Shane's review
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
by Bill Buford
Shane's review
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford
Shane's review
rating:
bookshelves:
non-fiction,
unowned-and-read
recommended for: Most anyone, foodies
Bill Buford, perhaps not coincidentally, writes exceptionally well about the major themes in this work: the glory of ingredients and their transformation into food, the sociopolitical environment of the kitchen, and the origins of food and the methods used to create it. The work is framed around Buford's mission to understand how to create great food, working in Mario Batali's restaurant Babbo and working his way through most of the stations in the kitchen. Along the way, he takes a number of trips to Italy to learn from individuals who Mario had worked with, and delves into the historical origins of a number of dishes the Italians claim as their own.
What's truly excellent about Heat is that Buford writes like someone excited about food and its origins. He bounces effortlessly from a historical investigation into a particular dish to the tale of he and his wife carrying a whole pig home to their New York City apartment on a scooter to a description of how to craft a truly authentic...more
What's truly excellent about Heat is that Buford writes like someone excited about food and its origins. He bounces effortlessly from a historical investigation into a particular dish to the tale of he and his wife carrying a whole pig home to their New York City apartment on a scooter to a description of how to craft a truly authentic...more