From one of our most interesting literary figures – former editor of Granta, former fiction editor at The New Yorker, acclaimed author of Among the Thugs – a sharp, funny, exuberant, close-up account of his headlong plunge into the life of a professional cook. Expanding on his James Beard Award-winning New Yorker article, Bill Buford gives us a richly evocative chronicle of his experience as “slave” to Mario Batali in the kitchen of Batali’s three-star New York restaurant, Babbo. In a fast-paced, candid narrative, Buford describes three frenetic years of trials and errors, disappointments and triumphs, as he worked his way up the Babbo ladder from “kitchen bitch” to line cook . . . his relationship with the larger-than-life Batali, whose story he learns as their friendship grows through (and sometimes despite) kitchen encounters and after-work all-nighters . . . and his immersion in the arts of butchery in Northern Italy, of preparing game in London, and making handmade pasta at an Italian hillside trattoria. Heat is a marvelous hybrid: a memoir of Buford’s kitchen adventure, the story of Batali’s amazing rise to culinary (and extra-culinary) fame, a dazzling behind-the-scenes look at a famous restaurant, and an illuminating exploration of why food matters. It is a book to delight in, and to savour.
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"buford is humbled by the wetback pasta maker in battli's nyc restaurante, then takes himself to italy and cooks with old folks, learns about Chianti cattle and farming, wine, butchering, and how to cook your ass off. very entertaining and somewhat informative, though a bit big city fey. " — Tuck (4 out of 5 stars)
"buford is humbled by the wetback pasta maker in battli's nyc restaurante, then takes himself to italy and cooks with old folks, learns about Chianti cattle and farming, wine, butchering, and how to cook your ass off. very entertaining and somewhat informative, though a bit big city fey. "
A GLOBE & MAIL BEST BOOK OF 2006A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2006
Sharing Buford’s table talk is a pleasure not to be passed up.
Heat is a book about obsession, written by a man in the grip of one. It is fuelled by food, but food is not its only subject — love, sex, comradeship, terror and pain are all part of the story too.
A dazzling and funny account of two magnificently mad years.
[Buford] excels at vibrantly colourful descriptive writing. . . . What shines through is the story of Bill Buford falling in love with food, and his passionate journey of learning.
“it is clear that Buford can hold his own with anyone in the foodie pedantry stakes…. Heat is a subtle, expletive-heavy, genuine account of a writer’s engagement with food…. [an] ultimately nourishing book.
A messy, brilliant book, a high-brow kitchen soap opera, which never skates over the characters’ flaws but is suffused with an infectious love of food and the people who devote their lives to it.
An incisive, cracklingly funny book.
Heat, tightly written, evocative and compelling, is a feast in its own right.
“A difficult book to put down — if Heat was a movie, you’d be viewing it from behind your fingers. The book is an intoxicating drug we can’t get enough of in paragraph after breathless paragraph of fast-paced and candid prose that leaves both the writer and the reader humbled. . . . And when one reluctantly turns the last page on Heat, it is with a sadness and a hungering for more.
" Compare part 6 with chapter 6 of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. "
" I didn't love the cadence of this book but the adventure was very cool to read. "
" An amazing book. A must read for a foodie who is into Italian food!!! "
" I legitimately believe that this is one of the best books I've ever read about actually being in a kitchen. He understands the dynamics of a working kitchen like no one else I've read, and Batali is simply captivating. Better than working on a line, guaranteed. "
" All foodies will love this book which is so heartfelt through the stomach "
" who knew working in a kitchen is so tough "
" This took an inordinate amount of time to finish for a 300-page book. I got kind of bored and bogged down in all the details of gluttonous feasts (35 plates just for an appetizer course? really?) and, as a vegetarian, the butchery. The consumption described in this book just seemed way over the top. "
" Another fairly interesting window into the restaurant world. It left me with a sort of horror-fascination with that whole subculture. "
" Interesting glimpse into the world of professional cooking. "
" I love this book! I learned a lot about cooking in general and northern Italian food in particular. It shed light on many topics that I thought would always be mysteries. It will take you into the strange and exotic world of professional chefs. "
" Admittedly, this was a skim through read. Too much name dropping. Babbo was only okay. Why the hoopla? "
" I wish more chapters were like the last one...kind of slow. "
" part quick-fire kitchen baptism, part food history lesson, all foodie fun. a unique look inside a famous chef's kitchen through the eyes of a man on his own food journey. funny, witty, smart reading. "
" So-so, behind the scenes in famous kitchens, mostly Mario Battalli (what a jerk). "
" This is a 4.5. A great book: funny and very interesting. "
" Good. Sometimes a little too detailed/side tracked. Makes me not want to order a meat dish ever again but I'm sure I'll get over that. "
" OH MY GOD SO GOOD. the best food writing since MFK Fisher. READ NOW. "
" would be lovely to have the time to pursue a culinary dream like this! "
" I'm not big on nonfiction, but I ate this book up (I know I am corny). It changed the way I cook pasta and made me realize that you are not married to one profession/career throughout your life. "
" I really enjoyed this description of learning how to be a cook, working with Mario Batalli, and what goes on in a real kitchen. "
" learned a lot, yearned for traveling, great foodie read! "
" The first half of the book was quite fun...if you are interested in Mario Batelli, it's a must read. But when Buford follows in Mario's steps to study cooking in Italy, the book slows to a crawl. I forced myself to finish, but ended up feeling "feh." "
" The subtitle says it all. A New Yorker contributor, Buford is a very entertaining writer. "
" I'm on the chapter about ragu. Loving it so far. "
" loved this book-- recommend it to all my friends who like to cook, travel, appreciate Italy :) "
" Good book, though it slows down as you go. I still read without reading other books in the interim. I'd highly recommend to anyone who likes food writing. It gave me an incredible desire to eat good pasta. "
" Must be fun to have the sort of life that will accommodate this sort of singleminded experiment in learning to be a chef and REALLY amazing that Mario Batali would help the project along. But it makes my job sound a lot better. "
" If you are a cook, you'll really appreciate the life of a chef. I love the way it was written and totally get Mario Batali's personality now... "
" This might be the most boring book I have ever read. I wish I could remember why I thought it was a good idea to buy it. What a waste of perfectly good U.S. dollars. "
" Another great book about the lives of chefs, from someone who wasn't trained that way. "
" Great description on how to make delicious 4 hour polenta. "
" I learned three things from this book. 1) never order pasta from a restaurant after 8:00pm. 2) never try to get a table at a restaurant at the end of the night. 3) never eat salami again. Very entertaining read, if you like cooking and Italian food. "
" Journalist works his way up to a line cook in the mad whirl of Mario Batalia's world - also goes off to Italy to learn the fine art of pasta and butchery. A must for foodies "
Bill Buford has been a writer and editor for the New Yorker since 1995. Before that he was the editor of Granta magazine for sixteen years and, in 1989, became the publisher of Granta Books. He is also the author of Among the Thugs and Dirt. He was educated at the University of California at Berkeley and at Kings College, Cambridge.
Michael Kramer is an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, and recipient of a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award. He is also an actor and director in the Washington, DC, area, where he is active in the area’s theater scene and has appeared in productions at the Shakespeare Theatre, the Kennedy Center, and Theater J.
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