Heat

While in Mexico, a friend of mine, Giles, recommend this book to me. The book is by Bill Buford, a former writer for The New Yorker. (Finally a cooking book by someone who knows how to write!) The book chronicles his time spent at Mario Batali's NY restaurant Babbo, where he was an apprentice in all parts of the kitchen. Bill writes about his time spent on the prep line, where he mastered the art of prepping veggies and meat, then on to the grill, where he lost all of his arm hair and formed blisters on top of blisters. Later in the book he writes about his time as a pasta maker and butcher's assistant.
In between his stories he writes about Mario, how he got his start and why people are so fascinated by him. (Personally, I wouldn't consider myself fascinated by Mario but then again I've never eaten his food.)

The book is another interesting tale on the workings of a successful restaurant. Only, compared to Anthony Bourdain's books, this is really well written with depth to character and plot and beautifully constructed sentences that I tend to read over and over again, on my train ride into work.

The book has also sparked my interest in eating Mario's food so Chris and I are planning a weekend stop in NYC in August to do just that. We haven't decided which of his restaurants to dine at (Babbo seems unlikely b/c I just can't bring myself to eat such things are octopus in ink, or goose liver, or beef tongue. I don't care how great it's supposed to taste.)

Luckily, Mario has a TON of restaurants in NY so I'm sure we'll find something good.

In the meantime, I'll keep reading and daydreaming about the life of a chef.