Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprenti

[ChefTalk.com]

Review of Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford


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[MattFin]

Well, the attached review is almost as long as the actual book, so allow me to cut to the quick. Bill Bufford is a fabulous writer, and his expereinces as an outsider in our world are entertaining and exhillerating. To try and explain to someone who doesn't know what a hotel pan is about how great it is to be crawling your way out of the weeds on a busy Saturday night is next to impossible. Bufford writes about this as an outsider, for outsiders. But I think it is the insiders who will enjoy this the most.

Sure, he gets some serious breaks in his career simply because he is a friend of Mario's. I mean really, who out there gets to take off for a few months to go study in Italy and then comes home to the same kitchen job waiting for them when they return? And since he has another major career path, it is not like failure would have meant all that much to him (he just would have had to write a book on something else...).

But he still feels the pressure and the, well, "heat" of the kitchen, and he shares it in a way that few others can. This is a must read for you all.