"MayaGallus" news and stories

When you go out to eat, do you ever wonder what the waitressing world is like behind the scenes?

There is a new food documentary making the festival rounds called "Dish: Women, Waitressing & The Art of Service." Filmed by documentarian Maya Gallus, the doc looks into life for women in the service industry. Traveling between Toronto, Montreal, Paris, and Tokyo, the film investigates how waitressing changes (or doesn't) from country to country, and what customers expect when a woman walks up and asks for your order. Hint: it's a heck of a lot more than prompt service with a smile.

While Hanna Raskin's column "What Can I Get You Folks?" looks into the opinions of one server, "Dish" turns the focus more on the industry and patrons, revealing a massively diverse collection of experiences. But they all share one striking similarity: As much as we like to think of restaurants as welcoming places that cook the food for us, there's a whole undercurrent of struggle and performance that goes well beyond crazy customers wanting their tea made with boiled Evian or their fruit salad sautéed (sadly, both are real examples).