Name: Laura Mauler's review of Heat by Bill Buford
Item: Heat
Rating: 5
Author: Laura Mauler

Bill Buford

A staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Among the Thugs offers an exuberant, witty account of his entry into the world of a professional cook-in-training, documenting his experiences in the kitchen of Mario Batali's acclaimed restaurant Babbo, his apprenticeships with Batali's former teachers, his relationship with Batali, and his immersion in the world of food. 100,000 first printing.

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

Heat

Laura Mauler

altlovesbooks

"History always teaches us we can't turn back the clock, but I seem to have been surrounded by people who kept trying."

I've said this before on other food-related books I've read and reviewed: I'm not a chef. I'm not even a cook, really, because the best my culinary skills can claim is the ability to follow a recipe. I'm an avid watcher of food shows, though, and am familiar with so many different chefs (celebrity and otherwise), ingredients, and the food industry as a whole. I picked this up because a friend of mine mentioned really enjoying it when she read it last year, and I do so love my food books. 

I absolutely loved the humor and the dedication the author has for his sudden career change and desperation to make it work in a kitchen of chefs. You need to be a special sort of person to work in a kitchen and not become an alcoholic drug addict whose personality disorders are on display. After a late in life change in careers, he starts at the bottom in Batali's Babbo and provides us with a glimpse into life there. After working his way up and befriending the people around him, he then embarks on a culinary sabbatical of sorts, working his way through Italy and picking up pointers from the people that make real honest-to-god Italian food. It's a really good read, and though I see several people here saying their favorite parts surrounded Batali and Babbo, I actually had a great time reading about the author's time in Italy. Dario sounds like a trip and a half, and I giggled a lot at the mental image of the bull being brought into that small Italian village. 

The elephant in the room here is the author's description of Mario Batali. He's a deeply unlikeable guy by all accounts here, and the handwavy thing to do is chalk it up to "that's just the restaurant industry". He comes off as being offensive, being a drunk, a lush, and extremely misogynistic. Despite the scenes this comes up in, I still walked away from this book really enjoying what I read.

I really recommend this to people who enjoy food, who enjoy restaurant stories, who enjoy Italian food, and who enjoy a lot of humor in their books.

Lynette Pedersen

I read Buford's second book first (Dirt), and I think I liked it better. However, there was still some interesting stuff in here. Certainly Mario Batali's gross behavior is on full display, and I think maybe I am just a little disappointed that Buford seemed to be just fine with it. In fact, at one point he even said he "loved" the rowdy and abusive nature of the kitchen. I suppose, given the time and the general atmosphere of commercial kitchens at the time (and still, really), it didn't occur to anyone to object or maybe they worried their jobs may be on the line if they did. It was still a little uncomfortable though. 

I also didn't enjoy how Buford seemed to have such a hard time understanding or accepting the poetry of the work and passions of the people in Italy. He boils the chianina down to economic ideas and dismisses the awe and beauty that the owner tells him about, for example. That's really disheartening coming from someone who is A) so obsessed with the origins and techniques of food that he works in kitchens for no pay to learn and write about it, and B) an editor of fiction, claiming to be a very literary kind of guy. There is value in the economic and historical considerations, yes, and I am glad they were included, but there is also value in the art and sentimental aspects as well and the way he blew them off made me a little sad. 

So why still four stars? Well, because I still love learning vicariously through his crazy ideas to go get dirty an gain such an intimate knowledge of one thing. I also enjoy the crazy characters he meets in these places. Besides, I think he finally understood the poetry of it all when he went to France in Dirt, so I can appreciate Heat for all its good qualities having read Dirt first.

Sarah Erle

Will Vunderink

Marc Dabringhaus

Peter Read

Jane Mount

Keith Lang

Anne 

alina s

Susan Forsythe

Jenni Pertuset

George Chang

The author offers an account of his entry into the world of a professional cook-in-training, documenting his experiences in the kitchen of Mario Batali's restaurant Babbo and his apprenticeships in Italy with Batali's former teachers.

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

Lloyd Dalton

David Smith

Anna Pinto

Laura Mauler &
Heat by Bill Buford

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Laura Mauler &Heat by Bill Buford

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Join the club

Laura Mauler &
Heat by Bill Buford