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

by Bill Buford

Paperback, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

641.5945 BUF

Publication

Vintage (2007), Edition: Reprint, 336 pages

Description

Writer Buford's memoir of his headlong plunge into the life of a professional cook. Expanding on his award-winning New Yorker article, Buford gives us a chronicle of his experience as "slave" to Mario Batali in the kitchen of Batali's three-star New York restaurant, Babbo. He 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.--From publisher description.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member lyzadanger
It's easy to read, full of unusual stories, unusual people and gastronomic adventure, but it makes you feel weird.

You see, those chefs you worship--you watch them on the Food Network, you buy their cookbooks--well, they're creeps. Not just creeps, but obsessive, sadistic cokeheads.Working in a
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kitchen is brutal (why would anyone do this?!), and people (especially said sadistic chefs) are cruel to you, and you burn yourself and you sweat and you do the same thing thousands of times in a row and you get paid hardly anything for it. For those who don't shy away from back-stabbing and misery, this might work.

Buford's vision of Italy (where you spend a drawn-out last third of the book) as food nirvana seems like the writing of a true disciple, one so bent on finding the truth in his craft that he ignores that he's surrounded by psychopaths and that he's developed OCD.

Buford's a good writer--you won't be bored or cliche-riddled--and if you're a foodie (I am), you'll learn a lot of great new stuff. But you might feel less like Mario Batali is a nice guy.
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LibraryThing member BrianDewey
As an amateur foodie, I found this book both informative and inspiring. I enjoyed learning more about what life is like in a professional kitchen -- the role of the prep cooks, the line cooks, and the "executive" chefs. I feel a little more informed when I go to restaurants about what's happening
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behind the scenes. This book also reinforces that this isn't a career I want -- lousy hours, low pay, and at the beck and call of demanding / capricious customers and bosses.

Ah, but the passion behind food! That's one of the inspiring parts of the book. Buford is an excellent writer and captures how exciting food can be, and how tied food is to culture. If you don't understand what gets your foodie friends so worked up, this book might help explain it.

The second inspiring part of the book? Buford shows how much you can accomplish with intelligence and dedication. He was a fiction editor, for Christ's sake, and in about a year and a half of obsession he becomes a master Italian cook. It gives me hope that, even as I get older, I'll be able to learn new areas.
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LibraryThing member localpeanut
A Delightful Grease Fire of a Book

I don't go to restaurants. I don't watch FOOD Channel. I don't even order take-out. I'm just a pizza and burger guy with an occasional side trip to Taco Bell for my veggies. So why was I reading this book?

My lunch partner was reading this weirdly yellow hardback
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and slowly choking on his burrito as he chuckled through Page 230 where the author had become a walking grease fire. Now, I can understand the humor behind being lit up like a Christmas tree in my kitchen (I'd done that after turning on the burners without removing my Hungryman TV dinner carton on top of it.) But a whole book of such mishaps?

Ah, my friend urged this book on me and predicted I'd be converted! He would be able to persuade me to go to an eatery that didn't have paper boats of onion rings or plastic packets of mayo. I would want to eat ramps (huh?) and autumn squash! I would want to eat fennel pollen!!

And he was right! I was plastered to this book for the next week and a half. Buford started his quest to understand what goes on behind the professional kitchen, in Mario Batali's restaurant, Babbo. He offers himself as an unpaid servant. He promptly cuts himself while deboning ducks and hunting for their "oysters."

And his whole world is never the same again. After months of culinary bondage, he flies to Italy to roll pasta with Betta (why you make pasta like an old woman, eh?) and butcher tall cows with warbling Dario and carve thighs with the Maestro (of the Monster Hands) in Tuscany.

I suffered with him as Molto Mario roots in trash cans, retrieving celery leaves and lamb kidneys that shouldn't have been tossed in the garbage. I puzzled over the importance of broccoli floret heads to customers. I winced as he burned himself --- dropping ribs in popping olive oil--- by hand. (There's some tremendously good, bloody vivid descriptions of Buford's kitchen's injuries.) Its almost like reading a Clive Barker book with lard and chickpeas!

