CATEGORY

Bill Buford's funny and engaging book Heat offers readers a rare glimpse behind the scenes in Mario Batali's kitchen. Who better to review the book for Amazon.com, than Anthony Bourdain, the man who first introduced readers to the wide array of lusty and colorful characters in the restaurant business? We asked Anthony Bourdain to read Heat and give us his take. We loved it. So did he. Check out his review below. --Daphne Durham

---

Guest Reviewer: Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain is host of the Discovery Channel's No Reservations, executive chef at Les Halles in Manhattan, and author of the bestselling and groundbreaking Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, A Cook's Tour, Bone in the Throat, and many others. His latest book, The Nasty Bits will be released on May 16, 2006.

Heat is a remarkable work on a number of fronts--and for a number of reasons. First, watching the author, an untrained, inexperienced and middle-aged desk jockey slowly transform into not just a useful line cook--but an extraordinarily knowledgable one is pure pleasure. That he chooses to do so primarily in the notoriously difficult, cramped kitchens of New York's three star Babbo provides further sado-masochistic fun. Buford not only accurately and hilariously describes the painfully acquired techniques of the professional cook (and his own humiations), but chronicles as well the mental changes--the "kitchen awareness" and peculiar world view necessary to the kitchen dweller. By end of book, he's even talking like a line cook.

Secondly, the book is a long overdue portrait of the real Mario Batali and of the real Marco Pierre White--two complicated and brilliant chefs whose coverage in the press--while appropriately fawning--has never described them in their fully debauched, delightful glory. Buford has--for the first time--managed to explain White's peculiar--almost freakish brilliance--while humanizing a man known for terrorizing cooks, customers (and Batali). As for Mario--he is finally revealed for the Falstaffian, larger than life, mercurial, frighteningly intelligent chef/enterpreneur he really is. No small accomplishment. Other cooks, chefs, butchers, artisans and restaurant lifers are described with similar insight.

Thirdly, Heat reveals a dead-on understanding--rare among non-chef writers--of the pleasures of "making" food; the real human cost, the real requirements and the real adrenelin-rush-inducing pleasures of cranking out hundreds of high quality meals. One is left with a truly unique appreciation of not only what is truly good about food--but as importantly, who cooks--and why. I can't think of another book which takes such an unsparing, uncompromising and ultimately thrilling look at the quest for culinary excellence. Heat brims with fascinating observations on cooking, incredible characters, useful discourse and argument-ending arcania. I read my copy and immediately started reading it again. It's going right in between Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London and Zola's The Belly of Paris on my bookshelf. --Anthony Bourdain

---

---

---

Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever oleh Justin Bieber Rp 99.000 Rp 84.150 My family and friends tell me to always be thankful. So thank you. I qouldn't be anywhere without you. I see you from the stage; now you can ses ...  [selengkapnya]

One Direction: Where We Are - Our Band, Our Story - 100% Official oleh One Direction Rp 345.000 Rp 293.250 Calling all One Direction fans! This is the only official book from 1D charting their journey over the last year and a half from the ...  [selengkapnya]

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination [Clearance Sale] oleh Neal Gabler Rp 331.765 Rp 215.647 The definitive portrait of one of the most important cultural figures in American history. Walt Disney was a true visionary whose ...  [selengkapnya]

Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems [Clearance Sale] oleh Cesar Milan, Melissa Jo Peltier Rp 190.588 Rp 162.000 Fans of the National Geographic Channel's The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan will be grateful for Cesar's Way, an accessible ...  [selengkapnya]

Lihat semua buku sejenis »

Advertisement