Heat: An Amateur Cook in a Professional Kitchen (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 2006; vuoden 2006 painos)

Bill Bufford schildert in seinem Buch, wie er mit Ende 40 seinen guten Beruf als Journalist erst mal ruhen lässt um in einer Profiküche anzuheuern.
Das Buch schildert das recht minutiös, sozusagen Arbeitstag für Arbeitstag, wie es in der Profiküche zugeht, das nahezu „Sklavendasein“. Ich esse ja gerne gut – habe auch schon mal in einem Sternerestaurant gegessen und fand es fantastisch - aber irgendwie finde ich das doch abschreckend, wie Leute sich aufarbeiten, nur damit man ca. 20 Minuten was Leckeres auf dem Teller hat. Naja, ist halt Kunst. Dass Mario Batali, um den es ja größtenteils geht, sich momentan wegen sexueller Belästigung verantworten muss, wundert mich nach der Lektüre nicht so ganz – das ganze Kochgeschäft scheint derartig machismo zu sein, dass entsprechend gestrickte Charaktere hiervon sowohl angesprochen als auch eher verstärkt werden.
Die Erlebnisse in Batalis Restaurant fand ich auf die Dauer langatmig, ich bin aber froh, trotzdem weitergelesen zu haben, weil ich den letzten Teil des Buches, an dem Bufford dann in Italien ist und Pasta macht und beim Metzger arbeitet, nochmal ziemlich interessant fand, bis hin zu dem Punkt, an dem er in seiner Wohnung ein halbes Schwein komplett zerlegt.
Ich liebe die italienische Küche und zwar genau aus dem Grund, weil man egal, wo man in Italien hingeht, vielleicht einfache, aber phänomenale Küche vorfindet. Dass der Metzger Dario Cecchini seine Rinder aus Spanien importiert, ist daher schon ein gewisser Schock.
Insgesamt war das Buch interessant und vor allem appetitanregend - ich habe mehrfach während der Lektüre noch um 21 Uhr mein italienisches Kochbuch zur Hand genommen und Rezepte gelesen oder mir sogar noch was gekocht. ( )

Another one I couldn't bring myself to finish. It seems that I'm in a reading rut. I wanted to like this, but it was just too tedious to even finish. If you have never worked in a restaurant, read a kitchen memoir or are interested in Mario Batali, you might like this. But I can't stand Batali, have worked in many restaurants and read a few of Bourdain's books already. I felt like I knew all there was to tell about this before I even started it. I also think it was way too long and not focused at all. I was irritated by about page 8 for the author talking down to the audience (do we really need a definition of a walk-in?). And on top of it, the author seemed to be in love with the mystique of cooking as opposed to actually doing it, and was a bit of a show-off about all of the cool and important people he hung out with. Blech.

2.5. Read this before Dirt, unlike me.

Parts of this book are cringe worthy given the recent Batali sexual harassment scandals but with an anthropologist's safe harbor Buford does document what he sees and perhaps this book ended up, in some small way, serving as an informal indictment of Batali and that bad chef boy behavior. To be fair, that behavior is not Batali's alone and Buford documents the same culture patterns in nearly all of the kitchens that he works in including in his later book on France.

I dined at Otto a few times a month for many years and I did enjoy the food and the scene but what I remember the most was the warmth and professionalism of the staff in the front of the house. Well that and the constant flowing free wine which may have also clouded my perspective. On reflection, it's disappointing that a highly regarded team under Joe B. could have allowed this type of culture to prevail in any of their restaurants. It makes me wish upon them those creeping, stultifying corporate culture norms that I endured for years and which finally abolished many of these outrageous behaviors from most corporate US work environments. I seriously doubt the food would suffer.

A final comment, in 2020 the book now reads like the Trump Woodward tapes. What was Batali thinking? Did he get an advance copy before publishing? I guess the lure of being documented by an established writer for years on end was too enticing and there he ends up, alone in Michigan, hoisted up by his haunches and fastened tight by his own ego. This story is a tragedy in 4 acts and only the first 3 are documented in this book. If you do read Heat follow it up by reading the recent news articles. ( )

I didn't enjoy this book. Compared to other similar food and cooking memoirs, this one has fewer personalities and more food. The problem is that for me, the food does not sound appealing at all. Buford talks about eating serving after serving of lard, he complains when a restaurant entree comes with vegetables on the side, he talks about how employees who leave the restaurant all lose forty pounds, … The food sounds worse and less healthy than McDonalds. Yuck. The book still gives a window into a certain culture, but not a very attractive one. ( )

An amateur's adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta-maker, and apprentice to a Dante-quoting butcher in Tuscany.