The result is a hilarious, self-deprecating, and fantasically entertaining journey into the heart of the Italian kitchen. Throughout, Buford stunningly details the complex aspects of Italian cooking and its long history, creating an engrossing and visceral narrative stuffed with insight and humor.

I loved reading his no-holds-barred, behind-the-scenes, often hilarious examination of what really happens in the kitchens of Italian chef Mario Batali (a vision that has since been somewhat clouded by subsequent revelations about Batali’s inappropriate. Buford yet again into a physically demanding, often dangerous world that tests his powers of endurance and demands that he show, in Mr. His love of Italian food then propels him further afield: to Italy, to discover the secrets of pasta-making and, finally, how to properly slaughter a pig. Heat An Amateurs Adventures as Kitchen Slave Line Cook Pasta Maker & Apprentice to a Dante Quoting Butcher in Tuscany Synopses & Reviews About the Author. Bill Buford’s previous culinary memoir, HEAT, was one of my favorite books of 2006. The book that helped define a genre: Heat is a beloved culinary classic, an adventure in the kitchen and into Italian cuisine, by Bill Buford, author of Dirt.īill Buford was a highly acclaimed writer and editor at the New Yorker when he decided to leave for a most unlikely destination: the kitchen at Babbo, one of New York City’s most popular and revolutionary Italian restaurants.įinally realizing a long-held desire to learn first-hand the experience of restaurant cooking, Buford soon finds himself drowning in improperly cubed carrots and scalding pasta water on his quest to learn the tricks of the trade.

Heat by Bill Buford