"The service area is divided from the stoves and the _brigade_ that works them by a steel counter, covered by a soft, fitted white cloth. Above the counter is a row of heat lamps. Under the lamps, steel plate-covers lean in stacks beside a tray of gougères."

- A Meal Observed, p. 79

This late in the service there are cheese trays on the counter instead of a fitted cloth. The _brigade_ have all but one disappeared to the staff refectory, taking their two-hour break before starting all over again with the dinner service.

"A waiter we have not seen delivers two glasses of house cognac to our table. We ask if we can pay our respects to the kitchen, but the cooks are long gone---the kitchens are spotless, deep in shadow. Downstairs, the range is still warm to the touch.

"For fourteen hours of work in a day, five days a week, they will earn on average a monthly salary in the neighborhood of twelve thousand francs---about two thousand dollars. ...For most of them, living in Paris, this is barely enough to make ends meet. But they have eaten well enough in the refectory, and they work in the best place in town, and if they keep at it nearly all of them will have bright futures in the kitchens of France."

- A Meal Observed, p 219