Details Emerge on Joe Bastianich's Insidery Memoir, Uncorked

Grub Street gets a peek at the proposal for Joe Bastianich's fall 2012 memoir, which now has the working title Uncorked: Lessons Learned From a Life of Wine. As might be expected, it includes coming-of-age anecdotes about Queens in the 70s ( “I’d see dozens of funky black prostitutes on the corner, naked. I mean really naked. It was unbelievable"), a history of how he got into the family business and started his own restaurant group, and quite a bit of Kitchen Confidential-style insider talk.

Apparently some of the juiciest bits in the book proposal, at least, are Bastianich's breakdown of restaurant profit margins (everything on a menu should average to 30 percent), as well as a passage about how and why every bottle of wine is made for no more than five dollars but sold for so much more. Also, expect some fond remembrances of papa and mama B, plus insight into his tremendous weight loss regimen, all written in a "take no prisoners" style.

· An Early, Exclusive Look at Joe Bastianich’s ‘Takes No Prisoners’ Memoir [Grub Street]

[Photo: a mock jacket concept, by Eater.com]