The Art of Dining - Tina Howe

nCal and Ellen are the owners and sole staff of a small, elegant gourmet restaurant. Cals main preoccupation is paying back the $75,000 it cost to start it up, and that means packing in the customers. Chef Ellen is preoccupied with the foods quality and stopping Cal from sampling the ingredients.

The diners act out their own private dramas over dinner and their conversations are exquisite burlesques of contemporary attitudes. Theres a sensual middle aged couple who go into paroxysms of ecstasy just reading the menu and then theres three crass chic young career women. Finally, theres Elizabeth, a maladroit, shy and neurotic writer whos dining with her prospective publisher.

Her actions and conversation are unintentionally hilarious and a delicious example of how not to act and what not to talk about while dining.