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Title details for Heat by Bill Buford - Available

Heat

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

by Bill Buford
Michael Kramer
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

The book that helped define a genre: Heat is a beloved culinary classic, an adventure in the kitchen and into Italian cuisine, by Bill Buford, author of Dirt. 
Bill Buford was a highly acclaimed writer and editor at the New Yorker when he decided to leave for a most unlikely destination: the kitchen at Babbo, one of New York City’s most popular and revolutionary Italian restaurants.

Finally realizing a long-held desire to learn first-hand the experience of restaurant cooking, Buford soon finds himself drowning in improperly cubed carrots and scalding pasta water on his quest to learn the tricks of the trade. His love of Italian food then propels him further afield: to Italy, to discover the secrets of pasta-making and, finally, how to properly slaughter a pig. Throughout, Buford stunningly details the complex aspects of Italian cooking and its long history, creating an engrossing and visceral narrative stuffed with insight and humor. The result is a hilarious, self-deprecating, and fantasically entertaining journey into the heart of the Italian kitchen.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 6, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415944370
      • File size: 352965 KB
      • Duration: 12:15:20

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Foodies, Mario Batali fans (you know who you are), and anyone who eats in restaurants will enjoy this account of the author's behind-the-scenes kitchen experiences. It is at once hilarious, sympathetic, technical, and absurd, but always interesting and educational. Michael Kramer's low-key voice is easy to follow as he reads at a leisurely pace. However, he needs to be more animated, or at least more energetic, especially with the nd outrageous parts of the book. Furthermore, he needs to emphasize the key words in the funny passages, and he should use pauses more effectively. What we get is a nice read, but it could have been so much more. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 10, 2006
      Buford's voice echoes the rhythms of his own writing style. Writing about his break from working as a New Yorker
      editor and learning firsthand about the world of food, Buford guns his reading into hyperspeed when he is jazzed about a particularly tangy anecdote, and plays with his vocal tone and pitch when mimicking others' voices. At its base, Buford's voice is tinged with a jovial lilt, as if he is amused by his life as a "kitchen slave" and by the outsize personalities of the people he meets along the way. Less authoritative than blissfully confused, Buford speaks the way he writes, as a well-informed but never entirely knowledgeable outsider to the world of food love. Listening to his imitation of star chef Mario Batali's kinetic squeal, Buford ably conveys his abiding love for the teachers and companions of his brief, eventful life as a cook. Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover. (Reviews, Apr. 3).

    • AudioFile Magazine
      If you can't stand the heat, you weren't meant to be a chef. Writer Bill Buford explores the fast-paced restaurant kitchens of New York City. In depicting the nuances, adventures, and even casualities of the high-end food service industry, he describes his real-life attempts to sweat it out in some of the best restaurants around, including working under the talented Mario Batali. Combining elements of cultural history, biography, travel, and investigative reporting, Buford's writing talent certainly exceeds his narrator skills. Though his voice is engaging, his projection lacks energy, and the intensity of his text fails to come through in his performance. Yet Buford maintains consistency throughout while also producing distinctly different voices for his cast. L.E. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 3, 2006
      Buford's book starts smartly—he first met dynamic celebrity chef Mario Batali at a dinner party at his own home, where Batali sparkled until 3 a.m.—and continues at a fast clip as he conceives the notion of becoming Batali's "kitchen slave." Buford wanted to profile Batali for the New Yorker
      but also wanted to learn about cooking; he would be a "journalist-tourist" in the boot camp of a "kitchen genius." His subject became an obsession, and over the next three years, he investigated a rich menu of subjects: what makes a three-star restaurant work; what it takes to be a TV food star; the techniques and history of Italian cooking, not just from library research but also from repeated trips to Italy to visit Batali's relatives. Terrific culinary writing tracks Buford's successive passions for short ribs, polenta, tortellini and then the butcher's art, Italian-style, of pig and cow. Along the way, to his own surprise, Buford found that he had become a kitchen insider. This is a wonderfully detailed and highly amusing book from the writer who once took an insider's look at English soccer hooligans in Among the Thugs
      . 100,000 first printing
      .

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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