I laughed as he hauls a whole pig (not a mere piglet) to his home in Manhattan so he can butcher it. I cackled as he drops munchkin pasta on the floor-- trying to roll it to impossible thinness. I marveled at how Buford "touched" meat for "doneness" and the resemblance of tortellini pasta to "innie" belly buttons. I snickered at the almost pornographic way . . . sausages were made. I groaned at creepy Riccardo and the ever-swelling polenta.

This book is pullulating with such jewels. And I haven't even spoken of the bizarre personalities behind that reduction of liver in butter sauce. There's Mario Batali, bigger than life and much engaged with pig fat. Marco Pierre White and his restaurant empire and his tasty thoughts on the aging of game birds. Yuck! Then there's the sous chefs, the prep chefs, the grill guys and the pasta guys. All fascinating and as unforgetttable, in their way, as Batali and White's tantrums! Andy and Frankie, Memo, Tony Liu and Alex with their dreams of owning their own restaurants. The clan of Latin cooks and servers who inexplicably all come from the same town . . .

Read this book. Even if you're not a foodie. Even if your idea of fine dining is a tin of sardines on instant rice! You'll love every minute of it. 5 Stars Plus Plus Plus!
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LibraryThing member conformer
Buford's tale of his journey from line cook to hog butcher is sentimental in parts, self-indulgent in others, as well as a doe-eyed peaen to celebrity chef and all-around large person Mario Batali, but it's the former New Yorker editor's engaging writing style that keeps the "action" of the book
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flowing. Similar Tony Bourdain's own chronicling of the ins and outs of professional restaurateuring, Buford's flubs at Batali's flagship eatery will give you a greater appreciation of what really goes on in the kitchen and what it takes to be a professional food handler, in and out of the dining room
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LibraryThing member paghababian
A great read about a kitchen outsider becoming a trained cook.

This book has three distinct parts: an overall history of Italian food, a recounting of Buford's time spent in the kitchen at Babbo, and a description of his trips to Italy. The history portions are mixed throughout and balance well
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with the more narrative sections.

Buford's writing is a real treat. His descriptions make people and scenes come alive. This almost feels like an anthropological ethnography focusing on cooking Italian food. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in food writing.
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LibraryThing member mrtall
Heat recounts New Yorker writer/editor Bill Buford's adventures in indentured servitude in Italian restaurant kitchens in New York and Italy, as well as some time spent with Italy's most famous butcher. Is it a good book? Well, it has good parts -- interesting behind-the-scenes accounts of what
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really goes on in a restaurant kitchen. But it's also got too much of Buford's sycophantic profiling of famous chefs/other foodies who, to the reader, seem to be complete jerks, but whose metaphorical boots Buford cannot refrain from licking at every opportunity (especially the Italian butcher, whom Buford shamelessly worships in spite of his sociopathic behavior). Much of Heat therefore maintains an odd tension between Buford's inability to avoid reporting what he sees, but his even greater inability to pass the most basic judgement on it; whether this is intended or not, I don't know, but in a strange way it keeps the book moving along, even as Buford spends far too much time on his name-dropping.
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LibraryThing member piefuchs
A number of New Yorker articles - some which made the cut and some which didn't - that are fused together into a book which has three separate story lines - a "Profile" (sticking to the New Yorker lingo) of Mario Batali and and minions in his kitchen, an "Annals of Gastronomy" on the history of
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Italian food, and "The Far Flung Correspondant" from the Italian butcher shop. The portions on his interning in the kitchens at Babbo were by far the most interesting and enlightening. The history of polenta (this is probably not really surprising) is quite the bore. The descriptions of the author's time in Italy is annoying. Anyone who has tried to read Kitchen Confidential knows that chefs are a-holes. Batali is A-hole, albeit an amusing and talented one - and this comes out honestly in the book. The Italian butcher with whom he apprehentices make Batali look like a modest, insecure freshman. Somehow, since the butcher is Italian and all these horrid behaviors are ignored and/or put to light as some sort of curiousity. The romantic view he takes on small town Italians is just too much. Far too inconsistent a book to be considered good.
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LibraryThing member SignoraEdie
I loved this book. In addition to giving the reader a "fly on the wall" glimpse of life behind the swinging doors into a restaurant kitchen, the chapters on Buford's training in Italy is worth the price of the book.
LibraryThing member hlselz
This book is a memoir about a journalist who decided to intern for a famous gourmet cheif in NYC. Good story about the trials one faces while working for a cook in NY. The author also looks for the perfect pasta recipe in his studies. This book made me want to be a cook temporarily.
LibraryThing member verbafacio
Heat is a fascinating look behind the scenes of Mario Batali's Babbo restaurant and, more interestingly, restaurants and a butcher shop in Italy. Bill Buford goes on a quest to understand Italian food, starting with a stint working in the kitchen at Babbo. In his time there, he gets to know the
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larger-than-life Batali and figure out his role in the kitchen hierarchy. The book gets much more interesting when Buford learns to make pasta from Betta in Italy and becomes an apprentice butcher in a small but revered Tuscan shop.

