If you’ve ever wondered what goes on in the kitchens of fancy restaurants, or why people decide to spend their lives preparing food for others to eat, you’ll want to read Bill Buford’s book, “Heat.”
Its subtitle, “An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany,” pretty much says it all.
Buford leaves his job at The New Yorker magazine to work (and learn) in the kitchen of Mario Batali’s restaurant, Babbo.
He also travels to Italy to study with Batali’s own teachers, including a butcher you won't soon forget.
And along the way, Buford introduces us to a Mario Batali you’re not likely to see on “Iron Chef America.”
But Batali is a small part of the book.
The reader gets to stand at Buford’s elbow as he chops hundreds of vegetables, grills dozens of steaks, rolls out pasta dough and butchers an entire hog (In his own home kitchen! In New York!).
Throw in some food history and sprinkle liberally with Italian phrases, and you have one delicious read.
I bought this on your recommendation. I might only be on the second chapter, but I'm loving it so far!