For every dinner service, there is a staff meal. Family-style celebrations prepared by chefs for their crew, the meals are never on the menu, but are designed to show appreciation, provide energy for the evening, and more importantly, please even the pickiest palate. Marissa Guggiana, author of Primal Cuts, the definitive guide to America's best butchers, turns her attention to the best-kept secret of the restaurant world: what the staff eats for dinner!

Marissa has once again traveled the country, this time to bring you behind-the-scenes profiles of the country's top restaurants, and explore the tradition of the staff meal. Each night, sous chefs, line cooks, waiters, busboys, dishwashers, and managers all gather to eat, socialize, and plan before opening for business. Ranging from small plates to multi-course extravaganzas, from an inspired use of leftovers or entirely new offerings, the concept is simple: a well-fed staff is a happy one. The best chefs in the best restaurants take their limitations—affordability, ingredients, and time--and transcend them to create meals worthy of their compatriots. Marissa has taken the most remarkable, soulful, and mouthwatering of these dishes, from red wine risotto and fettuccini with veal ragu to glazed pork belly and shrimp tacos, and translated them for the home cook.

Inside Off the Menu you will find more than 50 recipes from more than 50 of the nation's top restaurants. Each entry includes profiles of the restaurants, Q&As with the chefs, behind-the-scenes trips to the kitchens, and dining out tips, restaurant tricks, cooking techniques from the cream of the culinary crop, and wine recommendations. Pull back the curtain on the staff meal, and find new, exciting ways to feed your family from the best in the business.