I was surprised to learn about the differences in American and Italian meat-cutting, and I was charmed by Buford's investigations into when egg was added to pasta. Mostly, though, I came away inspired to more actively explore the foods I eat. After reading the account of someone so dedicated to understanding a specific cuisine, it is impossible not to be affected.
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LibraryThing member aajay
One man's exploration of the world of "food". Wonderful details of one of my favorite chef's (Mario Batali)odyssey. Buford's own odyssey is interesting and at times hilarious. Rings true to this old Italian home cook.
LibraryThing member nemoman
Buford decides to go through the training required to become a professional chef. He uses Mario Batali's training as a template. Like Batali, he lands a job with an Italian restaurant in a small Italian village. Part of the book reads as if it were originally intended to be a biography of Batali.
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The other part is Buford's own journey. This is an excellent book that works on many different levels from biographical to food to Italian culture.
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LibraryThing member tsangal
In Heat, Bill Buford, a writer for The New Yorker, leaves his job to become a cook at Babbo, a top Italian restaurant in Manhanttan. Buford has written a clear and interesting account of his struggles to learn his way in a fast-paced and demanding kitchen as a professional cook, and really brings
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to life the environment and the personalities of the people that he works with. Eventually, as he becomes more confident in his abilities and his passion for cooking grows, he is drawn to Italy by the desire to learn authentic Italian cooking techniques, including the butchering of meat. As he studies under some of Italy’s masters, we are also treated to a sentimental overview of the history and traditions of Italian cuisine. Bill Buford’s memoir is a well-written, fascinating book and I really enjoyed it.
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LibraryThing member NanceJ
This was kinda fun to read because he talks about his experience working in the kitchen. There were a few parts that I was like "Woah that is SO true!". I didn't love it, but it was good and I'd recommend it to anyone who has worked in a kitchen.
LibraryThing member JenBack
Bill Buford brought me into the "heat" of the kitchen with this wonderful book! He takes the reader on a journey through life in the kitchen with culinary perfection. We experience Mario Batali's rise to celebrity chef status; butcher beef alongside Marco Pierre White; and sweat nonstop with Buford
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himself as takes off the tie and join the ranks of line cooks in Batali's own Babbo. Buford's insight into the minds and kitchens of renowned chefs is funny, honest, and mouth-watering. This is an amazing page-turner deliciously written for those of us who don't know their bucatini from their vermicelli.
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LibraryThing member jbdavis
Bill Buford became fascinated by Mario Batalli and talked him into letting Buford work in his restaurant kitchen as an unpaid intern. Along the way we get insights into how a restaurant kitchen works, although those have been given in greater detail and with greater flair in such books as Kitchen
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Confidential and The Soul of a Chef. For me the fascinating part of this book came when Buford became hooked on food from his own point of view, doing endless research into when Italian cooks first began adding an egg to pasta dough and going to Italy to learn from a butcher who follows the old ways. In some areas he winds up surpassing Batalli's own knowledge of Italian cuisine. Along the way we see Batalli's career from owning a restaurant to becoming a celebrity chef.
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LibraryThing member Talbin
Heat is Bill Buford's thoroughly enjoyable story of his journey into food. He starts with the idea that he would like to learn to cook like a professional, and convinces Mario Batali to take him on in the kitchen of Babbo, Batali's New York restaurant. Buford recounts the lives of the kitchen
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personages, details the inner workings of the kitchen, and describes how he fares as a "kitchen slave." Eventually, Buford decides to go to Italy to learn how to cook authentic Italian food, apprenticing with the people who Batali learned from years before. By the end of the book, Buford goes to a legendary Tuscan butcher to learn about the mysteries of meat. All in all, a humorous, well-told tale of one man's journey into the food world.
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LibraryThing member kd9
I read Bill Budford's book on English soccer fans and found it interesting. But both his books suffer from one dangerous flaw, they are unfocused. In the middle of a discussion of the line at Batalio's restaurant, Babbo, he may launch into a dissertation about a 13th century Italian chef or the
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personality of the man who runs the front of house. These are not completely unrelated topics, but his work ebbs and flows, sometimes passionate and sometimes boring with little correlation between one paragraph and the next. He really hasn't made up his mind if this book is about himself or food or other chefs.

