Heat : Bill Buford

"The grill station is hell. You stand at it for five minutes and you think: So this is what Dante had in mind. It is in a dark, hot corner - hotter than any other spot in the kitchen; hotter than anywhere else in your life." - Bill Buford

This book is a MUST READ.

Buford paints a beautiful picture that leads you through his culinary journey and you can not help but get lost in his story. The book starts off as more of a narrative in the life of Super Chef, Mario Batali; leading through his accomplishments and downfalls. You see the relationships and milestones that Batali encounters on his own culinary expedition from his time in a kitchen at the Six Bells under the supervision of Marco Pierre White to the explosion of Molto Mario.
Eager to gain a better understanding of the professional kitchen (more so the people behind it) Buford rushes to follow in the path of Batali, starting at the beginning.

He takes the reader along as he meets with Marco Pierre White (Regarded as one of Britain's finest chefs, known world wide for his cooking and his foul-temper) and dines in fear. Buford creates an image of White being a passionate extremest with a notable knowledge and appreciation of French Cuisine. Creating a notion that White is somewhat a minimalist and purest when it comes to ingredients and preparation.

" Marco Continued. "And there are too many herbs. A bird can be ruined by herbs. You have to be careful . We're here to eat a fucking bird, are we not, Bill? Isn't that why we're here, to eat a fucking bird?" The waiters had been joined by a cook in a toque. Mario, meanwhile, was inching up to the edge of his chair, and his eyes were bulging again. "We're not here to eat a fucking herb garden. Would I have ordered grouse if I wanted to eat a salad? And the parsley. I mean - look at it. There's no fucking point, is there Bill?" His eyes were now darting round the room wildly. His eyes said: Some fucker was responsible for this, and I'm going to find out who."
(Insert From Pg#100)

Eagerly working through the ranks in the kitchen of Batali's award-winning restaurant, Babbo, Buford is soon led to a the small village in Italy, Porretta to learn the art of pasta making. In these pages he evokes childhood laughter as he writes about his trail and error lessons in the kitchen of the very hosts that taught pasta to Batali. Soon, Buford is rolling out pasta dough in Italy and learning the secrets of a little old Italian lady.

Soon after the return of his first "stint" in Italy, Buford is left hungry for more and finds himself at the mercy of "A Dante-Quoting Butcher In Tuscany." Still following The footsteps of the Batali family, Buford becomes an apprentice to Dario Cecchini (Thought of as the worlds finest Butcher, and the man that taught Armandino Batali (Mario's Father) his meats) in his Butcher Shop, The Macelleria in a hill town in Italy called Panzano. In these paragraphs you will find true passion, lust, disappointment, excitement, and... but of coarse, Sex.

Dario-""You are now a member of the carnal confederation of butchers. You are learning to work with meat like a butcher. You must now make love like a butcher. For the rest of the night, you must enact the dark acts of carnality, a butcher's carnality. And then you will rise in the hours before dawn, smelling of carnality, and unload the meat from the truck, like a butcher."
I didn't know what to say. My boss was telling me that, to do my job, I now needed to go home and have sex."
(Insert From Pg#249)

This book captures the true heart and soul behind any cook that longs for more. Seeping with culinary knowledge, I now find the pages to have scribbles and notes that I took while enjoying the read. I highly reccomend this book to any person who would like a quick look into the secret life of the kitchen.