Review: Heat
I mentioned this book earlier, but this is the full review.
Heat is a true story about Bill Buford who was assigned to do a profile on Mario Batali for The New Yorker. What his boss probably didn’t know is that Buford has always wanted to be a cook in a restaurant, to really understand food. Soon, he’s working as a prep cook at Babo. A year later, he’s still at Babo almost every night. After that, he finds himself in Tuscany as a butcher’s apprentice. Not just any butcher but Dario Cecchini, considered the best in the world.
What could have been just a tale about a mid-life crisis was very endearing. Buford made you relate to the blood, sweat and tears of the restaurant kitchen and the characters that live there. I’ve never been a big fan of Batali — I find his shows annoying but the book addresses some of that. In short: Batali looks hung over in many episodes of Malto Mario because he probably was.
If the book would have stopped at Batali and the people in Babo it would have been good. But what made it great was the time in Tuscany with Dario. Dario considers himself an artist, using meat as his medium. As he works, he likes to quote Dante and listen to Mozart. His mentor, who is only referred to as “The Maestro” also works in the shop. So do several other people, although some just get paid to read the newspaper outloud. Dario is the most interesting character in the whole book, — Buford portrayed him extremely well.
Needless to say, I loved this book! I had a hard time putting it down. It’s a book about food but, mostly, it’s about the people who make the food and really have a love for creating dishes and learning new ways for us to eat. Thanks to Cooking for Engineers for bringing it to my attention. It gets a rare 5 out of 5 pork shanks stars.