchen

6. Women Waiting on Equality

7. Recipes for Change

Appendix: A Note on Sources and Data

Notes Selected Bibliography

ix xi

1 19 43 69 103 130 157

177

181 187

Foreword

A powerful social movement has recently arisen in the United States, challenging industrial agriculture, questioning the American diet, and calling for fundamental changes in how we grow, process, and think about our food. Organic production has soared, and the need for “sustainabil ity” has become so widely accepted that even companies like McDonald’s and CocaCola now pay lip service to that worthy goal. The mistreatment of livestock at factory farms has gained enormous attention as consum ers express revulsion at the cruelties routinely inflicted to obtain cheap meat. Freerange poultry, cagefree hens, grassfed cattle, hogs allowed to wander outdoors and wallow in the mud, have all been championed as crucial elements of a healthier, more humane food system. But the food movement thus far has shown a much greater interest in assuring animal welfare than in protecting human rights. You would think that, at the very least, the people who feed us deserve as much attention and compassion as what we’re being fed.