Heat

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

By: Bill Buford

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

From one of our most interesting literary figures - former editor of Granta, former fiction editor at The New Yorker, acclaimed author of Among the Thugs - a sharp, funny, exuberant, close-up account of his headlong plunge into the life of a professional cook.

Expanding on his James Beard Award-winning New Yorker article, Bill Buford gives us a richly evocative chronicle of his experience as “slave” to Mario Batali in the kitchen of Batali’s three-star New York restaurant, Babbo.

In a fast-paced, candid narrative, Buford 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.

Heat is a marvelous hybrid: a memoir of Buford’s kitchen adventure, the story of Batali’s amazing rise to culinary (and extra-culinary) fame, a dazzling behind-the-scenes look at a famous restaurant, and an illuminating exploration of why food matters. It is a book to delight in, and to savor.

©2006 William Buford (P)2006 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

A Globe & Mail Best Book of 2006
A New York Times Notable Book of 2006

“Sharing Buford’s table talk is a pleasure not to be passed up.” (Michael Redhill, The Globe and Mail)

“A dazzling and funny account of two magnificently mad years.” (The Guardian)

“[Buford] excels at vibrantly colourful descriptive writing. . . . What shines through is the story of Bill Buford falling in love with food, and his passionate journey of learning.” (Vancouver Sun)

Batali's antics not so amusing

Most of the book is about the author's time working in Mario Batali's restaurant. Batali's wild behaviors and antics aren't amusing especially given the many lawsuits against him by former employees. The few chapters about his time in Tuscany learning how to butcher was more interesting and are reminiscent of a food documentary.

not as good as Dirt

This is an entertaining book, but the author's more recent book, Dirt, is far better.

Great Book! Awful Awful reading!

The book is riveting! Tons of information and extremely candid. The narrator is just awful. Incredibly smug in tone which belies the self deprecating tone of the book. Worst of all, the narrator grossly mispronounces Italian and French words while trying to overdo the accent for each word. Also, when he reads quotes from Marco Pierre White, he uses a bad Scottish accent instead of a British accent. I have listened to this multiple times because of the wealth of information in it but the narration is just torture. The author would have been a great reader - he's very animated when I've seen him be interviewed. It looks like the author did indead read the abridged version. I really wished that he did this one, too.

A Foodie's Delight

Any additional comments?

Foodies will find Bill Buford's story of working in Mario Batali's New York restaurant kitchen as a journalist "tourist", to be very entertaining. He clearly becomes entranced by what he experiences and spends much more time learning the craft than was needed for a magazine article. The story of the time he spends in Italy, in particular, learning how to make pasta and how to be a butcher is both touching and entertaining, and the entire book contains just the right amount of wry humor. If you enjoyed Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential you will find Heat to be an enjoyable companion piece.

I agree with other reviewers that the narrator could have been better. He does attempt to convey emotion as needed, and does a fairly good job of it. He has difficulty with foreign pronunciations, though, and even a few words in English are mispronounced. I don't expect a narrator to be multi-lingual, but if narration is the profession you have selected, at least learn the pronunciation of the foreign languages whose words appear frequently, in their original form, in English - such as Spanish, French, and Italian. He also had trouble keeping several characters' accents consistent, particularly restaurateur Marco Pierre White, who was narrated with several different accents. I consider that to be just plainly sloppy work. Lastly, I would describe the narration style as sounding like a parody of Phil Hartman (SNL) doing a parody of a narrator reading a '40s detective novel, arched eyebrow included.

Overall, even given the narrator's shortcomings, I found "Heat" to be a very entertaining listen, and recommend it for anyone with a deep interest in food and the chaotic and passionate lifestyle behind it.

Really nice journey into Italian Cooking/Restauran

Really nice journey into Italian Cooking/Restaurants. Mario Batali, Micheal Pierre White, Tuscan Butcher (God) Dario, Pasta Legends, chefs in white and much love for food.

Very interesting culinary inside to Italy

As a career working chef I found this book to be a realistic image of the work and emotions that is the dynamic world of cooking for a living. I found the author's description of his Euro tour very entertaining. Add a star if you like food and travel...add a star if you are in the food business. Narrator had some errors in reading that broke the concentration on the story but alas he's but human as well. Not as hardcore as Anthony Bourdains first book while truthful representation was also too graphic for some readers.

Insight into the worldwide culinary experience

What did you love best about Heat?

A book for foodies, chefs, aspiring cooks, those with a history with gastronomy or restaurants and enjoy a good read on the subject will greatly enjoy this title. The story is quite a journey by a journalist who decided to immerse himself into the culinary world in such a way as not many have.

What about Michael Kramer’s performance did you like?

Michael Kramer presents this book in a consistant and pleasant manner. Some of his mispronunciations are a bit grating but he is presented with a challenge array of languages and kitchen lingo.He even manages to throw in a few sometimes laughable accents.

Any additional comments?

For those that complain about the language - take it for what it is... the way of many kitchens and restaurants. I'm sure that the actual events likely contained even more colorful language than what actually ended up in the book.

Too long

Great stories and info but I feel like at times there were parts that could have been left out .

Incredible!

This was a great book from start to finish. I'm a humble chef and usually seek out books that follow a path that I've chosen for my career life. The perspective from which this book was written was raw, vulnerable and unadulterated. I was captivated from the opening chapter. Well worth the listen, whether you are in the business or not.

Kramer butchers Italian

While I enjoy Buford's storytelling, I winced my way thru Kramer's narration. Flat and monotonous, his biggest crime is his unwillingness/inability to learn basic Italian pronunciations. In no world is broccoli rabe pronounces raab and al dente is "dentay," not "dohntay." How was this left unreviewed and uncorrected by the producers?