Introduction

Matt Lee and Ted Lee take on the competitive, wild world of high-end catering, exposing the secrets of a food business few home cooks or restaurant chefs ever experience.

Hotbox reveals the real-life drama behind cavernous event spaces and soaring white tents, where cooking conditions have more in common with a mobile army hospital than a restaurant. Known for their modern take on Southern cooking, the Lee brothers steeped themselves in the catering business for four years, learning the culture from the inside-out. It’s a realm where you find eccentric characters, working in extreme conditions, who must produce magical events and instantly adapt when, for instance, the host’s toast runs a half-hour too long, a hail storm erupts, or a rolling rack of hundreds of ice cream desserts goes wheels-up.

Whether they’re dashing through black-tie fundraisers, celebrity-spotting at a Hamptons cookout, or following a silverware crew at 3:00 a.m. in a warehouse in New Jersey, the Lee brothers guide you on a romp from the inner circle?the elite team of chefs using little more than their wits and Sterno to turn out lamb shanks for eight hundred?to the outer reaches of the industries that facilitate the most dazzling galas. You’ll never attend a party?or entertain on your own?in the same way after reading this book.

Editorial Review

An Amazon Best Book of April 2019: In Hotbox, Ted Lee and Matt Lee, established food writers and cookbook authors, take readers behind the pipe and drape and into the fast-paced world of New York catering. The Lees became catering insiders, learning about the hacks chefs routinely use to produce high quality, specially crafted meals to hundreds (and even thousands) of diners without a restaurant kitchen. A catered event is a finely choreographed dance between chefs, kitchen staff, rental supply companies, and the demands of the client. Nerves of steel are a must in this business, because something--be it a missing garnish or lost tablecloths--always seems to happen. An incredibly entertaining read that lets us in on the magic behind the scenes, Hotbox does for catering what Kitchen Confidential did for restaurants.--Seira Wilson, Amazon Book Review

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