Is it getting hot in here?
Released just days ago, Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford, is sure to be one of summer’s most talked about food books.
Heat has been compared to Anthony Bourdain’s sensational account of his experiences while in the “culinary trenches” of restaurant kitchens in America. Touted as “one of our most interesting literary figures” Buford expands on his August 2002 New Yorker article, giving the world an in depth look at his experience as a “kitchen slave” in Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo. The book takes you through a fast paced three years, from Buford developing the idea of entering a culinary bootcamp of sorts, to learning the ins and outs of cooking for and running a three-star New York restaurant.
The book looks to be a very candid, and humorous chronicle of one man’s brave trip into the life and experiences of a professional cook in training. An added bonus for Mario Batali fans is that the book promises to give a huge glimpse into his rise to culinary fame, and an amazing behind the scenes look at his famous Babbo restaurant. You can bet this will be on my “must read” list this summer.
