Anyone who loves to cook and entertain has probably, at one time or another, imagined being in charge of the perfect restaurant. The menu is eclectic, the ambience charming, the clientele appreciative, and the reviews uniformly glowing. In How I Gave My Heart to the Restaurant Business, author (and restaurateur) Karen Hubert Allison serves up an amusing cautionary tale about the downside of this culinary dream. Her main character is Kitterina Kittridge--Kitchie, to her friends. Her parents would like her to be a painter, but Kitchie prefers cooking, and when she meets Gunnar, a man who could sell sand dunes in the Sahara, her dream of opening a restaurant seems possible at last. At first, all is dreamy. Kitchie and Gunnar operate their business on weekends only out of an apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Then they move to a better location in lower Manhattan and Kitchie"s restaurant becomes wildly successful. But as business takes off, Kitchie"s personal life dwindles to practically nothing outside the four walls of her restaurant. How I Gave My Heart to the Restaurant Business is a sweet-and-sour insider"s view of the food business. After reading it, most of us will be glad we"re only visiting our favorite restaurants and not running them.