The other flaw this book has is that it is nauseating. I suppose when you are describing the making of sausage, there is not much you can do to make it lyrical or pleasant, but his descriptions will quite rob you of all appetite, which is certainly strange for a book about food.

Overall, the book is mostly readable, with some interesting digressions, but it is certainly not the classic that he might like it to be.
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LibraryThing member OliviainNJ
This is the book that Julie & Julie should have been. It begins as a journey to learn about Mario Balati, becomes a journey to learn about "real" Italian food, and ultimately transforms into a journey where the author learns about himself. Throughout the trip the audience learns, loves, and most of
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all, laughs with the author as he experiences the trials and tribulations of learning to handle himself in a professional kitchen.

Buford tells a tale that the any foodie who has ever wondered if he had the chops - pun fully intended - to make it in a restaurant can relate to. This was a delightful journey and I loved the glimpse into a world I've only seen from the front of the house.
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LibraryThing member KLmesoftly
An insightful outsider's view of the culinary world. I enjoyed this, though I couldn't help gaping at the sheer impossibility of those sorts of experiences for someone like me, lacking the financial means that this author obviously had. Besides the envy it aroused, though, I enjoyed this book.
LibraryThing member debnance
Bill Buford loves to cook. He has a crazy idea: Why not offer to work for free in a restaurant kitchen and learn how professionals cook. Buford puts his plan into action and before he knows it, he is working in the kitchen of one of New York's best restaurants. Okay, he's chopping carrots, but he's
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surrounded by magnificent cooks, and, gradually, he moves up in the kitchen hierarchy. Buford is a wonderful writer and the kitchens where he works provides zany characters and situations that make for a great read.
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LibraryThing member dbeveridge
The New Yorker better than any publication has found writers who can find essentials by illuminating people who do something exceptionally well. John McPhee is the greatest of these, and in Heat, New Yorker writer Bill Buford takes on the world of fine dining and high end restaurants by pursuing
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the myriad paths of celeb-chef Mario Batali. For all the entertaining glimpses we get of Mario, this book is about the essence of the relationship between people and food--in this case, Italian food and culture. Greatly entertaining and a fascinating first-person character.
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LibraryThing member idiotgirl
This is a wonderful book. About cooking. About life. About food. I listened to this on audio and enjoyed every minute. I want to go to Italy!!

I keep recommending this book for others. Definitely one of my favortes for the past year.
LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
Read this via audio-book. The mispronunciations and over-enunciations of the reader drove me a bit nuts, which isn't Buford's fault. But Buford is to blame for how bland and uninformative this book is. Every second felt like an hour, and in the end, I just couldn't slog through any more of it.
LibraryThing member lalagirl
This book made me want to cook everything, all the time.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2006

Physical description

7.99 inches

ISBN

9781400034475
Page: 0.5043 seconds